The city streets had been stained into flowing patches of color by streamers and gunpowder smoke.
The global crisis that had swept the world three months ago had finally ended in humanity's narrow victory after an unexpected upheaval, and now every alleyway boiled with the revelry of survivors.
Children held colorful balloons as they chased one another around the fountain, fireworks bursting across the sky reflected in the clear droplets of water.
At the center of the square, the red silks of an elderly yangko troupe fluttered to the beat of gongs and drums, weaving together with the glowing sticks in the hands of young people to form a nightless sky.
Steam rose from the snack stalls, carrying the scent of roasted meat. Vendors shouted at the top of their lungs, polishing their "Celebration Special" signs until they gleamed.
No one noticed that the bursts of static occasionally coming from the radio were not signal interference, but low-frequency tremors from the direction of the South Pole.
At the same time, an unseen cataclysm was unfolding across the Antarctic continent.
Beneath the ten-thousand-year snow covering the ice fields, the "breathing" from deep within the ice began as a faint hum and gradually turned into a heavy drumbeat.
That sound did not come from the wind and snow, but from the rising and falling chest cavity of some colossal creature. Every expansion made the thousand-meter-thick ice sheet tremble faintly.
Ice cracks that had originally been no wider than a fingertip slowly widened beneath that tearing force. Like silver spiderwebs, the fissures spread soundlessly across the ice field.
"Crack—crack—" Crisp shattering sounds echoed through the silent heart of Antarctica. Fine as threads at first, they quickly gathered into deafening roars, as if the earth itself were splitting apart.
At a certain moment, the