Chương 60: Chapter 57: Intellect Fortress

The stars guided Nolotl as always. But alas, the cosmic furnaces of creation weren't easy to understand. Nor would their knowledge always be useful. A star knew a lot, and a galaxy filled with ones even more, but that knowledge and wisdom might not always be applied to mortals. The terian's argent bindings shone, starlight glinting on their surface with a preternatural glow of cyan. Information made manifest.

The reason why astromancy was such an esoteric discipline was because half the field was learning how to communicate with beings that shared nothing with you. There weren't any words nor the communication that did take place couldn't begin to be classified as thoughts. Everything that lingered for long and was observed for even longer would start to develop a Cognition regardless of their living status, so in that sense, all stars were alive. But that didn't mean they shared any relatable structure of thought.

One would expect stars to be solitary as the speed of light was slow in the grandest scheme of things, but one had to remember that there was something even faster than light. Information. Information needed not to be physical and therefore be bound by the unsurmountable limits of the Physicality. Stars communicated between themselves in the greatest forum imaginable. It wasn't a plaza with market stalls and colorful canopies of silk and leaf, but instead a nebulous speaking field of equal opportunities.

Not all stars looked equal in this forum, some felt more matronly than others—for the sense of sight completely failed at this level of abstraction—as they were the ones that hosted some life in their sphere of influence. This wasn't a surprise as astromancers had known for long that Lon wasn't the only seeded planet in the galaxy, but the question of life was rather about the intelligence of that life.

Religion and mythos told him that no intelligent life existed in Lon prior to the arrival of the True Empyreans and the Celestials, and considering that Lon was the only chosen destination of the divine race, it made sense that the rest of the galaxy had yet to achieve sentience. But the presence of life didn't quite indicate intelligence in these matronly stars. Nolotl's cognitive and abstracted astral self sang his query to the forum and space started to warp, rapidly abandoning his position next to the sun.

Without any concrete will of any specific entity, the projected mind found itself in front of a blue pulsar that ached for a cyan coloration. He believed that his current position was due to the fact that celestial bodies of this kind thought way faster than already asserted stars. The main sinners of sloth were the black holes, singularities of matter and information, that had died yet lingered for infinity. Communicating with those was closer to necromancy, in a twisted manner of speech.

The blue pulsar listened to his query, and the star indeed knew about magic. Not a surprise as astromancers had long verified that stars could randomly be born by chance. Chaos wasn't a ninth of reality for anything. Spontaneous existence was a verified phenomenon, and whilst it was astronomically rare for a person to be born fully mature out of nowhere, that wasn't the case for cosmic furnaces. Chaos assimilation progressed by 1%. Light assimilation progressed by 1%. Arcane assimilation progressed by 1%.

Level progressed by 1%. Whilst this kind of divination rituals weren't good enough for Nolotl to get an Alignment increase notification, they revealed to still be useful for the progress of the Lesser Alignment Assimilation Boon as the pulsar endowed him with its knowledge of spontaneity and magic. It wasn't concrete knowledge nor wisdom that the priest could process, but it was a guidance that would make future work easier. In that sense, assimilation was truly the most adequate term.

The experience was welcome too, though he wouldn't be leveling up any time soon. As always, he was slowly progressing in his level, but the increments were so few that he almost never saw them, this one was one of the few experience notifications exceptions. It also was partially infuriating that the communion with the stars didn't progress his Void assimilation, but he blamed that fact on Mage Armor being a taximancy.

But the stellar boon was well-received, his Light assimilation now equaling Void's even though he hadn't actively worked for it. His time within the stars was rapidly coming to an end as a mortal mind couldn't tolerate the difference in mentalities of the celestial bodies for long periods of time, but most importantly, his body was also freezing to death. And yet, now that he had managed such a clean chance to communicate with the astral forum, Nolotl wouldn't let this opportunity go to waste.

"Stars, I ask of you… is there a chance to remove this cosmic parasite from me?" The Empyrean's voice echoed throughout the cosmos but he got no answer. Or rather, the listeners didn't know how to answer. Perhaps the Ehecatl wasn't present with him in this abstracted representation of the cosmos, but the stars had indeed him seen get parasitized by the foul creature. And yet, they knew of no answer. Not even guidance. This made Nolotl very sour.

He had already lost his chance to extirpate the Ehecatl due to his own fear. And he couldn't blame himself, their doubt had been very valid. If he wiped clean his status but the Ehecatl still remained bound to him, then it was possible the infohazard entity could just overtake his mind. A mind that would inevitably be weakened by virtue of being two levels lower. I still have an attempt… His question wasn't limited by what he could ask, but rather, by what he could get as a response.

The limit was the amount of information he could process. The celestial bodies were always eager to answer questions, after all.

"Stars, I ask of you… will wiping my status remove this cognitive parasite?" And yet again, they failed to answer. Stars were creatures of experience, and Nolotl wasn't surprised to find that he was the first being in existence to be parasitized by a being that might be the corpse of a True Empyrean. That left him with still more time to ask questions.

"Stars, I ask of you… are you aware of how Enantyum Dei cast his time loop?" His question was a long shot and even if he didn't get a straight answer, he would at least progress his lacking Time assimilation. And yet, the answer horrified him. It felt as if all of the celestial bodies in the cosmos looked at him with their burning or dead gazes, and they all echoed a thought that Nolotl's mind struggled to understand yet it was so loud that he managed to interpret it as words. And it uttered a single question back.

What time loop? Nolotl woke up in a visceral reaction, the closest his avian body could feel to cold sweat.

"Not even the stars know about the time loop…" the diviner muttered under his breath.

"I… I'm not sure if this changes things or not. The stars should know about everything, even if people can't process that information most of the time. If it has existed, the stars have witnessed, but… the loop hasn't existed yet, has it now?" There was a set-up prior to the time loop, Nolotl knew that much, but it wasn't like the stars could interpret rituals for the preparations of a time loop. Nolotl sighed, a bit lost after becoming aware of that fact.

"At least I have gotten what I wanted out of this divination. Though first I should address these notifications…" This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Warning: Cosmic influence has overloaded the host. Stellar communions will not grant bonuses for the following month.

"This is nothing new for me… but I appreciate that the Real-Time Status can put it into words." Not only was he mentally tired, but the stars had thrashed his being too much just from plain communication. That was the reason why diviners weren't performing rituals every day of the year.

"I guess my original divination at the start of the month doesn't count for this limit, which is nice to rely on," he shrugged.

"Time to put these boons to test." The terian stood up and shook off some of the cold that had clung onto his still body before leading his hand to one of his bands, drawing an arcane symbol—in the utmost literal sense—and an ethereal armor slowly materialized from it. Though instead of stopping at his forearm, the abjuration grew to cover his whole chest, nonchalantly phasing through his cape. Or rather, it was his cape that phased through the chestplate.

"Interesting…" Nolotl opened and closed both hands, also swinging his arms around.

"It doesn't hinder mobility nor it's restricted by my clothes, but it still offers its protection." He led his hand to the opposite arm and found that he could touch it, the ethereal armor of pale-blue light phasing through itself as if it didn't exist.

"Perhaps it's incomplete, but it certainly feels magical," he chuckled.

"It's not often that you see spells that truly feel magical." Nolotl walked to where the snow piled up and picked up a handful, shaping it into a snowball. In this instance, the abjuration allowed him to touch the snow, but the moment he threw the ball upwards and it fell onto his forearm, the frail snow shattered against the armor.

"It can sense some intent and at least it can completely repel snow, so even if I cannot use it as actual armor, it works for environmental hazards." His mind was analytical as a scribe's but pragmatic and oriented as a warrior's. Satisfied, Nolotl cleaned all the mess he had made with the divination ritual and went back to the workshop. He could feel the cold cling to his skin as he made his way into the tower, but it was far from enough to ail him. By the time he came back, Beta was already back in the workshop.

"Where did you go? I thought you abandoned me already," she said with such a neutral tone that Nolotl couldn't tell if it was a statement, a jest, or a heartfelt doubt.

"I was performing a divination ritual; it simply took more time than I expected. But let me tell you, it was worth it," the gnosiamancer invoked his Mage Armor yet again, ethereal plate covered his chest.

"Solid progress," Beta admitted.

"Now that you have a grasp for abjurations, it's time you start working on Intellect Fortress."

"Beta, I've yet to successfully cast one first-tier abjuration and you want me to cast a third-tier one?" He professed his doubt with crossed arms.

"Technically a second-tier abjuration with your affinity, furthermore reduced by your outstanding Information Alignment. Not even archmagi reach the last quartile."

"That's not how quartiles work, not in the slightest," the gnosiamancer countered.

"It's literally the 75%, is it not?" She titled her head in confusion.

"Of Alignment, not people!" He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Quartiles work on the demographics and the median, and the median of Alignment is definitely not in the 50% affinity range, even when taking into account only the mage population. I'd dare to say that the third quartile won't even be at 40% Alignment."

Considering he was already at 50% Information Alignment at birth, which was a unique thing to himself, a blessing from the stars, but people normally had far more balanced Alignments—for that was its name, after all—and had more ease to hybridize their magics and classifications.

"I never liked numbers anyways," and with that, Beta let the subject drop.

"But you really need to start working with Intellect Fortress. Put that high Alignment of yours to work."

"What with this haste for me to learn the spell?" Nolotl inquired with the usual calmness he employed with Beta. It just came naturally to him.

"I already mentioned that the likely cause of my failure was some kind of faltering of the mental kind, so having that aura active is imperative. Furthermore, I intend to do an additional thing with all you've told me so far, and that cognitive boost would help."

"I mean it's not a cognitive boost, this isn't Cognitive Stimulation," he corrected.

"Cognitive resistance boost," she fixed her sentence without any expression of annoyance. Though the akyromancer also failed to portray any gratitude for the correction.

"I can get into it and I will… but don't expect it soon. I may have a lot of boosts for gnosiamancers, but most of the boosts in my status target divinations."

"If it took you a month to learn a second-tier divination, then I must rethink your haste and capabilities," Beta mused aloud. I will never tell her that it took me two loops to get that spell right. The more Beta referenced Ode to Silence, the less confident Nolotl felt about his capabilities. As much as having no affinity for Void hurt, it was still true that Nolotl had needed more than a month to get the spell right with all of his boosts to divinations.

I guess I could have changed the Simulacrum slot for Ode to Silence… Pulsars, why didn't I do it? Because he constantly used Simulacrum and it was still a fifth-tier spell, so it didn't matter that he had cast it tens of times now. That lack of a third proficiency would still hurt a lot.

"Then get to work," Beta commanded and slammed her palms perpendicularly to the other.

"Chop chop?" she expressed her doubts.

"Yes," he sighed.

"The expression is chop chop." The Empyrean of Void nodded with nearly an expression of satisfaction. Though, of course, her visage remained as stone-faced as always. Even though it wasn't mandatory, the twiceborn poured mana into his tattoos to release his true self and summoned an illusory book: the one that contained the Intellect Fortress spellware. It remained still in his Perfect Recollection from the moment he had read it at the Archives, but 'physicality' was always helpful for understanding.

Tangibility would be the more adequate term, but alas, his illusions didn't have that component, at most they could fake it. Because he had summoned all of Beta's books in one go this loop, he had a lot of spared time on his empowerment limit. Still far more than enough to fight off an ambush, especially considering the akyromancer had yet to ask for any other book materializations. If an illusion could be considered a materialization.

"Hmm," Nolotl hummed to himself and maintained his form for a handful of minutes as he read the spellbook. The Crow Crown did boost his mental capabilities, no matter if it wasn't that significant of a change. He wasn't any more intelligent nor wise for it, but he would take whatever he could get. Beta looked at him with some interest, but that didn't last long as he recalled his wings and crown and she went back to her books. In this case, books that she summoned from her Inner Abyss instead of the illusory ones.

Like always and almost like tradition by now, Beta and Nolotl read in comfortable silence and company. He didn't hate loud people, but there was something impossibly charming about sharing silence. Especially one loaded with knowledge. He wasn't just a gnosiamancer because of a promise or his birth, but rather because he truly enjoyed hoarding knowledge. And even more importantly, putting that knowledge to use. Intellect Fortress was a curious spell.

Not only because it was his first real abjuration, but because it followed the principle of exemplification that Beta had explained him. The spell was eerily similar to the concept of obscuramancers as one became the protector of the minds when casting the spell. The abjuration, however, couldn't even begin to be compared to the things the Obscuramancer Title could do passively. And that was only the Title, not even an additional Boon!

The Title in question was limited to half of the obscuramancer's resistances and Intellect Fortress could technically go up to 100%—or really close to it as 100% Alignment was impossible, and so was reaching a theoretical level 20—but that really didn't matter. It was a fallacy to even think that both effects played on the same league. The Obscuramancer Title also shared the Resistance to Oblivion Boon and it was free. No wasted Boon on level up, no used concentration slot. It was just a free benefit.

And if the obscuramancer took the additional Resistance to the Eldritch … well, they were called psychic tanks for a reason. Intellect Fortress was a budget imitation in that sense, but an imitation, nonetheless. One of the few things Nolotl was proud of was his mental resilience, so even sharing a fraction of that with other people was a massive boon. Though still a non-capitalized one.

Just like Beta had explained, the principle of exemplification worked by almost inverting the core tenets of Void, it was a proclamation of the being. It was shouting 'I'm here and I'm proud of it'. It was an abjuration that protected the self and others. Nolotl didn't enjoy being the center of attention. Even when he had had some infamy or legend around him in the previous loops due to the ubiquitous Simulacrum at the Archives, he hadn't done anything with it. It was… an interesting feeling, but not one he craved.

And yet, this part of abjuration fascinated him. An inversion of the element… It's similar to how antidivinations can fall on the own school of divination. The lack of information or its protection isn't quite the inversion of Information as misinformation is, but it's similar in nature to what happens with exemplification. Lies are yet another form of information, not the opposite. Nolotl's fingers stopped dead in his tracks, the turning of the page stopped in time as the illusion had a lacking concept of gravity.

His thoughts completely halted whilst he pondered in those words. They weren't mine, he gritted his teeth and instantly knew the answer. Why do you come out of nowhere just to drop cryptic sentences? The diviner inquired at the interloper. The Ehecatl failed to respond. Why was the parasite doing this? To unsettle him? Why out of nowhere? He wasn't in an unstable position like the previous loop, was he? If it wanted to overtake him then there were better ways, right?

Many questions followed in the contaminated sanctity of Nolotl's mind, but he didn't give them shape. They were weak thoughts than only meant stuff to him as he failed to say them aloud in his mind, just stillborn inquires. I'm still learning that abjuration, but I need to do something about the Ehecatl. I cannot risk having it toy with my thoughts because I mistake them with my own.

Perhaps he couldn't extirpate the cosmic intruder—at least the stars hadn't held the answer in that regard—but he could still manipulate how his mind received that information. After all, divination was all about that.