Digging through hundreds of feet of infused metal should have been harder than it was. But Caeden hadn't used an ounce of Sharp all day, and he didn't think he'd be using it in the coming fight, considering the suppression field was still up. So he flooded Forged Infinity's drill form with his shroud until it was churning through the material like a fat man through a buffet. Once again, Caeden had to marvel at the power of the shrouded weapon the researcher had made for him.

Despite the speed, it was still almost an hour to drop down into the maintenance tunnels that ran underneath the campus and the entire city. Caeden knew that they were very close to the surface of the Starry Sea right now. The streets of Central City were a quarter of a mile above the Starry Sea, but the city's lowest levels were only a hundred or so feet from the magical waters.

Technically, Caeden could have accessed these tunnels from anywhere on campus. But they were heavily reinforced and deeply unintuitive to navigate. Only the maintenance staff could reliably find their way across campus, and Caeden had a strong suspicion that all of them were revolutionaries. Which also made it likely that the entire tunnel system was trapped and had been for months or years. In the cramped confines, he didn't like their odds of survival.

So they had gotten as close to the power generators of the Core Seat as possible before dropping. In fact, he managed to get it just right, and they fell through right into the elevator lobby of the sub-level. The generators should be only a room away, immediately next door.

But the lobby wasn't empty, obviously. They were at the heart of the Revolution assault. Two more of the massive abominations were stationed next to the elevator banks, and they had a dozen weapons trained on Caeden before his feet even hit the floor. They probably heard him coming through the ceiling long before he got there. The drill wasn't exactly quiet as it dug apart thick layers of infused metal. The screech of tearing metal had been enough to nearly drive him crazy after an hour straight of standing on top of the source.

The two teachers that had protected Caeden earlier dropped in, and as close as they were to the goal, they didn't need to worry about holding back. Sigils appeared on their bodies, one on the foot and the other over their right shoulder. They rapidly changed, taking on their Embodiments.

Caeden now had a massive Gleaming Slime and a Mage Minotaur with crystalline horns protecting him. The bulky slime ignored all attacks and rolled forward, literally subsuming one abomination. The Mage Minotaur, a diamond variant, waved his hand, and his horns shattered, levitating as new horns grew from his scalp. The shards intercepted attacks and flew forward to dig into the second abomination.

"GO!" The deep, bellowing voice of the Mage Minotaur called out. "WE CAN HANDLE THIS!"

As if to counter his words, in that exact moment, a laser slipped past the shards and scored a burning line across his shoulder as an explosion blew out the side of the Gleaming Slime. But Caeden knew he wasn't in a situation to argue with the teachers. The generators needed to go down; that was a fact.

Three other teachers dropped in behind the other two, and a slightly cloudy patch of air denoted Lily's presence. The others had stayed above in the Core Seat to make sure no revolutionaries ambushed Caeden's group from behind. Their small force was the strongest of the teachers that had been trapped in the Sun, Entropy, and Bronze Seats. They were still waiting for word from the wrap-up of the Mess battle. That larger force had left after theirs, and their fight had only lasted a few minutes. Besides, Cat was supposed to get the Headmaster moving to figure out where the actual suppression field machine was since Caeden's team of ethertechnicians and campus experts guessed that it was separate from the generators.

They all thought it was probably hidden away with some smaller, more discrete power source as a backup if the Core Seat fell. After all, the generators were an obvious target with zero mobility. Keeping the suppression machine more mobile but still connected to Academy power was a solid tactical move.

The last obstacle in between them and the generator room was a blast door. This thing was designed to contain a catastrophic meltdown of some of the largest generators the CA produced. It was over a dozen feet thick and made of grandmaster-level highly-infused metal. Caeden knew that his drill wouldn't be getting through this anywhere near as easily as it had chewed through the path down. Luckily, they had already planned for this.

"Ok, hit it." Caeden nodded. Two of the teachers stepped forward, and they placed their hands on the door side by side. At the same time, they formshift. One became a living explosion, the chaotic mass of gas and material collected into a human shape. The other was a dark hole that ate the light.

On the side of the explosion, the door started to warm, the silvery metal slowly beginning to glow. In opposition, the side of the light-eater started to frost over. In between their hands, the metal started to creak and groan as the two sides tried to expand or contract. A patch of the metal started changing colors in an obviously magical phenomenon, shifting randomly between a hundred different hues.

Caeden and Lily had come up with this once they learned of the door. It was based on two things. First, some tidbits Caeden had learned and remembered from his time with the researcher about the nature of Ki. And the other was the cruiser explosion. It turned out that if you made ambient Ki experience enough state changes fast enough, it formed a chaotic mess that ate all the ether it encountered, including what was infused into the door.

Normally that process wouldn't occur in an explosion. It had only happened to the Cruiser because it was sabotaged to do so. It required a long period of sustained transformations, not an instantaneous burst like what a normal generator failure would produce. But with two shrouded with almost opposite powers, the effect was easy to achieve.

The rapidly shifting colors moved across the door until it covered the entire thing. At that point, both the teachers stopped. The light started to fade until all that was left was the metal, looking exactly as it had before.

Caeden walked up, shifting Forged Infinity to a single gauntlet. Then he punched the door. With a loud screech of twisting metal, it buckled in, folding in half like tin foil.

A teacher snorted. "This is why shrouded don't rely on emplaced defenses. The only real defense is a good offense. A sitting target with known properties is bound to be exploited." Caeden vaguely remembered the woman taught a class on tactics.

Past the broken remains of the etherless door was an unlit hallway a hundred feet long. Past that point, Caeden could see bright light and hear the humming of the giant ether engines powering the Core Seat. This was it. Whatever was in that room was the last defenses that would stop them from ending this whole nightmare scenario and routing the remaining revolutionaries. Caeden expected a stiff opposition.

"This is the last push. Everyone ready?" He looked around, getting affirmative nods from the teachers and Lily's vaporous form. Wordlessly, Caeden shifted Forged Infinity over to its basic sword form and charged. The rest followed right behind him. The hallway was untrapped, much to his surprise. Their silent run brought them into the room in seconds.

It was a massive space, hundreds of yards across. The walls were the same flat grey as the rest of the sub-tunnels. The generators were massive towers of glowing metal and glass with a kaleidoscope of ether transformations happening inside, visible through the windows cut specifically for the task. It was obvious these ether engines had been designed for unshrouded use; a shrouded wouldn't need the glass cutouts to monitor the engine's functions. They would use their aura.

The vast array of ether transforming from one type to the next in an endless sequence lit the whole room in a strange, shifting glow. There weren't any ether lamps, the room needing none with the generators active. Four engines were set into their own quarter of the room, with space to walk all the way around them. In the center, between the four, was a series of control surfaces set in a circle with many levers, dials, and gauges to monitor the engines' functions.

Arrayed around that control center were six abominations, ones that looked even more advanced than the two at the elevator bank or the ones up above. They were more sleek and refined, less a haphazard mesh of ethertech and flesh. For the thousandth time that day, Caeden had dozens of weapons pointed his way. But they stopped as the only other person in the room waved a hand.

At the control station, looking over all the readings and practically ignoring Caeden and his group, was a man in a black coat that extended to his knees. He wore a mask, one made of metal with bits of ether attached. It covered his entire face in a flat metal surface, with nothing to indicate how he could see. It was unnerving.

Caeden wondered what was going on, why the man had stopped the machine-men from attacking. Was he giving up? And where were the other revolutionaries? Surely they didn't leave one man and some machines to control the entire heart to their operation. This made no sense. But Caeden wasn't about to let one man's insanity stop him from ending this mess. He burst across the distance, sword point leveled at the man's heart.

Only to rebound harshly the second he reached the edge of the controls. A radiant barrier appeared, rippling in golden splendor before it slowly vanished. Caeden's ears rang, and he coughed, a small amount of blood leaking from his mouth. His own momentum had reflected back into him, resonating through his body and damaging his organs. It completely bypassed his enhanced skin.

"Now, now. Let's not get too hasty. My experiment isn't over." The masked man spoke. His voice had an odd echoing quality to it, like it was bouncing down a metal hallway. "You shrouded are all so hasty, so eager to fight. Honestly, would it hurt you to pay attention, do a little reconnaissance every once in a while? Your lack of forethought is frustrating."

Caeden leaped to his feet. "Whoever you are, this whole plan is a failure. All the other revolutionaries are being routed as we speak. I don't even know what you hoped to accomplish here. What you're doing is just going to make the Central Council take notice. They'll tear the Starry Sea apart to hunt down every last one of you."

The metal mask turned to look at him for the first time, staring blankly for several long seconds. Then the man burst into raucous laughter, doubling over and shaking. "Ha! Oh, my dear boy. You've hit it in one! That was impressive! Indeed, this little publicity stunt will draw the attention of the truly powerful. Not just here, mind you. But from every corner of the Starry Sea. All the shrouded kings of the ten thousand empires on their dusty thrones and even the Fire King himself will have to acknowledge this!"

Caeden lowered his sword, confused. "I don't get it. What do you think that will accomplish? The hatred and disdain for the unshrouded will only increase. There's no way the Revolution will ever succeed in killing all shrouded. It's impossible. You're just killing people and making life harder for everyone."

The man clapped his hands together before leaning toward Caeden. "Want to know a secret?"

Before Caeden could answer, there was a deep gonging sound from behind him to his left. Caeden turned to see one of the teachers sprawled on the floor by one of the generators, much as he had been moments ago.

"Ahh, I'm sorry, gentleman, ladies. I should have mentioned. All the generators in this room, as well as the Anti-aura field generator here with me," The man gestured behind himself to a small black obelisk that was stuck to the floor. "Are protected by my physical repulsion fields. They are impenetrable to direct attacks. Of course, if you had your auras, you could attack right through them, but you can't, now can you?" he chuckled. "Now, where was I? Oh yes! Secret time."

He turned back to Caeden, leaning in once more. "No one knows, but it was all a lie!"

"What?"

The man spun, moving over to the obelisk, and leaning against it. "Oh, those poor saps. So desperate for a way out, a way to protect their families." He shrugged. "Where else to find a willing workforce that wasn't concerned with breaking the law? These boys don't grow on trees, you know!"

He gestured toward the machine-men.

"Decades of research and development, fight there! It took me ages to perfect them." He sighed fondly, like a man looking at a believed child.

"... It's you." The fact dawned on Caeden. "You're the man who made them. You're the one who Kevin talked about!"

"Who's Kevin? But yes, I designed my lovely Ethermen. They make for such effective, reliable weapons! Do let the Central Council know that bidding will open up in about half a year's time. Get it while supplies last!" He laughed.

"What are you talking about?" Caeden asked, a horrible suspicion forming in his mind. "It sounds like-"

"Yes, yes! Catch up, my boy!" The masked man interrupted. "I formed the Revolution to access the resources necessary to create my weapons of war. This entire world runs on war, you know. The shrouded never stop fighting, never stop killing each other. It's a massive business ripe for disruption. I just needed to get a proper product line and then get the word out! A brilliant plan, if I do say so myself!" he chuckled smugly.

"So," Caeden clenched his hands. Forged Infinity reverted back to its hilt form unbidden.

The masked man stood up ramrod straight, staring at Caeden's hand. "Wait, that weapon…But I sent-"

"You caused all this suffering," Caeden wasn't listening, "All this death, killed thousands of people, preyed on the last hopes of countless others. All for a FUCKING SALES PITCH!"

Caeden jammed his hands down, activating every button on Forged Infinity at once.

Activating final enhancements. Standby for 009.