When Sunny saw Gehrman again, his breath caught in his throat.
Obviously he would have more pressure, he was a Saint after all, but he didn't expect him to become…beautiful.
He wasn't quite at the level of Kai, but it was still an eerie shift. He had grown from a kid to a young man he knew would drive any woman crazy.
It was just a shame that he himself was crazy.
He had a new outfit, a red scarf around a frayed cloak and padded, seemingly garbage body armor. When he had appeared, Gehrman had been wearing a drooping and ancient top hat as well, and it was only when he took the thing off that Sunny truly understood the depths of the change.
It wasn't that he just grew older, or that Transcendence had removed even more impurities and granted him a more pronounced look.
The young man's jaw was slightly different, and his arms looked longer than usual. Any trace of color in his hair was gone, it was now a completely vibrant grey that was messily swept backward.
Sunny opened his mouth to greet the man as he landed on the towering walls of Fort Balmuth: the largest siege capital in all of Antarctica. It was also the location of the Government's headquarters on this continent, and it had now become the central hub of everything having to do with the Chain of Nightmares.
It was much more vertically arranged, yet still the buildings all held incredible bulk. Even here there were some "Outskirts". Though they remained within the walls, there was still a clear class divide.
Sunny blinked, realizing he had been just silently staring at Gehrman.
"Hey," he said.
Gehrman raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Hey."
The winds blew their hair, and if an outsider were to see them they would think it was a standoff between two decorated warriors.
"Welcome to Fort Balmuth, our last bastion against the Chain of Nightmares." Sunny gestured to the city below.
Gehrman looked over the edge of the absurdly thick walls, surveying the city below.
"Neat."
The madman looked at Sunny then, and then he walked over to him.
Then, the Saint opened his arm and gave Sunny a half hug. It startled Sunny. Both the fact that the guy had given him a hug, and the fact that he didn't mind very much.
It disturbed him, almost as much as his next words.
"They died, didn't they?"
Sunny's heart stopped for a second. He didn't feel any different since Falcon Scott. Besides every building's spiteful need for revenge, there was nothing else. This was war, and there was no time to mourn.
Sunny could tell that this was what Gehrman was referring to, but it was incredibly odd to have the man care about him like that. He didn't even know what made the guy so fond of him, and though the crazy guy wasn't unpleasant, Sunny didn't consider Gehrman as close a friend and comrade, at least not like he did for Effie or Kai.
They hadn't gone through a Nightmare together, after all.
…but they had both journeyed together to the Hollow Mountains in the Forgotten Shore, they had lived together for a short bit of time, and now, most importantly, they had lived through the horrors of the Chain of Nightmares together.
Through that time Gehrman had acted as something akin to a mentor, and role model. Of course, his tendency to lose his shit was both unenviable and unideal. However his work as an engineer and weaponsmith had accelerated Sunny's understanding of weaponry and (though not intentional) it had helped him develop his abilities in the sorcery of Weaving.
He was different from those in his Cohort, but he was also a friend.
Sunny hadn't realized it until that moment, oddly.
He gave Gehrman a half hug back, and at the same time he wondered when was the last time he had embraced someone. Even in this awkward, hesitant way.
They separated after only a brief moment, standing a bit awkwardly.
"Let's get back to HQ, we all need to catch up."
…
Gehrman sat on a comfortable padded chair in a tall meeting room. Screens covered half the wall, each displaying something different, some working together to form a larger image. On it, grainy footage of Tyrants, Terrors, and the larger Gates were being displayed in live time.
He sat at a round table, and was surrounded by quite an elite group.
Sunny was there, clearly now quite highly ranked in the military. Jet, the Soul Reaper was also there. As far as Gehrman knew, she was probably ranked number 3 in the Government Awakened, only behind their two Saints.
One of those Saints, Cor – or rather Wake of Ruin – stood gaunt and stalwart at the front of the room. The other Government Saint was not a fighter; the "Dream Merchant" was in charge of sustaining the expansive Dreamscape, a simulative reality that Awakened could access to practice fighting. Though it could not simulate Nightmare Creatures effectively, it was a great place to practice against others, even simulating their Memories. It was this tool that Caster and his Cohort had trained greatly in, and Gehrman had worked with all of the previous Mercenaries in the Dreamscape as part of their training.
There were a few more Masters, four of them from the Government (likely of the same military rank as Sunny). There were also two Masters from Song, and two from Valor.
These were from a Vassal Clan led by their own Saint.
From Song, there was Dire Fang, the middle aged warrior held incredible physical prowess and his Transformation into a wolf-creature was eerily similar to the form of the Abhorrent Beast from Yharnam.
Then, of course, there was Saint Tyris. She had recovered from her long battle against the Winter Beast, and was now accompanied by her Husband, Master Roan, and one other in this meeting.
Finally, there was Bloodwave and two more Masters of the House of Night, one of which was the Master Naeve.
Naeve had given Sunny a nod when he had entered, and surprisingly, Sunny had returned it. Apparently the two got along well, which surprised Gehrman a bit.
It was, by far, the most prestigious gathering of people in the whole continent.
And each held an air of trepidation.
Gehrman initially assumed that it was just tension between the Great Clans, but when he saw them sneaking glances at him, he realized it was for another reason.
"If you're worried about me losing my shit after learning how many people died in Falcon Scott, you are going to have to get over it. I have a better handle on things now, believe it or not."
This was true. Though he would still have to consume blood since he had lost 2,000 Blood Fragments, with the [Invoker] Attribute, he had a much better control over Madness.
Saint Cor nodded, his eyes seeming to relax a bit.
"I'll be blunt then. Your actions saved millions. At the Winter Beasts approach at the time, it would have ended up killing 9 million civilians. Whatever you did to it caused its movements to go sporadic for a few days, and by then it took even longer to return. It was much slower after meeting you," Cor paused. He closed his eyes, and with no fluctuation in his voice he said, "You bought us a week. A few hundred Awakened went to try and stall, but the only survivors were Marshall Sunless and Colonel Jet. Their attempt was ineffective."
Sunny's teeth clearly grinded, his irritation clear. Jet on the other hand, simply became solemn.
"So 6 million innocents died," Gehrman said.
"3 million innocents were saved, they are now in Fort Balmuth, awaiting further evacuation," Cor said.
The room was silent for a few seconds, all eyes turned to Gerhman.
His head was turned downward, and the powerful muscles in his arm rippled, even under the layers of his new attire the power was clear.
After a few stressful seconds he pushed back his chair and stood up. Gehrman stretched casually, lifting his arms and leaning back.
"Alright, I'm gonna go kill the Winter Beast," he said.
The atmosphere instantly shifted from one of tension to bewilderment.
"That thing is a Corrupted Titan, even though you're a Saint now, Saint Tyris, whose Aspect perfectly countered the thing-" Master Roan started.
"I'm a Transcendent Titan now, and I landed a blow on the thing as a Master. It will be fine," Gehrman moved to walk out of the room.
Everyone was frozen then, both because of Gehrman's casual response and the fact that it had been confirmed by the man himself that he had managed to hit the thing as a Master.
The details on what he had managed to do were incredibly vague, and they had no clue how he had thrown the Winter Beast (or Goliath for that matter) into a frenzy. They had assumed it was a potent, long range Memory. However, now it appeared that as a mere Master he had broken through the impenetrable Titan's blizzard and gotten to its actual body.
It was because of that reason, no one stopped him as he waltzed out casually.
However, one person did suddenly disappear from the room.
From the shadows of the hallway, Sunny abruptly started to walk by Gehrman's side. The pair kept walking, both of them in silence.
"Has something changed and you can get into the heart of that things blizzard now?"
The shadow's steps did not falter, but his demeanor did turn downward a bit.
"...It's not feasible for me to ask this. In fact, it's absurd and selfish-"
"But you want to join me and kill the thing yourself," Gehrman said.
Sunny nodded, still walking beside him.
"It killed three of them. Dorn, Samara, and Belle. Quienten is still in a Nightmare. Luster and Kim managed to evacuate, after I forced them to go. The others were too stubborn though. Dr. Obel as well…"
Gehrman raised an eyebrow.
"The guy who made the Obel Scale? The device that predicts Gates?"
Sunny nodded.
"I met him at LO49. Before he refused to leave the others behind, even when the ship that was supposed to retrieve us was found destroyed…After you pulled me away from that mission to kill Goliath, I had kidnapped the guy and his assistant. They were in Erebus Fields, and I spent a lot of time around the old man since I was still technically in charge of him. He was a stubborn, ungrateful codger. I couldn't force him to take the damn priority evacuation, though I did manage to get the assistant on board, so his research lives on, "
He didn't need to say anything more. Gehrman could tell just from his tone of voice that the Doctor had managed to become favored by Sunny. In truth, there was no reason for him to have spent time with Dr. Obel after getting him to Erebus Fields, and later Falcon Scott. And yet he had. Perhaps it was Sunny's lesser known inclination toward knowledge and scholarly works, or maybe it was something else entirely, but the Doctor's death had probably meant almost as much as his Awakened Cohort. Probably as much as those faceless millions.
Gehrman stopped suddenly, Sunny taking one step further before he turned to face him.
"...I guess I should first ask: where is the thing?"
"Still in the Antarctic Center, we've had some scouts keeping their distance and monitoring its vague location. It's nestled somewhere further down south, closer to Erebus Fields. Right now, it seems content to just exist, and it hasn't taken any steps to further attack humanity."
Right, if it had the Sovereigns would probably have stepped in. Losing millions is rough, but tens of millions… Gehrman thought trailed off. Then he had a more eerie one: would the Sovereigns care if all the mundane humans in Eastern Antarctica died?
They had sent some forces, but they were nothing more than a courtesy, something to keep up appearances. He had asked Seishan a long time ago why this was, and she had simply replied that they were preparing for war, and therefore couldn't risk losing the core forces.
It was a sound argument at first glance.
It was also fucking stupid.
Maybe it was because these two Sovereigns were too young, at the latter end of middle age, they didn't understand the true value of these mundane humans.
It was something that Gehrman had long realized.
With the right weapons, mundane humans could fend for themselves against Dormant Nightmare Creatures, and maybe even some weaker Awakened ones. What was more important than that was their potential.
After becoming a Master Gehrman learned a lot about how this world and the Dream Realm intertwined. One of the first things he looked into was what caused someone to contract the Nightmare Spell. The research was inconclusive.
However, there was a way to guarantee someone is infected by the Spell.
It was a "secret" from the Legacy Clans.
If a Transcendent human were to take a young one to the Dream Realm before the Seed could mature (around the mid to late teens), then the First Nightmare would invariably bloom inside the child.
…What would happen then if an adult were to be taken to the Dream Realm. They were already well past the age in which the First Nightmare would naturally take root. However, when they returned to the Waking World from their stint in the Dream Realm, they would also fall into their First Nightmare.
In other words, those tens of millions of mundane beings could (with the proper training) become tens of millions of Awakened.
At the moment, there were only a few hundred thousand Awakened, a few thousand Masters, and 2 dozen Saints.
If one were to do the math, they would find that if even a quarter of these people became Awakened, if the same percentage of those Awakened went on to become Saints, then humanity would gain well over ten thousand Saints.
It was a mind numbing number considering the raw power and presence each Saint held.
However, it simply wasn't feasible.
So many of those innocents would not want to risk their life to become Awakened. So many more of them simply didn't have the skills to survive the First Nightmare.
However, there was one group of people who would do anything to learn those skills, just for a chance to grasp power and pull themselves from the hell hole they lived in.
The people of the Outskirts.
Gehrman still firmly believed that the innocents of Antarctica deserved to be saved, even taking all emotions out of it, it was simply the most logical and efficient way to ensure the growth of humanity's strength.
If the parents didn't want to become Awakened, then that was fine. Who was to say the next generation wouldn't either? They had to hear horror stories about the Chain of Nightmares, how their parents almost died, maybe even how their loved ones did die.
How would such a horrific thing not breed strength? How could they fail to capitalize on that?
The reason was simple: fear.
They were in charge, after all, and they did not want that status quo to shift. The only reason they hadn't put Gehrman and his New Workshop in the ground was that they thought they could benefit from it.
That was a mistake.
Gehrman didn't care about their system, and he wouldn't have them holding back humanity when things like the Chain of Nightmares became more and more common.
He blinked, realizing he had gotten lost in thought.
Sunny was staring at him, eyebrow raised, and an odd look on his face.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about untapped potential," Gehrman said.
He continued walking and Sunny followed by his side again.
"Got any…suggestions for me?" Sunny asked. It was clearly awkward for the guy to say such a thing. Not because of his pride – he didn't have any, as he had repeatedly spoken on the foolishness of the idea – but because he was being vulnerable.
Sunny was strong, more than that he was resourceful. He had rediscovered the sorcery of Weaving while he was in a cage in his 2nd Nightmare. He had a Divine Aspect. There was almost no reason for him to ever ask for personal help. Plus, he was not a trusting individual by any means.
Needless to say, he wasn't used to this.
Gehrman wasn't going to let this opportunity to strengthen his friend – and such a powerful warrior – to slip by.
"Tell me, what's stopping you from creating a Supreme Memory of the 7th Tier? What's to stop you from doing what my Ascended Ability can do– Upgrading the Rank of a Memory? As far as I can tell, there isn't anything other than time and resources."
Sunny looked at him like was insane.
"Yeah, an absurd amount of time and resources. The higher Rank a Memory, the more powerful Soul Shards you need, with more power the Weave needs to be more complex and intricate in order to stabilize it. That gets multiplicatively harder with each new Soul Shard added. The strings of Essence need to be stronger too, so much so that I'll risk slicing my fingers off if I'm not careful. Plus, I don't know if you noticed, but getting a Supreme Soul Shard isn't something that one just does."
Gehrman nodded, grateful for his forthcoming response.
"Sunny, on the Forgotten Shore you mentioned making a small business as you dream, right?"
Once again the man looked bewildered.
"I-uh, I did, yeah," he paused and a slightly smug look came over his face. "In fact, I kind of have one right now: Sunny's Brilliant Emporium! It's all online and Aiko – that girl who helped run the gambling ring in the Forgotten Shore – is the one who handles most things…and business has kind of stalled because I've been in Antarctica. Plus the Soul Shards that I was selling are going to tank in prices since the Chain of Nightmares is providing us with such an obscene amount…"
Sunny started the explanation with great enthusiasm, but as he talked, he realized that he had neglected this part of his life.
Gehrman then clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a wide grin.
"Well then, as a business man, I now speak to you as the leader of the New Workshop. I have a proposition for the Brilliant Emporium."
Sunny's face was impassive for a moment, and then, it lit up with the most innocent and kind smile Gehrman had ever seen from the man.
"Of course, we are always open for business deals, especially with such an esteemed client such as yourself!" his eyes gleamed with a familiar greed. "What did you have in mind?"