Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush
Chapter 48: Getting Your Ass Beat Makes You Smarter

Chapter 48: Getting Your Ass Beat Makes You Smarter

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The second Xander yelled, they ran towards it with Xander taking the lead, his magic sword glowing with blue cracks of energy. He lunged forward, slashing clean through the shadowy tendrils that tried to grab at him.

Iris wasn’t far behind. She flipped over a chunk of broken floorboard and landed with both aura daggers glowing hot pink in her hands.

The monster hissed and swung an arm the size of a tree at her. She slid under it, sliced twice, and twisted away before the thing could even react.

"Hit confirmed!" Iris yelled. "Somebody bring the firepower!"

Alyhana, standing a few feet back, lifted both hands and fired a beam of golden light straight into the creature’s side. It screamed as the blast hit, flinching very hard.

"Sorry!" she called out, eyes wide. "D—did I overdo it?!"

"No!" Xander yelled. "Do it again!"

He ducked under a claw swipe, then rammed his sword upward into the monster’s stomach. Dark mist burst from the wound.

Iris jumped and used his back as a springboard, launching herself high. "Heads up!"

She spun mid-air, daggers slicing through the monster’s arm as she passed.

Xander didn’t even have the time to wonder where the heck did her parkour skills come from.

It howled again, stumbling back from the flurry of attacks. Its form was starting to glitch as parts of its body were flickering and reshaping, trying to hold itself together.

"We’re breaking it down!" Alyhana said, a little too surprised.

"I told you this would work," Xander muttered, sliding to a stop beside them.

"No, you didn’t," Iris said raising an eyebrow at him. "You just said, ’Follow my lead’ and then ran in like an idiot."

"And yet, here we are," he shot back, raising his sword again.

The monster reeled, its chest heaving, cracks of white and gold light tearing through its body. Alyhana’s next blast hit it dead-on in the center. Iris followed up with a slice through the legs. It dropped to one knee.

Xander’s grip tightened. "Now."

He rushed forward, sword glowing brighter, lining up the final blow and get him and his friends out of here for good...but that’s was when he saw her.

A young girl, barely fourteen—curled in the center of all that shadow and dark magic. She was crying, hugging her knees, her eyes wide and filled with something that didn’t match the rage around her.

Fear.

Pain.

Loneliness.

Xander froze.

"...What?"

His grip faltered. The sword trembled in his hand as the monster trembled and the flicker vanished. A massive black fist slammed into Xander’s ribs before he could react.

"Xander!" Alyhana screamed.

The hit launched him across the room like a ragdoll. He crashed into the far wall with a loud crack, smashing through it and landing in a cloud of dust and rubble.

"Shit!" Iris shouted, spinning around. "Xander!"

He didn’t get up while the monster growled, body still flickering as if the edges of its form were glitching like a broken image on a screen.

Iris turned to Alyhana. "Go, go—check him! I’ve got eyes on ugly."

Alyhana nodded quickly, panic rushing through her chest as she ran toward the broken wall.

"Xander!" Alyhana dropped to her knees beside him, her hands glowing already. "Are you—oh gods, are you breathing?!"

He groaned, half-buried in debris. "Define breathing..."

Iris ran up, yanked his collar, and shook him. "What the hell was that?! You had it! You had it! Why didn’t you kill it?!"

"Easy, Iris...he just hit a wall," Alyhana said quickly, checking his chest for fractures.

"Yeah, well, so did our chances of winning!" Iris snapped then took a breath to calm herself down. "Are you okay? Why’d you stop?" She said more gently.

Xander winced as he sat up, rubbing his side. "I saw something."

"You saw what?"

He looked up at them, face still dazed. "I saw... a girl."

Alyhana froze. "What?"

Xander nodded slowly, still catching his breath. "Inside the monster. Just for a second. She was crying... Like a kid. I couldn’t—she just looked so scared."

Iris blinked, caught off guard. "A girl?"

"Yeah," Xander said. "And then it decked me across the room."

"Okay," Iris muttered. "That’s not creepy at all."

Alyhana sat back on her heels, eyes wide. "That’s its true form..."

" The what now?" Xander and Iris said at the same time.

Alyhana looked between them. "We’ve only been attacking its shell. That rage, the shadows but that’s not the ghost itself. She’s the true spirit, that girl. If we don’t exorcise her, this won’t end. The monster will just keep coming back and we’ll never leave this place."

Xander leaned his head back against the broken wall and sighed. "Cool. And how exactly do I do that? Ask her nicely?"

Alyhana turned to him, totally serious. "You still have some of the Veylith Crystal’s magic in your system. Right?"

"I mean... probably?" he said.

"I think it lets you connect with ghosts," she explained. "It’s not just energy—it’s memory as well. You can see her past if you try hard enough...and if you can make her remember who she was..."

"...It might pull her spirit to the surface," Iris finished, piecing it together. "Force the real ghost to break through that monstrousity."

"Exactly," Alyhana said. "Then I can exorcise her properly."

Xander looked between them. "And by ’connect with ghosts,’ you mean... I go stand in front of it and get punched again?"

Alyhana shook her head. "Not necessarily, but physical contact might do the trick."

"Great," he muttered bitterly at the thought of having physical contact with a ghost. "Awesome. Love that for me."

Alyhana smiled softly. "You’re the Kaelhi."

He gave her a look. "That means nothing to me right now."

"It means," she said, "you can do anything. Because you’re not just powerful, Xander... you’re a god."

"...I hate how much pressure that puts on this moment."

The monster twitched, its body jerking unnaturally as shadows slithered back into place like cracked bones snapping into a reset.

Black mist curled off its limbs while it was healing really fast.

Xander grunted, shifting through the rubble. He pushed himself upright slowly, his sword dragging across the floor behind him, sparks dancing from the edge. His breath was still shallow, but his eyes had locked back into focus.

He looked between Alyhana and Iris.

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Please tell me you’re not about to run at it again without a clear plan."

Xander rolled his shoulder, then winced. "I do have a plan."

They both stared at him as a beat passed.

"...The plan is just don’t die," he added, deadpan. " and follow my lead again."

"Again, that’s not a plan!" Iris muttered. "Dumbass."

"Iris," Alyhana said softly, reaching for her magic again. "Trust him, he is the Kaelhi after all."

Xander looked back toward the monster, which was now rising to full height, growling low, rage pulsing through its core.

"Yeah," he said under his breath. "Time to prove it."