After the meeting with Zolast, I went back to my room, wanting to catch some sleep. Technically, I could have pushed myself more without sleep, but it was not a good idea to push myself needlessly.
I needed to be fresh to meet a potential emergency.
Going to sleep was easy. Living the life I had, going to sleep as needed was a life skill I had gained long ago, one that helped me greatly many times.
What surprised me was what followed.
I had found myself floating in space … watching a great battle going on, monsters, creatures, and armored figures fighting against each other, the battlefield too chaotic to make sense of it immediately. Soon, however, I was able to separate the lines.
There were two sides to the battle. One side clearly belonged to the gods. The number of cries, asking for the blessings of the gods, only to end up dead, made that aspect clear. The second side of the battle was shrouded in darkness, but the parts I could see showed that they were abominable enough to be classified as cosmic horror.
Yet, despite the great show, I didn't focus on the battles for long, shifting it to the lucid nature of it.
I could feel the familiar sense of separation as Resilience stood between my mind and the dream, preventing the emotions it generated from impacting me. And, considering Resilience didn't work on my own emotions but worked excellently to block Charisma effects, it was conclusive evidence of its external nature.
Someone was sending me that dream. I already have a guess about the source, but I avoided thinking about it, or reacting anyway… just watching the show without moving.
No need to show my hand early.
As I watched, the war got more and more intense, the armies of the gods pushing through the abominations covering the space, but doing so only with great sacrifices … meanwhile, the floating figures of the gods stayed behind, dismissive of the deaths of their worshippers …
Then, the battle shifted, and the next scene was between the cosmic abominations and the gods, their battle destroying the planet … until suddenly, a different god, one that was covered in a red energy appeared.
"Enough, you have destroyed enough in your greed, false divines," the red figure declared, and as he raised his hand, he captured the abominations and the army of the gods at the same time.
"Set, do you think we won't punish you for your insolence. How dare you betray our covenant!"
"The covenant was to protect the mortals against the predictions of the Titans, not to consume them for our power!" Set said.
"Do you want us to copy you? Accept the power of the chaos, to be tortured by it every second, just to protect the lives of the mortals. Nonsense!"
"Either that, or. die," Set shouted. "Either way, I'll put an end to your arrogance!"
With that, a red explosion followed, pushing the gods and cosmic horrors away at the same time. The dream started skipping scenes once more, showing a civilization growing under the protection of a very familiar red energy covering the planet, pushing back the repeated attacks…
The more I watched, the more I realized I was watching the magical equivalent of a propaganda movie … a movie with a very high special effects budget, but a very poor scenario. A poor god, torturing himself to protect mortals…
Worse, when the dream reached its end, it triggered some kind of magical order, one that tried to make me forget the fact that I had dreamed it in the first place. Resilience helped me to ignore that order … and soon, the same dream started again.
A magical brainwashing attempt, and not a bad one either. Every time gods ignored the pleas of their soldiers, an echo of their despair reached me, and every time I looked at the cosmic horrors, fear tried to worm into my mind.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Whenever the god of destruction, Set, appeared, those emotions were replaced with hope, relief, and determination.
I already had suspicions about the source of the dream before watching it fully, but after getting the full show, I had no doubt it was reaching me by using the Destruction skill as some kind of medium. Clearly, the amount of Destruction mana I held in it made it easier for him to influence me.
Of course, with Resilience blocking the emotions from taking hold over me, and my memories about its repeating nature intact, the dream didn't have the effect he hoped.
More importantly, it told me one important thing. I wasn't the only one who understood the benefits of the subtle emotional manipulation potential of Charisma. At least one god used it … and if one used it, I expected all of them to use it.
The more the dream repeated, the easier I felt to isolate myself further, soon treating it as a bad TV show while I slept … Still, as I watched the dream on repeat, checking every little detail, from the exact words and the cadence of the delivery, to the emotional flares, and come to a conclusion.
It was a recording … or at least, a magical equivalent of it, playing on repeat.
No wonder those cultists were that crazy, if they were constantly experiencing a similar dream again and again, their conscious memories remaining while leaving their unconscious impressions.
I forced myself to wake up — which I doubted would have been possible without Resilience helping me — and checked the time … and realized about three hours had passed. But I wasn't rested enough.
"It seems I need to get rid of that pesky mana if I want to sleep comfortably," I said. "I hope it's possible."
Of course, I wasn't stupid enough to start experimenting in the middle of the town. Instead, I tried to go back to sleep, which was as restful as trying to sleep next to a construction site. Still, it was better than nothing.
Which was why I was annoyed when I heard several panicked cries, destroying even that hint of rest.
However, since some of those cries belonged to my employees, while the others came from unfamiliar people, I decided to move. It wasn't like sleeping was helping me.
I climbed to the roof quickly, which I had designed with a seat, though not before pouring myself a glass of hard alcohol. With my Vitality, the best I could get was a temporary buzz, but it was better than nothing.
Then, I concealed myself on the roof and started watching the show, with no intention of showing myself. It was a test, after all.
I had seen two gangs had already pushed into our territory with all of their members, while the third one had only several, and every single one of them was wounded. The wounded ones were looking at Mahruss angrily, which gave me an idea about the source of the conflict.
He probably pulled the trick I had outlined, dealing with the first gang.
Interestingly, rather than pulling back, the two gangs chose to confront us more directly. Right in front of our casinos, which was surprisingly daring, as it meant we were free to retaliate as much as we wanted, and the guards had to support us — though, currently, there was a suspicious lack of guards.
My mind went to the trouble I had while going through the inner gates. It seemed that the relief we earned was already over.
"It's time to pay for your arrogance," one of the leaders shouted, and moved forward. "Come and fight like a proper warrior rather than ambushing others like cowards."
"Oh, how can I ambush someone right in front of my own building. Why don't you ask them what they were trying to do right in the middle of our territory," Mahruss answered, which started a lengthy discussion.
That triggered a lengthy argument that included insults toward family, honor, and many different factors … a fifteen-minute commotion that people watched from the side, culminating in a declaration of the duel by them, which Mahruss accepted.
Expecting them to send a hired thug with a higher level, I prepared to intervene … but the man that walked forward was weak. If it wasn't for my Perception, I might have thought that their champion was good at hiding his potential, but that was clearly not the case.
I ignored the temptation to assume that it was the incompetence of my enemies, giving us a free win. The gangs were certainly incompetent enough to deliver such a move … but not the people behind them to surround our territory to suffocate us.
They must have some kind of trick. I looked around, trying to find where such a trick could come from.
Soon, I noticed the source. A man, dressed in grey robes, the hood keeping his face hidden, jumped from roof to roof, until he arrived at the same roof I was watching, carrying a bow. It was not an ordinary bow, I ascertained at a glance. It was a magical weapon, one with a higher quality than my dagger. He had two quivers, the larger one filled with ordinary arrows, while the large one filled with ordinary ones.
For a moment, I expected him to use the opportunity to attack Mahruss, turning it into a raid that would see the casino destroyed. A clumsy move, but it would still ruin our income for weeks — first to repair the building, the second to build a new clientele and convince them such an attack wouldn't repeat.
… but then, I noticed he was aiming at the other gang leader. A magical arrow, came from our roof to kill an opposing leader. And, suddenly, I had a feeling that he had just joined Night Blades officially as well.
My enemies were getting restless since we were still playing passively.
It seemed that I needed to teach them a lesson.