A few months ago, when Sunny had initially pulled Gehrman out of his fight with the Dreamspawn, he had shared the news of what was happening and given Gehrman time to formulate a plan.
After he left, the inadequacy of his own strength was looming over him. He had become a Titan, and was arguably among the top 5 strongest humans in two entire worlds. Yet still, he felt the influence he had on the future events was inefficient.
So, he delved into introspection. There were a few ways to bolster his personal strength. The most obvious was getting more of Weaver's Lineage, hence him meeting up with Mordret in Bastion and entering the Great Mirror with him.
However, it was clear to him that against the Dreamspawn, let alone the other Sovereigns, it wouldn't be enough.
He needed to be Supreme.
Abandoning everything to enter the 4th Nightmare wasn't an option. Not only because he was needed in the Dream Realm, but also because he simply couldn't enter a Nightmare whilst he was Fateless.
He wasn't a carrier of the Nightmare Spell, after all.
So the only option was "Natural Supremacy".
It was possible, of course. The ancient past had a myriad of Supremes and Sunny suspected there were even a few Sacred or Divine humans as well.
They had all climbed the ladder of Ranks without the help of the Spell, so it was undoubtedly possible.
However, all remnants of the ancient past were lost. It was not as if there were any ancient creatures alive still who could enlighten him.
…and that was when he recalled something that Nephis had told him a long time ago.
Back when she was wandering the Forgotten Shore, she had come across a rather strange sight. Two skeletons nailed to a tree. What's more, they could both speak. Impossibly, they remained alive to this day. Neither were humans of the Waking World, but rather cursed beings that had lived through the Doom War.
It was important to note they were not "Cursed" – meaning not of the 6th Rank – instead, they were literally cursed by Shadow God to never die, and thus never find peace.
One of these skeletons, who Nephis took with her as a guide to the Hollow Mountains and a Nightmare Seed within it, was a man named Eurys.
Eurys of The Nine.
This little detail, that he was a part of "The Nine", was what made him stick in Sunny's mind.
The Nine were a mysterious group who Sunny surmised as having immense importance. What they did was something that he couldn't even guess at, but there was something special about them.
In his first Nightmare, he encountered "Auro of The Nine", an Awakened of great skill. He was especially noteworthy as the Spell actually addressed him with that title. Later on, this fact grew more and more absurd. As even the Ascended who he slayed in his 2nd Nightmare, who should theoretically matter more, did not have a name or title.
There was also Aletheia of The Nine, who acted as the source of the Defilement within the Tomb of Ariel.
Needless to say, whoever the Nine were, they had done something truly absurd.
However, that secret was less pertinent to Sunny than the fact that Eurys had lived through the Doom War, and was thus perhaps the only source in two worlds who could tell him about Natural Supremacy.
All Sunny had to do was find him.
Fortunately, Neph had told him that he did not wish to go to the Hollow Mountains specifically, instead he wanted to be her guide so he could get to the Shadow Realm, which apparently had an entrance within the Hollow Mountains.
So all Sunny had to do to find the secret to achieving the 5th Rank…was get to the land of the dead.
Going through the Hollow Mountains was impossible. As though he managed to traverse the Nothing that covered the top, the actual inside of the mountains were home to creatures of True Darkness, the natural enemy of a shadow like him.
Fortunately, he had another way to get to that land.
And that was with a handy little lantern he had.
As he was perusing his options, he paused on the [Shadow Lantern], a Divine Memory that had been gifted to him by his Aspect Legacy. Though it was an incredibly useful tool, allowing him to store a seemingly infinite amount of shadows, it did not appear to have much of a function besides that.
However, he couldn't have been more wrong.
Only after analyzing the Memory further, did an idea occur to him, one that he initially thought to be something solely born of desperation, but one that was actually correct.
The innocuous sole Enchantment it possessed was [Gate of Shadow]. Sunny had always taken it to mean that it was a gate to a realm where shadows could be stored. However, after looking deeper into it, that was not the case.
Of course, a Divine Memory had a much more impressive capability than simply storing shadows. It was quite literally, a gate to the Shadow Realm.
With that realization, Sunny had spent some time preparing before delving into that harrowing place.
Even on the edges of that Divine Realm, the creatures there were horrifically powerful. Shadows of creatures who had recently died were ground up and turned into pure Soul Essence. This was the true mechanic of death: purification. Corruption was snuffed out in the face of death, turning into pure energy to endless soar across the Shadow Realm.
That place of darkness was simultaneously beautiful and terrifying, not the least of which because there was a fiendish Slayer on the loose.
That Shadow Creature was unlike anything he had fought before, and it – or rather, she – pushed him to the edge more than anything else had since becoming a Saint.
She was a Beast somewhere between Transcedence and Supremacy, a once enormously powerful soul that had degenerated to this level over millenia. As such, she was a perfect sparring partner.
Gehrman made leaps in understanding the Will by fighting with Supremes. Sunny didn't have that luxury, so instead he relied on Slayer, this creature's Will was both potent and fearsome.
Not only that, she possessed a battle IQ that was utterly beyond reason. Sunnys suspected that only he and Gehrman, the inheritors of War God's Lineage, and himself could compete in pure skill.
That was why it was such a boon to have her as a Shadow, even if he couldn't really call upon her yet.
The battle was much closer than he cared to admit, and he nearly lost multiple Soul Cores in their duel, but in the end he got out (relatively) unscathed.
Slayer was now within his Soul Sea just like every other thing he killed. Unlike everything else though, she was temperamental. Instead of quietly falling in line as a dutiful servant, she instantly started attacking his Shadow Cores.
Sunny was able to wrangle and trap her within the Nameless Temple, his Citadel, with the help of Serpent. However, the danger she possessed was still very real.
That being said, if he could get her on his side, she would prove an impossibly helpful ally. That would probably take a while though, since she was also inexplicably one of the Nine.
Sunny didn't know her name, but the skeleton he fortunately happened across after their battle had told him of who the shadow once belonged to. The Slayer of the Nine was ruthless and perhaps the most gifted in combat of the mysterious group.
At least, that was how the skeleton, Eurys, had described her.
Honestly, Sunny had gotten extremely lucky in finding the guy so quickly. Even if he almost died while doing it, he was able to strike a deal with the fellow.
Since Sunny was a Divine Shadow thanks to the Nightmare Spell, Eurys recognized him as a creature capable of one day breaking the Shadow god's curse.
As it seemed that it would take decades of the Shadow Realm's power to eventually kill him, Eurys wanted to speed up the process with an heir of death.
So he was able to give him the knowledge he desired, so long as he promised to come back and kill him one day. Sunny of course agreed, and now he was sharing that knowledge with the others.
"A Nascent Domain, Strong connection to one's source element, a nascent understanding of Will, and finally, a so-called 'act of defiance'," Typhaon mused. "Well, it makes sense that no one has stumbled across natural Supremacy if these are the requirements. Still though, it's a bit vague. What is an 'act of defiance'?"
Sunny crossed his arms, thinking back to what Eurys had told him.
"Essentially, it is an act that goes against the laws of the world. A Supreme's nature is altering the world around them with their mere presence, so it is only natural that such an act works as the catalyst. The example I was given was a Saint who had slayed his Supreme father."
Seishan raised an eyebrow.
"Where, exactly, did you get this information, Lord Shadow?"
"An undying skeleton resting in the Shadow Realm who once slit a god's throat."
Sunny had no reason to throw in that little fun fact at the end, but he thought it fit the mysterious vibe of his persona, so he went with it. At the same time, it would clue Neph into who he had actually learned this from, and give his claim more credibility.
Indeed, her eyes seemed to flare a bit at the mention of such a creature, as she had been the first and – in her mind – the only one who had actually met Eurys. Whatever she thought about this revelation, she did not let it show, nor did she pursue it further.
"I believe Lord Shadow is telling the truth. Based on everything I've learned, these qualifications should be right."
"I'll vouch for him as well," Caster said with a bit of hesitation. "Gehrman trusts him, if that means anything."
Of course, that meant quite a lot. Sunny knew that Gehrman's word was held in high regard by everyone here…though maybe not from those of Song. They did not seem ready to go against his claim, but he was sure that their perception of Gehrman was not the most positive right now. Even if he had been exonerated, he had still ordered the death of one of their Vassals.
"There should be something else though, right?" Seishan asked. "If those are the qualifications, shouldn't Gehrman have become Supreme by now? He has the New Workshop has a Nascent Domain. His understanding of Will is beyond what Transcendent should be capable of according to mother, he has completed many acts that should qualify as an 'act of defiance' as well. As for a connection to his source element, his expertise in blood manipulation speaks for itself."
Sunny had thought of this as well, and it had troubled him for a decent while. That was, until he came to an odd and unexpected realization.
"Oddly enough, I think what is holding Gehrman back is actually what should be the easiest qualification…because I am fairly confident, blood isn't his source element."
Seishan opened her mouth to dispute him, but then she closed it, her brows furrowing.
"That's…actually a good point," Oskar scratched the back of his head. "What the hell is Gehrman's source element? The blood stuff is what he's known for, but none of his other Aspects seem to hold a common element."
Each of them took a moment to think about it, but they all came up stumped. The closest thing Gehrman had to a source element was actually Yharnam and the home he came from. However, that obviously didn't qualify as an element.
"It seems his nature as an impossible being came with an unintended side effect," Jet mused.
Solemnly, all they could do was agree with this conclusion.
"Still," Effie said, breaking the tension. "It's not as if he's out of options. He's got the whole business with the Nightmare Seed in his Soul. He'll reach Supremacy fine, just through the 4th Nightmare."
"Yeah, worrying about that guy is a waste of time," Caster grunted. "For now, we need to decide who is going to go for Natural Supremacy, and who is going to the 4th Nightmare."
From there, things progressed as Gehrman had suspected. There was some contention on who should go, but at the end of the day the conclusions that Sunny had come to proved to be true.
Though, for a moment they seemed to suspect that Sunny would also join them, he informed them that he wasn't able to. To ease things, he also expressed that he believed among them all, he was closest to Natural Supremacy.
Eurys himself had said as much when they met. Sunny wasn't sure what his Nascent Domain was, since no one really knew him. However, since Eurys had said something along the lines of "it's weight is crushing", he had an inkling of what it was.
Nephis, of course, was also extremely close to Natural Supremacy. Though, she admitted herself that she needed to deepen her understanding of the Will.
Caster also voted to go for the natural route, mostly to stay behind with the New Workshop, but partly because he seemed to have some ideas on how to go about it.
The guy had always been more powerful than anyone expected, and he could technically also claim the New Workshop as a Domain if he desired it. So he was closer than anyone besides the Divine Aspect users.
Sunny also figured that Mordret would be fairly close to Supremacy, and though the prospect scared him, he vowed to share what he learned with that guy as well.
That left the following cohort ready to delve into the 4th Nightmare. Seishan, Silent Stalker, Effie, Kai, Jet, Typhaon, Aether, and Naeve.
"We will need some time to prepare things on the Night Garden and we should all take some time to familiarize ourselves with any knowledge that we have on the ancient past of and near the Nightmare Dessert. Since our trial will be held there," Typhaon said.
Indeed, the Nightmare Seed would be one of the ones that blossomed during the Battle of Black Skull. The region was known, and the path was clear.
They would each have one week to prepare, but they couldn't stall any longer than that.
In mere hours, the armies would march, and the first true battle of the Domain War would begin.