The second he stepped foot through the door he had to stop himself from taking another as he swung his arms out, holding the people by his side back from going over the narrow ledge in front of them, into a hail of oncoming earth bullets before an unending chasm.

Wow, I really don’t like how this one started.

He pressed his back against the wall they’d just come through, barely daring to breathe with the scene in front of them all. Only inches from his face was what seemed like an endless barrage of stones flying by, merging with the walls on the opposite sides only to be shot out again.

The rate of fire was so thick and constant that there was no room for them to slip through it all, and even if there was they had no ground to walk across. Instead, there was just the gorge at their feet, ready to swallow them up if they stepped just a little too far.

“Can’t say I’m particularly fond of bullet hells. Jake, what are the odds you could open some portals farther and farther ahead to see if this ever stops or if there’s something else we’ll have to deal with on the other side?”

“None.”

“I mean, maybe you could try though? Just for funsies? And out of a desire for us all to not turn into a fine paste?”

“I can’t use space magic right now,” He told them, disappointment heavy in his voice as only Ben and Thera were left surprised by the statement.

What does he mean he can’t use space magic? Why can’t he… oh shit.

What he’d been missing snapped firmly into focus as everything he’d seen came together. The door itself was one clue, but he’d gotten another big one right at the start in the form of the additional weapons Amy had brought, loaded with nothing but earth enchantments.

Immediately he wanted to test to see if he was right, so ever so carefully he reached to his vest to pull away one of his sticky pads, only instead of activating it he first tried to change the enchantment on it, before failing that and attempting to alter its shape with his material magic, followed by his destruction, with every attempt to do anything failing in the end as the truth of their situation slapped them in the face.

“So should I take it that anything other than earth mana just doesn’t work?”

It was Amy who answered, sounding extremely frustrated as she did. “That’s right, so we only have the one option to get through this.”

“And I don’t suppose you can tell us anything else?” Thera asked, her mind instantly flashing to everything that could go wrong if they didn’t have access to any healing spells, especially since both Ben and Yuzu would be nothing more than dead weight for the rest of the trial.

“Don’t think there’s anything else to tell,” Jake said with an awkward chuckle. “This feels like the last major thing I was being made to hide personally, just wish it was happening in an environment that didn’t feel quite so deadly.”

All of them could feel the breeze of the stones shooting by their faces, with only two potential options for how they were supposed to clear it. Either they were going to have to go down into the chasm below, or across into the unknown.

“Well, at least this first bit seems manageable,” Thera sighed, her overwhelming level of mana giving her a different perspective from the rest of them as she used her power to gather the stones shooting by, shaping and condensing them all into a bigger and bigger ball before there was a boulder in front of them all that only continued to grow.

By hanging stationarily in the air, it was being hit by more and more rocks that were trying to shoot past it, either being absorbed into the greater whole or else bouncing off with a destructive level of force as both Jake and Thera used their magics to make sure none of them were hit.

It was only once she deemed she had enough that she took the mass floating in front of her and shaped it, creating thick walls she was keeping strengthened with her magic to ensure they stood strong against each attack, as well as a platform to stand on and roof for their heads in the event anything came crashing down from above, and seeing no other option they each stepped on to the makeshift vessel as she started to fly it across the sky.

The front and back were kept open to let them see if any changes were coming from ahead or behind them as they went, with Thera projecting just enough of her mana to keep any stray bullet from hitting the inner edge as they moved forward while each of them kept on guard, feeling the hundreds of strikes that hit their enclosure but not being brought down by them, only dealing with the bumpy ride it created.

Ben could see with ease that Thera was deep in her concentration, each strike that came being a death sentence if she didn’t put enough mana into ensuring the walls held strong, but she just kept pushing forward as they each wondered if there was going to be more to come.

Ben looked at the three with them, squinting his eyes as he spoke up. “You guys do remember what I said at the beginning of all of this, right?”

“What?” Yuzu asked, pulled from her thoughts and having as little of a clue as to what he was talking about as the others.

“As much as your goal is to finish the trial and claim the rewards, it also needs to be to give as little faith as possible, so no praying and just trust in Thera,” He said as he waved a finger at them in disapproval, having seen right through what was on their thoughts while Yuzu, in particular, gave him a tired look.

“Ben, you are an apostle, right?”

“Of course, I love Myriad. Great guy, good friend, interesting backstory. if any of you were looking for someone to convert to, I couldn't recommend him enough.”

“And the other gods?” Amy asked.

“At least thirty percent are bastards but Myriad won’t give me the names. Other than that though, Anailia, Helori, and Nare all seem pretty chill once you get to know them. Oh, and Jagal was nice too when I met her, even if she can say some pretty scary things with a straight face. And then Eneth is a huge prick whose believers keep trying to kill me.”

Amy looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Didn’t you almost kill his son?”

“In a fair duel,” He said innocently. “And then his apostle tried to murder me in cold blood and they’ve been cranky ever since they agreed to a deal that kept me and Myriad from pushing the issue. Some even tried to assassinate me recently! Honestly, I’m such a sweet little guiltless thing who keeps being bullied by such a mean old cranky god, it’s really not fair. If any of you ever meet his son Ather, make sure you stand up for little ol’ me.”

“Uh, guys?” Thera called back to them and cutting their talk short, not having paid attention to Ben’s opinion on the gods and instead sounding extremely confused. “I think we might be done.”

She couldn’t understand it, it had seemed far too easy compared to what else they’d gone through, but another ledge was in sight and they landed safely on it, the door to the next floor there and ready to walk through.

The others couldn’t help but be a little surprised too, but to Ben it wasn’t a shock, even if it was the best-case scenario.

It would take, what? A full five high-leveled mages to have any hope of doing the same thing and nowhere near as easily as she just pulled off thanks to all of her mana. When you consider the idea of traveling across a vast gulf with no way to be sure there’s anything actually on the other side, and that you’d need to keep yourself safe along the way, that’s a pretty tall order.

Instead of saying what made things so easy though, he just walked up and put an arm around her.

“You’re really the best to have around, you know that?”

“Of course I am,” She said confidently, having a bit of an inkling as to why things had gone so well, even if it still felt too easy in the end. “So then, are we ready to go through?”