Losing oxygen, Mathias Calypses decided to leave the cave via teleportation. He chose this action because he believed that if he stayed in the cave his problems would be exacerbated.
He first teleported one of his iterations to him and gifted him the soul core and aether by transfer using Energia Furari. Then he teleported out.
Mathias' thinking was that the gamble would alter his teleportation and bring him to a place that wasn't good for him. So he opted to teleport himself and leave the core and aether to the 316th alteration.
By doing this, Mathias Calypses could confirm where he was going to be teleported to. Since he was using his true body all the effects of the gamble would be placed on him. You may think that the gamble might trick him but the Heavenly Tribulation is an event, not a person. It doesn't possess that kind of intelligence. To the Devil's Gamble, all Mathias Calypseses are Mathias Calypses.
Arriving at a green forest, the 315th iteration of Mathias Calypses found himself staring down a cultivator draped in golden robes with shining yellow hair.
Shocked, Mathias opened his mouth to speak, "Hi, my name is Mathias Calyp-"
In the oxygen deprived cave, the other iteration of Mathias Calypses realized something, the 315th iteration had died.
Realizing that any teleportation meant him meeting something which instantly would kill him, something he believed was one or more of the surrounding Ascetics and that exiting the cave on foot would be impossible because oxygen couldn't get through, with any attempted to break the confines of the cave most likely causing it to collapse, Mathias Calypses decided to slowly siphon air into the cave with very small teleportations.
He did it this way to reduce the chance of problems arising from mass teleportations, such as randomly happening to teleport a roaming Ascetic directly to himself accidentally.
Siphoning the air like this, Mathias Calypses continued for a while longer. Before he even knew it, an hour and a half had passed, causing Mathias Calypses to arrive at the 4 hour and 30 minute mark, an hour and a half before the 3-hour stage.
It was at this point that the cave started to collapse. The small minute problems the gamble had created caused the collapse of a previously stable cave system, a cave system that stood stable for thousands of years and would have probably stayed stable for a thousand more.
Knowing that teleporting out with his usual method was a death sentence, Mathias Calypses decided to wake up one of his iterations with a hidden signal and have that iteration teleport Mathias Calypses to him.
This was a type of targeted teleportation that had its baseline established before the beginning of the gamble. Therefore making it significantly harder for the gamble to effect. This did not mean that the gamble could not affect this method though. In actuality, this action carried a certain degree of risk.
If Mathias was past the 1-hour mark he wouldn't have dared to use this method.
Upon activation, the coordinates deviated slightly from the intended value but this was corrected due to the combined realization and efforts of the 316th and 317th iterations of Mathias Calypses.
Arriving at this iteration of himself Mathias was hit with a ridiculous idea. He planned to share the aether which still needed to be absorbed with his iteration and gift one of the iterations all the aether at the end of absorption.
This was a technique encountered before but due to the sheer insanity hidden within its mentality, every other user of this ascension boosting method died to the rebellion of their iterations.
Mathias quickly awoke 3 extra iterations, 318, 319 and 320 respectively and had them teleported to his location, combating the interference as he did before.
He then divided the Ascetic's soul core into fifths using the unique traits of Astris and then had one fifth given to each iteration. This would effectively cut the time needed for ascension by five. Turning 4 hours and 5 minutes into less than 50 minutes.
This did not mean that Mathias Calypses could now avoid the negative effects of the gamble, even if he spread it out between his iterations, they are still counted by the universe as one, since their aether holds the same signature.
But this does mean that Mathias can skip the 2-hour stage.
The stages are named after hours so not because actual time is a constraint, instead it's just because of closeness and proximity. The gamble's power matters how close you are to ascension not how much time you've been ascending for.
In other words, if a sorcerer lost progress in their ascension, the degree of influence the gamble held over probability would also decrease.
Mathias went from 4 hours and 5 minutes from ascension to 50 minutes from ascension instantly. In the eyes of the universe he got extremely close to ascension so the gamble reflected that, instantly switching from the 6-hour stage to the 1-hour stage, skipping the middle stages.
The five iterations of Mathias Calypses then teleported away to equally separate underground locations located using the unique abilities of Astris.
Mathias did this because this way the effects of the gamble would be present throughout the entirety of the Hua forest, thereby effecting the Ascetic and decreasing the gamble's strength.
Mathias planned to use the rule of not causing serious damage to Ascetics as a suppressing factor for the gamble!
Within each of the caves the iterations were in all the pent up gases that weren't there before instantly reacted and detonated, causing each cave system to collapse.
Each clone teleported away from the explosion after shielding themselves with Astris barriers. The 319th iteration was then met with a yellow-haired man in a golden robe.
The 316th and 320th iterations found themselves teleported within complexes filled with robed disciples.
As for the 317th and 318th iterations, they just found themselves in a forest.
At this development, the ones in relative safety knew that their plan had succeeded, they had worn the Devil's Gamble too thin. Even at the highest level, an Adept's Devil's Gamble could not create problems with each of the iterations separate teleportations that would put them in danger.
At least they were out of danger for now.
The ones in the clear were about to move before they simultaneously realized something: what the gamble would do now is try to force them closer together so that it can fully utilize its power to fully kill Mathias Calypses.
Walking in any direction would cause them to be closer together. This was due to the Gamble's probability manipulation, any direction one Mathias would choose the other Mathias would also choose.
This was not just because they were an identical person with similar tendencies but because at the level of the one-hour stage, even space, distance and position went against Mathias Calypses.
The only reason Mathias could teleport at all during this near-final stage was because he was an Astris sorcerer, someone with specialties in those fields.
But even so, his teleportations were mostly warped and did not aid him.
So he instead opted to just concentrate on absorption, after all there were only 41 minutes left to go.
In front of the golden Ascetic the 319th Mathias Calypses smiled with courtesy, "Such a gesture is common from my homeland, the mirror's land." Mathias said
"Were you the one?" The golden-eyed cultivator said.
Mathias knew precisely who this was and what he was talking about, "Hmm, what are you talking about?" he said
"The one who replaced my clansmen with dolls?" He spoke calmly.
Mathias slightly tilted his head sideways.
"There was another look-alike to you, I killed him. He was an Adept without aether." The robed Ascetic said, gripped his left wrist with an erratic motion.
The Ascetic continued, "I wonder, could he have been a brother?" He said in a crazed state, his face constantly twitching.
"More so than you can ever imagine." Mathias said, a delighted smile forming on his face.
At this smile the Ascetic made an unfathomable expression.
In a clan hall the 320th iteration of Mathias Calypses looked at the surrounding disciples, under the influence of the gamble and their fear they instantly attacked the intruder.
With a mass amount of sorceries prepared, the 320th Mathias Calypses killed a vast number of the disciples using beams of starlight.
Noticing elders coming, the 320th version of Calypses swiftly sent all the aether of the initiates to the 319th iteration, the one that was requesting help. This was done by utilizing an inverted Energia Furari.
Normally inversion is part of the mirror affinity, an infinity belonging to the Lunae sorcery branch but due to the fact Mathias had already completed the explosive progress aspect of becoming an Ascetic, he was already a kind of half-ascetic.
He could manipulate laws not directly pertaining to Astris!