Note: Doing a retcon here. In 201 Gehrman, Seishan, and Sunny appeared at the New Workshop. It was implied that they were pulled through on a tether, which would belong to one of Sunny's incarnations (put there after he checked on Caster). However, there is no way Sunny would reveal himself yet.
So instead I am just having Seishan and Gehrman be there. This means that Mordret mentioning the "shadow creature" Gehrman brought with him didn't happen. Sunny is still a total secret.
Seishan joined him as he stepped back onto the grounds of the New Workshop. They had arrived silently, and though their mere presence would stir the world around them, they managed to arrive in a way that would not attract suspicion.
They were underground, in a hidden area of the Sanctum that rested below New Yharnam. He had wanted to come back to this strange place anyway.
The walls of the huge, half-sphere were a rippling gold substance with dimly glowing cracks spread throughout. It was also, inexplicably, a material of the 6th Rank, equivalent to a Sacred being.
Gehrman would love to harvest it to create numerous god-tools, but he simply didn't have the power. Not even Ki Song or Anvil would be able to mess with this treasure.
Gehrman had long created something of an escape route that existed deep within the swamp, allowing him to secretly travel out into the Dream Realm and into New Yharnam through the Sanctum.
As they waited for the others to arrive, Gehrman knocked on the strange material coating this place. The glow within the surrounding cracks lit up a bit more, as if responding to his touch.
"This place was called the Dread Grave Citadel before, right?" he asked absentmindedly.
"You would know better than me, I wasn't a part of that whole ordeal since I was a mere Awakened at the time," Seishan said.
"It's curious…the epithet of Dread belongs to the Daemon known as Ariel. I wonder, if that entity was not born Divine, could it have perhaps once made this place? It would explain the quality."
Of course, it did not explain why it existed in the first place.
"Who told you that the Daemon's name was Ariel, if you don't mind me asking," Seishan walked over to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
The answer was Sunny, but Gehrman came up with a quick lie.
"Caster. His 2nd Nightmare was during the Doom War when the Daemons and Gods fought, he learned a lot about them then."
She nodded, not having any reason to suspect him.
Ah, lying to my wife feels reeeeally bad. I need to ask Sunny if it's okay to reveal him to her.
He didn't enjoy keeping things from Seishan one bit, but he also wasn't dumb enough to let feelings cloud the obvious tactical danger of introducing Sunny to her. In case Ki Song truly became an enemy, Gehrman wanted as many hidden trump cards as possible.
"How intriguing, you know it was that very same Daemon who created the abominable Black Pyramid?" a casual voice echoed as Mordret suddenly appeared, walking out of the material, as it did have a dim reflective surface.
Oskar arrived with him, pulled by the Prince of Nothing. It was a bit interesting to see the two of them together like this. Gehrman hadn't planned to meet the both of them at the same time, but it was more efficient, so he didn't really care.
"He also made the Jade Palace, perhaps that dreadful creature had a hobby of architecture," Seishan mused.
As she did, her eyes slid to Mordret.
He put on a show of fake embarrassment at having been caught here, and not in Song Territory.
"What took you so long, I thought it was only supposed to take a few months," Oskar grumbled. "Did you die multiple times or something?"
Gehrman shook his head.
"No, nothing like that. As it turns out, being resurrected as a Transcendent takes a good amount more time. The last time I died to the Winter Beast, I cheated the resurrection time it took since I had entered the 3rd Nightmare, and the Spell recreated my body instead of the entity."
"Well, it's splendid to have you ba–" Mordret started to speak, but was cut off by a crack.
Multiple tiny explosions sounded as there was suddenly someone new with them.
Caster stood, arms crossed and hair now cropped.
He stopped before Gehrman with a strange look in his eye. From his ear, a new earring dangled, a superior version of the Charm that practically negated his Flaw.
Caster opened his mouth, but was interrupted by Mordret, who cleared his throat loudly.
"It's rude to interrupt others, you know?" the Prince of Nothing gave a humorless smile.
Caster shook his head and took a step back.
"Well, I was going to say the same as you were just about to, so I suppose I apologize."
Mordret gave him a blank look, but Gehrman's smile spread wide.
"Look at that! Apologizing! What stunning growth you've undergone my good friend. I was gone for almost two years and it appears you've grown tremendously…and also become a Saint, I guess. Good job on that, by the way."
Despite himself, a smile cracked on Caster's face and he let out a small chuckle.
"You haven't changed, I don't know why I feared you might have."
"Indeed, doubting me is the most foolish of past times," Gehrman said with a smile.
"So, with that in mind, why don't you keep that trust in me when I pitch you a rather fun idea."
…
The disaster of the second Category 5 Gate was also a phenomenal opportunity. However, it is better for some than others.
Recently, Gehrman had devised a new term in his mind. It was a classification of sorts, one that only five people had.
"The Exponential Growers" were individuals who gained personal strength from the death of Nightmare Creatures even after their Cores were fully saturated.
Technically, Gehrman did not meet the criteria he set for himself. Having a collection of powerful blood would be nice to have even after fully saturating his Titan Core, but there was a finite limit to how much he could carry.
The people in this group had no such issues.
The first three were all within Clan Song. Ki Song herself, Beastmaster, and Mordret. Their ability to create puppets or thralls made them a potential army in and of themselves.
The other two were a bit different, and also more promising.
The first three could theoretically expand infinitely, but there was a limit due to their mental capacity. Spreading out oneself across that many beings was terribly taxing and had terrible side effects after a certain point.
However, Soul Reaper Jet did not have such a problem. Her unique Soul Core could quite literally grow infinitely, as there was no concrete shape, just an amalgamation of shards. It was thanks to this uniqueness that she became the strongest after the Divine Aspect users in terms of raw potential.
In Antarctica, her Essence supply was equivalent to four normal Soul Cores. If she killed many Great Nightmare creatures, her Essence supply could very well become superior to what a Titan would have at their disposal.
Still, her ability to grow was not the most terrifying.
The owner of the Aspect with the highest potential with a surplus of deaths was actually Oskar.
[Anarchy's Principle] was an incredibly unique Aspect that turned Oskar into an existence of endless versatility.
His power centered around "Components" which were essentially broken down and compartmentalized Enchantments. Components could exist by themselves, and did not need to be attached to an item.
That being said, Oskar could very easily apply those Components to a suitable item. It essentially allowed him to create Memories, though the way he did it was entirely different from what any other Sorcerer managed.
Oskar could get Components from Memories or Echoes he owned, but his Awakened Ability extended that to "applicable sources". In other words, the corpses of Nightmare Creatures (or, if he was feeling macabre, the corpses of humans).
This was most effective with Devils or those of higher Classes, since they each had a manifested ability akin to an Aspect. There was a high likelihood when Oskar harvested the corpses of a Devil that he received a Component that's nature was reflective of that creature's power.
Of course, there were limits to this, mainly his Essence. It was costly to harvest Components, even more so from those of a higher Rank.
After the pleasantries were over, the group all stood around and exchanged information. It was nothing secret, the Workshop couldn't break neutrality, after all. Instead, it was more for the benefit of catching Gehrman up on all that he missed.
That being said, Oskar did divulge information about his Aspect. Mostly because his Dormant and Awakened Abilities were already known by Mordret, and thus Song as a whole.
The guy still kept his Ascended Ability close to his chest, but even so his story was enlightening.
"I did something pretty cool in my 2nd Nightmare," Oskar explained.
"The whole thing centered around this giant beast called the Tarrasque. The freaking thing was a Corrupted Titan. I'm still not over that by the way. This was my 2nd Nightmare! And you drop something that stupidly powerful on us!? It's bullshit, I tell you."
He scratched at his nose, and calmed down a bit after the rant.
"Anyway, it fortunately wasn't like the Winter Beast which you couldn't even go near. This Titan was just really, really big. I checked when I got back, it was the height of Goliath, but it was quadruped , so if it stood on two hind legs it would have dwarfed him. Plus, it was much, much longer. We were never supposed to kill that thing, it was impossible. I think we were supposed to get to this other city where they got a bunch of Saints that could come kill it. The Nightmare was the journey to that city. Still, I was pissed off so on the way there I made it my mission to come up with a way to hurt the fucker."
Gehrman raised an eyebrow.
"You wanted to kill a Corrupted Titan as an Awakened? I'll admit, even I wasn't that ballsy in my 2nd Nightmare."
"Me neither," Mordret said. "Though I did kill an Immortal Saint and an entire city, so you weren't that much more ambitious."
Oskar scoffed at him, but continued.
"Fortuantly, luck was on my side. There were these annoying Fallen Beasts that looked like giant feral rodents. They curled up into a ball and when they were close to death they exploded, fortunately, they also had a weak spot. We ended up killing about a 20 on our journey, along with a slew of other things. On the way back, the Saints also took care of some scary stuff, so I harvested Components from those as well. At the end, I was the one to launch the first attack on the Tarrasque. I stacked hundreds of different components, and using those nifty nuclear physics you taught me, I built a pretty big bomb."
Gehrman and Seishan gave him a disbelieving stare.
"You…nuked the Titan?" she asked incredulously.
"I did. Can't say it amounted to much though. I burned the thing pretty well and staggered it. Hell, I even drew a drop of blood. The Saints used that to kill the thing easily afterwards. Since I didn't get the last hit, I didn't get the credit, but the Spell seemed happy. I bet in the original timeline the Tarrasque killed one or two of the Saints, maybe it destroyed an extra village or two in the process, but my bomb let them take it down fairly quickly."
Each and everyone of them considered this fact absurdly astounding. Even with a Supreme Aspect, being able to harm a Corrupted Titan as an Awakened was utterly absurd. Gehrman was never Awakened, but even as a Master he struggled against Corrupted of a high Rank.
It seemed that with months of prep time though, Oskar could fight even higher above his weight class than anyone else.
Of course, the main issue was that it took months to build. He had several Component-Weapons completed and ready if he ever got in trouble, but he was not at all suited to one-on-one fights. The inability to fight with personal strength was the balance to this absurd power he now wielded.
This only went to further show to Gehrman the value of the gains that this situation presented itself.
If Oskar could manage that with materials of the 3rd Tier, what could he do with stuff from Great Nightmare Creatures?
Gehrman nodded.
"I can see a path forward now. Mordret, you should head more north, see if you can farm the creatures that are meeting those in South America and make sure things don't go out of control. I will also go over there at the start, but afterward I'll be exploring. I need to see some stuff for Song."
He then turned to Caster and Oskar.
"You two will have to speak to the Government, let them know that an envoy of Song pitched the plan to hold a joint line in Eastern Antarctica. We'll take on anything that makes its way to Australia and start a supply chain between continents that will be managed by the House of Night, if we can get them."
Caster nodded, already prepared to step back onto the now-wasteland that was Antarctica.
Oskar, on the other hand, raised concerns.
"We're dealing with Corrupted and Great Nightmare Creatures here. There is a reason why no one ventures into South America, you know. Though you and Mordy can "farm" them, no Awakened and most Masters won't be of any help."
Gehrman smiled.
"Exactly, this won't be a large-scale war like the Chain of Nightmares. What we are doing here is forging a testing ground for the champions of humanity to grow stronger at a rapid speed. Only the very best should be allowed to come to Antarctica."
"And what's stopping Valor from taking advantage of our spread forces and initiating the war while we are going through this 'testing ground'?" Mordret asked.
There was silence in the Sanctum then. Everything always circled back to the damn Domain War. Humanity could not truly grow until it was settled.
And yet, Gherman wasn't willing to let that get in his way.
"That's easy, the deterrent will be me."
Seishan gave him a strained look and reached out. Her spotless grey hand and vibrant red nails landed ever so gently on Gehrman's arm.
"I'm afraid to say this, but you are not just dead to the public, Gehrman. It has been accepted that you succumbed to Corruption and became a beast before you fell."
"Which is why 'I' won't be back. My corpse will be," Gehrman slapped his chest and grinned widely. "The public doesn't really know how Domains work, but they do know that Ki Song can puppeteer the dead. So, in these unprecedented times, Ki Song will bravely use the fallen remains of her son to protect humanity."