For a moment, Caeden paused. He hadn’t known what to expect from the sudden shift, only that he was unwilling to allow the founder to run away again. Chasing him down once had been more than enough tension for him. Especially when he had a chance to simply follow.

Following after the artificial island as it dropped into the Starry Sea had been a risk. A big one, possibly. Caeden, in his Embodiment form was a being of pure Ki, just like a monster. The Starry Sea, if given enough time and contact, would have reduced him to nothing.

There were mitigating factors, of course. Mass was still a factor, even with Ki. His absurd size as a hecatoncheires would have made the absorption of his Ki a long process. One from which he could escape by simply undoing his Embodiment. At that point, he’d be in more danger of drowning in the Starry Sea than it ending his existence.

Then there was Father. Caeden was Father, and Father was Caeden. They were the same person. A being split in two, held together by one of them always existing in a space where he was essentially a god, and his decisions defined reality. He didn’t die or collapse back into a single entity merely because he willed it to be so.

How exactly that would affect him dying, they did not know. Presumably, if Caeden died outside the Forge, Father would continue on unaffected, and they could go through the same process of Caeden splitting off from him, completely unaffected. This presumed that Caeden was essentially an avatar of the Blade Forge itself, his shroud and the domain it connected to being the important and anchoring part of their relationship.

The other option was that Caeden’s life sustained the Blade Forge, and his death would instantly destroy it, with Father and all the Bladeborne inside. This…Seemed like the less likely of the two options. A domain was a domain. Just because Caeden’s actions had created a new one didn’t change what Blade Forge was. His death shouldnt affect it at all, just as any other shrouded dying didn’t affect the domain their shroud was connected to.

That being said, Caeden wasn’t too keen on testing that hypothesis. A hypothesis based on an astounding lack of knowledge and more or less playing to by feel. Caeden felt like the Forge would be fine if he died. That did not mean he was going to go cutting his head off to check.

So, Caeden paused. He acknowledged in that moment that he’d made a risky play, maybe a little too risky. But they’d come out the other side just fine, and he had other pressing problems to pay attention to. Namely, the surprising number of powerful monsters surrounding the artificial island.

Unsurprisingly, the island had gone even deeper into the Starry Sea than what they’d seen. Now that it was on land, the island formed a plateau of sorts, some five hundred or so feet tall. Adding to that, Caeden’s considerable height allowed him to see far off into the distance. And even from that height, he saw no hint of the Starry Sea. Even the Pillar seemed dimmer and more distant than he’d ever experienced.

They were deep, deep into the continents. And that meant more monsters, and more powerful monsters. Which explained the dozen different behemoths surrounding the artificial island. Every single one was shorter than Caeden’s hecatoncheires form, but he could feel that they didn’t lack in power, not any of them.

Caeden honestly thought this was a stupid gamble on the part of the founder. He’d placed his own refuge in equal danger just by taking them all here, to what seemed to be the heart of a far off continent. There was a reason why these places were never colonized. The monsters that formed here could give even great shrouded trouble in a fight. They probably wouldn’t win, but they could make these places more trouble than they were worth. And that was talking about just one of the dozen monsters directly around the island.

By taking them here, the founder was blindly hoping that the monsters would kill him and his friends before turning their attention toward the island. Something that didn’t make much sense, considering that, even despite his massive stature at the moment, the island still offered the bigger target. That, or he thought his ethertech could handle this many extremely powerful monsters better than they could. Based on everything he’d seen, Caeden doubted that was true, even if it was what the founder believed.

And that was when Caeden found out why the founder had made such a stupid move. A surge of Ki rushed out from inside the island as a wave until it reached the surface. There, a familiar white light formed beneath Caeden’s massive feet before picking him up and launching him into the air. Surprised but unharmed, Caeden landed on top of the new energy dome with a deep Boom.

Snorting from ten of his faces, Caeden tapped a few fingers against the barrier, testing it. Dense, and layered. That was his initial impression. A last line of defense. And a much more sensible explanation for why they’d changed locations. This shield would have been consumed and invalidated by the Starry Sea. The founder hoped to trap them outside this shell with monsters to deal with them, while he stayed nice and cozy inside his base.

Fortunately, he’d been a bit too slow in executing his plan. Because the rest of Caeden’s team was already inside the island.

That still left Caeden out here, having to deal with the monsters. He doubted they’d kindly stand by while he worked his way through this shield, after all. In any other circumstances, Caeden might have been worried. But right now, he was uniquely equipped to handle this.

Looking around, Caeden could see several monsters rapidly recovering from the surprise of an island sized complex falling out of the sky in front of them. And universally, their attention was turning to him. With a small leap, Caeden hopped off the shield. It wasn’t his current problem, and he trusted his friends to handle whatever was going on inside.

Instead, he pulled on the Forge.

Immediately, massive blades began to form around him, sized for his body. Swords, axes, knives, spears, saws, hatchets, halberds, and more. All of them were infused with their own unique blend of ether, swirling with power. Weapons of his size, forged properly, could hold truly monstrous amounts of power. With a hundred hands, he grabbed them from the air.

“IV’E NEVER USED THIS FORM IN A TRUE BATTLE BEFORE.” Caeden’s words rumbled out of a dozen mouths. “PERHAPS THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO LEARN.”

One of the monsters, a metallic gorilla with bat wings and the lightning of an entire storm swirling around his fists, seemed to take offense to Caeden’s voices. It hooted a challenge, rising up onto two legs and beating its chest, causing thunder to echo out. Caeden didn’t answer, merely raising a dozen weapons in its direction.

It charged, and more followed.

{}

Looking up through the gap Caeden had made in the surface of the island, Lily could see the white energy that had formed, separating them from the rest of the continent they’d landed on. Part of her was frustrated, being cut off from Caeden. But she knew that he’d manage to get through to them one way or another. They certainly weren't going to be breaking out to him. Mostly because it was a waste of time.

“He’s scrambling.” Lily muttered.

Next to her, Dave nodded sharply. “Definitely. I don’t think he expected our arrival, or the violence that came with it. Caeden’s attack was likely far outside his expectations.”

“So, what are we supposed to do?” Cat asked.

“Press the advantage.” Dave stated decisively. “The actions of the founder so far imply a tactically unsound individual that makes up for his deficiencies with technical superiority and deceit. I don’t know if he’s truly incapable of tactical thinking or simply doesn’t apply himself in that direction, but all his actions have been nothing more than the military equivalent of a sleight-of-hand trick. He lacks imagination or flexibility”

Lily had been thinking along the same lines, though in broader terms. She’d also noticed that the founder’s response to every problem appeared to be simply throwing ever more powerful weapons at it, with little subtlety or finesse. He’d consistently used the same strategy to achieve his goals, attacking with a strong force while achieving his objective in the confusion. Dave was right, it wasn’t exactly a complicated process.

“Cool, he’s not a battle savant, what’s that do for us? He’s still got a lot of stuff down here that could hit pretty hard, I’m guessing.” Cat seemed extremely unimpressed with their thinking. “Just because he only ever relies on brute force doesn’t make the hits hurt any less.”

“Cat, unless you haven’t been paying attention, you’d know that this place doesn’t have any humans in it except for the founder and possibly your grandfather. We don’t need to be gentle with it.” Lily laughed. They’d had to be careful the entire time they were on Baserock, even as the situation devolved further and further, just to avoid collateral damage. All the time spent training in the Forge. And they’d been forced to wear kid gloves in every fight since. Except for the fight with the experimental Ethermen, but that one had gotten out of hand.

“Oh!” Suddenly, her expression completely shifted.

{}

The founder looked out over the series of CV screens, muttering in a constant drone. Damon was, to his continued surprise, no longer in a cage. Rather, the founder had fitted him with a band of metal around his arm that completely suppressed his shroud. A fact so chilling Damon still did his best to ignore it, despite the constant reminder every time he unconsciously reached within himself, only to be rebuffed.

This man, the same one that had spoken through the Etherman that captured him, seemed to have a constant desire to impress and awe others. That was the only explanation Damon could entertain as to why he continued to tell Damon anything and everything about what he was doing. It was…arrogant.

That was truly the best descriptor. This man seemed to have very little ability to conceive of losing and a disturbingly short memory whenever things didn’t go his way. Indeed, he’d been annoyed and angered when Damon’s granddaughter and her team managed to pin him in an inconvenient position, barely escaping with his prizes.

But less than a day later after much grumbling and stomping about, it was never brought up again. Damon could hardly imagine how a man so petty and lost in his own version of reality could cause such devastation. Then he would look at the band on his arm, and feel the wall between him and his shroud. And he would remember why.

Power was a funny thing, in Damon’s experience. It could and did come to almost anyone and in many different forms. He’d known many who had it without realizing, and many who thought they had more than they did. As such, power was obviously not something easily measured or understood.

This man had grasped power in a way no one on the Starry Sea had ever done before him. And Damon could only wonder at the hands said power had fallen into. A genius of ethertech, to be sure. But a more unstable man, Damon had rarely seen. Power and insanity rarely resulted in good ends, as attested by all the dead lying on Baserock.

Their current circumstances revealed how that insanity or instability had come to bite back in the end, as it always did. Damon wasn’t sure how they’d done it, but Cat and her team had followed them all the way to the founder’s special super secret hidden base. His own words. He had waxed poetic for nearly an hour at one point, talking about the multitude of difficulties he’d encountered in setting up this false island, hidden in the raging water of the continental Starry Sea.

Damon hid his amusement when they showed up and this arrogant man was left stuttering in confusion.

Of course, he was still powerful, despite his aberrant personality. Caeden’s awe inspiring Embodiment was met with decisive action. The portal and energy shield placed Cat’s team leader in a difficult position. Though the CV screen showing his battle seemed to indicate that the young man was far less outmatched by the monsters around him than Damon would have initially guessed. That form of his was enough to send a shudder down Damon’s spine. The raw Strength…

But Damon’s focus was primarily held by Cat and her friends that had made it inside the island, despite the founder’s best efforts.

Because they were doing far more damage than Damon would have ever believed.