Nagato slowly formed hand seals in the air, each one seeming to bear an immense weight.
His fingers trembled, his nails digging deep into his palms, yet he felt no pain.
The intricate seals twisted like living things, every movement seeming to wring the life from his marrow.
They shook violently, and countless souls seemed to wail within his pupils.
The Mechanical Support gave a piercing groan of metal fatigue as it held up his faltering body.
"Ugh...!"
Nagato let out a low cry of agony, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
His skin began losing its color at a visible rate, his already pale face turning as translucent as a wax figure.
Chakra poured from his body like a flood breaching a dam, forming an eerie purple vortex in the air.
Konan fell onto the rubble-strewn ground, digging her nails into the frozen earth until blood seeped between her fingers.
She desperately tried to stand, to rush forward and stop Nagato, but her gravely wounded body no longer obeyed her.
Sharp stones cut her knees and palms, staining the snow red with blood.
"No... Nagato!!"
Her scream echoed through the night wind, her voice so hoarse it almost lost its pitch.
Tears blurred her vision as she watched helplessly, Nagato's life slipping away before her eyes.
Nagato's skin began to crack like parched earth.
His hair turned gray-white, and his body shriveled at an alarming rate.
The machines sustaining his life blared shrill alarms, their red lights flashing wildly.
Countless pale-white motes of soul light gathered from the void overhead.
They flickered like fireflies, yet carried a chill that made hearts quail.
They circled in the air before converging on Madara Uchiha's body.
"...So this is Rinne Rebirth."
Madara Uchiha murmured, his voice so soft it was