By the time Maria came back, Gehrman was letting out breathless laughs, awed by what he saw.
In his Attribute Window, under [Unnatural Rune Witness], he saw something new, something he had been dreaming about for a long time.
Options.
[Arcane Lake], [Clear Deep Sea], [Deep Sea], [Dissapating Lake], [Fading Lake], [Great Deep Sea], [Great Lake], and finally, [Lake].
"Gehrman…are you alright," Maria approached with a wary gaze. Her eyes flitting over to Caryll, who stared at Gehrman with rapt attention.
"I do believe we have made a bit of a breakthrough," Gehrman said with a bit of gravitas. He then made his way to a parchment, writing down the new options he had under his Attribute.
"Caryll, what are the designations for the other Caryll Runes you have documented?"
Lurching and scurrying, the mad women soon stood beside Gehrman, overlooking the parchment.
"Well that's most of them. There are the Clockwise and Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Runes, the Eye Rune, The Heir Rune, and then Communion."
Gehrman hummed and started to draw new lines. In his mind, he also checked his memories. Naturally, since this was further in the past, not all of the Caryll Runes had been found and codified.
The ones missing were Beast, Blood Rapture, Clawmark, Formless Oedon, Moon, and Oedon Writhe.
Gehrman tapped his forehead, with the stylus. Then he brought it above the page, hesitating only for a moment before dividing the parchment into sections.
The Lake and Sea Runes were under the label of Kos.
The Metamorphosis Runes and Eye were under the tentative label of Kin/Cosmos.
Then the Heir and Communion Rune were placed in a separate section. One that Gehrman could not explain to the others. Still, he labeled it as what he believed was correct.
Ebriteas.
"You're connecting them to Great One's," Maria said, now also peeking over Gehrman's shoulder.
Gehrman nodded.
At the moment, he couldn't explain what made him confident that each Rune was under the unique dominion of each Great One.
That was because they lacked the full picture.
In Gehrman's mind, two other sections were drawn.
Beast, Clawmark, and Moon were under The Moon Presence.
And naturally, Formless Oedon and Oedon Writhe were under the Great One designated Oedon.
Gehrman leaned back and pushed back his hair.
Meanwhile Maria looked at him with a question in her eyes.
"This is interesting…but it still serves no practical purpose."
Gehrman tilted his head and was still for a moment. But then he nodded in affirmation. True, this is all theoretical and doesn't have much of an impact on our world. However, it may offer a most basic insight into how the Great Ones operate.
He leaned forward again, analyzing the sections.
"The Sea and Lake, great bodies of water both. Given the fact that Kos came to Innsmouth from the sea and the repeated references to waves from those who had become the Great One's beholden, it is clear that there is a strange sort of connection between them. The idea of great bodies of water and Kos seem intertwined."
More pieces started to click into place in Gehrman's head. Not all of them 100% certain, but definitely worth chewing on.
The uniqueness that Kos, The Moon Presence, and Oedon had was quite akin to the dead gods who once ruled the Dream Realm.
They were akin to Divine Domains.
In fact, there was a lot of eerie overlap.
The Storm God, for example, paired well with Kos in their connections to waters and mysteries.
The Moon Presence was even more strongly paired with the Beast God, with both entities having connections to the moon and beasthood.
This was enough to lead him down a train of thought, could the Great Ones be one and the same to the dead Dream Realm Gods?
…No, they were definitely not the same.
Their actions and tendencies were very different, at most they shared surface level similarities and a few entities matched aesthetics, but this was almost certainly coincidence.
Still, it was interesting.
The connection between the Great Ones and the Gods were curious, perhaps some great truth was buried there.
Though if that truth revealed the true nature of the Great Ones or the Gods he couldn't be sure.
Gehrman blinked, realizing his train of thought had taken him off topic.
The reason he had been sent on this spiral, after all, was a singular word that stuck out to him, one that came naturally as he pondered the concepts that tied the Great Ones and Gods together: Domains.
Gehrman's mouth twitched slightly downward for a moment.
That was also a term Seishan had mentioned before in reference to her mother, the Supreme, Ki Song.
This was yet another thing to keep in mind.
"This is to say, the Caryll Runes and the Great Ones are not of the exact same nature. Of course, we are aware they are unique in their own way, but this may be even more distinct than Master Willem proposed," Gehrman explained.
In the original timeline, the discoveries and dissections of the villagers of the Fishing Hamlet had led to the Byrgenwerth Scholars making many incorrect assumptions about the Great Ones.
Though it was true they correctly pinned down Insight and planes of reality as the key difference between humanity and the greater cosmos, they also drew some incorrect assumptions. Assuming that great bodies of water were connected to all Great Ones, when in reality it was more of an aspect of Kos.
This new revelation did not immediately have some practical use for Byrgenwerth and the Healing Church, but it did have a use for Gehrman.
He knew how the scholars and higher ups operated, and he knew that this new theory would have them up in the middle of the night debating and musing. In other words, they would have their attention diverted.
Which was good, because depending on what he did next, it would probably be for the best if Brygenwerth and The Healing Church weren't paying too close attention.
Gehrman stood.
"Maria, do you think you could take this to Master Willem and explain it to him?"
His apprentice opened her mouth to retort. It only made sense, after that Gerhman should present his theory.
But Gehrman was a Hunter, not a scholar.
He may have been valued deeply for his skills, but as far as anyone who had attended the college was concerned, anything he thought of would ultimately be nothing of importance.
"...I shall say I worked it out with Caryll," she said, returning to her more professional facade. With smooth movements she picked up the parchment, examined it for a moment, and then turned to walk away.
Gehrman nodded.
"Have the good Master's steward create a copy, we shall take that to Laurence. While you do so, I'll fetch a carriage."
Maria returned his nod before exiting.
After she was gone, Gehrman frowned slightly.
Ever since coming to this Nightmare he had been acting "out of character". It was something he ultimately had to do away with fairly early on in the 2nd Nightmare, but this time around he would have liked to keep his role and the privileges that came with it for as long as possible.
Still, gleaning some secrets of Innsmouth and creating this diversion was utterly paramount. Maria may start to grow suspicious something was wrong with him, but there was simply no other way.
"What now?" Gehrman whispered, his head full of ideas.
"Whaddya mean?" Caryll asked, suddenly, the small woman was standing right beside him.
He hadn't even noticed it, which should have been impossible.
She really is weird. Not just her personality, but the nature of her being. Perhaps her ability to peer into the transcendental planes of the Great Ones is not just a manifestation of her unique psyche, but also her unique essence? Something akin to an Aspect Ability, a mutation akin to the one that is undergone by Kin of the Cosmos?
He shook his head.
He really was rambling a lot today.
"You know my situation now, and it's pretty obvious what this conflict is going to be. The slaughter of the Fishing Hamlet…in the original timeline it was relatively quick, and thus dubbed a one-sided massacre. But in truth…that was the first time I had ever used the Old Blood. I had to. Because if I didn't heal I would have died there. The same was true for Maria."
"And in this dream the beasts are stronger," Caryll mused.
"Or we've gotten weaker…though, I do think that if we were to compare, Maria and Old Gehrman were likely on a level equivalent to 4th, maybe 5th Rank."
And Johann…was almost definitely at the level of a Supreme. He, or rather I, ended up killing both Maria in the Old Hunter's Nightmare and Old Gehrman in Hunter's Dream…Actually, I had also slain the avatar of Ebriteas that existed below the Upper Cathedral Ward, along with whatever entity lay at the end of the Old Hunter's Dream…was I more on the level of a Sacred? The 6th Rank? Surely not. If that were the case, I would have been equivalent to a minor god.
The thought was a bit unnerving.
How could any one being reach such a level, kill those entities, all in the span of a single night?
"Well, I don't know about you but I think it's pretty obvious," Caryll stroked her chin, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
As it turned out, that mischievous glint, was much more sadistic then he originally thought, however, as the next thing she said caused his hair to stand on end.
"This is the only time you can receive those free Arcane Weapons, right? If you get them from both humans and beasts, just kill both sides. Wipe out the Hunters, The Fishing Hamlet, and everything in between. We're just dreamed-up projections, so it's not like it's actually murder."
Gehrman recoiled a bit.
Both at the thought of the mindless slaughter, and also because he didn't immediately dismiss it.
The Fishing Hamlet was perhaps the worst atrocity he had ever committed. Now he was thinking of doing something even worse?
"We are all dreamed-up projections. No matter if we are in the Nightmares, the so-called Waking World, Yharnam, or the Dream Realm. It's all the same. All feels the same," Gehrman muttered.
To his surprise, Caryll gave him a scathing side eye. Then, shockingly, she reached up her hand and flicked him on his forehead.
It didn't hurt at all, but it did stun him.
"What happens after this trial is over?" Caryll asked blandly. "Or rather, what happens to the people and beasts in this reality when the trial is over?"
Gehrman's lips drew into a tight line.
They would be erased, their existence no longer needed. Perhaps their energies would be recycled for other manifestations of the Nightmare Spell, but besides that, it would have been like they never existed.
"Caryll, you don't get it," Gehrman growled. "When I say it's the same, I mean it feels the exact same. If I do this…then there is nothing stopping me from doing the same in the Waking World whenever something inconveniences me."
The Runesmith scoffed, her arms crossed.
"Well it sounds like you wouldn't be getting the same rewards in this so-called 'waking world'. Plus, you're not a dumbass! Maybe the Old Gehrman was the one I always knew, but this you. You are a good one. A good person. Good people don't slaughter without a reason. They slaughter so that no one and nothing ever has the ability to slaughter again. Or at least they make it a less common occurrence. Someone like that, someone like you… I trust you," Caryll moved closer, and with her bony fingers she poked Gerhamn in the chest with an accusing glare.
"And you should trust yourself more too."
Gehrman did not say anything for a long while.
In fact, he didn't think anything either.
His mind suddenly became empty and his body numb as the words washed over him.
The kind words.
It almost made him forget that he was being incited to commit a mass murder.
How could he do such a thing and be considered a good person.
"It's still an atrocity," Gehrman said with little fight left in his voice.
"It's the most logical atrocity in history," Caryll smirked.
Gehrman chewed the inside of his cheek.
But on the his chest, he could feel a thrum from his powerful Charm, and ever greater strength growing inside him.
Gehrman turned his back to Caryll.
"No one in their right mind would ever consider me a good person. But I still appreciate someone out of their mind giving me some motivation."
"Hey, watch it-"
"Thank you, Caryll. I mean it. I think I needed that excuse," Gehrman suddenly turned his head slightly. At that moment, a yellowish orange ring manifested around Gehrman's pupil. "Thinking about good and evil like that, it's never something that applies to me. Never something that should apply to me. I am a Hunter, after all. So why should I do anything else in this Nightmare?"