Following that meeting, Gehrman somehow became even more busy. He hadn't slept in months, and though that wasn't really an issue, he thought about the sweet relief of turning his brain off often.
Fortunately, he was receiving some help. Though The New Workshop was still an independent program, Cor figured out a way for some of his workers to move to the New Workshop in order to help him.
These Awakened and mundane would be "fired" and removed from the Government, only to be directly hired by Gehrman to help with logistics, planning, and compiling information for each of the Great Clans.
Of course, many of them were not too pleased about the arrangement.
Despite a new apartment building being built and decently extravagant suites getting prepared specifically for them, the effort to reduce pollution in the air was only mildly successful. For the Outskirt folk, it felt like breathing in true, natural air. But those of NSCQ easily noticed the difference and would often complain.
Despite the architecture of the New Workshop remaining the same as Yharnam, the abundance of foliage, trees, and other such nature being forced to grow in this land via certain Aspects offset the "gothic" vibe of the place. Still, it retained enough of the old, familiar style to make Gehrman content.
Besides, he would have the chance to make a more genuine Yharnam in his Citadel.
Speaking of his Dream Realm territory, it was now decently fortified as the Awakened known as Malcolm had corralled the mercenaries and with (unenthusiastic) help of Caster, it had become something of a functional place. Each person had their own bed and room at the very least.
As soon as Gehrman had fully automated the transactions with the Great Clans he would spend much more time there.
If there was one upside to the New Workshop, now that it was not under threat he felt it was finally safe enough to move Milo there.
After asking, he officially adopted the child and became his legal guardian. Shortly after he moved Milo to Cathedral Ward, expanding on his own room underground and fashioning one for the boy.
Gehrman and the child worked together to make a place to suit his tastes. The result was something a bit more childlike than Gehrman had expected. Colorful walls and bedsheet, paintings strewn about, and a television screen within the wall.
It seemed like something a younger adolescent would make. But Gehrman considered it only reasonable.
…Milo did not have the same upbringing as most kids. If he had matured to the point of a 12 year old under those conditions it would have been a miracle.
All things considered, Gehrman was growing quite happy with life.
Of course, with each day of peace that passed a growing dread was building in his heart. He had not forgotten that in a mere month the Winter Solstice would arrive.
Despite it paining him, Gehrman also started to bring Milo to the classes with the rest of the teens in order to prepare him for his potential First Nightmare. Ideally, he would have 6 years to become a lethal Hunter. After which he would hopefully Awaken easily and go on to live a peaceful life.
…But after a single week of training. Milo started to grow sleepy. Unnaturally sleepy.
The [Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis] Rune fortunately found purchase within him, but his lethargy refused to leave.
It was with a heavy heart that Gehrman realized that at the age of 12, Milo had contracted the Nightmare Spell, and he would soon undergo a trial that few ever returned from.
Gehrman personally took him to a place deep under the New Workshop. It was filled with comfortable sleeping pods, calming art, and delicious food.
…but it was not just a place for Aspirants to rest, it was also filled with lethal firearms built into the walls that mundane humans hid behind. Those weapons would fire bullets of the Fallen Rank, easily dispatching any Dormant creatures that appeared from the failure of a First Nightmare.
The child saw these guns and recognized them with detachment. Milo didn't show any emotion throughout the whole process. If he realized what was about to happen, it didn't seem like he cared.
As Gehrman laid him into a pod, he lingered over him. Emotions unexpectedly writhed within him. He had not taken any Blood that day, but still a drop of Frenzy escaped him then. Milo's eyes widened as he looked upon Gehrman with a complicated expression.
But with a deep breath he restrained himself and looked down at the boy with soothing and confident eyes.
"You are strong, Milo. Stronger than anyone else. You will survive, and when you do…" Gehrman trailed off. The words for this moment escaped him.
But as Milo's eyes drooped, he did something that he hadn't in months.
He reached out, and he touched another human being.
His small hands patted Gehrman's forearms in reassurance.
If anyone were to see him at that moment, they would know for absolute certainty that The Red Judge was simply a most convincing lie.
As Gehrman returned the gesture, the boy's eyelids finally fell.
He entered his 1st Nightmare.
And he would stay that way, asleep and unmoving for one whole week.
By pure chance, at the moment things had ended 5 other individuals woke from a Nightmare of their own.
…
Elsewhere, inside the walls of NSCQ, in the heart of a calm and wholesome neighborhood. A simple, monochrome house shuddered.
There was no earthquake, no Gate, no real force pushing against it.
Instead, it was only the opening of one person's eyes that seemingly caused the very strings of Fate to quake.
Four solemn Cores of Shadow churned with calm energy and power.
A Divine Shadow, now at the Class of Devil, had become an Ascended.
And the shadows bowed to his presence.
…
Outside NSCQ, outside the Outskirts, outside any human settlement.
A form started to materialize.
Light refracted off this shimmering new body as the Spell crafted a new vessel for one whose body had long been destroyed.
One who had been long forgotten.
Just as the Divine Shadow had become a Master, so too did this lost being.
A monster, or rather, a Titan.
Indeed 7 Soul Cores in the shape of impossible mirrors cut around his Soul, their power fluid and cruel.
For the first time another being had matched The Last Hunter in terms of raw power.
What's more, as the clean and sublime flesh of the creature was sewn into existence, the sheer malice within it was enough to cause the surroundings to tremble with even more wariness than they had for the Last Hunter.
Such was the hate in his heart.
The eyes of the new Ascended solidified, and pupils of perfect, reflective glass took in the physical world around him.
A false smile spread across the lips of the lost Prince of Valor.
The one abandoned by his own clan.
The one who kept him imprisoned until the Divine Shadow unwittingly brought him freedom.
The first person to ever receive a Divine Aspect.
Mordret, the Prince of Nothing, was now free.
…
And a few weeks later, a calamity of flames burst forth from a secure place underneath the Government's Awakened Academy.
The beautiful form of the pale angel of the Immortal Flame burst into iridescent and unyielding fire.
Like the sun itself she rose, five Soul Cores flashed with light that surpassed the imagination.
The Tyrant of the sun burned with indiscriminate fury as her body was rewoven and her constitution adjusted to that of an Ascended.
18 months after The Last Hunter jumped from the Dormant Rank to Ascended, a second person managed to achieve the same feat.
The Lightbringer had risen.