The form of Gehrman reappeared in a thin purple vapor. He rapidly blinked his eyes as the bright light of the Arcane lamp lowered back into its natural pale purple. His pupils quickly returned to the right size and he was able to take stock of the familiar location.
He was wary that he would end up in a random location, or perhaps even in the place where he last died. Instead, he was safely at home in his Workshop. The old lamp looked out of place among its even more archaic surroundings.
Gehrman's brows furrowed as he noticed the dust covering his bed. Right…how long was I gone for? With no day and night cycle in his Soul Sea, it was impossible to tell. The only thing he could do was go out and find someone to talk to. The Outer Settlement was closest, but the folks living there had taken up residence inside the Bright Castle, the last he had seen of them. Sunless had also abandoned his own home in the Cathedral where he had taken up residence for a while.
The only thing he could do was make his way back to the Bright Castle.
Sighing he started to leave, only to double back and check on his collections. For some reason, all of his corpses and Soul Shards were left untouched. He had thought Seishan would definitely take them all after he had died, why hadn't she? Was it supposed to be a tribute to him?
Such a thing would make sense considering her weird tendencies as a Princess. But this also went against his theory that Seishan set him up. Granted, the only reason he had to think that was because she was absent when Tessai showed up and killed him.
Gehrman was still angry about that. After killing that Fallen Devil, he lost to a mere Sleeper, a human! If that little shit was still alive he would definitely return the favor and crush his skull.
The morbid thought surprised him, but he easily reconciled it. That man Tessai had clearly devolved into beasthood after all. His followers did as well, they deserved to die.
He gritted his teeth as Dorian's sentimentality still stubbornly clung on, making him feel guilty. Not all of them were mad, some were hesitant. And yet I still killed them. This internal conflict had been raging within him ever since he regained his sanity during the revival process. By now, he had gotten good at ignoring that guilty feeling. It was over and done with anyway.
By the time he finished his internal argument he reached the outside.
It was dark, which wasn't surprising. It was just as likely to be day as it was to be night…but still something bugged him.
He followed his relatively safe path to the Bright Castle with his scythe summoned. He couldn't coat it with blood just yet since the [Portable Blood Imbiber] was empty after the last fight.
As he walked, the dread he felt continued to grow more and more. He wasn't able to place this feeling until he reached a high point and was able to look out over the Dark Sea…which was no longer there.
Somehow, even in the darkness, the abominable ocean carrying thousands of ridiculously powerful Nightmare Creatures was simply gone. What was even more eerie, the Crimson Coral's that decorated the endless expanse had also vanished.
The only thing left was ash.
The entire Forgotten Shore was truly and entirely empty.
"What the fuck," Gehrman couldn't help but exclaim out loud. His eyes couldn't process such a change. Was he gone for years?
It was at that moment he saw a light. A singular light in the darkness approaching from behind him. With his [Sixth Sense] he could tell it was moving quickly but in a straight, predictable line.
It was the swing of a sword.
Without looking back he ducked under it and cast a long swipe with his scythe. The opponent dodged, only receiving the smallest of cuts.
His blade was slower than usual. He frowned as he realized that he felt weaker than before. Then his frown deepened for another reason.
Then Gehrman recognized her. The familiar light was none other than Changing Star.
"The hell is wrong with you?" Gehrman snarled. He meant this as a threat, but he was also genuinely curious. Something was indeed wrong with the girl. Her hair was unkempt, her armor was broken and bloodied, and her eyes were shot.
Has she been…crying?
"Dismiss or summon a Memory," she ordered. Somehow her voice was still unwavering.
Gehrman's eye twitched and he half-complied. His Hunter's Cap and the mask covering his face disappeared. For some reason, her face seemed to fall at the sight of this.
"Gehrman?" she asked in a hollow voice. "You're real? You're alive?"
"Well I wasn't for a while, but yes, I am alive again." he said. Gehrman untricked his scythe, strapping it back onto his attire so both of his hands were free. Then, he walked forward to stand in front of the girl.
With a good amount of force, he flicked her on the forehead.
Changing Star reeled at this, her eyes which were full of confusion changing to a surprise as she reached up and covered her head. "Wh-what was that?" she asked. For some reason, she seemed to be genuinely unable to comprehend the flick.
"It's what happens when you swing a sword at your elders who came back from the dead. Seriously, I play along with you for a couple months and you become this unbearable? Have some tact, girl."
Her eyes were still unfocused, all she could do was stare at him.
Despite himself, Gehrman took pity on the kid. "Come on, let's go back to my Workshop for tonight. Pull yourself together and we can talk there."
...
The two Sleepers sat across from each other at a slightly crooked wooden table. Changing Star had indeed collected herself quickly. Her poor state improved greatly after getting a cup of water (Though Gehrman did have to clean out the well quickly due to the gathered dust).
"Okay, I'll start," Gehrman graciously offered. "I killed a Fallen Devil and got extremely close to dying. Then that little bitch Tessai showed up and put a hatchet in my skull so I actually died. Then I spent a while reconstructing myself in my Soul Sea. I touched a grave and reappeared a couple minutes ago through that lamp," he gestured to his side where the ghostly light still hung from the old glass box.
Changing Stars confusion returned in record time. Clearly, she bought absolutely none of this. But that was not Gehrman's problem.
"Okay, now tell me why the Forgotten Shore looks like this. Where is the Crimson Coral? The Dark Sea? Why do you look like you've been traumatized? How is everyone else doing?" Gehrman leaned forward with each question. It had taken great restraint not to bother her on the way back after all.
"You–" she started, but then stopped herself. Instead of talking about his absolutely mad story she decided to give a basic explanation.
"...A lot happened…That night before you died, Tessai had killed Kido, the leader of the Artisans. He left Seishan to handle their forces and went off without her. Then he…killed you." She paused, eyes still overly skeptical. "Gemma, the leader of the Hunters and Pathfinders came to us and promised to be our ally so long as we killed Tessai. So it was just down to us two. It didn't end in a battle though, Seishan had been working for me. She caught Tessai by surprise and killed him. The rest of the Handmaidens also finished off the Castle Guard."
Gehrman nodded. Seishan hadn't betrayed him, which was nice to know. She also stopped an all out war between the two largest factions. She was treacherous and fiendish, but she made Gehrman proud.
"After that we spent a couple weeks gathering our forces. No new Sleepers appeared this year, we only had one shot to get home. I did what I had to. We marched as a unified army to kill the Crimson Terror."
"Oh shit," Gehrman's eyes widened. He had expected this to happen eventually, but this was a truly cinematic turn of events.
"We lost a lot of people, but in the end about 130 made it through the Gateway and returned to reality. Before that Sunny used the keys granted by the Shard Memories to seal off the Dark Sea after unlocking an ancient mechanism of the Spire. And then I went up to kill the Terror while everyone else reached the Gate. It was trying to evolve into a Titan, during the process though, it was vulnerable and couldn't fight back so I managed to kill it. The Crimson Coral that populated the Forgotten Shore was also the body of the Crimson Spire. They were its roots that had grown underground. Every creature that died in the coral had their soul absorbed, that's how it was able to act as an artificial sun all this time."
Gehrman blinked and tried to comprehend the sheer scale that was the Crimson Terror. The amount of land it had covered was close to a small continent. Though it couldn't do much or cause mass destruction, the size was dizzying and truly worthy of being called a Terror.
He then noted that the Changing Star had gone silent, a hollow look filled her eyes. Regret, anger, and pain all encompassing her very being. Gehrman asked the question. He had to know.
"Why are you still here?"
Changing Star was silent. It was clear she was reliving the events that transpired after the slaying of the Terror. When she spoke, it wasn't to answer his question.
"Do you know what Caster's true intentions were?"
The question caught Gehrman off guard. He had no idea what the brat had to do with this whole situation.
"I never got the details. I just know that he was secretly a pretty bigoted idiot pretending to be a hero," he paused, surprised by the fondness of the memories that came to him. "When he first asked me to join you on your expedition, he actually wanted help with something else. He wouldn't give me a concrete answer on what it was, but I knew it was shady…so I slapped him around a bit. I told him to set his priorities straight and gave some rousing speech that I can't recall the details of."
An unreadable emotion passed across her face.
"Caster was sent here to kill me."
"Oh? I guess he was up to some devious stuff then," Gehrman's eyes turned soft. He wasn't angry, just disappointed. "So you killed him then?"
Changing Star fell silent again, and Gehrman silently urged her to stop with the dramatic pauses.
"I asked Sunny to watch my back, to make sure he didn't try anything. He saved me after the fight with Gunlaug when I was vulnerable. Caster was going to finish me off in the chaos but Sunny tripped him and forced him to wait for another day…he only got that day, that last chance after the Terror died. Sunny headed him off while he tried to come for me. They fought."
"So Sunless killed him? I'm surprised, I didn't think the Shadow could pull that off in one-on-one combat."
Her frown deepened. "No. They battled, but Caster…lost the will to fight. At least that's what Sunny described it as." she stared at him then, eyes burning with accusation. "He ran back to the Gateway."
Gehrman blinked slowly. "So…"
"Caster is still alive. He's in the Waking World now."
Though it wasn't appropriate given the situation, Gehrman let out a sigh. Leaning back in his chair, he felt a warmth in his chest that he hadn't felt much before. It was pride. Pride he felt for another person's growth. Sunless had gotten that emotion out of him with his astonishing development, and now Caster had as well.
Gehrman took a moment to revel in that, but the story was not over. He turned his eyes back to the broken girl in front of him.
"So, why are you still here?"
"...The Gateway was connected to the Spire. Not the Terror, but the ancient machine. The machine's life was connected to the Gateway. The Spire needed a host, a [Soul Conduit] to keep the Gateway open."
Gehrman understood then. This was perhaps the only plausible reason for Changing Star's staying here. It explained her physical state. But it did not explain her sorrow.
"Sunless was still there. Did he leave you behind? Is that why you're so distraught?"
"No," she let out a bitter laugh. "He– he wanted me to go. After I told him I wouldn't, he said that he would stay here with me. In this hell." Actual tears welled up in her eyes. They didn't fall, she didn't give herself that relief. "I forced him to go."
Gehrman raised an eyebrow. "Forced him? What did you pick him up and hurl him through the portal?"
"...It's not for me to say."
In a way, that was enough to answer his question. She didn't physically force him, and since he was adamant about staying she didn't manipulate him. It didn't seem like there was any plausible way for her to force Sunless to leave then. Of course, there was one exception.
It had to be tied to one of their Aspects or Attributes. Some sort of mystical manipulation that Changing Star utilized to save her friend by dooming herself.
He was reminded of a phrase then. A disaster where the heroes failed to achieve what they desired the most. An ending so unfair and bitter that it hurt the soul.
"A Greek Tragedy,"
She looked at him with sharp eyes.
"It's reality. A fate that couldn't have been avoided," she glared at him then. "Except it could have. If you were there."
The guilt Gehrman felt was overpowered by the anger he felt at the sheer audacity of the claim. "Well, I was a bit too busy being dead. Maybe if the rest of you weren't so hell bent on killing each other, there would be a different outcome. And besides," he snarled. "What would you have wanted me to do? Stay behind so you could go gallivanting off into the sunset with your cute little boyfriend? Condemn me to this hell?"
Her face fell. And Gehrman was reminded of a fact that he often forgot. They're just kids. The girl didn't mean for her words to be so cruel. She was recovering from a traumatic experience and lashing out. No tears fell anymore. Instead she simply looked ahead, staring at nothing.
...
The next morning Changing Star confronted him again. This time, much more diplomatically.
"Since we are stuck here, we should hunt together and share resources. After we cleanse this place, we can start travelling north. We might be able to find a habitable part of the Dream Realm to the East of the Hollow Mountains."
Gehrman paused his stretching and looked up at her. "Aren't you ignoring the simpler solution? We can get new bodies if we become Ascended."
Her reaction to this was more subdued than he had expected. Instead of turning on him and accusing him of lunacy she seemed to consider the proposal. "I have been thinking about that as well. Even capable cohorts of strong Awakened fail their Second Nightmare, but it might just be our best chance. We would have to find a suitable Nightmare Seed first though."
"That's not a problem. I have one growing in my Soul right now." This was a fact he was constantly reminded of. The Call of the Nightmare was getting stronger by the day. It was still relatively easy for him to fight off, but that was only because of Gehrman's mental fortitude.
Changing Star shook her head. "Your Flaw is that you accumulate Madness right? But shouldn't you be sane by now? I can accept that you might have been able to recover from getting your head split open, given you exceptional self-recovery abilities. But a Second Nightmare Seed existing in a Soul? That's not even remotely possible."
Gehrman let out a patchy sigh.
"Okay, this is going to get really annoying if you keep thinking I'm making this stuff up so I'll be straight with you. Yes, my Flaw is the accumulation of Madness every time I drink Corrupted Blood, but that is only temporary. I am perfectly sane right now, and there is an explanation for everything I say."
Changing Star raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then do explain."
...
Six hours later Gehrman finished his brief summary of all the complex factors that went into his existence.
To be fair, there was an extra thirty minutes of Changing Star asking questions. It was like she was quizzing him on his own life.
After a couple of hours of him not having any hesitation in answers combined with an absolute unreal level of detail describing a completely different world, Changing Star came to the conclusion that he was either the greatest writer of all time, or somehow not entirely insane. It was a baffling thought. If what he said was true he was technically an alien. An anomaly even in his own world.
It was the explanation of the thing he called "the entity" (which he never addressed by an actual name) that really caused her to question her sanity. If his descriptions were accurate, the creature was likely of the 6th or even 7th Rank. A Cursed or Unholy being was only theoretical so far. It was theorized that further into unexplorable "death zones" of the Dream Realm such beings might exist. It was also theorized that these beings were essentially gods. However, forcing someone to come back from the dead was definitely something only a god could do.
This left her with two completely ridiculous options. Either he was mad, but also somehow survived getting his head split open, slaughtered hundreds of Nightmare Creatures of Awakened and Fallen Rank while he was a Sleeper, and did all of this while still being a teenager.
Or…he was an alien. An alien with an alien god trapped inside him.
Both options were not things Changing Star could accept. The problem was, reality was being absurd as well. The logic of the Dream Realm was entirely different from the Waking World. But it also followed a set of rules.
"The Second Nightmare Seed in your Soul," she mused. "If it does exist, it actually makes sense why I can't hear the call. It's on another plane of existence, one that only you have access to."
"So you actually believe me?" Gehrman asked incredulously.
"I physically can't believe you. I can only think of this situation as a hypothetical. If I accept it as reality. Then reality is…a lot more twisted than I imagined." She frowned. "The Universe is bigger than I imagined. It's bigger than the Nightmare Spell," Changing Star said the last line wistfully.
"Well that's unfortunate," he went back to stretching. "The impossible task of living through a Second Nightmare as a Sleeper would be a lot easier with a second one."
"Either way our path is pretty straight forward. We must gain as much strength as possible before taking the journey. If you really do have a Second Nightmare following you around, then you will enter it on the journey. If you really are just mad, then we can find a Seed and enter together."
"A very logical plan," Gehrman agreed. He couldn't help but smile. In the end, it still came back to hunting.
"To that end, I must ask how saturated your Soul Core is, as well as if there are any other abilities you have hidden."
"You've seen all my abilities. [Blood Control] is pretty self explanatory. [Predator], my Innate Ability allows me to gain Blood Fragments from a Nightmare Creatures blood and increase in physical strength by eating their flesh. [Sixth Sense] is an Attribute I have that allows me to be especially aware of my surroundings. [Contracted] refers to my connection to the entity and how I can revive. Uhhh, I guess I also have an Attribute called [Inheritor of Madness] it doesn't seem to have a practical purpose, it just makes my life harder when forming new Soul Cores. Oh, that's a big one too, I can form multiple Soul Cores."
Changing Star had a very strong reaction to that last line. She seemed to flinch at the mention of multiple Soul Cores. "You have multiple Soul Cores? How many?"
"What, you believe me on this impossible fact?" Gehrman teased. But to his surprise, Changing Star looked away. It seemed she was dodging the question, but eventually she faced him fully.
"You have a Divine Aspect, don't you?"
Now it was Gehrman's turn to be shocked. In order to make that connection, she had to have known someone with a Divine Aspect. It was the only way she could come to the conclusion that having an Aspect of the highest Rank allowed for the formation of multiple Soul Coress. Or perhaps…
"My Aspect is Divine," Gehrman said slowly. "And I have three Soul Cores. Does that mean I have more than you?"
Changing Star considered him, and then, the smallest of smiles escaped her. "It seems like we are tied. My Class is also Demon."
...
It made sense. Changing Star was a living legend to all the Sleepers of the Forgotten Shore. Her feats were unmatched. It was not a leap to conclude that she also shared the same advantage of a Divine Aspect.
This common ground seemed to open her up a bit.
All of the cards were on the table, there were no more secrets between them. At the very least, Gehrman didn't have any more secrets.
But the following days did much to cheer him up and stabilize him after the horror show that was his death.
Changing Star, or rather Nephis– as she had instructed him to call her–was quite the handy individual. She could cook much better than him, and he quickly learned from her culinary skills. He had to eat Nightmare Creatures after all, and cooking them didn't decrease any of their benefits. He really should have learned the skill ages ago.
There was also a funny interaction that happened relatively soon after they vowed to grow stronger together.
As it turns out, Nephis still collected Soul Fragments like any normal Awakened. She didn't have any special "light fragments" or something of that nature. Because of this, her power simply grew the same way all the others did, through Soul Shards. In fact, she grew even faster because one of her Attributes allowed her to directly consume Soul Fragments from every slain foe on top of gaining fragments from the shards.
After Gehrman realized this, he asked why he hadn't raided his own stash yet.
The response was very comical. Seishan had told Nephis about the pile of Soul Shards, but requested they be left as a monument (which was unbelievably stupid). Nephis honored her wish. After she got stranded though, she decided to raid his stash…only to find herself unable to find it. She had actually been searching for it for a week.
Gehrman laughed his ass off.
Since they were useless to him, he showed her to the room and allowed her to "eat" her fill. It was also at that moment that he realized Seishan wasn't completely stupid. A couple dozen Awakened Shards were missing from the pile. Since the amount was so big it was hard to notice, Gehrman's memory made it clear he had been robbed. Despite this, Gehrman smiled as he imagined the Handmaidens sneaking into the Workshop to steal only a couple of Shards.
Gehrman and Nephis were both far more powerful than any Sleeper had ever been. After she consumed the Fragments from his stash, her number of Soul Fragments exceeded 3000, and she surpassed him, thus becoming a Devil.
She had warned him beforehand when she was about three quarters of the way through the pile that she was about to undergo the painful experience of gaining a new Soul Core. She had actually gained an exceptional amount from killing the Fallen Terror since it was also collecting Essence from creatures dying on or near the Crimson Coral. Therefore, she was actually close to her evolution immediately after she became stranded here. But it would have taken her months to collect the required Soul Fragments to evolve. Now, it only took a single day.
Perturbed by her evolution making her a higher Class, Gehrman checked his own Blood Fragment counter.
What he saw nearly made him scream.
[0/3000]
His head spun. This…this was a REAL robbery! What the hell had happened! After freaking out for a while he finally realized the reason. It was the damn "price" that was mentioned in the [Contracted] Attribute Description.
It was not something he was unfamiliar with. When Johann died on the night of the Hunt, he would lose all of his Blood Echoes. This was a similar concept to Blood Fragments, but ultimately alien. It required a catalyst to turn those Blood Echoes into strength. And the key difference was that he could get them back so long as he slaughtered the prey that had bested him in the last life.
But as he found out after running over to the old Castle Guard training grounds as well as the spot where Tessai died, Blood Fragments could not be retrieved.
He cussed about it for an hour or so, and then fully threw himself into the Hunt.
What followed was an absolute slaughter.
Now that Nephis didn't have to worry about anything but killing, her strength became even more deadly. The only thing she needed to heal was herself, without any others around, she truly lived up to her title as a Demon.
Gehrman was even more ruthless. In an effort to gain back as many Blood Fragments as quickly as possible, he lowered his Madness threshold. Before, he used to stop before he went below 50% sanity, and he always allowed himself to return to 100% at some point during the day.
Now, he went as low as 40% sanity, and he only returned to 100% briefly once a week.
For this reason, he and Nephis had relatively little contact, as Gehrman could be a danger to her as well.
However, they were always aware of each other. Even if they didn't talk, they saw each other every day to exchange Soul Shards and corpses. They did this inside Gehrman's Workshop, where they both now lived.
Gehrman finally finished that other bed he was making a while back and exploded a new room into existence. This was the "guest bedroom." It was given a door for privacy (and safety from Gehrman's madness) and its own toilet.
He was exceptionally proud of it. Nephis was impressed as well. She took notes of his construction, just like he had taken notes from her cooking.
At the end of each Hunt she would drop off the corpses in the corpse room (which Gehrman had cleared out for the most part) and he would put the Soul Shards in their respective room. Their contact was kept to a minimum.
Once a week, they would meet up to plan for a "priority target" which was usually a Fallen Demon or stronger. There were also still some Awakened Tyrants, and even an Awakened Terror around as well.
It took a long time to clear them out. During that time Gehrman was also starting to slow down as the Call of the Nightmare brutal drowsiness. Somehow, he kept a mental block in his dreams that allowed him to ward off the Call even when he slept. He had a suspicion that this was actually Paleblood's doing, but he couldn't be sure.
But even though his senses dulled slightly, his strength exploded.
With his new Madness limits he collected 25 Blood Fragments a day. He was drastically outpacing Nephis in terms of speed of growth.
Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months.
After four months he had finally reached that level he had been waiting for.
He waited until he was sane before calling Nephis over into the secret room where he had witnessed pure Dissociation months before.
Gehrman grew contemplative in that moment.
"Hey, did you know my body is fifteen years old now? Dorian's birthday was in March, and it's been way over three months since the Winter Solstice."
"So that makes you…70 years old?" Nephis asked. She had grown used to the talk of Gehrman's past lives. What's more, she had grown used to Gehrman's tendencies as well. Especially those of the old man he often acted as.
"Something like that, but I think it's more like 80. I forgot what I said my age was last time, and I have even more memories than before," Gehrman looked toward the stone ceiling and shrugged. "Eh, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that I'm already a Demon and you are at what? 1000 out of 4000? Pathetic! You better kill another evolving Fallen Terror soon or else I'll catch up to you."
Nephis sighed, but her lips were turned upward. "Go on then. Prove to me you have a Divine Aspect and grow another Soul Core."
"I thought we were past that after you saw me kill that Fallen Demon in one hit?"
"Drink the blood."
"Yeah, fine."
Sparks appeared as he summoned the [Portable Blood Imbiber]. Each vial was full of Fallen Blood, but it would only take a single dose to put it over the edge.
Without a word he plunged the syringe into his right leg.
Blinding pain embraced him.
He was back in his Soul Sea, staring at the broken, fractured Crimson Moon above. All around him, the fog and fake Hunter's Dream still existed, and hundreds of new corpses could be seen strewn about, just beyond the fog.
But he wasn't looking there. Gehrman could only see the moon. The sorrow, rage, and pain that was its very being. It was the madness he had seen in Sunless after the Black Knight had gutted him. It was the madness Nephis felt after betraying her friend. It was the madness he felt when plummeting into the abyss of death and slowly being rebirthed.
Before it could force him to scream he said the Truth.
From Dissociation came loss, regret, pain, and suffering.
"Agony."
The Truth was accepted and his third Soul Core was fulfilled and satisfied.
An invisible ripple spread out from the moon. And then the torrent of Blood Fragments twisted and contorted. New matter substance formed and it was perfectly shaped into a fourth Soul Core.
Gehrman was now a Devil.
He grinned as he felt his sanity start to return, but that grin faltered as his progress stopped.
Another ripple was let loose throughout his Soul Sea. This time, it came from behind him.
"Shit," Gehrman barely got the words out. Before a yawn pushed its way out of his mouth.
He swiftly exited his Soul Sea, returning to the Dream Realm.
Nephis was staring at him with an odd look on her face, but that look changed when she saw Gehrman collapse.
"Lost…focus…I'm…gonna…Nightmare."
Nephis's face contorted. The abruptness of this farewell caught her off guard. She didn't even have time to say a proper goodbye. And so, she said the first words that came to her. The most fitting words.
"Prevail. Conquer the Nightmare and Ascend. I will do the same. This I vow." Gehrman could only weakly smile before his eyes fully closed and his conscience left him.
In that abyss he heard the Nightmare Spell.
[Sleeper! Prepare for your Second Trial…Brave One…Welcome to the Nightmare]
…
Authors Note
I am putting the Author's Notes in the chapter because it was too long to fit in the "Author's Thoughts" section.
Okay we are finally done with the Forgotten Shore arc! Yay! Congrats to you for reading 41 chapters of this fic. We are now at about 90,000 words. And Google says that is the average number of words for an American Novel. So you all read a book if you've made it this far. Again, great job!
There are a couple of things I want to point out, the first is a subtle detail that I snuck into Neph's whole "this is how shit went down" speech. There were 130 survivors who made it through the Gate. In the original novel they were listed at about 100 survivors. In this timeline, Gehrman did actually save a good number of people. Though of course he doesn't realize it. I don't want him to feel joy or anything, that would ruin his development.
The biggest change to the timeline though is Caster's survival. For those of you who don't know, Caster dies in the original novel at the hands of Sunny after he doubles back to try and kill Nephis. I thought about this a lot, but I have a lot of ideas for how to play around with his character. I will DEFINITELY explore the reasons behind him leaving behind his mission in this timeline, but that will be after the Second Nightmare. So just take my word that it's a good reason.
As someone who was arguably between the level of Effie and Sunny, he is a real force to be reckoned with. As an Awakened his powers will only grow, and I am excited to explore how powerful I can make him.
I want to apologize for how rushed this last chapter is with him going from Demon to Devil in the span of a couple pages. I know this is technically lazy writing but I don't wanna rehash the same stuff to get him back to his old power and neither do you (unless you did in which case I'm sorry).
Nephis NOT joining Gehrman in his dream was also a tough choice. Ultimately, I just wanted to focus on Bloodborne for the next arc, and I wasn't sure how to fit Nephis into that world. If I'm being honest, I also am scared of writing Nephis. I already wrote her "wrong" by making her cry over what she did to Sunny. I realize that it's not something she did (probably) but it definitely hurt her and instead of Gehrman figuring that out by taking several pages and weeks in book-time to figure it out I just broke her character a bit to make things easier. Was it lazy? Yes. Very much so. But I promised to get to the next arc 2 days ago! I had to finish this!
Anyway, there are some other little things. The comment that it took six hours to explain Gehrman's backstory is a reference to the length of the Paleblood Hunt Essay (The updated 2021 version) which is 5 and half hours long if you listen to it. By the way, it is available on Spotify and YouTube for free. So if you're doing something boring I highly recommend putting it on in the background.
By the way chapters 5 & 6 were the main inspiration behind the Second Nightmare. I have been rewriting it a lot in my head, and I think I have a good conflict. This is going to be an absolute doozy of an arc, especially for me. When writing the First Nightmare I had only a vague knowledge of the lore, but now I am a (self proclaimed) expert! Plus, I'll be asking questions on Reddit to help me out if I need it. Plus you all can comment if you notice anything wrong or have any questions.
I am going to be creating a Google Doc to keep track of the characteristics and characterizations of the Bloodborne cast. I may put a link to it at the end of a chapter and allow you to give your own input. Since characters like Caryll have a big role in the lore but no dialogue or descriptions fleshing out their character I'm just gonna go on vibes.
I wrote a whole American Novel, and we are still at the beginning. This is why I went straight to the Second Nightmare! This is so long!
Sorry if this chapter is scuffed, it was also quite long and I got carried away (it's roughly 2.5 times longer than my average chapter).
That's all for now. I might only post one chapter this weekend as I recover.
Thank you for the continued support!