***The Path, Headquarters***

***Sharid***

“Ahahaha. I would have never thought that you would manage to reclaim your godhood so quickly!” Miruliru takes a sip of her tea while blatantly ignoring Nazareth who is sitting just a few metres away, covering his face with both hands. “To be honest, I am surprised that you managed to make your way to me so quickly.”

“Well, I guess I had a lot of help.” I eat another one of the delicious cookies and silently pray for Nazareth’s forgiveness. The old gnome somehow managed to find me in the depths of the Infernal Planes and led me back on the right path, although it seems to have taken a mental toll on him.

So that’s why he is sitting in Miruliru’s office, having a minute of peace, while the goddess and I are dining outside on the balcony.

“So what do you plan to do next? Do you want to join the path and work for me?” Miruliru gives me a heartwarming smile as she offers for me to join her ranks.

Thankfully, Nazareth already gave me a detailed lecture on the various factions a young god like myself could join and while I don’t think that joining the Path would necessarily be a bad thing, being too hasty would also not be prudent. After all, as a goddess, I am immortal now. I have all the time I need to investigate my options.

“I appreciate the offer, but my first few hours as a newly minted deity already taught me that I need to learn a lot of stuff! Everything is completely new to me.” I bow slightly to the other goddess.

Just the memory of popping into that other dimension with demons and horrific creatures is enough to give me the shivers all over again. I am just glad that I apparently waltzed into one of their more benign parties, at least as benign as an orgy can be. My powers didn’t exactly help with keeping everything to order either.

I just hope they don’t hold a grudge for turning a sex-party into a murder-feast.

“Hah. I understand you, no worries!” Miruliru waves her hand dismissively, thankfully not in the least offended by my refusal. “I suppose you have great plans. Like getting back at Angrod?”

“Yes, if I can! That's for sure! So can you help me in taking revenge?” I grab her petite little hand. “Nazareth won’t tell me anything useful.”

“Forget it!” Miruliru refuses immediately.

“What? Why!” I slide off my chair and to the floor. “Just how powerful is this Angrod for other gods to be that afraid of him?”

“First of all, because revenge just means bad karma. And secondly, because the current you is very weak. You don't even have basic knowledge about your new environment and abilities.” Miruliru gestures at me. “Take your current power-level. You might feel invincible, but the ability to toy around with a few demons is nothing.”

Darn! So she knows about that? But that means that she was watching me all the time!

“Don’t look like that,” Miruliru winks at me. “I may not look like it, but I am a genuine god.”

I get up and slump back into my chair. “I don’t know what that means.”

“Well, I am sure that Nazareth already tried to explain, but the newly ascended rarely get it. Just like you, they are on a power-trip.” Miruliru shrugs. “Trust me when I tell you that there are power-levels even among gods. The ranking normally starts with the stronger immortals who are barely at the threshold of being aware of the pathways. Then there are lesser deities, like yourself, whose divinity is powerful enough to lay waste to a continent or two. And there are true gods, who may eradicate an entire world if they unleash all their power.”

She pauses for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “And then we have those even above that. Gods whose divinity manifests some basic law of the multiverse, giving them power even over other gods.”

I sigh. “And you are trying to tell me that Angrod is one of those.”

“Most definitely.” Miruliru nods. “But tell me, young one. Is your revenge important enough to destroy entire worlds over it?”

I frown.

Miruliru sets down her cup and clears her throat. “It seems like you haven’t thought your quest through. What are you going to do once you confront Angrod? Are you going to beg him to take his curses off of you? And once he refuses, are you going to fight him?” She raises an inquisitive eyebrow. “Because that’s what it is going to take. And let me tell you that battles between gods never end well unless they are fought in a secure environment with rules. Even then, both gods have to adhere to those rules. If they do not, worlds perish, and it is always the mortals who pay the largest price.”

“Okay, I admit that I haven’t truly thought about what I am going to do when I meet Angrod. From what Nazareth and you are trying to tell me, it won’t end well for me. Or at least I am not going to be more than a wailing toddler who is pissing him off. Can you tell me at least why I was punished?” I ask.

“Does it matter?” The little goddess who apparently likes to appear in the form of a girl tilts her head, studying me. “Well, I guess you will find out sooner or later anyway. Some time ago, you were a puppet of the great Calamity and did some pretty bad things as El Shaddai.”

“That name sounds male...” I interrupt, unable to help myself. The name sounds familiar, but the memories that are supposed to be connected to it escape me.

“Tch! She noticed.” Miruliru turns to the side with an unhappy expression.

I sit up! “Oh. Nonono!”

She starts grinning and covers her mouth with her hand.

“Nooo! You want to tell me that I was a guy in my past life!?” Somehow, everything is swirling a little. “What kind of extraordinary pervert is this Angrod?”

“The kind who holds very long grudges and who is more than a little petty. You should be happy. There are individuals left behind in his path who are worse off than you. So, do you still want your past back? I don't think that the current you would be very happy with those memories.” Miruliru places another piece of sugar in her tea.

“NO!” I won't be able to cope with that! “I am a woman!”

“Without a doubt.” Miruliru’s eyes wander to my assets and she smirks. “Do you still want me to tell you your story?”

“You are making fun of me!” I cover my face with my hands. This is too much, but I have to hear it! “Tell me. I haven’t gotten this far to chicken out now.”

“Don't fret over it. If you had become a god the normal way through the path of an immortal, you would have had a few gender switches anyway. The multiverse isn't so nice as to place your soul in a fitting body during every reincarnation…” Miruliru chuckles and continues to tell me a tale about who I was and how I came to be Sharid.

At the end of it, too afraid to interrupt, she must have seen the confusion on my face.

Miruliru sighs. “You know what? We will get you some soul-mages and they will force-feed you some basic knowledge about being a deity and some historic events! That makes explaining it much easier!”

“Force feed?” I don't like the sound of that! “And I am not entirely sure about this soul-magic thing. I think that I’ve had enough of my mind being messed with. What if Angrod left behind some contingencies?”

“Don't worry. Memory transfer is a tested and reliable practice. It can even be done by a machine if you want to, although there are very few cases of fried brains, so I think having a mage do it is safer.” Miruliru takes me at the hand and leads me from the balcony, past the sulking Nazaretz and out of her office.

That's when her words hit me. “Fried brain!?”

Half an hour later, after the dreadful experience of having the knowledge of several lifetimes shoved into my head, we are back in Miruliru’s office with me cradling my head between both hands.

My head hurts! All that knowledge! “I feel like I was a barbarian before… all this knowledge… technology… magic!”

“Comes close. You certainly were limited by your education before we corrected that. But don’t worry, it was certainly not a fault of yours, but one of your environment. It's the case for almost every mortal. Even those who can remember several reincarnations can rarely claim to have realized their potential.” Miruliru has a happy expression now as if she was delighting in my misery.

Evil little goddess. I will remember that for a time when she is hurting! “Are you sure that this headache is going to go away?”

“Certainly, but it takes time,” she replies and takes a sip from her now cold tea.

“Even so... am I not still at a permanent disadvantage? Now I’ve learned that other gods have thousands of years more experience of life than me, not counting the really old ones,” I complain.

“It isn't as bad as it might seem. First of all, there are very few of those ‘really old ones’ as you put it. Many choose to re-enter the cycle of Life and Death because they are tired of existence. There are also always some new arrivals to the ranks of gods like yourself. Think of yourself as a newborn. And every god is still limited by what his organic brain can hold. Trust me, you won’t ever run into some deity who can miraculously wield all forms of magic with equal efficiency. There is just too much knowledge in the multiverse for any mind to hold it all. As you age, you are practically forced to specialize in one or two fields of expertise.”

Miruliru claps her hands together. “By the way. You should go to Asheim and get yourself registered as a neutral god. They can also determine your divinity while you are there.”

“But isn't Asheim controlled by Angrod's faction?” I reply, now a little about simply waltzing in there. Having a little bit of actually important multiverse history shoved into my head, I am now painfully aware of how dangerous this Angrod and his faction truly is. Even if the Godking doesn’t come after me himself, he could probably send any number of his minions who could wipe the floor with me.

“No problem. Nobody aside from the rulers of the big societies knows about you. As far as the general population knows, El Shaddai vanished at the battle for the Crystal City. After all, Angrod has to protect his reputation that those who cross him tend to disappear without a trace.” She frowns suddenly. “Now that I think about it, that isn’t so different from what the Council did.”

After a moment of oppressive silence, she laughs, waving her hand. “At least we don’t toss their souls into some black hole to be eaten by some ancient entity who is after the whole multiverse.”

Then she realizes that I am gaping at her with my eyes wide and clears her throat. “Ahem, where was I? Right! If you are worried about those minor gods who had an eye on you while you were mortal, they are already sworn to secrecy.”

She laughs. “They are the least of your worries. If Angrod ever finds out that they let you get away without telling him, he would burn their world to cinders just for fun.” She flicks her fingers, implying that it would be a trivial matter to the Godking.

“A- a- actually. I wouldn’t like that either,” I manage to bring out. What about my family and my home? My world isn’t the best of all places, but it is still the planet I grew up on.

“Ahaha, sorry about that. We just have to see to it that he won’t flip. If worse comes to worst, we will go to Celes. I am sure that she won’t condone for him to blow up a planet out of pettiness,” Miruliru tattles. “You still have some time to look around the multiverse before Angrod will learn of you. I have no doubt that he will remember you at some point, but he is like many of the old ones. In some matters, his sense of time moves at a glacial pace. You know? Mwahaha!”

“I still don't know how to thank you for your guidance… and I am actually worried now whether my ascension was a good decision.” I hope she doesn't want payment for her help later on. What would a god like her want as payment? A thousand years of labour?

“It's fine. My sole reason for helping you was that I was a little disturbed by Angrod's grudge. It's not okay to relieve your stress on someone who doesn't even know why.” Miruliru signals me to follow her and leads me outside onto the balcony where Nazareth is waiting.

“You remember?” She points to the sky. “The biggest pathway leads to Asheim. It's better if you get yourself registered as a goddess. You have to know your divinity if you ever want to improve your power.” Miruliru looks into my eyes and immediately understands that I don't get it.

Naturally, as soon as she pointed out a navigational fact, my mind slipped to the vast sea which is surrounding the floating island on which her faction’s residence resides.

“Your divinity is the mental state of your mind which is responsible for your power. I suppose you already realized that being a god is purely a state of the mind. The further you are able to dive into that… feeling, the more power you get. My divinities are faith and determination. I draw power from the knowledge that many mortal believe in me.” Miruliru smiles at me and turns to Nazareth. “Please make sure that she doesn’t get lost again.”

The gnome rolls his eyes and takes my hand. “Are you ready? This time, I am going to make sure to show you the right pathway, as you seem incapable of following such simple instructions as: ‘Take the biggest one’.”

I think about it for a moment, but realize that I still have a question for Miruliru. “So you don't get stronger because they believe in you, but because you believe that they believe in you? So if you managed to believe that everyone in the multiverse believes in you...”

“I would be the strongest goddess in the multiverse. Yes, you got that right.” She smiles. “And if you register yourself, you will get tested for your divinity. Spares you the time to find it out on your own.” Miruliru offers me her hand and I shake it.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I did it for my own amusement after all.” She turns and slaps Nazareth on the back.

The gnome simply grunts, strangely silent in the presence of another goddess.

Laughing, the little goddess leaves with a dirty grin on her face and walks back into her office, trusting Nazareth to deliver me to this Crystal City of theirs.