"FRENZY"
The truth reverberated throughout his essence in a way so complete that it seemed to rewrite everything he knew about reality.
His sanity dropped by 2%
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT! Gehrman was losing his grip fast. The realization of what these things in the mist were, was enough to make him regret coming on this whole expedition. And it didn't stop there.
"FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY""FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY" "FRENZY"
The whispers didn't even come from voices. It was something even beyond that. These things might as well have been gods as far as Gehrman knew.
This can't happen! I'll doom everyone on the boat! I need to do something! I need to-
"DISSOCIATION"
Gehrman's breath caught. And his mind caught the monstrous truth with fervor. Dissociate. I can dissociate. I can't exist on this plane of thought. I can't hear these Truths. I can't be ME.
In a panic, his mind and soul moved on instinct to protect itself.
Dorian heard the Truths.
"DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION" "DISSOCIATION"
His sanity fell dramatically.
Johann heard the Truths unknown.
"@(=%*"
"@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*"
"@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*""@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*" "@(=%*"
Johann's mind went even faster.
Old Gehrman heard the Truths unknown.
"&|#$^"
"&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^" "&|#$^"
Old Gehrman's mind broke several times over.
P@LEBL00D SPOKE
'(0%+#& 0&$^|0][ -{]<'
From that plane of thought, the whispers stopped. The whispers turned around.
The red moonlight bathed all in its essence.
In that plane, a fog of great heaviness rose and curled around its fractured pieces. The shards of thought and direction were strewn about. The fog picked them up gently, hugging and cherishing them. Putting them back together. All the while, red droplets started to fall sporadically. Whenever the fog waned, the red came to revitalize its efforts.
In that plane. Time did not exist. So it was unfinished and yet done. The contradiction of this was considered and then tossed aside. That kind of logic was unneeded and clumsy.
The fractured pieces formed a beautiful piece of art. In this mirror, color went beyond spectrums and produced unseen and great things. Superclusters formed, stars grew, matter collapsed, and it was in that moment hidden.
The Call Beyond was forgotten.
…
As soon as Gehrman put on the cloth it was being taken off. He let it happen, as he assumed that Changing Star had forgotten something. But instead, he was facing a new landscape.
His eyes took in a surprisingly natural sight of normal rocks and clear water. Glancing backwards, he saw the river of True Darkness was behind him. What was more strange was the fact that there was inexplicably a bridge there.
This was not the river they had been planning to cross with the boat. Somehow, they had already crossed that, found their way through the maze, and made their way across the bridge to their destination.
How the hell did we cross it already? As soon as this thought came, it disappeared. Sliding off his mind like water over a glass. Anything that had to do with this journey slipped from his mind before he could speak out.
Eventually, Gehrman just wordlessly joined the rest of the cohort. The river was behind them. It didn't matter anymore. What did matter was the reward that lay ahead.
Sure enough, they found his skeleton sitting in this cove. He had been turned to face them, as if expecting their arrival.
Gehrman shook his head in disgust. The bones of the First Lord were not those of a fully developed adult. He was in his early 20's at most, and he was probably younger than that. He had become more myth than man, done impossible things despite his age. Though his name was forgotten, his deeds were not.
Changing Star reverently approached the corpse and picked up her prize. On the head of the First Bright Lord was a golden band. As soon as she touched it, the ornament dissolved into sparks and entered her Soul Sea.
Gehrman's eyes widened as realized what it was. The First Lord must have gotten rid of his Memory before dying. Though Memories were a part of someone's soul, the connection could be severed as long as the individual gave consent. This was how Memory trading was done. However, in much rarer cases, they could transfer ownership of the Memory to no one, simply letting it return to a physical form that would respond to the touch of another.
This was what the crown was. Changing Star summoned it then, and it reappeared on her head in resplendent glory. The centerpiece of the band shone with the light of a Soul Shard. This was, in fact, an Ascended Memory.
The entire attitude of the cohort suddenly shifted. Gehrman suddenly felt his [Hunter's Attirer (Sealed)] become stronger. No blood had fallen on it, but it still felt decently enhanced.
"The Dawn Shard possesses a single, but also singularly powerful enchantment. It empowers all Memories around it. The area of effect of the enchantment is very large…but the enhancement it provides is even larger," Changing Star explained.
Gehrman's eyes widened. As a test, he summoned the [Uncanny Saw Spear] and felt its power rise exponentially. To his shock, it seemed to reach the level of an Ascended Memory. It seemed that the lower Rank Memories received an even stronger boost.
This was indeed a wondrous enchantment, but there was a problem that Sunless quickly pointed out.
"So that thing makes every Memory around you vastly more powerful?" he asked. After receiving a nod from their leader, Sunless continued on. "Then don't you see the problem here? Won't it enhance that damn golden armor of Gunlaug's too? How exactly does it give you a chance against him, then?"
Changing Star's demeanor abruptly changed at his words. However, she was not angry or surprised at this point, instead she seemed to have a moment of vindictive pleasure. "It will help me because the golden armor Gunlaug wears is not a Memory…In fact, it's an Echo."
This statement was met by more astonished stares from most of the cohort. This fact, it seemed, had not been secretly shared among them.
After a couple moments, Kai asked the question everyone was thinking. "So, since we have found the remains of the First Lord and came into possession of this Memory…does this mean the expedition is over? Have we actually accomplished our goal? Really?"
Gehrman was about to pat the man on the back and tell him 'Yep! We did it! Aren't we awesome!' but life had other plans.
The expedition was in fact, not, over. They had one last stop.
…
The marvelous headless statues were some of the most iconic imagery in the Forgotten Shore. In this journey, the group had come across a couple different ones. One which was by the Lord of The Dead. One which had been near the dead Spider Matriarch's nest. And one which had no big bad Nightmare Creature, but instead ran around crazily.
The pattern was obvious in hindsight. Apart from the clear outlier of the running stone colossus, every headless statue had a guardian. Apparently, after touching the statue and killing that guardian one would come into possession of a very powerful Memory.
"Shard" Memories. As it turned out, the cohort already had several in their possession. The new crown was obviously one of them. It was called the Dawn Shard. Effie's spear (which had apparently been passed down to her by the slayer of the Spider Matriarch) was one. Sunless evidently had one (likely his blade) as his reaction to all this was strangely banal.
Gehrman also suspected that Changing Star was in possession of more than that as well. This was definitely the farthest statue and hardest to reach, so it must have been saved for last. The remaining Shards were likely already in her Soul Sea or with allies.
All of this was very interesting, but ultimately useless for Gehrman. He couldn't get Memories from the Dream Realm after all! He had killed over a thousand Nightmare Creatures and hadn't received a single one! No one had luck that bad.
Even so, he wasn't going to miss out on an opportunity to feast on a powerful Nightmare Creature's flesh and blood. His [Portable Blood Imbiber] was empty now after all.
So he joined the group as they continued past the reservoir of clean water and continued their dark descent.
It did not take long for them to reach the wide yawning cavern that held their next goal. Its size was immense, the black stone and high arches created a magnificent arena for a boss fight. And indeed there would be a boss fight.
Looming over everything was the headless stone statue. How the hell did it even get in this cave? Gehrman couldn't help but wonder.
Before he could delve into this question further, his senses screamed at him to run. Immediately after that, Sunless screamed as well. "Messenger!"
A shrill bird-like roar echoed as the creature instantly came upon them. Gehrman got a good look at the abomination through [Sixth Sense] and what he saw made him shiver. Its large head was fitted with a sharp, toothed beak the size of a small human. Its upper body resembled a bird, in fact, it reminded him of the Carrion Crows that ran rampant in Yharnam during Johann's time. Everything else was a nightmare. It had six appendages which doubled as both arms and legs. The whole underbelly was pale and blotchy, the material a human-like skin.
Gehrman instantly hated the creature. Beasts with multiple limbs were already a nuisance since their attack patterns were a lot harder to predict and the number of possible attacks multiplied several times over. This thing also had wings with feathers made out of Fallen metal.
Grinning wickedly, Gehrman summoned his dread scythe in its curved greatsword form. Then, with a viscous movement he dove under the lunging bird and simultaneously tricked his weapon. The scythe (without blood) cut shallowly into the creature's flesh, causing it to scream.
Simultaneously, a shadow passed overhead. Sunless had somehow taken flight and landed on the creature's back. Though the Messenger had already knocked Effie and Sunless's Stone Saint backwards, it now suffered two garish wounds. One delivered by Sunless as his sword cut into the skin near the wing's foundation, and the other dealt by Gehrman who had managed to hit one of the things in the ribs.
It's howl might as well have been a sonic attack for Gehrman's enhanced senses. It ruthlessly flung its body downwards, trying to crush Gehrman under its weight. However, the hunter was already gone.
Instead of piling on the damage he backed away after wetting his blade with blood. He did this out of fear. Not fear for his life, but fear he would kill the creature too early. The finishing blow had to come from someone who touched the statue, and it absolutely couldn't be Gehrman. This was tough, since Gehrman could absolutely kill this thing right now.
With the Dawn Shard, Fallen Blood augmenting the [Forged by Blood] enchantment, and Gehrman's Demon strength, the [Burial Blade (Sealed)] crossed the threshold into Transcendence.
If he wanted to, he could decapitate the creature easily. Though it had six limbs, there were also seven fighters including two additional Echoes (Cassie's flying Rapier and the Stone Saint).
There were plenty of openings to finish it off. Instead, Gehrman dodged to the side and took off one of the creature's limbs.
It cried once more, its sharp wing coming crashing down. The speed of it was so great and the impact so fast that it actually forced Gehrman off his feet. But he fell away with his prize. The limb of the creature was gaunt, but still about one and half times bigger than a human. He grinned fiendishly at the creature. Its blood would undoubtedly offer dozens of Blood Fragments.
He summoned the [Portable Blood Imbiber] and quickly injected it into himself. After one dose, there was still a vial left and his strength and insanity rose tremendously. It was not at the level of the Fallen Devil from the Dark Sea, but it could not be compared to other Fallen Beasts he had been hunting.
The creature turned away from the tanks of the group and charged at Gehrman with reckless abandon. But it was not the only one.
Caster had returned from touching the statue, and followed Gehrman's example by cutting deeper into the stump that was its missing limb. Sunless was there as well, sliding underneath the creature's belly and carving more viscera from Gehrman's initial blow. As he did so, Sunless seemed to surge with power. The blood seemed to enhance him in a way that was similar to Gehrman.
He did not have time to ponder this though.
The creature fell down after losing its balance. In a last ditch effort it thrusted its sharp beak forward, trying to take Sunless down with it.
Gehrman bolted forward and his blade somewhat blocked the blow. Changing Star's block was what managed to completely save Sunless's life.
At that moment, two things happened simultaneously. A triangular dagger belonging to Sunny sunk into the eye and brain of the Messenger. At the same time, a monstrous blow was dealt by Caster as he split the creature's side open.
With mouth agape, Gehrman watched with wonder as the light left the creature's eyes. Either of them could have been given credit for the kill. Caster's blade had fallen first, but Sunnless's blade had hit the brain.
And yet, it was the shadow whose eyes lit up with fervor.
…
Some shenanigans went down after that. Sunless traded his new shield Memory for one of equal rank. It was another Shard Memory that Changing Star had, an invisible dagger that fitted Sunless much better.
Caster seemed quite dejected. Throughout the journey his stress had been steadily rising, but it seemed to have peaked after this fight. Gehrman did not tease him or offer praise. Instead he simply sat near him, giving him solidarity in silence.
Of course, that was after he had filled up his stock of vials with the Fallen Monster's blood. Its flesh also gave noticeable and immediate benefits, much like that of the Fallen Devil.
And so the harrowing journey to the Southern Edge of the Forgotten Shore ended.
Gehrman smiled as he pulled up his Blood Fragment counter.
[Blood Fragments: 128/3000]
…The number had gone down? When? And how could he not have noticed that? The amount was two weeks worth of hunting. He should have had twelve additional fragments from the Messenger.
I just checked them earlier, just before crossing the river and going through the mist…
His mind trailed off, falling into a trance. Suddenly, his thoughts changed. I gained a good amount of fragments from this battle. I'm still a long way from becoming a Devil but the physical strength I've received from this journey is a boon in itself. I wouldn't have been able to feast on Fallen Devil's without the rest of them…Though, I think I could probably start hunting Fallen Monsters. That Messenger was bad, but only because its biology was weird. I should start learning about the stronger beings in the Dark City.
Gehrman's attitude became jovial. And no one noticed anything wrong with him throughout the whole journey. Even when he stumbled and made unearthly sounds crossing the mist to get back, none of them could hear it.
Not even Gehrman himself realized. He blamed his sudden lethargy on being tired, not realizing that 100 Blood Fragments had disappeared yet again.
Somewhere, on a different plane of existence.
Paleblood was stirring.