"I'm making a new home right now," Gehrman said.
He judged Milo's reaction, and found it almost entirely passive. However, there was a glitter of curiosity in his eyes.
"It'll be a big place where people can learn to create things and protect people. I want it to be a refuge for those who have suffered. I want to give them an opportunity to use that suffering and turn it into strength."
Milo looked up from his drawing, considering Gehrman's words. At the moment, the Hunter was sitting crossed legged on the floor, leaning against a cushioned bed that the boy sat atop.
Eventually the child got out a new piece of paper, scratching words on it.
'Will I go there?' was what he wrote.
Gehrman hadn't brought this up to elicit this response. He simply wanted to see if Milo approved of the idea. As someone who suffered greatly himself, would he find such a place to be manipulative?
As it turned out, he did not.
Perhaps this was because someone with so little hope and light in their lives did not know to expect basic human empathy. Nevertheless, Gehrman sought to provide it.
"Maybe. It will be dangerous for a while, I'll have to make sure it's fully developed before I can bring you to visit."
A twinge of disappointment crossed his face and the young boy frowned.
He reached to continue his drawing, but Gehrman interrupted him.
"I was wondering what types of things should be included in this place, as part of your birthday gift, I'll add anything you want."
Milo froze, looking sharply at Gehrman.
Of course, he knew it was his birthday. The caretakers who had been in charge of him had told him that they would bring him a couple presents and asked what he wanted. He had spent a lot of time thinking of this, and even mentioned it to Gehrman and asked him to come up with some ideas.
He helped the kid, suggesting he focused on what he enjoyed the most.
Unfortunately, this self reflection made him realize he enjoyed a certain animal, and what followed was nothing short of an obsession.
Sure enough what he eventually wrote down on his sheet was:
'Turtles. Lots of turtles to be close to. Lots of water and swamp lands for the turtles.'
Indeed his most fervent wish for a birthday present was a pet turtle. Unfortunately, these animals were long extinct (like most animals in this world). The wars that occurred a few centuries ago resulted in the planet becoming toxic and the vast majority of non-human life to die out.
Milo had been told this devastating news very carefully, but it still upset him. Fortunately, he managed to alleviate his despair by getting old books about turtles as well as more drawing supplies.
He had begun to dabble in different styles of painting using different types of brush. He was getting pretty good at it, and Gehrman made sure to compliment him on his improvement.
"You know turtles are gone, but you still ask for this? Do you think I can bring turtles back to life?"
Milo blinked in surprise before writing some more.
'You can make them, right?'
A realization dawned on Gehrman as he remembered the small, cute blood golem he created to entertain the boy. It was simply something to ease his nerves, but it appeared to be the source of his fixation and something that contributed to his affection for Gehrman.
Indeed, the boy was still very uncomfortable the vast majority of the time, especially when dealing with other people. The only person he allowed to get this close was Gehrman himself.
It warmed Gehrman's heart. Perhaps it was for that reason that he vowed to search for some impossible way to bring the extinct species back to life at that moment.
"Those ones only last for a short time…I'll look for better turtles. Maybe I can make one with science or find a few in the Dream Realm."
Milo's round face lit up with glee.
Simultaneously, an idea struck Gehrman.
Come to think of it, aren't there some turtle-like Nightmare Creatures near the Swamp?
…
It had been a month since he had become an official ally of Song. This entitled him to the one and only benefit of that deal which was his own Citadel in the Dream Realm. It would be in a strange place, not technically a part of Ki Song's Domain, but still a follower of her laws and jurisdiction.
During the dealings they had glossed over the part of actually conquering the Citadel, and this had proven to be erroneous.
The Swamp lands he would be ruling were infested with several remnants of the long corrupted Jade Queen. The closer one travelled to the ruins of the city where the Citadel was, the more one encountered dangerous creatures.
Only Transcendents could reach the broken stone monument itself. And even then it would be perilous.
There were three rings surrounding the area. One filled with Awakened creatures. One filled with Fallen. And surrounding the ruins themselves while also wandering the destroyed city were Corrupted creatures. They were not simple beasts either, many Demons and Devils guarded the place.
And still, that was not the worst of it.
There was a reason this Citadel had yet to be conquered. And that was because it simply had not been worth it. It would take an incredible amount of resources to build a habitable and protected city from the ruins. It didn't have a very beneficial or special location either. It was a fair bit South, much closer to the Stormsea than anything else. Therefore, it didn't have any noteworthy strategic benefits. But the biggest reason was that it was simply too dangerous to pull it from the clutches of its Guardian.
Like Gates, Citadels in the Dream Realm were protected by fearsome Guardians. And this one was especially troublesome. Its existence stretched all the way through the last circle that covered the ruins and the immediate surroundings.
It existed in the waters, or rather it was the muddy waters. Casting an aura of slowness and suffocation on all who entered.
It was a Great Tyrant.
As of now, it was known simply as the Grave Swamp Tyrant.
All creatures of the 5th Rank were in a league of their own, and Gehrman quickly picked up on the reason why.
Similar to Ki Song, they had a presence about them. Their very existence seemed to bend the world to their will. It was hard to quantify, but Gehrman's years of intuition told him that this was a truly terrifying passive ability that all creatures of the 5th Rank had.
They could assert their power, their Will, on reality itself. Causing physics and natural laws to become much more pliable.
Besides their overwhelming power and strength, this Will was what made them so untouchable.
Indeed even a cohort of Transcendents would be hard pressed to put up a fight.
Ki Song would not be leaving the Jade Palace, so how were they to conquer this land?
The answer was surprisingly mundane: slowly and carefully.
The first step was to wipe out all the Awakened and Fallen creatures under the influence and power of the Grave Swamp Tyrant.
Since this was a clandestine affair, it was impossible for Clan Song to send their armies to conquer this land.
However, this actually worked well for Gehrman, as it proved to be a great training area for his long ignored ally.
Caster, who had quietly and officially cut ties with the Han Li Clan now rampaged through the swamps.
With the Transcendent Charm and restrictive vow, his physicality was similar to that of an Ascended. And since he wasn't using Essence to activate his Aspect Ability, the only thing limiting his slaughter was endurance and focus.
Gehrman had tried to aid this by offering him Oath and Caryll Runes that would increase his stamina, but unfortunately this proved difficult.
The world rejected these unfamiliar powers, and they seemed to only find purchase within Gehrman.
Still, he could feel the possibility of it. The branding of other Awakened with Runes. All he had to do was somehow alter the laws of reality a bit.
It became obvious that if he also reached the 5th Rank, this would almost certainly be something he would be capable of. However, he did not want to wait that long.
Still, all his searches for loopholes proved fruitless so far.
But that did not mean Caster was not benefiting a great amount already.
As he slayed dozens of creatures each day, he naturally started to accumulate more Memories.
"How is the haul today?" Gehrman meandered behind the hunched form of Caster. The young man had his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. He had been fighting for four hours straight. Mostly dealing with Awakened creatures, but occasionally fighting Fallen.
In total, he had probably killed over five hundred Nightmare Creatures in the last two weeks. His entire time was spent killing or resting. And his exhaustion was evident. And yet, there was still a powerful gleam in his eyes.
In this slaughter his instincts as a killer had sharpened even more than they had during the dreaded Forgotten Shore.
Though he had Gehrman watching over him to make sure he stayed alive, he had managed to take down all of his kills on his own.
Caster let out a chuckle. To his surprise, Gehrman then took notice of a hidden figure. It was one of the broken Knight-like Awakened Demons that prowled the lands. Though they were only of the second Rank, their skill made them quite deadly.
Caster had killed over thirty of them.
And now it appeared one served him.
"I got an Echo…finally."
Indeed instead of vile and dark Soul Cores, three small embers of light burned in the thing. It was uncanny to see it so docile, since for the most part it looked exactly the same as it had when it was a fiendish monster.
A thought occurred to Gehrman then.
An Echo might work. If Caster got a couple of them from those turtle-like Fallen Beasts then it would work nicely.
"Have you come across those Turtle Beasts yet?" Gehrman asked.
The seemingly random question caught Gehrman off guard. But due to his tiredness and his experience with Gehrman's chaotic character he did not spend too much time questioning how he reached this line of thought.
"What is a turtle?"
"They're reptiles," Gehrman explained. "With big shells on them that they can retract their limbs and head into. They have smooth skin and an adorable face."
Caster creased his brow.
"I saw a Nightmare Creature that has a big shell, but it has several more limbs and heads," he paused and then spoke in an incredulous face. "And it is by no means adorable."
"Yeah, that's the one," Gehrman nodded. "I want you to get an Echo of those, preferably two."
Caster let out a defeated breath. "I just received my first Echo after two weeks of fighting, I'll be lucky to get one more, let alone a specific one."
"I'll cut off their limbs and bring them to you to kill. This is a matter of grave importance," Gehrman said seriously.
But despite his tone, Caster simply shook his head. "Whatever."
He stood up and groaned as his sore body extended.
"I take it I am done for the day then? Are you going on ahead?"
"Yeah," Gehrman smiled. "I'm meeting up with some Princesses. I think we are finally going to conquer this Citadel soon."
…
Though they had to methodically work their way through the infested swamps, in all honesty this whole thing could have been dealt with a while ago. This was because the Song Clan, or more accurately those who directly served Ki Song, had a special way to conquer Citadels.
It was a very straightforward tactic that no one else could replicate.
As it was explained to Gehrman, the most distinct aspect of a human Supreme's power was their Domain. This was a concept that was rather intriguing to Gehrman as it appeared to be a uniquely devastating power.
Essentially, the Domain of a human was an extension of their Aspect and Soul. When they were in their Domain, their power would greatly enhance, the more Citadels that were conquered and Saints that served them improved the Supreme's overall power.
Without a Domain, it might have been possible to defeat a Supreme if 100 of the most powerful Transcendents worked together, but with it, there would be no competition.
And Ki Song had developed a truly astonishing Domain. It was over a thousand kilometers of the Dream Realm that fell under her command.
As it turned out, Anvil, the King of Swords and Supreme of Valor had a similarly sized Domain.
Though it was hard to say what the Ancient Supremes of the Dream Realm were like, it was hard to imagine they had accumulated as much power as these two had.
In any case, it was this Domain that allowed for the Song Clan's unique style of conquering Citadels.
As it turned out, one did not have to defeat the Guardian before claiming a Citadel. They only had to reach its center. At that time, they would have to spend a short while intertwining their Soul with the Citadel itself.
Granted, this would be hard to do in the vast majority of cases. But with Transcendents like Silent Stalker who had a unique ability to remain hidden, it was by no means impossible.
And once one of the followers of Song claimed a Citadel, that land would become a part of Ki Song's Domain.
As an extension of her Aspect, this allowed her to expand her being there. Which in her case meant raising and inhabiting the corpses of dead Nightmare Creatures. Additionally, Ki Song could offer her own Blood as a deadly weapon. With the veritable army of Nightmare Creatures and a Supreme weapon at her disposal, even Titans would find it difficult to resist her power.
This was the peak of humans.
The one's called the Sovereigns of the world.
That being said, a Great Tyrant was still an overwhelming force. In order to prepare, many Nightmare Creatures needed to be slaughtered in order to prepare the most powerful army possible.
Caster had killed a lot of Nightmare Creatures, but the corpses of Awakened would be negligible. His presence was really just because of Gehrman's request and the young man's own benefit.
The real work was being done by the Song Sisters and Gehrman himself.
Though he wasn't quite on the level of these exceptional Transcendents, his raw power and battle IQ meant that his contributions were no less than theirs.
Over the past two weeks he had spent most of his research time in this swamp. Gehrman spent double the time Caster did in his slaughter. Eight hours a day he fought Fallen and Corrupted creatures.
He wasn't able to kill as much as he'd hoped, as he had to be careful around the ruins themselves. The Grave Swamp Tyrant would occasionally spread his power to try and kill the invaders in its territory.
Tentacles of dark water would rise in the air and attack with extreme precision. Since its nature was a liquid, it was impossible for Gehrman to use his blood (or any blood for that matter) as projectiles. Once it entered the Tyrant's area, it would be absorbed in its watery form.
Still, Gehrman had a way to hurt the thing even if it was woefully inefficient.
Once again his [Burial Blade] proved invaluable, and its new Enchantment managed to weaken the creature a small amount over the past couple days.
Since the damn thing was so vast and powerful, its Soul would not be slain by his hands for another ten years at the rate he was going. And even before then it would likely take things more seriously and form fully at his location to ensure his death.
Despite all this though, he had been racking up a good amount of kills, and thus a good amount of Blood Fragments.
He had to manage his Madness, but fortunately Corrupted Blood did not send him off the deep end like it had when he was a Sleeper.
Even so he was making great progress. Both these creatures and the occasional Gate Nightmare Creatures he went to the Waking World to handle meant that he absorbed around 20 Fragments a day.
Though Fallen could only offer 1 and Corrupted gave 2, the sheer amount he killed offset that. And if he didn't have to worry about Madness, he would have been a Titan already. But as it was he was still on track to reach that goal.
Blood Fragments: [5,572/6,000]
Many of the creatures in the Swamp were not beast-like, and were more likely to be made of stone, metal, wood, or mud than they were blood. But since he killed one hundred a day, Gehrman still managed to keep his numbers up.
It was a great area for training and growing stronger…but it had to end.
Gehrman had long been anticipating the creation of his New Workshop, and the longer he waited the longer it would take to start making some real and permanent change in both of these worlds.
Besides, he didn't want to make Ki Song wait anymore than she already had. She was quite scary already, but seeing her impatient and annoyed might very well be the death of him. Gehrman had no desire to push his luck.
He arrived in the final circle, landing from his flight and folding his blood-formed wings back into his body.
There, he was greeted by three of the five Song Sisters.
Beastmaster, Lonesome Howl, Lightslayer, Moonveil, and Silent Stalker.
They all waited calmly, and once they saw the Hunter join them, they did not seem displeased at having been made to wait.
Beastmaster simply stretched and let out a sigh.
"Let's kill this thing today."