The pathway...
A particular void spot instantly formed a force of mist from the wild steam in the realm. It happened in a flash, becoming clear thereafter. A being was revealed immediately on that particular spot — Rasmus!
The mysterious being flickered its geared head as it directed its gaze to the lifeless man on the ground. A full hour had passed since it had left the man unconscious, drawing out every form of life from him as at that time. It had a purpose for doing such, a genuine one. And now, it was time to restore life back to the man's soul.
Rasmus raised its hand in a vertical position, aiming it at the unconscious soul. And like when he supposedly sucked life out of the man, a dark substance-like air began emitting from it again in full force.
The soul was restored immediately the dark substance got into the man. This was made obvious due to the repeated choking coughs that could be heard coming from the direction.
Rasmus spoke: "Welcome back John. Your life reforming stage has been completed. You may now begin the spiritual enhancement stage!"
John could not stand up from the ground no matter how much he tried to. His whole body was numb as he was obviously weak due to the amount of energy drained from him. He clenched his fists in agony and opened his mouth, letting in air into his soul of a body, even blinking his eyes repeatedly.
He tried uttering words out of his mouth but he couldn't do that yet. It wasn't stiff but he hadn't processed the words to say out of it. No! His mouth didn't budge to utter the words. When he finally got a grip of himself, he managed to say something but he could only do that with clenched teeth.
"W..h..e..r..e.. a..m.. I..?"
His words sounded nonsensical but the being wasn't one not to understand. He was among the celestial bodies so every word man speaks was one it could decipher.
"You are still here John." It replied the man.
"W..h..a..t.. i..s.. t..h..i..s.. p..l..a..c..e..?" He still couldn't speak well, his voice sounding croak as he worded out the statement with difficulty.
Rasmus gave no answer. Instead it raised it's hand again and emitted the dark substance out of it. As soon as the substance entered into the man, a whole load of energy could be felt within him. The numbness left his soul of a body and he could now freely move every part.
He sat up, scanning the familiar environment in the process. His eyes were a little dim but he was getting a hold of them. The steam of mist which surrounded the whole place could still be seen. As he landed his eyes on the being, he expression turned visibly angry. He couldn't help it as he yelled at the being.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?"
"What do you think I did to you?" the being threw back a question at him, calmness obvious in it's voice.
"You almost killed me, didn't you?" He exasperatingly asked.
"No. I only helped get you into the spiritual enhancement stage."
"But you said I needed to do it myself," He reminded the being.
"This is the problem with you mortals... always ungrateful." Rasmus wasn't annoyed with the man but it stated the obvious, shutting him up in the process.
John immediately felt remorse. The being was right, man was hardly grateful for every little gesture towards him. This was a common undeniable fact. He had to calm himself down as he stood up from the ground.
"What next?" He asked, looking guilty as he spoke.
"As I said before, the spiritual enhancement stage begins. The only reason I helped you out with completing the life reforming was to make the process faster. You needed every bit of concentration and energy and so the idea was to make you unconscious, that way clearing every obstacles in your mind and infusing a large amount of energy into you."
The being explained and continued. "Now, let us begin the spiritual enhancement stage. The process is going to be far different but I will put you through. Get your mind prepared because you might dislike this process..."
.....
"Dr Martin, I don't understand what is going on... Look! It has started again!"
Inside a VIP ward in the intensive care unit of Linken Hospital, two medical personnel stood in front of an electrocardiogram, viewing the electronic waves on it. The personnel were one of the head doctor in the hospital who was in charge of the particular patient in the ward and a nurse who had made a round in this particular ward yesterday.
Since the day before, they had been noticing some glitches in it... more like an elusive reading. They were both confused because they weren't sure of what was happening to the patient who had his vitals connected with the machine. The vitals were going through a decline and uprising every two minutes or so and it was unfathomable, more like the patient was fighting for his life.
At this moment, they were noticing another seeming glitch from the patient's vitals.
"This is something I have never experienced in my professional career. If I hadn't seen this myself, I definitely wouldn't have believed it," the doctor proclaimed in surprise.
"What should we do, doctor?" the nurse asked.
"Let's just wait to see if it would go back to a decline. That way, we can confirm if we need to undergo any operation on the patient," the doctor told her.
Five minutes later, their eyes were still fixated on the machine. Within the minutes, they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
"Look at this, for the first time since it started, it has remained stable. I think the patient is now okay," the doctor announced.
The nurse sighed. "Thank goodness. Here I was thinking that he was going to die."
"I hope you haven't told anyone else about this, Devi?" the doctor turned to face the nurse as he questioned her.
"No, I haven't sir. Trust me on that,"
"That's good. I wouldn't want the matter to reach the ears of President Ruben." the doctor stated.
"What matter are you talking about, Dr Martin?"
The two medical personnel turned their faces to the direction of the entrance in shock. Standing beside the door was a man they weren't expecting to see. Jacob Ruben, the elder brother of the patient in the ward.
The man walked into the ward, his hands inside the pockets of the pants of his black stripped suit.
"What's going on here?" His piercing gaze lingered around the ward as he tried getting an insight of what was going on, jolting fear into the medical personnel.
"Pr– president Ruben, I wasn't ex– expecting to see you t– t– today." the doctor stuttered as he let out the words.
"Well, I'm here now. And I need to know the state of my brother," the man's voice contained a tone of arrogance as he spoke. His brown eyes landed on the patient lying on the hospital bed with a white sheet covering the body up to the neck level. A nasal cannula was directed into the nose and an IV drip was inserted into the body.
The seeming replica of him. He looked pained as he stared at his younger brother who was fighting for his life. Although he wasn't really close to him, this was still someone he shared the same blood lying lifeless.
He turned to face the doctor and the nurse again. "You still haven't said anything, Dr Martin..."
"President Ruben, your br– brother's fine." the doctor managed to reply.
The man narrowed his gaze. "Why do you look worried then?"
"He's fine, I– I– I mean, there's nothing wrong."
"What is his present state?"
The doctor calmed himself down. "He's getting stable. His vitals have really improved a lot from the last few days. Be rest assured, he'll be—"
The man cut him off in annoyance. "Don't assure me doctor. I need results..."
"I'll do my best, sir."
The man turned his back and began heading out the ward. He stopped on his track just before he stepped out the door.
"I had better hear something good from you tomorrow,"
With that, he carried his domineering presence out of the room, leaving sighs of relief escaping the mouths of the two medical personnel in the ward.