High School DxD: The Game Master

A door.

Normally something as mundane as a door wouldn't be worth noting. Not unless the said door was somehow special or unique.

The door in this case was neither as it appeared to be a simple wooden door. What made it worth noting was where the door was located.

The void.

The place where souls ended up in universes without a god overseeing the afterlife. One such soul was just floating in the void, minding its own business and reliving its entire life for the nth time when the door just appeared before it.

This was strange because the soul had been left in darkness since its death an unknown amount of time ago.

The soul had gone insane, regained sanity, and gone insane any number of times but it had never actually hallucinated before.

Even more curious, the soul found itself moving closer to the door through no action of its own.

Not that the soul believed it could actually move. Still, it approached the door and, once near enough, watched the door open and welcomed it inside.

Within the door, which had stood alone with no walls connected to it, the soul found a bar of all things.

A bartender with the appearance of a handsome man in his twenties wearing a snazzy outfit complete with a vest and bow tie, stood behind the bar in front of hundreds of bottles with liquids filling them in all colors.

Some colors the soul couldn't even begin to name or even comprehend properly.

"Oh? A customer! How delightful."

The bartender smiled an impossible smile that seemed to be wider than his face, yet never appeared to leave its confines. The soul looked back the way it had come, to see the door closed.

Wait.

It took a moment for the soul to realize it had some control of its movement. It had managed to look behind, and now it was looking forward once again at the bartender. It looked down and gasped, then gasped again because it made noise.

The soul now had a body, his body, for the soul, was a he once upon a time. It was the exact body the soul had died in, old, fat, weak, and transparent.

Wait.

Ah! It was still just a soul then, more of a ghost now, still, it felt like an improvement! The soul smiled at the bartender, because he could, and walked, because he now had feet, to the bar where he happily took a seat on one of the stools.

He could feel the stool as he settled on it and reveled in the feeling of... well feeling.

"Welcome to my bar, aptly named The Afterlife."

The bartender spread his arms and gestured around to the building they occupied, "It's rather rare for a soul to find its way here, and when they do I always offer them a drink, on the house."

The soul smiled. How long had it been since it last had a nice drink? At least a decade when he'd been alive and who knows how long since he'd died, "That would be lovely, thank you."

The bartender nodded and started pulling down bottles of various colors at seemingly random, "Then, allow me to explain how it works. You choose whether you want a single, double, or triple shot.

I pick the ingredients of the shot." He arranged the bottles in a row and looked at the soul with the same far-too-large smile as previously seen, "Do you know what an Essence is?"

The soul shook its head, "Can't say that I do."

The bartender looked slightly surprised, "Intriguing, almost every soul that comes here has at least some idea.

Ah, it's so nice to be able to explain something new! Essence as in the essence of something, for example, the Essence of the Dragon would turn you into a dragon and give you the abilities you would expect a dragon to have.

It could also be something more esoteric such as the Essence of the Dream, which would give you powers related to dreams. With me so far?"

The soul nodded, "I am. Though I have to wonder what good any essence would do me back in the void."

The bartender looked almost confused for a moment before his eyes widened, "Ah, yes, of course. Not being familiar with Essence's you are, of course, unfamiliar with what they are related to!"

"Related to?"

"Reincarnation my new friend! After I give you your drink, I will send you off to a new world to live a new life with your new abilities! It's all quite exciting."

The soul perked up a bit, "I will live again?"

"Quite right. I will reincarnate you into a world of my choosing as a strapping young lad. You can do as you wish in your new life, though I suggest you actually live the life and not waste it sitting at home doing nothing."

The soul shook its head, "I wouldn't do something like that. The last decade of my life was spent in a hospital bed, I would enjoy getting out and about once again. Out of curiosity though, why would you not suggest it?"

"Because it would bore me. If you bore me, I'll do things to make it more entertaining."

The soul nodded in comprehension, "I see, so I would be entertainment for you."

The bartender nodded, "Exactly, I take it that isn't a problem?"

"Not at all! I would much rather be your living entertainment than floating around out there," He gestures to the door, "reliving my memories for the rest of eternity."

The bartender smiled a normal smile, "Excellent. So! Here are the rules for taking a shot. You choose whether you want a single, double, or triple.

Each has different rules. If you choose a single," he pushed forward a bottle filled with neon blue liquid, "I will pick just one Essence for your shot. After you drink it, I will tell you what the Essence is and you will be given all the knowledge necessary to use it to its full potential."