Chapter 5: Present

Countless glowing lights floated in the boundless black space. They were all different colors and sizes, even their speed of movement was different. The smallest moved faster than the others, while the largest floated carefree in the same direction as the rest.

This place had many names and meanings. But no matter how it was called, its purpose did not change. It was one big filter of soul energy - the Astral plane. All souls, getting here, go on a last journey, at the end of which, all their energy will be transformed and purified. Then, the energy will dissipate around the world again, creating new souls ...

But the Astral was a unique place, not everyone could get here, only a creature with destiny is capable of it. Those souls, whose fate is not enough, simply scatter in the world ...

But those who got into the Astral plane cannot be called special. After all, in the end, they will still be completely erased. Those who still go deep into the Astral at the end of their path still have the opportunity for a second chance. But who will give it to them? There are too few creatures in the world that are capable of such a thing, and even if such a creature arrives here, what is the point in pulling miserable souls out of such a place and wasting his strength. To pull out even the weakest of them, these godlike creatures will have to sacrifice much, which they certainly will not sacrifice. So someone who never gets to this place or, by an incredible coincidence of circumstances, can break out of the eternal cycle can be called special here. Which, of course, is almost impossible ...

There was no other way to leave this place, at least until now ...

Among the billions of lights of different colors, floated like everything, a rather slow glowing gray ball. He was larger than many other lights, but also smaller than many. But even though he looked simple, among everyone here, he had something unique. Deep inside, its gray, luminous shell, a white disc was quietly spinning, with many bright red, glowing symbols.

While the endless lights floated in the Astral, this white disk kept rotating and rotating, gradually accelerating. At first it was just a slow motion and a faint red glow. But after a moment, it was spinning at an incredible speed, from which it was difficult to distinguish the characters written on it. At some point, there was only one bright red glow, which seemed to pulsate and illuminate from within a gray, dimly burning sphere moving deeper into the Astral.

But the disc did not slow down, and the red glow continued to grow. At some point, it became so strong that it began to merge with the dull gray. Forming a dark red, but already brighter ball. The disc, whose movement could no longer be stopped, began to slowly dissolve and merge with the gray sphere, completely becoming a part of it. Ultimately, among the innumerable glowing lights, one changed, acquiring a different color and a brighter glow.

Then, the ball began to accelerate, and its glow slowly intensified and continued to slowly pulsate. He continued to gain speed and at some point, he moved faster than any of all the lights on the way. It seemed that he was already close to the end, close to completely disappearing from the world. But at some point, its speed increased so much that the space in its path burst and the glowing dark ball immediately burst into the open gap.

A moment, and he disappeared, after which the open black funnel immediately disappeared. Thus, the Astral plane returned to its normal state again. All these little movements, taking place a few seconds ago, as if they did not exist ...

***

"Where I am? What's happening?" - moving along the road of the Astral plane, Sean woke up for a moment. Usually, souls traveling towards the end of their journey are unable to sense anything. When beings with strong destinies die. Their souls fall into a long sleep, until the end of time. Until the times, until they completely disappear ...

But Sean's situation was slightly different. The strange object that followed him into the Astral plane began to move. As soon as it happened, just for a moment, but Sean woke up ...

[Complete merging with the master's soul is complete!]

[Definition of world laws ...]

Hearing strange words, Sean, still in a strange state, did not even understand what was happening. After all, he simply did not feel himself, he could not understand anything at all ... But before he had time to remember himself, he again plunged into a long sleep ...

***

Going beyond the limits of the Astral plane, into incomprehensible darkness, the soul stopped for a moment. Its glow noticeably weakened, but after a moment, the soul ball suddenly flashed red. Then it began to fade again, but while this was happening, a rift appeared in the black unknown space. Immediately not a second, the ball of the soul penetrated into the opening gap, quickly dimming and losing its glow.

Coming out of the darkness through the rift, the ball of the soul fell into another space.

It was a seemingly ordinary world. Vast forests, deep blue skies and many stars. It was late night and the moon was shining brightly on the earth ...

The soul ball was dimming faster and faster. He seemed to have spent all his strength and gradually faded away. But this path was definitely not in vain ...

With a slight flinch, the soul ball instantly moved. Moving so fast, it not only dimmed, but also diminished in size. He threw all his strength into this last spurt ...

The place where the balloon was heading was surrounded by forests. It was a fairly large village, with many houses and buildings. Not far from this village, there was a large rock with four men's faces carved into it.

Having accelerated, the soul ball flew several kilometers in a couple of seconds. He seemed to know where to go and, without slowing down, he was heading to the right place.

***

At the same time, in the Hidden Leaf Village, in the village hospital.

Several people were in the spacious hall, illuminated by bright light. There were four of them in total.

The three wore the same white clothes with the same caps. They had the same symbol on their chests denoting their identity as a medical ninja. All of them surrounded the little dark-haired boy and tried to revive him.

In appearance, the child was not injured, he was just slightly pale. It was difficult to understand what was going on. Just an hour ago, this boy was quite healthy, but then he suddenly passed out.

When the baby was brought to the hospital, doctors began providing emergency care.

The baby's pulse was weakening and his heart rate was rapidly slowing down. Experienced ninja medics did not understand what was happening, they had never encountered such a thing. The child simply started dying for no reason, all they could do now was try to maintain his condition.

Several monitors displayed disappointing data about the boy's condition. The cardiograph made a sound less and less ... At some point, a rare squeaking sound turned into a constant ...