Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘❦✾❦∘∙⊱⋅•

The doors groaned open, and the scent hit first, ash, sandalwood, and something faintly sweet like scorched fruit left too long in sunlight.

They stepped inside and despite the ruin outside, the inner sanctum was untouched.

The floor was stone and they moved between columns carved with celestial runes and old Alcazari lettering, some darkened like they'd been burned out mid-prayer.

Alyhana led the way to a room which opened up into a grand rotunda. Statues, twelve of them...stood in a wide circle, towering and strange. Gods and goddesses long forgotten by the rest of the realm. One with three eyes and a sword through its chest. One cradling a globe of fire. Another with no face at all and other which had a glare pointing right at him.

Xander stared at them like they might blink. "Why do I feel like at least three of these are judging me already?"

Iris nodded in approval at a horned statue with a decapitated lion at its feet. "Sick."

In the center of the room stood a massive iron bowl cradled in sculpted stone wings. The flame it held burned blue brighter than the firelight outside, cold and beautiful at the same time.

A soft wind stirred inside the room, though there were no windows. It tugged at their cloaks.

Alyhana approached the flame slowly, her voice barely above breath. "The Heart of Iasora…"

Even Eli, stoic, flame-scarred Eli stood a little straighter.

Xander tilted his head at the flame. "Is it supposed to be that color?"

"Yes," Alyhana replied.

A woman knelt before the blue fire, her back was to them, long black hair pulled into a single braid that glistened like obsidian. Her white robes swayed as she moved slightly, head bowed in prayer, her voice no louder than breath slipping through the room.

Alyhana stepped forward, quiet but sure. She didn't speak until they were within the circle of statues.

Then she knelt.

"High Priestess Maia," she said softly. "The Kaelhi has returned."

The woman stilled. Her head tilted, just slightly, as if listening for something only she could hear.

Then she rose.

Her movements were slow and elegant, almost too fluid, like she wasn't walking, but being pulled upward by invisible threads. Her face, when she turned, was worn. Beautiful, yes, but carved by grief. She looked at Alyhana first, then at the flame then finally, her eyes landed on Xander.

And she broke, a choked sound escaped her lips. Not quite a sob. But close enough that it cracked in the middle.

"Oh gods… it's true," she whispered. "It's true!"

Before anyone could say a word, she moved. She ran, not gracefully, but like someone with a lifetime of waiting clawing at her heels and she dropped to her knees in front of Xander.

And then she wept. "Thank you," she sobbed, grabbing the edge of his cloak. "Thank you for returning. For answering our prayers—"

Xander stumbled back a step in sheer panic. "Oh, wait—please don't do that—I—"

She clutched his wrist with both hands.

The moment her fingers touched his skin and she gasped. She pressed his wrist against her chest. Her voice broke into a whisper.

"Kaelhi, almighty saviour, a gift sent from the heavenly realm…"

"I, um—I don't–" Xander said weakly, trying not to faint.

Iris folded her arms. "Yup. Definitely not a cult. Not at all."

Alyhana stayed kneeling beside the fire, smiling through tears. "Maia believed you'd come, we both did. Even when the world didn't anymore."

Maia finally looked up, her fingers still on Xander's wrist. "You are not late, Kaelhi. You are right on time."

Xander swallowed the lump in his throat. Before anyone could stop her, the High Priestess, Maia... dropped down to her knees.

Her fingers clutched the hem of his cloak. She bent forward and kissed it, kissed his feet like they were relics and not attached to a flustered seventeen-year-old boy whose soul was currently trying to eject from his body.

"W-whoa whoa—hey—please don't—" Xander stammered, nearly toppling backward. "I'm not a— I mean, that's not—I didn't ask for feet-kissing—!"

Maia just smiled through her tears.

"You don't have to ask," she said. "You're the Kaelhi. You're a god, We've waited so long…"

She took his hand gently before he could stop her and turned his wrist upward. Her gaze locked on the soft, glowing shimmer pulsing beneath his skin gold now, not red.

Her breath hitched, then, softly, reverently, she pressed his wrist against her heart.

"The gods have not forsaken us," she whispered.

From behind him, Iris muttered under her breath with a smirk, "You have so many admirers, nerd. I'm kinda jealous."

Maia looked up at Xander like he was sun itself. "You're everything the scriptures spoke of," she said.

"Uh... that's cool," Xander said.

But Maia only laughed, her voice soft and watery as the doors creaked open and two figures stepped into the light of the blue flame.

Xander blinked. Then blinked again in complete confusion, they were identical to Maia. Same black braid. Same flowing silver-white robes. Same age, same sharp cheekbones, same slow with eerie grace.

"Okay," he muttered under his breath. "Are they triplets or clones? Because either way... I'm freaking out a little."

'they look too similar to be considered triplets...' he thought.

Iris raised an eyebrow beside him as Alyhana turned swiftly, stepping in front of them with a bow so low her forehead nearly brushed the stone.

She lifted her head, voice clear. "These are the Three Sisters. High Priestess Maia… and her blood-bound kin, Gaea and Vimea. Keepers of the Sacred Flame, Watchers of the Temple of Iasora."

The one on the left...Gaea, probably...he couldn't tell for sure, tilted her head ever so slightly, eyes sweeping over Xander like she was dissecting him with a glance.

She didn't look impressed. "I expected someone taller," she said flatly.

The other one Vimea stayed near the archway, eyes flicking from Alyhana to Iris to Eli to Xander. Her face was unreadable as she stared at Xander's glasses. "And less...blind."

"Careful, Gaea," Maia said softly, not rising from her knees. "He bears the mark."

"That boy?" Gaea gestured toward Xander with a single sharp motion. "He looks like he wouldn't survive a minotaur attack, much less save the realm."

And she'd be completely right.

"He is the Kaelhi, Gaea! you cannot judge based on appearance!" Maia argued. "Some gods looked weak at first–"

"Then perhaps he should not have come," Gaea said sharply, stepping down into the circle. Her eyes locked onto Xander's wrist.

"He cannot help us now," Vimea said softly. "So much has happened."

"Enough," Maia said, rising at last to her full height. "He is the Kaelhi. I felt the divine light in him the moment he entered."

Alyhana looked between the sisters, visibly tense. "Please. He came in peace. He came because the gods called him."

Gaea folded her arms, jaw clenched. "Gods? What gods?."

Gaea took a step forward, eyes locked on Xander like she could peel the truth off him with her stare alone.

"This boy," she said coldly, "is no Kaelhi. He's just a frightened vessel fumbling in the dark."

Xander blinked, caught between confusion and a very real urge to disappear behind Iris.

"Okay, ouch," he muttered. "That felt personal."

Maia stepped in between them before Gaea could go further. "He bears the mark," she said again sharply.

"Marks can be faked," Gaea replied, chin raised. "Ive heard stories of many people posing as the Kaelhi for fame and fortune for decades."

"That is true," said Vimea softly. "This one could be one of those insufferable people."

She stepped forward, only a single pace, but her voice rang like quiet bells in a stone hall.

Maia shook her head, "We must believe sisters–i had a dream that he returned–"

"No," Gaea snapped. "You believe. Because you're desperate. Because the city was turned to nothing but dust and blood in your useless faith."

Alyhana flinched like she'd been slapped.

"Gaea—please—"

Gaea whirled to her. "You think this is salvation? You'd follow this?"

Xander opened his mouth. "Okay, just to be clear...I don't even know what half of you are saying. I'm only here because of a sword that's supposed to be here—"

"You will have no sword!" Gaia yelled.

"Enough," Maia said firmly. "He is the Kaelhi. The gods sent him!"

"And if the gods are wrong?" Gaea whispered.

Alyhana didn't hesitate when she spoke. "I'd still rather follow a spark than sink into the dark."

Gaea's lip curled, her fists trembling at her sides.

"You're both mad," she spat. "There are no gods. Not anymore. Not since they left us to die with this city. Not since they turned their backs and let Iasora and the innocents burn."

Maia turned sharply toward her. "That's not true—"

"Isn't it?" Gaea snapped. "We buried our sisters, our brothers! Our students! The priests! The children! We lit fire after fire and not a single god answered! Not even a sign that they acknowledge our suffering."

"But the Kaelhi—" Alyhana tried, stepping forward.

Gaea's glare silenced her instantly.

"You think this boy is the answer to a century of divine silence? You think that thing glowing in his skin makes him holy?"

Xander blinked. "Okay, to be fair, I also don't think I'm holy. Most days I'm lucky if I remember to eat breakfast and not die."

Vimea hadn't moved from her place by the statues. Her hands were still clasped, but she looked as if she were praying and listening and breaking all at once.

Gaea turned to the wall and yanked a curved glaive from its mount, the runes etched along the blade still faintly glowing with old firelight.

Maia, without hesitation, stepped toward the opposite pillar and gripped the hilt of a slender ceremonial sword bound in crimson cloth.

"No—please—" Alyhana stepped between them, arms out, eyes wide. "Stop! Please! This is the Kaelhi! We shouldn't raise weapons in the temple!"

"The Temple is already dead," Gaea said coldly, leveling her weapon. "We're just pretending it still breathes."

Iris had already drawn her dagger.

"Leave this place," Maia said quietly. Not a whisper. Not a plea. A sentence. 

"Or be struck down for your deception."

Xander didn't think. He moved as instinct shoved him forward, a half-step in front of Alyhana, one arm out like he could shield her from the very people she'd called family.

Alyhana's gasp caught behind him.

"Iris," he said, barely turning his head. "Don't—"

But she already had her dagger drawn.

"I wasn't going to," she muttered, eyes locked on Gaea. "Not unless she moves first."

Eli shifted behind them, staff quietly glowing along one side. But he said nothing.

Maia's hands trembled around the hilt. Just slightly. But her eyes never left the mark on Xander's wrist.

"He shouldn't have come," Vimea said. "None of them should have."