Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush

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The Hydra lunged and Xander dodged left...barely. A blast of sickening venomous steam hit the ground inches from where he'd just been standing, sizzling against the dirt like acid. The stench curled up his nose, thick and disgusting.

His stomach turned.

'No way in hell am I getting poisoned again.'

He moved fast with his blade raised, heart slamming against his ribs. The dagger was too small. Too light. Too everything he didn't need. But it was all he had.

Another head came down, fangs snapping.

Xander ducked, rolled beneath it, and slashed across one of the scaled legs. The blade almost its nicked skin. The Hydra roared anyway, more annoyed than hurt.

"Okay," he muttered, stumbling back, "so you do feel pain. Good to know."

The ground vibrated as the Hydra pressed forward, all seven heads weaving in a deadly rhythm. One of them hissed, venom pooling in its throat. Xander darted right again, shoulder slamming into a tree as it narrowly missed him.

His lungs were on fire. Legs already tired.

But he moved again, him being quick and desperately, then he saw an opening. One of the Hydra's heads reared back too far, teeth bared wide. Xander ran toward it, feet pounding the earth.

He jumped, dagger raised as he stabbed it straight in the eye.

The creature screeched, a horrible, bloodcurdling sound that cracked through the air and echoed across the trees. Xander hit the ground hard, rolling to avoid another strike.

"Didn't like that, huh?!"

The Hydra thrashed, tail whipping through the air. He barely had time to duck.

Iris's arms burned as she dragged Eli across the clearing, his weight heavier than it should've been. Dead weight. No, it wasn't. He was alive. He had to be, they couldn't lose the one person who could guide them through this stupid world.

Her legs stumbled through bramble and broken roots until she found the thick trunk of a tree, wide enough to shield him. She dropped to her knees and gently eased him back, brushing dirt from his face, checking for breath.

She flinched then she froze.

Her mark ignited. A hot, stabbing burn flared across her chest. It wasn't just reacting, Iris gasped, a hand flying to the place just over her heart. "What the hell…"

And then it hit her. Not the roar, but the terrifying, blood-deep knowing that folded into her bones.

'He's going to die!'

Her eyes snapped toward the clearing, she could see the flashes of swinging heads and dust clouds She turned back to Eli.

"Please don't hate me for this," she whispered.

Iris laid him down gently in the grass, brushed the sweat from his brow, then she ran branches whipped past her. Her chest burned from more than just the mark. The fear was still there, yes. But something sharper was cutting through it now.

She couldn't let Xander die!

The Hydra spun, faster than it should've, faster than anything that big had any right to, Its tail whipped through the clearing like a battering ram and slammed into Xander's side.

He flew.

Hit the ground with a sickening crack, pain snapping through his ribs like lightning. The breath left his lungs in a ragged wheeze as he rolled over grass and ash and crushed leaves.

Something sharp bit into his skin.

Poison.

He knew the sensation too well like fire soaking through muscle, clouding everything, dragging him under.

He groaned, coughing up blood, arms trembling as he tried to push himself up.

"Shit! Not... again..." he hissed, collapsing back onto the dirt.

The crystal rolled out of his pocket, it glowed faintly. Xander stared at it, blinking past the blurring in his vision. His fingers twitched. The earth tilted as his heartbeat slowed.

Come closer, Kaelhi…

We have been waiting for you...

He flinched. "No… not now... not again…"

The voices pulsed through his head chanting, whispering, familiar.

You are our god...

The true god

He closed his eyes. The Hydra was moving again, towards him to land the final blow. He could hear it taking its sweet time now. Like it knew he was done.

Still, Xander reached for the crystal, his fingers brushed it, and the moment he touched it, his veins lit up. Violet sparks. Pain. Heat.

Its heads coiled back like striking vipers, every movement hungry and poised. The clearing pulsed with the scent of blood and poison. Xander lay motionless. Chest barely rising. Limbs numb. Every inhale was like dragging breath through glass.

The crystal glowed faintly in his palm as he stared at it.

'I can't… fight,' he thought.

He coughed, blood in his mouth. His arms wouldn't lift anymore. His vision shimmered at the edges and Xander's grip tightened around the crystal.

'I can't run. Can't protect them. Can't even fucking stand.' He blinked slowly, his heart beat once, loud in his ears.

'...No other choice.'

He was going to die either way.

He took one shaky breath, muttered a single apology he wasn't sure was for Iris, Eli… or himself and he swallowed the crystal.

The heat hit instantly.

His back arched off the ground as something ancient roared to life inside him. Not pain, not exactly.

Power.

It seared down his throat, into his core, through his blood. It felt like he was swallowing lightning itself. And then...

Nothing.

The Hydra stopped moving and even the trees seemed to pause as if time had stopped and Xander's eyes rolled back in his skull.

Iris burst through the trees like something had unhinged inside her. Her feet hit the ground before her brain could even catch up, her eyes locking instantly on the scene before her.

Xander was on the ground and he wasn't moving.

"No—no no no—" Iris bolted forward, lungs burning, her voice already tearing through her throat.

"XANDER!"

She skidded to a stop halfway across the clearing. She had nothing, no fancy magic and no weapons.

Nothing but a goddamn stick.

Her gaze snapped to a fallen branch nearby, thick, crooked, jagged at one end. She grabbed it in both hands, hurling it with every ounce of force she had left.

"HEY!"

The branch cracked against one of the Hydra's heads—not enough to hurt it, but just enough to piss it off.

The beast jerked sideways, blinking through blood and smoke.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Iris screamed.

The Hydra hissed, annoyed. One of its heads twisted toward her, golden eyes narrowing.

"Yeah!" Iris said, voice shaking, "look at me, you ugly piece of ancient shit!"

She took a trembling step forward. Legs barely holding.

Behind the Hydra, Xander still didn't move, she swallowed hard. Her eyes burned with tears.

"Please," she whispered, barely audible. "Don't die. Don't you dare die before I tell you how much you annoy me."

The Hydra growled, tail curling as it went towards her. Then it froze mid-step all of a sudden, one claw lifted, seven heads pausing in eerie synchronicity...the It sniffed the air once. Hissed.

The ground beneath them rumbled.

BOOM!

Violet lightning cracked through the earth like a blade through stone. The air split. Energy surged up from the roots of the world and struck the ground beside Xander's body with a sound that wasn't thunder.

Iris flinched, shielding her eyes from the blast. "Xander!"

And then, he moved.

His body arched, back off the dirt, a violent tremor snapping through his limbs. The crystal's light poured from his chest, tracing jagged lines across his skin like lightening—fractures of power glowing beneath the surface like divine fire trying to escape.

His eyes snapped open, glowing electric violet.

The Hydra growled and recoiled, just slightly. Not in fear. In recognition. Xander pushed himself upright—slow but steady, like someone rising from a battlefield buried inside their bones.

He reached down and picked up the dagger, Iris stood frozen, eyes wide.

"what the fuck…?"

He turned to her. Calm and fierce and lit from within.

"Iris," he said, voice low but unshakable. "Stay back."

But she didn't move, just too stunned to do what he asked.

"I mean it." His grip tightened around the blade. "Whatever's about to happen...I've got this."

Another pulse of lightning arced across his shoulders. The wind shifted the beast screeched once more when Xander stepped forward.