Chương 7: City of Descent

Getting some resources to bring the success chance of the Second Mind ritual as close to 100% as possible was Nolotl's priority. So his first destination was the tower's bank. It was surprising how the Empyrean Academy was such a powerful institution when it wasn't a neutral one. The academy and its towers still operated through the Origin government, so it was astounding to see it have its own private non-state affiliated bank.

Though at the same time, Nolotl had seen people die and come back from the dead on nearly a monthly basis, so he didn't even know why that surprised him. But the ones who came back were mostly already undead, so that felt like cheating.

"Purpose of visit?" The clerk at the Empyrean Bank asked her.

"I'd like to sell gold and make a deposit," the Empyrean responded.

"Does this gold have a certificate?" Even though her gaze was tired, as she didn't look on her deathbed, Nolotl guessed she wasn't a gnosiamancer.

"Here," he passed forward through the window a certificate. The clerk raised her brow.

"Tezlan gold?"

"Will that be a problem?"

"No, not at all," she said with a bit more life in her voice.

"Two ingots, right? Could I see them?" Nolotl took the gold out of his satchel with some difficulty. No matter if he was well-built, enough to be a warrior more than a mage, two gold ingots were two gold ingots. As he placed them on the counter with a thud, he felt his shoulder pop back into place. Some magic swept through the place, but as Nolotl didn't sense any change in the Cognition but rather in the Physicality, he guessed it was some topomancy.

There were only two Alignments that acted with matter in that way, Light and Space, but even if it felt appropriate for a photomancer to work with gold, the distortion he felt was closer to a ripple in space.

"I can attest that this is real and pure Tezlan gold," the banker added.

"Would you like to deposit all this gold?"

"Yes, but I'd like to retrieve half of it coin."

"In gold coins?" The clerk frowned at him. He would be retrieving the same weight in gold but in way more volume if he did so, after all.

"You can throw some draconium," Nolotl clarified. The topomancer nodded and retrieved the gold ingots with some sort of gravity-based telekinesis and disappeared into the bank. Not all countries used draconium coinage; Origin was one of the few who used it. But like all other existing coinages, the more expensive the material was, the more valuable the coinage was too. In this case, draconium had an exchange rate of 20x that of gold. One of the highest ones out there between any coin.

"Thanks for your patience," the clerk came back with a tray full of gold coins and some draconium ones, alongside a certificate of the transaction. Now that he actually had some money to his name, Nolotl's next destination was the teleportation network in the academy, which led him to the Central Tower. There was a bit of a queue to get down to the city of Descent—as always, getting down on foot wasn't a realistic option—so he abused a bit of his Empyrean perks and stepped into the first position.

Of course, no matter if he was an Empyrean, the people in the queue did protest. To quench their displeasure and that of the topomancer working, Nolotl took out an official status sheet where it clearly marked him as an Empyrean. Only the first and second people waiting in line saw it, but what mattered was that the teleportation platform operator saw it.

The topomancer showed some displeasure as that meant he wouldn't get paid for this trip, nonetheless he activated the teleportation circle next to him, and with a single step, Nolotl had traveled a handful of kilometers downwards to the city of Descent. Even if the teleportation itself was smooth, it was jarring to see one's landscape in such a sudden and dramatic manner.

This was actually a well-documented effect on people's Cognition—something about displacement disorder—and that was why teleportation networks were always enclosed to limit cognitive damage. But that didn't help when the door to the outside was a few steps ahead. The city of Descent was covered in a beautiful night mantle, with a myriad of stars shining with a myriad of colors, and the shimmering auroras signalizing the cold temperatures.

It was no surprise that the city was colder than the heavily enchanted academy.

"And here I found myself near naked," Nolotl joked as he strode forward into the streets. People dressed in heavy clothing, mostly fur, though the latest trend was some kind of puffy pelt. Like a good gnosiamancer, Nolotl didn't follow local fashion—or any at all—and instead lived his own world that was his Cognition. The gelid wind scraped against his naked torso, but he withstood the cold with relative ease. Perks of being a terian, and part of his unusual set of genetics.

If he really wanted, he could fiddle with his sense of temperature with gnosiamancy as he usually did for his sense of pain, but that would only lead him to get hypothermia without him noticing, so he chose against it. Regardless of his preference for the hot climate and vivacious colors of Tezlan, Descent was a beautiful metropolis. Buildings were made out of thick stone, and normally with two floors or more. An architectural prowess that wasn't commonly seen anywhere else in the world.

Transmutation and topomancy helped a lot with engineering, after all. Nolotl's favorite part of Descent were the glass canopies scattered all around the city, mainly the main avenues, that protected the passerby from the elements. They weren't made from stained glass, but their size alone made them breathtaking. Especially when snowflakes collided against them, coating the canopies in white for only a moment before the enchantments on the glass melted the snow and redirected the water to the city's pluvial sewage.

Descent's beauty could only truly be seen during the night, and it wasn't because of the natural electromagnetic lights of the auroras, but from the artificial magical ones of the enchanters. Photomancy was more common in Origin than other countries, and they showed it by having a colossal lamppost network that illuminated the whole city. Those were made from stained glass.

Under the guidance of the Dijkstra's Routing spell—a somewhat common gnosiamancy divination—Nolotl reached his destination with the shortest path possible. The functioning of the spell was really interesting as it hijacked the local Cognition to create a map of the surroundings and then calculate the most optimal route. Most spells didn't include the maker's name and instead chose for a broadly accepted term, but this was one of the exceptions by the brilliance and elegance of its simplicity.

Behavior-wise, the theory was a bit complex as it had taken him months to integrate the node and weight-based algorithms into his mind, but he believed Dijkstra's Routing would pay dividends in the long run as it was a very powerful divination. Though he wouldn't deny that spending months of his life when he was still a student to have an integrated navigation system in his mind was certainly one of his most… ambitious side quests, to not use more expletive language. His destination?

A rather expensive photomancer glassmaker. The moment he opened the door, heat assaulted him. The outside was below freezing with some snow here and there, yet here the might of the furnace was clear. A bell rang twice when he opened and closed the door behind him.

"Coming~" A melodious voice filled the place. To wait, Nolotl calculated in his mind the next prime number possible. It was a mental exercise for gnosiamancers that did increase their Information level—albeit slowly—where they tried finding the next biggest prime. The most awesome part of this exercise was that it was literally infinite. There was no upper limit and it was a somewhat entertaining way to farm for experience. Nolotl himself was already toying with numbers 68. 310. 235 digits long.

The time to compute them did get longer each time, but so did his computing power and skill as a gnosiamancer, but during the wait, he only found two new prime numbers. Apparently, Xanax was already dealing with numbers 15. 420. 690. 237 digits long, which was almost inconceivable in length. Soon enough, a woman met him on the counter of the store.

Much like Nolotl, her clothing edged to the extreme of none-at-all as she only wore an apron and a pair of pants and shirt that they were just big enough to be called clothing instead of underwear." Oyah? Is that Nolotl I see?" The photomancer chanted with a melody instead of a voice.

"That I am, Roxina," the gnosiamancer dedicated her a bow as it was seen as a form of greeting rather than submission in her country. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The person before her was Roxina Levoti, the Empyrean of Light. And yes, like Cillin, she was Tamorean, which meant her name was actually pronounced Levoti Roxina in her native language.

Not that she could be distinguished by the usual eastern skin of Tamor thanks to the effects of her profession, making it tanned instead of fair.

"Nolotl!" Roxina dashed forward and pouted.

"I told you to call me Roxy!"

"I am not exactly an enthusiast of shortening names," he gave the same excuse for the umpteenth time.

"Names have knowledge and power, if we shorten them, then we are losing part of that power." Azi and Chichi were the only excuses he personally accepted, one out of pragmatism and the other out of exhaustion.

"Hmph!" Roxina harrumphed and avoided his gaze.

"You infuriate me so much… but I can excuse it if you were to commission me~" As extravagant and free-spirited of a person Roxina was, she was still a businesswoman. Nolotl partially believe that her revealing attire was to attract customers. Roxina was not only an attractive and a foreigner—which due to the weird culture of Origin, that made them more attractive, himself included much to his chagrin—but she was sun-kissed in a land where the sun was scarce.

Nolotl himself was of a darker skin tone than most with his chocolate-colored skin. But Roxina, like most Tamoreans, was naturally pale. It was only that through her constant use of a glass furnace she had obtained a delicious burnt coffee skin tone. Which was the other part of the reason why she wore such little clothing. Those photomancer furnaces were hot hot.

It didn't matter that photomancers had access to the Resistance to Radiation Boon, which granted them resistance to sunburn among many other things, those furnaces still burnt her skin. To use advanced transmutation, photomancers had to decompose materials to the molecular level, and such high temperatures helped the process. Whilst he wasn't pursuing any romantical interest currently in his life, Nolotl couldn't lie when he said that he was somewhat attracted to Roxina Levoti.

A colorful skin, golden and lustrous long hair, curvaceous body, insightful mind, prodigious magical and artificer career, and a pair of eyes that shone like the sun with the usual white pupils of photomancers. Some people commented that the Empyreans were always attractive, and whilst Nolotl couldn't talk for himself, he could affirm most filled that criteria with an overwhelming grade. Especially the Empyrean in front of him and that of Arcane.

"As a matter of fact, I do have a commission for you," Nolotl scavenged her satchel in search of the schematics." Oyah? And here I thought you came here just to see me?" She playfully faked a tear.

"I am rather occupied as of late to meet with people, no matter how pleasant they may be." That got a smile out of her.

"I can't disagree with you there; I have my own plans for the total celestial alignment. Heaven's Light will be out of this world that day."

"Indeed." Like his, Roxina's Alignment would be one of the most significantly boosted ones. Arcane, Light, Time, and Information. After investigating which would be the most affected elements as he wasn't sure which of the nine had more compatibility, Nolotl had found those four Alignments would experience a boost of mythical proportions in a matter of weeks. It wouldn't be wrong to say that mythos would be made that day, as Xanax had prophesized. But Space, Void, and Chaos didn't fall behind either.

If anything, the Alignments that would benefit less from this cosmic event were Life and Death, but that much was to be expected considering the nature of those two.

"So lemme see what you got right there," Roxina made grabby hands as she greedily approached the schematics.

"Nothing much really," Nolotl handed her the parchment.

"It's just a few fuses and security measures for ritual I will be doing for the alignment, alongside some mandatory spellware for the ritual."

"Hmm~" The photomancer hummed and twirled around the shop as she inspected the schematics. Even though balance was more of a gnosiamancer, biomancer, or topomancer thing, Roxina had always been a very… acrobatic person since they had met. She halted suddenly and gave him a confused frown.

"Did you make them?"

"I mean, yes?" Nolotl tilted his head in confusion.

"I took some inspiration from Cepha Lexin's notes from a book Xanax recommended, but they are designs of my own device. Except that mandatory spellware I mentioned. That one I didn't design myself."

"I guess it makes more sense if you have access to that woman's notes," she slightly bad-mouthed her own Tower Master, "but I shouldn't be that surprised. You are the youngest Empyrean up to date. And enchanting and gnosiamancy always work together, even if it's more of a taximancy thing."

"You are exaggerating," the gnosiamancer dismissed with a sway of hand.

"And wouldn't Clonazepam be the youngest one? She literally wasn't even born yet when I first inscribed into the academy."

"But dryads cheat," the celestial with white pupils rolled her eyes.

"You're still the youngest terian and celestial to inherit that mantle." Upon hearing that, Nolotl couldn't help but feel worse. If Cillin had been the one to become the Empyrean of Information, then she would have been the youngest one, and by a good margin.

"The only thing I have coming for me is a higher-than-average computing speed. And it doesn't matter if I can make a thousand calculations per second if they are wrong," he added in a somewhat pessimistic tone.

"Are they wrong, though?" Roxina pried and Nolotl simply responded with a smile.

"Let me dissect these schematics, one sec." Photomancers were an interesting bunch as their Alignment had limited progress, meaning that they had access to way less Boons—only eight unique ones—yet unlike other types of limited mages, they had a potency to them. Especially once they reached their capstone Boon. Roxina floated around—in a metaphorical sense, she wasn't a topomancer—as if her body was light as a feather. It wasn't a magical thing, not even a physical one, but a mental state.

Gnosiamancers were always oppressed with the weight of the Cognition, but photomancers thrived on the Physicality, and unlike the topomancers that were also oppressed but with the Physicality, the light mages needed not to worry about the reality that surrounded them. People, when they were ignorant of the pressure inflicted upon them, could truly be happy. In that sense, Nolotl never expected to be happy. There was a cost for being such highly connected to the Cognition.

That thought was met with a strict caress by the Cognition's part, one that some might interpret as a threat. And in a way, yes, it was a threat. The moment gnosiamancers slipped and let the guard on their mind down, they could plunge into madness as the very Cognition flooded their minds.

"Hmm, these are marvelous, but also expensive. Can you afford them?" Roxina's melodious words snapped the gnosiamancer out of his mind. Literally in this case.

"I asked for a favor before coming here, so money is a non-issue currently."

"You haven't gone into debt for this ritual, have you?" She asked with a modicum of concern.

"None at all," Nolotl dismissed.

"As I've said, I asked only a favor. In any case, I should have been paid more than I have." Not once had he petitioned his homeland for more money. All his studies, he had paid for himself. Either by working, or recently by obtaining his status as an Empyrean. The fact that he had contacted Chichihualxo-chitl for the first time in years only highlighted how important the total celestial alignment was, even if it meant contacting a country he was 'exiled' from.

To prove his statement, Nolotl placed a draconium coin on the counter.

"Someone wants to boast, huh," Roxina smirked.

"Sorry, hun, but for these, you'll need more."

"Yeah, I know tha- Wait, 'hun'?" Nolotl squinted his eyes, surprised at her fellow's choice of monicker.

"What are you, a mother?"

"Eh," she shrugged, "there's quite a gap between our ages."

"Not that big."

"You are what? 19? I'm 26."

"You what?" That revelation shocked Nolotl more than the death of that enchantress.

"I don't know why you are that surprised. I'm at my last year and I have my own shop here in Descent."

"Yeah, but 26?"

"I started a bit late, to be fair. It also doesn't help that my birthday is a few months after the start of the school year." Nolotl inspected the Empyrean of Light from head to toe.

"You don't look 26?" The photomancer squinted.

"I'm going to be honest here; I don't know how take that."

"Like a compliment?" The gnosiamancer offered with a touch of doubt in his voice. Roxina chuckled, even her laugh was a melody.

"Sure, let's go with that. Not that there's much difference in looks at our ages."

"Imagine if we were chronomancers or biomancers," Nolotl added.

"True," the photomancer leaned on the counter.

"Though our lovely Empyrean fellows are the exception of that. Clonazepam is a newborn dryad, so of course she's going to look different. But then there's Enantyum. That man has been looking 25 since he was 15, and he's only 22 right now!" The mention of the age of the Empyrean of Time reawakened the memory of Nolotl's miswriting when he was taking Enantyum's status almost a month ago. For some reason, the chronomancer's Cognition felt much older than it should, and it threw him off for an instant.

"Yeah, that's weird," Nolotl decided to ignore the splinter in his mind.

"He has the Resistance to Anachronism Boon, so he should be looking younger, not older."

"Who knows?" Roxina shrugged.

"Some people grow faster than others, and maybe he didn't have the Boon until later. Anyhow, pay up." Nolotl rolled his eyes.

"Can I have an actual amount before paying?"

"Oh, right," the photomancer grabbed a piece of paper, took a look at the schematics, and the dribbled a figure.

"Taking into account that you want this before the total celestial alignment—which I'm in high demand right now, mind you—and the materials for such enchantment, we are talking around this amount." The Empyrean of Information peeked at the figure on the paper and flinched at the amount.

"You drive a hard bargain."

"And you a hard schematic," she counterattacked.

"Fair," he raised his arms in defeat. It wouldn't be incorrect to say that his safety features should survive the brunt of the total celestial alignment with ease if Roxina were to make them. Perhaps it was a bit overkill, but when the outcome of a failed ritual was his brain turned into a mush, every precaution was little.

"Here," Nolotl took out another draconium piece and also a few gold coins. Even though this was just a fraction of what the High Priestess of Nochochenca had gifted him, it still hurt him on a visceral level to spend this much in a single purchase.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" Roxina glowed at the exchange. Literally. That was the starter Light Boon Caretaker of Creation into effect. It was not surprising that a businesswoman like her took the path of Materialism, though it could be argued that she was a businesswoman because she was walking the path of Materialism. In Nolotl's mind, limited growth Alignments were the strangest ones. Especially because most of them were infinite in nature.

"Oof, that was a blinding one," he said after nearly being blinded by Roxina's glow.

"Yup, I've hit the capstone again," the Empyrean of Light explained.

"I hate that any action can tip the slider the other way around if you don't watch out." Nolotl shrugged. He couldn't understand the photomancer's Boons as he had already enough with his.

"How long it will take you then?"

"I'd say… two weeks?"

"That's the day before the total celestial alignment…"

"I'm not the one who brought a military-grade enchantment to my desk on the same month of the most important event in history." Again, Nolotl raised his hands in defeat.

"You got me there… It took me two weeks myself to prepare the schematics and prepare myself for the ritual. I'll be back in two weeks."

"Yeah, yeah," Roxina's eyes were locked on the enchantment, devouring it. They burned with the desire to craft. Such shine wasn't unbeknownst to Nolotl, but he only suffered it when achieving a breakthrough or discovering new knowledge, especially forbidden one. Curiosity was both the best friend and the most common killer of gnosiamancers. He bid goodbye to the Empyrean of Light, but by the looks of her fixation, she didn't even notice.

As for the rest of the day, Nolotl rushed around the stores of Descent before they closed to get some materials for the ritual. He would only tolerate rotund success.