Chương 61: Chapter 58: Serpent’s Muzzle

Creating spells was hard. Creating spells whilst most of one's time was dedicated to learning a somewhat hard one was even harder. It soon became clear to Nolotl that he wouldn't be able to alter the Ehecatl's despicable voice with meager cantrips. He needed a real spell. And for whatever the case was, there simply didn't exist a spell to modify telepathic communication between the same mind. The stars had already implicitly told him as much, but Nolotl truly found himself in one of the most peculiar situations.

Spellcrafting was an exceedingly complex subject because it went beyond even the already hard requirement of perfectly understanding a spellware from gnosiamancy. Now you also had to perfectly understand the separate components and their multiplexing. After all, a single spellcircle could send diverse signals that could be either physical—sometimes referred to as analogical—or working on other planes.

Cognitive signals were more common than spiritual ones, but both existed and could interact with one another and then interfere with each other. In other words, it was an exponential mess. Signal multiplexing was a subject so complex that Nolotl didn't even want to think about it. It didn't help that he hadn't even had any classes on the subject and he was self-taught from books. Perhaps most classes were slow for him, but the virtue of a capable teacher was one that was hard to skip.

Unlike the rest of the empyreans, he wasn't a prodigy. Highly competent and hardworking, but self-teaching was a lacking discipline. Otherwise, he wouldn't require Beta's help.

"Food," said teacher commanded. Nolotl raised his head from all the sporadic and scattered scribbles he had done on the gnosiamancy spellcircles and sigils he was learning about. The Empyrean of Void was placid as always, reading from her armchair with one thick book on her robed lap, though a hint of annoyance was visible in her visage due to her gathering hunger. Or is she annoyed? Truth be told, Beta failed to show such emotions.

Lesser Read Thoughts didn't have anything on her by virtue of being a non-gnosiamancer and then being an akyromancer on top of that, so combined with her inexpressive self, it was hard to get anything out of her. Though, bit by bit, Nolotl was building a mental comprehension guide on the pale woman's mannerism. With a soft sigh, mostly out of relief than exhaustion, Nolotl stood up and started preparing the meal.

The workshop lacked furnaces so certain foods like bread or roasted chicken were impossible, but there were an infinity of meals that could be prepared in pans and pots. With eggs, some hard and yeastless bread that Beta already had, and some cuts of chicken breast, Nolotl prepared breaded chicken today. And no, it didn't count as cannibalism. Even if he were to eat the exact same species of quetzal and crow that was on his blood, it still wouldn't count as such.

Though, technically speaking, not even eating celestials or terians would count as such. Only eating terians of his own demographic would count as such. But that was a slippery slope. Not that any of this mattered as the only sapient creatures in this world that engaged in cannibalism periodically were dryads. The food was far from done, yet the enticing smell got Beta out of her seat as she hovered around Nolotl, eagerly—or so it looked like to him—peering at the sizzling pan.

"So have you have been doing these last hours?" Beta engaged in small talk as plainly waiting for the meal to be ready was a hollow thing even for her.

"That wasn't the Intellect Fortress that you were practicing." Or not… Nolotl chastised himself for supposing any of Beta's thoughts. It seems she's just that eager of me getting that spell done rather than the work I've been doing. That made him deflate a bit but didn't stop him from turning his head to face her and responding.

"Trying to make a simple divination, but the task is proving to be way harder than I expected."

"Aren't you wasting a lot of time trying to plow through spellcrafting?" Beta said.

"That seems closer to enchantment and we're doing abjuration here."

"I know, I know," Nolotl flipped the chicken fillets one by one.

"But it will do me some good. I need two hyper-specific things, so I cannot simply wait for whenever I decide to get enchantment instruction." He wasn't sure if Nina would help him in that case, but perhaps Enantyum had another choice for his enchantment professor. The only two empyreans that he was 100% sure that would help him without any conditions whatsoever were Mio and Clonazepam. One was always happy to interact with people and help them, and the other was too good and accommodating to say no.

"And can't you use existing spells?" Even though it was a question, it sounded more like an order for the diviner.

"Nope, hyper-specific, as I've said," he picked up the fried fillets and placed them on a plate to the side, only to pour more onto the oil-laden pan. This much chicken was enough to fill up a family of three, but considering they were two and one of them was Beta, the needed portion would be closer to a family of seven.

"I need a spell to… facilitate inter-cerebral communication and another to allow me to instantly imprint the Simulacrum hylomorphism." The claire-obscure woman frowned at the first statement, her body and lengthy robe nearly melding with shadows, but the second statement proved to be the most important to her.

"Why not just use a spell to copy book contents for the latter?"

"The hylomorphism is an enchantment. Perhaps not as difficult as the complete divination, but that means I cannot mass-produce it. If I want to get anything that can replicate it fast, I need a spell tailored to recreate the physical component." Beta nodded at that. Perhaps she wasn't a gnosiamancer nor an enchanter, but it was common knowledge for mages of certain caliber that you couldn't just mass-produce enchantments. Otherwise, the career of enchanter wouldn't even exist.

And no, it wasn't due to some conspiracy to keep the jobs of the enchanters. Enchanted items needed a personal intent that mass-production couldn't replicate. Even if he succeeded with the Simulacrum hylomorphism spell, it would be far from instantaneous. But a handful of minutes was preferable to a handful of hours of dedicated and backbreaking work. Work that he would need to perform every single loop. Again. And again. You have resisted Madness.

I deserved that, Nolotl blamed himself for his pessimism and placed the last of the breaded chicken fillets on the plate, carrying it to the workbench where they ate. Perhaps Beta wasn't salivating when they sat, but she certainly gave off the impression of a dog that was commanded to wait to eat by their master until the go signal was given. Though in the akyromancer's case, the moment the plate was placed on the table, she was already eating.

"As always, I'm surprised about your lack of reaction to steaming-hot things," he might be reproaching Beta, but he said so with a smile. Even with that, the abjurer continued putting red-hot food in her mouth with much gusto. Perhaps the facial expression wasn't there, but how could he not feel happy with such exaggerated mannerisms?

"No, you're doing it wrong," Beta lectured him.

"I haven't even cast it!" Nolotl protested.

"And like, Intellect Fortress is a gnosiamancy, there's no casting it incorrectly."

"I never mentioned casting," the abjurer stated plainly, if with a tinge of confusion as her head ever-so-slightly tilted to the side.

"It's the mentality that's important here. You're dealing with a gnosiamancy, your competence, yes, but also an abjuration. This isn't as straightforward as a divination is to you. The first step is to get the mentality right." This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The terian cracked his neck and moved his shoulders, putting them back into place as he stood up from his sitting position.

Beta and he had been reading on the Intellect Fortress spell side by side, the akyromancer giving him advice in more hands-on lesson than the simple dumping of didactic content that she usually did.

"So what's the mentality here?" He asked after moving his legs a bit.

"Why are you doing that?" She asked in genuine interest. Beta's brand of genuine.

"An active body is an active mind," the gnosiamancer explained.

"A lot of my peers forget that, but there's virtue in using both body and mind simultaneously. I haven't done it here with you to not distract you, but I tend to exercise whilst studying."

"How… dreadful…" Beta expressed with distaste that could almost be perceived. Should I add to my spellcrafting list an expression-reading spell? He pondered half-jokingly. No, who am I kidding? There's bound to exist a spell like that. Unlike my other two situations, this case should be common enough than someone with my tendency of side-quests must have pursued the effort before me.

"Well, I understand that not everyone is enthusiastic about exercising, specifically magekind," he chortled.

"But could we get back to the whole mentality thing?"

"Right," the claire-obscure woman nodded, her pale skin contrasting with the darkness of her attire.

"Exemplification is about reveling in existence, but not quite all existence, but yourself alone. You're a beacon, you're a paragon. And I cannot see that in you."

"Was that an insult?" Nolotl inquired jokingly, already knowing how crude Beta could be with her statements.

"Yes," she replied taciturnly. The quick response left him in stasis.

"Oh."

"Why are you so afflicted?" Beta added in bewilderment.

"We've exchanged more cruel facts before."

"I…" Nolotl frowned, "that's not what an insult is, Beta."

"Is it not?" She tilted her head.

"Isn't any negative description an insult?"

"I… guess you could consider them that… but that's not the whole fact." Sometimes I feel like I'm talking with a machine, which is quite ironic considering the 'pinnacle' of gnosiamancy is becoming fully logical and ignoring emotion.

"The difference between insults and negative statements is that the former have the intent to hurt the listener."

"I see," the akyromancer led a hand to her chin in thought.

"I'm aware that you've had to sacrifice your emotions for your discipline, but you've had to know that distinction beforehand, hadn't you?"

"Who knows, it's hard to tell sometimes," the Empyrean of Void said something very terrifying with eerily nonchalance.

"And technically speaking, I've pruned my emotions. Not sacrificed them. I would if I could."

"I…" The Empyrean of Information led a hand to his face.

"I don't even know where to begin with… That's a lot to process in so few words. Are you sure you don't want me to succeed with the Intellect Fortress for your own day-to-day mental stability?"

"I'm quite sure that's not the case. I know myself better than you, Nolotl," her voice betrayed more annoyance. Pruned, not sacrificed. The thought lingered in Nolotl's mind. So something remains, but more importantly…

"If you've pruned them, that means it will grow stronger, right?"

"That's the basis of akyromancy, yes," Beta nodded.

"People mistake it for sacrifice, but it's closer to an investment. It's not giving up something in exchange for another thing, but instead letting something go with the hopes that it might return invigorated."

"So everything about… you might return?"

"Emphasis on the might," she nodded again.

"It's not a guarantee, but it's a possibility. In a way a… No."

"No… what?" Nolotl inquired.

"I spoke too much, especially considering the nature of your magic," the akyromancer stood up; her visage seemed more deprived of emotion than usual.

"I will not reveal any information that you can prod out of me with other tries." Even though Beta didn't know the true nature of the time loop and she hadn't known about it for more than a handful of weeks by now, she still had assimilated the fact that she shouldn't share any information.

"I wasn't… prodding for information," Nolotl responded honestly.

"I care not," Beta walked away, but instead of removing herself from the room, she simply sat in her armchair and started reading a book she materialized.

"Study by yourself." The abjurer was indeed in front of him, yet the diviner felt an immeasurable chasm between the two now. He couldn't comprehend if this separation was a physical thing born out of her akyromancy or more of an emotional gap, but Nolotl didn't have the heart to check which was the case. Beta became more reclusive from that day onwards. She would still eat but show no gusto. She would still give him lessons but there was no longer any small talk of any kind.

Nolotl had first described Beta as a black box when making reference to his inability to read her mind on the utmost surface of levels, yet now he realized his mistake, just how he mistakenly classified her dark eyes as dead. No, that's not a black box, she's white. His mind was brought to all the cosmological phenomena he was acquainted with. A white hole. If a black hole is greedy and absorbs everything, she's the opposite. She repels everything. Nothing can enter. A singularity not out of mass, but nothingness…

Truly an incarnation of Void. He wasn't aware why this change had occurred even if he could theorize all he liked, but this new observation changed things in his approach. Except some things can make their way inside, just like black holes can slowly radiate… And perhaps I can be that infinitesimal unit that makes its way in. Singularities were far from absolute, his knowledge of astronomy, astrology, and astromancy told him as much. Technically speaking, nothing had changed, but that mentality did wonders for him.

It allowed him to form an approximation of a psychological profile on Beta, something he had been unable to do. But it was mostly because he thought the woman was a black box and not a white hole. A different approach, or at least a curated one, was needed to deal with this realization. Alas, he wouldn't have much time to do that on this loop.

Between Beta's assimilation of his claims, the prior theoretical lessons, the practice with Mage Armor, then the theory of Intellect Fortress and the spellcrafting of his divination had all gnawed on the time of the loop. The lack of outdoors barring that one outing for divination purposes meant that it was hard to keep track of time. The bedrooms at the Void Tower lacked windows, after all.

What should have been weeks felt like days, and before he was even aware of it, the week of the total celestial alignment had arrived. Beta was still reclusive, but somewhat more open. Yet never once had she asked her to search for any reference at the Archives, the books on obscuramancy she had gathered had either proved to be enough or she didn't want to interact with him that much. What mattered more, however, was the progress of his spellcrafting.

Perhaps he could have gotten Intellect Fortress cast by now as it was a virtual second tier spell he had lots of affinity with, but he wasn't in a haste as Beta had notified him that she wouldn't be attempting the ritual this time, instead focusing her efforts elsewhere. This led Nolotl to create his first-ever spell. Manipulating information was already his forte, so the process wasn't as hard as he had expected.

Divination and gnosiamancy working together in tandem with his personal affinity of understanding spells in a mechanical manner resulted in a spell that only worked in the deep entrails of his mind. The liminal space of his bifid minds wasn't a sacred space, but it still was one that only he controlled. The Ehecatl could have some effects on that liminality, but it was a paltry effect compared to absolute supremacy. Taking a deep breath, Nolotl cast the spell and silence was made.

The coiling and sizzling of the serpentine intruder fell into a deeper background than the white noise that it already typically was. That was a nice bonus, but the actual effect was something else. Half measures; not even a bump in the long road of the great scheme of things. The Ehecatl spoke with the same motherly intonation as always, but he could no longer steal his voice. For an extra measure, the spell also manipulated the way the words came to the diviner.

He couldn't describe it himself, but as he heard the words directly from the Cognition instead of the usual corporeal senses, it was like a mirrored knowledge, a voice that came from behind instead of the front yet that wasn't intrusive in the slightest, just different. And different was what he had been seeking. The important part was that the Ehecatl's voice could be easily identified, he didn't care if the result was a bit off-putting.

I satisfy myself that now my thoughts remain my own and your words your own, but fret not, this is only the start of what I have in mind for you. Don't think I've given up on extirpating the cancer you are. Charming. The nocturnal wind taunted in its cradle-prison. But Nolotl couldn't even bring himself to care about those words. Not just because they were poisoned, but because something else was piquing his interest. Warning: You have taken a first step into understanding the totality of reality.

He had no idea of what to make of that notification. It scares me. Those were his own thoughts, but even those were a misnomer. What he was actually scared of wasn't the cryptic message, but rather the source of that information. Real-Time Status was a spell that hijacked both the Cognition, the user's knowledge, and the Alignment. What was issuing that warning then? Was it his subconscious? The collective unconscious? Reality itself acting through the Alignment as proxy?

Or perhaps it was simply the Ehecatl that was playing a joke on him in reprisal for his new spell? It could be problematic if the Ehecatl could affect the Real-Time Status divination, but Nolotl always used it as a second-hand guidance and a source of motivation, not his actual forefront of knowledge. If that came to worse, he could simply not use the spell and rely on plain old status divinations. But what could I call this spell?

He didn't even have time to think as the self-updating divination that relied on his subconscious did the work for him. Name: Serpent's Muzzle Schools: Gnosiamancy, Divination Requirement: None Effect: This spell manipulates the thin film covering the caster's mind so it cannot be filled with internal fake information. Reinforces the strength and control of the liminality of minds in the presence of minds with several cores of thought. Serpent's Muzzle?

Nolotl chuckled at the name that his own subconscious gave to his first crafted spell. I like it.