Chương 53: Chapter 50: Confluence of the Four Dimensions

"Only this once, young man," Xanax told him as he guided him to the armchairs in front of the fireplace.

"And only for one hour. I won't be teaching you for more than that."

"I'm more than fine with that," Nolotl nodded with a hearty smile. It's a bit annoying having only one hour every eight weeks, but this means I will have one-hour class with the strongest gnosiamancer of all Lon every eight weeks. Ludicrous. Simply ludicrous. Out of nowhere and casually, a second Xanax materialized and he rummaged through one of the many bookshelves of the office-study before picking up a murder weapon of a book with a strength uncharacteristic of whatever age the old archmagi was.

The materialized Xanax then handed the heavy book to the original one—which grunted upon picking it up—and then the True Simulacrum vanished out of existence.

"Is that the conjuration-based True Simulacrum?" The terian prince inquired, the whole scene being absurd.

"Indeed," the powerful gnosiamancer proceeded to flip through the pages of the brick of a book.

"Both the transmutation and conjuration one have their advantages and disadvantages. I like the conjuration one because it has no requirements and it's far more agile in applications, though the transmutation one allows the Simulacrum to have its own resource pool."

"That is… quite interesting to know." That last sentence nearly left Nolotl agape. So far he hadn't had problems with his reserves, but he was bound to find them in the future as his spells were becoming more and more costly with the lack of proficiencies and the increase in tiers.

"Anyhow, or I guess anywho in this case, here's the ritual in question," Xanax levitated the open book towards Nolotl and then unceremoniously cancelled the magic, making the heavy grimoire on the boy's lap. Nolotl held a grunt, softly biting on his lower lip, and read the spell's abstract.

Name: Confluence of the Four Dimensions Schools: Any Alignment, Enchantment or Arithmomancy Requirement: Xenoglossia, Cheironomy, Hylomorphism, Concentration, Ritual Effect: Upon completing the ritual, align yourself to the four dimensions of mortal existence, increasing your affinity towards the used Alignment forever and irrevocably. This ritual can only be cast once in a lifetime as the caster will remain forever calibrated with the dimensions.

Performing this ritual on the 4th day of the 4th month at 4 in the morning in a year ending in 4 will double this ritual's potency.

"Woah…" Nolotl mouth dropped upon reading the abstract.

"That… certainly is an arithmomancy." Arithmomancy, sometimes called numerology—and even more sometimes solely referred as arithmancy—, was one of those esoteric hybrid schools of magic that people didn't know much about it but had at least heard someone talk about it. In Nolotl's case, he knew a bit more as it was a sub-school of gnosiamancy, one combined with ataxiamancy.

Arithmomancy combined the knowledge aspect of Information and the statistics aspect of Chaos to create a more predictable version of ataxiamancy but only by being closely related and limited to numerical patterns.

"I thought that arithmomancy locked spells behind certain conditions, but this one seems to only amplify it?" The diviner mused aloud, though of course he expected an answer.

"It mostly depends on the spell maker's intent," Xanax explained.

"Arithmomancy is almost similar to taximancy in the sense that the more restrictive a condition is, the more powerful the result will be. That condition, however, isn't necessarily a mandatory roadblock but an optional path. That being said, if you find an arithmomancer that solely uses restrictive spells, you're in for a very bad time. Arithmomancy can easily break causality if the numbers are in the caster's favor." Nolotl frowned at the absurdity of the claim.

"Why aren't there more arithmomancers out there?"

"Because it pays better to rig a casino than break causality," the old archmagi chuckled.

"But on a more serious note, it is hard to get the right spell for the right moment. Ataxiamancy is already based on having a wide repertoire, but in that sense Chaos aids you as it selects the spell for you. Arithmomancers need to chose themselves, and they won't immediately think of that spell that they learned twelve years ago that turns your opponent braindead if it's the first day of the month and their level is multiple of seven."

"Does such an absurd spell even exist?" The terian's frown only intensified.

"My long life has taught me to expect such things," Xanax shrugged.

"But we're digressing too much. What are your thoughts?"

"For starters… this is quite the spell. Not only is the spell with most requirements that I've seen," the Second Mind ritual didn't even have cheironomy as a mandatory requirement though it's not like I can say that, "but it's also the first spell that I've seen that can use any Alignment as its cornerstone." And talking about that ritual, maybe the somatic component hadn't been mandatory, but Nolotl had indeed used it just to reduce the ritual's difficulty even more.

A gesture that might not have proven to be that wise considering he lacked one arm when executing the ritual.

"That's the great thing about the Confluence spell series, they are arithmomancy enchantments before anything else."

"A whole series?" Xanax nodded.

"I already told you there's one for every casting tier. The Confluence spell series is one that works really closely to Alignment as a whole, therefore all of its limitations."

"But aren't casting tiers man-made creations?" Nolotl inquired, his hand carefully went through the page of the tome.

"Yes, but the number 9 is not, or is it now?" The Tower Master chuckled amusedly.

"It banks more on the number of Alignments than the tiers, truth be told. Also, fun little fact, each spell of the series has a title that merges the tier it's about alongside the subject that it conflates."

"Interesting…" That was his utmost purest thought. Magic had almost a bell curve to it where it appeared mystic to the untrained eye, but once the acolyte learned about it, it became far more mundane and a science. Yet now Nolotl felt like he was sliding off the other end of the curve as all of these esoteric spells were just… mystical.

"Are you sure that you don't want to try the fifth-tier version?" Xanax asked one last time as Nolotl made a gesture to stand up.

"Pretty sure," the prince rubbed his temples whilst closing the book with the other hand.

"I had already commissioned some stuff for one thing I intended to do during the total celestial alignment, but this has changed my plans a bit and I'm no longer so sure about it. I've only seen a fraction of the required materials for the fourth-tier version, and I think I already might be on short notice to get them ready."

"Well then," the archmagi stood before him.

"You should make some haste then." Nolotl still had most of the loop in front of him, but his blood boiled at the sheer thought of wasting time, so he already started dissecting the tome containing the Confluence of the Four Dimensions' spellware. The most horrifying thing to find out was that the brick of a spellbook was truly a spell book. It contained that single ritual.

It made sense once one thought about it as it really was nine spells in one due to the 'Any Alignment' part of the abstract, which meant that it had to be adapted for nine different Alignments to work for each of their respective elements. And due to the nature of Information, of course that section of the spellbook was the longest. As always when dealing with complex spells that had several requirements, Nolotl read several times the contents and made a list of what he needed.

The materials were mostly the expected kind: salts, quartz, some virgin gold, foci for the magic which in this case were the common gemstones called diamonds, and finally the spellware itself. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. The contents of the grimoire didn't go that deep into what material the spellware should be imprinted onto, even when reading all of the sections of all of the Alignments.

"Perhaps it's because the ritual is a low-tier one and it doesn't have such heavily restrictions just yet," he mused to himself after finally noting down all of the materials. Whilst not a ritual, the Simulacrum spell did specify that its hylomorphism should be organic in nature and preferably wooden derivates, whether it was planks, cork, or parchment. Nolotl mostly attributed that minimal restriction to Simulacrum being a fifth-tier spell, which could already be considered a high-tiered spell.

He decided that the best solution would be to commission Roxina for the imprinted hylomorphism, the previous loops had shown him that his skill in creating hylomorphism was severely lacking. Enchanting proficiency did help with manufacturing them as the whole school was more physical and hands on than most, but he, needless to be stated, didn't possess it. Yet. So his next week was dedicated to adapt the contents of the Confluence of the Four Dimensions' spellware into blueprints.

If anything, it had taken him longer than with the Second Mind's blueprints but not only was he playing it as safe as he could, but this ritual in specific depended on the hylomorphisms a lot more than the Information enchantment did. Of course, during this week of thankless work that did feel awfully wasted as he would need even more weeks to even bear fruit, Nolotl hadn't stayed still and he had sent the letter requesting resources to Chichihualxo-chitl.

And like the first time, a response had arrived the next day. Just like the zeroth and second loop, the contents of the letter had remained the same. The only real difference were the strokes of the ink as the High Priestess of Nochochenca was bound to have it written in a different time and maybe place, so it didn't make sense the movements had been the same. Though these minimal inflections on the lettering could only be detected thanks to his Perfect Recollection.

Once he had the gold and the blueprints, Nolotl finally went down to Descent. This time he visited the capital of Origin around the afternoon. Whilst the heavens had yet to gain its rich orange hues, the sight did feel far more beautiful to the Tezlan's eyes than the usual depressive and grey mornings of the city. As always, Roxina's workshop was empty, but this wasn't a slight on the photomancer's skill and reputation, but rather the opposite.

Most who commissioned the Empyrean of Light were high-profile people that either tended to send correspondence or have the crafters come to them instead. The bell on top of the workshop's door tolled as he made his way in, but it was only after a handful of minutes that the glassworker made her appearance, which gave him a bit of time to do his prime number exercises. They granted minimal experience and Alignment to Information, but they granted something, so it was a stupid thing to disregard them.

"So, Nolotl," Roxina came through the back shop already whilst wiping her hands on a rag, speaking in a rather harsh tone, "why did you have me making anti-personal mines?"

"Now you ask about it?" He asked with a frown.

"I was literally present when you read the blueprints."

"I do have this quirk when reviewing commissions that I only look at their difficulty instead of what the item might do," she casually shrugged, throwing the rag back to the back shop.

"I mean, I don't have that much of an issue with making them, I'm just curious. Especially because they are meant to act like concussion mines both in the Physicality and the Cognition."

"I'm going back to my homeland and I feel like the welcoming party won't be that welcoming," Nolotl lied with the same ease as always, choosing to continue with the lie he had fed to both Luminol and Xanax.

"And I expect the targets to be gnosiamancers, biomancers, and most likely a mixture of both in the shape of neuromancers." Thirty-seven warriors were the ones who had ambushed him at the end of the first loop. And a handful of them were in a coterie. A real one at that, and not the haphazard thing Luminol and the Finil twins had made. He managed to cull almost a third of their numbers before brutally dying, but that was not enough for him. Nolotl Xocoyotzin wouldn't even be satisfied with total victory.

"Er… do you require assistance?" Roxina added, unsure of how to deal with her fellow's statement. Her expression was a mixed bag that he couldn't begin to classify. Perhaps the photomancer wasn't a black box like Beta, but he still couldn't use Lesser Read Thoughts on her.

"Nah, I can handle it on my own." What made Nolotl say that wasn't pride, but spite. Not only him but also his Animal Spirits were the ones that wanted to slay the whole ambush with his own hands. He craved to massacre them. If he utterly failed in this try and wasted time, then he would request assistance on the next coil. If he managed to succeed, whether on a pyrrhic or total victory, he would still request assistance on the next coil if possible as his bloodlust would be already satisfied.

Nolotl's pragmatism was biased but still held some logic that didn't budge to emotions.

"Anyhow," he snapped his fingers to regain the photomancer's attention.

"Have you made anything already?"

"I've barely started with the mines considering that your deadline is still a long way off and I have some priority commissions for the festival that will precede the alignment." A powerful sense of déjà vu assaulted Nolotl as the repeated gatherings of empyreans replayed in his mind. Due to her connections to the city of Descent and her status as an Empyrean, Levoti Roxina was part of the organizing committee. Though it was more correct to say that she would display 'art' pieces.

Nolotl had never seen them nor bothered to even though they should be already in display all those times he collected the hylomorphisms at the eve of the end of the loop. Maybe in one loop after I can completely dismantle the ambush, he thought to himself. Nothing has happened so far, but unless part of the Cahtuli prophesy involves me dying during the total celestial alignment they can definitely kill me beforehand. For better or worse, the academy is just the perfect armor.

"Nice, nice," Nolotl added at her response.

"Truth is, you can discard the crappy hylomorphisms I had planned. I have something better now," he took the blueprints from his satchel and unfurled them on the counter.

"Am I right to believe that this takes priority over the mines?" Roxina mused after giving the blueprints a quick look.

"Funnily enough, it's the mines that should take the priority, but nothing will matter if I don't have that ritual hylomorphism ready for the arrangement of the stars, so focus on that first."

"I can do it, but this will be expensive, Nolotl. Very expensive," the glassmaker tapped her finger on the counter.

"Not only I'm dealing with a complex spellware here, but also the mines. The first ones will certainly take more to make, but I will still have to charge you the same for all of them."

"That's no issue whatsoever," and the prince nonchalantly took out ten draconium pieces from his satchel. The Empyrean of Light's eyes shot wide open at that amount of wealth.

"Are you part of some kind of criminal group, Nolotl? Like that much money dedicated to explosives don't bode well."

"Are you chickening out?" The Empyrean of Information said smugly.

"Nolotl, can we get serious for a moment? This is no joking matter," Roxina said with a scowl and crossed arms.

"Sorry," Nolotl instantly deflated and bowed in apology. It was hard to know when someone wanted to be serious or not and the diviner mostly relied on Lesser Read Thoughts to guide him, but it wasn't like he constantly used the Boon.

"No, I'm not part of some criminal group. But I'm a prince and a priest, and this is… well, all the wealth I haven't been using in my life."

"And what do you intend to use these mines for?"

"When I depart, I have on notice that people will try to kill me as a war is coming. So I intend to use these mine to defend myself."

"You… intend to use my creations for warfare?" Roxina tripped over her own words, not believing what she was hearing?"

"More than warfare, I'd say self-defense," Nolotl argued.

"It's my life or theirs."

"I…" The photomancer led a hand to her face and rubbed her temples in a sluggish manner.

"You intend to use these to kill people?"

"They're mines, Roxina," the gnosiamancer plainly stated the facts. Roxina pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Get out," she said softly.

"I don't see where the—""It's seems you haven't understood," the glassmaker interrupted him and slammed the counter, her eyes looking down and refusing to meet with his.

"Get the fuck out of workshop, Nolotl Xocoyotzin." The terian couldn't understand what was happening, but he knew better than to press the subject, so he walked out of the workshop, leaving his blueprints behind as he did so. He wasn't sure what had happened, he only knew that suddenly a knot started forming on his throat and he had difficulties breathing. Never before had he seen the joyful Empyrean of Light make such a face.

Every person is an island, oh so solitary and always desiring for violence, an odious whisper spoke in his mind with his own voice. Nolotl closed his hand on his fist hard enough to leave marks but still not enough to draw blood. You have resisted Rage. He was definitely angry at the Ehecatl taunting him from the sanctity of its cradle-prison, but there was far more anger than that. The issue was that he wasn't sure at what—or rather, who—it was directed towards. Was it himself?

No, your intentions were obvious from the start. The worst part of that thought was that he wasn't sure who had uttered it. Was it himself or the Ehecatl? Perhaps both? Was his anger directed at Roxina? She led me on a chase when she never intended to help me, only wasting my time for her own amusement. The words were cruel enough that it didn't penetrate his mind this time.

"I'm stronger than that, Ehecatl," Nolotl softly talked to himself as twilight finally fell upon the city of Descent, the skies dyed with beautiful oranges and purples that seemed like the perfect juxtaposition of Chaos and Arcane. She could've said no from the beginning and she didn't, think about it. The Ehecatl continued with its efforts, making Nolotl grit his teeth in disgust.

"No," he sighed.

"If there's one thing I now know, it's that I didn't know Roxina Levoti as much as I thought at did." Whether that was for the better or the worse, that didn't matter. In that sense, it was Nolotl's fault for trying to engage with a person when he barely knew anything about them. His own fascination and one-sided attraction towards the Tamorean woman suddenly disgusted him, now knowing how superficial he had been all this time and would, unfortunately and most likely, continue to be.