- My god, I have become a god! It certainly doesn’t feel like it.

I muttered to myself and sat on the ground. Next few hours I have spent reading through the booklet. It turned out to be really helpful. The task before me was tremendous.

To sum up.

Even if I am a god now, I am really weak one. Basically at the minimum threshold to be called a god. I have received ownership of the Heavens and its Throne, which is apparently quite a powerful divine artifact.

In order to strengthen myself, my subordinates or the very Heavens themselves Divinity is required. Divinity is the main resource for gods and divine beings. It is born from the belief of mortals. Mortals are defined as those that have no Divinity in their bodies.

Eras of Strife were caused due to interregnum of gods. Since I took over immediately after the old god the effect should be somewhat lessened, but the old god and gods before him still had many incursions at the power level I am at. Power level for someone with no combat experience or skills was also meaningless. I could only hide behind angels and cheer them on.

I realized that while this job had many perks it was quite shitty. I had my fate tied with the fate of Thrope. There was no way to quit!

Having read what I could, I decided to sightsee the Heavens. Beside old god there was no one around the cloud I was on. There were ancient style buildings on other clouds as well as some winged humanoids that were probably angels, my new coworkers.

Taking a few deep breaths I tried to get to the nearest cloud. The exit of the old god made empty spaces between each one. There was no ground under the holes. Who knows where they might lead to. It was too long a distance too jump. The clouds were no more getting any closer to each other.

How am I supposed to move around?

- Fuck. I am stranded on a deserted cloud.

I wished I were at slightly bigger island.

Suddenly my horizon moved. Now I was standing on a cloud with a pretty impressive structure. There were very nice greek-like columns and several golden arches. In the middle were several stairs and on their summit there was a golden throne surrounded by clouds. There was no roof though. Guess it was cut from the construction’s budget.

I walked towards the steps and slowly ascended. I sat upon the Throne of Thrope.

- Now we fear nothing but the sky falling on our heads. Or rather from beneath our feet! – I declared.

- Very mature, Young Master.

I turned towards this sudden voice. It was an angel. I guess. I mean she had wings that were tucked behind her and halo above her forehead. She was a high lady, but here wingtips were reaching about two heads height more than her halo. She looked pretty strict with a pair of half-glasses on her nose. Glasses were tied with silver chain. She was dressed in a baggy robes like an ancient Roman noble lady would wear. They hardly concealed her immaculate figure. She fixed her glasses up.

- Archangel Armaediael, at your service.

Armaediael? She is an Archangel with tongue twister of a name. I will call her Archie.

- Hi! I am the new god, my name is..

- No names! Unless Sir have established a Godly Name. Revealing your Sir’s given mortal name to anyone can only bring trouble.

- Why would it result in trouble?

- Names have power over all creation. A True Name can allow one to rule over the named in worst case scenario. The best outcome would be to make cursing the named an easier task.

- Is it correct to assume the name I was given by my parents is my True Name?

- Partially, yes. True Name is made of many parts and greater the being longer the name. Godly Name would become a part of True Name in time.

I realized the old god never gave me his name.

- Huh? The Old God never introduced himself.. was it a secret?

- No, of course not. Godly Names should be made known to all creation beneath the Heavens!

- Even if it’s a part of a True one?

- This is an exception, that no god can avoid. Worshippers should know their God.

- Well, I don’t have one yet.

- I understand.

I gazed at her while tapping on the Throne’s armrest.

- So you were tasked to stay in Heavens by the Old God?

- God conducted the Heavenly Poll.

- Heavenly Poll? – I inquired.

- THE HEAVENLY POLL! – Archie yelled.

- Oh. Ok, but what does it mean?

- The God sayeth “Thou decithest whetheresth thou stayeth or leaveth”

Her speech pattern was really getting on my nerves. Every now and then she would let slip those anachronisms. I was also sure half of it was grammatically incorrect. It was getting hard to filter out here real meaning.

This might have been a translation quirk. After all we were probably speaking some celestial language. Yup. Checked. It’s actually called Celestial.

- ..aaaaand you stayeth?

- Yes.

- May I inquire why?

- I wanted to help mortals and keep the world safe.

How pure.

- The angels that left with Old God did not?

- Your Divine Highness, the intentions of many was to remain by His side. That does not mean they cared not. Each angel have their own personaliy and reasons to accompany their decisions. To choose whether to abandon their God or their World was truly hard. In the end He discussed a quota with His Archangels. Those that wavered were convinced until the stay-at-home team was balanced.

- I get it. So how many Archangels decided to stay.

She raised her hand.

- Yes, please answer.

- Just me, Your Holiness.

- Just you.

- Just me.

- Could you tell me how many angel troops we currently have?

- In the Heavens of Thrope there are currently 1 Archangel, 241 High Angels and 2029 Angels under Your Brilliance rule.

- Please correct me if I’m wrong, but is it not too few to run a whole world with?

- There is no need to correct. Outside the Heavens there are also the Fallen Angels in Hells to be accounted for.

- Fallen Angels? Have they sinned against the God and Throne?

- Not every one of them. Some were appointed or were requested to watch over Hell. If, Your Benevolence is curious an inquiry towards Angel Resources can be made.

- Could you have it done? It would be useful to know who they really are.

- Of course. As soon as there is an angel in charge of Angel Resources it will be done.

- Splendid.

I smiled.

- Wait a moment, this “as soon” means that no one is in charge of AR Department currently?

- That is correct, My Liege.

- Why is there no one there?

- There is not enough angels for non-essential tasks I am afraid.

- Of course. So how many Fallen Angels are there?

- 2 Fallen Archangels, 300 Fallen High Angels and 1000 Fallen Angels.

- Is this a joke? Am I a joke god? Why on earth are there more Fallen Angels than not!

- There were quite a few who did not see eye-to-eye with Him. Also the troublemakers are something called a hot potato. Though I don’t understand the term, this was what He used to describe them.

- Hot Potato!?

My sanity points were dropping one by one.

- Your Illuminence worries for naught. They can’t go against the God of Thrope. Although they might not listen to orders obediently.

- Can we hire more angels?

She laughed so merrily I was instantly annoyed.

- What a great joke. I haven’t laughed so much since Myriel got drunk and crashed into the Gates mid-flight. Ha ha ha..

My own subordinate was laughing at my misfortune.

If you know any angels looking for jobs, please don’t hesitate to call your nearest priest. Or pray directly at 1-800-HEAVENS.