Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush

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Fog hung low over the clearing the morning after .The fire had burned down to soft red embers when Eli crouched beside Xander with the kind of focus that kind of scared him a little. His fingers were pressed gently to Xander's wrist, then his forehead, then without even a heads up, he placed two knuckles just beneath his sternum.

Xander flinched.

"Ow! what the hell was that?!"

Eli didn't answer immediately. His jaw tightened. Eyes narrowed slightly, as though the world had just told him something he really didn't want to hear.

"What is it?" Iris asked from her place by the coals, brows drawn in worry. She was rolling up their last blanket, hands tense.

Eli straightened slowly. "...we need to move."

Xander sat up with effort. "Seriously? We nearly died, like, twelve hours ago."

"And it will all be for nothing if we wait too long," Eli muttered, slinging his satchel across his shoulder. "The crystal inside you is... unstable. That thing was never meant to be lodged inside a mortal bloodstream. The only reason you are still alive is because you are the Kaelhi."

"I think my bloodstream's doing pretty good," Xander mumbled with a deadpan expression, though his voice sounded shaky and his shirt was sticking to his back in a way that felt dangerously warm.

Eli shot him a look. "Your bloodstream is about three degrees away from combustion. If we do not get you to Iasora by the next moonrise…" He paused, choosing his words carefully. "You will die."

Xander turned a little green at that.

"Awesome. So I'm basically a walking time bomb waiting to explode...that's nice..."

L in

Eli moved toward the dying fire, kicking dirt over the coals. "There is a way to stop it. The Sword, we will extract the power of the crystal from your body and into the sword...saving your life."

Xander stared at him. They were quiet for a moment. A bird cawed in the trees. Morning broke across the canopy like spilled gold.

Iris was right, why couldn't he stop dying every five seconds? Some god he was...

Then Iris stood, brushing dirt from her knees. "Okay," she said firmly. "Then let's go get you that sword before your body explodes, loser."

The forest was wet and green and loud, not in the noisy way, but in the way every twig snapped too sharply, every leaf hissed beneath their boots like it resented the weight. Mist still clung to branches and the sky was gray.

Iris's boots squelched slightly in the muddy earth, but she didn't complain. Her bag was heavier than she remembered, and Xander looked like he was one wrong breath away from folding in half. She watched him from the corner of her eye—his jaw clenched, every step stiff, like it hurt to carry his own skin.

Eli led the way and he didn't look back, didn't even ask if anyone was keeping up.

But he coughed just once. A sound muffled into the crook of his elbow. But he plucked a wide leaf from a low-hanging branch and wiped at his mouth as discreetly as he could.

Xander saw the smear of red. He said nothing.

They trudged for a while longer. Xander found himself lagging a step behind Iris not by choice, just because his knees refused to cooperate anymore. Every time he walked without taking a break too long, the inside of his chest felt like it might tear open again.

"You okay back there?" Iris asked without looking.

"Uhhh...define okay," he muttered.

"No."

He gave a weak chuckle. "That's what I thought."

At some point, Iris reached into her satchel and brought out the book—battered and stiff with damp corners. She opened it mid-step and started reading as they walked, lips moving silently over the words.

Xander watched her, not in a weird way. Not really...at least he hoped the staring wasn't weird. He just... watched like a totally normal person would.

She had that look again, furrowed brow, lashes low over her eyes, a loose strand of hair stuck to her cheek. Focused in that way she always got when she was learning something new. He'd seen it back at Crestwood Heights—back when she sat at the front of every class like the slightly annoying lteacher's pet she was... to understand everything better than everyone else.

That girl had won mathlete gold three years straight and still somehow had time to top biology finals and write award-winning poetry in her spare time.

And yet… she dated Sam.

Such a dumb decision for such a smart girl.l

Xander frowned faintly and nearly rolled his eyes when he thought of the bulky bastard. Iris turned a page, not looking up.

He still didn't get it.

"You know," he muttered, "you were too smart to be with someone like Sam."

She stopped walking but she didn't look up. Just... slowly closed the book. "What?"

Xander blinked. "I–I mean...uh—he treated you like crap. He wasn't even subtle about it."

She turned, the wind catching her hair just enough to veil half her face.

"Excuse you?"

He hesitated. Then, maybe too bluntly: "Sam was a jerk. And not just to me. I saw what he did to you. Rooftop, remember?"

Iris exhaled hard through her nose, hands tightening around the book.

"I liked him, okay?" she snapped, then sighed like the words burned. "Back when he was pretending to be a good person, do I really need to explain my love life to you?"

There was a pause. Her voice lowered.

"I didn't date him because I was stupid."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to, everyone thinks that."

Xander scratched the back of his neck. "…Then why stay?"

She stared at the ground. "…My dad works for his dad," she said eventually, voice small. "Custodian. Thirty years of loyalty, no health insurance. Sam's family basically paid for our groceries. If I'd broken up with their precious golden boy, what do you think would've happened to my dad's job?"

Xander didn't respond.

"Sam's petty, he might get his dad to fire my father to retaliate and..." Iris trailed off.

It all made sense now, of course Iris wasn't in love with the moron...she was only with him to protect her family from going bankrupt.

'So she's the kind of girl would do anything to protect her family...'

The trees swayed slightly overhead. The path curved east. She swallowed. "I didn't stay because I was in love with him or whatever. I stayed because I was scared he'd ruin my family...."

She looked away, "but I hit him, knocked his ass unconscious. I'd surprised if he didn't have his dad file a lawsuit against my family. So the torture of being his girlfriend for years was for nothing in the end..."

As the day dimmed, branches reached like brittle fingers into a bruised-purple sky. Their campfire crackled low beneath the trunks.

Eli was the first to go straight to bed. Curled on his side beneath a blanket, face turned toward the dying embers. His breathing was shallow, jaw locked even in sleep.

Iris sat with her back to the nearest tree, cross-legged, scribbling furiously into the margins of the book. A second, thinner notebook was open on her lap, already half-filled with her neat, slanted handwriting.

Xander watched her from where he lay, stretched out on his back with a hand over his ribs. His head rested on a folded cloak, and the fire painted gold across Iris's cheekbones.

The glow in her eyes reminded him of the rooftop again—the way they'd glinted through tears and panic. The way she'd swung that plank like she didn't know what else to do with the fear.

"Still reading?" he rasped.

Iris didn't look up. "Yeah...This is how I stay sane."

"By memorizing the twelve stages of the swamp wolf migration?"

"They're fascinating, actually. Did you know that once the females give birth, they usually abandon the males and leave the cubs with them?"

He grinned faintly. "You're ridiculous."

She flipped a page. "Better than being completely useless...if I can't fight, I might as well be smart. God, I miss the internet."

He looked at her a moment longer, the firelight dancing in the green of her eyes again. Xander didn't even remember falling asleep.

One second there was the soft flicker of flame and the sound of Iris quietly flipping pages. The next, he felt a breeze that carried something that felt off.

"Hissss..."

He felt a pressure, the weight was sliding over the skin of his ankle, smooth and wet like oil and his eyes snapped open.

'The fuck...?'

His breath caught halfway up his throat, because around them, coiled through grass and stone and leaves—were serpents.

Dozens. Maybe hundreds.

Scales shinning like onyx glass, their bodies weaving through the camp like threads in a loom. Some were as thick as his thigh, others small enough to vanish beneath the grass.

The same soft pulse as the light beneath his collarbone. Just the sound of slow movement and of bodies slithering.

He sat up—inch by inch.

Iris stirred across the fire, brow furrowing, her hand inching toward her own dagger out of instinct.

"Iris—" Xander rasped.

She blinked, her eyes still heavy with sleep. "Huh?"

His voice dropped to a whisper that barely cracked the air. "Don't move."

She froze when she saw the way his shoulders were stiff, the color drained and then she saw them. Her inhale wasn't a scream but it was close. Xander didn't take his eyes off the snake closest to him.

They just couldn't catch a break, could they?

𝔞𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯'𝔰 𝔯𝔞𝔪𝔟𝔩𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰

Thanks to all that have read this story I'm trying to put together this far, I really appreciate 🙏🏾🙏🏾

I'm happy to announce that this book will have locked chapters soon...

Looks like webnovel finds my book good enough for that 😅

Anyways I'm grateful, and all comments, reviews, votes, gifts etc are highly appreciated

Because more of those equal more updates.

Anyways thank you ✌🏾