Kaiser of the New World

17 minutes and 37 seconds before the courtyard caved in.

As the tunic wrapped around his body, Kai watched Umbra run up the hall of ice and to the left. She probably had the worst role to fulfill, she practically had to play hide and seek and explore the whole castle without being discovered.

At least she had a rough idea of the area of the castle that she had to search, meanwhile Kai had a guide to lead him to his first destination.

Kai felt some of his Mana replenish when he put some of the stats from the Stat Bead into his Mana stat. He had put majority into Strength and Stamina, but he still had to put some into Mana so it could recover quicker, just in case.

It was only after he was in the hallway did he realise just how spacious this prison of ice actually was.

There were about a dozen cells of ice on either side, all of them empty bar the one Kai had been in. He also realised that his was the only one with a collar in it, and that his cell was at the very end of the hallway.

"Well Remy?" Kai grinned as he placed his hands on his hips, taking a deep breath and enjoying the fresh smell of freedom.

"How about you show me where this little monster that Ezekial has is?"

Remy let out a small squeak before running off, not waiting for Kai to follow.

They led Kai down the hallway and through a wall of pure ice. It wasn't even a painting, just a wall that they could walk through. Kai wondered to himself how many secret rooms could he have missed since thought he could only walk through paintings.

And just like that, Kai had returned to the main areas of the castle.

The familiar red carpet covering the floor, the grim and creepy paintings of Castillian decorating the walls, the dimly lit candles hanging from every side of him.

Yep, this was the place that he was going to destroy.

Following behind Remy, Kai remained completetly silent, as did his rat guide. He looked out a window and spotted that it was night outside, meaning that he had accidently timed his escape perfectly. Most of the maids and servants would all be asleep at this time, making navigating the castle a little easier.

However, just because all the maids would be asleep didn't mean navigating the castle would be that easy.

Just before his rat guide turned a corner, Remy froze. Even their tail, which would always be moving, was completetly still.

Curiously, Kai creeped up behind the rat and peeked his head around the corner, only to catch the figure of someone with blue hair rounding the corner down the hall.

Kai grinned slightly before overtaking Remy.

"We just got a deal buddy, we get a free show of whatevers about to happen."

Remy climbed up Kai's leg, clinging to their tunic before finally reaching their shoulder and lying down. Their role was practically over now, considering that they would be following Ezekial instead of him.

Kai followed behind Ezekial. He was far enough that he would only catch glimpses of the direction that they went. He also made sure not to get to close either, incase Ezekial somehow sensed them.

After tailing Ezekial for a while, Kai peered around another corner, only to see Ezekial walk through a wall.

Panicking slightly, Kai hurried his pace to the wall and poked his head through, only to see a gargantuan stone door semi open.

He couldn't see Ezekial at all, but he could see another thing that was making him panic.

He had no idea how the physics behind it worked, or even how it was possible, but the stone door was swinging shut.

Holding onto Remy with one hand, Kai broke out into a sprint towards the door. With every step he took, the door closed even more, and doing some quick maths in his head, Kai realised that he didn't have enough steps before the door fully closed.

Cursing, Kai ignited himself with Soul Flame and manipulated all of the additional stats to be put into Dexterity, increasing the stat by 231. Previously, he would have only gotten 210 bonus stats, but since he now had an extra 10% in his Bloodline he got an additional 21 bonus stats.

His steps got quicker, each one giving him an extra boost until just before the door fully swung shut, Kai launched himself at the door, gritting his teeth as he bounced against it, angling his body so that he would bounce to the left of the door.

Luckily, the when the door slammed shut it let out an incredibly bang, completetly nullifying the much smaller bang Kai himself had made when he slammed into it.

Stifling a groan, Kai lifted his head and looked around, unsure of what he would see. Remy had long hopped off his shoulder, having safely landed on the inside of the gargantuan door before Kai had to throw himself at it.

Looking around, Kai realised how dreary this place really was. It was a dark, jagged cave, not like the tunnel leading into The Dome. This cave was not as well made, it looked more like a natural structure rather than man made.

There were small stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave, something dripping off of them onto the ground below.

Kai couldn't see Ezekial anywhere, meaning they must have already made their way down the damp tunnel.

Swallowing, Kai let Remy follow behind him as he took Esurient out of his soul. It had been a while since the blade had last been summoned, but they had long gotten over their fatigue after over indulging themselves during their upgrade.

Once Esurient was in his hand in all their ruby glory, Kai activated the ability of the only soul stored inside it.

Instantly, he disappeared from where he was standing, leaving only Remy beside the gargantuan stone door.

The invisibility, even it it was not as strong as that damn wendigo's, was still an incredibly useful ability, and turns out it had even gotten stronger without Kai realising.

Before, he he was only able to remain invisible for a little over five minutes, but after getting the Mana Vein Enhancement and the extra 10% in his Bloodline, he could now remain invisible for a little over sixteen minutes.

The boost in his Bloodline, his Mana Vein Enhancement and the 6% boost he got to his Mana from his C-Rank Soul Core had effectively tripled the time he had in this form, a massive upgrade.

Taking a deep breath, Kai began creeping down the cave, Remy following close behind even though they couldn't actually see their benefactor any more.

After walking for about a minute, Kai saw the end of the cave. It kind of reminded Kai of the Dome, in fact, it practically was a dome.

The end of the cave expanded into a massive open area, even more stalactites hanging from the top, only these ones were much larger. The floor of the open area was also shimmering, making Kai frown.

It was only after he got a little closer did Kai realise why the floor looked so strange.

Thousands upon thousands of rats were scurrying across the ground, these ones much dirtier and much larger than Remy. They had no purpose to their actions, acting like mindless agents of disease.

Reaching the space where the cave grew into the cavern, Kai thought he had accidently lost his invisibility when the rats started running away from him, but no, he was still invisible.

When he kept walking forward, the rats moved to avoid him, forming a perfect circle around his feet.

Still moving forward, Kai saw some semblance of light coming from below him.

The ground of the carven descended slightly, going downwards into a small pit.

Hiding behind a rather large stalagmite that was growing up from the ground.

Peeking his head around the dark rock, Kai-

Gasped and resisted the urge to stumble backwards onto a pile of rats.

Ezekial was standing in the centre of the pit, a small torch in his hand, but that's not what Kai was shocked by.

No, he was shocked by the monstrous beast that was chained beside him.

It had two strong, muscly legs that were chained in a kneeling position by six chains, three on each leg.

It's torso had four enormous arms, two on each side. Its body was incredibly hairy, faintly reminding Kai of a minotaur, only this beast somehow looked exactly like it and nothing like it at the same time. Kai couldn't even count the amount of chains holding onto its body, but there was well over two dozen.

Kai felt a little bitter about it, what was up with all incredibly strong things having four arms? Did that mean the day he got strong he would have to grow two more arms?

It also had what looked like... a twelve pack? Was that even possible?

It had an incredibly long tail, even this was being held down by six chains. The end of its tail was incredibly pointy, Kai had no doubt that it would probably be able to skewer anything without any problem.

It's head had a long snout and it's eyes were dark red, there were eight horns protruding out of its skull, four on each side. There was also a strange marking on its forehead, which Kai couldn't make out from this distance.

There were also hundreds of rats crawling over its body at any given moment, as if protecting it from Ezekial.

Then, Kai locked eyes on the most shocking part of the beasts.

Dozens upon dozens of swords were sticking out of its body. They were sticking out of its legs, its arms, its torso, its back, its feet, its neck, there were even some in its tail.

"Ha... Sword Man... Can you not let me rest, even for a minute."

The beasts eyes flickered, its head lifting slightly to look at Ezekial.

Meanwhile, Kai had to resist the urge to fall backwards again. This was another beast that could talk?

Ezekial glared coldly up at the head of the beast before looking back down at the large chunk of rock in front of it. This chunk of rock also had a sword sticking out of it, only the sword in the rock had a faint glow to it.

"Shut it. You know that I have no sympathy for your kind, you disease ridden pests. It is a mercy that you are still alive, given that we have still not discovered a way to end your miserable existence."

Kai flinched. What was up with Ezekial talking so roughly?

The beast chuckled darkly, the chains hugging its body creaking in the process. The rats reacted, quickly scurrying away from the body of the beast.

"Fine, just get it over with for tonight."

Not responding again, Ezekial grabbed the hilt of the sword in the stone and roughly pulled it out. A flicker of life returned to the beasts eyes, but it was quickly extinguished when it watched Ezekial grab it with both of his hands and close his eyes.

Then, Kai felt the environment around him shifting as Ezekial started glowing, his hair sticking up as all the rats in close proximity started climbing on top of one another to get as far away as they possibly could.

Kai watched in awe as seven multi-coloured flames appeared behind Ezekial's back, each one the same colour as a stat in his soul.

Then, a single word escaped from Ezekial's mouth.

"Equilibrium."