The arrival was anything but subtle, and Founder had assumed his opponents would notice it immediately. The one that should be dead turned and looked toward the wall, rainbow light spilling from his eyes. Something about the light was slightly alarming, but Founder rid himself of such notions. He knew that these shrouded were powerful. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have pushed him so far.
But he wasn’t about to succumb to base fear like his lessers. He had gained his penultimate goal, a shroud of his own. The only thing left was the last step. But that was still a distant dream, unless… But now wasn’t the time to worry about such things. Though Founder did throw out a small loop of fate just in case.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The dead one spoke up. Founder really would need to figure out how exactly he’d survived the soul detonation. He was rather proud of that failsafe. It was designed for exactly this scenario, if one of his failed experiments ever came calling, looking for revenge. That it had been subverted was surprising and mildly concerning. Founder had done a lot of experiments. He wasn’t interested in all of them coming to find him, interrupting his research.
“What, what was that?” One of the females asked. The one with the ice and light powers.
“It’s Mining Station 003. The whole damn mountain. He brought it here, which means…” His eyes bled more rainbow light. “Yup, he somehow managed to loosen the sword again. It’s going to pop out in a second, which means we need to get all those people out of town.”
Founder was greatly enthused at the usefulness of shroud auras. He was able to observe all that was happening outside his reliquary without the nuisances noticing. In fact, the broad scope of his new senses meant that he could understand everything far easier than before.
The not-dead one flicked his hand, producing a metal band that Founder had noticed all of them wearing with a flex of aura. The power Founder could feel from his shroud seemed far more impressive than the others. There was a quality to it that he couldn’t explain.
The metal band was tossed over to Damon Vestigious. Founder actually knew who this one was. Not just because he’d been pulling readings on the soul plane from the man for weeks now, but because Founder had always been interested in having the powerful shrouded as a test subject, so he’d bother to learn the man’s name.
“Here, that’ll let you use your aura even inside the suppression field. I’ll need your help with the evacuation. I’ll try to suppress the Magma Titan before it resurrects, but my senses are telling me that we’re past the point of no return. It’s coming back, we’re just going to have to deal with it.”
“A Magma Titan?” Damon took the band without concern, but he seemed worried upon hearing about the monster they faced. And he rightly should. Even Founder was surprised to hear what exactly he’d called over. He’d only looked at the karmic links, not the monster itself, which was an oversight.
“I don’t know what we can do about something like that.” Damon frowned heavily. “They’re on the high end of power for what I can fight, but that’s not the problem.”
“Yeah, they’re immortal. I know.” The one with the rainbow eyes sighed. “This one has had a town sitting on it for millennia with a sword made of what I’m now realizing is incredibly dense Ki stabbed into it. It’s a material that has the same properties as the Starry Sea itself, sapping all Ki out of everything it touches. But the sword’s coming out.”
“Well, shit.” Damon cracked his knuckles. “Let’s get to work.”
A spectral steed rose up beneath him, radiating an impressive amount of power to Founder’s new senses. It was soon followed by a flood of ghosts, all of them of similar or even greater potency. A howling swarm of the dead raged out of the gaping hole that had been made in the workroom wall at some point while Founder was gaining his shroud.
“Can you guys deal with the founder?” Rainbow Eyes spoke to the remaining shrouded. “I think he’s finished cooking finally. Wouldn’t be surprised if he popped out any minute. And if he doesn’t, the soul energies around that bed thing have died off. I think Cat could pop it open pretty easily.”
The undead summoner turned and looked, seemingly right at Founder. “Huh, you’re right. It’s pretty sparse now, nothing like before. Did he seriously call a whole fucking mountain here though?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Eyes scoffed. “I don’t think he knew exactly what he was doing though. He could have just portalled the core over here and the Magma Titan would have formed a new body just fine.”
Founder raised an eyebrow at that. He could have…? But no, this was better, he assured himself. Bringing the whole mountain meant that they needed to save the townspeople he’d apparently dragged along. He hadn’t made a mistake at all. Rather, it seemed that the rainbow-eyed boy underestimated his genius, failing to account for the lives he’d pulled into this fight. Of course.
“He's a brand-new shrouded.” The other young man spoke up, cracking his knuckles ominously. An almost palpable sense of bloodlust rolled off him. “We’ll do just fine. Plus, he owes me some pain for messing up my entire life.”
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Founder suddenly felt that it would be a wonderful idea to keep that one as far away from him as possible. Though it seemed that they weren’t about to give him much of a choice in a scant few moments. Could they actually break through his reliquary? It was true that the potent soul forces funneled through its walls during his transformation would have largely dispersed.
But it was no simple thing to break through the materials even without a torrent of soul matter running through them. After all, said materials had to be strong enough to withstand the forces that had transformed his soul in the first place. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that Founder currently sat in the single most well-secured spot on the Starry Sea. He should be fine, remaining in here while manipulating fate to hinder his opponent’s efforts to battle the Magma Titan until it killed them all.
That was until a fist slammed into his reliquary with a startling amount of force, and Founder felt the energies flowing through the materials dip precipitously. The owner of the fist was the bloodthirsty young man, and a grin that was all teeth stretched across his face as he drew back that fist. It was a mangled mess from the impact, but Founder was positively alarmed upon seeing the damage recover in the blink of an eye.
“Wakey wakey.” The man spoke in a lilted sing-song tone. “It’s time to get up and pay the pound or so of flesh you owe me.”
Founder felt that he might need to look into a way out of his reliquary-
Another blow slammed down, and this time they were accompanied by a deep groan as the wall of the reliquary flexed dangerously. “Knock knock, I’m coming in!”
-sooner rather than later.
{}
Caeden sighed as he followed the seemingly endless flight of ghosts trailing behind Damon’s enthusiastic charge. Flying had become almost insultingly simple after all his changes, he just morphed his Soul Anchor into something that conveyed that property. Then the effects of One Body, One Blade, which was still very much with him, took over, enhancing the effect beyond all previous limits. Caeden could, if he wanted to, fly as fast as most etherships right now.
Of course, an advanced, ancient ethership designed by experts from outside this universe like Hearthhome was even faster still. But he was more than satisfied with his current level of speed. Especially considering that using it was essentially a passive effect, not tapping into the true effects of One Body, One Blade.
If there was one positive about the upcoming battle, it would be that Caeden would have ample opportunity to delve into the abilities of his two new shrouds. But that was also part of the problem. The restrictions. Caeden could only access a scant fraction of the knowledge related to his newest shroud, the one that seemed to be three entire domain-level shrouds combined.
Previously, he’d been content on waiting out the seal. He could feel the information slowly trickling into his mind, and it gave an impression of what was beyond. Vast quantities of knowledge waited on the other side, his new shroud somehow containing powerful insights into fundamental aspects of reality. Insights that he’d possessed, not long ago. But traveling to the Starry Sea seemed to have cut that connection.
Caeden wasn’t even sure why it had happened. Obviously, something about entering a reality outside his control had triggered this response. But he had no idea what exactly was the cause. Even more annoying, Caeden had a sneaking suspicion that some of the information being withheld from him would explain exactly what was happening.
He was sorely tempted to simply return to the Forge, or the domain of his new shroud, and try and create a workaround. But every time he had that thought, a gut instinct told him it wouldn’t work. He trusted the feeling, being able to trace its source back beyond the seal. An echo of the information he’d known telling him that there was no subverting his current predicament.
In fact, Caeden had run through this song and dance the moment he’d left the Forge. He’d immediately noticed the lacking knowledge, and he’d felt the same instinct. At the time, he’d decided to go with it, especially after feeling the slow leak coming through the seal letting him know that the problem was temporary. But he was no longer feeling so patient.
His current sense of urgency stemmed from the enemy he’d be facing. A Magma Titan wasn’t a normal monster, even by the standards of the outer continents. It was a calamity given form, as he’d learned after looking into it following their encounter with its remnant under Mining Station 003. The monster-generated object of a Magma titan was a embryo of sorts that would revive the Titan.
The revival time depended on the Ki density, which was astoundingly thick this far from the Pillar. Enough to practically instantly revive the Titan. The worst part was that the Heartstone doing the reviving was also essentially indestructible. It was a construct of pure and solidified Ki with a profound connection to the ambient Ki. Any damage it would take would heal so quickly as to be immaterial.
The Magma Titan itself was also a step stronger than the ones Caeden had faced when the founder portaled the whole island facility to this continent. He was much stronger now, but his hecatoncheires form was absolutely overwhelming and had been the key factor in those wins. And he couldn’t fight the Magma Titan in that form.
It was a case of bad matchups. His hecatoncheires body was durable, but not enough to resist the heat of the Titan. Meanwhile, the overwhelming power of that form was a moot point, since the Titan could just revive. Caeden could kill it, but he would take damage doing so. Then it would revive, and Caeden would take more damage.
It would be a vicious cycle where compounding damage would eventually end with his death. Or at least the loss of this body, Caeden wasn’t sure what his status was anymore. He hadn’t made Father again for some reason, one that tickled at the seal, proving that the reason was also something withheld from him.
He was pretty sure he wouldn’t die, but the same couldn’t be said for his friends. He had to occupy the Titan for as long as possible, and hope that the seal vanished before he made a mistake. And then he had to hope that the information currently held from him would offer up a solution to his undying living volcano problem. Once more he lamented the fact that the sword in the Heartstone couldn’t be a solution, but his body still contained Ki even after his transformation. The sword would still eat it all and then kill him.
Luckily, there was a bright side to all this. Caeden now had an opportunity to test out all his new abilities against a target that could take the damage. He might not be able to permanently kill the Magma Titan, but he could certainly make it wish he did.