Chapter twenty five: Humans
Caelum sat at his desk with his elbows resting lazily on the wooden surface, he stared out of the closed window with half open eyes.
The Rain continued to batter the glass, with a dull and hypnotic but steady rhythm. The gray sky didn't seem to change even slightly, like world itself had stalled.
PLATTER!
The sound of the rain hitting the window made him feel lazier than usual, like even the world outside had no motivation to move.
"It's been raining for more than a day now," he involuntary let out a few words, stretching his arms with a loud yawn.
For caelum, yesterday had been a full-out coma. He didn't even bother waking for dinner and just curled up like a cat, he had slept for more than 24 hours.
And as a result, his body jolted awake wat too early in the morning, But to his surprise, the sky was still pouring.
At first, he didn't care much and went on with his morning routine, he washed up and made a proper English-style breakfast using the quill—fried eggs, grilled tomato, crispy bacon, baked beans, and toast stacked neatly on the plate. It was the kind of meal that could be considered light, but it filled both the stomach and the soul.
After completing his breakfast, he sat on his desk and started pondering on his failure. The failure of recreating the illness within the humans he created, But now, after hours later, the rain still hadn't stopped.
"Hm, maybe I should go back to the painting world," Caelum mumbled, turning his head toward the painting hanging on the wall.
It shimmered faintly under the dim light, depicting a oeaceful and quiet starry sky.
"Ugh... but I can't really think of what to do anymore." He leaned back in his chair, still mumbling with a voice that sounded like a whisper.
'I thought just creating humans with the same illness as me would help... Help me understand it's nature, so i could find a cure through experiments, but...'
He stood up from his chair, with his fingers brushing across the desk as he picked up the quill again.
"All of that planning is useless now."
Caelum walked over to the painting without hesitation, His free hand hovered near the canvas.
"I guess... I'll have to think of a new way."
He poured his willpower into the the painting—and with that, his figure vanished from the apartment, disappearing into the painted world once again.
-----
--
Caelum's body reformed inside the white room, the white room that hanged in the middled of the starry cosmos.
The vast expanse of quiet stars surrounded the white in a unmoving state.
The moment his body appeared, without wasting a second, he moved straight toward the world stabilizer.
Reaching it, he placed his hand on the surface and poured in his willpower. As always, the stabilizer responded instantly, activating as a flood of scenes and moments flashed before his eyes.
"So, almost sixty years have passed by down there, in just a day and a half i was gone," Caelum muttered, his tone half-shocked, half-impressed as he scanned the events unfolding below.
Through the stabilizer, everything that happened below was laid bare—like watching through the eyes of something that had been silently observing all this time. The stabilizer acted as an extension of him.
It was a proxy, a bridge between him and the ever expanding world below. As long as he had poured in enough willpower ahead of time, it would keep the world running on its own. It slowly expanded the rules and the areas of the world bit by bit, expanding everything inside at a supernatural pace.
Since the stabilizer covered the entire world, Caelum could more or less see everything through it. Like watching a memory from a god's eye view.
"Even if they failed in the purpose I created them for... they're still the first humans of this world," he said, pulling his hand back and sighing.
"I should check on them at least once, before spending the rest of the day trying to figure out what I'm going to do next."
He rubbed his chin, muttering to himself like usual. Then, without hesitation, his body faded from the white room.
---
Caelum's body reformed within the world below, the reality around him twisting as the environment settled.
He willed himself to appear at the same place where he had created the human, it was just as easy as thinking for him.
The white room and this world were the only two spaces he could come and go with as he pleased, he just had to will the location in his mind. And That was part of how he had defined both the places.
But the place he appeared in now looked different.
"This place looked different last time i was here.... Well it's been sixty years"
The once untouched field of green had changed, and a narrow dirt path had formed in the grass, carved out by countless footsteps over the years.
It wasn't random, this was clearly the result of people walking back and forth through the same route again and again.
"Did they pass through this place a lot?" Caelum mumbled, staring at the path.
It led toward the open grass fields beyond.
"The open fields, huh... did they learn to make use of domestic animals already?"
The thought seemed too ridiculous, even to him.
He crossed his arms and gave a skeptical laugh. "No, that's too fast. Even if they've were based of modern human brains, sixty years is still too early for coexistence with animals, domestication... nah, no way."
Still, he couldn't help but wonder. He stood there, staring at the faint trail ahead for a few more seconds.
He stayed quiet for a moment, watching the empty path swaying in the wind.
Then finally, he clicked his tongue. "Whatever. I'll see it for myself."
And with that, Caelum started walking toward the open fields, the soft grass brushing against his ankles as he followed the trail left behind by the very beings he created.
-----
Caelum walked down the path, taking in the quiet breeze brushing against the fields.
It didn't take long, soon the open grass fields came into view. After a few minutes he saw the same scene he had seen before.
At least, that's how it should have been.
"What the f**k," Caelum said out loud, his steps midway as his eyes narrowed.
The place looked nothing like it had a day ago.
He scanned the area in disbelief, looking at the Small huts that stood in neat clusters, their walls made from packed mud and dried leaves.
He saw Smoke drift lazily from somewhere near the huts, meaning someone had figured out fire containment.
Wooden fences boxed off sections of land where cows and sheep grazed peacefully, and the entire area looked organized.
Caelum stood there with his tongue pressed against his cheek.
"Well… I guess it has been over sixty years here," he muttered, trying to rationalize it to himself. "Makes sense."
But even as he said it, he didn't sound convinced.
"Still… just sixty years, Is that really enough time for humans with no tools, no knowledge or guidance, and just the brainpower of a modern human to build this much?" he said in a low voice, watching a few kids walk from one hut to another in the distance.
"Maybe I underestimated how dangerous a smart brain really is…"It wasn't what he had expected.
He had created them with the biology of modern humans but with zero knowledge, and dropped them in a primitive world.
He naturally assumed they'd struggle, and fail a few times because of lack of knowledgeand experience, but they exceeded his expectations.
'I thought they'd maybe build some stone tools at best if they were lucky, but this?' caelum let out a chuckle and pushed his thoughts aside.
"I made them all to start off at age twenty," Caelum murmured, narrowing his eyes. "So that means most of them should be at the age of eighty by now."
He floated off the ground, rising gently as the wind rippled through his clothes.
"I wonder if they had developed some kind of communication methods already."
With that, he flew toward the small settlement ahead.
----
Inside a small hut made of mud, thick and tangled leaves, a heated conversation stirred the quiet.
The conversation was in unrecognisable words. Their form of language sounded more like shouts, it sounded so unbearable that, if a person from earth heard the conversation, they will feel the urge to hit them.
An old man and woman sat on two lumps of hardened mud, their makeshift seats smoothed by their old age. Their white hair was tied back roughly with twisted fibers, and large leaves covered most of their frail bodies.
Across from them, standing at the narrow entrance of the hut, a young man glared with clenched fists.
"You're just sitting here again! While those beasts can come again anytime." the young man snapped,he raised his voice. "This isn't the time for your old stories."
The old woman lifted her hand slowly, her voice soft like the wind brushing against the leaves. "We've lived longer than you think, child. Listen, just for a moment—"
"Don't talk like you know everything!" the young man shouted, not letting her finish.
The old man's sharp and cold eyes opened wide.
He pushed himself up from the muddy bump, his back cracked audibly with the movement. "Mind your tongue, boy!" he barked, voice echoing off the clay walls. "You, i and all of us wouldn't be here if not for 'that' being."
The young man flinched, his jaw tightening before he turned on his heel and stormed out of the hut.
Outside, the air was heavy and damp, the scent of wet grass and animal hide thick in the breeze. The young man spoke under his breath, shaking his head, but his thoughts were interrupted before they could settle.
The cows and sheep grazing nearby suddenly lifted their heads in unison, their eyes fixed on the sky.
"…What the…" he blinked following their gaze out of habit, and the next second, he screamed.
"AAAHHH—!"
His legs gave out as panic slammed into him, and he slipped backward, falling flat on his butt in the muddy dirt.
Up above, descending from the clouds, was a creature unlike anything he had ever seen, but it looked just like them.
A Human, but wrapped in bizarre fabrics.
A white shirt clung to the stranger's body, and deep blue pants covered his legs.
There were no leaves or bark like the people of this world, and he wasn't walking.
He was flying.
His body slowly lowered through the sky like it was nothing, the wind playing around him but not touching him. His black hair should have moved gently with the breeze but it didn't, his eyes scanned the world below, as he came near the young boy.
It was Caelum. Unbound by the rules of the world, he soared through the air, nearing the cluster of huts below.