Gods Aren't Perfect - OFFICIAL

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Excitement Peaks

The light began to fade out as the thirteen deities and two birds fell to the floor. Only Sketchy Grass remained unfazed, simply trotting away as the rest struggled to get up.

"Where are we?" Calandra shakily got to her feet, Midnight flopping down by her and cawing like a maniac.

"What are we?" June picked himself up, helping Koumei and Tronso to their feet. The latter fell down again moments later.

"What year is it?" Atticus rolled off the pile and nearly off a cliff, only to be stopped by Nyx's foot.

"Well, here we are." Rosa pointed forwards, leading their gaze to the steep cliffs surrounding them. In the direction she'd been pointing, the cliffs formed the steep sides of a mountain, a long flight of stairs leading up to a glowing peak. There was only one problem- they were absolutely tiny next to the rest of the world. Each step was about the height of one of them, or at least up to their chest. And they could only barely see the glow at the top.

"Oh, come on. We just did mountain climbing like... two or three days ago." Eleanor pulled herself to her feet. "Ah well. Let's go?"

Thus the climb began. Again. If any one of the deities was tired of all this endless adventure and climbing, even as their goal was just over the horizon, their feelings were met with agreeance to their sentiment, which ended in a group of raging gods screaming obscenities as they climbed the stairs much taller than they were, hoisting themselves up with their arms - with the stronger ones like Koumei, Faceless, and one of Lizzy's golems helping to boost the others up at times.

Massive bamboo plants the width of their own bodies towered over them as the deities continued to clamber higher. The air seemed to get thinner, but as it turns out Koumei was just using it to form wind barriers as easier-to-climb stairs. He dissolved them at the first complaint, though.

Finally, after nearly an hour of pain and physical exhaustion, the group made it to the very top, where bright golden gates awaited them. Swirls of the gleaming metal formed an intricate design of curls, loops and more, which then formed cloudlike figures dancing among suns, moons, rosettes, and what looked like a giant pizza in the center. Of course, there was no pineapple.

"That is... pretty cool." Lizzy stepped back, already starting to doodle some of the smaller designs with her abnormally-large pencil in her abnormally large sketchbook. "And it'll take me quite a lot of time to finish it. But hey, I got time."

"We don't have time," Rosa sighed, shaking a hand in the younger goddess's face. "Look, like it or not, we still have to get past this somehow."

Faceless put a hand up to it. "Not reacting. This looks like metal, but again, it isn't."

"Convenient, isn't it?" Carolyn shrugged, before launching herself at it. All she got was some temporary arm pain.

"Maybe there's some kind of magical blockage?" Calandra tapped it, before raising a hand, her pendant glowing. "Hold on. I'm sensing something."

"You're sensing something?"

"Something... really powerful. Many things, actually. Six-"

"Hello!" chirped a voice from behind the group, who whirled around to see a familiar spirit behind them, arrow nocked and aimed directly at the Goddess of Magic. "Nice to see you again!"

"Oh no. It's the one we defeated in a little under five minutes." Atticus sighed.

"Didn't we defeat all of them in a little under five minutes?" Lizzy asked.

"Good question. Who was keeping time? Nobody? Ah, okay."

"Now let me just-" With a wave of her hand, Xena let out a long stream of bluish gas which closed in around nothing. "Wh-"