The orb angel had been flying high over the human kingdom when its sensors picked up a faint echo of divine energy. This was or at least could be a momentous occasion, the likes of which hadn't happened since the end of the age of gods, eons ago.

The creature wanted to celebrate but knew that before it could it would need to investigate. And so the strange entity turned in the general direction of that faint echo, somewhere in the forest on the western edge of the kingdom, and began to fly towards it.

So long ago that it hurts most mortals to try and conceptualize, the gods and their cosmic peers and rivals were instantly obliterated following a mysterious and cataclysmic battle. When this occurred their creations did not meet the same fate as their creators. For most of their creations, this was fine or at least something that they could endure, as the majority of the species the gods and their peers created were independent thinkers that could survive in and maybe even thrive in a godless multiverse. That wasn't always the case though.

Some lesser angels, such as a rarely spotted species known in angelic circles as Orb Angels, were only a bit more intelligent than base robots, and they depended on the gods they served for their commands. The biggest distinction between them and base robots was that they possessed a barely sentient soul. Orb angels were among the various kinds of lesser angels that entered an odd state in the post-deicide multiverse wherein they could be commanded by any other angel who possessed a soul that was morally similar to that of their particular divine master.

Roughly 10,000 years ago the orb angel currently en route to the forest the godling sprung to life in, to investigate, was given a command by an angel of gossip that it was to observe the country the forest was located in. This country is known as the kingdom of Sailos.

When motionless, the creature's default and preferred state, the entity peacefully and unobservably floated over the nation, flying high over clouds and using incredibly powerful sensors to record events going on underneath it. Not once in its almost 10,000-year vigil had it ever had a reason to descend to the world below. It had been instructed that it could descend to the world below its skyward route but only under certain circumstances, and due in part to its speed, and in part, to the disinterest its new master had with the affairs of humanity it had yet to encounter such circumstances.

One circumstance, something that very few entities sincerely believed would ever occur, that allowed for the creature to descend to the earth below to launch an investigation was the detection of any divine energy no matter how faint or minute. And one of the strange results of the godling inexplicably springing to life were waves of measurable divine energy being detectable in the forest, with each step the creature took resulting in divine echoes being equally detectable by angels with measurement abilities or tools.

The orb angel itself was a tiny thing. Its kind had been created to keep an eye on events in the mortal worlds, not to inspire servants of the gods or terrify enemies of divinities so they had been designed to survive harsh conditions and to avoid notice. They could also freely change their size and magically project an image of themselves that was considerably larger than they actually were so they were free to be spawned as tiny things and only make use of their abilities if circumstances demanded it. It was just under a meter tall, perhaps 95 centimeters, and maybe half a meter wide.

Like any other self-respecting orb, it was circular in shape. Its body was light blue which made it harder to spot in the air. It looked like a vaguely metallic orb that had been painted by someone who loved the sight of a clear sky. Not all orb angels were designed to withstand or avoid the dangers of flying high in a magical world wherein creatures like dragons and hippogriffs existed and roamed the skies, so this particular orb angel was faster than some others of its kind and was capable of using a mixture of technology and magic to fuel a sort of rechargeable camouflage. Due to the skills needed to evade dragons in the sky, this particular orb angel was also given just a bit more wisdom than others of its kind and could magically utter words, not just communicate telepathically.

The entity was normally impressively unthreatening, but it possessed the ability to conjure a shield of elements around itself which served as a deterrent to high-flying predators who may wish to snack upon an instrument of the gods of yore. If it wished it could clothe itself in a cloak of lightning, raging water, blazing fire or even absolute darkness. The sight of an orb angel in a flaming halo or surrounded by darkness was an awesome one, even if the creatures at all other times were so unimpressive people could look in their general direction and not notice them.

The creature was quickly approaching the forest the godling had sprung into life in and began its descent as it sensed the density of divine energy in the air increasing. It intended to meet the source of this resurgence of divine energy.

The godling had kept walking through the forest. Its pace was incredibly quick compared to humanoids who relied on muscles and stamina to run and to maintain their paces. The godling didn't rely on those things to fuel its speed or its endurance, so it was capable of maintaining a pace as quick as it wanted indefinitely. The creature could move at speeds so quick they produced a sonic boom but the being was unaware of that and even if it did have the knowledge needed to do that it wouldn't want to. There was no benefit to moving at that speed.

The godling came to a stop only when its senses warned it that something was quickly approaching, which occurred due to the orb angel miles away exuding divine energy. Seconds after its senses indicated something coming towards the forest it was in, the hairs on the back of its neck went up in warning as it felt a sort of sensor flow over the forest, including over it. Something was detecting it!

The creature's mind was moving at a mile a minute as it mentally prepared for battle. It balled its fists up and waited for whatever would happen next to happen.

The orb angel had begun to descend as it approached the forest and it began releasing bursts of energy that served it as an advanced sensor and allowed it to identify creatures that it was near. When its first bursts of energy touched the forest it was positively blown away by the diversity of life within the woods.

It could detect fey, bears, human loggers, wolves, and all manner of magical beasts. It could also detect the source of the divine energy, but that wasn't identified by name like the other life forms had been. Instead of telling it a name and a species, the creature's sensors were incapable of identifying the source of that information, even if they detected a definite source. It was very strange and puzzled the creature who thought about it as it neared the forest.

The source of the divine energy pulsing out of the forest was near the edge of the forest and so with each passing second, the angel drew closer and closer to whatever had set off its sensors.

The godling laid eyes on the angel before the angel laid eyes on the godling. The strange, metallic-looking orb, entered the very edge of the godlings vision by shattering some trees with its dense body and speeding towards the source of the divine energy in the forest. The creature was proceeding at speeds that were honestly incredible, far faster than the godling had been during its walk and it was the first creature the godling had ever physically seen that was capable of floating.

The orb was floating and it was drawing closer and closer to the ground with each passing second as it speedily approached the godling. As far as the godling could tell there was no particular mechanism that allowed the dense orb to do that, so it wondered how the creature was capable of doing that and curiously wondered if it was capable of replicating the orb's actions.

The orb didn't appear threatening or imposing in anyway, so the godling relaxed even as the odd-ball being approached the godling at a dizzying speed. It was doing a number on the forest though, as the strange metal orb was dense enough to smash through trees without losing any speed and the noises of the trees being decimated was definitely distracting to creatures in the forest far from where the two divine beings were.

The orb angel did the mid-air version of skidding to a stop just meters away from the godling. Due to being the creations of gods and therefore capable of subverting physical laws, orb angels could see without physical eyes. They weren't reliant on their sensors, and the angel could scarcely believe its metaphorical eyes. The source of the divine energy in the forest was a living creature. And not an angel, but an actual deity. An immature one, but a godling nonetheless.

The creature that stood before the angel, curiously and silently observing it, was a godling. It was radiating intense divine energy that seemed to wash the area directly around the godling in gentle golden light, even if that light quickly dissipated once it left the creature's skin.

The godling itself looked like someone who might have had an angel as a parent, making it a member of the species collectively known as the half-celestials. It had an androgynous, attractive face with full lips and high cheekbones and the only physical hint that it wasn't human was that its eyes had golden sclera and lacked pupils. It also had naturally tan skin, as if to help it blend in among humans. The godling drew slightly closer to the angel and then softly smiled. Its radiant face grew even more attractive as it smiled at the angel.

The soft smile went from being a kind one to a confident grin after a few seconds of continued silence between the two and in grinning the creature showed its teeth to the angel. It had a perfect grin, complete with perfectly straight and white teeth.

The creature's clothes completely covered the rest of its body below its neck but it was clearly muscular. Its arms were hidden underneath the long-sleeves of the shirt it wore and its hands were hidden underneath gloves that completely hid them from sight. The gloves came into existence as the angel was skidding to a stop in front of the godling and so the angel had a chance to glimpse at the godling's bare hands, which had been tanned and calloused as if the newborn godling naturally sprung into existence as a hand to hand fighter. Nothing could stop its muscles from pressing against the shirt it wore and revealing a vague outline of a muscular chest.

The creature was fairly tall. Its full height was over 2.1 meters and the creature had long legs. The pants were a color that completely hid the legs from sight, but the body of the creature did appear to hint at its physical capabilities, even if they understated or undersold what the being was capable of and so the legs appeared thick even underneath the pants it wore.

The angel noticed that its tanned feet, which didn't have shoes on even after the angel rather recklessly approached it, were thick and covered in dirt. The angel was curious about why the only parts of its body exposed to the elements were its face and its feet, but it was in no rush. It examined the feet in detail, and as it did so it allowed itself to descend closer to the feet to get a better look at them. As it observed each part of the godling's body it moved so that it could closely examine wherever it was looking. It was now just barely not on the ground, and when it finished its observation it went up and did its first full-body scan of the godling.

Its scan was quick and revealed nothing that the angel didn't already know. But being this close to a god and being exposed to its divine energy was slowly empowering the angel, improving its abilities and mental faculties second by second.

After admiring the creature's appearance the angel realized the godling was waiting for it to speak. The creature took a second to warm up its vocal processing unit and then attempted to communicate.

It considered what it should say to the being and then in a moment of genius-level thinking for an orb angel, normally some of the least intelligent of angel-kind, realized that it was entirely possible that the godling had no idea what it was. That was probably an important thing to ask it. It figured it should also introduce itself. And so that was what it would do.

"Hello! I am... an angel. Do you... know what you... are?"

Its voice was mechanic and there was an odd delay between some of the words. This was due to the creature needing to mentally type out words in advance, and the technology that emitted the words deciding at random what points it would stop. Once it finished its message it waited for the godling to respond.

The godling had curiously and silently observed the angel as it seemed content to visually explore the godling with unclear intent. It watched it with a confident gaze and waited for it to finish visually examining it. The creature had no idea what the angel was, and the godling's conception of self was also limited. That was understandable when one considered the circumstances of the creature. Namely that it suddenly sprang into existence in a forest and had spent literally its entire life, a life that could be measured in minutes, exploring the forest it came to life in.

Shortly after the angel finished its visual examination it seemed to come to the conclusion that the godling was waiting for it to speak. That wasn't particularly true, but when the orb did its best to ask the godling a question, the divine being instantly understood what it was asking and saw in it an opportunity to gain knowledge.

The godling answered the question almost as soon as the angel finished asking it. Its answer was short and honest.

"No, I don't."

The silence that followed the godling's declaration was very awkward. Though the godling wasn't quite sure how it could tell, it was sure that its answer surprised the angel.

The angel thought to ask the godling that question because scanning the godling revealed that the entity was a newborn. Even though it asked the question, it hadn't actually believed the godling could have been ignorant as to its nature, it believed that the entity would have encountered another lifeform and then begin to compare itself to that lifeform and quickly put two and two together like angels were capable of doing. There were a few problems with its assumptions.

The first problem was that the godling hadn't encountered another lifeform yet. The angel was literally the first lifeform the godling had actually interacted with. It had heard other lifeforms and it had even seen them, far off in the distance, but the angel was the first to approach it and engage it in conversation.

The second problem was that the godling had no conception of superiority or a desire to feel superior to other lifeforms. It wouldn't rank itself above other lifeforms like angels did.

The third problem was that it lacked a conception of what gods did. It knew that it was capable of walking quickly, but if it met other beings it would have assumed they were capable of doing what it was capable of doing. It needed to learn but to learn it had to meet other beings, which it hadn't done yet. Angels had a sense of purpose instilled in them by the gods, gods didn't. Especially not godlings that sprung into existence as godlings.

After thinking about how to proceed, the angel spoke again. Its mechanic voice had been strengthened by its proximity to the godling and came out with fewer delays this time, especially since the message itself was longer. Prior to speaking it had been lost in thought for several moments and had absorbed considerable divine power in that time.

"Well... you're a godling. An... immature god. I suppose you'll... have to learn what that means. Are you... ready to learn?"