Watching the soul manager efficiently carry out his duties, the small soul perched on his shoulder asked curiously:
"Daddy, we're souls just like them… So why are they being dumped here?"
The soul manager gently rubbed the little soul's head with fatherly affection, then replied in a warm tone:
"Child, you're still too young to understand. As souls, we are eternal beings, it's true—but if we go too long without passing through the Gate of Life, our consciousness will eventually dissipate."
"And when that happens, we become just like them."
…
Daniel had already learned this not long ago.
For a soul, if too much time passed without traversing the Gate of Life, they would slowly lose self-awareness and become no more than the discarded remnants in the junkyard.
Technically speaking, these souls were still "alive"—but only barely.
It was life in the most mechanical sense—existence without awareness, without purpose, without self.
