The entity known as M.A. had a very distinct first memory. Her first memory was the sight of a face. A face the size of a medium-sized house.

The face was distinct, powerful and reptilian. The eyes on this face weren't like any eyes M.A. would ever see following the day she was awoken. This face's eyes didn't shine like sapphires, they were sapphires. Where eyes would be on most other living creatures, in clearly defined eye-sockets, this face had two beautifully cut and amazingly shiny sapphires. That may have led some to believe that the creature was blind but in actuality, its vision was unmistakably perfect. The rest of the creature's face was as memorable.

The creature's draconic scales were a variety of colors, every color imaginable and many that weren't. Many creatures would struggle to look at the dragon deity's face for very long due to the wild variety of colors they would see and their impeccable brightness.

The creature had a long draconic snout rather than a traditional noise. At the end of this facial feature was a horn that served as a powerful lightning rod. This facial feature was one of the dragon's less functional, as the creature could call and direct lightning without assistance so this feature was mostly about the dragon god's preferred aesthetic.

At the end of its snout, it had a thick mouth that due to the creature's enormous size went on for meters before reaching the being's throat. This massive maw was filled with uncounted rows of sharp teeth that it used to utterly destroy any meals trapped in its mouth that weren't dead when they entered its gullet.

An incredibly long black tongue could come forth from its maw and wrap around meals the size of wagons to pull them into the creature's mouth. It did in fact eat meals that large and the interior of its mouth was the size of a foyer. It took meals of that size to begin to put a dent in its hunger.

M.A. would later discover that the creature's name was Talonmaw, and in the distant past, it was the deity that created dragons and was the deity they were most likely to worship and serve. Much like Althos right now, that deity was considered a "true neutral" deity, a deity whose actions were mostly defined by how they benefitted it and not affected by things like morality and society. A creature that pursued its own goals above all else.

That face silently starred at her, burning itself into her memory, and then left. Eventually, M.A. would get to be tested by Talonmaw itself, to measure her overall usefulness in comparison to the old "system". This test happened just days before the obliteration of all of the old deities but that's a story for a different day.

In the present, the Mental Assistant or M.A. wasn't remembering one of the deities partially responsible for her existence. Instead, she found herself "looking at" several garbled text boxes. There were in front of what she could see, but transparent so she could still see what Althos saw, but only if she looked past the boxes and really focused what passed for her "eyes" at trying to discern what the deity was seeing could she also see it in that moment.

Her vision wasn't focused on what Althos was seeing because she didn't care for seeing the unusual awakened frog. To her, if you see one awakened frog, you've seen them all. And now she had seen an awakened frog.

Instead, M.A. was focused on the boxes containing information about Althos's feats. There were multiple rows of boxes in front of her. They were in different colors and the text that was currently impossible for her to view was also itself in a range of different sizes.

She waited to see if Althos would respond to what she said, and instead of using his words he silently gave her the mental permission she asked for. He rightfully assumed that it worked like trying to establish a mental connection and that all he had to do was will her to be able to see the boxes. She gasped when she realized that he had given her permission.

[THANK YOU ALTHOS!]

She eagerly thanked him and then quickly began to sort through the feats he had earned. Then she quietly began to read them off. Some of them, like [Demon Tamer] were pretty extraordinary, and others were less so. Eventually, though, after several minutes of quietly reading feats and their rewards aloud, she hit the one he had just earned.

[CREATING A CULT (1/5):

THE FIRST STEP IN BUILDING A PLANE-SPANNING RELIGION IS TO GAIN YOUR FIRST WORSHIPPER. WORSHIPPERS PROVIDE THEIR GODS WITH AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF DIVINE ENERGY AND FAITH-POWER.

REWARD: GRANTS A SIGNIFICANT BOOST TOWARDS A SUBDOMAIN RELATED TO THE PROCESS BY WHICH THE WORSHIPPER WAS GAINED. IN THIS CASE, YOU CAN SELECT THE FOLLOWING SUBDOMAINS: AWAKENINGS, AMPHIBIANS, SIZE. WHICHEVER SUBDOMAIN YOU SELECT WILL BE FILLED WITH EXPERIENCE.

THE AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE THAT FILLS THE SUBDOMAIN WILL DEPEND ON HOW EXTRAORDINARY THE CONDITIONS BEHIND THE WORSHIPPER COMING TO WORSHIP THE OBJECT OF THEIR FAITH WAS. FOR EXAMPLE, GAINING A WORSHIPPER BY SAVING THEIR LIVES CAN BE PRETTY EXTRAORDINARY DEPENDING ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE LIFE-SAVING ACT, BUT BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORSHIPPER GAINING SENTIENCE OR EVEN CREATING THE WORSHIPPER ALTOGETHER ARE GENERALLY MORE EXTRAORDINARY.

REWARDS WILL BE GIVEN FOR COMPLETING EACH PHASE OF THIS FEAT.]

Althos and Silander were quietly walking through the forest. The young frog was considerably shorter than the deity, and so the pace they explored the forest in was set by her. And though she quite literally set the pace, her mind was elsewhere.

Fortunately for her, her mind wasn't the only one which was elsewhere. The creature she recognized was a god, and who had kindly gifted her with consciousness was also distracted.

Althos was distracted by the voice of M.A. reading through various text boxes. He quietly listened as M.A. read through the box that contained the feat's text. The deity liked what it heard. And it knew which to pick without hesitating at all.

[I am going to pick the subdomain named "awakenings". Awakening Silander was amazing and because of the odd process by which it happened, the little frog it once was no longer exists and now it is a "great frog". If I empower the "awakenings" subdomain I can improve my own ability to awaken things and creatures and assist my followers in doing so as well.]

As soon as he finished that thought, Althos felt a thick rush of power surge through his body and infuse each of the cells in his physical form. He recognized that it meant that his ability to awaken a creature had just undergone a significant boost. He was excited by this, but only barely reacted to it physically, mostly resisting the urge to visibly celebrate his new power. This was because he wanted to look cool in front of his worshipper, and so far he was succeeding. His attempts at stoicism were interrupted by M.A. who made the following idle remark:

[SILANDER ISN'T AN "IT". SILANDER IS A WOMAN.]

For a second this shocked Althos so much that his calm facial expression abruptly changed. Fortunately, Silander was looking away at that second and the young godling was able to regain his composure in time.

The pair were walking through the forest in the general direction of Althos's servants. Silander didn't know this but though Althos was distracted by the mental conversation he was having with his mental assistant he was still making use of one of his powers to protect the young frog who had just sworn to worship him.

Althos quietly made use of his tremor-sense power to unconsciously steer them away from paths that led to creatures who weren't underground. For her part in all of this whenever her deity subtly stirred her in a new direction she obeyed his subtle commands without question.

Silander's gaze continuously fell upon the deity she wondered how to worship. She only looked away from his face so that she may check the ground in front of her and not trip on it, particularly since she wasn't accustomed to walking on two feet. But for the most part, she was quiet and her large eyes did the great-frog equivalent of basking in her master's glory.

Her consciousness had been suffused with his divine energy, and that transformed her. Not physically, though it did play a factor in causing her to physically evolve. No, her transformation was a mental one.

In her mind, her master had performed an act of kindness in awakening her. She had no idea that her awakening was actually an experiment by her master to see what happened if he awakened a creature. Not that such knowledge would have actually changed her mind about her decision to worship her master.

Her mind was filled with thoughts and questions about how she should properly worship her master, questions that could only be answered by Althos himself. The main thought that drifted through her mind and one of the few concrete things she was certain about was that she wanted others to join her in worshipping him. She wanted to see others serving him, and wondered about how she could make that happen.

Her worldly knowledge was fairly limited. She was vaguely aware that other humanoids existed but had only ever once seen a creature as large as Althos other than the deity himself and at the time of that encounter her basic frog brain compelled her to run. She had fled from the other, smaller, humanoids she had encountered during her life so she knew little about them other than that they weren't gods like Althos was. For some reason, she was certain of that.

In time, once she gathered the courage to speak to her master, she'd ask him directly how he'd like to be worshiped.

The duo was an odd pair as they explored the forest together. A massive naked man with picturesque and intimidating muscles and the facial expression of a stern statue walked next to a humanoid-shaped and sized frog walking slowly and carefully on two feet.

Silander spent many moments with her head tilted upwards at her master, and she found herself wishing he'd look at her. His eyes were pointed directly ahead of them at all times, and his mind wandered between being present in the moment and being distant.

Eventually, though they neared the informal campsite that the orcs had established. When they were less than 5 minutes away Althos, grabbed his newest worshipper and pulled the tiny and light frog-girl until she was standing directly in front of him. He felt the rush of blood go from other parts of her body to her face but was unsure of why that happened.

Then he began to speak.

"Silander, we're about to be in territory occupied by my allies. Many of which are servants of mine. They do not know that I am a god. They will be curious about you. We'll tell them the truth. More or less. We'll say that I found you and awoke you, but we won't mention that I'm a deity. They believe that I'm a... well honestly I don't know what they believe I am. But it's not a deity. Do you understand? And will you obey?"

The frog-girl looked at him, thought about his words for a second, and then nodded.

"Yes, awakener. I understand. And I will obey."

Her voice was soft and melodic, powered by the innate magic which was now a part of her very soul. He nodded back at her and took one of her front legs in his hand. She looked away from her master and smiled at this, but said nothing.

The two continued their walk quietly until they arrived back where Althos left his servants sleeping, and Raverangos to oversee them and protect them. The demon nodded at its master and looked at Silander. For a fleeting moment, there was mild curiosity written on its face but as quickly as it came it went.

Silander looked around at the tiny area where the orcs who served Althos were arranged. They were sleeping in a long, thin line of bedrolls. They moved around in their sleep, and occasionally one of them would laugh or talk in his sleep.

Then Silander looked up and saw the demon, Raverangos sitting down with its thick back against a sturdy tree. The creature was wide awake, and it was clearly paying attention to its surroundings. It was a powerfully built creature that was even taller than Althos was, which was in and of itself an impressive achievement.

When the demon turned to meet her curious gaze, she sheepishly turned around and hugged the man who awakened her. She instinctively made use of the magic that flowed through her veins to turn her hands into sticky pads and used those pads to cling to her awakener more effectively.

Althos sighed as he felt her cling to his body. He decided to be kind to her, because she was his first worshipper. He figured he could dote on her a bit and allow her to stay clinging to his chest. He ran his hands over the soft skin of her hairless head, gently stroking it and warming his fingers to help her relax.

At this point, the deity also willed into existence pants that were form-fitting so that he was no longer walking around in the nude. He didn't call a shirt into being, because Silander was clinging to him, and much like his demonic pet leaned back and sat down against a nearby tree.

Raverangos felt something loosely resembling curiosity when its master returned to the camp their allies had built with a tiny frog-person. But the demon thought about it for a second and then realized it didn't really care enough to ask about it. It accepted that its master was an odd fellow and had a habit of quickly gaining new followers.

The demon was comfortable. It was sitting on the ground and due to its impressive height even when seated it was as tall as the orcs were standing up. Its back was propped up against a tree with the impressive thickness needed to accommodate its sizeable width.

It had spent the last few minutes watching the orcs. It would eagerly complete the tasks its master assigned it, and being a guardian was something the sentinel demon could do with its eyes closed.

Now that its master had returned, it looked to god and tried to do something that surprised both the Mental Assistant and Althos. Establish a mental connection with the god. And there was something even more surprising that happened: it succeeded.

[Master... may I go to hunt?]

The creature's mental voice was quiet, slow, and calm. It was a bit of a shock to the godling to hear such a relaxed voice coming from the demon.

[Raverangos? Did you establish a mental connection with me just now? You could establish a mental connection, at all?]

The god asked a variety of questions all at once. Questions that were kind of surprising to the demon who merely tilted its thick skull quizzically at its master.

[Yes? Yes, I did. And of course... all demons and all other extraplanars can do this.]

When Althos heard that his eyes went wide with understanding. He didn't know what extraplanars were, but he had heard M.A. mention them before. He supposed extraplanars included demons, which included Raverangos.

He thought about what the demon asked, and then nodded before sending a mental message to the creature.

[Yes you may. Be careful though. I don't know what's in this forest. And come back before the sun rises. That should give you a few hours so I don't feel bad giving you that timelimit.]

The demon nodded at its master and began to get up. The process was slow due to the creature's weight and the awkward nature of its limbs, but sure enough, after a minute and a half passed the creature wandered off into the forest.

Althos wanted to move but he was also cognizant of the fact that Silander was now most of the way asleep. She kept clinging to him, and though he didn't hate that he mostly wanted her to go to sleep elsewhere.

Within moments she was completely asleep, and at this point, the young godling mentally messaged both Samyaza and M.A. at the same time.

[Well... I guess this is how I'm spending tonight. Great.]

He heard bemused laughter come from both of the entities who seemed to relish being in his brain and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

The godling then introduced his advisor to his assistant and vice-versa, though that was mostly a formality since they were in close proximity to each other already.

And the three of them began a long conversation.

Meanwhile in Infernius:

Salifinos the imp found itself pinned down, staring at the dark brown sky above it, and in pain as a devilish police officer was suddenly all up in his business. To say that this made him an unhappy little imp would have been the understatement of the millennium.

"Hey, get your hands off of me! I didn't do anything and you damn winged-ones better let me go soon or else I'll-"

The imp didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. He was cut off by the devil, a woman who looked remarkably mortal, and whose battle-scarred hands were on him.

"You'll what? Tell me little one... what do you think you'll do?"

Her voice was soft and gentle, but like a rose had its thorns it had an edge to it. The imp hadn't stopped trying to talk but he had stopped successfully saying words. Instead he was nervously stammering through an attempt at bravado. After a few seconds passed, she once again cut him off.

"I'm waiting, little imp... what will do you?"

In all honesty, she was being remarkably patient, calling one of the devilish police a "winged one" was an act of great insolence and even high ranking devilish police officers have killed for less.

"S-s-sorry... You all just caught me at a bad time is all. But I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not lying about that."

Salifinos tried to defuse the situation. He wasn't lying. About anything. He hoped that his honesty would mollify the police officer who had him under her thumb. And all of her other fingers.

The imp had returned to the dismal plane of existence known as Infernius after an excursion to the mortal plane that lasted for several thousand continuous years. He had discovered a truly powerful trick that allowed him to spring back into existence in the mortal plane if killed, a trick he learned from a lich he served in the distant past and using that trick gave him an unthinkable advantage over his competitors who if killed had to respawn all the way back in Infernius.

The only reason the imp had returned here at all was that someone needed to warn the higher-ups that a demon had been spotted. A portal to the Heart of Darkness was worth returning here to visit, even if it meant that Salifinos would have to wait to return to the mortal plane. And now that this police officer was on top of him he knew he'd have to suspend achieving his primary goal.

But the devilish police officer wasn't there because Salifinos had done anything wrong. Her mission was to collect him and bring him to the creature she and the city's other police officers reported too. And she had just completed part one of that mission.

Now onto the second.

Minutes later, in a tower's penthouse that overlooked the city of Bastille, a city in the plane of Infernius

The devil and the angel ate dinner in silence, though if anyone looked at the pair they'd have a difficult time determining which was the devil and which was the angel. Between bites of the delicious meal laid out before them one of the two men might briefly glimpse out the window to their right and absorb the view, the oddly scenic devilish city that stretched out beyond the tall tower the greater devil lived in.

Whichever one of them looked out the window might think of a comment about it, but they'd never utter it aloud. That wasn't the sort of relationship the two had. Nor was it the sort of relationship either of them wanted.

They were perfectly content to dine in silence. They weren't like mortals, after all, they recognized the value of a good silence between business-partners. They knew that a good silence, the best sort of silence, was broken only by comments by value.

And since they were waiting for one of the devil's police officers on the ground to collect the tiny creature they hoped would confirm what Samyaza had blurted out to the multitude of angels across the mortal plane of existence hours ago, they knew that it was possible that this silence, in particular, would be broken by a truly valuable comment.

And this silence was interrupted by a valuable comment. Or rather, a valuable noise. Both of the creatures eating dinner listened eagerly but silently as the devil's P.A. system went off and after a second or two of static, the sound of the fiend's secretary filled the vast penthouse the devil, Paimon, lived in.

"Master Paimon, one of your enforcers is here. And she has a... guest with her."

The devil, smiled at this, and his cat-like eyes lit up with excitement and tension as he responded to his secretary.

"Send them up Lydia. And keep up the good work!"

The devil's voice was eager, kind, and elderly. Those traits meshed well with his physical appearance, but they didn't match the content of his soul. Azel, the gossip angel, knew this but he didn't say anything. He didn't need to. The devil and angel were excellent business partners and even shared an alignment, but the two of them hated each other.

Their mutual hatred made their silences during their weekly dinners a truly relaxing event, aside from moments like this where they were posed to discover secrets that could shape the future. And truly relaxing events were worth their weight in gold or even in souls in the plane of Infernius.