Chapter 21: A Geas

In all honesty, I didn't want anything in particular. I was just curious as to what she was concocting. I had to make myself look less suspicious by making it seem as if I was after something monetary.

"Anything you really want, or that I can help with.", she said.

So basically nothing in particular. "How do I know you will fulfill your end of the deal?", I asked.

She laughed. "You don't know what a geas is, do you?"

"A what?", I said. Was she trying to avoid the question?

"In Irish mythology, it is the term used to describe a restriction placed on oneself. We can place a geas on ourselves, using the power of nihilism."

"And? What exactly are you trying to say...?"

"A geas has a few rules. One, you set the conditions. Two, you set the cost of what happens to you if you break set conditions. Three, you set how long you are going to keep the geas for. More often than not, you get something in exchange for a geas. Similar to how your arm gets stronger when your other arm is cut off."

"So what?"

"I vow to keep my promise to Ms. Cecilia Carpenter. The cost will be my eyes, if I fail to keep my promise. I will keep this geas until Cecilia asks for a promise.", she yelled out all of a sudden.

There was a red glow from her heart. The shape of the light was similar to that of a cross, and it was bright enough to illuminate the entire room.

"That is how you impose a geas on yourself. You concentrate nihilism near your heart and speak out the geas you want to impose on yourself. For a beginner like you, putting your hand near your heart and concentrating your nihilistic aura there will be easier, like how I just did it."

"And how will I know it actually works, and you aren't just bluffing?", I asked. I understood the gist of it, other than the 'gain something in exchange' part. What exactly would you get in exchange for a geas anyway? Was it that the more restrictive the geas, the better the exchange for it? Well, this was a question for if the geas actually worked.

"Let me demonstrate.", Daphne said. "I vow to never punch Ms. Cecilia. If I did so, my left wrist would be cut off. I will keep this geas until I punch Cecilia.", she said, again.

Red light illuminated the room once more.

"What are you-"

She punched my face, sending me halfway across the room. "What the hell was that for!?!?", I shouted.

A red glowing cross appeared in front of Daphne's heart. My eyes went over to her left wrist. A red light cut it clean off. The red glowing cross then disintegrated.

Daphne grabbed her hand and put it back together. I saw a blue light come from her other hand, and voila, her hand was reattached.

"Satisfied?", she said, looking at me.

"Y-yeah.", I replied back. Did she just voluntarily cut her own wrist off? What was that blue light? Was it some sort of healing magic…?

"Don't worry, I'll heal your face if that's what you are concerned about."

"A-alright…", I said, still in utter shock.

"So are you going to accept the deal?", she asked, while healing my face.

"I don't see why not. How are you going to 'train' me for this anyway?", I asked.

"You will find out soon enough. So we got a deal?", she said, getting up and asking for a handshake.

"Yeah… yeah we have a deal.", I said, shaking her hand. "So what exactly am I supposed to do now?"

"Do you believe in gods?.", she said, still holding my hand.

"What are you- shit.", I said, realizing I had responded by mistake.

The same feeling came back again. The feeling of the world melting around you. I should have listened to that Rajesh guy.

I found myself in the same setting Rajesh put me in the first time.

I scoured my surroundings. There was something in front of me.

I jumped back. I willed a sword into existence like I did that other time with Rajesh.

That something was a bear. It was a sleeping bear but a bear nonetheless.

"Woah there, you adapted surprisingly quick. How did you even know you could get a sword like that?", I heard Daphne say from behind me while crossing her arms.

"What exactly am I supposed to do here?", I asked.

"See that bear over there?", she said.

"Yeah."

"It has a child. Kill the child. That's it. Oh and don't wake up the bear. After two minutes of killing the child, you will go back to reality. It's really that simple.", she said, casually.

"Kill the child without waking the bear. Did I get that right?", I said, turning back to look at her.

"You can technically wake up the bear, but I won't really recommend it. It can maul you to death within seconds. This is part of your training.", she said, adding that last part with a little bit of sadism.

"You are insane.", I said, going closer and closer to the bear. There it was. A bear cub. It seemed to be sleeping peacefully, just like its mother.

I then willed a spear into my hand, and put my sword down.

"C'mon, you are going that path?", I heard her say.

The cub looked so peaceful. I didn't want to kill the poor thing. I looked back and asked Daphne, "Do I have to kill it?".

"Yup.", she said, grinning sadistically. She is definitely crazy.

I debated giving up here, or killing the cub to see why I had to spy on someone.

I went some distance away from the mother, before using the spear in my hand to pierce its throat, nice and clean.

It barely even struggled, flailing its arms around before dying. My stomach turned, but at least the job was done. Better to do it early before you start overthinking it… right?

"I knew I should have disabled weapon summoning.", I heard Daphne say. "This was almost too easy, don't you think?"

"No, it definitely-"

"Let's change the difficulty, shall we?", she said, throwing a rock at the sleeping bear.

"What the-", I said, backing away as fast as I could.

The bear woke up, howling in anger, and it got even angrier when it saw the blood of its child. It howled again, this time, howling loud enough to wake up an entire neighborhood.

I retreated. This was an abandoned building right? It had to have multiple floors. I rushed to find the nearest staircase, and climbed it. I just had to buy time, if I was able to survive 2 minutes, I would return if Daphne was right.

I heard Daphne laugh from a distance. The bear tried mauling Daphne, but she dodged it effortlessly.

I kept climbing the stairs until I reached a new floor.

I was now safe-

Wait why was the bear and Daphne still here? Daphne spotted me. She then grinned and pushed the bear towards me.

Shit. Its paw was approaching my face unusually fast. I dodged it but felt a graze on my cheek.

'Should I try fighting it?' I asked myself, grabbing the sword left on the ground.

I got into a fighting stance. One of the stupidest ideas I had come up with in a long time, but still worth a shot. After all, in here, my life was expendable.

The bear charged at me, trying to maul me once more. I slashed it.

*SHATTER*

To my utter horror, the sword shattered, like glass would, and it hit me. I was sent flying into one of the pillars.

Reminded me of that one time I was sent flying by a giant ass tree. Just this time, the bear was approaching me for seconds.

I tried getting up. The part the bear hit hurt a lot. I had unconsciously surrounded myself with that clear aura people called nihilism. If I hadn't done that, my spine would have snapped in two.

Well it didn't really matter. My organs felt as if someone had shaken them up, and just standing made me feel sick to my stomach.

I had nothing I could use to beat it. I could get another weapon, but I would take some time to get adjusted to it, and in that time, I would probably be bear food. This really was checkmate.

Luckily I didn't have to think too much about it. The bear crushed my skull in one fell swoop and I woke back up, on a bed in the hospital ward.

"Well now that was fun.", I heard Daphne say from a distance.

"…". Fun? That was fun? I don't call being mauled to death by an angry bear fun.

"Anyway, that aside, you passed.", she said, pretending like all of this was planned.

"Passed?", I said, before remembering that I had done this for a test. "Oh right…"

"Yup.", she said, unconcerned. I don't think she even tested me, she probably just wanted to see me mauled to death or something.

"So what now?", I asked.