Chapter 626: Its been a while (2/2)
Apparently, their way of reproduction was strangely similar to the earthy egg. At first, a female specimen would lay its eggs all over a huge patch of 'farmland', then, after the larvae would grow big enough, the male responsible for the area would pick few of the best-looking eggs to fertilize before harvesting all the others.
The larvae itself worked like a plant. Consisting of the soft egg hidden under the blanket of dust that this planet was made off, it would sprout a thick stem from which red petals would then grow. Once it became ripe, its petals would start falling off, nourishing the dust below it for the next round of farming. And by observing the process for a time long enough, I realised that the number of petals a stem would sprout was the sole thing that decided which larvae would become the next generations of 'smiley bugs' and which ones would be put for the adult specimen to feed on.
Thankfully, I didn't need to watch over the growth of the civilisation of those bugs for the enormous vastness of the time necessary for the evolution to do its part. As the numbers of my clones grew, so did the time that I required to process all their memories. While the theory behind it that I crafted involved some pretty deep and interesting theorems, ultimately it could all be traced back to a simple idea.
The passage of the time itself was turning quicker and quicker the more my collateral consciousness grew!
And this was the sole reason why just a single disruption of the rift in the universe that I discovered all the way before even a single star appeared in this world was more than enough for me to miss the collapse of the civilisation of those bugs. Just the time I needed to inspect the changes in that strange space before returning back to overseeing the smiley planet…
Over the private investigation that I conducted to discover just what could have happened to eradicate a somewhat intelligent species from a place where it had no other enemies… I ended up coming to a quite depressing explanation. From the traces of farms in the otherwise dead crater I could tell that they attempted to expand outside of their enclave. And from how the entire land within their banishment zone was now nothing more but dryland, it became obvious that their population grew so big, that they turned to be a bane of their own race.
Even with how the entire detective process of mine seemed to take several times longer than the entire lifespan of this civilisation, for me it felt as if everything happened in just a few moments.
And then, that ripple in space that I was so curious about yet powerless to do anything about shook again.
And then again. And again!
And then, the ripple finally managed to achieve its true form, tearing the fabric of my universe apart and revealing a mass of energy that had a pretty similar aura to all my clones. Yet, there was something foreign to it at the same time.
”Mike… Is that you?”
As unsurprising as it could be, I wasn't the one that this strange being encountered first in this world. It was just another clone of mine. But hearing the word, the language that I didn't expect to hear ever again in my life was a shock big enough to send the entire web of connection between clones in different places in disarray.
With this single sentence, the structure of universal vigilance that I built based on my clones… collapsed. Just because not a single part of my greater, collateral being, was willing to miss the opportunity to experience the old world of ours, even if it were to be the only shadow of it.
”So you have finally made it here.”
Appearing right where the anomaly used to be with just a thought, I used galaxy-worth of magic to create a hidden world where this foreign mass of energy could finally take any form it wished.
And as deep as his face was buried in my extensive storage of memory right now, once I saw a human face for the first time ever since I was banished to this emptiness, I had no more doubts about my guess.
”It's been a while, Bonger.”