Kaiser of the New World

It was nearly time.

A whole thirty sleeps after he had gotten trapped in this cell by Anastasia.

What was meant to have been a horrible experience where he got tortured and starved by a deranged Queen... actually ended up being pretty nice.

If he were to overlook the two injections he had been given as Anastasia didn't bother visiting him again after sleep fifteen, it had been really peaceful.

He got fed a nice stir-fry by his new ally, Cecilia. She also kept him company every sleep, talking to him, keeping him entertained and teaching him about various things that while they may not be useful, they were fun to learn.

Honestly, Cecilia, while she may have seemed like she only cared about Kai for the purpose of her mission, she was actually much kinder than she let on.

She got flustered way too easily, her mood constantly changed depending on what Kai said, she slowly adapted to Remy's presence over the last fifteen sleeps, showing she did make an active attempt to better herself, she even started telling Kai things that she herself liked, like baking.

In return, Kai had also told her about things that he liked, like cars and video games. He also went on about his old dog for quite a while on sleep twenty, but he ended up getting lucky soon after.

Because Umbra ended up waking up on sleep twenty-two.

As soon as she emerged from Kai's shadow, she started squealing and licking his face, which Kai could do nothing to resist as he was still chained up. It's not like he actually wanted to resist though, the moment was nice.

It was only after about a minute, when Kai saw Cecilia's horrified expression did he realise that he had never actually told her about the wolf that was hibernating in his shadow.

It ended up making a funny story though. Remy was equally as surprised when Umbra popped out, they ended up dashing out of the cell and only coming back after Kai assured them that Umbra would not eat them.

After that, things became a little more peaceful. Kai continued to diligently do his Soul Flame practice, only now he was doing it on three different sources, himself, Umbra, and Remy.

Splitting it up like that did make it a lot harder, but it also showed better results as now he could set up a flame around himself in a little less than a minute, a thirty second improvement in the last sixteen sleeps.

Kai was curious as to what Soul Flame would be like once he got the collar off, if it had improved so much while it was being limited massively, then what would happen once that limiter was removed?

Statshifting also came along incredibly well. Over the last sixteen sleeps, Kai sacrificed a lot of sleep in favour of training even more. It was hard in the beginning, but it reminded him of the last few days he spent in the Dome, where he gave up sleep in order to percect his stats before the war.

By now, Kai had come incredibly close to reaching his goal, but only time would tell how effective all of this training had been.

He also discovered a neat little trick to do with Statshifting that would be incredibly useful in the future, while it may not be a massive boost by itself, its value was too good to just be overlooked.

But there was one other thing that had happened in the last sixteen sleeps that was so confusing, so shocking and so mind boggling that Kai had no idea what to feel when he felt something inside his soul changing.

The seed in the center of his soul... had sprouted.

A small stem had emerged from the brown body of the seed, a little green sticking out of it. Kai had no idea what had caused it to happen, or if it just happened because half a year had passed, but he still had no idea what the seed actually did.

He innately knew that if he touched it something would happen, but what that something would be... Kai had no way of knowing until he actually touched it, but he wanted to save it for a vital moment incase it was a one time use thing.

He couldn't help but smile when it had sprouted though, even after his death, Failure was still giving Kai freebies.

Overall, his time in the cell had been a lot more productive than it had been torturous. Bar the odd chill whenever Soul Flame was running out, it hadn't actually been that bad. Even the painful injections had ended up being more useful than harming as he was sitting at a 30% boost to all soul related abilities. And to top it all off, his soul seed had soul sprouted.

So now, after all that time had passed, it was finally time for the final meeting to discuss their escape.

Kai, Umbra and Remy all sat inside the cell, while Cecilia was kneeled outside it. This was the team, the dream team. Even though it seemed incredibly weird if you looked at it from an outsiders perspective, he was sure that it would be fine.

An eighteen year old apprentice of some God that people didn't seem to like, a wolf with the blood of two powerful wolves running through her veins, the Third Queen of an entire Subdimension, and a rat that had been hiding to survive practically its entire life.

We're fucke-

"So." Kai sighed as he looked at Cecilia, crossing his arms in the process. "Were you able to find any way for me to get out of the collar?"

Cecilia shook her head sadly, her gaze dropping down to the floor in disappointment.

"I apologise, Sir, but I was unable to figure anything out. I was able to decide on the quickest route to His and Her Majesty's chambers, but I was unable to figure out a way out of the collar."

Kai muttered a silent curse. He really would have to go through with his original plan. He wasn't even sure if his plan would work, or if it was even possible, he had only thought about it once in a brainstorming session, but it had been stuck in his mind ever since. It was incredibly risky, but it seemed like the only way out.

"And what about Petunia, how is she doing?"

Cecilia lifted her gaze up from the floor, a slightly prouder look on her face as she was actually looking forward to answering this question.

"She is being held in one of the maid bedrooms on the first floor. It is rather far from His and Her Majesty's chambers, but it is possible to make it there in a short amount of time.

Although, it is impossible to do it undetected, as between all the maids and guards, one would surely spot us."

Kai nodded along with Cecilia's words. He had known that even if he got out of the collar, the escape process would not be easy. It would take practically everything he possessed and everything he could take advantage of to get out of here, and Kai was damn certain that he would take advantage of anything and everything that he could get his petty little hands on.

But Cecilia's words solidified one other thought in his mind.

They would need a distraction to get out of here.

And Kai had an idea of what they distraction could be, if all went well.

"And what about the teleporter, or portal, or whatever they use?"

Cecilia's eyes dimmed ever so slightly, but she didn't seem too down about this question.

"I was not able to enter His and Her Majesty's chambers in the last thirty da... sleeps. They are extremely on edge, and not happy with each other. Her Majesty keeps insulting him about letting the Second Queen convince him to bid on you, saying that it caused way too much unnecessary trouble.

But they don't expect you to break out any time soon, nor do they think that anything will happen. The portal is still inside their chambers, we just have to reach it before they can do anything to it, if they catch wind of our plan."

Happy with that, Kai moved onto his final question for Cecilia, possibly the hardest one to answer.

"There is a high chance that I die when trying to break out of here, there's no way for me to be certain that it's even possible for me to get out of this collar, so I want you to promise me that even if I die, I want you to take Umbra and Remy, get through that portal and find some sort of happiness, God knows that you need that after what you've gone through."

Cecilia lowered her head as she bit her bottom lip softly, her hands trembling ever so slightly. It took a few moments before she finally responded.

"I'll... try."

Kai chuckled softly. That was the exact same thing he had said to Sofia when she asked him to not die back when Failure was possessing him. Was that really what he sounded like? It didn't really sound that convincing when coming from another person.

"Fine, you do you. Now... It's time to do the final bits of planning."

For the next few minutes, Kai carefully went over every step of his plan with the rest of his team. He gave everyone their roles, made sure they all understood them, and then had them all repeat it back to him.

Of course, all of this was relying on the fact that Kai would actually be able to get out of the collar, but what was hope if not for taking advantage of?

Once the plan was sent, Kai sent Cecilia off to fulfill her role, leaving him with Remy and Umbra. Both of them would have to wait for Kai to get out of the collar before they could do their roles, so all they could do was watch as Kai mentally prepared himself.

"Well, you lot ready?"

Umbra softly rubbed her head against Kai's shoulder, meanwhile Remy weakly clawed at Kai's leg.

"Alright then."

Kai grinned madly as he sat up, getting into position so that he would be able to attempt to escape.

He gave himself a minute to breathe and compose himself, then, after the minute had passed...

Kai put his plan into action.