Chapter fourteen : A land without life
Caelum sat hunched over the long bronze table, his head propped up by one hand as he scrawled notes into a thick book. flipping through the pages of a thick book, caelum looked tired.
The empty white room had become his workspace, scattered with notes, diagrams, and rough sketches of theories. His hand moved superfast as he jotted down calculations, refining the concepts behind the world he planned to create.
His other hand twirled a pen absentmindedly as his eyes darted across the pages, after what felt like an eternity, he dropped the pen and rolled his shoulder.
"That took way too long." He tensed up his muscles, then loosened, feeling a deep relief.
"Damn," he became frustrated, "how can making rough sketches take forever."
"I feel no difference from someone clocking out of a grueling shift." Caelum rubbed the back of his neck as he stood up from the chair.
"Even though planning out a proper world took more effort than expected," caelum looked across the table with the look of dedication.
"Now that the groundwork is properly laid out, it is time to start executing."
He pushed himself up from the chair, shaking off the stiffness in his limbs. His fingers traced the surface of the table absentmindedly before reaching for the quill, after grabbing his beloved quill, He stepped toward one of the two windows he had created earlier.
Gazing out into the vast expanse of the cosmos. Caelum felt an indescribable feeling, the white room drifted like a lone island in an ocean of stars, floating in silence. It felt distant yet oddly peaceful.
The white room was like an isolated sanctuary amidst the expanse of nothingness.
Caelum lifted the quill and pressed its tip against the air, allowing his willpower flow outward.
"Let's tweak the room first, it needs more functions."
With a single stroke, a pulse ran through the walls. A barely perceptible vibration rippled across the floor, the space itself acknowledged the change. Now, the connection had been established, the white room will respond to his intent.
A hum vibrated through the floor beneath his feet, the space was responding to his command. He thought about exiting.
Instantly, his body moved through space. The white walls faded from view, and without a single step, he found himself outside, hanging in the cosmos.
He turned back to look at the room, now a floating, glowing mass in the void.
He nodded in approval, "this should make things a lot easier."
Efficiency was key. The last thing he needed was to waste energy every time he wanted to step outside.
He closed his eyes. "From now entering and exiting will be a hell of a lot easier."
For some reason caelum looked proud, essentially creating a way to teleport." for my lazy ass, redefining the entrance so I can enter and exit with just a thought is a damn good idea."
But his lighthearted mood quickly faded as he refocused. His face hardened, 'time to get serious.'
He raised the quill, when his eyes snapped open, his willpower surged.
A massive wave of energy pulsed out of his body in an instant, the energy was invisible yet powerful, like a tidal force breaking free of its restraints.
With a single stroke, energy poured from him, shaping into intricate geometric lines in the air. Each move of his hand left behind translucent markings, layered upon one another, forming a grand design. The complexity grew and lines twisted, connecting into vast and intricate structure.
His vision blurred, the complexity of it all made his head spin but he kept going. His fingers trembled from the sheer strain of maintaining precision. When the final stroke was complete, he released the quill.
As Caelum let go, everything locked into place. A wave of exhaustion slammed into him like a brick wall. His face twisted in discomfort, the willpower depletion pressed down on him like an anchor.
"Shit..." His face twisted, a mix of dizziness and pure relief was visible all over. As he adjusted his eyes, the empty void below was no longer empty.
A faint glow illuminated the darkness beneath him, Caelum looked down with his eyes widened.
The once-empty void was no longer empty. Beneath his feet, vivid green fields, rolling hills, and scattered clusters of trees formed naturally across the terrain, sprouting into existence. The landscape expanded outward, stretching far beyond his immediate vision. It was no mere patch of dirt. This was an actual landmass.
Caelum could feel it growing, shaping itself according to the definitions he had laid down. Though it wasn't big, The stretch of land beneath him was roughly 800 square kilometers, comparable to a large national park.
When he was just staring at what he had made, he felt the sensation of gravity return.
THUD.
His body dropped, the weightless sensation vanished, his feet soon met solid ground. The impact sent a dull ache through his legs, before he could react, he landed with a heavy thud.
"Ow, fuck!" He groaned, lying flat on his back, staring up at the sky.
"That… was draining as hell."
He dragged a hand down his face, catching his breath. "This was like getting sucked dry in an instant."
After a few seconds, he sat up, taking in his surroundings. The wind rustled through the grass, the leaves on the trees swayed gently, it was not different from being on earth.
But when he looked up, his eyes twitched.
The light existed but there was no visible source, it was daytime, but there was no sun in sight. no celestial body were visible, just a luminous expanse pretending to be a sky.
"Now that I look at it, this feels bit off," he mumbled.
'Sure enough, I have defined the space to be bright as day, but looking at it now, it feels artificial.' caelum felt like he was missing something fundamental.
'Without a proper day-night cycle, this place didn't feel like the real world. It feels more like a simulation.'
On instinct, he lifted a hand, watching the way the light hit his skin. There were no directional shadows. He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"I really half-assed that, huh?" With a tired sigh, he pushed himself up, resting his hands on his knees before straightening up.
"Hah."Taking steps forward, he walked through the land he had created.
The grass beneath his feet rustled. The air, though artificially crafted, carried the illusion of a natural breeze. Every sense registered this place as real, yet he knew better.
Without a doubt It was just the starting point, he still had a lot to refine.
Caelum walked. "The sky needs a proper day-night cycle. A functional world couldn't rely on a fixed brightness, ugh it feels, lifeless?"
"I'm going to need the damn sun and moon."
The sky needed fixing, the lighting needed a proper source. There were too many missing elements for this to be called a true world. It purely existed because of his defination, else a world like this was logically impossible.
His mind churned with ideas as he took in his surroundings, mentally sorting through the changes that needed to be made.
When he felt the air, the wind hit his skin, he couldn't help but smile. "It still feels quite nice here"
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Caelum walked across the landscape he created, the world around him stretched far and wide; rolling hills, fields of green, scattered trees. But, the further he walked, the more he noticed unsettling things.
'Everything lookes the same.' After caelum had a relaxed walk around the land, he noticed the biggest flaw he wouldn't have otherwise.
'Every tree, though a bit different in shape, shares the same color, even the same texture?' he started noticing more and more with each passing second.
The hills repeated in near-identical slopes, the grass lacked variation, and there were no small rivers or changes in terrain. It was like someone had copied and pasted the land without adding the finer details that made nature feel alive.
His fingers brushed against the bark of a tree. It was solid, and very real to the touch, but the more he observed it, the more artificial it felt. It had no knots, or signs of weathering. Having no imperfections made a tree look artificial.
"This feels… kind of hollow." He continued walking, moving through the hills, letting his gaze wander. There was no sound beyond his footsteps, not even rustling of leaves, or chirping of birds.
"Even the air doesn't seem to carry any scent." caelum said to himself like he usually does, looking around, feeling no warmth from the unseen sun.
It felt like an abandoned stage meant to be a world, but with none of the elements that gave a world its soul.
His facial expressions were a battlefield, as he stopped atop a hill, overlooking the land below. "mmmmmmm, Probably because there's nothing alive here."
His own voice sounded strange in the silence. "This isn't a world, it is more of just a huge plot of land." Caelum wasn't wrong, it looked like a large, lifeless canvas waiting to be fille.
He turned on his heel and, and with a simple thought, willed himself back. In an instant, the empty land vanished from his sight. The white walls of his room within the cosmos replaced the endless greenery, and he found himself standing in front of the long bronze table.
"Haah~" As soon as he was in the white room, caelum sank into the chair, threw the quill on the table and leaned forward with his elbows on the surface.
Everything about this "world" was wrong. It exists and that's all, it lacks the fundamental pieces that made existence meaningful.
There was light, but no sun to create it.
There was land, but no ecosystem to sustain it.
There was air, yet nothing that required it to survive.
He drummed his fingers against the table.
"I wanted to create an environment that mimics life, but... there's nothing here that should allow it to exist naturally." with a complicated look, caelum gazed at the notes on the table.
"The contradictions sat at the center of everything. It's just functioning because of the quill's power." Even if he wanted to fix these issues now, he could feel the limits of his willpower pressing against him.
'My reserves are running low.' caelum rubbed his temples, leaning back in his chair. "I can't think straight anymore."
Pushing himself to his feet, he thought, 'there is no point in forcing my mind to keep working when my body is already running on empty.'
With another simple thought, his surroundings melted away. The white room slowly faded, then the cosmos washed away like being erased by a paint washer.
Then soon weightless feeling of floating vanished.
"Huh?" When he opened his eyes again, he was greeted with the familiar scent of his room, he was back home.
"Is it already night time?"
The familiar sight of his apartment greeted him; the darkness that filled his room, the bright light of the moon passing through his window, his messy desk and the bed.
Everything felt small compared to the vastness of the place he had just left, but at the same time, there was a sense of comfort in returning.
Caelum turned the lights on and dragged himself toward the bed, feeling the exhaustion deep in his bones as he glanced at the clock.
12:35.
Even if time didn't exist inside the painting, time in the outside world went by.