The entire surface of the Earth had been invaded by an unknown gray substance, as if infected. A layer of gray had blanketed the land.
The ground rose and fell as though it were breathing, seeming to have become soft.
Yet strangely, the ground remained hard and the roads remained solid, as though this breathing was only relative.
The softness was relative to the "breathing of the earth," not to humans. To ordinary people, all materials remained just as hard as before.
Just as crocodile hide was extremely hard to an ant, yet that did not affect the crocodile's breathing.
Linked by gray chains and connected at the seven o'clock position, the Moon and Earth seemed to have had their nervous systems connected, forming a single whole—a whole that showed signs of movement.
Gray began to corrupt everything.
It was as though an invisible great mouth were slowly opening, devouring the entire world and sinking it into its stomach.
The sky gradually turned gray.
The night also became gray.
Ash-like snowflakes continuously began to fall from the atmosphere. With a pinch of the fingers, those snowflakes would turn into ash.
Yet the ash contained an indelible grayness. Snowflakes were easy to destroy, but dealing with the remnants they left behind was the hardest part.
Snowflakes were the process of blooming; ash was the fruit of "fear."
But this time, the snowflakes did not affect the humans or animals of this world. Even the gray that had devoured the earth bypassed them.
Because all of their consciousnesses were currently in the Origin Sea. The bodies left behind in this world were merely empty shells.
Without souls to rely on, those shells of flesh were no different from natural elements such as hydrogen, chlorine, and sodium.
They were merely cells and blood