Chương 62: Chapter 59: Refresher of…

With the creation of Serpent's Muzzle, Nolotl had quite the empty schedule. Yes, he still needed to cast Intellect Fortress and he intended to brute-force the process by the virtual increase of Alignment that the total celestial alignment would endow him with—a trick that had always been available to him and he had used with the rituals but still had to overuse in common spells—but he wanted a back-up. Which now brought him to Xanax's office.

It was the last week of the loop, yet the Tower Master's secretary, Luminol, looked at him as usual. There was no murderous intent in his eyes whatsoever, though the usual disgust remained. So either he's the best actor ever, or Yaxkin didn't contact him this loop. A fact that would align with what I've seen in the enhanced ambushes as Luminol was never present on them. Nolotl still couldn't figure the logic behind the empowered ambushes, he only knew that the trigger was Enala's survival.

Perhaps the why was a mystery, but he had a feeling of how they occurred now that he was aware of Yaxkin's true nature as an akyromancer. The Cahtuli warrior was both the leader and the getaway driver. Even though it was many weeks after the usual time he would meet the secretary, Luminol's conversation and dry reactions remained the same. The loveless words exchanged between the two remained atemporal, after all.

A moment later, Nolotl was already at Xanax's office, the old gnosiamancer sitting on his armchair with a glass of wine next to him.

"Drinking so close to the total celestial alignment?" The diviner inquired as he sat next to him.

"Precisely because it's getting close," Xanax harrumphed.

"And what about you? You're rather proactive for someone who's been missing and not attending any kind of class or lecture in more than a month." The change in speech didn't surprise Nolotl in the slightest. Luminol didn't care about him so of course there were no changes there, but Xanax did care a bit about him and his words rang true. But most importantly…

"Proactive? I guess I am…" The young gnosiamancer added weakly. Thanks to the loop I've been conversing with Xanax more than I used to, so even if he doesn't remember, I'm not as intimidated by the figure of the Tower Master as much as I was before.

"But still not enough," the Archmagi chuckled.

"So, what have you been doing?"

"I was at the Void Tower learning some hard abjurations and I intended to successfully cast them with the boost of the total celestial alignment, but I fear I progressed faster than I expected and I would like to have a safety net… No, that isn't quite right. I just want to make the best usage possible of this event."

"I vehemently understand that reasoning," Xanax grabbed his glass and took a gentle swig.

"But you should still have gone for the ritual route. It's the one spell category that will benefit from this astral event the most."

"And that's why I'm here," Nolotl affirmed.

"A week before said event?" Xanax squinted at him with exhaustion. Not physical but rather 'damned this youth' type of exhaustion.

"My main focus was the abjuration," the terian reiterated.

"As I've stated, I don't think I will be needing anything else to make a great use of the coming alignment, but I would appreciate a simple Alignment-boosting ritual that I can learn fast."

"As a safety net?" The old mage reused his words and the young one nodded. Xanax sighed.

"I guess I can. Still not the best usage of the total celestial alignment, but at least you will be doing more stuff than most." Like before, Xanax summoned his True Simulacrum to fetch him a book. This time around, it was significantly thinner than the one containing the Confluence of the Four Dimensions. He opened it to read the spell's abstract.

Name: Confluence of the One Self Schools: Any Alignment, Enchantment or Arithmomancy Requirement: Xenoglossia, Cheironomy, Hylomorphism, Concentration, Ritual *Effect: Upon completing the ritual, align yourself to your atomic and lone self, increasing your affinity towards the used Alignment forever and irrevocably. This ritual can only be cast once in a lifetime as the caster will remain forever calibrated itself. This might interrupt any future rituals that try to rewrite the existing self.

Performing this ritual on the 1st day of the 1st month at 1 in the morning in a year ending in 1 will double this ritual's potency. *"Peculiar spell," Nolotl commented after reading it. You were so eager to shove me the sixth-tier version last loop but now you can only trust me with the first-tier one?

"Arithmomancies always are," Xanax snorted and volatilized his conjuration.

"Yes, but I personally meant that 'interruption' part of the abstract. Doesn't this technically double as an abjuration? I mean, protecting the self sounds really strong for it to be an afterthought…" And not to mention that the fourth-tier version didn't have such warning.

"It's more of a curse than anything. Yes, someone might not be able to knock you unconscious and bind you to a ritual circle to transmutate your body into a chimera or something like that, but it also means that you will also not be able to do it."

"Not that I was thinking about doing that…" Nolotl added with some hesitation.

"It was just an example," Xanax disregarded his worries.

"But yes, most of the time it comes as a nice additive than a hindrance. And as the 'might' that the spell states, at worst it will only remain a hindrance not a dead end for future rituals." The diviner nodded at the explanation. Perhaps he didn't intend to cast any rituals that might rewrite his self— Though I don't deny it's a possibility if I want to deal with the Ehecatl —but he still liked that the enchantment wasn't absolute in that sense. Better to keep as many paths open as possible.

And it's not like I believe I will be using this Confluence of the One Self just now. I will be very occupied with my other duties during the total celestial alignment and I prefer to reserve this spell series for emergencies. The Confluence series always brought an Alignment increase equivalent to its tier—diminishing returns of high Alignment notwithstanding—so it was the perfect spell for emergencies in case his Information Alignment went close or even below 75%.

Xanax didn't know it, but the Confluence was truly Nolotl's safety net.

"I think I'm going to kill myself if I have to learn another spell this loop," Nolotl smashed his head against the workbench, which prompted a gaze from Beta, but the akyromancer failed to ask any questions. This loop had felt shorter than most, but his work had been excessive. Not only had he learned Mage Armor and he was in the process of learning Intellect Fortress and Confluence of the One Self, but he also had crafted his first spell of Serpent's Muzzle.

Every single one of these spells was great, but it left Nolotl with a bloated mind and grimoire.

"I'm thankful for not being a taximancer…" He weakly muttered under his breath with the side of his head pressed against the enchantment ritual's spellbook. It was great having a myriad of spells under his belt, but the diviner was nearly reaching his breaking point by learning so many of them this fast. His repertoire now had 14 real spells—i. e. anything that wasn't a cantrip—and even if a significant portion were rituals that he wouldn't be able to cast again, it was still quite the decent repertoire.

At least for his age. If he weren't an Empyrean, he would be still be taking mostly theoretical classes were he would only be building foundations and not casting spells. In that sense, Nolotl easily admitted that his foundation wasn't the strongest, but at the same time, traditional classes were really slow by virtue of needing to teach tens of students at the same time and he was still ahead of the curve. Not exceedingly above it, however.

He might now know several spells and complex ones at that, but he didn't even doubt that Cillin was still a better gnosiamancer than him. But the Tamorean girl was too orthodox and she barely knew spells, so it didn't look like it. Yet another reason why she had lost the battle for the Empyrean investiture. The prince also had unfair advantages in his Titles, Blessings, and his abnormally high Information Alignment, and still, Nolotl was sure Amoxi Cillin was a better gnosiamancer than him.

He was the better diviner, though. Which was even more ironic considering their Alignments, but that didn't matter. Nolotl had had prior instruction of divination before he could start casting magic, so that communal school felt like second nature to him.

"I don't care for your inner conversations," Beta said coldly, her steps echoing through the workshop, "but we have a duty to fulfill today." Nolotl blinked several times until Perfect Recollection reminded him what day today was.

"Right, the gathering," he stood up with a groan and followed the akyromancer. Even though he had spent more time with Beta than in the first Void loop, she acted more distantly as they made their way to the gathering of empyreans. He still didn't have clear what had happened that day weeks back, but it affected Beta enough to overwrite all his efforts.

As much as he personally lamented himself over that, the absolute truth was that none of it would matter in the grand scheme of things because Beta would simply forget the events of the last eight weeks. Such was the undeniable and inevitable truth of Enantyum's loop. The events of the gathering transpired mostly like the first Void loop with Mio teasing them, but changes were inevitable due to the sole presence of Paizon. And yet… he wasn't the culprit of the changes today. Tap, tap, tap.

Nina tapped on the wooden table with a rhythmic yet potent imperiousness, her eyes locked on the empty seat corresponding to the Empyrean of Time. An oppressive feeling of fright weighed down on Nolotl as he realized what was happening. It's one of those events that he has told me about… It wasn't singular the times that Enantyum had told him that Nina and Mio might completely disregard the total celestial alignment if only to lecture him for skipping the gathering.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Now, the reason why Nolotl was fearful of this event was simple. If he failed, he would disappoint the time loop's master. It was impossible to forget that he was here at this coiling time by Enantyum's will alone and that he could be expelled at any moment. And if Nina and Mio started chasing him, the fault would befall onto Nolotl. He was 100% sure of that.

Because he was still far from being an irreplaceable resource, the diviner feared that the Regressor would kill him in the same whim that had brought him to the loop. And unlike the deaths of the ambush, that one would last forever more. Nolotl cleared his throat before speaking, the gazes of the empyreans moving to look at him.

"I've decided to wait a bit in case he appeared, but Enantyum mentioned me that he might be absent for this gathering." Whilst most of the empyreans didn't react at that comment and just took it at face value, the same couldn't be said for Beta and Nina. The Empyrean of Void looked at him with suspicion, a gaze that was clearly accusing 'when have you seen him as of late?'; and the Empyrean of Arcane simply scowled.

"If that's the case," Nina started, "why wasn't I notified?"

"Well, technically speaking, it's the Empyrean of Information that officiates the gathering… so perhaps Enantyum thought it was adequate to only inform me."

"Still, this is very irresponsible," the taximancer was far from satisfied. I need to be more convincing and resolute…

"Well, he has been away for a while already. Apparently he went back to his homeland for some kind of petition, though he didn't elaborate much." Nolotl added doubts, unknowns, and half-truths in his explanation to make it as real as possible. It was great that these things were impossible to check as Enantyum seemed to have mindbogglingly potent antidivinations, so it would be hard to tell were he was.

"I don't think that he has used the teleportation network, though," Mio added innocently. Instead of panicking, the diviner simply shrugged and portrayed nonchalance.

"Don't shoot the messenger." In these kinds of situations, maintaining the calm and living through your lie was the best part. If they thought that Enantyum was completely unreachable then he didn't believe that the two empyreans would go on their manhunt. But he still had a coup de grace.

"In case he didn't return," Nolotl continued, "Enantyum has handed me all his material pertaining to the gathering." The chronomancer didn't speak much at the gatherings, but he still had some clerical duties that befell onto all empyreans. Part of the reason why the lazy students of the academy didn't want the role, no matter how many benefits it gave.

"If that's the case, I suppose that we can continue this gathering without him…" Nina finally added, deflated and far from satisfied with this outcome, but knowing that the Empyrean of Time had handled and off-loaded his duties beforehand seemed to calm her down. And that's a bomb perfectly defused on the first try! After his self-proclaimed failure with the enhanced ambush, that was a victory that Nolotl had been needing. Soon the time for the total celestial alignment came.

Nolotl didn't have the intention to perform the Confluence of the One Self but he had still studied and was confident that he could cast it if he pleased. Between the enchantment being one he had a proficiency and high affinity with, rituals always benefited a lot from the confluence of the stars. It wouldn't be hard for him to cast it successfully first try with its gnosiamancy version, no matter if it wasn't quite a virtual cantrip.

Beta led him again to the special observation room that shared the view with one of the libration points of Lon. Even as the prophesized time drew near, Nolotl detected no traces of foul play or the ambush, just like the first Void loop.

"I've been meaning to ask, but what will you be doing for the alignment if you aren't going to aim for the ritual?" Nolotl asked a calm Beta that had yet to physically ready anything for the event. His personal preparations for this specific alignment were limited to freeing his true self by activating his tattoos.

"Something," she stated plainly.

"I'm not sure it will work either, but it merited an attempt. Unfortunately, divination proved more complex than I expected."

"Divination?" The word piqued Nolotl's interest.

"What are you doing with divinations?"

"The same as you," the terian tilted his head in confusion as the celestial failed to elaborate.

"Creating a spell," she added a moment later.

"You've been creating a spell all these weeks?" He interrogated in surprise.

"I haven't seen you take any notes."

"I'm more than capable of creating spells without writing down anything," Beta responded dryly, which only hurt the diviner even more. He was the gnosiamancer and he had the Perfect Recollection Boon, so if anything, he should be the one that shouldn't require of annotations. Yet it was the abjurer that didn't portray issues with their absence. That hurt his ego a lot. You feel the guidance of the stars.

"The partial alignment will start soon, so start casting," she added without looking at him, not aware that the total eclipse had started from their strange position in space thanks to the enchantments of the observation room.

"I will be doing the same." Nolotl could only shrugged at her stoicism. Perhaps she was discontent with the current state of affairs, but Beta still offered her pragmatic guidance. With the start of the partial alignment, the observation room was covered in darkness. But not one as oppressive as the total eclipse that he usually experience at Mount Empyrean as the rest of the cosmos illuminated them, no matter if the sun was now occluded. His first choice of spell was Mage Armor as he had yet to fully dominate it.

The spell was ludicrously expensive for a first-tier spell as Nolotl lacked any proficiencies or affinities with it, and unlike his first attempts that he was only summoning digits of a gauntlet, now the armor was growing by considerable steps with each subsequent cast. Two mana pools weren't that much of a cost considering that unlike divinations abjurations had a physical component, but that meant Nolotl could only cast it twelve times before running out of mana.

Due to such limitation, the diviner made his casts count. He carefully assessed the state of the armor and his progress before recalling the spell and trying it again. The boost of the partial celestial alignment wasn't as powerful as the total one, but still enough to push him through the barrier of his lack of understanding and affinities. The seventh try was the charm. Void assimilation progressed by 2%. Arcane assimilation progressed by 5%.

"Nice," Nolotl said aloud in reference to both the notifications and the successful cast of the abjuration. And yet again, I fail to comprehend how Lesser Alignment Assimilation works. Why has Arcane progressed so much and Void lacked behind? The gnosiamancer didn't have the answer to those questions, but it was nice seeing that Void had reached 30% assimilation and Arcane was somehow at 5% even though he had yet do anything with that element.

But more interestingly for the eyes, now a complete set of Mage Armor protected his body. The full manifestation couldn't be described as plate armor nor a traditional mage tunic, but something in the middle. What was more interesting was the composition of the vestment, as it couldn't be classified under any existent tailoring or blacksmithing process, nor the materials of the armor identified.

It was an abstraction of what a defensive garment should be, the approximation of an artist with lots of creative liberties and few understanding of logistics. But at the same time, it was an ethereal piece of armor. It didn't need to be manufactured nor it restricted the user's movement so it didn't matter that the armor boasted massive pauldrons and a long metallic yet textile skirt with hanging chains. The only thing that mattered was that it protected his whole body from harm.

As excentric as the attire was, Nolotl couldn't deny that he liked its charm. It made him feel far more durable; this was what abjuration meant.

"One success," Beta dryly affirmed as she inspected his new armor.

"Now with the actual important spell." The real abjurer might say that, but Nolotl was far more confident on Intellect Fortress than he had been with Mage Armor. When comparing the proficiencies and affinities of both spells, both ended on a virtual second-tier spell. Though the limits of these second-tier spells were different as one came from the negative extreme and the other from the positive one.

There was certainly a better analogy to describe the specific case of the spell's difficulty than mathematical limits, but Nolotl Xocoyotzin's mind worked in mysterious ways. However it might be, the diviner nodded and started working on the aura-type spell. The advantage of Intellect Fortress was that it lacked a tangible physical compontent and that it was meant as a more sustained type of spell, which meant that the initial mana cost wasn't that bad.

Unfortunately, it was still similar to Mage Armor's by virtue of being a spell two tiers above the other even with all those other advantages. Having five more attempt didn't matter much when he planned to succeed first try with this gnosiamancy abjuration. Nolotl kept everything in mind when casting the spell, Perfect Recollection working as the perfect guidance as it showed him the spellcircles that he needed to cast the abjuration.

There was a definitive mental component that accompanied all gnosiamancies, but also a small physical construct that was the source of that aura that gave the abjuration its meaning. Just like Real-Time Status, the abjuration formed connections with both the Cognition and the Alignment, asking access to his Resistance to Cognitive Harm to work adequately. Nolotl couldn't help but smile at those access inquiries.

For others, it would have been a weird feeling interacting with the Alignment so closely, but due to his background as a scribe at the status offices and his recent Lesser Alignment Assimilation Boon, it was only a formality for him. And with the addition of the empowered Starguided Blessing… Everything simply clicked in place. Void assimilation progressed by 5%. Level progressed by 8%.

Nolotl didn't need to open his eyes to know he had succeeded, he was exceedingly aware that now his Resistance to Cognitive Harm had now become an area of effect instead of a personal augmentation, his psychic resistance a physicalized mantle that aided others. His surroundings became a bit more nitid with a slight cyan coloration, but the effect was minimal and easily dismissed as a trick of light. The actual change was the sigil that had appeared atop his head, slightly levitating above his Crow Crown.

Truly cyan in color unlike the Mage Armor, the Intellect Fortress' sigil was akin to a heraldry with its shield shape surrounded by two castle towers and an attentive eye inscribe on the shield.

"Rotund success. I'm enjoying a newfound clarity thanks to your exemplification," Beta announced with any of the actual emotion and delight that should accompany those words.

"Now's my turn."

"Your turn?" Nolotl squinted in doubt. He turned his face to see that only a handful of seconds remained for the total alignment.

"Have you readied something?" The akyromancer nodded.

"But I need your consent to continue."

"My consent…" It was the gnosiamancer's turn to speak dryly.

"Yes," her affirmation was as taciturn as all her other words.

"Excuse me for doubting, but giving consent for a spell to an akyromancer—the one type of mage that can disrupt my return spell—is something I would rather not do."

"We don't have much time, simply give it to me." It didn't matter to Beta that from her perspective he was the time loop master. She simply pressed forward.

"As I've told you, I'm not comfortable wi—" You have resisted Suppression. His words came to an end with that notification, his body feeling impossibly stiff as a sense of hollowness assaulted him. He had resisted the effect, but the fact that he hadn't felt Beta cast any spell already told him as much as he needed to know.

"I can eradicate you at this very instant and your abjurations will do nothing to protect you. Neither the spell you use to go back in time," the Empyrean of Void stated. Not a threat, a statement.

"Give your consent at this moment." Nolotl gritted his teeth. She was speaking the unadulterated truth. If she decided to erase him, he simply would be gone. And, if anything, this type of erasure would be more through that Enantyum's expulsion of the loop. This was the issue with Void as a whole, and the whole reason why the Regressor had assigned the Interlooper this as his whole task. Because he might die before the time loop master even needed to intervene.

Enantyum had been right about not sharing information about the loop. Even Beta, who he had now spent many months with, had betrayed him at the first opportunity.

"I consent," he responded taciturnly but not emotionlessly. His voice was scorn incarnate. The end of his sentence marked the beginning of the true total celestial alignment and now only four seconds remained until the loop was over. Not much time to cause lots of destruction. Your Sanity is taking a toll. The notification rang the same instant as a needle of pain prickled on his mind. His real mind and not his physical and weak brain.

There wasn't a Madness notification, but he felt the traces of Void now lingering on his mind, something now present on the liminality of his bifid mind. A painful feeling. Surprisingly, the Serpent's Muzzle divination helped with the pain, but not with the horror of having something in his mind. No, not something, but rather… nothing. Beta had infiltrated inexistence in his mind. Something out of nothing.

"What's this?" Nolotl wanted to inquire in horror, but there was only curiosity in his tone as his inquisitive side won out.

"Notify about this to my previous self," Beta first informed him hurriedly.

"As for what is… You could say it's a refresher of—" Nolotl never heard the following word; the alignment had reached its zenith. With the vision of perfect order illuminating the skies, Nolotl's time in this coil came to an end, his eyes pleading for a piece of information he would never get now.