People always thought they could determine the course of the Future, that they could know every change in their lives, that they were prepared, that everything was under control.
But in reality, people had grasped nothing. They still clung to their home planet and struggled to survive, unable even to see how Destiny operated.
Sometimes people got lucky, and many believed it was because the gods favored them. Sometimes people had bad luck, and they believed the gods had abandoned them.
Yet when they thought that way, the gods had usually done nothing at all.
But when Destiny died and the gods truly intervened, people would not notice it at all. They would seek out all kinds of scientific explanations, looking for psychological comfort in ways they could understand.
Little did they know that placing complete faith in science was itself another kind of superstition.
No one noticed when it began. When green-glowing raindrops fell to the ground, they made the same sound as ordinary rain.
The water gathered on the ground, flowing quietly like little streams into humanity's creations—the sewers—or directly into the ocean or underground.
But changes came quickly. The most advanced high-tech equipment was the first to malfunction. Shrouded in mist, they stalled and shut down. Particle accelerators, supercomputers, Nuclear Reactors—all of them went silent.
Next came the equally invisible Electromagnetic Waves. The rain blocked them from transmitting information. Television, telephones, the Internet—all the means of information modern people depended on were cut off.
Then the very process of generating electricity was blocked, as if someone had erased the existence of electrons. Even though the turbines in hydroelectric plants continued spinning under the force of the water, not a trace of electricity flowed into the wires.
After that came internal combustion engines. Every vehicle and flying vehicle