Chapter thirty two: ecosystem (2)
Caelum watched as the vibrant red flower shriveled and slowly began to wither, its once-sturdy petals curled inwards, it's color dulled, the stem sagged and it seemed like a like paper touched by flame.
"Yeah… deep down, it's still a regular flower," Caelum tilted his head, his eyes followed the white-winged insect hovering nearby, now glowing a bit brighter than before, because of the energy it had drained. "Once the energy's gone, it will fade Just like any other flower."
He rubbed his fingers together, brushing off an imaginary speck of dirt, then leaned over the table, he raised the quill again and pointed it at the glass case.
"So far, the chain's simple. The flower feeds on light, the insect feeds on the flower. Now…"
He poured his willpower into the quill.
"What's left is a predator."
The tip swept smoothly across the air, and the space inside the glass case rippled. A shimmer formed, and from it emerged the next piece of the puzzle appeared..
Its body was slender and sleek, covered in soft, iridescent feathers that shimmered, black, blue, and violet all at once.
Its wings beat rapidly with a low hum, beating so fast they vanished into a blur. A long, needle-thin beak jutted out from its head, and its round eyes flicked from side to side, sharp and alert.
The creature looked almost like a hummingbird, if one stripped of gentleness and reworked with a hint of menace.
As soon as it stabilized midair, it paused, and glanced around, its tiny head twitching side to side. it couldn't quite decide what to do first. But, as soon as it saw the white-winged insect.....
GLUP.
"The guy that will eat the insect." Caelum spoke in a soft voice, as the hummingbird-like creature darted forward in a blur and swallowed the white-winged insect whole.
Caelum was amused, "Damn. Didn't even chew."
"That's it," he murmured, resting one hand against the side of the glass. Inside, the predator buzzed around it,"The foundation's set."
Inside the glass case, the red flower wilted in silence, the insect gone, and the predator hovered alone in the space, its wings sliced the air in buzzing rhythm.
"Wait.." He paused, realising something he had overlooked before. "The flower is supposed to absorbe sunlight and moonlight for energy source but, there is no sun and moon in the painting space.."
Rethinking about the entire process, caelum scratched his chin, "Hmmm. The day and night cycle, as well as the sunlight and moonlight in dharti are artificial."
"Ha...well it can't be helped, even though the day-night cycle in dharti are not real in a sense, but a result of the rules I established through the world stabilizer, it should work out."
He tapped the side of the case, still smiling. "since the world stabilizer is defined to act as a proxy, and the rules established through it are as good as real. I think the artificial sunlight and moonlight of dharti, created through the implementation of those rules, should be enough for the flowers."
Caelum let out a long sigh, and thought about the entire plan again, "The flower will absorbe the artificially created sunlight and moonlight in Dharti, the bugs will absorbe those lights, essentially killing the flower in the process."
Caelum looked at the bird still fluttering like it owned the place, slowly starting to disappear. "Then the bird, defined in a way to specifically target the raw energy source present in the flowers, just like the insect. Will eat the white winged insect and absorbe the energy available in it's body."
"With this, the basics of a working micro-ecosystem are ready."
And in that moment, the small brid completely disappeared. Turning invisible.
Caelum wanted to test a micro ecosystem that could run on a different type of energy, trying to create the base work for something supernatural. And to test it, he defined both the white winged insect, and the predator brid to be able to turn their body parts invisible. Through the use of the raw energy of the flower.
He leaned back, tapping the quill against his palm.
"This feels a little too fun for science."
-----
Caelum spent the better part of his time refining everything again, he had hunched over the glass, looking no different from a sleep-deprived mad scientist.
At this point, he had rewritten the definitions quite a lot of times.
He tweaked the flower's absorption rate, redefined the insect's energy absorption process, and reworked the bird's behavior loop until it felt perfect to him.
Each adjustment was small at start, but he kept redefining, everything stacked up. And by the fourth full reset of the cycle, he was finally getting close to what he had in mind.
"Perfect."
Inside the glass case, a new scene unfolded.
Three of the white-winged insects were latched onto flowers, slowly draining the stored energy. As they fed, their wings shimmered faintly, losing their shape, becoming transparent. Then, even their bodies turned invisible one by one.
And right on cue, the bird that was hovering inside the glass of twitched, as if it sensed something.
It hovered for, as if sniffing something only it could sense. Then with perfect precision, it darted forward.
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
Caelum watched in silence as the bird settled down again, wings lightly folded.
Caelum clasped his hands,"I don't think they need any more tweaks," he said. "And if they do, i can always readjust them anytime."
The few final changes that caelum made were significant.
The flowers now changed color depending on whether it was day or night. vivid red in the sunlight, and changing to a pale blue under the moon.
He redefined the insect's body to vanish entirely, not just it's wings. After it absorbed enough energy from the flower.
The bird had been redefined too, caelum took it's ability to sense the insect normally, until the insect turns invisible, and the exact moment the insect turned invisible, the bird will be able to sense it's prey.
He made a perfect full loop, without leaving behind any error.
"Quite the irony," Caelum muttered, staring at the setup from across the room. His eyes flicked to the two untouched flowers still in tubes, then back to the glass case where things were already in motion.
"The only way the insect can survive is by feeding on the flower. Turning invisible by it's instinct ... and that's what gets it killed." His voice was quiet, as he felt a sense of deja-vu
He drew in a breath, dragging a hand through his hair. "Like humans tearing through nature to live easier lives… and ending up making it harder to survive in the polluted nature."
Caelum shook his head, snapping out of this thoughts"Still. I spent more time on this than I planned."
With that, he willed himself out of the white room. The blankness dissolved like mist, and Dharti took shape around him.
"Hmm."
Caelum's feet pressed lightly against the ground of Dharti, the cool night air brushing against his skin.
He stood still, glancing up. "The sky looks pretty empty."
Above him stretched a vast sheet of darkness, although it had traces of moonlight because of the rules, there were no actual stars, or moon. It was Just a blank ceiling draped over the world.
He kept staring as he began to walk, with his hands tucked in pockets.
"When I made the painting space, there were stars in it. Even now, when I look at it from outside of dharti, they still flicker faintly." His voice was thoughtful.
"But here… there seems to be nothing."
He walked a little farther before nodding to himself. "Probably because I never defined them as stars. Back then, I just drew on a few glowing dots on the painting. Thinking they'd look nice."
"Back then, I wasn't thinking about orbits, heat, gravity, radiation. I was only thinking about light. So the stars that I drew on the painting space are nothing more than decorations."
The memory that resurfaced made him scoff.
"Heh. I mean, if I had tried to define actual stars at that time, I probably would've passed out after one stroke. My willpower at that time was pathetic, compared to now."
He paused beside a tall, twisted tree and leaned against it casually, still watching the empty sky.
"Stars… real ones." He tilted his head, thinking out loud. "I could probably pull it off now. Or at least something close."
His eyes dropped back to the ground.
"anyway, i should focus on what I came for first." Caelum then pushed off the tree and kept walking.
'The sky above Dharti is dark right now, But not for long.'
----
He stepped over a crooked tree root and crossed a shallow pond with barely a sound.
His boots were already soaked, as he pushed through a patch of low bushes.
"This looks good enough," he brushed a stray leaf off his shoulder, walking into the small clearing just ahead.
It was a open space with patches of soft soil, a ring of trees forming a quiet border and had a roud space.
He paused at the edge of the clearing, "Weird," he said, tilting his head a little.
"I've been wandering around in the middle of a dark-ass forest alone. And it's not bothering me at all."
'Back in the real world, I wouldn't even go downstairs to check the mail after dark, not to mention every rustle behind a bush felt like it has something hidden.'
He glanced up at the sky, there was no moon, or stars. Only a night sky giving of moonlight due to the rules.
"But here, there can be nothing that is harmful" he said, stepping forward again, "Even if there were harmful creatures here, it would still change nothing."
The leaves fluttered above as a gust of cool air passed through. "Afterall, this is my world."
His voice echoed through the silent forest, as caelum quickly walked to the center of the clearing and crouched down. And rubbed the tips of his fingers through the dirt.
"Should be fine," he said under his breath. "The flowers would probably cover the entire area in a week."
He looked around one last time. Trees formed a half-circle around the area, there wasn't a single sound of insects or animals, there were no life in the area except him.
"Alright," he exhaled, pulling out the quill from his coat.
"Let's start with the basic flower patch."
As he pressed the tip down against the dirt, the glow of the quill pulsed softly in his hand, like a conduit in the dark.