Thousands of rain droplets hung in the air as if an invisible string were holding them midair, and left even the wind suspended.

In the night sky above, even the last streak of the blue, snaking lightning froze mid-coil across the cloudless sky, its glow trembling faintly like a paralysed snake.

At the roofs of the buildings spreading long from the walls of the barracks, three bats remained unmoving, their wings half-spread as their shadows remained locked against the light purple moonlight as though the night had been held by the neck.

On the road stretching long from the walls of Bion City, a lady wearing a yellow gown, hurrying back with a small sack filled with green and red vegetables hanging around her shoulder, stopped and stared at the frozen droplets of rain.

She blinked twice, brushed her left arm across her face, thinking her eyes were playing tricks on her. But after doing all that she could, she noticed the world itself was refusing to move.

"Oh… my… this is crazy!" she said, opening her eyes wide. She stretched her arm, moved her index finger toward two drops that at first seemed to swallow her skin, but released it the moment she pulled the finger back. Though her finger got wet, the two drops didn't fall like they should.

"Let me hurry before the gods get angry and release them on me…" she said, tightening the sack wrapped around her shoulder and starting to run toward a three-way junction where the streetlight was glowing intensely.

The rain droplets began to vibrate the moment she turned to the right side of the streetlight and vanished into the road leading to the valley filled with beautiful buildings.

Though the winds weren't moving, yet torn newspapers moved on the silent street, hovering slightly above the ground and stopping at the small sewage path under the blue-painted building at the right side of the junction of the alley leading to the barracks as if being pushed by an unseen force.

Footsteps echoed at where the trash bins were with a thud that had a rubbery sound, as a man with white hair, white beard, and white moustache.

He walked drowsily, slamming himself against the trash bins and stumbling on the ground.

"Give me my diamond!" he said, shaking his head and letting the drowsiness wave back a little. He helped himself up, brushed his palms on his ash-colored shirt, clearing the dirt, and stretched himself.

"What… what is… this?" he said, his voice breaking and joining like rubber as he moved unstably, pointing his fingers and calling the drops hanging in front of him and around him by human names.

His boots screeched against the ground filled with tiny pieces of rubbish; each step moved the rubbish and pushed it forward.

Without hesitation, he slammed his head into the five droplets at his eye level. At that instant, a strange smile spread wide on his face as he grinned.

Though the rain wasn't falling, the three droplets his head touched soaked his hair and freed themselves, leaving blank spaces behind.

With joy, the drunkard rushed forward, heading all the droplets that seemed to be in his way as he moved from the alley to the main street stretching long, then finally headed in the direction of the gate at the wall surrounding the city at large.

Moments after he rushed out of the alley, black cats meowed in the alley, walking out of the shadows and licking their fur while wobbling their tails as they stared at the tiny purple light stretching long from the roof of a building inside the barracks wall and into the sky in a thin light.

The meowing sound echoed singularly at first, but after two minutes, it multiplied, forming a chorus like the sound of traffic.

…

Inside the walls of the barracks, a fair-skinned soldier holding a black shiny spear walked toward the locked gate, opened it, and stepped outside.

He walked straight into the building where two small male and female symbols were labelled on the door.

A few moments after he entered, a thunderous fart sound emerged from the side of the door with the male figure on, echoing and rolling into the streets like a distant drumbeat.

Though the droplets seemed to be static, the thunderous fart managed to shake them slightly, giving it the look of a wave trapped in a bottle.

From where the fair guy erupted, two men chattering opened the door, stepped outside the room, and stood where the pots were, chattering.

For them, nothing was more important than the beauty of the ladies they met during the day and managed to take their home addresses and personal contact information.

"Will you leave the barracks and go there tomorrow?" the young man with an arc mark on his left cheek said, staring at the guy with the small eyes that seemed to be closing on their own.

The small-eyed man smiled, shook his head, and placed a hand on the young man's shoulder.

"My guy, I'm not like you," he said, pulling his hand from the guy's shoulder as he spotted the guy's expression change.

"I'm going there just this evening. I won't wait for a day to come in between. I have to shake my waist small," he added, inhaling deeply, then stretched his head to the sky, hoping to see the moon after not hearing the rain for some time.

He blinked, turned his gaze toward the guy standing beside him, blinked again, and stared at the sky. Yet he saw the same hanging rain as he saw earlier.

"Hackman, look at something and tell me I'm not blind," he said, tapping at the shoulder of the same guy he had placed his arm on and pointed to the direction he thought he'd seen the frozen rain at.

"WHAT'S THAT?!" Hackman said, opening his eyes wide and forgetting to close his mouth.

Chills ran down his spine like fire as he turned his gaze from both the sky and turned a shocked gaze at the guy with the small eyes who looked as if he wanted to vanish in an instant.

At the remote section of the barracks, where the white building stood, a lady stood at the side, staring at the purple light stretched from the roof and vanished into the sky.

With a shocked face and shaking arms, she watched as tiny particles transcended from the roof and entered the clouds, then from the clouds and into the roof.

"What's happening?" she asked, her voice erupting and piercing the night in a sweet tone that sounded like a violin string.

She moved from where the hanging water was, stopped at the gate, and turned for her last view, then opened the door and entered, vanishing into the hallway like a ghost.

Outside the doors on the second floor of the building, strange grinding sounds echoed, turning all those in the hall sleepless as they were all awakened by the increasing sound.

In Kai's room, the shadows in which he usually sees danced across his room, brushing their limbs on his unwrapped body as if pulling his soul from his body.

The grinding sound echoed loudly in his room, yet he wasn't awakened by that; he just kept on sweating and sweating as he journeyed through the bone-filled land in his dream.

At the stool of his open window, the black bird, which seemed to be in his dream, stood there stretching its wings wide and clutching onto a small obsidian dagger under its beak.

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