Runic Sorcery on such a scale was indeed something Gehrman had never even conceived of. It made him wonder what the limit was with this type of thing. Or if there even was a limit. What would a Weave of this scale look like? What could it accomplish?
There was still a good distance between Gehrman and Anvil, both of them were now silent. Well, Gehrman really couldn't talk at this point so it was up to Anvil to be the talkative one.
He didn't seem in the mood anymore.
Gehrman internally groaned as the sound of storming metal hit entered his senses again. Indeed, the typhoon of blades above the Citadel had been deceptively thick, hiding much more than Gehrman originally counted. While that initial batch had spread out mostly to the sky to complete the complex runic array, it seemed that there were still a few thousand left over.
The remaining swords loomed over Anvil, all pointed at Gehrman.
The powerful Supreme swords also returned to float behind him, framing his visage with an intimidating aura.
Slowly, Anvil raised his hand.
The hundreds of tentacles on Gehrman's back also stirred, each curling in way that made them look like pointed guns.
The swords moved, each at great speed and strength. As vessels of Anvil's Will, they were far stronger than they should have been.
However, if one were to look at simple physics, the difference between the blades and the missiles of blood could not be compared.
Rotated internally and gaining incredible kinetic energy, teeming with Vileblood that were then set alight by Gehrman's own desire and burning further with the excited atoms that made up the blood, the missiles each met the swords in a ridiculous speed.
They were about 20 times faster than the swords, and each held the destructiveness of a small nuclear weapon.
Still, all this managed to do was halt the onslaught and shatter a few of the weaker swords. Empowered by Anvil's Will, even the overwhelming physics of Gehrman's attacks were largely meaningless.
Shit.
Gehrman cursed internally as he imbibed several tentacles worth of Great Nightmare Creature blood. He was not presently injured, but he needed to be fighting on a level above the material plane.
He needed time to figure some stuff out and learn, or at least attempt to learn, how Anvil operated.
For that, he would need some brute force.
Madness surged in him, further empowering his attacks with multiple different combinations and varieties until he found the best way to combat Anvil's Will.
The 7th brain that was made up of the Moon Presence was still in lock down, so Gehrman had to delegate between six brains.
The Orphan, The Cacophany, and Dorian all held the burden of the increased Madness while Old Gehrman, Johann, and the current Gehrman dealt with the battle itself. Through such delegation, Gehrman's processing power diminished, but he made up for it with raw power.
An imperceptible shift occurred as more and more swords were destroyed rather than simply being stalled.
Still, Anvil did not fire them all at once. They came in waves, deceptive in their times of striking.
Still, as both forms became engulfed in the fiery hell resulting from the myriad of nuclear-level explosions, neither swayed.
Gehrman, however, was not willing to let this volley continue like this.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think with all the physical enhancements I have, I may actually be faster than him.
It was ridiculous to consider a Transcendent superior in terms of physicality to a Supreme, however, Anvil possessed an Aspect that was not directly strength related. All his true physical prowess seemed to come from Runic Sorcery and his Will.
Gehrman, on the other hand, had several different things pulling his body in any one direction and in his Transformation state, his ability to move through the physical world reached an absurd level. Through increasing resistances, enhancing his body, clever techniques, and simply due to being a Titan, he actually was able to surpass Anvil in this single category.
At least, that was what he was betting on.
In an instant Gehrman was several hundred meters higher in the air, climbing altitude while also defending against the army of swords that were tracking him.
The explosions now filled the sky, turning the Nightmare Desert into even more of a hellish image as the flames mixed and cavorted in a sea of orange and yellows.
Gehrman saw the ceiling then, the actual runic array that was keeping him trapped here.
For something of this scale to be pulled off, it must have put an absurd burden on Anvil. Not only that, it had to have a certain amount of weakness somewhere in the design. If there were to be some, it would be within the Sorcery itself.
One sword out of place would theoretically cause a chain reaction that could cause all the whole thing to fall apart.
Before he could take a swipe at any of the blades though, multiple of the Supreme swords caught up with him.
Mixed in with the normal one's he didn't realize until it was too late what had happened.
The unreasonably powerful legs that seemed stolen from the Orphan of Kos were perhaps one of the more dense areas of Gehrman's Transcendent form. However, they were eviscerated just as easily as the dreadful spine and surrounding ribs.
The damage was once again very severe, but it only served to slow Gehrman down. With each heal, the more Madness powered the devastating missiles of blood.
Frenzy and Dissociation throws off the Will a bit. Agony, Control, and Obsession only serve to focus it though. Even its indirect presence causes Will to coalesce rather than weaken. Bliss is actually probably the best dampener.
Armed with this knowledge his multiple Madness-addled brains adapted their strategies, destroying almost every blade fired now and even getting a few blows past that toward Anvil himself.
At least, that was what he thought. As Gehrman reeled back to take a swipe at the runic array, the figure of armor and steel was suddenly there.
The strongest of the Supreme swords, one that Gehrman suspected was of the 7th Tier, was grasped by the Sovereign's gauntlet.
Old Gehrman's brain noted that unlike himself, who was using his Aspect to dominate the skies, Anvil was simply Willing the air below to be a surface for him to stand on.
This brain also had [Eyes on The Inside] active at a very high level. It drained Essence, but his Titanic reserves held firm, he was only down one Soul Cores worth of Essence so far, and he had already made some pretty drastic plays.
Still, as the several planes of existence assaulted his brain, he eventually found what he was looking for.
Will was not something that could be acutely visualized, but like all other planes of existence, Gehrman's Awakened Aspect Ability allowed it to be understood through a semi-accurate visual interpretation.
There was a lot of data and a lot of different layers of reality that he had to sort through to get to this level though, so he threw that information at the currently Madness-riddled brains in order to clear up space to analyze it for himself.
None of these brains were actually separate people, more like projected manifestations based on Gehrman's Soul. Still, if there was one person who was best fit to figure out Will, it was Old Gehrman.
And if there was one person who was stubborn enough to wield Will despite only being a Transcedent, it was Johann.
With much of the sword projectiles destroyed, Gehrman's main mind dealt with the stragglers while Old Gehrman and Johann resummoned and reapplied blood to the Burial Blade. They applied the Madness combination of Frenzy, Dissociation, and Bliss.
Then, the Johann brain, or rather Gehrman himself, poured everything he had into meeting the strike from the superior weapon and superior Ranked entity.
There was an enormous gap between the wielding of Will between Gehrman and Anvil. To the Sovereign, the Will was a familiar and multi-purposed tool that could be used in an infinite number of ways to achieve very tangible results.
To Gehrman, his Will was a nebulous thing on another plane of existence that he barely understood.
Still, he understood it better than every modern Saint put together.
Anvil's Will had a shape, he could see that now. Below, the Will told the air to act as a surface, and so it was. Now as he was bringing down his blade, his Will had also transformed into a tool of ultimate severance.
It was, simply put, impossible for the current Gehrman to wield Will in such a way. However, with the sheer desperation, pain, and misery that was the entity known as Johann, he could manifest Will in its most raw form.
He could manifest a lot of it.
Anvil's features tightened beneath his helm as the world shifted.
They were in the bounds of his Domain, and thus even the Will of another Supreme would be suppressed to almost nothing.
However, what Gehrman was doing was not fashioning a tactical match to Anvil's Domain. Instead, he simply carved out a small piece of existence through the formless yet overpowering Will of a Hunter who knew more death than any human on this planet ever had.
The blades met, and not just the Citadel, but nearly the entire region shuddered with the rage of the clash.
Weaker Nightmare Creatures who hid several kilometers away simply died due to the explosive force and deadly Will and Madness that encompassed it.
However, despite this result, the clash was only even for two seconds.
A ripple went through the runic array as it seemed to groan and strain. However, like its Sovereign, it held firm.
Anvil's severance cleaved through the enormous glob of Will that Gehrman had mustered. Through sheer technique, and due to the simple fact that they were in the bounds of the sword Domain, the form of the [Infant Great One] was split down the middle. The dark oval of a face filled with cracks, and shards of the alien substance broke off as it appeared to grow lifeless in the sky.
Three more tentacles of blood were absorbed, but the healing did not occur.
The manifested severance from Anvil's Will held firm. It was his decision that this body was to be split, and so it would remain that way.
However, even as Gehrman's brains faded, he did not give up either.
He refused.
He imbibed more and more blood. Overwhelming not just Old Gehrman's brain, but Johann's too. The balance between Mad brains and sane brains was woefully shattered as even Gehrman's true brain was infested with a decent amount of Madness before the amount was enough to deploy enough Frenzy, Dissociation, and Bliss to overcome Anvil's severance.
With disturbing bestial ferocity, Gehrman's Transformation state returned whole once more.
As he landed like a meteor back on the sandy expanse of the Nightmare Dessert, his body was wholly stitched back together.
Anvil, meanwhile, stayed high in the sky.
The six Supreme swords that surrounded him now moved in a specific manner. Along with the few remaining swords that were not a part of the runic array, they formed another rune high in the sky.
This time, with the power of this rune, Anvil's Will, and a new objective, the Supreme sword released Anvil of Valor's marvelous sword technique.
Like an orbital strike, a single thing descended to Gehrman's recently healed body.
Annihilation.
A scar was carved deep into the Nightmare Dessert. A sinkhole an entire kilometer deep, stopping only because Anvil did not wish to disturb anything that may lay too deep below.
Still, he frowned.
Descending, Anvil saw Gehrman's body regrew. His entire body had been destroyed except for a few tentacles that stretched outside the range of the blast.
All limbs, that abhorrent ribcage, and the eerie stone-face. However, it was clear now that in that Transformation state, Gehrman did not have any single brain or organ that could be destroyed. Instead, it was his entire body. So long as there was any blood in any tentacle, the entire thing could be regrown.
Gehrman transformed back into his human form. There was no logic behind it, but logic was well beyond him now.
Anvil's eyes narrowed behind his helm as he took in the yellowish-orange light that surrounded the prone form of the young man.
The Madness was so profane, so virile, that it manifested physically.
When Gehrman looked up, his eyes no longer had any semblance of iris or pupil, it was only a mess of yellowish orange. Lines that appeared much like cracks spread from the eyes across his face, making it look like Gehrman's skin was once shattered, then reforged to house a monstrous mass of Madness.
The aura exuded by the current Gehrman held such power that outside Anvil's Domain, he may very well have been inferior in terms of pure presence.
"What a monster," Anvil's voice was flat and unperturbed. "You really have no place in this world. Either of these worlds, really."
The Sovereign paused, for some reason feeling the need to slow down after such a devastating exchange.
In truth, he was also a bit shaken. He had not expected Gehrman to manifest Will like that, not to mention the sheer backlash nearly undid his runic array.
He took this time to solidify his Sorcery.
"Can you even understand the words I am speaking to you?"
A gust of wind emphasized the silence between the two powerhouses.
Then, a single sound broke it, one that caused Anvil to suppress a shiver.
It was humming. Humming that broke out into raspy singing.
"Hey there Mr. Blue…We're so pleased to be with you…Look around, see what you do…Everybody smiles at you…Mr. Blue, you did it right…But soon comes Mr. Knight~"
Gehrman broke out into biting and absurd laughter all of a sudden.
"Get it!? I changed the lyric from Mr. Night to Mr. Knight! Cause you're, like, a medieval knight. It works. Trust me."
Gehrman looked up, his gaze matching Anvil's.
"I suppose you wouldn't get it. The phonemes are the same, which is to say 'night' and 'knight' sound the same. It would work better if it was written down…"
Gehrman slowly raised his hand, as if asking for Anvil to wait. With a great amount of effort, the Mad Hunter rose to his feet.
"It's an ancient song, that one. From before the nuclear war that made the air so damn polluted and toxic. I listened to a lot of music from that era, it's so different from what was in Yharnam, but that song specifically caught my attention. It's so upbeat and happy, a celebration of the light! However, when you slow it down and add reverb and you get to that part about "Mr. Night" it actually becomes quite haunting."
Gehrman wagged his finger, as if to keep Anvil from interrupting his.
"You did good, Mr. Blue Sky! But it's not enough. No matter what. It's inevitable. Mr. Night, or rather, Mr. Knight."
Anvil regarded him with a more sour countenance.
"I should have ended you with that last attack. It was a respectable duel, one I would have remembered fondly, before this point."
Gehrman just laughed as Anvil raised his Supreme blade. All the other Supreme swords readied themselves to clean up whatever was left.
However, Gehrman held out his other hand, making a childish "hold on" gesture.
"Ah! One more thing, Mr. Knight. Since you're so experienced, I thought I'd ask you a question I find pretty interesting. It's about the mechanics of the Nightmare Spell. More specifically Memories and Echoes. Usually when we summon these things they appear rather close to us. However, they can also technically be summoned farther away. Do you know what that limit is?"
Anvil took up his stance.
"It's three times the diameter of the summoned object," he answered absentmindedly.
"Correct! That's the answer I came to as well! It's really lucky then that when I stretch out Phantasm he can get up to about 20 meters in diameter right now. So that's 60 meters, right? Well, Mr. Knight, one last question. How close was I to reaching that runic array of yours."
At that moment, Anvil made his first true error in the battle. In fact, it was the first error he had made in decades.
He hesitated.
He did the math in a fraction of a second and then realized what the implications were. He had contained his senses within the runic array to remain efficient.
Gehrman did not have an Echo, that was a fact.
The slight fear of the unknown, as well as the realization of his own blunder culminated into the actual error, which was not taking the opportunity to take out Gehrman right then and there.
For in that next moment, Phantasam, now a Supreme Devil, fell like a meteor on the runic array from far above.
After Gehrman was within 40 meters of the Runic Array, he had summoned Phantasam on the outside of it. The Echo had taken to the skies, building momentum, and then with the [Rusted Anchor] and [Bloodletter], he crashed downward with enough force to flatten a mountain.
What's more, as a Supreme creature who had been fighting and killing Great Abominations in the Ocean over the past few months, he was very familiar with Will. He recognized the formidable, but spread-out protection Anvil offered the runic array, and with all his strength, he shattered the Sorcery of Anvil of Valor.