Chương 38: Chapter 35: Simulacrum

"Might I inquire why…?" Nolotl was surprised about the innocence of Enantyum's request. Though I guess it isn't much of a request when he has my life in his grasp. The Void could be dangerous, but reaching the maximum assimilation of an Alignment was somewhat of a simple task, if time-consuming. Even without trying he had already progressed a 2% into his Void assimilation without trying, after all.

"Hmm, might you, might you?" The chronomancer melodiously asked himself as he stepped forward onto the carpeted floor. Until his head snapped to look directly at the gnosiamancer. The gesture deeply unsettled Nolotl.

"Yes, it won't hurt to tell you so. But you could've come up with an idea by yourself by now. However it might be, my petition to pick Lesser Alignment Assimilation didn't come from nowhere. Without going into specifics, the nature of the time loop forces me to fully dedicate myself to Time, which means I'm not able to perform many magics to other Alignments. And that's where you come in!"

Enantyum snapped his fingers, pointing at Nolotl, his loose white and lavender eastern tunic swinging considerably with the gesture, especially those baggy sleeves.

"Me…?" The diviner added hesitatingly as the chronomancer seemed to want some input, or at least feedback, to his antics.

"Indeed," he nodded.

"Whilst your rapture into the loop was nothing more than a whim at the start, knowing that you were a virtual second looper changed a lot of things, so I thought a lot during your first—or second depending on how you personally count them—loop. Gnosiamancy is one of the three Alignment schools that can cast spells from others with true proficiency. You've seen that much with your new Boon.

The reason why I want you to follow this path is because the loop will benefit from having access to more Alignments, and if the loop benefits…"

"…so do I?" Nolotl added again, the Regressor proving to be starved for reactions.

"Exactly!" Enantyum snapped his fingers again.

"The preliminary idea is for you to have a solid understanding of all Alignments, but because your current self is highly expendable," he casually mentioned the fact that constantly haunted Nolotl, "it's better if we focus with the most dangerous Alignment for the integrity of the time loop first: Void."

"Uhm…" The terian gingerly raised a hand, as if he was a student in a classroom. The dark-skinned eastern man did demand some respect similar to a teacher, in some twisted sense of the word.

"Yes, little prince?" He was given permission to speak.

"If Void is dangerous to the integrity of the time loop, why even let me deal with something so dangerous myself? Don't you fear that I might… well, threaten the integrity of the loop?" Enantyum Dei laughed on his face.

"Ah, there has seemed to be a misunderstanding. When I said integrity of the loop, I meant integrity of the looper," his pearly-white smile was one of the most terrifying things the diviner had ever seen.

"Oh, and before you get any ideas to use Void against me, you've already seen some of my status. I don't think I need to explain to you what Immunity to Decay implies."

"N-no, you do not…" The problem wasn't with Enantyum's words this time, but those brazen eyes that precariously balanced on the edge of madness. Nolotl didn't consider himself the best at reading emotions, but those eyes along with that tone screamed at him that he wouldn't be the first Interlooper to try to fight against the master of the loop.

He remembered quite well that Immunity to Decay Boon, along with Alignment Obfuscation and Positive Feedback Loop that he saw from Enantyum's first distracted status screening were the man had forgotten to obfuscate his status. Beyond the obvious Boon, Nolotl had never heard about the other two, but with Enantyum's last comment, he made an idea of what one of them could mean. The worst thing is that the Boon has the Immunity term in its name.

That's a binary description, either he's affected by something or he's not. This isn't a resistance, but an immunity… I might not know the full extent of what decay means in this context but it's worrying that he has become completely impervious to something in specific.

Nolotl was completely aware of the fact that Enantyum wouldn't give him more information on his Boons, leaving him only to speculate, but considering the chronomancer was at the very, very minimum level 10, then each Boon of his was bound to be powerful. Especially that Positive Feedback Loop Boon. Perhaps it had the word positive in the name, but it sent shivers down Nolotl's spine just thinking of the connotations when taking the time loop into account.

"So, that will be the assignment," Enantyum calmly clapped his hands together.

"You'll need to investigate and understand Void, along with all the perils such quest might entail."

"I will comply," Nolotl affirmed with a dutiful, near-martial nod. For better or worse, it wasn't an impossible nor deadly task, even if dealing with Void had its plethora of issues.

"But, er… what's the deadline for this assignment?" The master of the loop had reiterated several times how he didn't enjoy wasting time or loops, and the diviner didn't want to get erased from existence because he had failed an invisible deadline.

"Oh, right," the Regressor was surprised by the question but in the best sense of the word as he scratched his chin in ponderation.

"Considering it's your first assignment and you're still a rather low-leveled gnosiamancer with little computation to spare… how do ten loops sound?" Nolotl almost choked on that answer.

"Is it too little?" Enantyum inquired with a forming scowl.

"N-no! Not at all!" The gnosiamancer said his arms in a panic.

"I will complete this task in those ten loops!" Oh, pulsars! He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Ten loops! Each loop is one month and two weeks for a total of eight. 54 days and a half. Ten times! That's 545 days, a bit less than a year and a half! It was a ludicrous amount of time, especially one where he would be constantly enjoying the benefits of the total celestial alignment.

Yes, he didn't have any proficiencies with akyromancy or abjuration, but if he put the hours, he believed the task would take less than a year, and if he managed to convince Enantyum to use them that extra remaining time… The possibilities were endless. Perhaps Nolotl was a slave to way more powerful mage that he could even begin to comprehend, but he wouldn't deny that the rewards were too enticing and equally as powerful.

"Good, good," the master of the time loop nodded at the second looper's enthusiasm.

"I don't think I need to mention it either, but you should continue to assimilate every Alignment, Information included."

"But I've already maxed out its assimilation progress?" The terian bewilderedly questioned.

"For the Lesser Alignment Assimilation, yes," the celestial explained calmly.

"But I intend for you to complete the whole series in the future. Perhaps you won't be progressing the assimilation whilst you won't have the Boons, but advancing your understanding will help you progress faster down the line."

"Understood," Nolotl nodded. As terrifying as the chronomancer was, he also had proved to be highly knowledgeable, so the diviner trusted that wisdom. Though with a grain of skepticism. Not that it would hurt.

"I will be then removing myself and start working on the assignment, if that's alright by you?" Perhaps he was acting more cordial than what he wanted, but the desire of not getting erased by the inexorable passage of time was a powerful motivator to act with some subservience. Enantyum didn't say anything and materialized himself back in his armchair the next infinitesimal frame of existence. Nolotl was aware that it wasn't teleportation as such but the Beacon spell, yet that didn't make it any less jarring.

Those sudden movements always unsettled someone as deeply connected to the Cognition as gnosiamancers. Considering that as an affirmation, Nolotl turned his back around and aimed at the library-office's door. At least until a piercing voice cut through the room.

"I haven't forgotten about how you have yet to tell me about your Boon, little prince," Nolotl froze on the spot, his hand unable to move the doorknob as the chronomancer uttered those words. He hadn't been forced into a stasis, it was purely a mental effect, his mind and body refusing to work together.

"Come on, out with it, I don't have all day." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He relaxed a bit upon hearing that Enantyum wasn't taking that slight personally, considering it only the slip of mind that it had been.

"I've taken Thought Projection," Nolotl answered after looking at his fellow Empyrean. With all the recent events, he feared what the man with the fractured mind might do if he didn't talk to him whilst looking at him.

"Hmm, interesting. I thought you would've picked Predictive Behavior to either catch a better glimpse of my movements or just understand Time a little bit better," the diviner didn't know what to make of the chronomancer's soft and pondering voice. Seeing him so calm only stressed him out even more.

"It was an… interesting choice, but my proficiency gave me no Insight into the Boon, and considering my previous Boon choice didn't give me any immediate power, I thought I needed some of that to handle whatever assignments you might give me."

"A smart choice then," Enantyum took a swig of his brazen flask.

"But I don't see much of that immediate power in Thought Projection."

"A lot of gnosiamancy and divination could be classified as transmitting information, so it's a solid all-round boost. And that's without even taking into account the stated divination bonuses that the Boon gives on its Insight," the diviner carefully elaborated on his choice.

"Hm, it seems you have pondered your choice a lot," the Regressor tapped several times on the flask with his index finger.

"There's virtue in going down the path of divination as it's a generic school and I want you to be competent in all Alignments. Yes, continue doing that. Having a powerful school of casting whenever you're dealing with a new Alignment will be beneficial."

"Right…" It didn't need to be mentioned that Nolotl wasn't walking down the diviner's path for that reason, but he was still thankful that the looper was fine with it.

"So can I…?"

"Yes, you can go. I will be expecting periodic loop updates at the beginning of each loop unless I state otherwise at the gathering. Ah, and if for some reason I don't appear at them, just make some excuse to distract Nina and Mio." Nolotl froze at the chronomancer's petition, but he didn't protest. From everything that Enantyum had asked from him, that was the most trivial of affairs.

With a cordial nod bow, the terian finally made his way out of the office, walking several corridors and floors away before collapsing and breathing heavily. As a warrior this was pathetic, but he couldn't care that his legs had given out. Forever trapped in a cycle of death and repetition, Ouroboros continues eating its tail. The Ehecatl whispered out of nowhere, which made it hard to distinguish with his own thoughts. And you are bound to get devoured in its wake.

"I know as much," Nolotl scowled and stood up, whishing he had his spear to use it as a walking stick.

"Not another word, lying wind?" The cognitive interloper remained silent yet again, only further annoying the terian.

"I would prefer that you would try to assault my mind than let out cryptid whispers only to fall asleep." The Empyrean of Information sighed and made his way to Xanax's seminar as it was bound to start. He wasn't doing it to follow the script, but because he wanted to pick the archmagi's brain and this was the faster he could contact with him without needing to meet him in person.

As the seminar started with the appearance of Xanax's True Simulacrum and the archmagi failed to comment any changes in Nolotl's mind, the diviner couldn't help but ignore the class after having heard it three times already and instead focus on the Ehecatl's words. Ouroboros… That's the name of one of the True Empyreans, wasn't it?

The moment he remembered the existence of such Empyrean, the Empyrean was now able to remember any detail related to it perfectly thanks to Perfect Recollection, though it wasn't like he knew much about it. The Empyrean of Time and Death, not as great as the Quetzalcoatl, but certainly a being of power. But why does the Ehecatl refer to us as Empyreans? True Empyreans? Is it because Enantyum and I take their place with the Titles conceded by the academy, or is it something else?

No matter how much he thought about it, Nolotl was unable to come to an answer. In the end, he was forced to discard those epithets as nothing more than an attempt from the Ehecatl to get into his mind. Which, if true, merited forgetting about it. For the remainder of the seminar, the Empyrean of Information dedicated himself to draw the hylomorphism needed for the Simulacrum spell with the assistance of his newfound proficiency.

As always, infusing mana through a pen was hard to do, even if those in the Empyrean Academy were meant for such tasks. Drawing spellcircles that needed to let mana pass instead of those in books meant for demonstration purposes were worlds apart in complexity. The Simulacrum hylomorphism required of many traces of ink that went on top of each other, yet he needed to keep their individual singularity, becoming pathways entombed in series of more pathways, all imprinted and embedded in a flimsy paper.

To be fair, that last part was just because that was the only material he had at hand. He intended to perform the actual divination spellware on a slab of wood meant for enchanting.

"Interesting spellware," a voice commented next to him, surprising Nolotl. Thankfully, he managed to not mess up the circuit from the scare.

"Though I must question myself why waste time attending to my lesson when you could be working on it?"

"Oh, I was paying attention, Tower Master Xanax," the diviner showed the archmagi's projection in front of him the reverence that he deserved. At least he deserved it far more than the Regressor.

"I was originally planning to cast Simulacrum during the total celestial alignment, but I've progressed far more than expected and I intend to get it right before I move onto a new task for this upcoming astral event."

"Glad to hear that," Xanax caressed his long white beard.

"Though I'm surprised with your skills. I thought that you weren't using your perks as an Empyrean out of shame or nervousness, but from what I'm seeing here, it's because you didn't need my help."

"Nonsense," Nolotl chuckled softly at the old man's jest, but the claim made him think. It's only been 163-ish days for me, but I've progressed far more than this time should have entitled thanks to the total celestial alignment. Not only it has allowed me to complete a ritual I shouldn't even have had a change to get going, but I've leveled twice in less than half a year. I've changed so much and Xanax… he still thinks I'm at an expected level. That made his heart ache a little bit.

Nolotl had progressed so much in so little time, but that progress would have been impossible if it hadn't been thanks to the two impossible events of the total celestial alignment and the time loop, and he was still well-within the metrics expected for an Empyrean. His original weakness made him nauseous even if he just was getting started, but he did his best to hide his feelings.

"Considering you said you intended to use Simulacrum for the total celestial alignment," Xanax continued, "and you're basically done with it already, what's your next plan then?"

"I'm… still pondering it," Nolotl revealed.

"I truly didn't believe that my quest to cast Simulacrum would grant me a level, but now I'm evaluating my choices on what to do with the next." Though if there was one thing he had pretty clear, it was that he wouldn't get the chance to use Alignment-boosting capabilities of the total celestial alignment every coil of the time loop. It's not easy to admit this but… I wouldn't have succeeded on that first attempt of the Second Mind ritual.

Even without an ambush to mess it up, I still botched it with triple the time to ready myself. If I want to perform any other enchantments or rituals, I fear I will need several loops to develop them, and that's without taking into account Enantyum's assignments. Demoralizing, but not the end of the world. After all, the Empyrean of Time had enough time to spare that he had granted him more than a year without thinking about it twice.

If anything, Nolotl looked forward to the point where his power started to look out of place, no matter how many questions that would foment.

"How about an enchantment ritual like Second Mind?" Xanax suggested like the zeroth loop, albeit in a different manner and way earlier.

"It's tempting," Nolotl replied with a wry smile, a bit bittersweet at that.

"But for reasons I'd prefer not to disclose, my Information enchantment slot is off-limits."

"Is it a cultural thing?" The archmagi inquired, academic curiosity behind his question more than anything else. Once or twice, Xanax had demonstrated to show interest in Tezlan as it had been a closed and uncharted nation for Origin until not long ago.

"Mmm, more like a religious one," the High Priest of Nochochenca took the easier way out that the Tower Master had unwittingly given him.

"If there's something I would like to focus on for the total celestial alignment, it would be Void and perhaps and enchantment related to it." Now that I have two enchantments, it makes sense to fill all of my slots. Hmm, but that will prove to be difficult considering that they will need to be targeting my Cognition. Only the Argent Bindings of the Twiceborn get a pass by virtue of being there before the time loop.

"Void?" Xanax's eyes opened wide.

"That's certainly an interesting inquiry. Are you trying to hybridize and go down the path of the obscuramancer, Nolotl?"

"Uhm… not quite," the young gnosiamancer pondered his answer for a moment.

"I picked Lesser Alignment Assimilation and because my actual Void Alignment has been growing out of late, I picked some interest."

"Playing the long game, huh?" The old gnosiamancer proved to be amused by his Boon choice.

"I'd recommend you going against that school of thought, the total celestial alignment is too powerful to waste it in something you don't have proficiency with, but if you do manage to completely assimilate Void before it… Hmm…" The True Simulacrum halted, looking into the horizon.

"Something wrong?" Nolotl tilted his head.

"No, just realized that perhaps the idea isn't as farfetched as I thought," he explained.

"You could try to learn a very difficult abjuration, slot it into the Void slot, and then use both of your new proficiency and the total celestial alignment to engrave the casting experience into your mind with your gnosiamancy. That should help with a Void enchantment."

"That's… genius, straight-up." That was a plan that he hadn't even thought about.

"Perhaps, but that's still worse than using your Information slot. But alas, I won't force you on your opinion." And with that, the archmagi vanished, seemingly not disposed to speak for any longer.

"Rude, but fair, I guess," Nolotl shrugged and stood up from the empty lecture hall's seat. After all, he had a Simulacrum to cast.