“Heaven!”

Meerarere jumped up as she exclaimed. She was hopping happily and swinging her arms around.

I was looking at the table. I could barely see the coin’s result because of the dim candlelight. I wanted to get up, reach out, and check.

All I could do was smile compelledly.

The doll hopped up to me, ruffled my hair, and patted me on the shoulder.

My shadow had merged with her, and I was ready to fight back.

“You’re happy, are you?”

“Of course I am! I can’t wait to get down to the heaven floor.”

“Yep, we’re going down right now!”

Meerarere separated from me, clapping her hands.

A clang of mechanisms clicked into place, and a birdcage dropped from the ceiling.

“Don’t worry. We are in the elevator!”

I nodded, and the doll whistled, putting her fingers to her mouth.

“Come on, Cerpolpol, come on!”

The plush reappeared from the shadowed shelves, slithering between the bars with slimy grace.

The floor shuddered and began to descend.

Stuck in my chair, I couldn’t look around nor close my eyes to clear my mind. I could only observe the table on which the coin rested.

The light transitioned as it descended. It went from candles to the warm lights of old electric lamps. A red wall with gold damask carpeting delineated one side of an immense room that was full of noise and the smell of smoke and alcohol.

Taking my chin and gently lifting my head, Meerarere turned me to look at her.

“This is a floor of heaven dedicated to adults only. Since you are now a toy, I have decided to make you play with things that correspond to your social role. Look!”

When she left me, the elevator had stopped descending, and the cage retracted toward the ceiling.

Surprisingly, the table in front of me had grown larger. There was a roulette wheel and some boxes with poker values and suits. On my side, there are several piles of casino chips.

In addition to me, mannequins dressed in fashionable, elegant, and richly decorated clothes came to sit down.

The noise of slot machines in the background continued to give jackpots, and the coins jingled like waterfalls. Added to all this were the enthusiastic voices of those faceless subjects.

“Well~, now I’ll let you play to win and become rich!”

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My arms moved, placing all my chips on zero.

Cerpolpol took on the role of the croupier and threw a ball into the roulette wheel.

I didn’t understand. It was all happening too fast. Was this heaven?

“Zero! Malcavissa, you won!”

The doll jumped up to hug me, and I hugged her back. I laughed, and she laughed, and the mannequins applauded as Cerpolpol’s tentacles handed me more stacks of chips.

Meerarere pulled away from the hug, wiping away tears.

“I’m so happy I’m crying! Now, we will play the rich magician who loses everything and becomes an alcoholic!”

What!?

“It sounds like a fun game. But I’d rather lose everything on the slot machines. It would increase the sense of inevitability, prey to an algorithm set up by the casino.”

What am I rambling on about? No, no, not.

I held out my hand to the doll, who took it. I stood up and turned to look around at the vast room filled with rows of slot machines. Mannequins and people and toys were inserting gold and silver coins and winning piles of more coins.

“Don’t look at them. You will lose everything now and play the part of the desperate person.”

What kind of game is this? Why was I, the mighty Malcavissa, bent over these humiliating games?

I couldn’t accept it. But, I didn’t have enough information to guarantee the success of the rebellion.

What would happen if I tried to resist?

I tried to immobilize Meerarere’s legs with my shadow.

She grimaced, then looked annoyed and smiled, narrowed eyes.

“Maybe Malcavissa doesn’t like the game I chose for him? But the sweet wizard knows. He will have to play for me for eternity. He chose to play in heaven, where I can treat him like a toy without hurting him.”

I didn’t reply. The doll tried to strain, stuck in that standing position. My shadow was like a pedestal that glued her to the floor.

Her expression became ambiguous. She was a smiling doll but also annoyed. She was trying to hide her anger, and that circumstance was a good thing.

It meant that my shadow was effective. So, if I wanted, I could try to break Meerarere's concentration and free myself from her string control.

“Malcavissa, toys never resist nor complain. Please, don’t complicate the—AH!”

My shadow turned into spears and nails and struck the doll. Her joints dislocated, and stuffing spilled out from her shoulders and knees.

Meerarere screamed, and I stepped back.

I stepped back of my own volition.

Was the spell broken?

Without thinking, I ran between the slot machines. If I was in the afterlife, there was a chance I could get out and be resurrected. No one had ever done it, but from my research, I knew that the wizard Dumdugo had documented the phenomenon by interrogating the corpse of King Colmope.

But that had happened over six thousand years ago, and my arcane cube had assumed that it was information magnified by myth and tradition.

Whatever the case, I ran.

I ran, panting, and all the sound stopped. The lights went out, and I crashed into a slot machine.

“You hurt me! I am a toy, and you tried to break me. I hate you; I hate you! I HATE YOU! I promised you heaven, but you decided to prove yourself the monster you are. You will pay for this. You will pay with the games of hell.”

An evil laugh faded into the darkness, replaced by a feral sound.

It sounded like the panting of an approaching predator. I could hear the heavy footsteps of its running and the lights of the slot machines turned on. They did it only in that corridor to illuminate the arrival of something.

Something that ran and barked. Its mastiff-like face was full of teeth. Its tongue was hanging out, dripping an acidic substance. Everything caught fire touched by that liquid, and the animal grew faster and more dreadful.

It ran on two legs that were nothing more than tangled tentacles.

It barked and growled.

I raised my arm to order my shadow to block it, but the being continued to advance undisturbed. The flames blazed, and I realized. My armpits were wet with sweat.

I was shaking.

I was shaking like the time I was beaten. I felt as helpless as I did then, and I stepped back. Something was holding me back. It was fear.

The rapid heartbeat and hyperventilation of a panic attack shocked me.

The threatening monster had reached me. Its jaws closed on my belly.