Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush

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The familiar cave seemed to swallowed them whole when they stepped in. It was dark, cold and Xander found it hard to calm his rapidly beating heart

Then they heard it.

A low growl, bone-deep, like the earth itself had exhaled in warning.

And then...

Another roar, a much louder one.

It slammed into them like a physical force. Iris dropped the book with a yelp, stumbling back as the sound ricocheted through the cave.

Out of the dark, it lunged.

The Hydra.

Massive, scaled, monstrous, its many heads unfurled from the shadows like the stuff of nightmares. Eyes and fangs bared.

Xander froze as Iris shifted closer to him. "Fuck."

Eli stepped forward.

Without hesitation, he raised his hands—purple fire burst to life between his palms in a violent flare.

"Run!" he barked. "Go and get the Crystal!"

"What—" Xander stared. "We don't know where exactly it is!"

"Get to the center of the cave!" Eli hissed. His flames surged forward, illuminating the Hydra in full, it didn't retreat this time, prepared for whatever Eli had in store for him...which wasn't a lot to be honest.

It charged.

Eli ducked beneath one of the snapping heads, purple fire lashing out at another. The beast screeched but kept pressing, tail cracking against the floor and smashing boulders like kindling.

Xander grabbed Iris by the wrist, dragging her toward the inner tunnel as Eli clashed with the Hydra.

"That's not a distraction," Xander muttered, eyes wide behind his glasses. "That's a stall tactic with a death wish."

Iris glanced back, panicked. "He said he couldn't fight!"

Eli spun, fire bursting from both palms in a sweeping arc, forcing two of the heads to recoil, but the others pushed forward with a hiss that shook the walls.

Xander turned around, he'd be damned if he let someone die without doing something to help. "We have to help him—"

"We can't!" Iris yanked him down another bend. "That was the plan, remember? We grab the crystal and get out!"

"We can't just leave him!"

"Well we don't have much of a choice, Xander! We need to get the crystal!"

Behind them, the roar tore through the cave once more.

Stone dust rained from the ceiling.

The deeper they went, the less the cave felt like stone and more like a maze. Iris was ahead, moving fast, book clutched tight in one arm like it could shield her from a thousand razor-sharp teeth. The tunnel twisted sharply, narrow and slick with moisture.

"Watch the ridge!" she hissed, but too late.

Xander's foot skidded over a jagged slope. He stumbled forward, nearly pitching face-first into a nest of glowing purple shards lining the floor like crystal daggers.

Iris caught him by the strap of his bag, yanking him backward with a grunt. "Fuck! Can you not die for like... five seconds?!"

'What the hell? I could have gotten my face stabbed!'

"S–sorry," he stuttered, heart racing.

"You're so clumsy!" Her head whipped toward him. "You are one walking concussion away from being insufferable!"

"Okay wow, thanks. You're like a ray of sunshine in a murder cave. And it's not like I've done all of this before!"

They kept moving, the glow of the cave shifting around them as another tremor shook the ground.

"I swear," she said, ducking beneath a low overhang, "if that dumb crystal ends up being cursed or some shit, I'm going to lose my damn mind."

They rounded the corner just as a roar cracked through the tunnels again, closer this time.

Iris froze. Xander grabbed her hand without thinking. "Go!"

They moved fast, deeper into the twisting tunnel, each turn more suffocating than the last.

The ground was uneven beneath their boots, slick with glistening moss and sharp stone. Cracks in the walls shimmered with trapped light, casting ghostlike reflections along the cave floor.

Xander led the way now, breathing heavy, a stitch growing sharp in his side.

"Okay," he panted. "So. Hypothetical. If I trip and die or whatever, do you… like… cry at my funeral?"

"Keep talking shit like that and I will push you," Iris muttered just behind him.

Another tremor jolted the tunnel. Loose rocks rained from the ceiling. Xander stumbled forward, but caught himself just in time, hands braced on the cave wall.

The ground ahead dipped sharply, barely visible until she stepped on it.

"Iris, wait!"

Too late.

Her foot slipped.

Xander lunged and caught her by the elbow, yanking her back from the edge just as her heel skidded toward a pit of jagged crystal spikes several feet below the cliff.

They both slammed into the wall, breath knocked out of them.

For a second, everything was still. Iris' eyes where as wide as saucers at the fact she would have been dead by now if not for Xander saving her.

"You good?" he asked, voice a little breathless.

She nodded, face inches from his, he was still holding onto her...his hands resting on her wide hips as her soft chest pressed up against his.

"Y–you can let go now," she said.

"Right. Yeah." He released her immediately, stepping back like he'd been burned. "Who's the clumsy one now?"

Iris brushed dust off her dress. "Shut up."

Xander exhaled. "You're welcome by the way."

She didn't answer right away. Just looked at him for a beat longer than necessary… then turned away.

"And for the record, I would cry at your funeral." Xander said.

"We keep moving," she said, ignoring him. "But if you fall on me again, I'm using you as bait."

They didn't see the chamber until they were practically inside it, the tunnel curved sharply and then...it opened?

A vast cavern unfurled before them, wide and echoing and ancient. The ceiling stretched high above like the mouth of a cathedral carved into stone. Crystalline growths shimmered from the walls like veins, some faint and cool, others glowing bright and erratic.

And there, at the center...was the crystal.

Not resting on a pedestal or whatever. Not buried in rock like Excalibur.

It was floating, it was as large as a fist. Irregular in shape that changed slightly if you looked at it too long. It pulsed with a deep violet light, rhythmic and slow, like a beating heart.

Xander slowed to a stop.

The mark on his wrist burned as Iris clutched at her chest wincing a bit, it felt like something was reaching up through it, curling its way into his veins, humming through his blood.

His breath caught.

"Xander?" Iris called behind him. "What is it?"

He took a step forward, eyes wide. The voices had returned.

Come closer, Kaelhi...

We are waiting...

Saviour... Our god...

...Our prayers...answered at last...

Xander's steps quickened. He didn't notice the sharp edges of the ground, didn't hear Iris's boots crunching behind him.

The mark on his wrist flared. Bright. Violet.

"Xander—hey!" Iris shouted, but he was already at the edge of the chamber, reaching toward the crystal like he was being pulled by invisible thread. His fingers hovered inches from the surface.

Then...

A hand caught his arm.

"XANDER!"

He stumbled back, nearly falling. Iris yanked him away, eyes furious and wide.

"What the hell are you doing?" she snapped.

He blinked. Hard. The chamber spun.

"I—I don't know." His voice was hoarse. "I couldn't stop. I just—It… it...the voices–"

Her grip didn't loosen. "...Okay, that thing was about to turn your brain inside out. We need to be careful with it, alright?"

Xander looked back at the crystal. Its light had dulled slightly.

"...alright."

The glow of the crystal, bathed the walls in violet light that danced across Iris's skin. He hesitated only once, eyes narrowing at the strange way the crystal pulsed, as if it was… waiting.

Then he stepped forward.

Fingers brushing the surface.

A flash. 

Like lightning behind the eyes. 

And then, he grabbed it. The crystal detached from the air as if it had been suspended by breath alone.

There was a beat if silence....

Then the chamber trembled.

A sound cracked from deep within the stone. Far. But not far enough. Xander spun toward the tunnel entrance. "...That didn't sound friendly."

Then they heard the roar.

Deafening and furious that someone had taken what the hydra was guarding. The walls shook violently, dust raining from above. A low growl rumbled through the floor, chasing up their legs like an earthquake on a leash.

"KAELHI! IRIS!" Eli's voice echoed through the cavern. "GET OUT—NOW!"

Xander grabbed Iris by the wrist and pulled her hard as another tremor cracked the ground behind them.

They ran.

Breathless and faster they had ever ran before. Feet sliding against loose gravel, heartbeat too loud to think as they yelled. Behind them, fire blazed. Stone split. A piece of the ceiling cracked free and slammed to the floor just inches behind Iris's heels.

"Holy shit!"

Xander didn't let go of her hand as he ran and Iris didn't ask him to.

Ahead, the tunnel narrowed as the light peeked through at the very end.

'Thank you, God!'

"Don't you dare trip," she gasped.

"Me? You stumble like it's a skillset—"

Another roar.

A wall of stone cracked loose just behind them, crashing down in a deafening boom. Violet light burst in every direction.

They leapt forward, just ahead of the collapse.