The setting was an appartment situated on the eleventh floor of the city of Tokyo, Japan.
In the middle of this apartment, there was a black gate with a golden slitted eye in the middle with writings that resembled an Egyptian glyph. The gate opened, and a silhouette was blasted out.
*WHOOSH!!*
A young lady was blown through the door, out of the window and out of the apartment until she regained her footing mid-air, curiously... throughout her small journey, all she did was giggle.
"Osiris-san, your hands are so soft and yet you know how to be harsh~"
Tokisaki Kurumi, the spirit known as 'Nightmare', stopped mid-air as her dishevelled dress re-organised like it had a mind of its own. She levitated back into her apartment, if one looked closely, one could see her hands shivering.
Once inside, she noticed the gate was already gone.
Her spirit dress disappeared and she remained naked on the floor, sitting in front of a wall mirror, staring at herself. Her skin glistened and invigorated like never before, as if she had experienced a rebirth. The beauty looked at herself in the mirror and licked her finger. On the reflection, she imagined him standing behind her, massaging her shoulders with that ever so confident gaze and those sharp golden eyes with star-shaped irises.
Her salivated finger rubbed the mirror where his lips were supposed to be.
"Osiris-san..."
As she unconsciously rubbed his phantom silhouette, the droplets of tears fell on the floor.
"When was the last time... I felt this good, I want more... I must taste Osiris-san, at least once before... before I continue".
*RUMBLE!*
"Warning, spatial fluctuations detected in the area, please evacuate to a secure underground area".
"Repeat: Warning, spatial fluctuations detected, danger of spatial quake imminent, please evacuate to a secure underground area".
Kurumi remained on the floor as the atmosphere became more and more ominous and a warning broadcast was emitted, her gaze looked lost.
"Horus-san, are you there?" She asked.
[I am, Nightmare. Would you like to make a booking?]
"I would like to... for longer–"
[Due to your past intransigences, a minimal threshold per booking has been established].
Kurumi giggled with a desolate look, "How heartless of him... and? how much is this threshold?".
[Customer sacrifices are evaluated in a value of 'points'. Your past sacrifice amounted to four hundred points. Your next sacrifice has to be worth at least two thousand points worth].
"Two thousand... is 'time' still a valuable sacrifice?".
[It is not the most optimal of sacrifices, sadly].
"Then human lives... how much would that sacrifice be worth?" Her eye shone viciously, surely thousands of lives were worth a few minutes of pleasure, in the end... they were all fated to die.
Time waits for nobody.
[Human lives are less valuable than time, I am afraid. Due to your innate control over the laws of time, you are capable of equaling time into energy. This energy is more valuable than any biological human capabilities, as such... human lives are not a good enough sacrifice either].
"..."
Kurumi clenched her nails harshly against her skin until they bled, aside from time or lives, what else could she give?
'I have nothing else... I am nothing else–'
[But...]
"But?"
[Tokisaki Kurumi, you are an interesting prospect for my master... I can aid you in finding a proper sacrifice, a sacrifice that will allow you to reach the next level, so... do you sign up?].
"..." The girl licked her lips.
"Repeat: Warning, spatial fluctuations detected, danger of spatial quake imminent, please evacuate to a secure underground area".
A bright light shone all over the room, and engulfed her vision until she raised her head and saw a new gate... the gate opened and in there, there was a different world. A ball of light manifested next to her and landed on her shoulder.
[Do you dare?]
"Does your master know about this, Horus-san?".
[He signed the terms and conditions].
"Arara~ I just have a question: If there is a magnitude of sacrifices that can be made then it is safe to assume the benefits are also proportionally big, correct?"
[That is correct. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the benefits you can receive].
"Could you give me an example?".
[The session in which you partook was an X1 session, with the maximum being an X10 session. Any miracle is possible and your power could increase exponentially].
"And would I get to taste Osiris-san then?" The beauty licked her lips again, she just couldn't wait.
[Do you want a piece of advice?]
"Oh?"
[My master is immortal. If you are a good girl, he will let you taste him].
"Ara, is that so?~ guess I'll have to be a good girl for once. In any case, he signed the terms and conditions, didn't he?".
[That he did, Nightmare. That he did...]
Kurumi patted the mote of light on her shoulder as if saying 'good boy'. Her spirit dress manifested once again, she exhaled deeply and started walking towards the gate.
[Bear in mind, the timeline between that universe and this universe is 1:1, which means each second there is a second here].
She smiled and her golden eye brimmed with allure, the clock wouldn't stop moving. But the clock was under her control.
"No worries. I have all the time in the world~"
**
**
In a different universe, a young man ran out of a transdimensional gate cast in the middle of a farm, a gigantic grassland filled with animals beneath a clear blue and sunny sky.
"I managed to save myself there somehow..."
An ox ate some grass and stared at the boy who collapsed on the ground, crawling away from the gate like it was the plague. Eventually, that gate closed and disappeared.
[You have been banned, Satou Kazuma].
"Who wants your fucking service!? Do you think I'd pay just to get touched and fondled by a man?! I'd just head to the nearest church for that! I got scammed, scammed!" The boy cursed out loud, but he didn't get any answer as even the icon in his periphery disappeared together with the gate.
However, there were no regrets.
"But at least now I don't have that useless goddess, taking her alongside me was the biggest mistake I have made in my life, even if for vengeance. So, it wasn't a loss!"
Yes, no regrets whatsoever.
"Kazuma!"
A girl arrived shortly after when Kazuma disposed himself to head towards the nearest guild in the city.
"Megumin".
"Where have you been?" She asked.
"H-Hahaha, I was doing a quest hunting some trolls!"
"... are you strong enough to hunt trolls?"
"Who do you think you're talking to, huh!? Look these I had been hunting, these!" Kazuma showed her the picture he got in the guild of the creatures he was supposed to hunt the other day. Megumin stared at it deeply.
"Those are goblins, not trolls".
"The same dang thin'!"
"Anyway, where is Aqua, didn't she go hunt trolls with you? I mean the goblins..."
"Ah, hehe, Aqua yeah? hehe..." The boy stuttered.
"..."
"She took a different quest!"
"By herself?"
"Yeah, you know how money-hungry she is, she took a different quest..." He gulped, "To the bottomless labyrinth...?"
"That maze?! We have to go and save her!"
"Megumin you don't need to worry, Aqua is a goddess she can fend off by herself".
'She's not coming back, Megumin' he thought in joy.
"B-But but... what if she can't do it?"
'Megumin, she's not coming back, move on, let the dead be gone', he thought again.
"Listen, if she doesn't come back in three days, we can go and look for her, alright?" Kazuma patted the girl's shoulder just to reassure her, 'Aahh... false hope, it stinks!'.
"But you know she's so useless, don't you think–" The sorceress took a step back away from that nasty hand.
'At least you admit she's useless too. There is no place in this party for her'.
"It is because she's useless that I'm relieved Megumin! She won't even be able to reach the first level and she will return".
"Oh, you're right, that's what she'd do, guess I don't have to worry" The girl laughed it off.
'I said she's not coming back Megumin!'.
"Let's go finish this quest hunting trolls. I have bitches to hire and bills to pay" The cleaned the saliva dripping off his mouth.
"Wait, say that again?".
"Eh-uh did I say something?".
"You did..."
"Nah, you hearing things now".