A Theory on Godhood: An Overlord Story

Chapter 4: Angelic Light and Demonic Fire

It was a strange twist of events to know that he could not sleep, for it was often in sleep that he could experience the dreams of tomorrow. He had always loved to dream, because sometimes it was the only way from which he could escape the life he had back in Japan. Yet Garnet knew that he would forget his dreams more often than he could remember them. If he could recall correctly from the psychology course he had taken his freshman year of college, the average person would forget ninety-five percent of the total dreams they had in a single night.

Garnet believed he had a pretty good memory if he did say so himself, but to find out that so much was lost just from a single night's sleep in the span of ten minutes from when he woke up was disorientating. It was the same type of feeling that he had experienced once he found out he had not only become his own avatar, but had transported to an entirely new world as well.

He had still been holding onto the hilt of Brisingr's own character, bewildered beyond belief as to why the game servers had not kicked them out when the shutdown happened. Even as a set of animated armor, he still experienced the same range of senses as when he had been human, emotions and all.

He and Amelia, the animated sword, had sobbed like newborns when they realized what happened.

The sentinel and Amelia, or Brisingr, had always talked about meeting up in real life, but either never had the right amount of time or money to do what they desired. To know now that they were not only together at last, but in a place far better than what they could ever even dream of back in their old lives, it was a wish come true.

Garnet had explored the tomb with his guildmates with the same sort of childish eagerness he had not felt since he was four-years-old, but he was on Cloud Nine knowing that he could experience it with Amelia.

They were young and in love, and even now, in a barn nestled near the outskirts of a village he had just saved, that hadn't diminished.

He lay on his pile of hay, tossing and turning as he thought of every method possible to spark something, anything that could resemble the urge to sleep, yet his new body stubbornly refused. Not once that entire week he and the others had been transported to the new world they all found themselves in was he able to sleep as he once had. He found his attention being focused on the barn roof instead, the perfectly aligned wooden beams providing a natural pathway for his eyes to follow.

Soon enough, rather than falling asleep as he desired, he found himself floating off into the mystical realm of daydreams instead. His vision dimmed as he allowed the colorful images to flitter past like half-forgotten memories.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Garnet shot up, rubbing the back of his helmet as he instinctually yawned. He stretched his plated arms far above his head, the joints of his armor clunking and popping back into place. As he looked about his surroundings, he saw that Sensei was already aware and moving, his fingers shooting up as the message was rerouted to him.

Bellriver, just like when he and the rest of the guild had found him, had fallen asleep upright at some point in the night. His snores were like gunshots.

Sensei was whispering, trying not to unnecessarily awaken his slumbering guildmate as whoever was on the opposite end of the messenger spoke to him. He bobbed his head, agreeing with what was being told to him.

"I understand, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll let the others know." Sensei said, his fingers dropping as the guild staff floated back into his bony grip. He sauntered to the spellsword, gently shaking him awake. Garnet cringed as his guildmate choked on his own spit as he startled awake.

"Mo-momonga? What time is it right now? You'd better have a damn good reason for waking me up when it's..." Bellriver trailed off, glancing into the barn window as he tried to gauge the time.