Chương 13: Madness of Repetition

There was something very wrong with the way Enantyum was looking at him. Nolotl felt more like a prey than a companion like the chronomancer's words were hinting at. But most of all, he felt sorry for his fellow Empyrean's state of mind. As a gnosiamancer he couldn't allow himself to see a mind this hurt. Apparently, Enantyum had never had an equal. At least not for a long time, and he painfully ached for one.

The knowledge—or perhaps only the possibility—of a second looper had harshly modified the chronomancer's view on the diviner, even if he couldn't tell what those changes were as Lesser Read Thoughts truly lived to the 'lesser' epithet.

"I fear that I am not on the same level as you," Nolotl admitted, if just to push responsibilities away.

"How come?" The chronomancer's ecstatic grin vanished and he recovered his composed self. A normal person shouldn't be able to change their expressions so swiftly, the gnosiamancer thought. Yet another portrayal of… lack of sanity. He didn't want to even think that the time looper was insane—just for the sheer connotations that would arise—but because being mentally scarred didn't mean one was insane. That type of generalization was insulting and degrading.

"My Alignment and accumulated experience seem to have transported over the loop, but I cannot say the same about my mana pool. It has gone back to the same as it was on the second of Space," the terian prince explained.

"Hmm, that was to be expected," the Empyrean of Time mused confidently.

"I am not pushing your Cognition back in time, just the information bound to it. And even if I were pushing your Cognition through the tether, your mana deposits are still linked to your soul rather than your mind. There was simply no scenario where you would have conserved your mana increases."

"Oh, well," Nolotl shrugged.

"I am more than grateful for being alive, let alone being able to level up."

"And it is not like mana is much of a problem for you."

"Exactly," the gnosiamancer nodded. Gnosiamancy was perhaps the cheapest school of magic in terms of resource consumption alongside with necromancy, though ataxiamancy had its moments with wild magic shenanigans. As most Information spells acted on the Cognition rather than the Physicality and therefore had no physical manifestation, that made them significantly cheaper than other spells. The same could be said for Spirituality-based necromancies.

Nolotl rarely used his whole deposit, especially because he had more mana reserves than normal for a man of his age. Even when the ambush had ended—which had started with his mana already around the half-point from the previous ritual—he still had around 20% remaining. Though, truth be told, he had used computation more than once as a resource rather than mana in that battle. More out of the need for enhanced potency on his spells rather than resource scarcity.

Hmm, even if I sacrificed quite a bit in the ambush, my Cognition is perfectly healthy now. I should be able to exploit this after some limit testing. Having one's mind renewed at the end of a month sounded like the greatest of blessings and Blessings for a gnosiamancer.

"It seems to me that you are not understanding the magnitude of your standing," Enantyum assessed him from his armchair. When has he sat down? Nolotl questioned with a lifted brow. Did he put one of those Beacons in his chair? Wait… that's how he infiltrated himself in the conference during the gathering of empyreans.

Nina had already theorized that the chronomancer couldn't have stopped time as there were restrictions for their kind whilst moving in a reality where time didn't exist, but Beacon didn't seem to be affected by those restrictions as it worked in a completely different manner.

"I do comprehend the significance of this time loop," the prince refuted, letting his thoughts aside for a moment.

"There is much knowledge to be gained once the fear of death vanishes."

"It is not only recklessness that the loop allows." Instead of drinking from his cup of wine, the chronomancer took a brass flask out of his robes and took a hearty gulp. It was a gaudy trinket overflowing with gemstones of all kinds.

"No matter what you do, people will not remember what you did or told them. It is in the lack of consequences that the true usefulness of the time loop appears." Nolotl frowned. There was a darkness in those words.

"Regardless of what you are going to tell me," the gnosiamancer interjected, "I want to state that consequences are what keep a mind grounded and civilized." Enantyum chuckled.

"Fret not, I have not gone down the deep end, as easy as it would have been. No, my acts have been roguish rather than dastardly. Tricking an archmagi to tell me their trade secrets for a binding contract that will inevitably disappear when time goes back."

"Wait," Nolotl raised his hand.

"Do geass stop working after looping?"

"Only two-way ones," the chronomancer corrected.

"After all, if the other party forgets making such a deal and its magical imprint is also erased, that type of geas cannot hold itself from one party alone. Of course, if you impose one on yourself like taximancers do, then those will loop back with you."

"Interesting…" It truly was.

"I now have a greater appreciation of the advantages of a time loop. Recklessness, inconsequentiality, and limitless time is quite an enticing prospect." The terian prince had been fearing for his life through the whole exchange until now, his mind was still trapped on the ambush as he had died barely an hour ago, but now the gravitas of the situation finally settled on his mind. This was but the most golden of opportunities.

"I still have one question remaining, though." Nolotl voiced out.

"I do understand why you would want to keep the loop going as long as possible, and judging from my scarce knowledge, you have at least looped already somewhere around the four digits, but what is the goal you are working toward? Surely there must be a reason for this torture?" His estimate came from the time he had checked Enantyum's status at the start of the month, or rather today in a few hours. Pulsars, time travel makes things very confusing.

Then and there he had written the chronomancer's age with a 1 at the beginning instead of a 2 even if Nolotl knew Enantyum was in his early twenties. Now he knew that it was because the man was at least 100 years old mentally. One month and a third-ish per loop, meaning seven loops for a complete year. At the very least, Enantyum had been looping for 78 years, meaning that he had looped 546 times, which was the safest of estimates.

It wasn't farfetched to assume that value was already in the early four digits as the age of 100 could expand from that value up to 199, which was a 100% increase in time. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"You are right, I do have a reason for looping this much." Nolotl waited for the man to elaborate, but even after a few seconds of pregnant silence, he maintained his lips sealed.

"I understand," the gnosiamancer half-nodded half-bowed. Pressing the matter wasn't an intelligent decision. Whatever reason Enantyum Dei had for looping the same month of his life for a century—if not more—was one Nolotl couldn't press out of him. Either he got the answer naturally out of him, or he would die. People, especially as powerful as the time looper, didn't like their secrets to be pried and the diviner understood that.

"Just to make sure we are on the same page," Nolotl said after raising his head.

"I have two loops to myself?"

"Sure," the laidback chronomancer took another shot from his brass flask.

"Now that I know that you can keep progressing your status, I am tempted to give you even more time. I cannot deny I am interested what a second time looper is able to accomplish, especially one who is not limited to sustaining the loop itself." Nolotl hadn't thought about it, but this man was singlehandedly keeping a chokehold on time itself. The burden on his shoulders couldn't be light at all. How strained has his progress been?

The gnosiamancer was dying to ask that question, but he had to be careful about overstepping any boundaries.

"But let us leave that for latter," Enantyum continued and disappeared. Nolotl didn't have even time to blink when he noticed the dark-skinned man was at his side and with a hand on his shoulder.

"Use these nearly three months of freedom wisely. You are the cheapest interlooper I have had and seemingly the most useful but heed my words." The whole room suddenly chilled. The centennial chronomancer hadn't used any spell, such was the innate pressure of his age and Cognition laid upon him. Enantyum Dei was holding the weight of time on his shoulders, so having such a hand resting on his own shoulder, Nolotl felt like passing out at any moment from the pressure.

And that feeling only got worse with the following words.

"If you ever take the Mind Control Boon when leveling up, you will desire I only removed you from the loop." It was not a threat, but a statement. You have resisted Fear.

"I-I understand." For the first time in ages, Nolotl Xocoyotzin, Empyrean of Information, Prince of Tezlan, and High Priest of Nochochenca, stuttered out of fear. He needed no divination-assisted notification to tell him that much. He was very far away from getting the Mind Control Boon as it was a level 11 Boon, but he had already picked its earliest predecessor of Lesser Read Thoughts, so it was not impossible for him to get his hands on the Boon regardless of if he was going to do so or not.

And the Empyrean of Time was well aware of that fact.

"Good," Enantyum dedicated him a warm smile whilst softly patting him on the shoulder and the next frame of reality, the man was sitting on his armchair again. Whether he was stopping time or using the Beacon spell, there was no delay whatsoever between his movements. One instant he was in one place, and the next in another.

"Now test your newfound abilities or find a way to stop your death," the chronomancer lazily dismissed him as he, out of nowhere, now had a book in hand.

"Oh, and before I forget. You can die. As I have already marked you with the Title, unless you get sent to Oblivion by an akyromancer, I will be able to bring you back to life for the next loop."

"T-that is comforting to hear," the diviner nodded haphazardly. Akyromancy was the oddest of all magics, the only one that could not only destroy things, but completely erase them from existence. It apparently made no difference being in a time loop or not, but somehow Nolotl felt more intimidated by Void magic now than ever before.

"Well, you are free to go now," Enantyum waved him away. Nolotl stopped to collect his thoughts as they had been scattered everywhere in just a blink, but after a deep breath, he gathered enough willpower to give his back to the chronomancer.

"One last piece of advice though," the Empyrean of Time said as his fellow placed a hand on the doorknob.

"Attend the gathering we have before the total celestial alignment. If you do not do so, Nina gets really pissed off and she will recruit Mio to hunt you to the end of the world just to give you an earful, making the rest of the loop completely unusable. Perhaps it's only a handful of days, but they are the most important."

"I will… take it into account." With that, Nolotl removed himself from the quarters of the Time Tower Master. The gnosiamancer maintained a constant gait across the Time Tower until he reached the Central Tower and then collapsed.

"Pulsars…" He cursed weakly, gasping for air and struggling to keep his insides inside.

"I certainly didn't expect any of these when I searched for him… I can't deny the usefulness of the time loop, but my heart is beating faster than my thoughts, my hands are shaking and… Pulsars," the unstable prince cursed again.

"I've never felt like this. Even when I was ambushed, even when I knew I was going to die I was able to maintain my cool, but Enantyum… I could feel in my very flesh how much time in the loop has affected him. Xanax was right, the total celestial alignment has birthed not just legends, but myths. And I'm now in the middle of it." With shaky legs, Nolotl walked back to his room. He felt like puking.

Stress was something that he wasn't used to, mostly because he never allowed himself to reach the point that his mind and body played against him. And Celestials, stress was but the most awful of sensations. He woke up to the sound of a knock at his door. He didn't even remember going to sleep. It truly had only been a blink in his senses. One blink he had been walking to his quarters, and the next one he found himself jolted awake on his bed.

"What…?" He murmured groggily.

"Nolotl, are you awake?" A female voice asked between knocks. An awful sensation of familiarity assaulted Nolotl. Not because he recognized Cillin's voice, but because he recognized the exact same tone, cadence, and timing of the words. Perfect Recollection appeared to not like looping back in time. It was as if the same memory was superposing itself, even if it was one month later for him, chronologically speaking.

Slowly, calmly, and silently, he walked to the door and opened it in a single swoop, making the woman drop forward from the surprise.

"Now I am," Nolotl responded calmly. He almost puked as he realized that Perfect Recollection had made him act exactly like he had done during the morning of the Second of Space. Wait, this can be useful. I can turn the deterministic nature of people — unless if I'm dealing with ataxiamancers if Enantyum is to be trusted — into deterministic equations that always bring the same results with the same input parameters. The young woman looked upward as her face rested on the man's uncovered chest.

She blushed from the awkward posture and separated herself from him, not before stealthily—or so she thought—rubbing her cheeks on the gnosiamancer's defined pectorals. Yet the exact same motions she had done on the first loop. Well, not first definitely. Though for me it would be better to call it the zeroth loop.

"What's the problem now, Cillin?" Nolotl, with the aid of Perfect Recollection, repeated ad verbatim like he had done so originally.

"Ehem," she cleared her throat and her blush.

"We are lacking personnel in the Alignment office."

"We are always lacking personnel in the status office, this isn't anything new," he sighed and scratched his scalp.

"How problematic can it be?"

"We are talking about a whole new degree of drought here," the fellow gnosiamancer explained.

"A lot of the scribes normally working there are making their preparations for the upcoming celestial alignment, and a lot more people are coming to the academy because of it."

"Why do you not, as an idea, formulate a petition to the headmaster to recruit temporary personnel for the festivities?" Nolotl suggested.

"Why does the Information Empyrean not, as an idea, do that himself?" Cillin replied mockingly. The prince tried adding small stops and differences to his timing whilst speaking, but Enantyum's statement about people being deterministic held true even if he had originally refused to believe it. Cillin was reacting exactly like she had previously done.

He let the conversation continue as it previously had until their departure as he remembered that Cillin—even if unwillingly—had been a factor on the ambush that had caused his death.

"Is that all?" He inquired.

"Yes…" Cillin responded tiredly.

"Now if you excuse me, I'm going to bring this to the headmaster and catch up on some sleep. I haven't slept since…" Her eyes became dulled for an instant as she connected to the Cognition.

"Ereyesterday?" Nolotl frowned, "You've been awake for more than two days?"

"Someone's got to work here," she added defensively.

"Please do me the favor of going down immediately. I don't want anyone knocking at my door today and ruining my sleep."

"Wait," he stopped her from going away, diverging his actions from the original timeline. Nothing mandated him to recreate his fate of death, there was no reason to walk down the same path, and even if he did, he could step in different places.

"What?" Cillin added with a pout and a frown at the same time. She really wanted to go to sleep, and he didn't blame her. Still, he needed to check something. Recalling the astromancer's envy from a handful of hours ago or fifty days into the future had led to his death, Nolotl formulated his question.

"Just by any chance, do you like me?"