They bolted inside the stairwell, not wanting to see what would be waiting for them outside. The instant both of them were through the doorway, it closed behind them, sections rolling out from the walls to fill the gap with a hiss. They were trapped in darkness for only a moment when the stairway lit up. There were lights recessed into the walls that reminded Caeden of the ether-based lighting in the War God. In fact, the entire metallic stairwell reminded him of the War God. If he had to pick out something that distinguished them, it would be that this stairwell looked much more refined.

"Well, that was certainly a trip! Man, where are we? I've never seen anything like this! And it's in the middle of nowhere. So weird!" Erik immediately rebounded from their fall, and subsequent escape from a no-doubt violent death into an unknown structure with the same positivity Caeden had come to expect in the short time he had known the guy.

"I have no idea. Right now, I want to know how to get out of here without instantly being attacked by monsters. Then we need to figure out how to signal the War God that we are still alive. If they haven't already left." Caeden sighed. "This whole thing is fucked."

"Oh, right." Erik's smile dropped. "Sorry about getting you caught up in all this."

"Huh? What does any of this have to do with you?" Erik had been nothing but helpful.

"Well, you see…" Erik looked like he was about to bare his soul. "...I have horrible luck."

"..." Caeden stared at his fellow student. "...What?"

"I have really bad luck. Like, magically bad." Erik repeated.

"...You. HA! Hahahaha!" Caeden couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I must have bad luck too. This is the third time I almost got blown up in two days!"

"Oh, that happened to me too! But it was four times on the same day. And I guess being hit with an exploding suicide ant corpse is kinda the same? So five." Erik smiled, ticking through the explosions, "The first one was supposed to be an inactive steam vent. The next two were some kind of ether. The first one got hit with a rock and set off the other. Then the fourth was a dust explosion. Did you know if you get a bunch of fine particles in a small space and light it on fire, it explodes? Crazy, right?"

"T-that must have been some day." Caeden was stunned. But that didn't really mean he had-

"Oh, not really. My record is six." Erik interrupted Caeden's internal justifications.

"Six what?"

"Explosions. In a day. Although arguably one of those was several, so I'm not sure how to count it. But they all happened at once, so I just call it one to keep it simple." Erik shrugged. "Otherwise, it gets hard to keep track."

"...Keep. Track?" Caeden wasn't sure he wanted an answer.

"Of the times I should've died! My record is 37! That was a wild day." Erik chuckled. "Man, who knew chickens could be so violent?"

"Chickens?" Caeden echoed incredulously.

"I know, right? But man, if you get a few hundred together, they can get mighty violent. And their beaks are sharp." Erik rubbed at his arm as if remembering the bird pecking at him. "That hurt."

"Ok, so you're unlucky," Caeden wasn't sure what else accounted for Erik's nonchalance, "Are you seriously apologizing to me for your bad luck?"

"Of course. You got caught up in this mess 'cause I decided to hang out with you for a few minutes." Erik's face was dead serious.

Caeden shook his head. "I'm not even going to touch that. Look, I don't blame you at all, so let's just leave it there, yeah? We have a lot more to be worried about right now." Caeden looked down the stairwell. "I want to know some more about where we are, hopefully without being blown up again."

"With me around, I wouldn't get your hopes up."

{}

The next couple of hours were spent traveling down the stairwell. It was completely uniform the whole way down, so utterly similar that Caeden lost track of how many floors they descended. Every few floors, there would be a door, but they were all locked. More than that, Caeden couldn't pass his shroud through the walls. It was an eerie sensation, like the walls were shrouded too.

To pass the time, Caeden and Erik traded stories from their childhood. Erik was fascinated by ethersmithing and never tired of Caeden's exhaustive explanations about the various items he had worked on with his uncle. Caeden, in turn, was amazed at how truly ridiculous some of the events Erik had gone through were. It could hardly be described as just bad luck. It was like he was cursed.

"How are you alive?" Caeden asked at one point. All he got back was a shrug.

Those few hours came to an end with a clang and the sound of stomping feet coming from above them. Someone else was in here. Caeden immediately shushed Erik, who had been about to call out. He was skeptical about how friendly people in a secret building in the middle of nowhere would be. Almost immediately, that skepticism was proven correct.

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"Man, I can't believe it missed, though!" A nasally whine came along with the sounds of steps ascending the stairs.

"It didn't miss; we just caught the back of it." A much gruffer, surly voice replied. "I'm telling you, for a first try with unknown ethertech, that's pretty good. Besides, once the tech-heads get that thing fixed, we can just fire it again. That War God isn't going anywhere."

"Damn, you're right. Man, I wish I could see the look on all their smug, shrouded faces when we blow them the fuck up. Haa." Nasally voice sighed in longing. "It sucks that we can't watch them go down."

"Yeah…" Gruff voice's tone matched his partner's. "Still, I'm proud we could be part of this. Who would imagine, a couple of nobodies like us, in some super ancient secret magic bunker, shooting death lasers at the mighty shrouded."

"I'm so glad the Revolution accepted us." Nasally voice sounded genuinely choked up. "It feels good to make a difference, you know?"

"One dead shroud at a time, right?"

"Yeah."

The whole time the two had been carrying on their conversation, Caeden and Erik had been creeping along up the stairs behind them. A few flights down. They did their best to remain quiet, but the revolutionaries were so engrossed in their conversation that they needn't have bothered. By the time they were done talking, they had already arrived at their destination. Caeden could hear the sound of the door opening above them.

"Can you hold it open, just a crack?" Caeden whispered.

"I'll try." Erik's face scrunched up in concentration. "Go. Quick."

Caeden rushed up the last flight as quietly as he could, not wanting to strain Erik's control. Or risk them being locked into the stairwell again. He made it just in time. He could see small fragments of a white shroud connecting the outside of the door to the floor, holding it open a scant few inches. They began to dematerialize even as he looked.

Sliding the last few inches, Caeden managed to poke a finger into the gap. The dive and slide caused the stairwell to let out a clang, and he held his breath for a long few moments, but he couldn't hear any approaching footsteps. Carefully, Caeden got back to his feet and peeked through the doorway.

The other side opened into a large room with high ceilings and several more doors coming off of it. In the middle of the room were objects covered in white sheets. The strange shapes underneath gave him no clue as to what they were hiding. Not seeing the two men, Caeden assumed they must have continued on through one of the doors.

"What is it?" Caeden just gestured for Erik to take a look. After a moment, he glanced at Caeden before shrugging and opening the door. Caeden felt like he should object, but he couldn't think of a good reason.

They both moved into the room, waiting for someone to jump out at them. Both of them had realized from their overheard conversation that they were essentially in enemy territory. It sounded like anyone else they met here would happily kill them. Plus, both of them were almost empty on their shrouds. The few hours they had been in here had been enough to regain some of their reserves but not nearly their full capacity. Both of them were very close to being normal people.

Erik peeked under one of the sheets in the center of the room before waving his hands at Caeden. Taking a look himself, Caeden saw things that resembled larger and more elaborate versions of some of his own ether forging equipment. Curious, Caeden quickly took a look under the other sheets, finding similar results. It was like someone took everything he used for handling ether and added several hundred years of technological progress. There was even one sheet that covered something very similar to an ether engine.

"I thought the one guy said this place was ancient. All this is super advanced. Are they squatting?" Caeden felt like he was catching a glimpse at the future of ethertech. It just didn't match with the description the revolutionary had given. Nothing about this place felt old. On the contrary, it was like everything came from some distant future.

He was pulled from his musings by Erik once again waving him over, this time from one of the doors. He had it opened a crack, and whatever he had seen had him excited. Caeden suddenly felt like Erik might have been correct. Hanging out with him was going to get Caeden killed. Since when was poking your nose into a random room in a building occupied by people positively excited to kill you a good idea?

The door was already open, though, so he might as well take a look. Seeing what was in the room, Caeden could understand Erik's excitement. Everything he had seen so far felt vaguely familiar, just better. Inside that room, there was something entirely different. It had a humanoid shape, but only the broad strokes. Four limbs, a head. Outside of that, its construction was similar to many ethertech devices Caeden had seen on the War God. It was some kind of ethertech warrior!

Caeden couldn't help but step into the room. It was just standing there in the middle, completely inert. Plus, he was curious to see what he could glean from such an amazing sight. How was it made? What kind of metals and ether infusions were used in its construction?

This was a mistake.

"Intruder, vacate the premises immediately," A grinding, metallic voice echoed from the metal warrior. Various ether crystals buried throughout the plates and struts of its body began to glow. "This area is off-limits. Leave or be annihilated. Repeat; this area is off-limits. Leave or be annihilated."

"Oh, shit!" Caeden sprinted back toward the door, not interested in seeing what the metal man could do. He almost made it.

Caeden still had his lump of unformed metal with him. It had stuck to his body all through the trip down to the rock pillar, and since it was weightless to him, Caeden saw no reason to leave it behind. He had stuck it to his back, so it was out of the way. That is what saved him.

Outside of Caeden's sight, the second the metal warrior finished its speech, it raised one of its limbs. Sections of the arm folded back, with more parts rapidly unfolding out from within in a manner that was physically impossible. In moments, a large weapon had formed on that arm. Just before Caeden raced through the open doorway, the end of the weapon glowed with a blackish-red light, and a beam of energy the size of a can shot right into Caeden's back.

Rebounding off his shield at a wild angle, the beam carved into the wall of the structure, digging a groove into it. It also shot Caeden across the room, ass over heel, slamming into a pile of the equipment in the previous room with a massive crash.

A door slammed open before Caeden could even get to his feet.

"We've got intruders!"