What the hell!?
Arus was still getting used to the world around him. He was Transcendent now. One in three hundred million. A truly special individual. Granted, the 3rd Nightmare had pushed him to his limit. He was at the point where he secretly considered himself the bottom tier of Saints.
That is happening more often these days. Before, the Sovereigns were very strict about who could enter the 3rd Nightmare, but a few years ago they had decided to open the floodgates.
He wasn't the first to be chosen, and really he was only allowed to become a Saint because his cousin had put in a good word for him. The "Saint of Sorrow" was a long respected Vassal of high value and authority. So even though Arus was older than most who tried to Transcend – 40 years of age – he was given the go ahead.
Throughout that Nightmare, he had taken on the nominal role of leader. He wasn't the strongest, but he did consider himself the most levelheaded, and the one with the most experience.
The younger and more talented Masters had saved his butt a bunch of times during the trial, but he was the one who actually made the final decision on how to finish the Nightmare.
For that reason, he had gained a rather hefty confidence boost.
Perhaps it was because he only recently gained an ego that it seemed to crack so easily.
At the moment, a torrent of lightning descended upon the pilgrims of Ki Song. The endless onslaught of corpses were electrified and in some cases even incinerated.
Far above, a slow haunting beat played. Arus had originally considered it something the New Workshop was playing over its "record system", but that was not the case.
A quiet but stern voice whispered into his mind then.
"Between the castle and the 2nd layer. It's a young man with a circle of drums on his back…be careful, it might be a Memory. It is unclear what his Aspect actually is."
Silent Stalker summed everything up nicely, and now that he had gotten over the shock at the sudden and brutal attack, he could see the young man…except he was more of a boy than a man.
"What am I looking at?" Arus mumbled.
The boy had taken on the look of a demon, holding instruments he struck the drums on his back, casting more and more bolts of lightning to strike the hordes below.
Stalker is an archer, isn't she? Why can't she just snipe him? Arus internally complained.
Of course, she had a different mission. The reason she had not already taken him out and instead told him was because she expected him to do something about this.
I don't get it, there is no way they had another Saint here, so what is this?
Arus felt reminded of Saint Tyris, the Sky Tide of the White Feather Clan. She was a particularly powerful Saint of Valor, and she had even participated in the Battle of Black Skull. He had not been there, but the tales of smites coming from the heavens ran true at this moment.
Arus felt compelled to complain more. However, he could not afford to.
Even so, not a single second had passed since Silent Stalker had sent the message.
This was why Arus was valued enough to be granted the right to attempt the 3rd Nightmare. His Dormant Ability was [Thought Acceleration]. He could not move at an incredible speed like Honor Fell, but his ability to perceive the world was likely greater than even that freaks.
His Awakened ability furthered his power to change perception of his target. Though it was unassuming, changing the distance one perceived by a few centimeters made the difference between life and death.
With his Ascended Ability he grant "Thought Acceleration" to others and affect many more people's perceptions, even creating illusions that were tied to each other, making it so a group of enemies all saw and sensed the same incorrect information.
Finally, there was his Transcendent Ability, which he activated now.
It was a truly grotesque creature. He was still a rough approximation of a man, but his entire upper body was covered in eyes. In this state, his ability to alter perception affected reality itself. He could shut down the "perception" of all nature and physical things to cause a total vanishing from reality.
Not only that, he could still use his other abilities while using this power.
It was the ultimate stealth, and even Ki Song herself was quite pleased with how it turned out.
He had essentially become the most powerful illusionist in history, because unlike the Dream Merchant, he did not have to rely on his prey to be in a certain state to affect them.
It was because of all these things that Arus was especially freaked out.
Because at that moment a lightning bolt was hurtling toward him.
…
Milo continued his song for as long as he could, using his power to thin the horde. The "Song of Raijin" was his most powerful attack so far, though he had a myriad of other insidious means of destruction, this had the most raw damage output.
Still, it was costly.
As a Master, he felt his Essence supply was all too small. With his imagination, the emotion in his heart, he suspected that even a Transcendent Soul Core wouldn't provide enough Essence for what he wanted to create.
After half of his supply was completed, he stopped, allowing the drums to vanish.
His brows furrowed. There were two tricky ones amongst the Saints. One had somehow disappeared from the world. Milo could still see a faint outline of him, but if the Saint just ran with their Transcendent Speed, he would quickly lose him.
This one seemed inexperienced though.
Milo found that most Awakened were inexperienced. Compared to Gehrman, they were all children, and compared to the Workshop Hunters, they seemed to be lazing about all day.
These Saints, for example, were all much older than him. However he was fairly confident he had killed just as many Nightmare Creatures as them. He had been put in more life or death experiences than them.
No one besides his Cohort really understood the drive within Milo. Naturally, he was often overlooked, but his kill count was unmatched amongst the rest of the Hunters. Never a day went by where he didn't slink off to the forests to butcher some Nightmare Creatures.
Bitz and the others would accompany him at times,but even they were unable to keep up. It was something he only ever saw in Gehrman. A certain "psycho" tendency. Where others stopped, unable to push their bodies any further, he was able to go deeper still. Even as his body broke, his will to move forward had never been brought to its limit.
He suspected that to change today.
These Saints underestimated the New Workshop, but it was foolhardy to believe that they could hold off six Saints, even if they were weaker ones.
Not to mention the other concerning one.
He suspected it was Silent Stalker, the assassin-type Song Princess. Her stealth went far beyond supernatural, and she would undoubtedly probably possess more raw attack power than Caster.
Though his [Eyes of Total Spectrum] were taking in an abundance of information from multiple planes, she was moving too fast and randomly for him to keep up. There were traces of her, but he could only get a vague idea.
Milo considered his options before summoning a paint brush and swiping it in a broad arc in the sky.
Following his movements, the storm clouds dispersed, a line drawn through them.
With a few dabs and tracing of separate patterns, he melded two different Arts together. The first was the summoning of storm, which was rather standard. He could manage it as an Awakened even, though not on this scale.
What followed was something new. Raising his brush high, he poured a tremendous amount of raw longing into his Aspect.
The result was a torrent of greys and dark colors. The swirling pillar of paint ascended to the clouds above, spreading and filling them incredibly quickly.
With a grunt, he pulled down the brush. The weight of it was not unlike a boulder, or perhaps a few dozen boulders. Still, a ripple ran throughout the heavens. The sounds of battle were dulled for a moment, and then it rained.
It was not a sprinkling rain, but a pouring intense fall that was akin to a bucket being poured on all of them. The small pellets of paint hit everything in the surrounding area.
In an instant, the battlefield was altered. All buildings and streets were turned a bright white, thin outline allowing one to still easily make their way through the architecture. Those of New Yharnam were dyed a dull grey, not immediately noticeable, but still clear.
…the enemies were not given such modesty.
An ugly random radial pattern of black and blues appeared on the forces of Song, making them stick out like a sore thumb.
Got you now-
In an instant, two things happened.
Milo finally got a handle on Silent Stalkers location.
And Silent Stalkers arrow was let loose.