In the eyes of the public, the so-called "Champions Crucible" took place on only a single front. The one in between the hordes of Great Nightmares and the human population of Australia.
In truth, there were three fronts.
The public defense was headed by the Government and New Workshop. If this had occurred when the Workshop was in its infancy, it would have been a disaster. Now though, they had multiple extremely powerful Saints.
It had gotten to the point that the Government was able to stand as a Great Clan themselves, it was only their lack of Citadels that made this untrue.
Both Valor and Song were reserved in their open support. They had to send a few Saints here and there in order to retain public opinion. In the end, it would be those that just recently passed their 3rd Nightmare that would be sent out.
None of the big names were risked, but a few managed to build a reputation for themselves anyway.
That being said, Song was the one who was actually stretching themselves thin. Not because of who our how many they sent to the Crucible, but because Gehrman had "found" something interesting.
At the moment, they had not yet needed to fall back on the "Gehrman-is-dead-but-the-Queen-is-using-his-corpse-to-fight-evil-plan". That would only be used when Gehrman was seen by someone not high ranking enough to already know about the war.
He had thought it likely that he would be seen by some random Government Master who would then spread the word and cause a mess online.
However, he managed to make it to the edge of the world without any issue. He waited a bit, so as not to seem suspicious, and then took a fight with a Great Tyrant in the direction of the blurred line between the War Realm and the Dream Realm.
That way, he "accidentally" stumbled across it, without revealing his little escapade a few weeks prior.
This was ideal, since instead of sending Beastmaster out in public, they could secretly build her strength in a place that they were fairly certain Anvil didn't even know existed.
Since he had a hold on the Black Skull Citadel (which was on the other side of the Hollow Mountains), he could technically also make it to the Burned Forest. However, since Anvil had only expanded his territory in the Nightmare Desert marginally, it was clear he had no intention to delve deeper into that part of the Dream Realm.
Which was fair, it was all Death Zones after all, and it would be impossible to realistically hold on to.
However, Song didn't have that problem.
…
In a beautiful cavern, deep underground, Gehrman and Revel stood side by side. He had never really spoken before with this reclusive Song sister, which was a shame.
In his humble opinion, she very well has the most individual power out of any of the sisters. Sure Beastmaster's legion would make her a greater overall threat and now that Seishan was a Saint she was likely the best solo combatant, but when it came to killing Nightmare Creatures the Lightslayer was something else.
"I've never seen anyone else wield True Darkness," Gehrman said casually.
"We don't have to do small talk, I'm almost done," Revel replied, just as casually.
"So cold to your dear brother-in-law."
Revel didn't respond.
To his surprise though, Gehrman picked up on something he hadn't before. Revel's jaw was grinding a bit.
Either she was failing at coming up with a response, or she was genuinely pissed at him for some reason.
Either way, he wasn't going to push her. He stretched his back until he heard a satisfying pop and turned away a bit so as to not pressure her.
Revel was quiet for a bit, then out of nowhere she spoke again.
"It's a bit unfair really, that this whole thing is happening now."
Gehrman raised a brow.
"What are you specifically referring to?"
"You and Shan. I feel like for the past few years you are here for a bit, and then you're gone. It's not any fault of your own, but there hasn't been a time where you could just settle down for a year to just relax together."
His eyes went distant as he tried to imagine it.
They were married, they liked each other, but neither of them had said the word "love" yet. How could they? There was never a good time. There was never a good time to do anything besides the casual date here and there.
It had been bubbling under the surface, an annoyance. The world was such a bitch for not letting him relax with her, to just be with her.
Instead they constantly had to deal with stuff like this.
"Sometimes I wish we met under different circumstances. Like, if I was a teacher and she was a doctor, and we had a little meet cute at the hospital after I sprained my ankle or something. We hit it off, I casually try to ask for her contact, but can't get it out so she gives me hers instead. Then, we could just do cute couple things…we haven't done many cute couple things."
Revel's brow furrowed as she finished making a connection with the Citadel. This was inside the root of one of the larger trees in the Burned Forest. It had been carved out by those Barrow Wraiths, or at least they made their home here.
It was tricky to fight those things with their Soul Rending attacks, but both he and Revel had good protections against such things, and her True Darkness could counter it a bit. After all, the Soul and Shadow were intertwined, and within True Darkness, there was no shadow.
"Thats good. I mean, uh, what kind of 'cute couple things'?"
Gehrman smiled at her attempt to continue the conversation. He got the feeling that when they were talking about something she understood, like Seishan, then there were no issues with conversation, it was only that when they spoke on unknowns, she didn't feel the need to talk anymore on the matter.
Still, she was trying. Whether it was because he was now her brother or because he was partners with Seishan, he did not know. Either way it was appreciated.
"I've had an image in my mind. I don't know why. Something like…sitting at home in a small but cozy room, not doing anything, and listening to a music box play. I guess, having a "song" would be nice too, something we both like and connect to our relationship."
Revel nodded.
"That is cute…By the way, I appreciate you recreating those old record player things. Before, none of my speakers could play music in the Dream Realm, it's been nice having that at home."
Gehrman's smile widened a bit.
"Don't mention it."
At the same time, an invisible ripple spread throughout the world.
The grotto suddenly seemed colder and the dead stirred as the Song Domain spread into this Death Zone.
Revel frowned a bit.
"I wish we could station some people here, but they would need to be Saints or Masters, and we can't spare any."
Gehrman understood exactly what she meant.
The uniqueness of Ki Song's Domain meant that she could single handedly protect the Citadel by turning the past defenders that had been defeated by Gehrman and Revel into her puppets.
This improved Ki Song's arsenal, but it split her even further.
Gehrman didn't care much for this either, but at the same time, it was necessary.
So long as they conquered a great number of Citadels in this, and perhaps some surrounding regions, Ki Song would not have to go after the Night Garden and the Storm Sea.
At least, that was the plan.
Gehrman's face was stoic as he decided to split a third part of his consciousness, the Brain of Old Gehrman, into the workshop of his Soul Sea.
At the moment, he came up with a rather daring and potentially disastrous contingency.
At the same time, the second part of his consciousness was already in his Soul Sea, headed by Johann, he was finally exploring the Chalice Dungeons.
It had been about 2 weeks since he started, and by now he had gained a good amount of Blood Chunks, and one more Blood Rock.
However, he also found something old and familiar that would be the base of his contingency.
The Old Gehrman brain walked over the mystical storage of his Soul Workshop and pulled out something entirely new.
This was a Blood Gem, what was once used to augment and change the type of damage on a Trick Weapon.
It was the true facet of the Walking Workshop that had been unlocked in his Transcendence.
The ability to apply these Gems to his crafts and to – finally – create his own Memories…as well as apply a certain set of Enchantments.