Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush

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Somewhere between daybreak after they had officially introduce themselves to Alyhana during their journey through the shortcut, the trees grew denser and older. Their bark twisted, and the branches above tangled so tightly the sky was nearly blocked out. Mist curled low at their ankles as they trekked...it was cold and damp as swamp water. Xander shivered and pulled his cloak tighter.

Alyhana walked ahead of the group, but every few seconds, she'd glance over her shoulder at him. Quick flicks of her gaze like she wasn't sure if she was just staring or judging him.

He frowned. "What?"

Alyhana squeaked. Actually squeaked. Then spun back around so fast, her hood flew up again and covered her short pink hair and her equally pink cheeks.

"N-nothing!" Her voice was high pitched. "It's nothing, Kaelhi...sir-I mean, Xander-I mean-"

Xander sighed and looked around. "This place is giving me... graveyard vibes."

'Like some horror movie shit.' he thought.

"You're not wrong," Iris said grimly. "It feels like something died here. I've never believed in ghosts but considering all that has happened...i wouldn't be surprised if this place was haunted with about twenty-five ghosts."

The mist thickened the farther they went... making the place even creepier. "I'm sorry," Alyhana said quietly, slowing her pace. "This part of the forest wasn't always like this."

Iris raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't always seem cursed and horrific?"

Alyhana shook her head. "W-when I was little, this was a sacred grove. The most beautiful in the land, you could see fireflies dance above the roots like tiny stars."

Xander looked around at the rot, the silence.

"What happened to it?"

Alyhana didn't answer right away.

Just stared into the fog like she was remembering something that still hurt to recall.

"It was beautiful," she whispered. "Before the beast king's wrath touched it."

Xander nearly tripped over a root and cursed when he held himself from faceplanting to the ground.

"What happened?" he asked. "To the grove. The temple. Everything."

Alyhana didn't answer right away instead, she paused just for a second and pressed a hand to the nearest tree.

"Thirteen years ago," she said slowly, "the Beast King sent his monsters. And his undead soldiers. They killed everyone and left the city to dust..."

Iris turned toward her, brow creased. "Why?"

Alyhana's hand dropped to her side.

"Because they lied to him," she said. Then looked up, her eyes filled with nothing but sadness beneath the torchlight. "And he found out."

Xander felt the hairs rise on his arms there was a silence after that. But still, he had to ask.

"Lied about what?"

Alyhana turned away sadly refusing to answer...and Xander didn't ask again. He himself wasn't sure if he wanted to know the details of a massacred city.

The city of Iasora lay in pieces before them when they reached there finally, its remains scattered across blackened stone and shattered pathways. Ivy crawled on what remained of the walls, curling through split archways and across cracked domes that might once have been gold. An old fountain gurgled with disgusting murky rainwater, stained dark, the statue at its center, once a dancing maiden with a lyre... now armless, staring at no civilians.

A little farther in stood a statue of a winged goddess, her face almost washed away by time and death. Her chest was split down the center, in a clean and cruel manner.

Xander took a step forward then he hissed, grabbing his wrist at the burning pain.

Kaelhi....

....See our suffering...

Save us... Kaelhi...

He's killing us...!

The women...the children...

The voices were much louder this time and Xander almost had a headache trying to listen and make sense of the dozens of voices all talking at the same time. Iris spun around, already by his side. "What? What is it? Are you okay?!"

He forced a breath through clenched teeth. "It's nothing."

Her eyes narrowed. "Are you sure? Is your wrist hurting again?"

Xander released his wrist slowly, fingers stiff. "It just... stung for a second. I'm fine."

But he wasn't, though.

"How many people lived here?" he asked.

Alyhana stood near the broken gates, her torch had been put out. "Thousands," she said.

'Thousands of people murdered...' his chest felt tight again.

He glanced sideways at Alyhana, voice low when he finally decided to ask once more..."What lie? What lie did you all tell the Beast King?"

"Iasora," she said, turning toward the ruined skyline, "was the last great city to fall."

Iris tilted her head confused. "But I thought the Beast King's rise started a hundred years ago?"

"It did," Alyhana murmured. "Towns fell, Cities vanished and millions of innocents died. But Iasora stayed untouched and people from all over Alcazar started calling it 'The Oasis.'"

She gestured lightly around them-at the ruins, the statues, the overgrown plaza.

"Because even when the realm was drowning in blood and agony... we still stood strong and wounded came here, the hunted, the forgotten. And we healed them. We gave the refugees and survivors a sanctuary."

Xander's brows furrowed. "So what happened?"

"Twenty years ago, the Beast King's men came. They said they got word that the Aurex Blade was hidden inside the temple. That the city was sheltering it and protecting it for the Kaelhi's return."

Iris blinked. "Was it?"

"It was, but the High Priestess said no...she knew they would destroy it." Alyhana replied. "She knelt, she swore and they searched. They found nothing so they left."

"But they came back," Xander said quietly.

"Yes," Alyhana whispered. "Seven years later knowing the truth."

She glanced a house nearby...still stained with blood, infact the brown stains all over the city Xander realized where blood.

"Every soldier, beast, even the undead under his command. They returned and...they massacre the whole city, they spared noone...not even the children who knew nothing." Alyhana continued, her voice shaking like she was about to cry.

Xander's throat felt dry. "W-what about the temple?"

"He left it untouched."

Alyhana's gaze fell to the earth. "So that my Mistress would feel the weight. That every time she stood in the prayer hall and heard silence, it would scream with the voices we lost because of her decision. He wanted her to remember, he didn't even take the Aurex Blade in the end."

She looked up at last, her voice thinner now. "I was five years old when they came."

No one moved.

Iris touched a crumbling column beside her, fingers trailing ash from the fire.

"My parents were healers," Alyhana said. "They stayed behind to treat the wounded when the soldiers came. They hid me in the temple and said they'd catch up to me later."

Her sad smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "They didn't."

Iris glanced at the ground, arms still crossed, but her posture loosened-just a little.

"The High Priestess found me hiding in the offering chamber," Alyhana said. "She raised me after that. Me and a few of the surviving sisters. We tried to hold on. Keep the teachings alive. Light the Holy Flame even if no one else believed in the gods anymore."

She reached into her cloak and gently touched the emblem around her neck. "We did the best we could."

Then Alyhana looked at Xander again with a smile and in awe. "B-but now that you're here... the flame will rise again. And our dead will finally rest."

Xander didn't say anything. He rubbed his wrist again, fingers brushing that same pulsing vein of light that hadn't settled since the ruins came into view and Iris looked at him, something hard to read in her expression.

They reached the Temple just before nightfall, Alyhana was the first to step forward.

"The Temple of Iasora," she whispered, like speaking it too loud might wake something. "My home."

Grand pillars lined the path, cracked and leaning, but still standing nonetheless. Twin flame bowls sat at the base of the steps, blackened from years of inactivity.

Then bloomed into steady flame.

Xander blinked. "...Okay, that's not creepy at all."

Iris squinted at the bowl. "Is it supposed to do that?"

"No," Alyhana said softly. "Not unless the Kaelhi is near."

Xander stared at the flame a second longer, then the sound came. A soft and distant voice.

"...Kaelhi..."

Xander stiffened. "Did you hear that?"

Iris stepped closer to him, hand brushing the dagger on her hip. "Yeah..."

"Come in, Xander." Alyhana stood between them, "She's waiting."