What would happen if a drop of ink fell into a spring of clear water?
Answer: The ink would actively spread, trying to stain and assimilate every drop of clear water it touched into black.
But if there were simply too much clear water, the ink would instead be completely swallowed by it, leaving no trace behind.
In essence.
Who stained and assimilated whom depended on quantity and quality.
Between the assimilator and the assimilated, there was often no absolute gap. Just as enough ants could devour an anteater.
However.
At this moment.
When those exceedingly insignificant wisps of Gray Mist—so faint that the naked eye could easily mistake them for an illusion and overlook them—truly came into contact with those incomparably massive planets.
Their [quantity] was clearly minuscule, yet their [quality] surpassed everything in this universe by far—calling it an absolute gap in terms of status would not be wrong in the slightest!!
Therefore.
In but an instant.
Anything that touched the Gray Mist, whether soil, metal, or living creatures—all of it was instantly stained and assimilated, turning into more Gray Mist that spread outward.
Like a snowball rolling downhill, it assimilated all other surrounding things into gray fog as well!!
It was a chain reaction whose efficiency surpassed ordinary imagination.
In the blink of an eye, one had become countless!!
Those vast stars that had existed for billions upon billions of years, along with everything upon them, were all assimilated at once, becoming clusters of gray mist quietly suspended in the vacuum of space!!
Throughout the entire process.
There was no resistance at all.
Whether they were the ruling class at the very top of the Barnes Empire or the impoverished commoners at its very bottom, all met the same fate—
After all, although their identities, status, and