[Preparing for Appraisal…]
Gehrman was lying flat on his back, staring up at the constellations and endless points of light. Souls of some long forgotten creatures that powered this whole thing.
He frowned and his brows scrunched a bit.
"Kinda looks like a Weave," he realized. Indeed the strings of iridescent light that formed the constellations were not overly dissimilar to the sorcery Sunny was adept at.
Unexpectedly, he felt the buzzing and popping of new Insight.
The fact that the Nightmare Spell was a sorcery, something created and (for a lack of a better term) programmed, was a bit harrowing. What could have acted as the power source for such an omnipresent and omnipotent thing such as this?
Gehrman didn't know, and he also didn't particularly care.
He was tired.
Really tired.
His Essence was drained, his body was still reeling from incredible pain, and the mental anguish of dying those few times had not yet worn off.
Still, he was in better shape than he had been after the last Nightmare. So that was something.
All things considered, things had gone great.
At the start of the Nightmare he had wanted to get as many Memories as possible and fully saturate his final Core.
He had done this and more. Unlocking his Aspect Legacy, gaining an Attribute and a Supreme Echo that even had the potential to grow into a power equal to a Great One's avatar.
Speaking of his Aspect Legacy, after successfully invoking the Void, The Nightmare Spell had mentioned something about a new Legacy Relic.
The Spell, at the moment, appeared to be "lagging" at the moment. This wasn't entirely accurate of course, but the delay was still real.
Gehrman didn't blame the poor thing, this Nightmare must have put an incredible amount of strain on it.
The Nightmare Spell may have successfully contained the Moon Presence, but now it appeared the gaze of Kos had also reached the realms of the Spell, or at least that past Nightmare.
Even among the primeval Void creatures that were successfully locked away by the Nightmare Spell, the Great Ones appeared to be a special breed. They had interfered with the Dream of Yharnam. The fact that they actually showed intent was a dangerous paradox.
The nature of the Void was an antithesis to Desire, and yet the Great Ones took action and actively created and modified Dream Realms. Perhaps this was not Desire at all, but simply Will. How two such things could coexist was beyond Gehrman, but it didn't matter.
Even after becoming a Saint, his interactions with the Void needed to be as limited as possible.
Gehrman suspected that tricking the Spell into treating Void as just another element was the greatest feat the Moon Presence had pulled off.
In any case, the Nightmare Spell that nurtured the Flame would likely suffer actual damage if the Void, and not just a creature of it, managed to leak into the realms it ruled.
Fortunately for the Spell, the Void had appeared in a Nightmare, a conjuration on a much smaller scale, and one that it could erase easily, thus stopping any consequences.
If Gherman unleashed it in the Waking World or the Dream Realm though…
He shook his head.
There was no reason to consider it. The good news was, it seemed that the single use of Void was enough to advance his Aspect Legacy.
He scrolled through his runes, noting the two new Memories that he had gotten for defeating those Pseduo-Supremes.
Both were weapons that he was curious about, but would look into more after he got this Legacy Relic.
After making his way through, he found the list he was looking for.
Step 1: [Claimed]
Step 2: [Claimed]
Step 3: [Claim]
Step 4: —
Step 5: —
Step 6: —
Step 7: —
Gehrman confirmed the action, and felt a subtle shift.
[You have received a Memory.]
It was a bit odd hearing that notification without having a corpse in front of him, but it was very welcome all the same.
Though an Attribute and an Echo were more exciting, since they were new, a Memory gained from an Aspect Legacy was sure to be one of the most powerful ones in the world.
He moved back to his Memories, and Gehrman nearly flinched at the name.
[Gehrman's Hunter Attire]
It was…a bit disconcerting to see his own name in a Memory. Usually they held some flowery or metaphorical name. It was only when he summoned it that he realized that it was not an attire made for him, but rather Old Gehrman's actual attire.
All this time he had been using the outfit that Johann had worn during his night of the Hunt. Now he had access to the old man's.
A worn, small black cap. A coat with frayed ends, reinforced with various leather additions and straps. An old red shawl draped around his neck. Below the belt, brown trousers, and simple black shoes adorned him.
Seeing them, he was reminded of comments made by Laurence and some others when he had first appeared in this outfit, all those years ago when they were first exploring the remnants of Pthumeru.
He had explained it then - though these pants and shoes seemed unmodified and casual, they were both, in fact, changed to be much more light weight and durable.
It was all recreated with exact detail.
But that ultimately didn't matter. What did, was it's Rank, Tier, and Enchantments.
Memory: [Gehrman's Hunter Attire]
Memory Type: [Attire]
Memory Rank: [Transcendent]
Memory Tier: [VII]
Memory Description: ["The night, and the dream, were long..."]
Memory Enchantments: [Arcane Absorption], [Arcane Expulsion], [Insight Production], [Old Hunters Bone], [Eldest Hunter], [Remembrance], [Dreambound]
[Arcane Absorption]: This attire has the ability to absorb and hold various energies that hail from higher planes.
[Arcane Expusion]: At the wearers command, this attire can release a destructive expulsion of absorbed energies.
[Insight Production]: The wearer may convert an equivalent amount of Arcane energy into Insight.
[Old Hunters Bone]: With the requisite Essence, the user may perform the Art of Quickening, an impossible technique from a strange Dream.
[Eldest Hunter]: The attire's defenses increase with the wearer's age.
[Remebrance]: The wearer may call upon the Will of past lives to supplement their own.
[Old Man's Promise]: This attire has the potential to be Soulbound.
Required Arcane Energy: [0/10,000]
Gehrman's initial impression was disappointment, intrigue, and then confusion. A Transcendent Memory (even if it was of the 7th Tier) was not what he had been hoping for. However, there were several things that stuck out to him.
This attire was much more than a replacement for his now Supreme [Hunters Attire]. Instead, it acted as another Attribute. Or rather, several Attributes in one.
What qualified as Arcane energies was still dubious, and would require some testing, but the potential to absorb and then release any form of energy would prove a useful trick. The ability to gain Insight with a conversion instead of relying on gaining knowledge might very well have been the most important enchantment.
The New Workshop was constantly growing, even with Gehrman in Antarctica. He would have to take a break after wrapping things up on this continent and return to his city and Hunters.
He would be able to give them Caryll Runes more liberally, and now that he had an array of defensive Caryll Runes to offer (courtesy of Kos), the ability to gain benefits from [Unnatural Rune Witness] would skyrocket.
The [Old Hunters Bone] and the Art of Quickening was something that he hadn't realized he had been missing. Strangely, it appeared that the memory of the technique had long been clouded in his mind.
It was a potent ability that he taught to the first of the Workshop Hunters, and it was something Old Gehrman had come up with himself.
It had also saved his hide a number of times, so it was surprising that he hadn't thought about it until he had read the enchantment.
Disappearing and repairing like a ghost was not something a human of this world could accomplish with training (though a few Aspects might allow for similar things). But Yharnamites had no Aspects, so the fact that they could pull off such a trick may very well have been the result of the unique nature of the Dream that created Yharnam.
In any case, having the skill again now would be very nice.
[Eldest Hunter] just seemed like a simple enchantment to make sure the Attire was extra durable. He was quite old, after all, when combining all his past lives. So it was entirely possible the Memory would be quite potent in that regard.
[Remembrance] was probably the most immediately alarming, and powerful enchantment.
This Memory was clearly tailor made for him, but Gehrman suspected that if Sunny looked at the Weave of this particular Enchantment, he would just see pale purple smoke in a nonsensical formation.
"Past lives" was a vague enough concept that the Spell would never employ it, and the sorcery that represented the concept likely didn't exist.
In all likelihood Paleblood had hooked up a reservoir of its own Will and would drip feed it in accordance with what Old Gehrman and Johann had managed.
From the looks of it, this and all the other Enchantments (besides [Eldest Hunter]) were all active Enchantments, and needed to be fed Essence in order to actually take effect. So Gehrman was fine with not using [Remembrance] until he was put in a truly dire situation.
And then there was [Old Man's Promise].
Gehrman had no idea what "Soulbound" meant, but it intrigued him greatly. Given the way the term was presented, he suspected that it was something that existed before. Gehrman would inquire about it from Seishan or his other sources.
Of course, the Transcendent Rank held it back, but it was otherwise still very useful.
Gehrman could also simply raise it to the Supreme Rank with a Blood Rock after hunting in his Soul Forest for a while.
Nodding, Gehrman moved on to the other two Memories. The ones he had gotten from Gairm and Brador respectively.
There was no variety in their type, but Gehrman didn't mind. He was looking for more weapons to outfit Phantasm with anyway.
[Blades of Mercy] and [Bloodletter] were listed next to each other.
Gehrman was a bit disappointed when he had heard the Spell award him the kill on "Transcendent Human" Brador and Gairm, but he had no doubt that the Memories coming from that kill would still be phenomenally strong.
He looked at [Blades of Mercy] first.
Memory: [Blades of Mercy]
Memory Type: [Weapon]
Memory Rank: [Transcendent]
Memory Tier: [V]
Memory Description: ["Leave the hunting of Hunters to me."]
Memory Enchantment: [Kindest Mercy]
[Kindest Mercy]: This weapon's power increases manyfold when used against humans.
"..."
Gehrman stared at the enchantment and felt a coldness glide over his body.
It was pretty obvious that this weapon had only one, singular use: to kill fellow humans.
Logically, he knew that this would be a nice addition to his arsenal. War was on the horizon, and the greatest threats to his life (and all of humanity) may very well turn out to be other Awakened.
Gehrman refused to dwell on it.
Instead, he noted the Tier level. Despite the singular enchantment, the fact that the Tier was at the 5th level suggested that it was indeed extraordinarily powerful. Gehrman wouldn't be surprised if the blades could even cut Supreme humans.
The fact that it was of a high Tier also appeared to handily explain how the Spell (and Paleblood) offset the awarded Memory being of the Transcendent Rank, despite the enemies being much stronger than any of the Great creatures he had faced in the Nightmare.
He suspected that a similar tactic would be taken with the [Bloodletter], keeping the singular Enchantment of a weapon one would get for killing a human, but multiplying its power by giving it a higher tier.
And indeed, he was right.
Memory: [Bloodletter]
Memory Type: [Weapon]
Memory Rank: [Transcendent]
Memory Tier: [V]
Memory Description: [Worthless to the Church and on the edge of Madness, the Assassin was given one final order - to go to a place where he could do no harm. In the depths of a burgeoning Nightmare Realm for those arrogant enough to play with the power of gods, the Assassin waited in a cell. The spikes of his weapon piercing his skin and the hide of the beast he would forever wear. He never did fall into Madness. Despite his actions, his mind and soul outlasted every single member of the Church he had once sworn to serve. Such was his character.]
Memory Enchantment: [Stalwart Fervor]
[Stalwart Fervor]: This weapon has a malicious aura, and it will gain power exponentially with each wound it inflicts on an enemy.
This Enchantment was much more practical for Gehrman, or rather Phantasm. The powerful Memory appeared to benefit greatly from taking on especially sturdy opponents who could take many hits.
Gehrman was excited to test the limits of the Enchantment, and he suspected that after a few gruesome blows, even Great Creatures would start to feel threatened by the unique Trick Weapon.
As Gehrman marveled over the new powers he had at his disposal, the Spell finally completed its judgement.
[Ascended! Your trial is over.]
It paused before delivering its flowery appraisal.
[A Greedy abomination took into its heart a desire for the greatest of calamities. Skulking in ancient ruins, it happened upon –unkown– …]
Surprisingly, the appraisal paused for a bit. Gehrman deduced the reason quickly. It was at this point in the Nightmare that he had gained his Aspect Legacy, simultaneously unlocking the "Truth" of Void. The Nightmare Spell undoubtedly had trouble recognizing its greatest enemy being casually emanated in its own fabricated Nightmare.
Gehrman suspected that Paleblood was working Her magic at the moment, creating a paradox or glitch that allowed the Spell to reconcile this error.
In the end, Gehrman never knew if the Great One had done something more. His mind was taken over by the rest of the appraisal.
[...Manipulating grand forces, the abomination twisted the minds of others, corralling them around a cursed village. Heretically feasting upon a god-corpse, the creature continued onward. Slaughtering all in its path. In the end, his greed swallowed all, leaving no remains…]
[You have slain a Corrupted…]
The Nightmare Spell then went on to list the thousands of Nightmare Creatures and the sprinkling of humans he had killed in the Nightmare.
The way the Spell portrayed his achievements were a bit appalling, but that didn't matter in the end.
After everything wrapped up, he also received two demerits for dying, just like he did in the last Nightmare.
However, in that case he had died hundreds of times, yet he was still granted the appraisal of "Astounding".
Dying hurt his appraisal, but he figured that it wouldn't matter.
The Spell adored death and pain. Though the mechanics behind it remained confusing, Gherman already knew the inevitable outcome.
[Your achievements are unspeakable.]
[Final appraisal: Glorious]
[Your bloodlust remains unmatched.]
[The Fourth Seal is Broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers.]
The pain of having his body and Soul rewritten started to tear at Gehrman, but he kept a largely impassive face as his form glowed and stitched itself anew.
All he did was let out a singular breath as an absurd amount of new power filled him.
This was Transcendence.
Gehrman had become a Saint.
[Awakening Aspect Ability.]
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
Unlike the previous three abilities, this new power was a Transformation Ability. It was something that all Saints received. It was what made them appear mythical to mundane humans, and even other Awakened.
The ability to take on a new form, usually a Noble creature, or a mythical beast of the past.
The transformation also came with an array of other benefits, increasing the potency of his previous abilities, and sometimes even offering new ways to use them.
All this time Gehrman had been looking forward more to that benefit, hoping that he could find new uses for [Eyes on the Inside] and [Walking Workshop] after Transcending.
However, that would require experimentation, the Spell would not spoon-feed him those new traits.
It would, on the other hand, give him the name of his new form.
As the improvement of Rank solidified and an incredible amount of pressure and power was released from the newly reformed Gehrman, he casually checked his runes.
Under the Aspect Ability section, he saw the old three: [Blood Manipulation], [Eyes on the Inside], and [Walking Workshop].
Now, there was one more.
Gehrman immediately noted that the color of the rune and some of its syntax were different. Initially he thought it was because it was a Transformation Ability, but that was not the case.
The runes portraying his new ability had been actively modified. Just like when the Nightmare Spell said "-unkown-" instead of "Void".
Of course, this was different, Gehrman's Transformation was not into that of the Void…but it was related to it.
Gehrman's eyes bulged and his previous composure shattered as he looked in horror at the new ability. The Nightmare Spell appeared to have forced an additional modifier at the beginning of the ability, greatly limiting it.
Gehrman was grateful it had.
His Transformation Ability was listed as:
[Infant Great One]