"Ever since becoming a Titan I've started to get this feeling," Gehrman explained calmly. "Something big is going to happen once I fully saturate my final Soul Core. I don't know what, but it will probably make me a good bit stronger. In a year and half I'll also inherit the lineage of a god from this world…this kind of strength is a bit obscene. Sometimes I think to myself: am I being rude to everyone else for getting so powerful?"
Gehrman turned toward a field rotting carcass. Some were torn in half ruthlessly. Some severed by jagged teeth, others simply blown away as if a cannon had blown holes through them. And towering above them all was a Corrupted Demon, impaled by several spears of blood that suddenly dissipated under Gehrman's intense glare.
"But then I see ugly things like you and remember that it's all worth it, because I get to carve you up and feast on you with reckless abandon and everyone praises me."
Pale purple sparks appeared around Gehrman's hand as the [Portable Blood Imbiber] manifested.
"But even with all that, I still have to use this thing. Seriously, there has got to be a more efficient way of doing this…"
Gehrman's eyes shook, his pupils barely visible beneath the rings of yellowish-orange. He took the needle and stuck it into his own flesh, and then the Demons. Since it was a Rank above the [Portable Blood Imbiber], it was a bit rough to pierce the corpse. But by taking a bit of the dead creature's blood and reinforcing the already incredibly sharp tool it managed to get inserted with a decent amount of effort.
The rush of madness and power hit Gehrman like a truck – or rather, something much heavier than a truck, such a mundane vehicle would likely break long before doing any actual damage to Gehrman.
His eyes glowed.
As it turned out, the rings of Madness would eventually take over the entirety of his eyes, not just his iris, when he dipped below 30% sanity. And at this point, he was well past that limit. In truth Gehrman was not even comprehending the words he had just spoken, all he was aware of was the fact that his mouth moved and sound escaped him. It was only muscle memory that made him utter subconscious, chaotic thoughts on occasion.
The idea was very funny to him in his current state.
Like a true madman he started to cackle, head upturned to the cloudy night of Antarctica, giant wings of blood manifested once more and he took off.
…
Gehrman's rampage had netted him an incredible amount of Blood Fragments. Especially with those Category 3 Gates. Gehrman had not come across any Tyrants, Terrors, or Titan's fortunately, so the positives of these Gates spawning actually far outweighed the negatives.
Category 3 Gates was largely made up of dozens of Fallen abominations and a small handful of Corrupted. Given the nature of how Blood Fragments were granted to him, it didn't matter what Class the creature was, Fallen would always grant him 1 Fragment and Corrupted would grant 2.
However, those of higher Classes did tend to be larger in size, and many of those creatures could provide multiple instances of those 1 or 2 Blood Fragments.
That Corrupted Demon, for example, had netted him 6 Blood Fragments total.
There were unfortunately a number of Nightmare Creatures that lacked flesh and blood and would thus offer no boon. Those ones were generally ignored by Gehrman unless they were particularly harrowing and posed a threat to even a Master and their Cohort.
…At this point, Gehrman had lost track of how many Nightmare Creatures he had killed, or even how much time had passed during this long night, but he would eventually look back and realize that at that point his number of Blood Fragments had likely added up to 100 a day.
As Bloodwave had suggested, he had long forsaken any grasp on his sanity. Only momentarily letting himself retreat to around 50% sanity in order to check his progress. But even that had become inconsistent.
Gehrman had essentially become a blood drunk beast, scavenging the landscape of Western Antarctica. Where he landed, entire islands had their geography terraformed by his battles.
It had taken roughly 3 weeks for the Antarctic convoy to reach South America, but it only took 2 weeks for Gehrman to reach the point he was at now - returned to the Antarctic Central.
Blood Fragments: [2,139/7,000].
It was an astonishing jump. Without having slept or eaten a single time Gehrman had managed to acquire a similar amount in these last two weeks than he had during the entire last year.
But the price was also evident.
From a distance, he might have seemed completely unbothered by the last few days' trials. Due to the [Ageless] enchantment on the [Hunter's Attire], all tears and rips had sewn back together.
The best part about that enchantment, and others like the [Reaping Blade] of the [Burial Blade], was the fact that these innate properties did not cost Essence to operate. His attire would repair itself even if removed from his body and spirit and the Reaping Blade would deal soul damage no matter how fierce the wielder.
It was this type of thing that proved essential during his war against Western Antarctica, and his future slaughtering in the Antarctic Center. The fact that it didn't take Essence was crucial. Despite having 7 Soul Cores, the regeneration of his Essence was no better than others. For that reason, he was constantly forced to limit the amount he spent…at least, that was the plan.
As it turned out, dropping oneself into the deepest pits of madness meant that it was very difficult to consolidate resources effectively.
As a result, he was currently crashing into an enormous, and seemingly endless strip of road, his crimson wings floundering and dissipating due to his totally spent Soul.
Gehrman lay face down in the concrete for a while, his body having made an absurd indent, then he started to cackle into the rough road, his muffled voice making the whole scene all the more eerie.
What really made the sight of this broken young man so appalling though was the way the world seemed to twist around him.
At this point, his sanity had long gone past its limit, and he was absorbed in that 7th and final madness for days, and yet, he had come no closer to understanding it.
The appalling wrongness could not be accurately described, even the effect it had on the world around him was difficult to quantify.
It was as if the world around him had been sharpened, like how an image might be edited to increase detail. The world felt more pronounced and distinct. Yellow-orange madness radiated off Gehrman, tinting the world around him.
In an unnaturally strong and odd motion his arm suddenly jutted out and landed hard against the concrete, causing it to splinter. And with a jerking motion he rose to his feet, stumbling and murmuring incoherent noises.
Indeed, one might consider him more Nightmare Creature than man.
Out of the corner of his eyes he glimpsed the shining Memory that Bloodwave had left him. The crossing stars in that miniature world now moved in a near straight line.
Gehrman did not look around to sense his bearings. His [Sixth Sense] offered him all the information he needed.
The thing, person, or whatever it was he was supposed to find was moving along this road, or rather, along the edge of the sea that met the road.
Indeed the Nightwalker remained at sea, as was his nature.
Gehrman did not process any of this though, he simply lurched forward and started oddly running down the Coastal Highway, toward the direction of the mystical compass.
Without Essence, he couldn't fly. It was fortunate as well that even as a bit of Essence regenerated he did not immediately start to waste it again.
In this mad sprint, he had inadvertently allowed himself to start regenerating Essence.
Along the way, he would veer off course from time to time to respond to any Gates he sensed. There were a few Category 2 ones that popped up, but they didn't have anything worse than a singular Tyrant. Since this was the case, he was unable to maintain his previous average of 100 Blood Fragments a day, instead only acquiring 30.
Fortunately, this lack of intake also allowed him to regain sanity up to roughly 20%.
In each of his slaughters, he managed to take everything down with his strength alone. With each new Soul Core he also received a decent physical boost, so as a Titan (and an already strong Master) he could reach power only slightly weaker than what Gairm and Logarius were operating at during his 2nd Nightmare.
Back then, they had been more than powerful enough to decimate a good portion of Castle Cainhurst, and that thing had nearly been the size of a small city in and of itself. Even the small fraction left standing by the time Johann got around was enormous.
In other words, even in this state Gehrman was more than capable of taking out a great number of Nightmare Creatures.
As he gained more and more sanity he estimated his distance and travel time to Naeve to be within a 1 to 4 day range. It was hard to tell since the ship Naeve was undoubtedly leading could be moving in the opposite direction at any given speed.
But this just gave him more time to regain himself and reflect on the experience.
He hoped that being so inundated with the 7th Madness would leave him with some inkling of what its name was, but he was coming up empty.
As he traveled, he mused about the whispers constantly assaulting his head. It was not just the residual Madness from his Flaw, there was something else doing its part to drive him even more insane.
All across Antarctica, the "Call" had been spreading abundantly. It was the phenomena that lulled nearby Awakened to sleep, and into the hundreds of burgeoning Nightmare Seeds across Antarctica. It was persistent whether the Gate had formed or not, since the Nightmare could still be challenged even with the Gate opened, the Call persisted as well.
It was a familiar thing, not too unlike the whispers of Frenzy, albeit of a different nature.
The Call was not only psychologically detrimental, but it also messed with the "tethers" and "anchors" of Masters and Awakened. And on top of that, it also interfered with technology, muddying signals and causing any sort of complex device to short-circuit or undergo an arcane failing.
For example, if Gehrman were to use his innate ability as a Master to travel to the Dream Realm, the warping aspect of the Call would change his destination from his Grave Citadel to the corresponding place in the Dream Realm where the corresponding Nightmare Seed resided.
This made communication via Dream Realm (which was oftentimes more reliable than technology) also difficult.
As he mulled this over he was suddenly and violently brought to a halt.
His eyes widened and pupils dilated.
The world shook.
Gehrman's stray thoughts were abruptly canceled.
The Call that had been persistently nagging him exploded into a myriad of sleepy screams.
He felt his jaw clench and blood rush to his head.
Gehrman quickly adjusted to the sensation, but he couldn't shake the feeling of dread that suddenly gripped him.
"What…was that?"
Bloodwaves voice replayed in his mind.
"It's going to get worse."
The world shook again.
With creased brows Gehrman realized that the enormous tremors were not brought about by the creation of the hundreds of new, powerful Gates.
No, there was a physical presence that was causing Antarctica to tremble.
Gehrman brought together all his strength and used his Dormant Aspect Ability to fling himself high into the sky. He quickly reached a few hundred meters in the air, his sharp eyes scanning the dark landscape…
But he didn't need his special senses to see it.
Gehrman's heart sank.
Seven infernal pits of Corruption nestled inside the largest monstrosity he had ever seen.
Roughly humanoid, the absurd three armed thing was made up entirely of stratified rock. Giant boulders fell off of it, and they looked like specks of dust in comparison to its colossal visage.
Two empty indents in (what appeared to be) his skull formed to make two eyeless sockets.
And higher up, in the center of its forehead was a singular eye. It seemed a fusion of rock and mechanical wizardry that composed the thing and the thrumming of it easily crossed the three kilometer distance between the Titan and Gehrman.
Then, that singular eye seemed to open further, and the rocky terrain in its path melted. Scorching heat – not flame – emanates from the eye like a miniature sun.
The cores were Fallen in Rank, but its destructive ability surpassed even those of the Corrupted Tyrants he had slain.
Then that eye turned toward Gehrman himself.
In that moment, all Gehrman could think of was Cassie's letter.
"There are 4 Nightmare Creatures in the Antarctic that you can not deal the final blow too. Sunny must be the one to kill them. If you do not, Nephis, Kai, Effie, Sunny, and I will all die…
The second is almost definitely Titan with the rough size and shape of a humanoid mountain. It will have a mechanical-looking eye and be roaming across the lower Antarctic Center near Ereubus Fields."
As blistering heat crossed kilometers of distance and reached Gehrman, his hair was blown back and coat flapped in the wind.
It was indeed a devastating attack, but Gehrman's defenses against such things were greater.
With the [Bloodflame] Enchantment of his now Ascended Rank [Greedy Bloodstone Talisman] as well as the fact the [Hunter's Attire] was of the Transcendent Rank, it all but negated the attack from this distance.
And yet, Gehrman's heart hammered harder than it had in a long while.
"Fuck my life."
…
A fun little holiday treat for you all: I'll be answering any and all Questions (you can ask multiple) that are posted on this paragraph or the chapter.
A Q&A along with a couple of informal, Tumblr-style stories will be released on the 25th in honor of the holiday season. So make sure to get questions in before then.