Chương 70: Chapter 67: Optical Spells

Having free time was both unexpected and suboptimal. Nolotl was no longer ahead of the schedule, or rather, ahead of his plan. Assimilating Void was proving to be a task far more complex and time consuming than he had expected and now he deeply understood why almost no gnosiamancers took Lesser Alignment Assimilation even when that Boon was one of the pillars of the identity of gnosiamancy. His first effort was to create yet again the hylomorphism for the Simulacrum spell in case he needed it.

An endeavor that proved brutal because he no longer had that spell slotted in his divination slot.

"Should I..." the terian mussed softly while working on the hylomorphism at a slower pace than usual.

"No, I should refrain myself. The instant completion of the Information slot might not repeat, and I have enough experience with Simulacrum to finish the material component without that extra help. If anything, this is only additional practice and it will teach me to create future hylomorphisms with more ease." Nolotl thought to convince himself of his own words. But there was one inevitable fact that he couldn't escape: the cost.

Proficiencies lowered the cost of spells and at three proficiencies and high affinity the Simulacrum was already costing him four mana pools. With only a dual proficiency, that would only get worse.

"The more time passes, the more I hate this Boon," Nolotl sighed after finishing the enchanted wooden board.

"Losing proficiencies is a dreadful notion." A few loops back when he was using Simulacrum instead of needing to keep Intellect Fortress up at all times, Nolotl could finish the hylomorphism in half a day, yet now it took him a full day to do so. The lack of preternatural comprehension and intrinsic knowledge hurt. Proficiencies truly gave one a clarity that couldn't be substituted and made everything else foggy in retrospect. That was why Information as a concept was so important.

True understanding of things was impossible to achieve, even with the gift of a genius. But proficiencies helped bridged the gap a lot. Not that Nolotl considered himself a genius, nor did he consider himself smart for that matter, but when the worst came to be, he always tended to be savvy enough to come up with answers, even if they weren't the utmost correct solution.

But just like how Information leveled with every tidbit of accrued knowledge, everything he learned during these loops was accumulating towards something. For example, the creation of Serpent's Muzzle and Akyrodata Storage Release —even if he didn't make the latter one and only aided in its making—helped him understand more the subject of spellcrafting. Alas, he was still weeks, if not loops, away from getting a spell that could print the Simulacrum hylomorphism into surfaces.

Not wanting to overexert himself as burnout was a very real danger inside the coiling time, Nolotl opted for another type of exertion.

"Here I come, Lord Nolotl!" Azithromycin chanted with a mighty battle cry before she lunged at him. The underground arena of the Life Tower always proved to be both great entertainment and training. He might be a mage, but it was stupid to forgo martial training when he himself had experienced and demonstrated that a spear could be more effective than most spells. Thanks to the foresight of the time loop, what mattered wasn't preparation, but execution.

And being a sharpened blade was one of the greatest executions at his disposal. He fought the ocelotl terian with the dryadic spear of the Life Tower, which allowed him to switch his combat style from a defensive one to one far more aggressive thanks to the the weightlessness of the wooden spear. At least compared to his lead tepoztopilli. Nolotl wanted a 'balanced' clash this time, so he was the only one using his terian form as Azithromycin fought without using her Release Animal Self Boon.

There was virtue in fighting opponents way stronger than him, but he would progress to far greater heights if he could assimilate his progression by fighting rivals of the same level. It was surprising that he could be equal in strength to an untransformed biomancer, either way. Well, a biomancer that wasn't using augmentations beyond the cantrip level. The Starguided Warrior was vicious as always with her attacks but with the balanced spar he was able to fully block attacks instead of evading or deflecting them.

And whilst their strength might be matched, Azithromycin still remained faster even with Nolotl using the lighter spear. They made bleed each other without any regards for the pain. If it didn't kill, it was fair game. Their brutal sparing typical of Tezlan brought a gathering and, unsurprisingly, the Empyrean of Life had appeared. But the greatest surprise was the presence of the Empyrean of Void. Beta merged with the background and went unnoticed by everyone. Everyone but Nolotl Xocoyotzin.

His attention was mostly dedicated to the spar, but the diviner managed to spot her because he kept Vacuous Filtration active as it was mostly free with the loss of the concentration requirement and the dual proficiency. Nolotl had no reason not to use it, though the inverse could be told for using it for no reason.

Azi attacked him with viciousness and even he could afford himself to parry and block attacks now that she wasn't transformed, the biomancer was so strong that every blocked attack was straining his body. Nolotl was built for defensive battles, but the dryadic spear didn't allow him to be as defensive as when he used his tepoztopilli. Every attack slowly accumulated, no matter if he was also landing critical hits on the ocelotl warrior. It was only a matter of time before he succumbed to exhaustion and wounds.

"Could you take better care of your body?" the massive dryad said with a pout and crossed arms after the last bout ended. Clonazepam understood violence, but she didn't like seeing it. At least for the sake of casual sparing.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" the twiceborn smugly asked after brimming with glee from his recent win. His reward was a punch to the gut.

"Ugh..." Nolotl curled and grabbed his stomach as he struggled to process what happened. He hadn't seen anything happening, but that was enough of a clue for there weren't many people fast enough to avoid his gaze and enhanced reflexes.

"I..." he gasped in pain, "I thought you were better than attacking wounded people," he looked up at the biomancer.

"You didn't sound all that wounded," Clonazepam said with the kind of indifference that someone used when they weren't that indifferent. Something that had become far clearer to Nolotl after spending time with Beta who did portray actual indifference.

"And some of my sisters have told me that violence is justified in the didactic field." The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Uhh... Maybe you shouldn't listen to the sisters who say that," Nolotl added. His fellow Empyrean behaved so maturely and motherly that the times that she acted like the four-year-old that she was hit hard. Literally in this case.

"Yeah, Nolotl's right here. Say no to violence, amirite?" Everyone in the arena turned their heads in confusion to see a certain white-haired man present.

"Paizon, why are you here?" The Empyrean of Information inquired after standing face to face with his least favorite Empyrean.

"I mean, how couldn't I when half of the empyreans are present?" the ataxiamancer chuckled, casually strolling on the arena with his socks and sandals. Some people dared to call Nolotl a barbarian due to his attire, but Paizon's was outright criminal.

"Excuse me, half of the empyreans?" Clonazepam led a hand to her cheek in confusion.

"Lord Paizon, I fear the numbers don't match for me."

"Really, so what about her?" Paizon nonchalantly pointed at Beta, and that got a visceral reaction out of the gnosiamancer and the akyromancer. He can detect her? Nolotl couldn't believe what he was seeing, and from the looks of it, nor could the woman in question.

"How did you spot me?" Beta asked with her usual impassive tone, approaching the group in the arena even if her long robe dragged through the sand.

"I dunno," the Original with the open and short-sleeved shirt shrugged.

"It just fit the vibe."

"The vibe," she reiterated with a bemused look.

"The vibe," the Empyrean of Chaos nodded and grinned. Beta pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. That was the most emotion Nolotl had seen out of her at the start of a loop.

"I would ask why am I even bothering, but I'm not, and that is worse." Nolotl nodded at her words, whilst Clonazepam simply smile neutrally refusing to take sides.

"Uhm..." Who spoke—or rather, mouthed—was Azithromycin. The ocelotl terian seemed awestruck.

"I'm not sure I should be present anymore, Lord Nolotl."

"Don't let yourself be intimidated by the empyreans, Azi," he uttered with his regal tone.

"They somehow act more childishly than me when they are a handful of years older." The dryad cleared her throat.

"With the sole exception of Clonazepam."

"I see..." Still, his words didn't seem to be enough and Azithromycin was still intimidated.

"Either way, I wouldn't like to intrude," the biomancer bowed and swiftly removed herself. Nolotl looked at Paizon with exhaustion, his gaze screaming 'you did this'. But he had to admit he liked seeing the many facets of his guardian. Especially because she didn't show them in front of him.

"Just like that woman, I wouldn't like to dally," Beta added harshly, though he was willing to be that she didn't think she was being harsh.

"Clonazepam, could you heal Nolotl? I have business with him."

"Of course, Lady Methasome," the young dryad was more polite with the akyromancer, but there was also a certain degree of separation as she referred to Beta by her surname rather than name. The Empyrean of Life approached the diviner and healed him from his surface-level cuts, plus also alleviating his exhaustion and pain. He felt more the pain of the punch than all of the wounds combined, but he thanked the healing nonetheless. Wait, I didn't give Clonazepam my consent to get healed, did I? Ohhh, that's scary.

Healing spells used one of the components Nolotl didn't usually see in his own spells: rite. A rite was a condition that had to be fulfilled to be used, and that was normally consent. Rites were mostly seen in curses, but one had to be rather... inept to agree to a curse. The fact that Clonazepam could bypass consent meant one of two things: either she was powerful enough to overpower him, or she had spells so advanced that ignored consent. Both alternatives were scary either way.

The vegetal biomancer worked quickly, and in less than one minute Nolotl was good as new. The Empyrean of Information flexed his arms and shoulders to check that everything was in place and working correctly.

"You're leaving already?" Paizon asked with some disappointment.

"Nothing impedes the empyreans from meeting outside of the gathering, ya' know?"

"I'm quite aware," Beta responded dryly, her hands clasped together and hidden inside her long sleeves.

"But I'm pressed for time. Follow me, Nolotl." Knowing how much effort it took Beta to get out of the Void Tower, he nodded and followed her. Not before bidding his farewells.

"Thanks, Clonazepam."

"You're welcome," Clonazepam smiled at him as if she hadn't punched in the stomach less than five minutes ago.

"What about me?" Paizon questioned. Nolotl's answer was to roll his eyes.

"Hey!" the ataxiamancer begged for attention, but the gnosiamancer gave him none.

"So, are you going to talk or what?" Nolotl finally asked after the two of them had made the whole peregrination through the Life Tower to the Central and finally the Void one till they reached Beta's quarters in complete silence. The abjurer cast again the same spell that protected her room against divinations, a wave of nihility traversing the place with a quick ripple. Gone as soon as it had appeared.

"I believe you," she stated softly.

"You already said as much a couple of days ago."

"Yes, but now I mean it. I have assimilated the knowledge and I'm pressed to help you. Both to continue developing the akyrodata storage and to complete my ritual."

"I don't like the implications that you were only faking your trust before, but I'm glad I have you abord again," the diviner nodded in satisfaction.

"So, were you really pressed for time or do you just wanted to get rid of Paizon?"

"I'm pressed on time in the sense that I want to experiment with the akyrodata storage as soon as possible as it's still bound to you even if I already possess its knowledge," Beta elaborated.

"But yes, the Empyrean of Chaos' presence is exhausting and I was urging to get rid of him." It annoyed Nolotl that Paizon had managed to get more emotions out of Beta in a single minute that he did in weeks. He had months to get to know the abjurer better and he still failed at connecting with her. Perhaps it would be an exaggeration that he was searching for friendship, but Beta was a peer in lots of senses—fellow empyreans, researchers, and loopers—and Nolotl wanted to know her better because of it.

The same could be said for the rest of empyreans. With the sole exception of Paizon, of course.

"So you want me to help you with the development of the akyrodata storage?" Nolotl offered.

"No," she instantly shut him down.

"From my new memories and annotations, you have proven to be rather useless in that fact. You're a competent teacher, but you cannot develop spells for your life, even more so tied to Void." Ah, the gnosiamancer groaned internally.

"You could have worded that a bit more softly."

"No," the akyromancer reiterated, showing to him that there wasn't any rapture between the two and that the memories she had inherited weren't truly part of her.

"What I do know is what you must do for the following weeks."

"What? If you don't want to help you, what remains? Learning Counterspell?"

"You're not quite ready for it so it would be a waste of time," she failed to sugarcoat her words yet again. And it didn't look like she would be doing so any time soon.

"My previous self was onto something and divinations are the way forward. Our current objectives are twofold: making upgrades to the akyrodata storage and completing your assimilation. The final objective being the success of my ritual."

"I'm not against learning divinations, but could they be useful ones? Not that the ones you've made me learn weren't useless, but they were..."

"Too situational?" Beta guessed.

"Yes, let's leave it at that." Ode to Silence was a marvelous spell and the new Vacuous Filtration would make it easier to deal with Yaxkin, but they weren't always useful. Little of his spells fell under that category, and he didn't like that. He might not be a taximancer so bloating his repertoire didn't harm him, but he was tire of learning spell only to not use them, just like the recent Invisible Gesticulation.

"Fret not then," she started, walking around the workshop, summoning the bookshelf for the illusory books and wordlessly telling him to summon them.

"I have a handful of divinations that you will appreciate. Well, I don't have them in me per se, but I know of their existence." That was what spells summarized to. There was bound to be a spell for everything possible case and scenario, but if one simply didn't know of its existence they would never be able to cast it, no matter how simple it might be.

The only spell that Nolotl had learned without being guided towards it by another person was the first iteration of Vacuous Filtration, and that spell had taken days to find it in the early days of the loop because he didn't even know what he was looking for.

"What do you have in mind then?" He could only trust her judgement. Maybe the spells weren't ubiquitous in their usage, but they had it and worked perfectly when it was the case.

"From what I've seen, you've worked quite well with verbal spells, but that only means that you got that part of your body covered," Beta tapped her open palm in thought as translucent books started floating towards the empty bookshelf.

"So what do you think of optical spells?"