Chương 35: Chapter 32: Interlooper Interloper

Doom. Impending doom. That was everything Nolotl felt as stars failed to pour into his eyes, let alone his mind. A massive pain assaulting him alongside a dreadful feeling of fatalism, cosmic coldness embracing his body with a melancholic apathy. Old knowledge. New knowledge. Future knowledge. None of that mattered.

The divination that he woke up to every start of the loop completely failed and instead was substituted by a phantom pain that transcended time, metaphysical flesh splitting and mending in ways that couldn't be mitigated with simple cantrips.

"Ahhhh!" The terian rolled and squirmed on the ground as he felt his head being split.

"Get out of my heeeeead!" You have resisted Madness. Nolotl Xocoyotzin battled against his own mind, not just because it was getting split due to the Second Mind enchantment—his ritual unfortunately having found only partial success—but because on the interloper that had infiltrated from the cosmos onto his mind. You have resisted Madness. A motherly laughter caressed his mind, its nature completely inhuman. It was the imitation of what a mother's soothing voice should be instead of the voice an actual mother.

A simulacrum of person, not a real entity. Foulness incarnate. You have resisted Madness.

"Get out, get out, get out!" The diviner slammed his head against the cold and hard stone of the observatory's floor to the point of threatening a concussion. He used all his strength—both physical and cognitive—fighting an unclassifiable entity that laughed and rejoiced at his suffering. You have resisted Madness. That won't be possible, young Quetzalcoatl. The otherworldly voice whispered in amusement. It spoke with Nolotl's own voice, but the cadence and tone could only be classified as motherly.

That couldn't be stressed enough. There simply was only one epithet possible to describe it. Motherly. You were just in the right place at the right time and… we're rather compatible, don't you think? You have resisted Madness. The soft giggles were tempting, sweet as honey, yet another sign that the entity failed to understand what a mother truly meant. Perhaps the tone was right, but no mother should speak like that to their child. At least no woman that deserved being called that. You have resisted Madness.

"GET OUT!" The Empyrean of Information shouted with enough potency to threaten the integrity of his vocal cords as he unleashed the pressure on his Life enchantment, freeing his Animal Spirits in the hopes that they gave him enough power to overcome the interplanar entity. The sudden change in his body hurt him to no end, making him bleed from his eyes and arms as he didn't took the necessary precautions to free his avian counterparts. But they boosted his capabilities to fight.

Plenty of birds, yet not enough serpents, the entity chuckled with a honeyed and seductive voice, mocking him. Taunting him. There will be no victory for you.

"Oh, but there will be!" The twiceborn shouted with all his might, his arms having been substituted by colorful wings and his hair having lost a lot of darkness as feathers appeared on his forehead.

"You decided to mess with the mind of someone who's not bound by time!" Hmm, that certainly is problematic. The entity shifted in the Cognition, a shapeless blob of information, almost toxic in nature as if it were misinformation incarnate. I might be timeless, but our bond is not. Don't mind if I… False Serpent's Touch Blessing acquired. Nolotl's stomach dropped upon seeing the notification.

Blessings acted upon the soul, but this wasn't just a curse that would have been revoked by the coiling of the time loop, but something that had wormed its way inside of his own status, becoming irrevocably linked to him. But most importantly, just like Titles, a single entity couldn't gift them at will. Not any typical one, at least.

"What have you done?" The prince screamed in horror, not being able to believe his eyes. Ah~ The interloper moaned in pleasure, getting off at the gnosiamancer's disbelief. A touch of infinity, you could say. I need a vessel, after all.

"A… vessel?" Nolotl almost puked upon hearing those words, but more than anything else, they alerted him. The cosmic interloper's infiltration had distracted him from the growth of his newly-acquired mind. It had a been and continued to be a painful process, but the problem wasn't the intensity of the growth, but rather, another growth altogether. Like a cancerous tumor, an infection grew in his second mind.

It was of an absolute darkness, a black hole that devoured any information that it found on its paths, filling the diviner with true revulsion. You have resisted Madness. You have resisted Melancholy. You have resisted Doubt. You have resisted Revulsion. You have resisted Disorientation. You have resisted Fear. You have resisted Indecision. You have resisted Confusion. You have resisted Dread. You have resisted Apathy. You have resisted Despair.

And onslaught of notifications assaulted him as the most powerful emotions drowned the twiceborn. There was too much happening. His brain was splitting, a cosmic entity was assaulting him, and his emotions were coming out of control. His mind was completely naked and exposed to the Cognition in the most shameful of displays. It didn't matter that his strong psyche was resisting all of these attacks, the fact that he was fazed by them was enough of an answer. You have been Overwhelmed.

Nolotl couldn't understand what was happening, his mind was brought to his absolute limits as he felt emotions and status effects that didn't even know that existed. He felt like the insignificant spec of stardust that he truly was. A zero to the left, nothing at all. And yet… Your Sanity prevails. He still held on to the reigns of his mind. It was a monumental task, one of cosmological proportions as the heavenly dome cheered him on, his Starguided Blessing telling him at much.

It wasn't perfect, but it was able to clash against this new 'Blessing'. For the first time in his life, his Resistance to Cognitive Harm was brought to its absolute limits, barely holding on. If there was one of the status effect resistance notifications that held the truth amongst all of them, it was that he had resisted his own doubts. As he saw the cancerous growth grow in his new mind, Nolotl cut ties with it, isolating it as if it were a terrarium.

With a monumental amount of mental effort, Nolotl encapsulated the creature into his new mind, not allowing it to spread. The pitch black spot in the Cognition then lunged at him—his real mind—but found no success as it collided and was stopped dead in its tracks by the limits of the new virtual mind. Its cradle had become its prison. The growth hissed at him like a serpent, headbutting against the walls of the Second Mind, but it was unable to pierce it. An embryo couldn't pierce the uterus of its mother.

Open yourself~ The cognitive interloper whispered sweetly. Let us embrace~ You have resisted Curiosity. Nolotl chuckled both at the notification of his Real-Time Status divination and at the creature's words. If there was a status effect that was powerful against gnosiamancers, it was definitely curiosity.

"Do you think I'm a cat?" The avian snarled at the entity that had hijacked his new mind.

"I'm not going to heed your hideous words, no amount of temptation will kill me, abomination!" You hurt my feelings, the entity whispered. Always a whisper. Even though it had just said that, Nolotl could tell it had no feelings whatsoever. It was an entity that craved imitation, like a newborn following the steps of its parents. But all the previous analogies were wrong, the Empyrean could tell that much. Whatever this creature was, it utmost definitely wasn't a newborn. But something way more… ancient.

Nolotl ignored its words, instead crawling to the nearest wall and pressing his back against it. It was impossibly cold, but it also relaxed him. He heaved repeatedly and profusely, the shouting and the pain had left him utterly exhausted even when the loop had only started. It took him a couple of minutes of heavy breathing to relax. You are no longer Overwhelmed. Your tolerance to Madness has permanently increased.

"What are you, abomination?" The diviner inquired softly, mostly out of acceptance. As much as he hated it, he was well aware of the fact that the entity had nested in his mind. This whole situation was horrible, not only did he have an indescribable entity was whispering in his mind, but he had also practically lost his enchantment slot and all of his efforts to the creature. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

The only saving grace of the situation—if it even could be called that—was that his Cognition had grown more resilient, its tolerance to madness increased. You deserve nothing, foolish bird. If Nolotl didn't know better, he would say the entity sounded sour from not being able to having crawl inside his brain.

"Whatever you say," the Empyrean groaned, trying to think what to do with all of this. I certainly have to extirpate this growth, but the priority is not letting Enantyum hear of this. Nolotl didn't know much about Enantyum, not the original one nor the current Regressor self, but he had enough presence of mind that if the master of the time loop discovered that the second interlooper was carrying a third one, that would be an instant expulsion from the loop. Certain death.

"How weird that I'm only like one hundred and fifty days old in that sense yet death terrifies me so much…" He had only looped thrice so far, but he didn't want to be removed from existence. The diviner accepted that he was no longer like the original Nolotl that had awakened from this same divination ritual little less than half a year ago.

"This situation is bad, and Enantyum will definitely want that I go to visit him considering this was the last 'freebie' loop, but…" The terian had tried to stand up, but his bloodied wings lost all their strength as he tried to push himself up.

"Ah… well, I have to inspect a handful of things in my status, so let's do that whilst I rest." The interlooper interloper was remaining quiet for the time being, but Nolotl could 'see' it worm in the Second Mind, making itself comfortable. The situation was far from solved, but he had managed to patch it in a rather decent manner, though at the great cost of losing the enchantment he had worked all of these months for. A sour notion, but it beat being dead. Truly dead.

"I have three things to check up: my level up, the weird Blessing, and the slot that has opened up from assimilation of Information." The gnosiamancer was still completely amazed that by succeeding….

"Well, I guess I haven't quite succeeded," he let out a grim snickered as he peered into the Cognition to look at his corrupted bifid brain. Even with that, he was still amazed that by performing a complex ritual he had been able to not only assimilate the remainder of his Information Lesser Alignment Assimilation Boon slot but also practically complete a whole level in one go.

Not having anything better to do but slowly bleed out until he ironically had enough strength to stand up, Nolotl went through his new Boon choices. Read Thoughts: The natural progression of those gnosiamancers that have taken the Lesser Read Thoughts Boon. This Boon makes it easier to read thoughts and infiltrate foreign minds undetected, granting additional lesser bonuses to do so. Insight: Both of these attributes increase by 20%, in addition to any preexisting ones by precursor Boons.

Insight: This Boon requires the Lesser Read Thoughts Boon to be unlocked. Alignment Obfuscation: Since time immemorial, people have sought out secrecy. You shouldn't be forced to display the information that details your very being. This Boon allows the user to hide their status from divinations. Lesser Reservoir Increase: To do the impossible one needs resources, the greater available to them, the higher the chances to change the world.

This Boon gives the user a considerable boost to their maximum main resource reservoir. Insight: The boost of the resource is 30%. Heightened Computation: Gnosiamancers are known for their ability to use computational power instead of mana to perform their magic and now you are taking your first step to completely forgoing mana in the first place. This Boon increases the computation resource, reduces the cost of casting with computation, and reduces the difficulty of casting with computation by a lesser amount.

Insight: The boost for all three attributes is 10%. Insight: This Boon requires the Cognition Connection Boon to be unlocked. These first four Boons that composed half of his choices were the ones that he had been offered the previous level and he would continue seeing them on every level for the rest of time. The issue with generic Boons—even if they technically were Alignment-specific—was that they would continue taking up slots.

"I mean, that's not for some like Lesser Reservoir Increase and Heightened Computation as I can make use of them if I feel like spells have gotten too expensive for my frozen mana pool…" The diviner was sent deep down into his thoughts as he focused on the empty spell slot from his Lesser Alignment Assimilation Boon.

"Oh, yeah. If I inevitably can have a proficiency with every communal school of casting then thanks to Cognition Connection then Heightened Computation is way better than just increasing my mana pool. Though Lesser Reservoir Increase does not mention that it needs to be mana, only my main resource pool… Something can be done here, but first I should look at the other Boons." Lesser Imagery: Information comes in many types of feedback and the visual one is as important as the rest.

This Boon makes the user able to see sporadic images of the present. Insight: The number of images is equal to (1 + Unitary Information Alignment) ^ Information Progression Level images per minute. Insight: This Boon requires the Cognition Connection Boon to be unlocked. Predictive Behavior: Being observational and taking clues from their surroundings is one of the most basic skills a gnosiamancer should aim towards.

This Boon allows the user to become able to predict the behavior of beings around them with uncanny ease. Insight: This Boon requires the Cognition Connection Boon to be unlocked. Thought Projection: Visualization is an important skill, not just to revise the work done, but also to communicate with others with more ease. This Boon makes it easier for the user to transmit the information they perceive, both to other minds and the Physicality.

Insight: Divinations meant to share information additionally become 10% cheaper and easier to cast. Insight: This Boon requires the Cognition Connection Boon to be unlocked. Simulated Environment: One of the greatest skills a gnosiamancer can aim to is being aware of their environment, but also to plan ahead of it. This Boon grants the user the ability to simulate the current environment they find themselves at inside their mind alongside creating any kind of environments should they please.

Insight: This Boon requires the Cognition Connection Boon to be unlocked.

"That was a lot," Nolotl sighed as he processed all the new information inside of his mind. It didn't help that his mind was throbbing, that he had a parasite in an additional mind, and that the divination ritual he always woke up to at the start of the loop had been botched.

"And it seems I won't be getting many more generic Boons considering a lot of them are getting the Information starter Boon as a requirement." The diviner had expected as much. If anything, what bothered him was all the useless Insights he was getting on the Boon choices. He almost felt like the requirement Insight was taking up a slot for more valuable data.

"Okay, let's go one by one, and fast. I will end up freezing to death if I don't make it inside of the tower soon." Some frost was starting to gather in his skin from the below zero temperatures of the Observatorium, not even his terian constitution helping in his afflicted state. And, of course, he hadn't forgotten about the presence in his new mind, even if he was trying to avoid thinking about it for the moment. Until he had enough strength to stand up, those worries were just useless to him." Lesser Imagery is…

weird. It doesn't even specify if I can target what type of images I can or want to see, which will be very bad if I don't." Nolotl tried to think what use there was to this Boon when it was obviously inferior to some divination cantrips—let alone spells—but he believed that was mostly in part that the Boon was part of a series and its strength came from there. But he really didn't want to spend Boons on a series when he technically had two of them active already.

"But I won't deny that kind of exponential growth is alluring," he pondered.

"In my current state that would be around 29 images per minutes, or almost 1 every 2 seconds. But at the next level, that would nearly double. Especially if I get my Information Alignment close to 100%. Yet the question remains… so what? What if I can see hundreds of images per second in the future.

Maybe I can get a lot of information out them considering that with the time loop the 'present' limitation is almost saying 'any time at all, even future' but it stills matters not if I cannot select what images I want to see. Lesser Imagery gets a… tentative but no." Having forgotten already what all the previous options were, Nolotl reread them, with the next one being Predictive Behavior.

"This one is… good? It's really hard to say when I have no Insights whatsoever on it. If it does even a fraction of what is entailing, then it could be worth it, but for the time being it's a hard pass. Predictive Behavior is too much of an unknown and I haven't heard of many people taking it." Of course, Nolotl wasn't coming blind to this. He practically had an idea of every Boon up to level 7. Which he was basically in its doorstep, but that hadn't been the case only a hundred days ago.

But not every Boon would be available as taking one opened the slot for a new one or a new series." Thought Projection is a classic," the Empyrean of Information commented.

"Transmitting information actually has more uses than the Boon implies as my mind assaults on the ambushers and the minor illusions do fall into such category, so even if I don't know how great that ease of transmission is, it's still alluring. And that's without the added bonus from the Insight. Considering half my Boons, Titles, and Blessings make divinations easier or cheaper, this can be a key component for me to use Simulacrum."

He wasn't going to get distracted by a single spell, no matter how cool it might be, as he also understood that boosting a whole school of casting to such degrees was bound to get increasingly good rewards as some increases were multiplicatively instead of additively." Simulated Environment on the other hand… I guess it could be good, but my Starguided Blessing already does this and way better.

Perhaps I have the star limitation, but if I'm outdoors I basically get a real-time update on my environment, not just a simulation. The real deal," Nolotl exhaled, his breath becoming a thick white mist by now.

"No, not even the extra bonus of simulating any environment makes it good. This is a hard pass." Nolotl did his best to stand up as it hurt him to no end with the lesions on his arms and all the pain that the interloper's assault had caused him, but he managed to make it on his two feet. He felt a bit wobbly from the pain, the nausea, and the hemorrhaging, but he had recovered enough to not fall whilst standing still.

"The only good ones are the ones that increase my resources and Thought Projection," he let out a soft groan whilst he limped his way into the tower, dyeing the wall red with each step as he supported himself on it.

"And considering Enantyum is forcing me to get a double proficiency with the divination school… yeah, Thought Projection is the way forward." Thought Projection Boon obtained. It was a minimal change, but he instantly felt his ongoing Real-Time Status spell get a bit cheaper with its maintenance. Though it was a negligible change as the divination had already been practically free with its low upkeep, only slowing a bit his mana regeneration.

"Now…" He grunted again, his mind set on the Life Tower as he made his way through the empty levels of the Central Tower.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you." Nolotl addressed his little interlooper interloper borrowing in his Second Mind. Its presence was incredibly worrying, but it did remove a massive weight from his shoulder knowing that the entity was safely contained inside the virtual brain. Both its cradle and its prison. The cosmic entity failed to address him once again, lurking in the cesspool that was its new home. Predator and prey superposed.

"Let's see what this Blessing you've given me is all about," Nolotl opened his status again, and he couldn't make head or tails of what he was seeing. False Serpent's Touch: Across the Cognition and the cosmos, the False Creator's touch is known and now it's been bequeathed. Gnosia is your prefix, but the meaning is different. Any status conditions targeting your mind will find any purchase somewhat difficult. Insight: Inishgt has flaied.

"What…" Nolotl stared in horror into the Cognition, not because of the description of the Blessing, but because of the Insight. It was misspelled. That shouldn't happen. That couldn't happen. Whatever this being was, it affected not just the Cognition, but Alignment as a whole.

"W-what are you?" The diviner spoke inside of the Cognition his body only a mental representation of his corporeal self as he peered into the writhing orb that had become his newly-born mind. He felt the serpent displacing inside of its jail, a calamitous and disgusting being that had no place in the Physicality as it squelched and thrummed in impossible manners, colliding against itself in ways that defied dimensionality. Eyes manifested on the hideous orb, revealing a pair of serpentine oculars.

For the briefest of moments they were gnosiamancer cyan, only to quickly change into an orange that resembled ataxiamancers. The duality of the eyes almost meant to represent a civilized aspect, but as the tendrils of misinformation incarnate wriggled around, the diviner was quite sure that was all but an flawed imitation. With a stolen voice, a simulacra of motherhood, the entity spoke melodiously. Call me Yaldabaoth.