Promises are a Scary Thing

"Congratulations, Mr. Novels; you're now officially a Spiritualist. But with that settled, shall we move on to our deal? Here are my terms of service. I'm sure you'll find them quite interesting."

Medea said to Adam, who gave her a silent look but just inwardly sighed as he said to her.

"Fine, let's hear it."

Medea just smirked at these words as she began to explain how a contract with her typically works.

"As a Divine Spirit, I don't require offerings of food or water."

Medea said casually.

"Nor do I need you to pray to me or make time for rituals. No, what I require is much simpler... yet far more difficult depending on the situation."

For a moment she paused, but soon continued as Adam listened carefully to what she had to say.

"Like I said earlier when I introduced myself, I am the Divine Spirit of Promise."

She continued, her gaze never leaving his.

"My very existence is the idea of the concept of oaths, pacts, and the weight of one's word. Therefore, my contract is simple: You must never break a promise."

When these words were said, Adam held his chin, thinking about her condition as he asked.

"Does this apply to any and all promises?"

Medea smiled back at Adam as she replied.

"Yes, this applies to any promise you make."

At that moment, a subtle silence came in between the two but was quickly broken by Medea.

"If you give your word, you must uphold it."

She said.

And then continued.

"If you vow to protect someone, you will protect them. If you swear to accomplish something, you will see it through to the end. Should you break a promise, then it will terminate our contract."

She made her terms clear, and it was obvious there was no room for argument.

"So a fair warning: if you accept my terms, I would advise you to not make empty promises; whenever you make a promise, it has to be taken extremely seriously."

Adam stopped to think for a moment. 

He exhaled slowly, his decision already made, but before that, Adam just had to ask.

"And let's say I'm interested...

Adam's voice was steady, but there was an underlying curiosity laced with caution behind his current tone of speaking.

"What kind of magic can I do using your powers once I start learning the spirit language?"

Medea, who had been eerily still, suddenly smiled at this question, a smile that felt off, like a mask barely holding back something vast and unknowable.

"Are you...

She murmured, her voice layered, as if a thousand echoes of different people were speaking at once.

Then, the space around the entire in-between began to distort, breaking apart, destroying everything she and Adam, leaving only the single desk and chair's as well.

Her form flickered, glitching between different versions of herself, her body unraveling like a faulty illusion.

"Are you doubting my capabilities?"

Medea said... Her voice deepened, vibrating through his bones.

"If so… You truly underestimate the power of a promise to even ask a question like that, as if I am some kind of mere lower spirit."

The moment those words were said, that was when he saw it.

A glimpse of Medea's true form, as the Divine Spirit of Promise.

Medea's body was no longer Medea's. It became something incomprehensible, a vessel of memories, of broken and fulfilled oaths spanning across time and reality.

Visions tore through her form like fractured glass.

~ A pinky promise between two children; they promise to get married when they are older. In one reality, they grew up, married, and lived a peaceful life. In another, the girl broke her vow, and the boy, shattered by grief, died alone.

~ A handshake between rulers. One world saw centuries of peace; another saw betrayal, war, and rivers running red with blood.

~ A soldier kissing his wife goodbye. "I'll come back to you," he had sworn. Months later, a knock on the door. A weeping widow. "We're sorry, ma'am… he didn't make it." The woman spiraled into despair, drowning in sorrow, whispering to herself, "Liar, liar, liar…" as she struck the child who bore his face.

The images burned into Adam's mind, searing his very soul.

Medea's body continued to distort, her features melting away, no eyes, no mouth, no color, no definition. Just a hollow, shifting mass overflowing with the weight of every promise ever made, every vow ever broken.

She was neither god nor mortal.

As a true archtype, she was beyond both those opposites.

Both man and god make promises, which they keep or break.

Adam's beat at the sigth. His instincts screamed at him to run, to break away from whatever thing he had just spoken to. 

And yet he didn't move. 

Or rather, he couldn't.

His skin crawled, something deep within him recoiling in pure, unfiltered terror.

But he did not show it.

Medea, however, knew, despite his facade.

She laughed.

Low and unsettling.

"Hehehe, Mr. Novel."

She said calmly.

"You think promises are weak, don't you?"

Adam remained silent.

Her laughter stopped... instantly.

Her head twitched unnaturally, leaning forward as if daring him to deny it.

"If so…

Her voice dropped into something far colder.

"You are gravely mistaken."

"Promises can bypass, if not outright shatter, even the miracles of the gods. Promises push people beyond their limits, twist them into monsters, or turn them into heroes. They can kill. They can save. They can give hope and snatch it away just as easily."

She leaned closer, though she had no face, no mouth, no nothing; she was just as is, the promises of ceation, and yet... Adam felt her non-existent eyes staring into him.

"Promise is everywhere. But nowhere."

For the first time since arriving in this world, Adam felt true fear, unlike anything he felt before.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, Medea's form stabilized, as if nothing had happened at all, and everything slowly went back to normal.

She smiled again.

Cheerfully and normally, as if nothing never happened to begin with.

"Ah, forgive me... forgive me... hahah."

She said lightly, as if she hadn't just shown him something fundamentally wrong with the universe.

"I must have gotten carried away. I just hate it when people look down on promises."

Adam didn't respond. He simply exhaled, controlling his heartbeat, his expression unreadable.

But deep inside, something had changed.

As he said to himself.

'Dear Beatrice... what the hell?'

Adam's thoughts raced, his breathing uneven, his pulse drumming a relentless rhythm in his ears.

'No… No… No, let's not blame her for this. I was the one who wished for all my DLC. Let's be mature here.'

He said to himself, as he could only imagine Beatrice laughing at him, eating pastries, and drinking British tea from Kalpana's World, watching him like some kind of movie or TV show, but that was the deal.

One day he will return to Kalpanas World; given what Beatrice said, it was something that can't be stopped if she grants him his wish.

Well given, he survives long enough to even reach the end of his own story and strengthen his soul just enough so that existence can separate him from the related world and directly into the unrelated world.

But that was what he signed up for to begin with, so he had no one but himself to blame here.

He thought to himself as he exhaled, steadying himself and forcing his fingers to relax. He hadn't realized they had curled into trembling fists.

'Calm down, Adam. Don't let fear control you. You were given a second chance, and you took it.'

Another deep breath.

Then another.

But no amount of breathing could erase what he had just witnessed.

'Sigh… But I'm a fucking idiot. What was I expecting? This isn't the same HDXD I know. Hell, nothing in HDXD is this fucking scary... not even Father Chaos and the Lichtmens were this terrifying.'

He said to himself once, as his mind felt like a battlefield.

Logic and emotion at war.

'Sigh… what was I expecting? This is basically an AU, a fanfiction, a super crossover of all the game worlds I've played. I should've never assumed everything would fall into place like a separate canon. If anything, this is a whole new world. I might know what happens, but in what format? I have no fucking clue. And this being just proved it, given it is not original to anything I personally know in any game I have played.'

His skin still crawled from Medea's display.

But if anything, he was grateful, as this was a humbling moment.

'This world is dangerous.'

A bitter chuckle escaped him.

'Fuck the Overlord of Humanity ending. I'm not even sure that ending alone could stand up to a being Medea. If even the gods can't, how the hell can a mere Shinso Human like me even could.'

Then, the fear shifted.

Not gone.

Never gone.

But transmuted into something sharper.

Something deadlier.

He smiled, though it carried no warmth.

'Hehehe… shit… Well, Divine Spirit or not, like hell, I'm giving up on my romantic harem life.'

His heart pounded, but now it wasn't just fear. It was something else.

Raw, unhinged determination.

'I will get the girls. I will be a good lover to them. I will build my kingdom, live my life, and work my ass off to the bone until one day...

Adam said to himself and exhaled, steadying his breath as his gaze returned to Medea.

The horrid feeling of her power still lingered in the space, as that unseen weight was pressing against his chest. Even now, after everything, he still felt it, that presence. That conceptual force that existed beyond mortality, and beyond godhood itself.

Adam said as he took the pen and began to sign it, forming a contract between him and Medea.

And yet…

A smirk tugged at his lips.

"Hey, Medea, look… I apologize."

He reached forward, fingers gripping the pen, the ink gliding against the parchment as he signed his name on the contract handed to him by Medea prior to now.

The contract was sealed.

A ripple passed through the surrounding, invisible yet undeniable. A force greater than mere words, a promise.

As the last stroke of his name settled, Adam met Medea's eyes.

"You were right."

He admitted.

"I did kind of look down on you a little. I'm not going to lie about that. But thank you. I was blind… but now I see."

A pause.

His smirk widened, this time with something else behind it, not arrogance, not bravado… but conviction.

"As an apology, let me make my first promise to you right here and now."

His voice carried a heavy weight, each syllable of his words filled with something absolute.

"On both my family name as Shinso Adam… and independent name as Adam Novels, I swear and promise to you that one day, I will become a being even more terrifying than you, every other Divine Spirit, and Losdeus itself."

"So when you look back at today, you won't be able to help but admire me, your contractor. So… friends?"

He extended his hand.

Medea stared at him.

For a moment, silence.

Then...

"Hehehehehe."

Laughter.

Soft at first, then growing, echoing with something both amused and intrigued.

"What a crazy human I've taken an interest in… I knew you were the right choice."

She reached forward, her fingers grasping his, a shake that sealed more than just a contract.

A friendship.

A bond.

"Don't die too early in this crazy world trying to do the impossible, because if you do…

Medea's gaze gleamed with something dark, something expectant.

"You'll be breaking a promise now, won't you… friend?"

Adam chuckled, shaking his head.

"Haha… I guess you're right. That just means I have to become an unkillable roach to one day reach the top."

He grinned, his grip firm.

"So just sit there and watch as I fulfill my promise."