For all that they’d acknowledged that force wasn’t likely to get them through their current problems, that wasn’t how their initial attempts went. Caeden and Lily started planning, they found themselves falling into a discussion of all the methods of direct force that they could use.

It was slightly disturbing, on a certain level. Quickly, they were forced to realize that most everything they’d done over the last few years, not including the time spent in the Forge, had been some variety of violence. Even leading the Forged back at the Academy had mostly involved fighting.

Now, they continued to run into walls that their current level of force couldn’t overcome. And it all stemmed from the unexpected difficulties that arose when facing shrouded Ethermen. For some reason, neither Caeden nor Lily had conceived of the idea. Worse, the practical situation seemed less ideal than even the concept would indicate.

Ethermen were durable and powerful, at a base. Adding a shroud on top raised those basic facets to nigh incomparable highs. Comparatively, both Cat and Lily noted that the Ethermen’s ability to actually use the shrouds themselves was weak. Weaker than even the most unskilled shrouded. They simply threw around clumps of power without an ounce of finesse. Similarly, their adaptability and inventiveness was nonexistent. Even worse than most Ethermen, and definitely less than the most advanced units the founder had thrown at them.

But those weaknesses didn’t matter. When the opponent had raw power, numbers, and durability on their side, they didn’t need a sophisticated strategy to win. They could just keep throwing out haymakers over and over and ignoring any counters that connected with their unreasonable resilience.

They even tested it. Lily had the presence of mind to bring one of her subdued opponents with her, bundled in a big chunk of super-dense ice. Letting it out, the shrouded Etherman healed in record time, the speed uncomfortably close to Erik’s recovery rate. It was still several steps slower, but undeniably orders of magnitude faster than anyone else on the team.

Worse, none of their own forces could stand up to the thing. If they included Cat’s undead and the Bladeborne, the Ethermen’s numerical superiority could be totally crushed. But neither of those two groups had more than a handful of standout fighters that could challenge a shrouded Etherman. But those were the champions, the very best of the best. The rest would almost be more of a liability than any kind of benefit.

That was the reality they faced. And the point at which their discussion shifted to what they could do outside of a direct confrontation. That led to reflecting on what they knew about their situation outside the shrouded Ethermen. And that was the path that finally bore fruit.

Throughout the course of several conversations with Travis and Dave, they managed to solidify their image of the founder as a person. Understanding his mentality was critical to coming up with a less direct method of handling him.

They’d already figured out that he was a genius, socially isolated, narcissistic, and prone to overlooking his own lacking qualities. That was a gap they could exploit. Similarly, conversations with Travis revealed that the founder had a voracious appetite for new ether and ethertech. There was a massive competitive streak in the man when he encountered ethertech he hadn’t invented himself. Some part of him seemed to find it a challenge to his identity as the foremost authority on the topic. That supremacy seemed to be a core component of his personality.

So, what did he want? Travis had revealed his broader plans, triggering a mass war scenario focused around advanced ethertech so he could corner the market and gain unfathomable amounts of wealth and influence. Ultimately, a rather mundane desire. But also not a helpful one to them. There was no meaningful way they could manipulate that desire into an advantage, as it was too broad.

Instead, they focused on a more actionable desire. The founder had gone out of his way to steal one of Caeden’s Entrance Blades. From what Travis had said, it was apparent that the founder had his competitiveness piqued by the unknown ethertech involved. Caeden could assume that he was also immensely frustrated after two weeks of trying and failing to understand the Entrance Blade’s principals.

How did he know that the founder hadn’t figured out his ethertech? Besides the fact that he could still feel the stolen blade, and the founder hadn’t made any substantial changes to it, Caeden was aware of something that the founder couldn’t have possibly accounted for. Namely, the existence of the Blade Forge. The Entrance Blades were based around the unique features of his shroud and the attached domain. To which the founder did not have access.

With that frustration and the founder’s lacking knowledge about the nature of the Forge in mind, a plan emerged. Thinking about it, Caeden and Lily came to a revelation that had eluded them. Namely, the founder would not know about Caeden’s abilities in the Forge, or the time dilation. So, he’d be expecting them to be weakened by their Embodiments for a significant amount of time.

If they wanted to go for a direct assault, that information would make an immediate assault the right choice. After all, they’d have the element of surprise. But they still had to deal with the shrouded Ethermen either way, and they didn’t even know where the founder was.

Obviously, Caeden could find his way to the Entrance Blade that was stolen, but they didn’t actually have any guarantees that the founder would be nearby. And that still involved navigating through the island facility, which was a time-consuming prospect. And time would eliminate the advantage of surprise faster than they could abuse it.

So, a non-violent solution. And so they planned their feigned weakness. The founder’s narcissism would make him predisposed to assume stupidity on their part, and his competitiveness would make him more likely than not to want to bring them in alive, to reveal the secrets of the Entrance Blades to him.

There was a concern that he’d see through the ruse, or find everyone other than Caeden not worth keeping alive. But if that had happened, they could just reveal their true strength. Despite their less than stellar prospects of suppressing an army of shrouded Ethermen, everyone was confident that they could flee back to the Forge if push came to shove.

Ultimately, it was a risky plan, but one that seemed like it had an actual chance as success, rather than a direct attack, which seemed like a waste of their time. Erik was the one most vocally against it, but that was because he found the idea of being captured abhorrent. Being pinned down against his will was basically Erik’s worst fear.

Now, that plan was playing out with little difficulty. They spent a good amount of time in the Forge prepping what they thought they’d need, like the communicators. It was enough time to sell their recovery as reasonable, and thus beneath suspicion. But not so long that their weakness seemed contrived. And of course they fought the inevitable ambush, both to test how they’d do in a real fight, and to sell the lie further.

Overall, everything was going swimmingly. Erik’s position ended up being…Less than ideal. He fought harder than everyone else on purpose, as he was the only one that hadn’t used an Embodiment. But it seemed that he’d spooked their opponent, seeing as he was shoved into a box. That wasn’t much fun for him, but ultimately acceptable.

The shrouded Ethermen were, as expected, taking them right where they wanted to go in record time and without a single confrontation. That alone made this little gambit worth it, considering all of them could break free of the current situation easily. A free moment could see Caeden putting up another Entrance Blade, and they’d be able to work from an untouchable position. After all, any attempt to invade the Forge would go laughably badly for the invader.

Their journey to reach the heart of the island made Caeden continually more and more glad that they’d taken this route. As they passed more and more switchbacks and massive blast doors built from unfamiliar materials, he couldn’t help but imagine how much of a pain navigation would have been if they’d forced the issue. No doubt none of these doors would have been conveniently open for them. And the journey still took almost an hour, even with all impediments removed, and in the hands of those who knew exactly where they were going.

But Caeden felt the stolen Entrance Blade growing closer and closer, so they were obviously heading to at least one of their goals, and not somewhere else entirely, which was a possibility. But it made sense for the founder to take them to the thing he wanted them to explain. After all, if they started lying then he could immediately test their words and punish them accordingly. It was just more economical.

And no doubt the founder’s narcissism made it difficult for him to imagine the possible negatives to taking known enemies into the heart of his operation. A fact that was proven as they approached and Cat spoke up.

“I can see Gramps on the soul plane. He’s right where we’re heading, as far as I can tell.”

Caeden mentally sighed. Of course he would be. Caeden and Lily had hypothesized that the reason Damon was abducted and not killed was his ability to physically traverse the soul plane. The founder seemed especially interested in spatial and planar travel. Not surprising, considering he’d obviously encountered a CMS, if his manipulation of the metaphysical chains that held the Pillar in their universe was any indication.

Using them for teleportation was crude and ill-conceived, but the founder could hardly be blamed. He didn’t have the same frame of reference that Caeden did after meeting the researcher. Every other atrocity he’d committed, Caeden planned to hold him responsible for. But messing with the CMS was not really his fault.

“Ah, finally, my prizes have arrived. You all gave me quite the run-around! I didn’t expect you to follow me back to my base, as that should’ve been impossible. We’re going to discuss how exactly you did that. Among other things.” The voice rang out from the hall around them.

Caeden was surprised, as they were still a bit of distance from his Entrance Blade. More than that, the founder spoke as if he knew they were actually awake. But then the voice kept rambling on about how annoying they’d been, and how much they would regret their decision to come here, and Caeden realized the truth.

The man didn’t care that they couldn’t hear him. He just liked the sound of his own voice and wanted to gloat. That actually had Caeden letting out an internal sigh of relief. This behavior was exactly in line with their expectation for him. And the fact that he felt comfortable essentially monologuing to a captive audience indicated that the founder genuinely thought he’d won.

Quickly, a final series of especially robust and reinforced blast doors opened for them. Caeden dearly wished to look around, as he’d assumed they were walking through the founder’s workshop. Or at least, one of them. This island was too large to only have one workspace, especially considering the fact that the founder occupied it all on his own.

Well, along with an army of Ethermen, but they weren’t exactly going about their daily lives and wandering around the place.

Caeden wasn’t surprised when he was hoisted up and had his arms and legs locked into restraints. He was equally unsurprised, but a fair bit more annoyed, when a sharp electrical current was run through his body. He took this as a sign that their host wanted him to wake up.

At this point, he didn’t bother to sell anything. His eyes snapped open, and he took in the space around them. Just as he’d expected, it was a workspace, with many control surfaces, partially assembled machinery, and other bits and bobs. But there was also a massive ether engine assembly at the far side of the massive space, which was likely almost a mile in width and length. More like a vehicle hangar on a War God ethership than a workspace. The suppression field generator was right next to the engine.

Much closer at hand, there were four things of note. A control panel that, at a glance, seemed to be tied into the entire island, a cage holding Damon Vestigious, Caeden’s missing Entrance Blade, and the founder. The man wore matte black armor across his whole body, with a featureless flat faceplate that hid everything. Even his shape was muted under the layers of protection.

Paranoid. Caeden thought. Paranoid and trying to pretend to himself that he’s not.

Hence, the constant bravado.

“Hello, annoyances. I think it’s time we had a proper chat. You have some information I’d be…Deeply…Interested in.” Even without seeing it, Caeden could tell the man was smiling.