Chương 39: Chapter 36: Void Tower

The script no longer mattered, so Nolotl was no longer forced to ask Xanax for the Second Mind spellware. He intended to visit the Information Tower's workshops to beat some sense into Enala, but for the time being, his focus was on finalizing the spell he had dedicated several weeks now to learn. It was both demoralizing and bewildering how the Simulacrum spell was still incredibly difficult to cast when he had a triple proficiency with it.

His triple proficiency was reducing its tier to a virtual second tier, but that virtual epithet was doing a lot of heavy lifting. Even with all of those helps, Simulacrum was still harder to cast than Dijkstra's Routing as it wasn't just the innate difficulty but also the breadth of the spell. His favorite guiding divination was a compacted module, basically a glorified powerful connection to the Cognition with the only function of helping him find things.

Simulacrum, on the other hand, wasn't as simple in its composition. It was hard saying what it could do because it was basically creating a whole copy of the caster, even if it was bound to be a weak one. But the fact that it could act as an anchor for the caster's presence and casting resources was way more valuable than any durability the illusion might have. In essence, Simulacrum was the only teleportation spell available to gnosiamancy. At least that currently existed or Nolotl was aware of.

However it might be, the Empyrean was sure that he had the spell just at his fingertips. Considering that he had nothing to do as the script had him waste time reading Star Reading and Data Processing and he was no longer following such guide, that meant he had more than enough time to dedicate to the success of the difficult divination, even if he should get going with Enantyum's assignment.

"Well, technically speaking, I guess this is a requirement for the assignment…" He told himself whilst continuing to draw the hylomorphism on the wooden board. He had yet to make a mistake, but the endeavor had cost him almost a full day, something he didn't want to replicate.

"Ugh… the hylomorphism is mandatory for the spell… I don't want to be drawing this at the start of each loop…" The terian sighed defeatedly and his head dropped lifelessly, but his pulse remained firm.

"I guess I will keep getting better at it with time, but I can already tell this will get boring real fast." With a final sigh, Nolotl closed the final circumference of all the spellcircles that formed the hylomorphism. By all accounts, it was the hardest and most complex spell he had drawn with its many stacked layers forming a nauseating integrated circuit.

"Even Second Mind was easier because it had also verbal and somatic components on top of the material ones, plus the virtue of being a ritual. Though I guess that isn't the best example considering I botched the spell," Nolotl sighed yet again as he put the mana-infusing pen down, half of his mana pool empty by that point. That wasn't much of a problem considering he could have taken his time creating the hylomorphism if he wasn't in the time loop. Ironically enough.

Thinking about his botched efforts, he peered into his minds to gaze at the interloper, but the Ehecatl didn't comment on it, simply remaining inside of its cradle-prison, coiling around and waiting for its time.

"Anyhow," the terian stood up from his chair after hours on end of being sat and stretched his numb body.

"It's time to activate this thing." It was trivial to shove mana inside the spellcircles because he had created the whole circuit from scratch and also understood it to the most fundamental level. A mandatory requirement of gnosiamancy. The Empyrean of Information started pouring mana into the hylomorphism as he also cast the spell in his own mind. The mental baggage wasn't that notable considering that the whole virtue of the spell was that the material component took it from him.

The same couldn't be said for the casting cost as the board drank five pools worth of mana, meaning that it would take a standard family of non-mages to cast the spell even with hylomorphism, and that was without taking into account his many discounts from Boons, Titles, and proficiencies. But he managed to bring forth the fifth-tier divination into the Physicality.

The first thing noticed wasn't how a full-sized illusion of his body materialized on top of the board, but rather, how he didn't feel the concentration requirement of the spell. As a matter of fact, he didn't feel any mental taxation from the spell.

As the Simulacrum's eyes shone and his own visage twisted in an ugly smile, Nolotl was perfectly aware of what had happened, and before anything else could occur, he cut his connection from the spell, dispelling it from existence along with all of the mana that it had cost. The divination vanished in a cyan mist with the same haste that it had been summoned with.

"Motherfucker!" The gnosiamancer cursed and slammed the desk powerfully, several items falling to the ground.

"I give you a hand and you just not take my fucking arm but my entire body?" You have resisted Rage. The local Cognition trembled as his rage permeated with primal violence, his Animal Spirits aching to be unleashed as he barred his teeth at the traitorous serpent that was coiling in his virtual mind.

"Answer me, Ehecatl!" Nolotl commanded with vehemence, not regal but primal. Treachery cannot be for someone that never took sides, his own voice whispered at him with a fake motherly tone, making the terian scowl for reasons twofold. And I must admit I don't enjoy the name of Ehecatl. Could we go back to the Yaldabaoth I proposed? You have resisted Rage. The audacity! Nolotl almost went mad with rage at that instant, but he instantly cooled off.

"Oh, you think yourself funny. That's why you even made such a comment. You need me destabilized, I can feel it. I see you prodding for any weakness and rift in your gaol. But unfortunately for you, I've had a whole decade to tame my rage, Ehecatl." The twiceborn spoke the last word with such venom that he truly looked like a serpent terian.

Without even needing to cast emotion-numbing cantrips, he had been able to control his rage and Animal Spirits, something he wanted to attribute to his increased tolerance for the status effect because he was absolutely livid.

"Nothing to add?" The interloper fell silent yet again, hiding in its cradle like the pathetic being that it was. Nolotl sighed and collapsed on his chair.

"But this means entering into the Void Tower will be difficult. I will be fighting many status effects the moment I step in whilst this disgusting being continues to lurk." He could have definitely kept that in his thoughts, but he wanted the Ehecatl to hear it aloud. His original intention of ignoring the creature's existence was certainly adequate, but it did deserve some cursing upon its existence too. Nolotl stood up a minute later, and with another sigh, he collapsed on his bed.

The realm of dreams quickly reclaimed him with all of his backlogged exhaustion, but it was still such a dreamless night without connecting to the Cognition that it only felt like an instant as he opened his eyes and it was already early in the morning. More sighing fits assaulted him as he went to the bathroom and quickly washed himself before donning one of his many repeated ceremonial attires. They were just the clothes he felt most comfortable with, and he would be needing a lot of comfort soon.

With a heavy and tired mind, Nolotl picked up the wooden board and made his way to the canteen. Bringing such a complex hylomorphism to such a messy place was a recipe for disaster, but his privileges as an Empyrean helped him yet again as he could simply go to the space reserved for them on the upper floor. Not that the canteen was remotely close to full at this early hour. Which it was why it surprised him to no end to find one of his fellows.

"You surely are an early riser," Nolotl said over to Nina as he left both his tray and the board on top of the table.

"I always wake up early," the Empyrean of Arcane giggled harmoniously as if laughing at some inside joke.

"In any case, I should be the one surprised. I don't tend to see people in my wake."

"Oh, I do tend to wake up at this hour. For better or worse, my years prior to my investiture left me with quite the atrophied sleeping schedule and I don't tend to sleep more than six hours at a time, or daily." The pink-haired Tamorean frowned at that.

"You should take more care of your body then, especially now considering you don't need to attend classes. I would say you should also take care of your mind, but I guess that warning doesn't hold much water to your kind."

"No, it does not," the black-haired Tezlan with blond streaks chuckled.

"It's quite funny how biomancers can go days without sleeping but they suffer from massive bouts of hallucinations and paranoia if they do so, but if a gnosiamancer does that they just collapse from exhaustion even if they are mentally fresh."

"Well, each Alignment has its positives," Nina smiled and Nolotl was remined why every woman in the academy was so enthralled with the taximancer. Of course, he felt no attraction whatsoever out of sheer principles, but he could appreciate the beauty of the long-haired royal from an aesthetic perspective. Her mane alone was something worthy of legends. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"And it's negatives," the other long-haired royal added. Perhaps he didn't interact much with her, but there was a kinship there.

"Can I ask you a question?" He added a moment later.

"Only if it's tactful," the amethyst-eyed celestial added with suspicion.

"I'm so sorry that you even have to clarify that," the cyan-eyed terian added with true lament, knowing where her apprehension came from.

"But I guess it could be called tactless in some way, just not in the way you imagine. I hope."

"Go for the jugular then," Nina gave him the greenlight as she put a cherry on her mouth.

"I was just wondering what you had in mind for the coming total celestial alignment," the Empyrean of Information felt a bit conscious that after three whole repetitions of the same month and a half he had yet to know even a single task of any of his fellows. And it's also intriguing that she's disposed to sacrifice all of her efforts just to hunt down Enantyum for missing a trivial meeting.

That was what really piqued his interest as the Regressor had reiterated several times that it was an actual repeating and problematic event of the time loop.

"Hmm, an honest question, but I would prefer to avoid answering it, if possible," the Empyrean of Arcane responded diplomatically.

"No problem," he added softly.

"It was just my curiosity speaking, I won't press for details." And for better or worse, I will have more chances to do so. That part of the time loop unsettled him, but Nolotl decided not to dwell on it for the time being.

"It's always a pleasure to see someone who respects boundaries," Nina replied with a soft smile before standing up, tray in hand.

"I will leave you finish your own breakfast then." Yet again, the taximancer had been wearing another attire unlike the gnosiamancer that always wore the same one. And as always, Nina's clothing was extravagant and delightful, a fact that Nolotl could only notice as she walked away, the long skirt of her one-piece dress slowly swaying with her movements. The diviner didn't linger much in those thoughts as he had his meal in solitude without any haste whatsoever.

He intended to enter the Void Tower today as Enantyum had explicitly ordered him to learn form the Empyrean of Void, and it did seem like a sensible choice. All of the Empyreans—barring Nolotl, and once upon a time he had thought the same of Enantyum—were one-of-a-kind geniuses. Some, like Paizon or Nina were at the level of archmagi, but overall they were strong and very competent in their disciplines.

Having the rest of the fellow Empyreans help him advance with his assimilation seemed a far better choice than try to get teachers from each tower to instruct him or self-studying. That had the small issue that empyreans like Beta Methasome rarely left their tower and the Void one… well, Nolotl had already experienced firsthand when he was trying to find information on the akyromancer assassin.

As he calmly went through his breakfast, he pondered with his gaze locked on the Simulacrum hylomorphism, knowing that something had to be done with it.

"Hmm, the issue was that I didn't get the concentration from it, the Ehecatl snatching the connection before I could use it so maybe the solution will just be a quicker draw." A solution that didn't satisfy him, but it would have to work for now.

"At least I can detect a fraudulent casting instantaneously." If it wasn't for that, he would be far more worried about the intruder's presence. With his breakfast finished, Nolotl picked up the tray and the board and made his way to the Void Tower. Between his conservative pace and his stair-bound route, by the time he had made it to one of the sky-bridges connecting the Central and Void Tower, it was no longer early in the morning, just morning.

Whilst activity started to pick up on the Central Tower when he left the canteen, the same couldn't be said for the sky-bridge he was at as it remained completely deserted. The tower of the akyromancers wasn't just the small and less populated one, but their kind tended to be reclusive. Without any shame, the diviner sat on the cold stones of the bridge and started working on his spell, pouring mana in the enchanted board with precise attention.

You're not getting a chance this time, Nolotl mentioned in the thin shared liminal space between his two minds. Having two of them now that still looked like one had led to the spontaneous creation of this curious space. The Ehecatl failed to comment on anything. The diviner was well-aware of the creature's presence, and whilst he refused to acknowledge its existence in the case it might empower it, he couldn't forget that if he gave it any leeway, it would take it.

Nolotl felt his triple proficiency guide him, but this time around it was easier to cast the divination. Not only did he have a lot of help, a finished hylomorphism, perfect knowledge of its inner workings, but he had also cast it once, as disastrous as that cast had gone. It only took him nine seconds to cast the fifth-tier divination. Of course, all that speed was only thanks to the backlogged computation and effort of the hylomorphism.

The only real problem was that he had used five whole mana pools—some people abbreviated the term to MP, but it sounded a bit too childish for Nolotl—in such a short span, which had some repercussion to both body and soul as he wasn't used to using that much mana that fast. But otherwise, it was only a slight annoyance, not any real pain. The gnosiamancer felt the concentration requirement of the spell weigh him down this time around.

The mental taxation of the shared senses and control of another being was far more than he had hoped but less than what he had expected. The Simulacrum remained sat like him, replicating his every mannerism.

"This is only like casting Dijkstra's Routing, Vacuous Filtration, and my emotion-numbing cantrips at the same time, which isn't that bad," his voice was duplicated as the Simulacrum at the same time as him.

"Neat, I guess. But going back to the subject at hand, if I were to release my true self, then the load wouldn't be significant. Hmm… If I activated the bindings now, would the Simulacrum replicate it, or would it remain as it is?" He eyed his silvery tattoos whilst pondering about it. An interesting question, but Nolotl put aside his curiosity for the time being as he didn't enjoy being seen in his avian form. He didn't have many good memories of it.

Or rather, all the good ones were tainted by cruel and bloody ones.

"Thought there's some test I want to try," the gnosiamancer cast a quick taximancy conjuration cantrip—so standard that every mage learned it during their first year even without proficiencies—that sent a bolt of mana at the Simulacrum. He was careful to not make the projection repeat the action as he didn't want to attack himself, and he was disappointed to see the results.

"Really? The book didn't lie when it said it was frail. What fifth-tier spell falls apart from a simple cantrip?" That fact annoyed Nolotl as the Simulacrum suddenly lost a lot of utility, but he had already expected that it wouldn't be durable.

"Oh well, I guess it is a divination. As much as this information is visible, it remains information. This is no different from building a sword with paper. You might get a cut out of it and certainly draw blood, but it will fall apart quickly." Nolotl sighed and started casting the divination again. It wasn't much an issue of time thanks to the enchanted wooden board, but now he found himself once again at three fifths of his total reservoir capacity.

"You're really expensive for something that barely exists in the Spirituality," he told his newly-summoned Simulacrum who didn't imitate him this time around.

"Well, time to try this." The real Nolotl remained sat on the ground as he saw the Simulacrum stand up, both from his eyes and that of the visible divination.

"Weird," the diviner said from the Simulacrum's mouth alone as he opened and closed his hand repeatedly.

"There's all the usual feedback from the body—at least the usual senses—but I'm hyperconscious of it because it's being funneled into my Cognition." It was a strange feeling, but not unpleasant. If Nolotl had to compare it with something, it was like an enchanting mandatory course he took in his earliest years in the academy where he was able to hear his own voice after it had been recorded. The feeling was quite like that, only that a bit exacerbated and coming from several fronts.

Uncanny, but that was the whole extent of it. The Simulacrum was a perfect copy of himself, but due to the limitations of being a divination, it was a cyan and translucent recreation of his body. Sort of how his actual representation in the Cognition looked like but not quite there, closer to the real self than the mental approximation.

"Well, now for the actual test," Nolotl's projection stood in front of the doors that lead to the Void Tower. Not all towers had doors in the sky-bridges that connected them, but this one basically mandated it. The same did happen with the Life Tower as it was far more humid that the rest of the academy. Nolotl tried opening the door with his hand out of sheer habit, but his illusory arm almost disintegrated with the gesture.

"Huh, the assimilation is so good that I forgot I was a Simulacrum," he mused aloud as his arm reformed by itself like threads of mist amassing together. This was yet another limitation of the spell, but this one was somewhat workable. With a basic act of telekinesis, Nolotl affected the doorknob and opened the door. The problem with such acts was that he wasn't used to them and neither did he have proficiency with them, which meant that they consumed a lot of mana for trivial effects.

Half the mana pool of a non-mage disappeared in an instant. Nolotl, both his real body and the projection, took a deep breath and stepped into the Void Tower, his mind instantly assaulted by many fronts. You have resisted Madness. You have resisted Despair. You have resisted Insignificance. You have resisted Revulsion. You have resisted Confusion. You have resisted Apathy. You have resisted Resignation. Even though his Cognition was getting attacked, the terian let out a sigh of relief.

There were two significant changes in the rapid-fire wall of notifications. Firstly, the notifications of resisting Suppression had vanished. That status effect was considered a physical one, so it made sense it couldn't affect the disembodied Simulacrum. Secondly, he hadn't received a notification that his sanity was taking a toll. And lastly but certainly not least, he hadn't failed to resist Apathy this time around.

It wasn't a status effect that affected him that much in comparison to others as he was specifically strong against that even whilst having succumbed to it, but it was a nice step forward. This change of pace wasn't just brought through his Blessing, but also his level up. Perhaps an increase in levels wasn't that significant in these low levels, but he felt his computation increase somewhat.

Leveling up didn't just grant Boons or affect those who had levels as part of their scaling, but also a thing people liked to call 'attributes'. Just like spell tiers, attributes weren't an official thing from the Alignment, but the change could be quantified. Somewhat. Levels in Information increased an attribute that people usually classified as 'intelligence', but Nolotl himself was of the school of thought that just was the increase of his computational capabilities as he didn't feel any smarter by leveling up.

What mattered from this what that he was less susceptible to mental effects, which meant that he might be able to walk into the Void Tower with his real body. Void Alignment increased by 0. 0001%. Void assimilation progressed by 1%. Those updates finally made him look forward, dismiss all the notifications of the Real-Time Status spell, and process what he was seeing.

Having resisted all of the status effects and stepping into the tower meant that he no longer saw pure darkness, but instead what it actually awaited inside of the Void Tower. The Empyrean of Information had thought that the Central or Space Towers were the most enchanted ones due to their plethora of space-warping enchantments, but his preconceptions were shattered as stars poured into his eyes in a tangible grasp of the void and space, nebulae floating around in clouds of stardust as his incorporeal self floated.

He didn't know how they had made it, but akyromancers had encapsuled the cosmos into a tower.