Van seemed to drift between consciousness and a state of half sleep for the past few days as he tried to gather his thoughts and break away from his physical body and enter a pure spiritual state. Once he finally did so, was he able to think clearly, though with still some headaches. The importance of the mind and spirit was not lost on him in these trying times, but thankfully he was able to work something out and consult with Ren about what they should be doing next.

“I’m not sure what we can do if I have to be honest.” Ren said, surprising Van a great deal.

“What do you mean you don’t know what to do!? You always have a scheme or plan or whatever!” Van exclaimed.

“Yes but…” Ren scratched his head. “I just have so much to do since you arrived. That elder sent a shockwave of changes throughout your soul realm, whether it was like a doctor with a scalpel or some jackass with tnt I don’t know which. And the state of your mind doesn’t make things better, I’ve actually never worked out a system in case of such an eventuality where your mental scape and your soul realm were misaligned, or at least I’ve never gotten around to making a fallback plan for such a thing.”

“As it is, I’m pretty busy working with Kassandra to patch everything up. Maybe you should get off your ass and talk with the denizens of your soul realm and ask them what you can do to help?”

Van frowned. “You don’t think I don’t want to?” Asking somewhat angrily. “It's not like I can get around with this massive headache! And I’m asking about what we can do about the situation of me being tied up! Don’t you have a power or whatever that can help me get out of the situation we're in?”

Ren shook his head. “Sorry but I don’t. My best suggestion would be to simply cultivate your soul realm while you still have the time to the best of your ability. Who knows when your captors will awaken you, and for what reason. It’s best that you try and gather what little power you have and grow it as far as you can then sit around and do nothing but wait for the inevitable.”

Van wanted to slap Ren something fierce. As if he didn’t want to get up and do something! With a great sigh he dismissed Ren and started to think about things he could do to grow the power of his soul realm while he still had the chance.

“Ren is useless, I guess it's up to me to figure something out… Hmm… I should call upon Lyn and the others to determine the state of things in the soul realm. Maybe they will also have some suggestions about what to do.”

He sent a mental command towards everyone with some authority in his soulrealm. Within two hours everyone of importance was gathered in his throne room.

Lyn was there, alongside Agnès, Amelia, Xenith, Isa, Gwen, Sela, Elena, Venus, Sena, Bellwin, Leaf, Scarlet, Sini, Ruby, Leiah, who he almost forgot existed… Sephira and the other tamed beasts, Anya, Lyn’s sister who still did not have a name alongside the queen bee that followed Lyn who likewise did not have a name and the black princess who also also did not have a name, Azra, Kassandra, Kella, Karmine, Ashina and her sister, Katalinya and his dopple now turned death knight and finally Priestess Anna who came bringing food.

It was such an odd and novel situation that most of the attendants started making small talk with one another and when suddenly someone brought food an impromptu party was started.

Van let it continue, partially because he enjoyed seeing everyone get along with one another, and partially because all the talking and hustle and bustle was giving him a headache and wanted it to subside first before he addressed everyone. After a while and making sure everyone had arrived he addressed everyone to talk about why he called everyone here.

“Thank you all for coming. I know it’s been a long time since we all were brought together all in one place. And uh, Thank you Annas for bringing the food…” Lifting a glass of Ramshola that was given to him a few minutes prior.

A small clap of applause was had for Anna.

“Now, as much as I like the fact that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves I have called everyone here to discuss the situation I- Um, We have found ourselves in…”

The room went quiet and all eyes were on him. He wished he could have phrased that better since it sounded like he was dragging everyone else in something he felt like was his to blame. But there was no stopping now and everyone was expectantly looking at him.

“As I’m sure you all no doubt know what’s going on by now. I have been kidnapped by someone I trusted as a friend and are being smuggled to who knows where… My body and mind are heavily drugged, just thinking or sounds louder than speaking volume is enough to give me a headache. I don’t know when we will arrive at our destination or what will happen to us, and the seal on my neck that's preventing me from using my magical powers as well as my soul realm does not help. So, with that in mind I have called you all here today to ask you your opinions on what we can do to get ourselves out of this mess.”

“Any suggestions?”

The small hum of conversations began to flow throughout the room as his vessels and subordinates began to discuss what they could do. Lyn was the first to speak up.

“Van, does this mean the reason why my soldiers haven’t returned yet is because they are trapped outside the soul realm?” She asked concernedly.

Van gave a small apologetic downturn of his head. “Yes, I’m afraid I sent them out to deal with the bugs attacking us. The few I kept with me were killed in a surprise attack, and then I was drugged and dragged inside a train. From what little I can feel of my body, we seemed to have left the train and are now heading through some woods. I’m sorry… I lost your friends…” Beating himself up internally for losing Lyn’s people.

Lyn shook her head sadly. “They are soldiers Van… If anything I’m worried about how they might feel about not being able to protect you.” Trying to make her husband feel a little better. Though it was clear she was still very worried about them and how they are doing.

“Still…”

“There is no point crying over it now!” Xenith suddenly spoke up. “The questions we should be asking ourselves is how we are going to get out of this mess and save Van!” Which caused another series of conversations and debates about what they were going to do to help their master.

“If only we were out there…” Kella said, sounding like she was taking the blame of her master's kidnapping on herself.

“DON’T!” Van admonished her. “I’m the one that put you away. And I don’t regret it for a second. Who knows what they would have done to you if they had attacked out of nowhere and assassinated you. If anything I’m glad you are here with me, it means I can call upon your help in the future.”

“He’s right Kella.” Ashina said, patting her friends back. “We are no use dead. Maybe we could have done something if we were still out to help. But we weren't, so don't beat yourself up about it.”

“Umm…” Katalinya suddenly spoke up, making everyone look at her. Which only made her freeze up since she wasn’t used to being the center of attention.

“Yes Katalinya?” Van asked, encouraging her to continue speaking.

“Uh… Well… I’m not sure what help I can be but… This sounds like something Ren should be helping with, and Kassandra and Anna. If you can’t move your body or use your magic. The only thing left is to use your soul realm so…”

Van nodded in agreement with her. “Yes, that is true, thank you Kat.” He turned to Anna and Kassandra. “Do you two have any ideas what we can do from within our soul realm?”

Both Kassandra and Anna hesitated and gave an awkward look towards each other.

Kassandra spoke first. “I’m sorry Van, but I'm still cleaning up some of that data storm we were hit with a few days ago. And while I would love to be of some use to you, I’m afraid I… I don’t have anything I can provide…” Looking crestfallen by her lack of ability to be of help.

“Don’t worry about it. I understand.” Van said, not wanting her to beat herself up. He turned to Anna who also began explaining she couldn’t do much.

“Sorry Van, but there is not much I can do. Most of my powers come from influencing your soul realm and through it expanding myself outward. If you can’t use your soul realm outside our own body, then I can’t either. It’s to the point that I can barely feel my other selves outside. I can’t even speak or interact with them! I worry how they might be feeling right now…”

Van frowned. It didn’t occur to him that the Annas left outside might be in danger due to not being able to connect with his soul realm and by extension their hive mind.

Just as he was about to say something such as apologizing to Anna he winced out of the blue as he felt the familiar prick that indicated another dose of drugs.

Almost immediately everyone seemed to have noticed something was off and a chorus of questions about his well being were asked.

“I’m fine… I’ve just been drugged again…” He slammed a fist on his throne. “Gods fucking damnit how often are they going to do that!?”

“Are they increasing the frequency of the dose?” Kassandra asked worriedly.

“I’m not sure… But it does seem like they have been doing it a bit sooner than usual lately.” Van replied, then froze for a solid minute before answering again. “Fuck… They renewed the seal again as well.” He said, rubbing his temple as another massive migraine hit him.

Gwen spoke up as an idea came to her. “Perhaps… You are expanding the seal's mana faster than they were expecting? Maybe because of the strength of your soul realm, they have to keep renewing the seal's power and drug you to make sure you're not secretly trying to wear the mana out of it sooner than expected?”

Lyn’s eyes brightened. “That's it! Van! You just have to wear out the seal faster than they can renew it!”

“But that might take too long.” Kassandra said. “They could just keep renewing the seal over and over again until we arrive at wherever they are smuggling us to.”

“Can we do anything that would increase the rate we wear out the seal?” Kella asked.

Anna spoke up. “The stronger Van’s soul realm is, the faster the seal will run out of power, unless there is a mage that constantly renews it. Which means not only do we have to deal with the mana on the seal, but the mana reserves of the person who renews it. Even if we put everything we had to increase Van’s soul realm, it still might not be in time for whatever plans they have for him…”

“But it’s a start right?” Xenith said. “And it’s not like it’s a bad thing to train yourself to be even stronger!”

Sela then came up with an interesting idea. “I’ve changed a lot when I ranked up from a humble troglodyte. What if we make him go through a rank up? Wouldn’t that change his body and therefore the seal on him?”

Everyone looked at Sela in surprise. They didn’t know much about her other than she was another conquest of Van’s but she did bring up an interesting idea.

“Would that work?” Gwen asked, looking at Kassandra and Anna.

“M-maybe?” Kassandra said, thinking heavily about it. “But even if it did, we would still have to choose a race that we could easily awaken, and he would have to be in a magic circle alongside all the necessary resources and energy for the transformation.

“Indeed, it's not that easy.” Anna added.

“No, they may have a point.” Van suddenly spoke up once he could think again. “Even if it's not in time for whatever my captors have in store for me. It will give me an immediate boost of energy and power. The other option is to somehow increase my soulrealm’s strength even further, which can make it harder for them to control me if they use slave magic. Either way each option will prove beneficial to me. As for which race to awaken, we have the Aasimar, the dragon, and chimera bloodlines to choose from. We just have to figure out how to pull it off…”

Everyone looked to each other and started thinking about ways they could gather the necessary energy and resources within the soul realm itself for the rank up. While others discussed ways to increase the power of the soul realm as quickly as possible. Soon a debate between the two groups grew as one side viewed their choice as superior.

The debate was as follows. One side believed ranking up would provide the most immediate powerboost to Van. While the others believed it was better to strengthen the soul realm for the long term benefits, they argued that ranking up as they were would drain the soul realm completely, even if it was a weak race to awaken, which could make them susceptible to slave magic. While those who were pro rank up believed that if Van was strong enough it wouldn’t matter and that they would recover stronger than before.

Then a third group was formed that thought it would be a better idea to increase their own power and figure out a way outside the soul realm. After all, a ranked up Van would be nice, but what about sending out an army, no matter how few of them were left, to deal with the kidnappers?

The arguments went on for hours, well into the night, and Van was too zonked out to do anything about it…