“Barely a goddess for a day, and you’re already lying to humanity,” Isabel said. “You’re just like the other gods.”

I just wanted to express how much I loved this line! It really conveyed both the annoyed-sister tone with which Isabel was trying to convince (or indirectly show her belief in) the act that Emma is now a god and Isabel's disdain for the gods at the same time. Not to mention that this ties perfectly later on in the end of the second to last segment, where Hailee straight up lies to the all the worshipping mortals and baseball players about the goddesses caring about the game.

The whole unwitting god bit with Emma to start this chapter was a lot of fun to read. And between the urgency of trying to save her sister's eternal soul and the fact that Alexandra has not only shown an interest in her but fucked with her before makes it totally believable that she would be able to shrug these things off or attribute them to Alex.

I love what the Devine Defiance Club turned out to be. I have to admit to falling into the same trap that Emma did when she first found out about the club, as I too pictured it holding meetings in some dark, dank area made of worn stone blocks and lit by dim torches. Meeting at a local community center was hilarious to me, as was the fact that it turned out, at least from what I gathered, to be little more than a social club or a place for its members to vent about the gods.

Syaara didn't seem too bright in the grand scheme of things. The demons that went after Melissa certainly had a much better plan of attack than this aggressive demon. I don't think the members of her club would have been at all successful using those weapons, as I have a hard time believing that arming random civilians to fight four gods would make for an effective plan of attack. I also think that attacking a god, even an unknowing one, straight up like she did to Emma was a questionable strategy at best, given that we saw first hand how outclassed she was against an Emma that didn't even fully understand what was happening. And attacking the shoe of a 300-foot-tall Emma? Now that was just dumb.

I can appreciate her intensity, though!

And the casual way that Emma did away with Syaara was fantastic! I love how Isabel and she didn't even break their conversation while Emma violently disarmed and then smushed her. What a way to convey what a nonthreat Syaara had become, as well as how much faith Isabel had in her sister without even thinking about it. It was as though as soon as she found herself in Emma's palm, she knew she was safe (well, after that brief yet understandable sense of fear) and went about having a conversation with her goddess sister that sounded more normal than awed. Isabel didn't even acknowledge her other club members before or after Emma sent them scattering.

Even the way Isabel tries to manipulate Emma into making her a god has the feel of a normal sister-to-sister spat (we even got an "I'll tell mom" thrown in there). Despite everything, even Isabel's power-hungry nature (what a glorious hypocrite she turned out to be!) and her need to hide behind her sister's fingers in the presence of the other gods, their relationship seems very much the same (but dialed up a bit, given that Isabel is dealing with the disappointment of having godhood dangled in front of her). I think Emma's I'm-a-regular-person approach to this has a lot to do with that.

And I like how Emma has been very down to earth about her godhood so far, both before and after she realized the truth. One thing that stuck out for me was Emma telling Isabel at the baseball game (before the younger sibling accepted that she was a god) that she wasn't letting her newfound size "go to her head." That seems to be a general vibe with Emma throughout this chapter.

I think that makes a lot of sense, not only because it fits what we know about her character so far but also because, unlike the original four gods, Emma has lived with tangible, ever-present gods roaming the planet for 13 months. So when she says that she isn't letting power "go to her head," I imagine she's picturing the other gods and trying to steer away from their example.

So it makes a lot of sense that Emma is starting to see herself as a sort of gatekeeper goddess rather than the ruler of the universe. She just wants to let Melissa keep up the status quo (I wonder if she'll act if she feels like Melissa is abusing her power) and wants to keep the ultimate power to herself not to exploit it, but to make sure no one else abuses it.

I'm curious to see if that mentality sticks or if the power starts to get to her after a while. We never saw what the other gods went through when they first ascended, so it's tough to say whether they started from a similar position as Emma or not. It's too soon to call whether Emma's story is going to become a way to show how the other gods (who have sometimes been judged harshly by some of the readers, if the reviews are anything to go by) came to be the way they are or show us how a budding goddess will make different choices because of how her peers behave.

Of course, that's assuming that Emma is going to be keeping this power long term, which I don't think is a given.

While I still think that Melissa isn't a bad person overall, she really does make it hard to like her sometimes. And yeah, I agree with you that there are worse people who could have her power (and, at times this chapter, she did show her nicer, more playful side as well, which was great), but there certainly are better people that could have it as well, as we see here.

I was legitimately shocked when I read that she she threatened Emma and Camilla's souls in order to keep Brad and Alexandra in line. I get that it was a bluff (although, based on her PlayStation analogy, I'm not exactly sure where the legit threat ends and the bluff begins), but holy shit is it harsh and self-centered to use her fellow gods' loved ones just to maintain a sense of control, not to mention how cruel that could potentially be for the mortals in question if she would have went through with even part of the threat.

I also found myself thinking that Melissa explanation about the bluff to Hailee was more than a bit hypocritical, given her strong feelings against using a god's loved ones to get to said god when it involves her family (poor Vanessa). I also can't imagine she would have been so understanding if, after one of her fellow gods threatened Alejandro and Carlito, they justified by saying that they weren't actually going to damn their souls just to get to her.

It was interesting to hear Melissa's inspiration for what she envisions godhood to be, though. And I think it its really well with the gods' human roots, too; the dwellers of Mount Olympus also seemed all too similar to the mortals over which they ruled. However, the new gods at least have some justification for that, as they had actual human baggage to check during their ascension.

It was a bit disappointing that Melissa seemed more disappointed at Alexandra and Brad for going against her vision of what gods are supposed to be than the death and despair they likely caused a ton of mortal (although, like I said last review, I think there was some effort to intentionally avoid squishing some people, like Isabel, for example).

I don't know, I still feel like Melissa is fighting an internal battle between her humanity and the isolation (and maybe even a bit of corruption?) that comes with divinity. And I think her humanity is losing that fight, which, again, I think will leave her miserable in the long run if she stays on this course.

I thought it was pretty cool of Hailee to stand up for Brad and Alexandra. The last time we saw all of the gods together (during Brad's chapter) I did get the sense that Hailee has a more personal connection with her fellow gods, and I think we see that here both with her defending our two missing deities and in how she interacts with Melissa, both at the Pantheon and when she tried to get the god queen to tone down that god attitude with Emma.

Hailee seems to be the most genuine of the gods, as her desire to help people seems natural to the point that I wouldn't be surprised to find out that she was the type of person to help out total strangers in need without any desire for credit or reward before becoming a god. I feel like she's basically just like her human self, but with god powers ... except when it comes to Jay. I think her power has corrupted her a bit in that department, allowing her desire for Jay and sadness at being rejected by him to push her toward doing things she would normally never even dream of considering.

In any case, her sense of camaraderie with her fellow lesser gods was good to see here.

I found it really interesting that Melissa, when feeling Emma's power through her hand and her stare, reacted the exact same way as Syaara. Going back to my point of Melissa's humanity losing out to her divinity, this, at least in my mind, seems to back that up. That she used the exact same wording as the demoness when questioning Emma can't be a coincidence, could it? No, it seems as though Melissa is thinking on that same plane and sharing the same concerns as the other immortal being, losing her humanity to the universe her power has opened her up to.

And the fear that Melissa feels when she realizes that not only is there a new goddess in town but one more powerful than her is perfectly written here. The way she struggles but manages to maintain control and is so worried about image that she has to finish watching the baseball game before going after Emma fits her character so well.

I think this could be good for Melissa, though. Regardless of how Emma handles being the most powerful god, being a humbled a little could do wonders for the old god queen.

So now we just need to figure out where Alex and Brad are. Were they absorbed into Emma along with their powers and they're consciousnesses are roaming around somewhere within her? Were they somehow teleported to a different plane (Syaara and Melissa made it pretty clear that they aren't in this one)? I don't think they're dead (there's too much story left to be told with both of them), so they have to be somewhere. I also have to wonder if they're completely mortal now or if they've maintained some semblance of godhood.

Hey, thanks for the response :) Yeah, I like hypocritical power-hungry characters. Characters like Lex Luthor justify hating Superman because of some tripe about how he doesn't want mankind to be reliant on an alien god and that he'll stifle humanity. What he really means is that he hates that humanity isn't relying on LUTHOR and every time he gets a comparable level of power he quickly goes mad and makes it clear that all his resentment and rage boils down to Original Position Fallacy.

Isabelle is interesting because she has VERY good reason to dislike the gods, particularly Alexandra. They basically go 'Gods Work in Mysterious Ways', but unless I missed something, there actually is no reason given as to why they don't simply change things like world hunger, cancer, poverty etc etc. Melissa gets mad when the tv show host unintentionally calls her own it and Isabelle justifiably states that it's bullshit. Judging by Isabelle, the reason amounts to 'they'd rather just have fun and be the big dogs rather than actually solve longer lasting problems due to megalomania'. 

Alexandra is the worst of the lot. I think you mentioned in another review that she was secretly a softy or that she has a kind heart underneath, but you can't really walk back casual mass murder. It's mentioned and shown that Alex uses cities as toys to get herself off and that she most definitely kills and injures hundreds to thousands of people every time she does this. I figured at first that maybe she needs mass fear to function, but we saw her getting off just fine with JUST Emma's fear in the previous chapter. The fact that she specifically targeted the corrupt CEO's makes me think that she COULD just target deserving victims like killers, rapists etc but chooses not to because terrorizing an innocent populace is quicker and easier. And as a god, she just doesn't care about massacring humans any more than humans care about massacring ants.

But yeah, here's hoping that Isaballe does NOT get powers. We've already got for four (now maybe two?) examples of power-hungry gods in the setting and a fifth one just wouldn't be as interesting as a powerless human with a lust for power that could rival any deity. Her absolute lack of self-reflection or sense of irony is fun and I wonder if she'd serve the gods she purports to hate so much if she thinks it gives her a chance to scrape some power or influence from them.

I also hope that Emma retains her morals. Her being the new most powerful god, but actually retaining most of her morals, would make her a good foil to Melissa. As another review pointed out, Melissa seems to understand that she knows what she's doing is wrong but her pride and status as a god refuses to let her accept it. She demands that her husband apologize to her rather than the other way around. Emma being the new power on the block who doesn't fall to megalomania kind of spits in Melissa's face about the idea that all humans, regardless of who they were, will inevitably decide that 'fuck you, got mine' is the only resolution they can come to. 

On a side note, do you have a discord and/or patreon? I'd subscribe to get earlier chapters :)

This is one of the most original size stories that I've read and I love
the concept so much. I also like the unpredictability of the universe -
that people can gain godlike power and then lose it. It's fascinating
how the goddesses and god react to their power and how human-like they
remain despite their abilities.

Author's Response:

High praise from my friend! I didn’t think you’d be into this kind of story, but I’m so giddy to hear your compliment! I love the universe in this story and how things are not as they appear. Even the gods don’t know the entire story and simply live their lives without thinking about the consequences. Thank you for your comment, Nyx!

Holy shit! You sure know how to jump back into a story! And this new chapter even featured my goddess of choice, Alexandra!

This more intimate setting gave us a much better look at who Alex is not just as a god but as a person as well. Reading this, I felt like some of my previous theories on the goddess of fear were bolstered, but a few other things stuck out to me as well.

One thing that stuck out for me is how Alexandra uses fear as a means of maintaining control. Not so much control in the sense of ordering people around, but more along the lines of keeping others from noticing her more vulnerable side and, I almost want to say, keeping herself in check, although that's more of a vibe I picked up than something I can say with any certainty.

Take Alex giving Emma the anklet, for example. The word choice to describe Alex's feeling at seeing Emma being happy with the gift. She gave a relieved smile. The thing about being relieved is that it's a feeling you can't experience without first going through some degree of anxiety or nervousness. This is our first hint that Alex isn't just playing around with Emma (despite her claims to the contrary later on); she genuinely cares about the reporter. She even goes so far as to get down and put it on Emma, which the hostess correctly notes is an act of humility. Although I don't think Alex was going all Jesus and washing people's feet or anything like that; I just think she was happy and maybe even a bit excited to see Emma enjoy her gift. Still, that's most definitely something you would expect a goddess to do, especially not a goddess of fear.

However, any thought of Alex showing Emma genuine emotion is quickly forgotten as the goddess feeds off of Emma's fear of ending up like those corporate fucks. Yeah, I think part of Alex's reaction is based on the pleasure she feels from Emma's fear, but, to me, it felt like a way for Alex to maintain control and not let her feelings get the best of her.

Later on, when Alex agrees to Emma's sub pitch, after agreeing to give up control to Emma, the goddess attempts to cease control of the situation by trying to intimidate and terrify Emma into doing a good job. In other words, Alex's natural instincts were to control the situation in which she was giving up control, in which she would open herself up a bit and become vulnerable, in which she would finally surrender to someone else. I feel pretty confident in calling that a defense mechanism.

Another thing that I noticed here (and something I suspected the first time we met Alexandra) was that beneath that terrifying, harsh exterior is a legitimately good person. Any doubt about that went away when she told Emma that she wouldn't punish those plotting against the gods not only because Isabel is a part of it but because, if Melissa is right and a demon is leading them, then it isn't their fault that they went down this path. I know Melissa bent the rules a little last chapter and forgave the people who stopped believing in her in order to be sacrificed (I'm sure her son being among them had nothing to do with that), but I can't see the head of the gods showing that kind of mercy in this situation. The most feared goddess, the one everyone believes is a heartless killer, showed tremendous empathy there.

But Alex hides that good nature under the persona of the goddess of fear. She likes to make people think she's a monster and even goes so far as to prefer feeding off the fear she creates rather than craving the more traditional style of worship the other gods (well, minus Brad, who isn't about worship at all) demand.

So why does she hide her true self behind that dark façade, and why is she so reluctant to show anything that could be construed as weakness in the presence of others?

I still say that she was lied to or taken advantage of somehow in her former life. Maybe someone (or someones) used her for her looks, told her what she wanted to hear and made her feel like there was something real between them only to betray her. Or perhaps she has lived most of her life around "fake" people and feels like she can't open up to anyone, even a little.

I originally thought that maybe she came from a poorer background, given the way she reportedly goes after the rich, but what if it's the opposite? What if she comes from a rich, powerful family and always hated that world? Seeing more of her personality here, I'm kind of getting that vibe more than I do the "came from nothing" one. She comes off very playful and even just a tad bit entitled (not in a divine way, nor in a spoiled way, but it's kind of like she gets bored or slightly disappointed when things don't turn out the way she wants, if that makes sense) but also elegant and sociable as well.

It was a small thing, but I also loved how "Molly" put down Alexandra to Isabel, saying she's not as clever as Melissa. It's incredibly clever to make people underestimate you like that, and it also fits in really well with the rest of her effort to hide her true self from the world.

Oh, and the fact that Isabel was saved from being crushed by Alex's wings by "dumb luck" seems to me like another sign that Alex is being more careful in deciding who she kills than most people think.

You know, I think I said before that deep down Alex wants to be recognized for who she is but isn't going to be forthcoming about it for all of the reasons listed above. Obviously, my thought is that this is the reason she started paying attention to Emma after seeing that the reporter actually seemed to care about "Molly's" work with the homeless. Again, I feel vindicated here.

Like I said above, it became apparent early on that Alex genuinely cares for Emma, and I could even argue that the goddess taking the time show up for dinner is a clear indication of that. Then it was confirmed when Alex declared her love for her "lovely Emma" while pleasuring herself inside the reporter's stomach. But I think we also got to see why Alex feels the way she does about Emma in this chapter as well.

When Alex was laying on thick the thought that she was going to damn both Isabel and Emma herself, Emma was able to see past that and understand what Alex was actually doing. She suppressed her fear, something I don't think she would have been able to do unless she felt pretty good about the threat being a bluff. She saw Alex's true nature there, and continued to do so when she figured out that, not only was Alex not going to eternally torment her sister but that Isabel being her sister was actually a consideration Alex had when deciding how to deal with the anti-god group.

Then there's Emma's intuition during her time dominating and subjugating Alex and Brad. The reporter, on some level, knew what Alex needed to get off with a mortal, what she was really craving this whole time (and Brad was easy enough to figure out just from his words alone). Again, Emma is starting to see past the version of Alex that the goddess wants everyone to see, which is how she could take things so far and never actually be afraid of neglected Alex's threats. I think it's also part of the reason why Alex found the whole thing so hot in the first place.

And by the way, lost in all this rambling of mine is that the smut itself here was fucking incredibly thought out and executed! The idea alone was really hot, but the attitude conveyed by all three parties involved made everything so much better. I just felt like I should point that out, since I've been babbling about character stuff up until now.

But back to Emma for a second. I was happy for both Alex and her that they made this breakthrough of sorts, but I'm also a little worried about Emma as well (well, assuming that she didn't absorb a portion of Brad and Alex's godhood; I'm not even going to speculate on that). While Emma clearly has legit feeling for Alex and obviously enjoyed what they all did together, her thoughts of trying to influence Alex into a kinder direction could come back to bite her. While her intentions are good and I don't think she's simply hoping to use Alex, if she tries it (and assuming I'm even a little right about Alex's background), that may not end so well for her. I don't think Alex would acknowledge those good intentions if she feels like she's being manipulated.

I've already basically written a book, so I won't go too deep into Brad here. But I will say that I love that he just popped up here and that, even when he tries to think like a god, he still ends up pushing that aside to be all too human.

That last segment with Melissa was particularly thought-provoking.

You know, I've always gotten a bit of a different vibe from Melissa than I did from the other gods, but the end of this chapter made the reason why click for me. Each of the other three freshly-minted divinities (even Alex, if my theories on her are even at least partially right) have had their actions as gods motivated in one way or another by their old, mortal wants. Hailee has let herself become obsessed with the mortal that got away, Brad lived his first year of immortality trying to live out the life he thought he wanted when he was human, and Alex, if I'm reading her right, carefully hides her good nature and desire to be seen as she truly is behind a veil of cruelty because of things that happened and/or how people treated her when she was mortal.

By far, Melissa has conducted herself in the most "godlike" fashion throughout the story up until this point, demanding respect and condemning offending mortals while also showing those who believe in her grace, love, and mercy and even providing them with the occasional miracle. And it wasn't until now that the thing that separated her from the other gods hit me.

Unlike them, Melissa is content with what she has.

While the other three are seeking meaningful connection with a mortal, she had that even before becoming a god. Having Alejandro and Carlos in her life left her content where the others remain yearning. Because of that, Melissa has largely compartmentalized her family life from her role as a god. Yeah, she'll use her power around her family for fun or to get creative with a punishment for Carlos, but she would also send Alejandro away before eating nonbelievers and a lot of the hostility shown by  Carlos early on in the story was rooted in the fact that Melissa was off being god and not there for him as a mother enough, something she was actually seeking to correct.

Much like the last part of that sentence suggests, separating her life as a god from her life as a wife/mother has brought her some difficulties, and Alejandro's reaction to finding out his wife is a monster (okay, okay, I threw that in there just to rile you up, but the larger point about her keeping a secret he would hate from him still stands) is certainly a part of that. And we find her confronting her frustration over this at the start of this chapter's last segment.

I found Melissa's brief thought of apologizing to her husband, only to dismiss it and even him to beg for her forgiveness to be quite interesting. I truly believe that she thinks she has done nothing wrong here and that her frustration over Alejandro not understanding her side of things is legitimate. At the same time, however, she hid this part of her from him for a reason. She knew that he would never be able to get this concept through his thick skull, as she put it.

And that's why, deep down, she knows that her first instinct, to beg him for forgiveness, is the best one, even if her divinity can't accept that.

Let's take the moral debate out of the equation for a second and not worry about whether Melissa, as a god, is right to punish unbelievers as harshly as she does. If she wants to reconcile with her husband and keep the kind of relationship she has always had with him, she needs to be the one to apologize. If he comes to see things her way, if he has to beg her to avoid punishment for disagreeing with her, he'll stop being different from all of her other worshippers to her, even if he doesn't realize that yet.

This is because even thought Melissa is a god, she's also not.

Even though she has become god, those human emotions and attachments still exist within her. That's why she was ashamed to tell, let alone show Alejandro what she did with nonbelievers. That's why she lamented not spending enough time with her son. That's why Vanessa using Carlos to get on her good side bothered her so much. She feels differently about her family than she does about every other mortal (and even her fellow gods, I would think).

So when Melissa wondered why the two men of her life couldn't show her the same devotion as the worshipper she flicked with her toe, it became clear that she has forgotten two things.

First, the type of love her followers have for her is different from familial love. The woman at her toe doesn't know anything about Melissa. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Melissa seems unknowable to her (a common theme in religion). The worshipper doesn't care about what Melissa is feeling unless that feeling is anger or disappointment toward her. She knows nothing about the deity's actual life, her wants or desires, what truly makes her happy. Only people involved in her life, like her husband and son, are able to understand such things.

Second, if Carlos and Alejandro were to become like the worshipper, if they just stopped worrying about the things that bother them about Melissa and devoted themselves to her without question, they would cease to be any different from the worshipper herself. Melissa would lose that connection with them. This is because it's the care and concern that they have for Melissa that makes them judge her actions so critically. Carlos is afraid that he's losing his mother to this new god she's becoming, and Alejandro is obviously worried about how casual his wife really is about taking mortal life (we saw him worrying about her judging other mortals even before finding out judgment entailed). If they stopped worrying about these things, they basically stop worrying about her as a person and view her only as a god, which I think would be even more devastating to her than Alejandro's reaction to her eating people.

In other words, again putting aside the moral debate of her judging mortals, it's in her best interest to be the one to apologize and even try to compromise with Alejandro a bit on how she punishes nonbelievers. Simply deciding that she's owed this because she's a god won't make her any happier, and I'd argue that it will lead her down the same pit of misery that her fellow gods are trying to climb out of.

Because, again, while those three are seeking true connection with mortals, Melissa is starting to push away connections she already has, ironically enough.

Apologies for the long Melissa rant, but I felt like a lot was revealed even in her brief appearance in the chapter.

Lastly, I'm curious if that little headache Melissa had at the end there has to do with Emma or something going on with the demons. That "natural order of things" line seems to imply the former and that maybe Emma got herself a bit of an earthquake-inducing upgrade. Either way, it sounds like interesting times ahead!

Awesome to see this story back !
Great chapter too, I loved the powerplay between Emma and the gods, I found it creative and hot !
I was also nice on character developement and plot, you tease very well the impending threat looming over Earth and the gods

I hope Emma will be a reccuring character, I like her so much !

Gotta say kinda refreshing to read a story where the gods actually care about mortals . Well at least Melissa and  haliee do  from where am at in the story

really enjoying it so far

Wow, after reading this last chapter I have to double down on my negative impressions of Melissa.  I have to say a lot of the analysis the demons had on her personality were spot on.    

So she's in New York where literally millions of people worship her, and 9 people bother her so much because they cause a little itch.  Oh cry me a river.   Justifying killing them for that reason is ridiculous.   A sign of real megalomania.

I am very excited she was caught by her husband finally, for eating people.   It's really disgusting that she does that as a goddess, and I hope there are consequences with her husband for this.  He's been too much of a suckup so far in the story.

I am really surprised that humans don't wonder if she set up the whole times square thing to appear to be more powerful to everyone else.    She could have faked the entire experience, for all the humans know.

I really liked the demons.    I liked their agency in the story,  I liked their larger perspective on how the gods were behaving.    I am hoping we see more challenges from other demons in the future.

Now my only question is when will the gods figure out there is a threat to Earth itself.   That will be interesting to see how you work that in.  Somehow I doubt Melissa will share this information with the other 3 gods, so they will most likely be at a disadvantage, but who knows, maybe Melissa will be less egotistical for once and share the info.

Personally I hope Brad figures it out!  He's into video games, and so space invaders and other space based game themes might occur to him.  Space the Final Frontier... Go Brad!

I wonder if it's genuinely impossible for Melissa to go back on her rules. Or is she really just that stubborn. Surely a few months in hell would teach them to believe in her if nothing else. Maybe that's Hailee version of Hell?

NGL I expected this chapter to end with her eating Vanessa's parents anyway lol are they still stuck on 24 hr deal? Ig it depends on the next chapter huh.

In universe, I would worship Hailee. She seems to be the nicest. Melissa is really needy with worship and the other two kill innocent people.

From my current perspective, it'd be the same tbh. I just know that Alexandra and Brad may give them nice afterlives tho I still can't fuck with it personally. At least not over Hailee.

Also those demons must be strong as hell if they can take a nuke to the face lol not as strong as the gods but still strong. Speaking of strength, is Melissa stronger than the rest? Or was she given that position for her age? I'd imagine she can maybe beat all of them individually but not together or something.

I'm assuming the next three chapters are gonna be about how the gods each handle non believers.

At least, I hope it is. I'm most interested in all of their personal versions of hell and heaven.

I had a realization about the problems Camila is likely to cause.   Being a non-believer if any of the other 3 female gods find out about her they might want to kill her, and I bet Brad will end up defending her life.

It really depends on what perspective we're talking about when it comes to which god I would worship.

If we're assuming ourselves to be the average person within this world, without the knowledge provided by a narrative, I'd have to go with Hailee. She certainly comes off as the mist genuine and down to earth amongst the gods, and finding a god that understands the problems of the common worshipper and doesn't place herself above them more than necessary would be pretty important to me.

Now, as a reader, Hailee would actually rank third for me.

Count me as a Lexi worshipper. I share her views on good deeds and really respect that she wants to help those most in need but refuses to accept credit for it. Noy only that, but it seems like she wants people to like her but feels like it's cheap to use good deeds to convince people to become devoted to her, even when she's doing it for the right reason.

Her rough exterior doesn't exactly attract a lit of adoration, however, which is why I think she's gone the fear route. She would rather be feared and respected than loved by people who don't know who actually she is. I also think there's some bitterness to her on this as well, as I think people maybe didn't accept her as she is or misjudged who she is when she was a mortal. I'm not 100 percent on that, but that's a vibe I get from her character.

I think this is what made her take an interest in Emma. The reporter sought out a story about Lexi's secret good works (not realizing it was her, obviously), which didn't much interest the goddess. But when Emma told her to tell her "boss" thanks when it seemed like the story was dead, that meant something to Lexi. Emma legitimately appreciated what "The Silent Samaritan" was doing, not just to heap praise on her or for the self-interest of getting a story, but because the mortal really believed that what the Samaritan was doing was a good thing and that we need that in the world. That was something real, and I think that spoke to Lexi, who's clearly intolerant of any bullshit.

But yeah, having a better (yet still far from complete) understanding of her worldview definitely puts me on Team Lexi. I feel for her need to be accepted, respect that she's not willing to change who she is or show off to get that acceptance, and can accept myself why she needs to intimidate mortals into worshipping her.

As for all the people she's killed (and Brad, too), I'll reserve judgment on that until we have a better understanding of the gods' powers. One reviewer suggested that maybe all the people Lexi killed were intentionally targeted and deserving, and we've seen examples of the gods knowing details of the lives of individual mortals, so this could be possible (I did wonder if that bus driving under her high heel was more about showing her scale or hinting at her being more selective on where she was stepping). I need to know more about how omnipotence works in this universe before committing to an opinion on that, though.

Speaking of Brad, I'm a big fan of that guy, too. While Hailee seems the most down to earth to outsiders, he's clearly the that in reality. He didn't even like being prayed to when he was playing the role of arrogant, sex-obsessed god.

I thought you guys set him up really well, too. Both Emma and Lexi made him sound like a dousche in Lexi's chapter, and the start of his own seemed to reinforce that at first glance. Now, the common man getting lost in trying to be something he's nit is a pretty common theme, but you guys disguised it really well here, and it kind of hit me out of nowhere when he started feeling less confident around Roxxy and Candy.

From that point on, Brad has been extremely likable (I love how he not only didn't get pissed at Allen refusing to believe he's a god but took responsibility for accidentally screwing the worshipper over and helped him get to Hailee).

I'm pulling for things to work out with him and Camila (although I'm not sure what exactly Lexi's feelings are about him), and I'm pretty curious if he can get away from her before revealing that he's that jerk god that she hates.

Oh, and the fact that he's worried and not mad that Camila is a nonbeliever has me really intrigued. Between that and Melissa eating nonbelievers, I'm very curious why it's so important to them that everyone worship one of them. I was thinking that this was a source of power for them, but Brad not being into it has me questioning that just a bit.

As for Melissa, I don't dislike her, but she's my least favorite among the gods. She never seems to miss an opportunity to show off her power or remind mortals that she's above them. She also is super strict about praying (the way she reprimanded that teacher for not teaching his students how to immediately start praying in her presence was kind of insane). She made those people on the cruise pray to her for, what, 45 minutes straight. What a perky move!

I do think she's a good person deep down, and she clearly cares about her family. I also imagine that she was probably a little arrogant before her godhood and the power has just gone to her head in a way that it hasn't for the other three gods.

I do wonder if Carlos "bows" to any of the other gods. If not, I wonder if there will come a time when Melissa will hold him to the same standard as those nonbelievers on the cruise. That probably depends on whether there was more to her doing that than simply putting mortals in their place.

Going back to Hailee, I do kind of feel for her. I don't think it was stated outright, but it was implied that Jay broke up with her after (and very likely because of) her ascension. If that's true, then that makes Hailee's actions most of the time all the more admirable. She's looking out for everyone else while she suffers, instead of using her power to take out her frustrations on the world.

Of course, that doesn't excuse what she did to Grace and Jay. Again, I can empathize with her being heartbroken, but between threatening Grace with eternal damnation and playing with the idea of taking away Jay's freewill, the depth of her obsession is really out of character for her. I  her defense, though, from what little we saw of Jay, he does seem worthy of her obsession.

Also, while Grace doesn't deserve what Hailee put her through, that adversity showed, at least to me, that she's not nearly as dedicated to Jay as he is to her. He's willing to defy a god for her, but Grace wanted to call off the wedding before Hailee did anything too crazy. I get that Hailee is a goddess, but I would think she'd be willing to fight for Jay a little bit.

So I'm kind of torn on whether Hailee deserves to end up with Jay or if that's even the best outcome for her. I'm guessing (and hoping) that we'll get more background into what happened to their relationship.

And who knows, maybe Allen will take her mind off Allen, at least for a little while.

One really minor critique (if you can even count it as that) is that I don't know if I would have divulged such a major part of the plot in the story summary. It doesn't  necessarily hurt the story to know that the gods were given their power to fight an intergalactic threat, but leaving us in the dark about that would have left us with another mystery to unravel, and that reveal would have probably been pretty surprising since the story so far focuses so much on the gods' trying to balance their divine power with their humanity.

But overall, this story is really, really good so far. It's extremely creative, well put together, and presents the reader with some thought-provoking philosophical questions. I look forward to seeing where you guys take it from here!