Chương 3: Ritualistic Knowledge

Nolotl wasn't surprised to find it was already night when he came out of the lecture hall. Not only was winter threatening to come upon the academy, but natural light was scarce on top of Mount Empyrean. His body was exhausted, and his mind too was approaching its limits, but before going to sleep, the Empyrean stopped by the Observatorium. Many gnosiamancers were working on their preliminary rituals for the coming alignment, even if it was still more than a month away.

Ritualistic magic was a big part of gnosiamancy as it was a school mostly composed of long, complicated and modular spells, rather than simple, flashy and near instantaneous incantations, which also made coteries all the more powerful. That was why he left for the rooftops of the Information tower. The air was gelid, with temperatures well below freezing. Certainly not recommended to be bare-chested as Nolotl was, but he knew his body with absolute perfection. It would take a lot of time for the cold to get him.

He had… his ways against the cold, especially if he was in peak condition. Unlike yesterday, there were some students taking measurements of the stars with enchanted astrolabes, so he couldn't enjoy the splendor of the starry sky by himself. The moment he walked under the starlight he could feel his Starguided Blessing activate. Being under the stars made him comfortable, though the same couldn't be said for the sun. His Blessing still worked, but he found the light of the day star too oppressive.

Which was amusing, to say the least, as he was amongst the darker-skinned students of the academy. There was a limit to how much starlight one such as himself could tolerate. The prince lay his back on a cold, black stone, and peered into the bare night sky. Mount Empyrean was truly the best natural observatory in the world. No place in Lon was even close, not even ho... the temple at Ximeca could compare.

Knowledge poured into his mind even without the need of spells, his Cognition Connection Boon activating automatically in tandem with his Blessing. Even without line of sight, he was aware that the people on the rooftop with him were a year older than him and were performing a sky-charting spell. There were three of them sustaining the spell, but they were having difficulties, as they were trying to cover the whole cosmos. Nolotl sighed and overtook the spell's framework to stabilize it.

You need an anchor, a center-point to lock your screening, then using that as your foundation, proceed by completing each star sector one by one. He advised the three gnosiamancers over the Cognition, telepathy being the only reliable method of communication among them. The help wasn't needed. A male voice protested back. We are trying to picture the night sky whole, going from sectors will bring alignment inaccuracies. That much was true.

Whilst infinitely simpler, taking multiple pictures and then collaging them together had the problem of either superposition or leaving voids on the whole image. But they wouldn't be able to take a picture of a literally infinite space without segmenting their workload. An anchor point will still help you. You need a reference focus to draw a picture; the same concept applies to taking one. Nolotl added. Listen here, you little… The male student's voice instantly cut off.

Apparently, another student had broken the connection and was speaking with him physically via whispers. I apologize for my partner's conduct, Empyrean Xocoyotzin. A female voice announced. We will take your advice to heart, but we would like to recover the control of the spell. Of course, catch. Mentally, Nolotl threw the spell at them through the Cognition as if it were a ball. It was moronic to perform rituals without safety features, and not just because some random person could hijack it with ease. Ukh.

He heard the three students pant simultaneously on the Cognition and the Physicality once they recovered the spell and the computational load that it required. The younger gnosiamancer stood up and left the students alone as they would need every spec of concentration they could muster to go ahead with their project.

"How did he hold our spell alone without breaking a sweat?" He heard the last student question as he reentered the tower.

"He's a year behind us."

"He's an Empyrean, of course he could," the girl who had been polite explained to him.

"He's the youngest of them, as well as royalty." Nolotl stopped tapping into the Cognition as those types of gossip always put him in a bad mood. Having been born in a higher standing apparently made him superior in all aspects of magic and he clearly hadn't worked for them in his life, all of it had clearly been a gift. The prince sighed on his way to his room and promptly fell asleep. Yet another dreamless night, Nolotl whispered in his mind as he opened his eyes.

It was a problem, not being able to sleep, as the world of dreams fell under the domain of gnosiamancers. Not being able to reach it lately was a waste of his expected capabilities. With a heavy groan, he stood from bed. Today he didn't have anything on his schedule besides Xanax's lecture. Classes were still too far behind for him, and advancing a year wasn't an option for him as it was a year less he would be able to wield the Title of Empyrean.

The experience bonuses were already too good to pass, let alone the academic ones. He imposed his will gently upon the Cognition, directing it with his intent over to Cillin. Long-range telepathy wasn't reliable, enchanted items were better for that task, but once she noticed the communication request she would answer. At this point, the girl was practically his secretary, much to the annoyance of both.

The Empyrean mentally expressed his gratitude for his expensive accommodations as he lazily willed his body into the bathroom. This wasn't the biggest private bathroom he had been in, but at the same time, having a bathroom in his bedchamber was something that not even kings had in some places. He stood over the silver mirror and peered at his body.

"I look like a rotten turd," Nolotl mouthed and opened the faucet. The water was freezing, but a splash of cold water always did wonders.

"Much better." The mirror reflected a young man with the skin tone of cacao beans. His long hair was black as night with some strands of shining golden hair all over the place, a gift from his mother. Like most gnosiamancers, his eyes were cyan, an indication of his Alignment. The prince's body held more interest than his visage. Not only was he donning muscles—a rare sight for bookworms as the gnosiamancers happened to be—but also silvery tattoos that wove across the entirety of his arms.

They were meant to resemble the wispy trail of a comet, though they resembled more the vines that grew over the trees of his homeland. His build was stout, but his jawline was defined yet narrow. Together with other masculine traits that he lacked as he had yet to grow any body or face hair—and possibly never would—could be considered androgynous. Nolotl thanked the stars for such a gift, for he heard horror stories of adolescent hair growth.

Some may call him 'visually pleasing' but the Tezlan prince never had a knack for aesthetics and anything beauty-related. Though, of course, the lack of such hairs was related to his species and not his gender. After awakening his body with the chill of cold water, the next natural step was to drench it in hot water. The Empyrean switched the bathtub faucet and warm water started filling the container.

"This is going to take a bit…" He peered at the slowly rising water level.

"Gonna check the class notes." Before leaving, he put a crude alert sigil inside of the bathtub. It was a crude framework, so hot water would instantly break it, alerting him if the water had risen too much. Nolotl tried to put his mind on the different spellcircles, but his focus wasn't on it. It was too early, and he hadn't bathed in two days. Discomfort constantly assaulted his body, even if he was free from the curse of sweating.

Instead, he took a standardized Alignment sheet and cast the appropriate spells on himself to read his own status. Name: Nolotl Xocoyotzin Age: 19 Race: Celestial-Terian Main Resource: Mana Resource Deposit Size: 25. 36 Top Alignments: - Information ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱ 72. 00105% - Light ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 13. 30427% - Void ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 2.

78234% List of Titles: - Empyrean - Gnosiamancer - High Priest of Nochochenca List of Boons: - Lesser Read Thoughts - Perfect Recollection - Resistance to Cognitive Harm - Cognition Connection List of Blessings: - Touched By Information - Starguided As always, standardized Alignment sheets were so simple that they didn't even show his progression level. The only real change in the sheet was his Information Alignment. He had checked it before his ritual yesterday night, but even then, the increase was only of…

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"How is that even counted? 50 microdecimals?" He wondered.

"Nah, decimal already implies the number 10, so… micromals? Augh, that sounds horrendous. A 0. 000005 increase of taums in my Information Alignment. 50 microtaums, I sometimes don't know why I bother trying to understand Celestial linguistics." After performing an important stargazing ritual thanks to the new moon, he had only achieved an increase of four 0s behind the decimal point. And the worst part was that such an increase could only be considered outstanding. For a single isolated event, at least.

Alignment increments were a result of many separate events. Not that Alignment increments mattered that much. A common misconception was that Alignment increments were tied to level progression, but whilst there was some correlation between the two factors, they were mostly independent and one could level up without progressing in their Alignment and maintaining stability between the elements.

"25 mana pools only," Nolotl muttered under his breath.

"How did he have more than 900?" The Empyrean of Time's absurd status sheet came back to his mind, even if he tried to ignore it.

"I don't think even tower masters have that much of any other type of resources, let alone mana. How has he managed it?" And that was without even factoring Enantyum's Alignment—which was actually the most credible value—or his Titles." Regicidal and Regressor …" The gnosiamancer pondered.

"I understand what Title Regicidal is, but what's Regressor?" Information mages had a certain curse where they ignored obvious red flags if there was an unknown ready to be uncovered by them. In this case, Nolotl cared more about the origin of the Regressor title rather than who Enantyum may have killed, even if that person was bound to be important from the prefix of the title.

"All status lists are ordered from most recent to less recent, so he obtained the Regicidal title before becoming an Empyrean… that doesn't help at all." Enantyum was 22 years old and had come to the academy many years ago, only becoming an Empyrean two years ago. And not for a lack of merit, but rather from an overwhelming quantity of students gunning for it. Some people weren't interested in the title purely due to the sheer responsibilities it implied, even if it gave respectable buffs and perks in the academy.

"Twenty years is a long time; he might have killed his twin on the womb just to say something… But he's a noble, and I don't think you get Regicidal from killing nobles, the cutoff is either someone with a high position or wielding royal blood…" He knew for a fact that Titles had some… freedom as they were based in the Cognition, so a self-important chieftain could have been classified as a king by the Alignment.

Alas, his ponderations were disrupted as the sigil he left on the bathtub broke, making him rush to the bathroom and close the faucet. Without hesitation, Nolotl removed his clothes and entered the tub even if the water was steaming.

"Mmm, warmth~" The prince purred like a cat. His bold theories completely vanished under the might of hot water, his tension washing away with his sweat. And then he got abruptly connected. What's wrong? Cillin said in his mind, her tone was far more lifeful than yesterday. Nothing, just taking a hot, sweaty bath. He responded as he placed his feet on the borders of the tub. Ugh. Nolotl felt the gnosiamancer's visage of revulsion as if he was in front of her, though it came more as playful jesting.

Was that information really needed? Isn't gathering information our whole schtick? His joke was met with deafening silence. Okay, okay. Don't ghost me. I just wanted to know if everything was fine with the temporary scribes. Cillin mentally sighed but continued speaking. Yeah, they are already working. Apparently, there were a lot of scribes down at Descent in standby as they expected work to pour to them in these coming days. The teleportation network is overworked now but we have the surplus of scribes we wanted.

Descent was the sprawling city at the base of Mount Celestial, and also the capital of Origin. Quite the bustling metropolis, which made sense for the most interconnected city in the world. Tezlan was a continent and two seas away—depending how one counted bodies of water—and yet Nolotl could make it down to Descent in a couple of hours from the top of the Empyrean Mount. Teleportation queue lines included. They must be paid well then. He wondered over the newly contracted scribes.

Better than us, that much I can say. She expressed with exhaustion. I am going to pass out one of these days. I can't keep this up much longer. Rest. Nolotl told her. Take a bath, stop working, and focus your mind on the upcoming celestial alignment. I can't stop working when there's this many people needing me. They don't need you; they need a scribe. That's a big difference, Cillin. For a sour woman, Cillin had too much of a savior complex.

She should learn from him, which he had none to speak of no matter how much they asked for him. You are going to taint the Cognition with your headaches at this point. Consider it… an ecological mission. An ecological mission? Her arching brow was transmitted over their link. Sure. Nolotl confirmed, shrugging in the tub. Gotta keep the Cognition clean, and you produce thrice as much stress as a normal gnosiamancer. I don't know if I should be offended by that statement. Meh.

The prince mentally shrugged this time around. Unlike me, you aren't exempted from needing to acquire most of your academic credit. I'm being honest here, take a rest. I'll cover any Empirical duties that may arise. I'll take you on that. And they are YOUR duties for a reason. Goodnight. It's seven in the morning, you k-"And she's cut the connection…" Nolotl slumped his head backward and sighed.

"Well, I won't see her today, that's for sure." With the conversation over, Nolotl grabbed the many shampoos the academy put at his disposal and then proceeded to drop them all in the water and dove into it to rinse his hair. Hygiene wasn't his forte. After drying, he clothed himself again in new robes. These ones, whilst still ceremonial, did cover his nipples. That had been a culture shock when he first arrived at Origin, everyone covered their chest, but not always.

If there was a man working out, they would maybe free their torsos from clothes, but women never did that. For some reason, many cultures—not just Originals—had decided that women showing their nipples was 'indecorous' but they were fine with men's. That part of their culture only became more idiotic when mothers weren't shy from breastfeeding their babies in public. And for his clearly superior common sense, he was tagged as a 'savage' for his first years at the academy.

"Oof, just thinking about it makes my blood boil," Nolotl smoldered as he tried to calm himself. To cool down and also make time for Xanax's lecture, he decided to exercise a bit. Another 'common sense' thing that he hated: most mages in the academy didn't exercise. The phrase "a healthy body is a healthy mind" never occurred to them. To—as the saying goes—worsen the ravine, gnosiamancers were the ones that exercised the least. Though he could excuse them as they were the ones with the least free time.

However it may be, Nolotl went to the archives in the tower, cast a simple clairvoyance spell, and found the book Xanax had talked about yesterday. The advantage of being an Information mage was that gnosiamancy and divination spells compounded, making it trivial sometimes to find knowledge. After passing by the archive's reception where a female gnosiamancer attended him, he went back to his bedchamber and started doing squats as he read. Compartmentalizing mind and body allowed one to be exceedingly productive.

Besides gnosiamancers, only biomancers with their control of the body or necromancers with their control of the soul could reach such separation. As expected, Star Reading and Data Processing focused more on the Light aspect of the stars instead of their Information or Void sides. Arcane and Chaos aspects didn't deserve mention as most ignored them, even if stars were the perfect representation of a constant battle of order and disorder as the fire core of the star collapsed into itself to prevent burning out.

The book by the Light Tower Master was intended for photomancers that needed external help to process the humongous amounts of data recovered from stargazing or astromancy, but precisely because of that, the book could be of use to gnosiamancers. Unlike the trio of students Nolotl found this morning, gnosiamancers could filter the white noise produced by celestial bodies. But that white noise was useful under the right circumstances.

This treaty detailed the formation of spellcircles and spell frameworks that could hold the secondary information and process the primary one. What interested the Empyrean wasn't the processing part of the many spells, but the holding part.

"Information storage, huh…" He bit the fingernail of his thumb as he continued doing squats.

"That has a lot of potential. The total celestial alignment will only last nine seconds, after that, it will be a more common celestial alignment for the following minutes, so being able to store copious amounts of information is a must. How much data of the cosmos will we be able to obtain in those nine scarce seconds?" The sheer thought was exciting to him.

"And how many will we lose if we throw away this chance?" Nine seconds of an inconceivable window for information and power. Someone surely had crunched the numbers of the boost factor of the Alignment. Nolotl estimated a hundredfold increase in Information Alignment in those nine seconds, but that was a gross estimate. He only factored those nine seconds and Information. Information, Void, Light, and Arcane would receive the greatest increase in power.

Information and Light from the stars, Void from the cosmos, and Arcane from the sheer precision for such an event to occur. Truly order incarnate. Time and Space would be also significantly boosted, but he personally expected the factor to be lower. Time represented the small window when the celestial bodies would be aligned, and Space magnified the vastness of the cosmos. Though perhaps Time's factor would increase the closer the celestial alignment was to the nine fated seconds.

Death, Life, and Chaos would still benefit from the event, but way less than the others as nothing from those Alignments could correlate to the total celestial alignment. Especially Chaos because a total alignment was basically the antithesis of disorder. Hmm, but at the same time, Chaos also values probability. The chances of such an event happening ever again are zero, so perhaps Chaos will also be significantly increased? Sweat flowed with knowledge in perfect harmony.

For Nolotl, there wasn't anything more satisfying than working his mind and body in tandem. Unfortunately for him, the soul fell far from his domain.

"Nine seconds," he pondered after switching to abdominals, the book on his lap.

"Any spellcircle inscribed in paper will instantly combust, wood may hold off for nine seconds, but that's stretching it. Any spellware must be made out of stone or metal." Both had their pros and cons. Stone could be chipped easily and was inexpensive but was less powerful, whilst metal needed many tools and was expensive even if it provided a more powerful effect.

"I guess I could use gold, I still have some trinkets lying around." Nolotl said between grunts.

"No one is going to get mad at me for destroying old artifacts if it's in the name of a total celestial alignment." Nor could they claim them, because any artifacts he had brought from Tezlan on his departure were under his name and Title. The only thing that stopped him was his own desire to preserve Tezlan and terian patrimony.

"It will be flimsy considering I'm working with wires and chains, but I could make specialized spellware in stars with gold." He stood from the ground with a jump, kicking the book in the air and grabbing it without looking.

"Though I'll need to consult Xanax first. This will be my first time making a ritual this complex unassisted." Perhaps he didn't have a personal coterie he formed part of, but he wasn't unacquainted with ritual magic. Before becoming an Empyrean he had had to form part of class groups, after all. The gnosiamancer peered into the Cognition and saw that the time for the seminar was closing in, so he fixed his wrinkled clothes and directed himself to the Central Tower to get the advice he needed.