It was obvious once Caeden thought about it. Really, he couldn’t believe it took him decades to come up with the initial idea. In his defense, he was busy toiling away with the Bladeborne, forming the improved Traversal Blades necessary for some of his other, more personal, ideas.

His friends were all exceptional. That much was obvious. Sure, Caeden had helped them along, evolving their shrouds. But each were powerful in their own right. Before he even met her, Lily had a command over formshifting completely disproportionate to where she should have been. Better than basically all of her peers, even those with infusion-type shrouds. All with an aura-type shroud.

Cat, poor Cat. Her domain was literally too powerful for her. It was only through rigorous training and stumbling in the dark that she managed what she did, making spectral soldiers. But even then, she was near the top of the class.

Erik was a miracle personified, somehow surviving impossible odds and living through ridiculous situations. His control over himself and his environment was unparalleled. With only Stitch, Erik had made himself one of the most annoying opponents in the entire Academy. His ability to dodge and deflect was supernatural beyond even the scope of shrouds.

Then there was Asherta, the newest member of the group. She was the only one who Caeden hadn’t used his throne on. Honestly, she didn’t need it. His other friends had fundamental problems with their abilities that Caeden managed to fix with an evolution, but Asherta’s unnatural abilities covered her own gaps. She was physically strong and fast, with ridiculously thick, scaly skin when she wanted it. That alone covered the gaps in her high-cost, high-impact shroud. Age’s slow, power-consuming nature was backed up by her natural abilities.

Honestly, Asherta was the only one with a major gap. She could stand toe to toe with most of the team’s contemporaries, but the rest of them stood head and shoulders above. That was why Caeden took the opportunity, after dropping off the rest of his friends in the Blade Forge, to use an aspect of his new shroud that he hadn’t yet touched.

“This make me strong, like Lily?” Asherta asked.

“Yup. This is a big reason why she got strong.” Caeden nodded. They were back on the Hearthhome. Caeden had sent back the Entrance Blade and discorporated his Incarnation. Father was having a little meet and greet with those in the Forge while Caeden got Asherta squared away.

“I’m going to use my new one since it has less issues. Plus, Blade Forge seems to have taken in some of the draconic essence I have because Noodle bound to me. I’m hoping that will do something with your draconic heritage and help you out.” He stated conversationally, half his mind busy metaphorically peeking over Father’s shoulder to see how the other three were doing. Unsurprisingly, Lily was handling it best. Cat and Erik had no idea what was going on. Their surprise was a balm on his soul after all the crap those two pulled on a regular basis.

Asherta nodded sharply. “Good. Dragons strong. Age weak, no help fight good. Want strong power.”

Caeden nodded. And this was the other half of the reason why he was using Blade Forge rather than Physical Enhancement. Not only was it good for him to leave his second shroud alone, but it was more likely to evolve Asherta’s shroud into something she wanted. Physical Enhancement was more likely to just create a better version of Age. That ability to directly upgrade shrouds was nice, but Blade Forge was better in Ahserta’s case strictly because she didn’t want a direct upgrade to Age.

“I get that. Age is definitely more of a support ability rather than an offensive one. It really doesn’t fit your whole style. You rarely use it in fights except as a high-cost finisher against durable or hard-to-finish opponents.” Caeden said. He and Lily had both noted that Asherta relied far more on her inherent physical abilities than her shroud. Even using physical enhancement or aura manipulation seemed foreign to her. Something they wanted to correct.

“Want to hit hard. Age doesn’t hit, just ‘whoosh’ then they old.” Asherta grumbled. “No fun in fights. Hard to do, can’t do much.”

Caeden nodded. Age was an impactful but highly limited ability. It was so costly for so little effect that it boggled the mind. For the same amount of shroud as Asherta making something a year younger or older, Caeden could sharpen a hundred dull swords with Sharp. But that wasn’t the real issue. Most of Asherta’s problems came down to her using Age uncreatively.

“Well, hopefully, you’ll end up with something that you find more intuitive to use.” He shrugged. It’s not like he actually had any control over what happened. Whatever came out of the evolution was up to chance, as far as he was concerned. “Just don’t forget, make sure to keep Age when it evolves. We still need it.”

Asherta just grunted in response. Caeden was sure she understood; both he and Lily had made it crystal clear that losing Age was non-negotiable. Despite how she talked, Asherta wasn’t stupid. She was still in the process of learning Central Common. That, plus her taciturn manner, made her sound stupid to those who didn’t know her.

“Alright, no reason to draw this out.” Caeden clapped his hands, rubbing them together. “Ready when you are.”

Over the back of his left hand, Caeden’s Blade Forge sigil appeared. A throne of blades with cushions of molten metal that all came together to reflect the shape of a dragon vaguely similar to Noodle, with a long, sinuous body. Asherta copied him, the image of an hourglass with the sands eternally looping between the chambers appearing over her sternum.

Pushing out, Caeden willed his sigil toward Asherta’s at the same time her’s moved toward his. They met in the air between them, the hourglass coming to rest in the seat of the throne. As it had every other time, thick bands of shroud began to flow out of Caeden and into his sigil, though these were the glow orange and red and steely greys of Blade Forge rather than the purple and gold of Physical Enhancement. He could also tell that this evolution felt…better. More stable. Obviously, performing a throne evolution with his fully integrated shroud was better than using Physical Enhancement.

At this point, performing shroud evolutions felt almost routine to Caeden. This was the fourth time, and the mysteries surrounding it were all cleared up. With Blade Forge being fully integrated, he could do this all day and be none the worse for wear. All the penalties that had restricted him were gone.

The blinding light of the evolution steadily decreased, along with the shroud flowing from Caeden. It was over, and Asherta’s sigil had changed. It now looked like a window into a room with rocky walls containing massive piles of valuables. Ether crystals, ethertech, weapons, and armor. All of it gathered in that space.

“Mmm,” Asherta hummed. “Hoard. Dragons gather what makes them strong. Good, can work with this.”

“Really?” Caeden was actually surprised. He had expected something more physical, considering what Blade Forge was. But then again, Blade Forge was a conceptual space, and it seemed like Asherta’s new Hoard was something similar. A place to store and hold things of value. But he was more surprised that Asherta liked her new domain. He thought she wanted a domain that lent itself to direct attacks.

Asherta nodded. “Lots of things can go in Hoard. Show you later. Need to add stuff to it, but lets me do lots.”

Caeden shrugged. “Well, if you’re happy, I’m happy. Now let's get back into the Forge.” He pulled out an Entrance Blade while manifesting his Incarnation.

{}

As Caeden had thought, the answer was obvious. His friends all had excellent talent matched to powerful shrouds that suited them once Asherta’s was evolved. And that meant they were on the fast track to being some of the most powerful shrouded in the world. The only limiter was time.

Now that he had the Blade Forge, he could completely eliminate that limitation. His friends could take as much time as they wanted to get stronger, and all they had to do was spend an instant inside the Forge. Of course, this was cheating. There were rules in the Tournament of Powers against having anyone older than 100 years in the youth tournament. If they wanted to really grow their strength to an unassailable level, it would take longer than that.

Cat’s battle against the Ant shroud had driven home something that Caeden and Lily knew. They weren’t the only special people in this tournament. Far from it. Yes, all of them had exceptional talent, but that didn’t mean there weren’t others on the same level. Not anyone the same age as them, but someone even twenty years older that was dedicated to training could likely match them.

That had nothing to say about the official tournament beyond the youth. If they won, which they aimed to, they would get a slot in the main combat tournament. There were no age restrictions in that one, meaning they’d be facing shrouded with tens of thousands of years with which to hone their abilities.

That was a pipe dream. No one their age would realistically ever be able to fight someone on that level. They’d traveled to the Tournament of Powers knowing that. At the time, they had hoped that a powerful showing in the youth division would be enough.

The Revolution showing up had changed that. Caeden had no idea what they were up to, and it would be borderline impossible to find out. The Revolution were all unshrouded, of which there were nearly a hundred thousand in attendance at the Tournament. They were fulfilling many roles, not just attending. Any of them could be revolutionaries. They were an organization skilled in infiltration, as shown by their near-complete takeover of the Academy’s unshrouded support staff.

Since they didn’t know the Revolution’s goals at the time beyond their overarching desire to start an all-out war, they couldn’t come up with a counter plan. That left the worst possible route. Cow them with raw power. If their team was so overwhelmingly powerful, to an unprecedented and inexplicable degree, it would hopefully be enough of a deterrent to counter whatever influence the Revolution was exerting.

Plus, they had an easy way to cheat. The Tournament enforced the age limit in the youth division by checking participants with a device that confirmed biological age. Normally, a perfect barrier to cheating. Despite the vast variety of shrouds that existed, it was near impossible to fool such a simple and straightforward test. In fact, individually, no one on the team could do it either. But collectively, they managed it.

Obviously, Asherta’s Age shroud was the key. With it, she could regress their physical ages back to any point they desired. But there was a problem. This would trick the scanners, but it would also take away all their memories of the regressed time. Essentially, negating most of their gains.

That was where Cat stepped in. Back when they encountered their first Etherman, the one that had stalked Caeden across the dragon continent, Cat found out that the poor man had suffered soul injuries that limited his ability to interact with his modified body. It was also these injuries that preserved his memory through Asherta’s regression.

The soul acted as a store for the memories of the body, a backup of sorts. Cat could replicate the damage the Etherman had suffered on each of them, letting Asherta regress them before correcting their damaged souls and restoring their control over their bodies. It was only this ludicrous and niche combination of shrouds that could let them bypass the safeguards.

Caeden and Lily briefly contemplated splitting up their training sessions. Increasing their power only to what was necessary to pass the youth tournament before increasing it again for the main event. Likely, it would have allowed them to ignore using Cat and Asherta for age regression. After all, ten years was more than enough time for them to stomp anyone in their group if they spent the whole time training. They had too many inherent advantages not to destroy all challengers under a hundred years.

Ultimately, they decided against it. Their ages were a known quantity. If they showed up to the youth events ten years older than expected, it would be suspicious, to say the least. Plus, if their power suddenly jumped between the youth and main tournaments, that would also draw attention. And none of them were confident in being able to fake weakness during the youth tournament. Rather, they decided to go all out from the beginning.

All that was left to do was train their asses off.