My Civilian Goddess

Chapter 19: The true goddess

"Why are you able to warp reality," Kacey asked with a stern look. Alexander's appearance really did calm them down, but that could only be temporary.

Eli took a deep breath and thought for a moment. "I don't know," was his first answer.

Kacey's eye twitched, Lilly looked worried, and Alexander furrowed his eyebrows.

"Sorry, okay, but I understand very little about all this god and goddess stuff. A voice in my head told me I could do it to defend myself so I tried imagining things."

Alexander rubbed his chin. "That bastard Madros usually doesn't give any powers to his host. He usually focuses fully on reincarnating."

"Who's Madros?"

"Madros," Kacey hissed, "is a useless replacement for the gods that believed he should rule. I murdered him, but the asshole won't stay dead! The man who so happens to be in your body and talked to you in your dreams!"

"Oh," Eli said rather calmly. More than anything, he was just tired. "Well, it wasn't this Madros who told me I should try. It was a lady."

"You-" Alexander held his arm in front of Kacey before they could grab Eli by the throat.

"Did this lady give you her name, Eli?"

"Dea."

The room fell silent. Lilly looked just as confused as Eli was. However, Kacey and Alexander were staring each other down. A wordless conversation with twinkles in their eyes.

"It's impossible," Kacey gasped.

"But what if it's true," Alexander almost laughed.

"Um," Lilly spoke up. She seemed to almost immediately regret it. "Uh, who is Dea?"

"Our real goddess," Kacey said, leaning back against the door. "The only person who should deserve the title goddess. She was killed hundreds of years ago by Madros."

Alexander nodded. "You both have to understand that the name Dea hasn't been spoken in all that time too. Her existence was pretty much erased from the world, and we didn't believe she would ever surface again."

"I need time to think," Kacey said finally. "Eli, if I even sense the tiniest fraction of you warping reality-"

"It was a temporary thing," Eli interrupted. "Dea said my body couldn't handle it for longer periods of time."

Kacey's eyes pierced through Eli's. Then, she snapped her fingers and disappeared. Alexander let out a deep sigh and leaned back in Eli's desk chair.

"Looks like you're safe for now, Eli," he breathed. "I really thought she was about to kill you there."

"Thank you," Eli mumbled. Still not sure what the hell was going on.

"Hey, I could never say no when Lilly says please."

For some reason, Eli didn't like that sentence.

"So who are you exactly? And what are you to Lilly?"

"Something of an older brother," Alexander grinned. "Getting jealous."

Eli blushed and looked away. "I'm just tired and confused."

"Alex, could you explain all of this, please," Lilly asked.

Alexander nodded and leaned forward again. "I'll give you the TL;DR."

"So long, long ago, a goddess called Dea ruled over us and this planet. She tended to use her power of creation, which we call reality warping,to help those she thought needed help. She could also remove or destroy, but chose to do this only in situations she thought absolutely necessary.

Dea's power was so great, that every now and then a human could be born with just a bit too much of Dea's essence in her body. There humans would be taken to the clouds above, and, when old enough, to be given the choice to return to earth and be raised by their family and loved ones, all their childhood memories included, or to join Dea as an 'Angel.' Madros and Kacey were the first of these angels. I joined about a hundred years after them.

Now, these first two were a bit of a special case. You might have noticed I'm a bit stronger than Lilly. In fact, I'd say much stronger. However, I don't hold a candle to Kacey. And as much as it hurts for me to say, Madros and Kacey were equals. In fact, they're so strong, when Madros decided he had enough of being a helping and peaceful angel, he was able to kill Dea and take her place as 'god.' I thought this was awful, and hid away. Kacey, at the time, seemed too apathetic to care, and continued working under Madros instead.

That was until Kacey found out Madros started recruiting angels forcefully. Taking them from their family, and making them immortal against their will, like the other angels that chose to be there. Most of this new generation either tried to run away completely but weren't experienced enough to hide and got killed. Others watched their loved ones grow old and went insane with grief and sorrow. Madros' response to that was murder as well. Lilly was one of these overcome with grief."

Lilly tilted her head. "I don't remember that."

"I'm getting to it," Alexander replied calmly. "So, Lilly was overcome with grief and going insane, but for some reason Kacey couldn't sit by idly anymore. She went on a rampage and fought against Madros. Their battle would have probably ended in a tie with both sides dead, but that was until I stepped in, with a few other angels, to help Kacey get rid of this terror. Many angels died in this conflict, but Madros was killed.

Right before Kacey struck the final blow, he muttered something about reincarnation, though, which turned out that every so often he would choose a human host in which he would build his power to attempt and fully reincarnate himself. You, Eli, are the fifth. Every single other host has been killed by Kacey.

Anyhow, after we killed Madros, the surviving angels decided to go their own ways and try to find happiness in life. Kacey erased Lilly's memories of her past loved ones, and taught her how to use her powers as a way to give her a second chance. After that, she has only been tracking down Madros' host bodies and killing them. But it hasn't stopped Madros yet, and I don't think killing the host ever will.''

"And I'm the first who has heard Dea's voice as well," Eli added, trying to wrap his head around it.

"You are," Alexander nodded. The room fell silent again. Everyone seemed to be processing something, albeit something different.

Alexander slapped his legs and stood up. "I'm gonna go after Kacey. If I can, I'd like to convince her to stay off killing Eli permanently. I feel like you might be the key to getting rid of Mandros for good. For now, just stay here and try to rest."

He snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Lilly grasped Eli's arm tightly and pushed her face into his shoulder.

"I was so scared they were gonna kill you!"

"I thought you would be more worried about your forgotten memories," Eli said honestly.

"That's for another day to worry about," Lilly cried out as tears stained Eli's shirt. "Right now the only thing I want is you!"

Eli patted her head with a sigh too. There was too much to be worried about, so for now he'd rather not even bother.

"If it were up to me, I would love to share the rest of life right here with you."