He stood inside the Global Atmospheric Research Station in Geneva when the sky ruptured.
A spiraling anomaly manifested above the stratosphere — radiating corrupted gold.
"It's not a meteorological event," Virelli whispered.
Beside him, military liaison Commander Hana Volkov barked into her communicator. "Scramble satellites. I want real-time mapping."
Then the Mist began to descend.
It was luminous. Dense. Alive.
Within twelve hours, it swallowed Northern Europe.
Cameras showed impossible footage — skyscrapers dissolving into lightless absence. People reaching out, then vanishing without ash or residue.
The world named it The Great Erasure.
But Virelli saw something different.
"It isn't random," he said in his final broadcast. "It's selective."
Animals exposed to the Mist began transforming.
In Berlin, a Doberman grew twice its size, eyes glowing with eerie intelligence.
In Siberia, wolves developed synchronized neural responses — moving as if sharing a single mind.
In Brazil, jaguars phased briefly through solid matter.
Meanwhile, human survivors experienced neurological decline. Slowed reaction time. Cognitive decay. Emotional numbness.
"It's rejecting us," Hana muttered.
Governments deployed EMP pulses, plasma artillery, even orbital strikes.
Nothing worked.
Within forty-eight hours, one third of humanity was erased.
In the epicenter of the densest Mist, deep within a forest crater, a child cried.
The Mist approached him.
Then it bowed.
For a brief moment, seismic monitors worldwide registered a harmonic resonance — as if the planet itself had recognized royalty.
Dr. Virelli's last journal entry read:
This is not extinction.
This is evolution under new management.
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