1 An angel's conclusion

Savine stared down at the masses beneath her feet, feeling the rare sense of satisfaction at a job well down.

Rows and rows of people kneeled before her; their expressions especially solemn. Here, one percent of the remainder of humanity stood. A million of the most devout believers of God there was.

None spoke, none moved, none breathed out of rhythm. Their hands clasped; they gathered all their consciousness and prayed. To the one true God that presided over all. Not the fantasy bullshit that religions preached to, not the ghetto-ass gods that mages sometimes think themselves to be, but the real one, who asks for nothing and orders nothing. The Creator of all of Savine's kin.

Even if they worshipped the false gods, it would've been fine, but why should Savine settle for second place when she could make sure that everything was perfect. Especially after her enlightenment.

And after a year of hard work, she was finally successful. At first, these people were forced to pray, but now they were as sincere as one could be.

It was truly a monumental work, recoding their genes make sure that they would become pious and remain that way. Even if they died, Savine made sure that their offspring would be born pious, their devotion to God stronger than even their instincts for survival.

And that devotion would make sure that the remaining 99% of humanity would eventually become just as pious as this 1%, turning this world into one of the biggest pillars of support for heaven.

Savine considered remaining here to witness the process herself, work out the problems that would surely rise up. but she had many more worlds to save. She likely had decades of hard work left before her.

And besides, there was no way the 1% could ever fail. Savine did everything in her power to make sure of that.

'It's time to return.'

She stood up, patted the dust off her clothes, and started drawing a golden circle in the air. A gate formed before her, her path back to heaven. Savine took one last glance at the people praying on the plain, before jumping into the gate.

Her body disintegrated immediately after touching the gate. Heaven did not allow unworthy objects to enter its august lands. Only Savine's soul, that was chosen by God from among the trillions of souls that littered the universe, was allowed inside.

Just like that, God's Chosen, who slaughtered seven billion heretics and turned the remaining few into barely cognizant worshippers of the divine, finally left Earth.

Savine woke up and found herself in her old room, back in heaven.

Glowing white walls, furniture that never got dirty, and air that seemed to sift through one's brain, quickly cleaning it from all kinds of rot.

Her bookshelf stared at her from one wall. The books on it were put on by a bundle of three, and under each bundle a name of a world was written. These were from a time when Savine diligently spent decades trying to save the worlds, doing things the 'orthodox' way.

There were four nameplates that didn't have books above them and those were: Eirterra, Mogath, Velesin and Earth. These were the last four attempts when Savine used the most efficient and quickest methods of saving a world.

In the latter case, there was no need for her to read the countless books of those worlds and choose three of her most favorite among them. She had no time for such indulgences.

'Mmm...'

She still needed to work. She pushed herself off her bed and got out of the room.

The younger angels saw her and they looked genuinely startled.

<It's her…>

'It is me.'

<She's already done with her world? It was only two days, wasn't it?>

'No, it was three days, since I was on Earth for three years. How do I remember this and you don't?'

'No, I also make sure the remaining believers will stay believers for thousands of years afterwards.'

'It certainly does, but I wouldn't recommend it to you younglings. Though… I do wonder how many of you will end up on the same answer as me?'

The whispers of the younglings could be heard loud and clear in Savine's ears. That was her gift from God. Areal Omniscience. Though, few knew of that – she wasn't really a popular angel beforehand.

And with the last four worlds she visited, there was a rumor going around that her Gift was one that corrupted her mind, to push her towards slaughter and bloodshed more.

Savine shook her head inwardly and walked on. She reached the Dispatch Center and promptly walked up to Jibril's room.

God's Oracle was the same as always. She was lying down on her bed with her hair scattered on the ground, some becoming part of the floor. Her eyes were closed shut, but there was still a bright white shining from beneath her skin, almost burning.

Savine smiled, picked up the bottle of liquid nearby, danced over and around all the hair in the room, and poured some of it over the Oracle's eyes.

A hissing sound came, as if a hot pan was put under cold water, but it all soon subsided. The shining bright light was no more as well, but her eyes were still merged together.

As the one known as God's Oracle, Jibril was said to be the only angel who saw God. However, the act left her in such a state, with her eyes melting down every so often. The process was inevitable, but at least not irreversible.

"Thank you."

Savine could only shrug back. She was about to ask for her next task, but she was interrupted by the Oracle.

"You returned quite quickly," she said.

It was odd, Jibril wasting time on small talk. But since it was a rare thing, Savine did not mind spending some time chatting.

"The task was easy this time."

"The task being easy and you taking the easy path are two different things."

'So it wasn't a chat after all.'

Savine sighed inwardly, feeling dumb for thinking that Jibril, of all people, would want to chat.

"What's with all the questions today?" Savine sighed, trying to change the subject.

"..." Jibril lay on her bed motionlessly before continuing. "The next task? Will it be easy or difficult?"

The old Oracle showed no intentions to drop the subject. But Savine was a stubborn woman.

"…Hopefully it'll be easy," she replied nonchalantly.

Savine felt a gaze focusing in on her. It was an uncomfortable feeling. To say the least.

'Is she looking at me right now?'

Jibril's eyes didn't work, but that didn't mean she was blind. No. Far from it.

"I hope you reconsider," Jibril said.

"Like I said," Savine chuckled nervously. "What's with all the questions today?"

"It's for your own good," Jibril finally said. "The easy path is much too addictive. That would be fine if you were a human. You would only be a despot. Nothing special about that.

"But you're an angel," Jibril continued after a small pause. "That means you're an immortal despot. And judging from what you did in your last four worlds, you're not one of the nicer ones either. It's too easy for you to hit a point lower than filth."

There was something irking about how she spoke, completely emotionlessly.

"I have feelings, too, you know?" Savine argued, acting hurt. "And also a brain. I'm not stupid enough to…"

To what? Savine thought for a few seconds, but was unable to come up with any answers.

"Anyway, your worry's wasted. And even if I'm an immortal despot, I won't be staying in one place forever."

"..."

"Now send me on my next mission."

"You're not going to Nemesin," Jibril said. "You're going to a nameless world."

Savine made a questioning noise.

"It's quite a new one, but it's very promising. The planet itself formed only two million years ago, but its people have already developed to an admirable level. They're nearing Industrialism."

"Two million? Are you shitting me?"

Something like that was entirely impossible. What about evolution? No. What about the development of everything else that's required for life to thrive in? Did the planet form living breathing humans as it came into being?

"I'm just as surprised. But Divinity does not lie. They are also mages, decent ones as well. You'd be surprised at what they were able to achieve with so little time."

"..."

Savine was left silent. As her mind was overcome by thoughts of this world and why she was being sent there, the Oracle spoke on.

"Also," Jibril sighed. "For your next assignment, I have some conditions for you."

"Conditions?"

Savine did not like questioning Jibril, but what conditions could there be for saving a world?

"First of all, you can't kill anyone."

"What?"

"You also can't torture them, threaten them, brainwash them, engineer their genes to make them pious at birth, none of it. You're only allowed to defend yourself."

Savine saw red.

"Huh? Then what the fuck am I supposed to do in those worlds? How am I supposed to save them?"

"Do it like the rest of us. Make a proper example out of yourself and have the world's denizens believe in God themselves. Don't forcefully bend their wills like you did with the previous three jobs."

"Those dogs don't deserve our efforts! Who cares what I do to them?! Even if I do good by them, a century later they'll be back to their dog ways and after a millennium later, I'll have to go back to clean their asses once again!"

The amount of times Savine and the other angels had to run back to the same world because the people there simply forgot about their existences was too many to count. And no matter how hard they tried to set a proper example for them, they always made a mess of their worlds. There was no end to it.

Savine was eventually enlightened.

There was no need to play nice with humans. Savine would slaughter billions if it resulted in a stable world. The bodies she piled would be used as fertilizer for the world and its future citizens. Citizens who are loyal, pious, and, most importantly, not self-destructive.

But Jibril didn't see eye to eye with her. She did not even bother to argue.

"Don't forget."

Before Savine could speak back, Jibril, with a wave of her hands, erased Savine out of heaven.

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