Canada, metropolis of Montreal, unknown Technology Giant boardroom, August 2021

"Gentlemen's we are going to end on a less technical note, I realize I have lost half of you over the last three hours explaining the finer details but that is because you are bureaucrats. I can assure you that the technical crew you have brought along that you pay good money to have in your company have understood me quite clearly. To make it simple, we will begin implementing an artificial intelligence approach to optimizing your networks and increase flow of information. I can assure you that although it seems intimidating at first considering the enormous stress test will be putting through your hardware, ant colony optimization is the easiest to understand and quite probably the most powerful tool currently in the world to maximize results. We can expect development to your specifics within the first trimester of the year and results by the end of the second effectively turning your costs into a clear profit margin the third and last margin of the fiscal year."

As I finished my presentation to the biggest board of directors in the company, I cannot help but feel proud and smile at the work I had accomplished. A technology giant had hired a young freelance software engineer to inspect, optimize and possibly redesign their entire internal network among their many operating sites and customers. I seem to have done well after a whole month of research into their systems, I presented a project to effectively find out the specifics and improve performance that must have been beyond their expectations as even their own in-house engineers gave me a standing ovation.

"Absolutely brilliant!" A director applauded away as he came up for a solid handshake.

"You honor me; I have simply proposed the latest techniques." I answered with a slight bow.

"Maybe but the way you presented made even an old man such as myself understand the newest wonders. Truly even our old coot of our R&D department is shocked. It is easy to tell by how he hasn't spoken a single complaint." I could only chuckle at the praise.

It was a very successful work that guarantees a wage for myself for a solid year, freelancers don't get much rest as we need to hunt contracts to put bread on the table. My industry is special, software engineers are in very short supply yet they do one of the most important jobs for any company trying to make it big with their own systems. Unfortunately no one can pay our salary on a yearly basis considering our work usually sustains an industry for a solid decade if not more per contract. You would need to be super lucky to work for the super Giants namely Apple or Google to name just a few.

The other difficulty is reputation, there was once an incident where an error in design in medical equipment caused the death of many civilians before the fault was found. Needless to say the poor engineer paid dearly and failed to get any more contracts after the lawsuits came in one after another. I consider myself lucky for a twenty-five year old freshly graduated student from university to find contracts so quickly. Letters of recommendations from university researchers are valued a lot today and it secured my first contract with a giant more than once. This will be the fifth since my graduation and it pays a lot better than working off minimum salary as a regular programmer. I have probably made roughly three times as much as them in a quarter of the time. I made my way outside the building after a whole hour of praise, questions and wishes of people looking forward to working with me. I picked up my cellphone once I got outside since it has rung for a while.

"How did it go?" a man asked.

"Fan-fucking-tastic I would say, they loved it so much they actually want to keep working with me."

"Those poor souls." The man laughed. He was my friend from university but he went a different route as he preferred to get a stable income than scour the world for contracts. Last I heard he worked as an in-house designer and architecture director for a small software firm in the middle of nowhere.

"You mean rich souls; you should see the numbers on the contract!"

"Numbers are well and all but you have no insurance or pension plan mate, how will you settle down or retire even?"

"Must I tell you every time that I know how the world of finances works as well, I am already maxing out my RRSP contributions with a TFSA on the side for safety? There is no worry anywhere unless of course if someone somewhere invents Sky and we all die to machines" I heard a car honk in the far distance, probably more idiots fighting to get through the last seconds of the yellow lights. I was walking downtown Montreal to begin with so it is full of incompetent drivers.

"Yeah yeah your dad is some great finance guy that is leading the Canadian banking system to a new era I heard that one before. That doesn't mean your personal finances are secure either way, since a good portion of your paycheck goes into paying private insurances."

"I can't argue that one, god bless the Canadian health system but man does it lack a lot of coverage for modern medicines and needs." I started walking down stairs to reach the metro system, for anyone familiar it may sound like a stupid idea considering how it doesn't reach very far but it gets me out of stupid downtown traffic and just outside enough to catch a bus to my apartment.

"Well congratulations on your contract, I look forward to how you will break these guys too." He laughed, but there is a story to it. Apparently the first company I ever contracted too were so shocked at my results they almost cleared out their entire department of programmers for incompetence. I kind of feel bad but honestly the stuff I had to do there was pretty basic so they were not wrong in the first place.

"I do as well, see you later mate I got to catch my metro ride." I hung up and preceded down to swipe my pass. Good thing these things work by simply swiping them once since it was rush hour and there were many people here wishing to get through. I found myself a spot standing up to wait for the next one to arrive. Lucky for me it is surprisingly always on time at this station, I found that out in the short month I have been in this town, or metropolis, I don't know how to call human settlements anymore. The standard warning to stay clear rang out as it arrived, with a whistle of its brakes it came to a stop. That is when I noticed something weird, there was a man with a trench coat that was sweating a lot standing inside the metro train. This is pretty odd considering it is summer time, I understand overcoats for appearance but please take it off else I will feel hot as well.

My biggest mistake was probably to believe no one was stupid enough to do it in my peaceful country. As soon as the doors opened the man ran out and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"IN THE NAME OF THE LORD I SHALL PUNISH ALL YOU HEATHENS, PRAISE BE TO HIS HOLY NAME!"

The scariest part was how I was barely two persons worth away from him as he unveiled what was hidden under his coat. A full vest of IED's to which he had a wired controller in his hands, it did not take long to process what would happen but like everyone else I panicked and I started to flee. I don't think I even had the chance to take three steps that I felt the explosion hit me square in the back and sent me flying.

Unknown location, Unknown time

I felt like I was trampled on by countless people, no I stand corrected, trampled by countless 'murican people because every part of my body felt broken as I tried to get back up. With a groan I managed to barely make it standing but I did not find myself in the metro station, instead it was a fully white room with an old bearded man standing in front of me.

"I don't suppose you will tell me some big secret about three artefacts?" I asked with a smile.

"I do not think that information would benefit you in any way possible." He answered with an exhausted voice, if anything I took the chance to observe him further. He was wearing clothing much like you would find on a Greek god or those old monks in the temples, he had a decent beard going too, not bad.

"Well then, would you happen to know what is going on then?" I asked as I stretched back, I felt a bit better.

"You are dead." He said as matter of fact.

"Thank you for your condolences. I had pretty much figured that out if I assumed the metro was not a dream, sure did not feel like one." I cracked my neck and it made a satisfying sound, I was back in tip top shape.

"Sarcasm is not exactly what I was expecting from someone in your situation."

"Well let me make it simple, based on your looks you would appear to be a God, odds are from the bible, testament or whatever other Christian based book there is. I just so happened to have been killed by one of your believers. I do believe I have earned some sarcasm at your expense." I shot back.

"Umm indeed it does seem bad that way now doesn't it. Although that is of little concern, what does interest me is if you have deduced who I am, why are you not showing me the respect I deserve?" he rubbed his beard a bit.

"For a supposedly omniscient being you are quite the curious one." He was frowning, guess that picked a sensitive spot, better tone it down I guess. "Look here I do accept the existence of a superior being to humans on the level of a God yes, but I refuse to accept a God such as the one in the bible since he seemed like he was much more active back in the days but the moment we got a bit of science he ran away like a bitch. If you are said God in the bible I could have accepted your identity and shown you respect had you actually proven your identity or proved your existence before now."

"So you are saying if I had interacted with humans more, you would have accepted and praised me as the Creator." There was a weird twinkle in his eyes and it made me uncomfortable.

"I mean sure if you did your job as the Creator and supervisor of humans, you know a bit of interacting with us here and there. Communicating with the Pope would have been a minimum at the very least. Considering you did not though I cannot say I respect you as the god of the bible."

"You are an interesting one, logical yet faithful, you accept the post-industrial era mentality without losing the traditions and beliefs of old." He was really rubbing his beard now and that twinkle made it look very creepy.

"Right well could I maybe bother you to inform me of the next step here, as far as I know you owe me one since you know, one of your true believer robbed me of my life, and I swear to God… no pun intended." I had to correct me there as his eyes twitched the wrong way when I said it. "If this was a part of your great plan I will sue you for crime against humanity."

"There is no such plan, every individual live their lives as they see fit to reach Nirvana, your end was an unfortunate event of the corruption humanity has suffered over centuries."

"Wait hold on, are you passing the blame of my death to humans and not the one who had a believer explode?" I was getting angry.

"Why yes of course, you cannot expect me to manage seven billion humans and tell them all not to become suicide bombers. It is already beyond my abilities to reincarnate them all properly."

"Sounds like a shitty design to me and by the law as supervisor you are responsible for this incident." I pointed at him and boy did his eyes ever say he hated it.

"Truly your century is filled with nothing but fools who criticize a design I made back when you were nothing but a few dozens. Maybe you have a better work plan I should instill, you have work experience in that I can see in your memories." Wait, was he giving me work?

"Listen pal if you want me to design something I need time to analyze, design and present. At the very least I can say that your main problem is how you try to manage it all by yourself. Delegating some work to middlemen would ease your burden and improve workflow exponentially here." I hate designing on the spot, I usually need a month of time to make it properly and make sure it was actually optimal.

"Oh ho, so you mean I need prophets to guide believers to reincarnation."

"Well yeah if your whole goal is to reincarnate people you would need someone to help you do it or at least help you classify who reincarnates. I once saw a show where people had to be judged to reincarnate or be condemned to oblivion."

"Yes, I can see it in your memory, quite a brilliant idea you humans had there. That is not difficult to start but I still have an issue with people not having faith in I the creator and thus cause issues when it comes to reincarnation. Much like yourself." It seems he wants to put his entire workload on my shoulders.

"Listen God, if you wish for me to redesign your whole system I demand compensation of equal value." I will be damned if I worked longer for free.

"Now now no need to ask to be damned if you are working so hard it goes without saying that I would reward you. Ask of the Creator what you wish and I will throw in a bonus for dying in my glorious name." He opened his arm with a huge smile, if he is asking for a hug, I am not giving him one.

"Alright I demand a reincarnation to a fair era focused on technology where I won't find stupid politicians fighting for resources or religious fanatics. Just a time based on cooperation for progress of the human race, I do not care if your face is there or not I just want reasonable human beings around." It is indeed all I want, a calm world where I can make a living and not hate every single human for being idiots.

"That sounds more than possible; consider me surprised you did not ask to become a god yourself. Most humans would have expressed greed here."

"Wait? That was an option?" I done goofed, big time. He busted in laughter and it was very catchy in a way, kind of like the whole space was shaking along with his voice.

"Well then let me give you an exclusive offer for a chance to remake your demands. If you shall be my first prophet in this new generation then I shall consider giving you ascension from humanity."

"Wait you mean I have to become a holy man now? That's not exactly what I am certified for." I mean I did say he had to have middlemen somewhere for this to work optimally but a prophet is not exactly what I envisioned.

"Your duties will be simple, increase the number of faithful, spread the name of the Lord and I shall reward you based on the numbers you bring in. I can also have a goal for you; if you can convert the biggest non-believer I shall give you two wishes on top of the first one." He had a weird smile going on and it made me feel like he was trying to bait me into something but three wishes from an almighty god instead of a lamp genie was a pretty good deal.

"Alright so just spread your name, make believers and convert the most heretic of them all. I can try your challenge as long as you got a name I suppose." I know there is a catch but I have no idea what, can't be too hard right?

"I shall send you in an alternate world where you will have to increase the amount of followers; there will be magic and war."

"Question."

"What is it?"

"Isn't war a built-in factory for believers?"

"Yes it is but most curse the lord as much as they praise him, you simply have to make sure it is the second option and not the first."

"Alright what about my starting position and heretic objective?"

"I will send you to a Kingdom that could greatly use an engineer although they do not use magic thus you should have an easier time developing them in the name of the lord. The heretic will be in the neighbouring country, the Empire to be precise."

"What are the geopolitical relationship between my kingdom and the said Empire?"

"You ask many questions." He was frowning.

"It's my job; I need details to get the job done right."

"You will learn as you go, now go and spread the name of the Lord." I did not get another word that I blanked out.

Kingdom of Dacia, April 1908

My next instance of consciousness was actually getting spooned something that smelled awful. I have no idea how long I was out but all I do know is that this was most definitely not mentioned in the contract. Who the hell makes a prophet suffer reincarnation? Well at least I have my memories of making the contract… well fuck it was a verbal contract… that means there is no obligation for him to follow through. Note to self, get paper signed before acquiring details, the less I know the less caught up I will be the more chances I will sign a contract.

I got very lucky, or blessed I guess I should say now, to have been reborn in this new family. I am an only child in a fairly well off Dacian family. Wait no I don't think they are called well off in this era, I suppose it would be nobility. Alright well I am born in a medium class of nobles, not close to the king but not unknown either. My father was a factory director in the capital; our family was manufacturing metal parts for the Kingdom ranging from guns to carriages. My mother was a normal housewife of a noble she supported him and handled the maids and my education.

Oh that reminds me, this education was completely different from my past life, you know why? I am now a bloody woman. I used to be a twenty-five year old man who was focused on making a career in the twenty-first century. Now I am a little girl in a kingdom at the start of the twentieth century in a kingdom that has yet to experience the industrial revolution. Our factories are not belt operated but all made by hands. I should mention that I have not mentioned anything yet as a prophet or as someone with memories. I am making a new life cleanly so far, just adhering to the demands of my new mother and fulfilling the expectations of my father.

I have learned things I am thankful for, such as the language of this world since it is clearly different from the ones I knew in my past life. So far it seems like English and French are still useable but I had to learn German to communicate with the Empire, some form of Romanian or Czech for Dacia, I am uncertain but they are my closest guess. God bless I was a good programmer so learning a new language is not difficult. I also learned things such as proper cursive writing; this for sure I never used in my past life, I can clearly sign off my name, well my new name, Naomi Desraft. I also had lessons in dance, grace and proper manners as a lady.

When I turned six years old I shocked my parents by running around the mansion we lived in. It seems my activity was always something they were worried about since I was out of control, I simply can't help it; this body has a lot more energy than I ever had before. I decided to make use of my previous life where I grew up as a cadet and eventually reserved force for the army and train this body as well for combat. Let's just say my mother almost passed out from seeing my training outfit consisting of loose pants and a simple loose shirt and covered in sweat and dirt. She tried to stop me from doing such things but I continued training regardless and even through the best effort of my mother became known around as the Tom boy of the all the noble girls. I can't say I hate the name since it makes it seem like I am tough to get and won't be played around with.

The Lord did say this world would be engulfed in war so it did not hurt to be ready; his plan is probably to make me a Jeanne d'Arc somewhere along the way. I mean she was a martyr so I am truly hoping to not turn out like her, burning at the stake sounds even worse than dying to a suicidal idiot. It seems the kingdom of Dacia is actually quite religious since we prayed before every meal and Sunday we went to church. I did not mind the habit although I wish we could have more free time as to when we prayed but that's probably my twenty-first century self talking. It was during one of these visits when I was twelve that the old man himself decided to pick a chat with me.

"How is your new life so far oh new Prophet of mine?" a voice came down in my head.

"The change of gender was a shock; I would like some reasons to that." I answered in my thoughts.

"Yes well there are many reasons to that, to begin with people are more likely to believe in a holy maiden than to a prophet of truth."

"I see, way to make it a bit awkward for me at first. On a more serious note you mentioned magic yet I have seen nothing of the sort here. How does it even work?"

"Mages in this world uses tools much like scepter or computational orbs to process mana and formulas to use magic. You on the other hand as a prophet do not need such a tool but it would make it easier."

"Good to know I can cheat the system, wait did you say computational orbs? That means it computes things and probably works like a processor right?" I was having a nasty grin on my face I could feel it, but I could feel the disapproving stare from my mother even more. "Hey Lord could you do me a favor and share some of the basic schematics to those orbs? I could have a lot of fun with this."

"Indeed my child I can see it clearly in your thoughts, a prophet of god that can manufacture work of wonders. I shall allow it then." He chuckled but once he was done I could feel the wealth of information pour into my mind and my guess was spot on, it is exactly like a computer processor.

"Thank you oh Lord for your benevolence." I finished praying.

It was not long afterwards that I was asking my father to visit the factory and see if I could try things out, learn the trade and all that stuff. Although to be honest it was all an excuse to get some materials to craft an orb for myself. He was reluctant at first but he eventually caved in and decided to show me how the office job worked.

"Naomi stop wandering off and stay next to me if you wish to learn." He once again called to me, I was always trying to get to the crafting tables but he never let his gave off of me.

"Yes father, sorry father." I respect the man but please let me do as I wish for once; I already know how these papers work.

It took until the bell rang at the end of the day that he stopped keeping an eye on me and was talking to some of the workers that I slipped away to a table full of raw material. Now my biggest problem, I know how to build the orbs but I have neither idea of the quality of materials nor how I will craft the smaller pieces. I was left pondering the issue before just stopping trying to figure it out, I was limited on time so I just took a few iron plates and put them in my small purse, small enough that no one would notice but big enough to allow some waste later.

My father did not notice my absence it seems since he did not react when I appeared once more to his side in order to go back home. I hid in my room very shortly afterwards to verify my loot and plan my design carefully. I had a total of four plates roughly ten centimetres large, twenty long and three thick. It wasn't much and I had no tools but the Lord did say I could use magic without the orb, it was just less efficient. Now how did people do it in shows? Focus my energy or conscience in my mind, imagine what I want and release at the palm… very naturally it failed much like when I was trying to make an energy beam with two hands as a kid when watching a certain show about a dragon who granted wishes. I spent the whole hour trying to summon my mana or energy or whatever to modify the metal to no avail until I got called for diner.

I returned to my room with determination in my mind, I will make it work. Since I cannot just morph the piece of metal let's try cutting it, making a cutting spell is probably easier than a shape changing one right? All I have to do is some energy around a tool and maybe some vibrations to split molecules. I took a pair of scissors I had in my room, separated the two pieces so I could have two blades. Took one in my right hand and tried again to apply some mana and this time I had a clear image of the blade to have energy instead of changing shape. The blade started a low hum with a clear purple aura around it. I was ecstatic that it actually worked and I broke into a mad giggle. Without waiting I tried to cut the metal and it went through like butter, this was perfect, I could cut any shape I wanted and thus actually craft the orb.

The actual crafting of the orb took me almost a full month; the simplest but most difficult part was to acquire some copper and some isolation material in order to allow electrical currents to flow without going everywhere. I decided to be kind of funny at the same time and constructed the entire computational orb as a cross; let me tell you that it is very difficult to design around a four point case for the insides. Simply because the form is not very free so it forces some wires to bend or be longer than necessary and limits the space inside. I cheated a bit by making some wires externally so now it looks a bit like a kite more than a cross. Well that is all fine and dandy but I did not have the core itself, the schematics given by the Lord were instructive but it does not tell me how to make a core out of thin air. As far as I know it is made of many precious metals with a gem at its source or a gem like mineral

I then decided to still try it out to see if it could help the channeling in the first place or help me cast formulas that I could not before, I may not have the processing power but I got a channel tool. I managed to create a fire in my hand which at first sounds cool until I realized that it is not because it is my magic that it won't hurt me. I curse all the stories who had me fooled. After many tests of many spells I had seen in books and shows I was a bit exhausted and laid on my bed until a knock on my door resounded. It actually sounded very distant.

"Naomi what are you doing in your room all day?" My mother came in and screamed the moment she saw me "NAOMI WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAIR?! YOUR EYES?!" my hair and eyes? What is wrong with them?

I forced myself to get up and walked to my mirror with my mother in a very shocked state, all I could see if my normal cute girly face with some eye bags because I was caught up in orb development. That is when I noticed it, my black hair actually had a few strikes that turned white and were actually shining a bit. If one were not careful it would actually look a bit like holy hair of an angel but since it's just my two bangs on the sides of my face it kind of lost that appeal. My eyes were also a shining purple not unlike the one the scissor blade had. I wonder what could have caused them to change, would it be because of the incomplete orb I am using. At that thought I noticed I was actually leaking a bit of mana into it continuously but not enough to notice, the moment I cut off the supply my hair and eyes turned back into its natural color or black and grey respectively.

"Naomi what just happened? Why did your hair change colour?" My mother was panicking and I could hear distant footsteps coming closer. It did not take long for my father to burst in and look at us with a worried face.

"Mother you don't have to worry so much, it just seems like a temporary side effect to my incomplete orb." I smiled back and answered honestly, I think it would be the best option here to come out as a mage.

"Orb? What are you on about Naomi?" My father asked. I proceeded to show them my incomplete rosary computational orb and explained how the magic worked. Needless to say they were both astounded. "You mean not only are you a magician but you can also build a tool for magic?" My father finally asked once they got over their shock.

"I was guided by the will of the Lord in order to accomplish this of course." It wasn't a lie and hopefully it fulfills my contract to make them more fervent believers. I was never a holy man but now to have a job that requires conversion is difficult.

"Yes of course, I mean how could a girl who is only twelve do things that only the major powers can do with teams of experts." My father was chuckling almost hysterically. "Naomi promise me one thing."

"What is it?"

"Do not show this to anyone, under any circumstances." He was dead serious in his eyes.

"I don't know if I can promise that father, it is a gift from the Lord."

"I am aware but the Kingdom will not treat it that way, in the best case you will be a concubine to the King, in the worst you are burned at the stake for heresy." Oh I guess I did not see that one coming. Is the God really that twisted, he told me this country could use me to advance and now from someone on the inside I am told it will refuse it. Guess I need to play my cards right if I am to make it work.

"I understand father, I shall do my best."

It seems this second life as holy maiden will not be covered in roses, I actually have to convert people with a war that will happen god knows where, pun intended. On top of it all I should aim to convert a heretic in the neighbouring country. Now those are the easy parts, the rest is all how to survive my birth country's state of affair in regards to magic and faith since women does not have a lot of rights in this era not to mention a pre-industrial state.

Author's Notes

Hello Everyone, GenShadow here once more, hope everyone is enjoying this new fanfic I got going on following an OC (original character) of mine, Naomi Desraft. Did everyone catch all the references she has made over the course of this chapter? The journal was coming to a halt soon while waiting for content and i wanted another fan fiction going and i got this crazy idea to make an actual apostle show up that isn't some revenge deranged woman like Mary. Fun fact, it is almost impossible to get an idea for a fan fiction without an OC or taking the canon universe for a wild spin out of control which becomes obsolete season 2 airs or manga/LN translation catches up. I tried and failed so hope you guys will enjoy this new spin i am trying to give it.

To make it simple she is just a shepherd to God (or Being X, your pick) who has the knowledge and magical gifts to make her own orb and using magic looks pretty obvious on her.

Let me know what you guys think in the reviews of DM and look forward to when Tanya visits this OC, spoiler alert, it's not just ANY factory her father owns ;)

Trivia details for those who were unfamiliar with some terms:
RRSP - Registered Retirement Savings Plan, a plan to get a pension from the government, arguably good arguably bad but reliable in the end.
TFSA - Tax Free Savings Account, does exactly what it means, the catch is you pay the tax BEFORE depositing the money into the account.
Canadian Healthcare system - covers most emergencies and visits to family doctors and hospitals. does NOT cover drugs you be prescribed among other things. Insurance covers those, coming out of your paychecks either with your company benefit plan or a personal plan.
Montreal metro - quite literally only covers the downtown island, its pathetic considering the size of the metropolis and the town is always in construction.
'muricans - stereotypical name of the stereotype american, quite literally the OC just saying he got trampled by obese people on boxing deal rush.
the Error in design i mention is the Therac-25 ( google it) an interesting read of what motivated actual standards for software designs.