Blood Fragments: [5,000/7,000].
Gehrman frowned as he looked at the counter.
Sitting on the cobblestone path with crossed legs and a frown, he rubbed the top of his head. He had been through a lot of physical pain before, more than any being ever perhaps, but having his skull cave in on itself was up there with the most unpleasant experiences.
"Need something different," Gehrman groaned.
He leaned back and lay flat, staring up at the dreadful sky. Its color was reminiscent of a drained cadaver, and it was by no means a pleasant sight.
Gehrman's situation was dire.
Though he had over 20 revivals left, he really only had 5 more. If he lost his Titan Core, the insurmountable gap between him and the Pseduo-Supremes would become even more unassailable, and it wouldn't matter what clever plan he came up with, as he would be dead before he could put it into practice.
"At least…I have time."
Indeed Paleblood had unintentionally left an exploit for Gehrman, quite a powerful one at that.
Due to the nature of time in this space and Paleblood's current revival method, he would return just before the real fighting broke loose. That meant that it wouldn't really matter how much time he spent in his Soul Sea, the moment he returned would put him at the exact same spot.
Gehrman silently rose to his feet, stretching slightly as his eyes took in the Soul Forest before him.
If he managed to get the [Hunters Attire] and [Greedy Bloodstone Talisman] to the Supreme Rank, he might be able to compete a little, his defenses would likely reach the level of a Transcendent. At least, once he had applied blood and a healthy amount of insane greed to power up the Memories.
…At that point he might as well have been a Transcendent.
Not that it mattered.
These two were not Supremes, they did not have Aspects, and they did not have Domains. But they did have that damnable thing. That invisible power that warped reality itself. Blows landed differently, movements were quicker and more precise. It was as if the world was being reshaped by their very Will.
Gehrman frowned.
Will.
That word rang a bell, but it took him a while to remember why that was.
"Ah."
A thought suddenly came to him. Another recent oddity that had gotten lost amidst the numerous strangeness of this Nightmare.
It was a rune, or rather, a word in a certain description.
[Madness Invocation]: With the Will of this unique being, they may invoke the essence of Madness that dwells within them.
The description of his newest Attribute had given him pause because of that word: Will. If it was not for his memorizing and learning of the Nightmare Spell's runic language he wouldn't have noticed anything odd.
But the word "Will" employed a rune that was entirely unique to this description.
There were several words that could have worked better in this description. So why had this clunky word been included?
It didn't matter to Gehrman at first, and yet, it struck him as eerie. The unknown power of the Pseudo-Supremes certainly could be described as Will.
It was because their Will was so strong that such inexplicable things happened.
Then, to Gehrman's astonishment, he felt a buzzing on his brain and the popping of new Insight.
He blinked rapidly, his mouth slightly agape.
"Huh?"
That thought, the realization of Will, was worthy of Insight being awarded?
Before, it was only secrets of the universe and gods that led to Gehrman gaining Insight. In his mind, Will was just something that let Transcendents fight at the next level. Perhaps it was even the main uniqueness of Supremes.
Yet the fact that he had gained Insight meant that the concept was much more than a simple trait of going up in Rank.
Will was a cosmic principal, one that applied even to gods.
It was such a simple sounding thing, and yet, Gehrman felt this to be the truth. The Great Ones didn't have Aspects, they existed as non-existences, and yet, realities still altered under their presence.
How could such a thing happen?
What separated them from the Kin of the Cosmos or the powerful beasts of Yharnam?
Perhaps, it was this very thing: their Will.
Every hair on Gehrman's body suddenly raised as his pupils dilated and his heart started to hammer. He resisted the urge to look downwards.
To that thing in the depths of his Soul.
All the things that happened in this Nightmare, the claiming of the Aspect Legacy, gaining Phantasm, the consuming of Kos's material form, and now this; Will.
Gehrman knew in that moment that none of these things happened because of him. He felt it deep in his very being. Somewhere along the line, things had started to fall too perfectly into place.
Each thing making him stronger, while also straining his connection Nightmare Spell, drawing him closer to the Void.
Gehrman's jaw clenched so hard he thought his teeth might break under the effort.
"Ah, I should kill myself shouldn't I?"
His hand, trembled as he brought it up to his face. Rings of yellowish-orange light grew steadily until it his iris's vanished.
He clenched his hand and drew blood, tearing the thin skin of his soul-self. Madness like that which assaulted him with Kos built like a blazing flame.
Gehrman bit down on his tongue, attempting to give his teeth reprive, only to end up biting through the wet flesh. He spit out the detached tongue and wailed, his mouth filling with the iron-taste of blood. He spat it out, again and again.
His fists assaulted the cobblestone, breaking against the floor of the imagined space. Knuckles splitting and deep red staining the grey stone.
On a whim he opened his runes.
He read the words.
True Name: [Paleblood]
Gehrman waved his hand, trying to banish the runes, but instead pushing it downward revealing more.
Echos: [Phantasm of the Moon]
He brought his skull down on the rock, trying to crack it open. Gehrman wanted, needed, to tear the eyes off his brain. He didn't want to see. Not this.
Still his runes persisted.
It was only then that he saw it.
Listed under Memories. Something he had acquired before the handful of Memories he had gotten from the Yharnam and Cainhurst forces, before the [Rusted Anchor] of that Shark Fiend.
One Memory glistened with a slightly different light. Gehrman had almost overlooked it. In fact he had overlooked it multiple times already. Yet now, his vision died the color of Madness, he could make out the words.
The name of the Memory.
He did not remember acquiring it, getting awarded it, and he was certain that there was no creature he had slain that would have granted him this.
There was only one possible explanation.
It was when he had drunk the blood of Kos. He had not killed the thing, he should not have been awarded a Memory, and yet there was no other explanation.
He examined it, opening further details.
Memory: [Cord of The Eye]
Rank: [???]
Tier: [???]
Type: [???]
Memory Description: [1/3]
Suddenly he was Johann again.
Visiting the ghost of the Old Workshop, gazing upon the empty, physical form of the Doll. It was on the altar.
In the upper reaches of a clinic, a moaning and grunt woman rambled, until Johann brought down his blade, and something had slithered out of her. It was on her corpse.
Below Cathedral Ward, in that dank, wet place. The bleeding and weeping beauty, the whore, screamed as a creature crawled beneath her. It was the creature.
On the top of a vast castle, at the end of a maze of nightmares. The dark sky closed its eyes as the ghostly apparition of a dark god faded and the cry of a baby finally ended. It was before him.
He remembered his anger.
That rage fueled Gehrman now.
Yes. That's right. I had forgotten. The flames of Madness suddenly contorted and twisted maliciously. Rage, bubbled, and then exploded out of him. Cutting through every cell and spreading with unbound energy.
These fucking things. They broke my world. Now they're trying to break this world as well. No. No. No. No. I will not let them. You won't break me. I will break you. All of you. I will cut and butcher and maim and kill and slaughter. You think your Will, your power will protect you? Small, little, insects. You are all pathetic, whimpering, vile NOTHINGS.
For the first time, those invulnerable cobblestones woven by Paleblood chipped. The smallest pebble came loose.
Not from a strike, but from his Madness, his Will.
The two were indistinguishable.
As a mere Ascended, he could never hope to truly manifest the concept of his Will, even if his emotions and drive were in no way inferior to a Supreme.
Instead, it was the Madness brought about from his innate nature and the [Madness Invocation] Attribute.
A cheat in the system.
However, Gehrman had no way of knowing it. This singular exploit was not something the Moon Presence had designed.
For the first time, it was Gehrman's own Will that had broken the rules of the Nightmare Spell. Allowing him to manifest his mighty Will despite not knowing its shape, or even the plane of existence it resided in.
Melding with Madness, Gehrman stalked into the Soul Forest, his eyes completely enveloped in yellowish-orange light.
…
Gairm, Brador, and Gehrman stood in a triangle. Each warrior imagines the death of the other two.
A slight oddity occurred in the next moment, Gehrman picked up the Holy Moonlight Sword, and he seemed to undergo a change.
Neither of the others noticed the Charm and Attire brimming with a new energy. Instead, both of the Hunters had their eyes drawn by the glowing light that now emanated from Gehrman.
Dangerous.
Both of these men had the same thought.
Brador, like always, was the first to move.
Gairm moved to take advantage like usual, and Gehrman simply raised his hand in the air.
As the other two exploded forward they noticed the movement with a sense of alarm.
At around the halfway point, an explosion of mist and blistering heat violently tore from Gehrman's hand.
Gairm still moved to cut Brador, and he succeeded, but this time around he did not throw his blade, instead concerned by the sudden Arcane display.
After the brief exchange, both Brador and Gairm's intuition took over, and they approached the explosion of power with murderous intent.
Then the sky split.
A light breeze – in truth a far away sonic boom – reached the two as the rain clouds were blown apart by a truly devastating explosion.
The size of it was about half of all of Innsmouth.
This was a trick that Gehrman had long theorized about, but only now with the Supreme [Greedy Bloodstone Tailsman] could he pull it off.
Going deeper into [Blood Manipulation], instead of molecules, he altered the atoms themselves.
Gehrman couldn't alter atoms per say, there were no such things as "blood atoms", the smallest thing could freely manipulate were molecules.
But with the ability to sustain more heat, the molecules in his Blood could heat to such a degree that they could cause instability of an atom just by the sheer speed and energy of the larger molecule.
The result was this – a small nuclear explosion.
It did not hold any radiation, and it only had about a quarter of the power of an atom bomb, but it was more than enough to dismiss the rain.
Now, instead of dreary wetness, a skyscape of billowing fire blazed over them instead.
Gehrman's Essence reserves dropped dangerously low. But at this point, he didn't need much more.
Morphing Corrupted Blood into broad shapes and using a few vials to augment his [Burial Blade] and [Hunters Attire] was enough.
On top of that, he still had the Holy Moonlight Sword.
The ground beneath all of their feet shattered.
Not one of them delayed, kicking off the air and sending themselves forward, each met at the middle for a devastating clash.
The resulting energy released was, in fact, larger than the mini-nuke that colored the sky above them with flame.
Even with all his new augmentation, Gehrman could not overpower them.
His Madness could act as a stop-gap against their Will, keeping them from annihilating him with a singular blow, but it was still much more than the true Will wielded by someone of their Rank.
He didn't need to overpower them though.
These two were generational, elite warriors of the highest caliber.
But there was a reason the culmination of that one night of the hunt had ended with Old Gehrman and Johann – they were both superior.
Gairm was thrown backwards as the momentum of the blows was artfully shifted.
The Church Assassin then kicked forward, missing a blow on Gehrman. Cavorting over the kick, Gehrman sliced Brador's very Soul with the [Burial Blade], augmented his pain with Agony, and then unleashed Arcane fury with the Holy Moonlight Blade.
All movements were coated with furious Madness, blending all types into a point and striking.
The result was nothing short of devastating.
Brador grunted, and he too was sent flying.
Gehrman landed on the floor, noting that the explosion overhead had drastically altered the environment. Steam now rose from the wet puddles, giving the battlefield a brutalist and apocalyptic feel.
"There it is," Gehrman muttered.
The Chikage, which had not been thrown at the usual time, was now dodged by Gehrman.
It nicked his neck barley, the augmented Hunters Attire and ever flowing Corrupted Blood shielding him along with Frenzy and Dissociation altered the direction of the attack.
The Bloody Crow stood to his full height a couple dozen meters away.
In another direction, Brador landed in a low stance, growling.
A triangle had formed again.
Silence blanketed them as the steam rose to heights of 5 meters. The orange flames high above worked with the sun to cast an eerie harsh-sunset color across the now-wasteland.
"Church Assassin." Gairm suddenly called out. "Hear me. This is a beast across from us. Let us put it down and then continue our duel."
"What a bitch move," Gehrman muttered quietly, voice low enough that no one could hear.
Still, he was not worried.
A deep, slightly manic laugh came after a long moment of silence.
"A beast! Why of course! You didn't strike me as a jester, Crow, but it turns out you are among the best!"
Gairm said nothing, staying perfectly still.
The next words from Brador were incredibly low and deep, but they still reached the other two easily. The power behind his voice eminently clear.
"Can't you see? We are all beasts now. Look at this hell. How could any human exist here?" He gestured casually, his head hung low.
The hissing steam seemed to deafen all of them.
But then, Brador broke the delicate balance. A fire that had died a long time ago suddenly awakened with great frenzy. The fervor of a young man welled up inside him.
"No! This is no duel! This is no game! There is only one thing left now! To Kill! To Die! Come now! You deranged murders! Let's see which of us is the most bloodthirsty!"
The eyes of the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst and the Last Hunter of Yharnam sharpened to that of predators.
In that moment, the mindset of the three hunters aligned with each other. The clarity of the singular thought was such that it may as well have all come from the same person.
I'm going to slaughter these beasts!
They moved.
Blood pumped faster and hotter as the intensity sky rocketed. Even as the heavens burned above the land below quickly grew far more dreadful.
Explosions that could topple mountains and cut gods echoed throughout Innsmouth.
The battle took on a particular cadence.
One would be thrown backwards, and take the time to heal.
The other two would exchange blows, not letting the other get the chance to press an advantage.
A deadlock formed, one of hyper-violence unlike anything the Church Assassin and the Bloody Crow had ever experienced.
But Gehrman knew it.
Johann knew it.
He had learned it in this very place.
With the hellish sky and the wailing of the Fishing Hamlet the fog was finally clearing. The fight with the Orphan of Kos, or rather the many, many fights with that abominable thing, had been the most painful of his entire existence.
Nonstop brutality, constant aggression, these were the things that Johann, and thus Gehrman, had long adapted too.
In his Maddened state he reverted to instinct, and this was exactly what gave him enough of an edge to finally close that absurd gap between him and the other two.
Still, that was all he had managed.
Even with the Supreme Attire, Charm, and Weapon. Even with overwhelming Madness and recognition of Will. Even with the Holy Moonlight Sword.
All he could do was contend.
Each was running out of blood vials, and each became more rabid as time went on.
Still, the stalemate remained.
In Gehrman's addled mind he knew that he needed something more. In order to pull this off, he needed one final trick to multiply his already compounded power.
He needed Void.
Not Paleblood, not the Great Ones, not the Nightmare Spell.
The Madness, or rather the origin of Madness that acted as a force of nihility and abyss. The thing that had born each of those god-entities.
The Moon Presence had clearly introduced it to Gehrman in order to allow him to break away from the Nightmare Spell, and thus allow Herself to manifest in this world.
It was the ultimate rule breaker.
…but if that was the case. What was stopping Gehrman from using Void to simultaneously suppress the Moon Presence herself?
Such a thing was impossible, but so was Void. That was its nature.
That was his Will.
So he delved deep. Not falling into Madness, but diving into it. There was a clear purpose and intent.
At the same time, Brador landed a fearsome blow.
It should have torn a hole through Gehrman's right side, but as soon as the spikes of the Bloodletter managed to get past the blood protection, the Memory was already repairing itself.
At the Supreme level, the [Ageless] enchantment was now fully utilized.
Before the blow was even completed, the [Hunters Attire] was already good as new, the leather coming alive and stitching itself back together in microseconds.
By the time Brador had followed through, the sleeve and coat were repaired. Gehrman's arm and side were still shattered, and the blood and bones exploded backward, but the Attire caught the mess of gore and kept it together.
The last Corrupted Blood vial he had prepared appeared and healed him.
Off balance and shocked at the strange nature of Gehrman's recovery, Brador had a true opening for the first time.
Frenzy creates Dissociation creates Agony creates Bliss creates Control creates Obsession…and yet it is all these things together that create Void. There is no "pairing" it. It is not a Madness so much as Madness is a product of it. This is all total nonsense. Total Madness.
Gehrman brought his arm forward, using still-loose blood to fill his glove and grip the [Burial Blade].
He put nothing in order, because there was no order. There was no rhyme or reason. There wasn't even a feeling.
Everything layered and stacked on top of each other and the end result was this primordial thing.
Void.
It wasn't anything, but it was also something that broke all the rules. Therefore, while it was not anything, it was also a blade.
There was no white fog like the Nothing or the Others. There was no Darkness like the Shadows or the Underworld.
There wasn't even an endless expanse of visible and non-visible light.
Instead, what coated the blade was an emptiness impossible to describe.
It was as if the world had been a piece of paper, and some grand artist decided to take a pair of scissors and remove a section from the artwork.
All that could be surmised was that Brador's head fell to the ground, and Gehrman nearly died.
The backlash was immediate and horrifically grave. Instead of pain, it felt as if he had forgotten everything. Who he was, what he was doing, and even the meaning of all reality. He also felt everything. All the complex emotions of every human ever and every creature ever.
No scream, cry, or wail would be enough to represent even a fraction of what he felt then.
It would have been the perfect moment for Gairm to finish off Gehrman, but the Bloody Crow was also stunned by the sight before him.
This was not a thing of beasts, but something akin to the Great Ones.
Still, a tiny tendril of Madness and Will remained. Gehrman pulled on it and slowly returned.
As he did, he gave a command, summoning something from the depths of his Soul Sea.
At the same time, he received four notifications from the Spell.
[Your Aspect Legacy mastery level has increased.]
[You have received the right to claim a Legacy Relic.]
[You have slain a Transcendent Human, Brador.]
[You have received a Memory.]
Gehrman dimly noted these things, but he did not have any time to truly consider them. He had instinctually made a dangerous call in his stupor, but it was already too late as the mix of white and purple sparks mixed and the form of Phantasm appeared behind the stunned Gairm.
The Bloody Crow moved, but his incredible reaction worked against him.
The Blades of Mercy struck nothing, as the Echo had not fully formed.
By the time he turned back, Gehrman had recalled himself enough to move in perfect synchronization with his battered and damaged Echo.
He had not wanted to risk Phantasm before, but this was no longer a risk.
A single assault was all it would take, and if it didn't work, then he would dismiss the Echo instantly.
Grey tendrils snaked out, climbing high into the sky and slamming down, swiping in and taking the form of razor-sharp claws, the only opening was backwards - right toward Gerhman.
The Last Hunter crouched low and sliced. Not with Void (he would instantly die if he called on that power again), but instead with his more standard destructive Madness coating.
The blade managed to slice through the Cainhurst armor, but ultimately failed to sever the man.
As his own attack connected, the metallic hand of the Bloody Crow struck out like talons, seeking to smash Gehrman's face in.
It connected, breaking his nose and slamming the cartilage into his now fractured skull.
However, before the damage could reach his brain, the momentum was halted.
Gairm had not had enough time to properly judge Phantasm, and he paid for that now.
The power of a Supreme Beast slammed down on the man. His back now facing the sky, one last deadly strike from the Echo pierced the open wound on the Hunter of Hunters back.
He flinched and twitched, coughing up blood inside his helmet.
Gairm's vision started to go dark, so in a last effort he slammed the floor, hoping to make a crater, and thus some space to escape this impaling strike.
The ground slipped away, but before Gairm could turn and make a move to escape, a new color took over his vision.
Cyan, beautiful and boundless. The transient moonlight seemed to hang in the air before taking over the entire world. The flaming sky disappeared, the hell that was this place disappeared, and the nonsensical beast that had been Gehrman disappeared.
The moonlight faded into a starless night.
[You have slain a Transcendent Human, Gairm.]
[You have received a Memory.]
The explosion released by the Holy Moonlight Sword was the greatest yet. Fueled by Gehrman's rage and Madness, it's range was only slightly smaller than the mini-nuke that had set the skies ablaze.
Phantasm was dismissed, disappearing back into Gehrman's Soul the very second the blast was released.
The devastation around them became much more complete, no steam, remnant of buildings, or even the cracks of craters remained.
It was smooth, deep, and alien.
This place didn't seem like it could have existed on Earth.
The [Hunters Attire] was spotless, not a single strand loose as it had repaired itself at impossible speeds.
Still, Gehrman's actual body was a mess, deep tissue was revealed everywhere, with even bone peeking through in some places.
Without any blood, all he could do was wait.
The pain was horrific, but Gehrman made no groan and let out no complaint.
One might even think he was peaceful as he looked up at the sky.
The flaring hellfire subsided in that moment, revealing a cloudless blue sky above him. The sun, brighter than he had ever seen it, lit up his vision.
[Your Nightmare is over.]
[Preparing for appraisal…]