"A GOD!?" I exclaimed.
That was absurd, right? She was kidding. She couldn't possibly be serious.
God of Sleep? It sounded impressive. And it made sense. He only appeared when I fell asleep while in danger.
Nevertheless, the feeling that another being, a deity even, lived in the same head as me was disturbing. Terrifying.
But if it made me strong enough to protect myself and those whom I love, I would have to live with it.
Thessa's story sounded reasonable, yet so insane.
She had told me what happened the previous day while we continued our ascent of the tower.
We were currently walking up another alleyway, somewhere in this never-ending maze.
We did not encounter a lot more people than before, but the people seemed somehow...stranger than before.
We had seen knights and beastmen. I had seen creatures that I would not have been able to imagine in my worst nightmares cowering in branches of the alleys.
No one seemed to care. About this or anything. Like a giant machine with grinding cogwheels. They would not stop, no matter what happened. They would not halt for a detail so insignificant. Whatever existed while they spun either held distance or got crushed.
But they still stared at us. In every corner, eyes turned to us; I had no explanation for their strange looks.
There was no way they could feel the presence of a slumbering god, right?
"Can you feel...him...right now?"
Thessa gave me a surprised look, which quickly shifted into a nervous fidgeting.
"After seeing it, it's difficult to not see him in you, if you know what I mean. It's like he always lies underneath, only a blink of an eye away."
The thought of a god acting through me, using me as a puppet, was horrifying, but to imagine talking to someone that could turn into a hot-headed deity at every moment was even worse.
"Where are we headed anyways?
You said we need to get into the upper kingdom. But you also said the border between the lower and middle kingdoms is hard to cross. If this also applies for the border to the upper kingdom, how are we going to get there?"
Thessa was now grinning mischievously:
"The arena. A spectacle big enough for both the upper and middle kingdoms to watch. The grandstand is parted to prevent the crossing of the border. But on the lower level, the vaults of the tribunals are connected in a way that allows crossing. We only need to participate in a fight, and we will be able to cross."
To fight. Easier said than done. I had never fought another person before. Neither had I ever held a sword.
To survive a fight, I had to be really lucky.
———
Our surroundings had barely changed, but the people lounging in the corners of the alleys looked more and more like how I had imagined adventurers.
Some were wearing unique-looking armor sets, some wore cloaks, some only loincloths, and a few even wore big wizard hats angled in a way that they almost hid their entire bodies, like shields.
At some point, I could feel how Thessa got nervous for some reason.
Sure, the side streets we were on had a shady vibe to them, but why would she only get nervous now?
"Is everything okay? You seem so restless."
The caught expression on her face only confirmed my feeling.
"No, I'm fine, really."
Suddenly, her eyes flew to the left, into an even smaller alley, a strange figure looming in the back of it.
It looked tall for a human, unnaturally so, maybe three meters.
He was covered in a red toga, cloth covering his entire body, only leaving out his mask.The mask depicted a grotesque grimace of a demon.
But his clothing was not the strangest thing about the figure. His arms were extended to both sides, and from where his hands were, hidden behind the red cloth, almost invisible strings fell down, golden in the light that pierced the alley.
On the end of the strings hung a puppet, a simple wooden doll with a hole where the heart should have been.We had passed the alley, and the figure was out of sight.
Thessa still looked terrified.
"Did you know that figure?"
She flinched:
"What figure?"
She was a terrible liar.
But I did not want to pressure her. Even if she knew the strange puppeteer, what did it matter?
It was none of my business.
So without further questions, we continued our ascent, our way to the arena.