Chương 44: Chapter 41: True Terian

There were many types of magic in the world, especially those that went beyond the usual elemental and communal schools of magic and instead opted for a more personalized approach with hybrid magics. And even if his personal Blood to Ink spell was an astromancy and hemomancy, this spell still caught Nolotl by surprise.

Name: Ode to Silence Schools: Akyromancy, Divination or Sonomancy Requirement: Xenoglossia, Concentration Effect: Whilst singing a sorrowful song, the surrounding area actively eliminates verbal information, inflicting everyone except the caster with the Silenced status effect. Under the Silenced effect, people cannot talk or use xenoglossia for their spells or Boons.

"I…" The Empyrean of Information smacked his lips.

"I didn't take you for the singing type," he looked at a deadpanning Beta. Which was a bit of a tautology as the akyromancer was always deadpanning. Sonomancy was the school of magic centered around music and sound, allowing even people who weren't mages in any sense of the word to cast spells by just getting the notes and rhythms right.

Bards, whilst uncommon in this day and age, were legendary in their capability of infusing life and emotion into people with words loaded with magic even if they themselves hadn't studied any magic. The fact that one of sonomancy's parent Alignments was Light meant that it was a way more accessible magic as it was able to level up by just following a code of conduct. Perhaps it was also one of the most common hybrid mage types as it used two non-infinite Alignments with Arcane being the other parent.

"I'm not," the Empyrean of Void added harshly, though her tone didn't particularly carry any annoyance. The woman was just that hard to get a read on, especially because Lesser Read Thoughts found no purchase whatsoever in her mind.

"But there's indubitably an advantage on casting spells with very concrete requirements. Beyond being a divination—which means you will already have a proficiency with it—it is also so specialized that there are several success conditions for you to cast the spell."

"Yeah, I can see that," he reread the spell's abstract. Whilst sonomancy wasn't quite a requirement but an alternative casting condition, the nature of the spell wouldn't disappear even if he wanted to cast it as a divination. If things went poorly, he could just sing it to the best of his abilities to reduce its casting complexity.

"But there's kind of a small problem with the spell. Well, actually, a big one." Beta frowned and titled her head. Between her hood and her light-absorbing black hair getting in the way, he nearly couldn't see her face.

"Which would that be?" Nolotl pointed at himself from top to bottom or rather pointed at his projection.

"This is a concentration-based spell."

"I see," the akyromancer nodded and fixed her posture.

"Then you should work on getting that requirement out."

"You're asking me to modify a spell that I haven't even learned to cast?" Nolotl frowned back at her.

"Oh, you misunderstood me."

"Oh, I thought as much," the gnosiamancer softly chuckled.

"It just didn't make sense what you proposed."

"You should work on getting that requirement out of the Simulacrum spell," she clarified. The diviner squinted at the pale Void mage.

"This is a fifth-tier spell that we're talking about. One that I'm still learning to use, you know?"

"And?" She tilted her head in confusion again, this time to the other side.

"And maybe we could just use a completely different spell instead of one with this requirement?" He clarified, his frustration starting to seep into his tone.

"I see," Beta nodded.

"Then you should work on starting to come in person here." Celestials, Empyreans, and everything that is holy, please give me strength. Nolotl prayed in the not-so-holy sanctity of his mind. The worst part is that I can't even tell if she's doing this on purpose because she's just so starlessly emotionless! Put some empathy here, woman! Whilst he didn't get a rage notification from the Real-Time Status divination, he felt like he was getting there.

But at the same time, it was really hard to get mad to that degree from some bickering—if it could even be called that as Beta failed to react to anything and everything—when his recent peak of primal rage had been turned into a pile of meat by a legion of warriors. Nolotl sighed and he looked directly at Beta, their cyan and black eyes meeting.

"How about a middle ground? I will memorize this spell and try to put it to work on my lonesome and you only give me those masterclasses you talked about?"

"Not a valid solution," she replied in an unfazed manner.

"I cannot indicate the progress of the spell nor how well you're performing it if you aren't present."

"Okay, okay," Nolotl was really feeling that rage notification rearing its head. He exhaled and relaxed its body, which was as curious as it was moronic as he was currently a Simulacrum. Though his real body was prone in his bed was garnering some stress.

"Let's take the calculus approach and integrate: the middle ground of the middle ground. I will come in person one of these days, but first we continue with the classes as usual and I try to be the best assistant that I can."

"Are you even going to be a competent one when you can't even cast a simple spell without needing to go on a tangent?" The fact that Beta was stating all of this as a matter of fact was what getting under his skin. The woman truly couldn't see anything wrong. Is this what dealing with true geniuses is like? Or is it more of an Empyrean thing? He did his best to relax. I haven't interacted much with them, outside or inside the loop, but every time I did it was always a fiesta. Ah…

His sigh echoed through the Cognition, but fortunately, the akyromancer couldn't sense it. This wasn't any different from the time that Cillin had lowered her guard after he confronted her with her infatuation, physical or not. The only saving grace was that there weren't any gnosiamancers present to read his thoughts, but that still made Nolotl a bit ashamed. I shouldn't be lowering my mental barriers like that, unconsciously or not. Especially when there's an interloper waiting to strike at a moment's notice.

It was really hard to forget about the Ehecatl's presence even if it had remained silent for a while now when the cognitive entity quite literally nested in his mind.

"I will do my best to be a competent assistant," Nolotl added after a pregnant silence, though Beta didn't seem to mind.

"But just like you asked of me the other day, I implore you to not have any expectations."

"That seems like hardly a fair deal considering those expectations are my payment."

"And those expectations are the service I receive," the gnosiamancer countered. Neither of them had spoken with much emotion.

"I see," Beta reiterated. She really loves that sentence, huh?

"I must ask you that we put an end to any seminars or masterclasses today. My social battery is low and I feel like puking. Please revise the spell on your own," she explained with brutal honesty.

"You have a social battery?" Nolotl asked with crossed arms. He wasn't the most social either, but he could handle himself, even with the likes of the extravagant personalities of the empyreans. I think Beta is climbing up to number 2 in extravagance, though that first spot will always be unchallenged by Paizon.

"That's the thing," the Empyrean of Void said even more softly than normal.

"I have none." Nolotl was left alone for the next hour parsing through the pages of the spellbook with very controlled and careful acts of telekinesis as his Simulacrum couldn't even do such a basic task in a corporeal manner. He remained in the workshop for a bit longer, but Beta failed to make an act of appearance again, so he made his way into the cupboard again and with some difficulty closed it behind him.

Instead of instantly getting down to work with Ode to Silence, Nolotl wanted to both blow off some steam from all the accumulated stress that empyreans induced to him plus also trying something that he had yet to do during the loops. His destination was the Life Tower and his target was none other than Azithromycin, the Starguided Warrior. He wasn't surprised in the slightest to find the ocelotl terian in the underground arena of the Life Tower.

Whilst warriors were the most common form of biomancers worldwide, that wasn't the case at the Empyrean Academy by virtue of being a magic academy. Though, of course, there were classes for every subject imaginable and warrior, scribes, and manufacturers all found their niche inside it. Unlike the spars he had with her, Azithromycin fought another biomancer with magic allowed.

Both were warriors so there wasn't any real spells like slinging poison at enemies, but they used simple augmentations to make themselves faster, tough out attacks, and regenerate wounds with ease. This is my problem with Yaxkin, he doesn't seem to use magic or terian abilities. What's happening there? The thought that the ambush leader might not be a terian crossed his mind, but considering he truly looked like the average Cahtuli/Tezlan, it didn't make sense he didn't possess an Animal Spirit.

Even Nolotl, who was a mestizo instead of a pureblooded, still had his own spirit. Or rather, spirits. Azithromycin's enemy used a standard sword, those metal ones that were so common in Origin, and used the martial arts called swordsmanship. Tezlan warriors didn't quite use martial arts, not because they were restrictive or too fancy, but because most simply didn't have the presence of mind once they released or unleashed their animal forms.

Terians didn't go fully berserk—unless you were fickle of mind—when they released the Animal Spirits, but they were so strong that they trumped over muscle memory and martial prowess and always devolved into a battle of pure instinct. Nolotl was guilty of such sin too. That was what he wanted to fix. Perhaps his status as gnosiamancer and diviner did help him control his baser instincts in the ambush, but he was far from perfect with his reign over his Animal Spirits.

The zeroth loop was the prime example of that as he had no need to rip the taximancer's nose with his teeth back then. The sword-wielder was quite quick on his feet, not quite as Azithromycin, but far more agile. Blocking a macuahuitl was madness and he was aware of it as he only deflected or dodge, practically a recreation of what Nolotl himself did against Yaxin during the ambush. Regardless of skill or physical condition, sometimes the best line of action was that optimal.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The spar, however, didn't have a winner as neither the ocelotl nor the knight were capable of landing decisive hits to each other. For better or worse, they were equally matched. After ten minutes of ruthless exchanges that ended with more than one patch of flailed skin, Azithromycin finally spotted Nolotl.

The older terian lifted her hand to signal the end of the spar, and the Original swordsman immediately stopped his aggression and dedicated her a courtly nod before walking away. Nolotl calmly walked towards his fellow terian in the arena.

"You were equally matched in more sense than one," he commented.

"Are you close with him?"

"Closeness is relative, high priest," Azithromycin responded formally.

"Azi, not again. I tolerate prince at most."

"Yes, my apologies, Lord Nolotl," she nodded in an apologetic yet courtly manner. In Original manner.

"Oh, so you're close close," the ocelotl terian frowned at his words.

"You're using Original gestures," he clarified.

"Oh," the biomancer's eyes open wide upon realizing it herself.

"I guess that we're close. But…"

"Don't let my own views affect you, Azi." He calmly told her with a smile.

"But those are the views of a high priest, I couldn't just ignore them," she stubbornly added. Nolotl sighed.

"The scriptures only say that sex should be engaged for mating purposes, but they don't condemn recreational one. The fact that I personally don't see the appeal of it shouldn't matter to you. So just… continue doing your business."

The High Priest of Nochochenca's aversion to non-reproductive coitus wasn't purely born due to theological dogma but rather more personal affairs, yet he always believed that a good priest was that one who made their limits clear and didn't force them upon anyone, instead letting them willingly put on the mantle.

"I appreciate your understand, my prince," Azithromycin nodded respectfully, now with proper Tezlan gravitas.

"But I must inquire about your presence here. Is it a usual sparing that you seek?"

"Yes, that could be said," he replied with a roguish smile, raising his lead tepoztopilli. A wooden spear might work on a usual, non-magic duel, but this spar would be anything but that.

"But it's said 'your understanding'." Even though Azithromycin was covered in a thick film of sweat and somewhat panting from the exhaustion of the previous battle, she didn't hesitate to raise her macuahuitl. Whilst he was being a bit unfair, she was a biomancer. Yaxkin had shown him well enough that whilst blood flowed through a biomancer's arteries, they would never truly tire.

"I must ask, though," the biomancer said, "will you be using your Animal Spirits, prince?"

"Yes," the gnosiamancer responded as tame and casually as possible. And Azithromycin's reaction was anything but that.

"Really?" The ocelotl terian raised her voice, nearly in a girly screech, as her emerald eyes shone with glee. But one didn't need to hear her or look at their eyes to understand the heights of her thrill, because if one looked lower they might see a spotted tail going ballistic as it swayed from side to side at great speeds. You look more like a dog than a cat, Nolotl snickered mentally in amusement as he readied his tattoos. Also, aren't you a bit old to behave that way?

Like, Cillin and Peni had an excuse, especially Peni considering she's only 14. But you're older. It had to be stated that as 19-year-old, Nolotl's mentality on older people was an homogenous mess. It was hard to forget with his nature as a gnosiamancer that he was a teenager so in his mind anyone beyond 21 was fully developed and equally mature, even if he knew better than that. Sometimes it was that hard to fight the prejudices one forced upon oneself.

"You don't know how happy that makes me!" Azi swayed from side to side, casually moving the macuahuitl along with her.

"Don't worry, I think I'm quite aware," the avian terian amusedly chuckle. I didn't know Azithromycin had this side to her. Perhaps there's more virtues to the time loop than I first thought.

"No, you don't!" Nolotl was surprised to have the biomancer talking him back. Certainly a first.

"This is my first time fighting a twiceborn!"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you that I'm not like the twiceborns of legend," the diviner planted his spear's butt on the ground while his tattoos continued to shone with silver. He would need a bit longer to safely release his spirits.

"Perhaps the Argent Bindings of the Twiceborn grant me more strength than normal thanks to the backlogged power from the containment, but not only my Animal Spirits are not synergistic like gorgons, I'm also not a biomancer. I preemptively apologize on dashing your hopes."

"That is only my decision to make. But most importantly, I apologize back, Lord Nolotl," the ocelotl terian lowered her body and fur started covering her sweat-laden skin, no longer shining but instead becoming mate.

"Because I will not be able to restrain myself," she sang with a primal howl. Shivers went down Nolotl's spine. The thrill of battle sang to him as he was now standing in front of an opponent far swifter and more brutal than Yaxkin of Cahtul. The moment his iridescent wings manifested on his arms as the silvery bindings vanished, Azithromycin charged at him without warning.

Nolotl knew that the biomancer craved to see his true terian self as she had only seen it once during his divine investiture when he became the Astral-Who-Knows. Not late after that, his Animal Spirits had been chained down for his own safety. The last time he let people see his true self was during his other investiture a year ago, but that had been a short display, a statement that not only celestials could wield and portray power at the Empyrean Academy.

The quetzal was one of the most respected types of terians, and even if the crow was scorned due to its ill-fated sign, seeing any twiceborn boasting it was something that incited her curiosity, for Nolotl had failed to show her his true self for years since they had come to the academy, half of Lon away. And she showed such curiosity and giddiness by swinging a macuahuitl with her whole body.

The boosted reflexes of his avian headpiece allowed him to react way faster than usual, but it was the physical boost that not only allowed him to dodge, but also deflect the macuahuitl with his heavy spear. Even when Nolotl kicked her shin and bit her ear off, Azithromycin could only smile in absolute bliss. She wasn't speaking, but as she backstepped and threw at him a roundhouse kick, he could easily read his emotion into captured words. I'm not disappointed! Her emerald eyes oozing with tonalli screamed.

Nolotl was forced to rush away from the incoming lariat of a kick, which obligated him to release the lock on the warrior's wooden club-sword. The twiceborn took a short breath and spat out a chunk of the ocelotl's ear. Azithromycin's body was pumping so much adrenaline that she didn't even care about the wound, no matter how much it bled or hurt, and instead rushed headfirst at him.

The spotted Tezlan wasn't as strong as the Cahtuli warrior, but her speed was so vicious that she was bound to pack far a greater force if she were to impact him. Magic it is, Nolotl started weaving illusions, fully aware that death could loom if he didn't. He trusted the Starguided Warrior to stop before afflicting a mortal wound, but the best outcome was avoiding any grievous wound of any kind. What followed was an indescribable, bloody frenzy.

The ocelotl was fast and vicious as she led her body close to the ground, as if she was truly four-legged and didn't have a massive macuahuitl in one hand. The avian twiceborn, on the other hand, was far more defensive, maintaining and abandoning his ground when it was adequate, stabbing and slashing vital blood vessels whilst his illusions made him ever-so-slightly harder to hit.

His quetzal illusions could only be compared to first-tier spells at best, but considering they were free and trivial to weave around, they became far more effective than any usual first-tier illusion due to their innate versatility. Azithromycin didn't even need to hit him.

She once forced him into a situation where he could only block as she grabbed one of his legs with her dexterous tail, and the impact alone fractured his right ulna, outright forcing him to only use his left wing as the right forearm was internally decimated. Unfortunately, from then on, there wasn't much he could do. Even if he kept his sense of pain to a minimum with gnosiamancy cantrips, his fighting capabilities were compromised.

He almost thought of curtailing her tail in one final act before going down, but the twiceborn realized that he had been pitiful enough by biting the ocelotl's ear off at the start of the combat. The exchange lasted two deflections more before he was forced to drop his heavy spear on the ground, too tired to continue moving even though his rival biomancer was still in top shape.

"You're brutal," Nolotl said after falling on his ass as Azithromycin pressed the head of her macuahuitl on his chin.

"Says the man that treated my ears as a chewing toy," she snickered.

"And talking about it…"

"It's there," he lazily pointed at one spot on the ground. Whilst biomancer had a life sense, extirpated body parts didn't radiate much vitality, but his divinations could be personalized even for specific parts. Azithromycin nodded in gratitude, walking toward the fallen piece of ear and picking it up from the ground. She dusted and blew on it a bit before pressing the ear against the open flesh.

Perhaps the Biomancer Title didn't grant proficiency with the restoration school, but between the enhanced physical capabilities of a released terian animal form—which were already stronger than normal ones—and augmentation spells focused on healing, the two pieces of ear just melded together in front of his eyes. Not that different from his Simulacrum's regeneration, only that visceral and far more grotesque with blood pouring out and forming a free-flowing crust. Mist worked as a perfect way to censor brutality.

"I'm not disappointed," the macuahuitl-wielder added once she was fully healed.

"You lasted seven minutes against me in a fight. Most non-biomancer don't even last one, only with that taking stamina into account."

"I would've preferred nine minutes," Nolotl laughed in an internal joke. Though it's not like I will experience the nine minutes of the total celestial alignment any time soon. Four minutes and a half was everything he got.

"Could you heal me? That nasty tail-grab fractured my forearm."

"Ladies do not appreciate having their tail called nasty, Lord Nolotl," Azithromycin harrumphed, but unlike Beta, it was easy to tell she was joking around.

"Nor men for that matter," the gnosiamancer snickered and instantly groaned in pain as the healing started. There was no type of healing that was painless and he felt all of his cells scream as they tried to join together once more. Well, there was one, but that was true chronomancy and he himself could only experience it at the end of the loop. Will Enantyum ever teach me chronomancy?

I doubt he will teach me anything that could threaten the loop, but he must want me to assimilate Time for the Boon, so at least some restoration spells are in order. One of his greatest laments were that he had no physical way to heal himself, even if it was only enough to keep himself standing up in battle.

"Regardless of your lack of stamina, you were able to pack quite a punch," Azithromycin commented whilst healing him with both augmentations and restoration spells. Perhaps he had only fractured a wing, but his skin had suffered many lacerations.

"Hmm, no. That's not quite the idiom… Serpent's bite, maybe?"

"I'm not quite sure which idiom in our mother tongue you're referring right now, but even if managed to land quite a handful of swift and decisive strikes, they weren't without a price," the prince explained.

"How come?" His honorary guard looked upward to meet his eyes.

"You know about my bindings, right?" Azithromycin nodded at him.

"They basically backlog power with the act of being suppressed. The longer my Animal Spirts are chained, the better I can recreate an actual release of an animal form. I'm basically at the point of a released twiceborn, but even this small confrontation has burned several months of backlogged containment." The novice healer's eyes opened wide upon hearing that.

"Oh, I didn't know those details. I apologize for having forced you to use your enchantment, my prince."

"Worry not, I did it because I require practice," he said whilst scratching his leg from all the itching that the healing provoked on his wing.

"I calculate I burn around a month per minute, so I didn't even waste a whole year. This means we can afford a handful of years more of practice." He said that casually, but he didn't have that much remaining this loop after having used nearly an hour at the start of month trying to contain the Ehecatl.

"…I'm now rather reticent to ask you to use it more," she revealed.

"Nonsense," Nolotl refuted.

"I've told you already. I did this because I wanted, I do need the practice with my faux animal forms. I can afford to leave at least one year of backlogged power inside of my enchantments." I can actually afford to waste it all thanks to the time loop, but she doesn't need to know that… Huh, I really benefit from the time loop, now that I think about it from this point of view.

He was almost half a year inside the time loop, but only know it occurred to him that he had a limitless use and practice time of his true terian self. Though it had a bit of cooldown depending on how fast he exhausted his scant minutes of usage. I have less than an hour and a half of my true self at true power. That's sort of pathetic now that I think about it… He decided not to think about it, mostly because that true power he was talking about was imitating a Boon he had never obtained.

Whilst the Argent Bindings of the Twiceborn required a lot of time to backlog power, he was well aware that their true utility came from the fact that it allowed him to keep his bestial self in check while also containing a myriad of cheap or outright free cantrips to better his quality of life. From antidotes to better pulse, it was an all-rounder effect and that pseudo- Release Animal Form was secondary.

It would be mostly useless barring very occasional fights to the death like the ambush or extraordinary situations like the time loop that would allow him to hone his animalist skills.

"Now, Azi. I do have to ask you another favor," he said after the ocelotl woman—whose fur was still up—put his wing down.

"Anything, my prince," Nolotl frowned at that choice of words. Azithromycin was too loyal and zealous to a fault. A prince and a high priest made for a dangerous combination, even if that prince was in exile and the high priest a disgraced icon.

"How do you feel about singing?" He asked and the woman with feline emerald eyes tilted her head in confusion.