My Civilian Goddess

Chapter 26: The temple

"You want to go to Greece," Lilly asked, thoroughly confused. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was awake. Judging from the penguin plushie under her covers, she's been cuddling with it the entire night.

"Yeah, I do," Eli exclaimed. "To a temple where Casey and Mandros used to train under Dea. In fact, can you call Kacey and Alexander up if you don't mind."

Lilly's face went whiter than her hair. "You sure? This is something Dea told you?"

Eli nodded, to which the girl sighed. She closed her eyes and stayed silent, then, the room went dark.

"You better have a damn good reason to call me here," Kacey said as they appeared, leaning against the door.

Alexander wasn't far behind, standing next to the window.

"Dea asked me to get to her old temple in Greece," Eli said calmly. "It had something like a room where you and Mandros used to train? One only she can open."

Kacey stared Eli down, as if trying to burn a hole through his head with her golden eyes.

"Fine," she hissed, snapping her fingers. In an instant, the four of them weren't in the apartment anymore. They were now standing at the edge of a forest, near a cliff, which had a sea or ocean below it.

"Just know what happens to you if you try to trick me."

"I'm well aware," Eli said, being very tired of the threats.

In front of them was a large white temple. Huge pillar held up the overhanging roof. To the left and right of the open space Eli assumed once used to be a door, we're carved statues which looked like the glowing woman he saw in his dreams. Most of the building was taken over by vegetation, but that did not make it look any less beautiful.

Without saying a word, Eli moves inside, Lilly sticking closest to him, and Kacey staying in the back of the group, presumably to keep an eye on Eli.

Alexander cleared his throat as they moved into the main room, which has a large glass dome in it. The dome had a single opening at the front to get in and out, and unlike everything else around it, had not been damaged by the passage of time.

"Can I ask you what we're doing here, buddy," Alexander asked. "Like, Kacey and I were still trying to figure out how to get Mandros out of you, and even I find it unnerving to go here out of nowhere."

Eli removed Lilly, hand from his, as she had been tightly holding onto him.

"Don't worry," he said in response to her worried face. "It's gonna be alright."

Eli walked into the glass dome, ignoring Alexander's question.

"Give me power," he said aloud. At that very moment, he felt the voices of both Dea and Mandros respond in his head. With a single thought, he closed the glass dome completely with a piece of glass that slid up.

"Good, it worked. And Mandros should think it was him," he thought to himself.

Kacey rushed forward and pushed the glass. "I told you not to use any powers, bastard," they yelled, keeping up their attacks, even if they were doing nothing to the indestructible glass. "How did you close that door?!"

"Eli, please don't," Lilly yelled. He had a thought that she knew what he was doing.

"I offer my energy to you, Mandros," Eli said, which made the faces of the others contract in horror and despair. "Just stick to your promise!"

Eli could feel his mind and thoughts fade to the back as an enormous amount of energy flowed through his body. He expected his appearance to change as well, but this didn't happen. Instead, a voice that was not his started speaking as he was forced to watch along from within. As if he was trapped in a dark room with his eyes being the only glass to the outside world.

"Oh, it feels so good to have a body again," Mandros spoke through his lips. "And to think that boy made up a lie about Dea asking him to go here. And to think he brought me to an indestructible room so you couldn't stop my reincarnation."

"He what," Kacey yelled, her hand becoming bloody from the useless blows she delivered to the glass dome.

"He made a deal with me, that boy, to let me reincarnate in his body as long as I gave him a new body and left little Lilly alone," Mandros laughed, as if he heard the best joke of his life.

"I can't believe he trusted me over all of you. But to be fair, it's not like you gave him any reason to like you, Kacey, dear."

Alexander looked scared, and his voice was shaking. "Complete your part of the bargain, then! Let Eli and Lilly go!"

"No," Mandros kept laughing. "I don't think I will."

As the voices of the three outside overlapped, making it hard to hear what they were saying, Eli could feel a hand on his shoulder. As he looked over, Dea was standing next to him, observing what was happening.

"Did you think this would happen," she asked calmly.

Eli nodded. "I expected as much. All according to plan though, isn't it?"

Dea smiled at him. It was a sad smile, but it gave Eli comfort all the same. It made him feel like she hated it had to be this way too.

"If you're ready then."

"Well," Mandros spoke to the group as he took a few steps forward. "How about I come out there and test how strong I am now?"

He raised his hand to open the glass door. Yet nothing happened.

"What the-"

He tried it again, and again. But yet the room refused to open for him.

"Only Dea can open that room," Kacey groaned, finally having given up on destroying her own hands.

"But the boy used my powers to open it," Mandros spilled, confused. "He helped me realise I am the true god now! I should be able to open the door!"

"He tricked you," Lilly cried, confirming she knew Eli's plan to an extent. "Dea is in that body too, and he uses her power to trap you in there."

Mandros smirked. "Well, that would be a stupid plan. Eventually I will figure out a way to scrape her remnant and use it to leave."

Then, Eli's voice spoke again from his own body. "That is only if Dea and I will let you leave."

The body exploded into a blue flame. A flame so strong and bright it burst throughout the entire dome. Mandros' screams filled the temple as he dropped to his knees. Eli stayed silent. Since he wasn't properly in the body, he didn't feel the pain. For this, at least, he was thankful.

"The holy blue flames," Kacey gasped. "Only Dea was able to make fire that strong!"

"What are you doing," Mandros screamed. "You'll kill yourself."

"I will," Eli replied for everyone to hear. "And Dea and I are taking you with us."

"I'll just reincarnate," Mandros tried to laugh, though it came out as a cough.

"You're bluffing. There's a reason I let you reincarnate fully first. Dea told me that finally ends the reincarnation spell for good. Disappear from this world."

"Wait," the deep voice spoke, now begging for survival. "I can give you whatever you want! I can make you beyond powerful in our new world! Lilly will be yours forever! Just don't let me die!"

But no response came from Eli. Not any from Dea. Lilly watched in horror as the body in the flames lost its form and turned to ash. Not moments after, the flames disappeared, just to show nothing was left in the dome.

"He gave his life to kill Mandros for good," Alexander whispered. "He and Dea did..."

"Eli, you idiot," Lilly cried as she fell to her knees. "You couldn't just have given me a little more time with you?"