What happened next was something that had ever happened in the history of humanity. And it wouldn't be until 18 months later that someone managed to achieve the same miraculous feat.
Gehrman was taking a massive leap, going from the 1st Rank to the 3rd in one painful moment.
[The Second Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers.]
[The Third Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers.]
As it turned out, the process of awakening new Aspect abilities was similar to the original construction of his Dream Realm body.
In other words, he felt himself torn apart at a molecular level, only to be put back together again.
And this happened twice.
Gehrman took this development with inhuman passiveness. He winced, cried out, and clenched his teeth, but he didn't collapse.
After it was all said and done, he felt brand new.
Of course, this was because he was brand new.
As an Ascended human, he had acquired a body that surpassed even Old Gehrman's body during his Second Nightmare.
Dorian's body had also grown a bit. Though he wasn't sure what time it was on the outside world, he was fairly certain that he was now close to becoming 15 years old. And it seemed that his growth spurt had continued while trapped within the Nightmare.
He now stood at a height similar to that of the average man.
But he was anything but average.
Gehrman could feel new sensations overwhelm him as he acclimated to the nature of his new body.
Essence, the power that helped summon Memories, activate enchantments, and use his Aspect ability, flowed through his body as naturally as his blood, but it was also greater than that.
The ethereal power was not constrained to his veins, and he could feel the phenomenal energy ready to transfer to any single part of his body.
If augmented by his blood, this new intrinsic ability would allow him even greater defense.
Fortunately, it was unlikely he would need it.
Besides Essence manipulation, the most important addition to any Ascended's repertoire was the simple enhancement of their nature.
In other words, Awakened creatures below the Rank of Tyrant could not hope to cut them open.
Their bones, muscles, and blood received the same enhancement.
Gehrman flexed his body, feeling all of his newly supernaturally augmented muscles.
Thanks to the work he put in during his time in the Dream Realm, Dorian's body had become less scrawny. Though he still lacked the muscle that Old Gehrman and Johann had, it would be incorrect to call him skinny.
Muscles aside though, the fact that his blood could be considered an Ascended weapon was the greatest immediate improvement.
He had become quite adept at wielding the blood of his foes as weapons. But since he was of the 1st Rank, he wasn't able to use his own the same way. Even those locusts in the Forgotten Shore would be difficult to pierce unless he applied a special technique to his blood.
Now that he had Ascended though…
Gehrman was convinced that he could wipe out every single creature that walked on land in the Forgotten Shore in less than a month.
His ability to use his own blood was simply that big of a game changer. He already imagined the dozens of blood spears and blades that he could spontaneously create to cause mass destruction.
What's more, now that he was a Terror, he would be able to do this for much longer. He now had six Soul Cores of Ascended Essence, that amount was similar to those of normal Transcendent humans.
Though it was certainly possible to drain his truly enormous reserves of Essence, as long as he efficiently cut down his foes, he could fight for days without running out.
But still, all of this was surface level.
The real boon was his new abilities.
[Awakening Aspect Ability.]
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Awakening Aspect Ability.]
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
The result of these changes were immediate and staggering. Gehrman wasn't sure what new powers he would gain, but he definitely had not expected what happened next.
The first thing that he noticed was a deeply unsettling pain inside his head. It felt like something was crawling on his brain. And then, it felt like he had been woken from a slumber.
At the same time, something shifted deep in his soul. He felt like it was creaking and moaning as something heavy was placed inside. An unsettling shifting wrenched at his being, and he felt as if he was falling apart.
Both of these sensations were not painful compared to what he had experienced before, but they were so strange that it gave Gehrman more shock than having his body Ascend.
The thing that settled first was the strange throbbing on his brain. It finished with a creepy yet satisfying series of pops. It felt like a pus-filled sore had been popped open, releasing all the tension in his head at once.
It was then that Gehrman's sight changed.
It was such a drastic change that he wasn't able to comprehend what he was seeing at first.
His head was buzzing as he took in the world around him.
He was still in the strange dimension created by the Spell, but it looked entirely different. The stars seemed more purposeful and the webs seemed to have meaning. It was as if all the craziness around him followed an incomprehensibly large and complex pattern.
He could not fathom its scale, but he could fathom the concept.
Is this…the true nature of the Spell? Gehrman wondered in awe. In his mind, the most appropriate comparison would be the computers from Dorian's world. These things appeared magical in how they reacted to human touch, created images, recalled information, and stored memory, but it was ultimately running on small pieces of technology that rapidly processed information.
The Nightmare Spell was the exact same. Except the information it analyzed, moved, and presented was on a universal scale. And it also seemed to have other eldritch purposes behind its construction.
At this realization, he felt the sensation that he had only a moment prior. The tension in his head broke at a specific point and he felt his mind had gotten inexplicably clearer.
At this moment, he also felt that the strange reconstruction changes in his Soul had settled.
Curious, he dove into his Soul Sea.
He braced himself for the sight of the empty Workshop that now traumatized him…but he now saw something entirely different.
Flowers…beautiful white flowers blossomed all around him. Adorning the sides of the cobblestone paths.
Those very same paths now extended further outward.
The fake Hunter's Dream was no more. This new scene had grown far beyond what Old Gehrman had been trapped in.
The area surrounding the workshop was much greater than it had been during Johann's time.
On top of that, it was much more beautiful. The trees had leaves and they extended higher and healthier.
Multiple gardens stretched out for several hundred meters. Some patches were of short grass while others still had a great many flower beds.
And instead of ending in a fog, a towering forest encircled the Workshop.
Though some thin fog still lingered between the tree trunks, Gehrman felt it was much less eerie than the alternative.
A small laugh escaped him.
Where the endless tombstones of the Old Hunter's Dream once stood, now there was a unique shrubbery of strange formation.
As he knelt down to touch the closest fern, he couldn't help but wonder how this had happened.
Paleblood was the initial creator of the Hunter's Dream, and there was no way that macabre entity would create something so peaceful and beautiful.
He felt the fern in his hands.
Gehrman's brow furrowed.
He could feel his head buzzing again. It had been faintly doing so ever since the initial brain sensation.
But as he started to consider the nature of these plants, the buzzing became more distinct.
Curiously, the same thing that happened with his view of the Nightmare Spell also seemed to be happening in his own Soul Sea. He felt he could see further into its innerworkings and understand what lay before him.
Though he couldn't explain it, seeing the plants now felt entirely different. It was as if he was peering into their very nature.
At first it was only the tiniest of glimpses. But as he focused on this new feeling, this new sight, he slowly was able to understand something.
Gehrman nearly tripped over himself as he fell backward. The hand that had been touching the fern jolted backward as if burnt.
He saw the true nature of these things then.
And it was horrifying.
A strange vision overlapped with his original view of the idyllic scenery. But instead of fertile life, it was unholy and vile.
In this new vision, each and every plant, flower, and sign of life was no longer green, but instead reddish white. It was the color of muscle, blood, and bone.
Each plant seemed to be made out of flesh.
Disgusting, rotted flesh.
Gehrman swallowed hard, This new reality unnerved him, but at this point he had come to expect things like this. The second he saw the new gardens, he knew that something this nice could not truly exist in his Soul Sea.
And sure enough, the truth was obvious.
Every part of the Workshop had been made with the corpses piled up in Gehrman's Soul Sea. They had their matter rewritten to be stone and wood, but they were ultimately still things of Nightmares.
As he concluded this, he once again felt the popping sensation on his brain.
At this point, Gehrman was well and truly confused. Sighing, he pulled up his runes.
"...I probably should have checked this first."
Name: Gehrman
True Name: Paleblood
Rank: Ascended
Class: Terror
Soul Cores: [6/7].
Blood Fragments: [4,929/6,000].
Insight: [42]
Memories: [Greedy Bloodstone Talisman], [Crow's Oath], [Envious Executioner Gloves], [Prideful Chikage], [Slothful Evelyn]...
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Sixth Sense], [Inheritor of Madness], [Contracted], [Otherworldly Seal], [Otherworldly Abomination]
Aspect: [The Last Hunter]
Aspect Rank: [Divine]
[Aspect Ability Name: Blood Manipulation.]
Aspect Ability Description: [You are one with the blood. The very essence of life runs hot. While it does, it will heed your call.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Eyes On The Inside.]
Aspect Ability Description: [You have glimpsed the Eldritch Truth and can fathom the unfathomable. In doing so, you gain Insight that can be used for many Arcane rituals.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Walking Workshop.]
Aspect Ability Description: [You are an arsenal. The versatility of a Hunter is to create and sharpen deadly weapons and tools in their workshop. That very same Workshop now resides in your Soul. Your prey is the fuel that burns the forge and allows for acts of Arcane creation and augmentation.]
The two new Aspect Abilities were even more confusing and powerful than he imagined. At least, he assumed they were powerful. Though they were somewhat vague, unlike the obvious application of [Blood Manipulation] they could potentially offer power that was both incredible and familiar.
Indeed, these new Aspect Abilities seemed to be a result of the Spell mimicking the laws of Yharnam and the Dream that encompassed it.
"Insight" was a term coined by Master Willem that referred to the understanding of the Eldritch Truth. It was not a quantifiable thing until Paleblood made it something akin to a currency in the Hunter's Dream.
In exchange for accumulated Insight, Johann could receive certain materials, tools, or miscellaneous items.
It seemed that he would be looking into the unknown once again, but this time, the use of Insight seemed different. The term "Arcane rituals" made him initially think of the Chalice Rituals that allowed him to enter the Chalice Dungeons. But as he looked around the expanded Workshop, he found altars that could be used for such things.
Additionally, none of the cute, pale alien Messengers were crawling around this Workshop either. There were no bodies of water or tree trunks for them to hide in, so Gehrman was fairly certain that they were entirely absent, sadly.
The ability to see the truth of things would be very helpful on its own. Though it would likely take time for him to be able to wield the Arcane through spending Insight, the simple fact that he could see deeper into the strange reality around him was greatly beneficial.
It was highly likely he could now see the number of Soul Cores a Nightmare Creature had, or even what Rank one was depending on how it looked. This information was absolutely vital in a fight, and though Gehrman had gotten very good at sniffing out a creature's approximate Rank and Class, he could never be 100% positive until after the Spell announced the kill.
The [Walking Workshop] on the other hand, seemed to be even more absurd. His Memories were still circling the Moons on high, so the arsenal described in the description was likely referring to things he created himself. From the sound of it, he could create pseudo-memories from the surrounding forest, foliage, and ground.
All of these things were actually the corpses of Nightmare Creatures, and he had no doubt that if he ventured out into the woods that circled the Workshop, he would find some non-transmuted corpses as well.
Not only that, but the final word: "augmentation" also seemed exceptionally notable.
Gehrman recalled strengthening his armaments with Bloodstone Shards, Chunks, and even Rocks. If these physical manifestations of blood could be procured or manufactured thanks to his new Aspect Ability, then he could very well make the "useless" Memories that he had much more powerful.
Looking out over the secretly grotesque visage around him, Gehrman once again smiled. It was not peaceful or beautiful, but it was powerful.
Gehrman felt a rush as he considered his new abilities.
They were perfectly suited for a Hunter like himself.
Those old powers of Yharnam had been returned to him, and he felt complete because of it.
He grinned madly, ready to face the world.
[...Wake up, Gehrman.]
[Your Nightmare is over!]