Gods Aren't Perfect - OFFICIAL

Chapter Nineteen: Dramatic Issues, Please Stand By

About two to three minutes after they left the initial point, the first obstacle presented itself - a sheer drop to Cielo knows where. The gorge looked like a short jump, but of course, was far longer than it looked. Elaine simply floated across, turning back to the gods when she reached the other side. "So? You going to come or what?"

"Good thing we didn't go far while in that clingy darkness realm or something," Eleanor noted. "Problem is..."

"Oh, right. Can't help you with that. I'll wait."

Koumei looked over it for a moment, then gestured rapidly to her, then to Tronso, then back to her, then fired a wind slash across the chasm with his fan Aero. They both looked at him like he had just said that he enjoyed Baby Shark, so he gave up.

Ophelia tried a different approach, plunging her trusty Leafblade into the ground and sprouting out a long bunch of vines, forming a bridge. Rather unfortunately, the vines weren't quite long enough to get over the entire chasm. When Eleanor tried making a water bridge, nobody trusted it enough to even test it. Faceless had little to no metal on him at all, and his disgruntled mutters made it all too clear how he felt about that. Koumei's wind barriers were invisible and fell apart after a short while, quickly tiring the god. The last attempt came in the form of Lizzy's Great Wall of Not China, but it required ground to sprout out of and just formed a giant wall with a huge gap in the middle.

Calandra thought for a moment. "Ophelia, you and I can definitely get across on our own. You think you can carry someone while hovering?"

"No."

"Well... what if you flew over there and used your vines?" Nyx suddenly spoke up.

"What?"

"Just do it. Please." After the Goddess of Night's reply, Ophelia made her way over, activating her vines. With that out of the way, Nyx turned to Tronso. "You think you can reach the vines with your whip?"

"Maybe."

"Tronso."

"All right, all right." The god sent his whip out with a snap, the pale rope interlocking with the plants. With a push from Nyx, his legs gave way and Tronso screeched as he flew downwards towards the abyss - only to stop when the vines and rope combined stopped his descent, yanking him upwards to the other side.

"Nice. Who's next?" Nyx turned to the others.

"Couldn't you just pull something out of the shadows?" Faceless grabbed onto the whip, a short line forming behind him.

"If you all wanna go down there, well, sure I could make something out of the shadows," the Goddess of Night snapped, jabbing a finger at him.

"Actually, that doesn't sound too bad," the masked man replied as he grabbed Tronso's whip and was flung across by the vines. "Alright, who's next?"

Once everyone had crossed the chasm and Ophelia thankfully remembered to grab the Ice God's weapon before retracting her vines, the journey continued. Those lagging near the back pulled out their weapons, but Elaine gestured for them to sheathe their blades and stow their sketchbooks. "You'll be safe with me around these parts. Keep your stress for later." At that statement, most of them put their weapons back in, except for June, who continued to hover around Koumei.

Meanwhile, near the front, a conversation started between Nyx, Calandra, Ophelia and their new guide, the former "for science" and the latter just because they could. Nyx in particular seemed very interested in how she'd formed. "So, a lich is an undead wizard or something. Were you alive in a past life?"