"How is it different?" Feuerbach slipped into lecture mode. His eyes burned brightly as he stared at Rorschach, willing the young man’s mind to work faster, and faster still.

"The text was destroyed after the reversal."

"Correct, and also incorrect. Use your head!"

Rorschach felt backed into a corner. He pondered the meaning and substance of the text itself. "Information! The information was lost."

"Good." Feuerbach was satisfied. He turned to an unburnt and unrestored section of the parchment and repeated his earlier demonstration.

Rorschach focused his Arcane Vision, trying to memorize the process of the Great Mage casting the Reversing Beam before him, but Feuerbach stopped him with a sharp command:

"Middle Level Mage Rorschach, you are not here to learn my Casting Techniques and waste your focus. Relax your mind. Look! Look! You need to carefully examine the difference between the first and second results!"

"The text and patterns were restored." Rorschach took the draft again. The second casting had not resulted in information loss.

"Yes. The most obvious difference is that I used more Magic Power the second time, but that is merely the superficial cost. Don’t you find it strange? Just now, Rorschach, you said the information disappeared. Does the parchment itself not contain information? When we hold it, it has dimensions, weight, color, thickness... Why can its state be so easily restored?"

This made Rorschach hesitate as well. Clearly, the letters had only been blurred, not erased. It was more like the physical matter had lost its "meaning" after the first casting.

However, Feuerbach then changed the subject. "Since you studied at the Tower of Stars, I won’t waste my breath discussing the concept of temporality with you. Instead, let’s start with the Magic you developed yourself and talk about the so-called Divine Spirits."

"Our Creator possesses infinite power. It created the world, but before the emergence of intelligences like humans, Elves, or even other Divine Spirits, could the world grant itself meaning? Even though mountains and lakes existed, could the world itself recognize them? Even with the existence of Magic Power, could it be utilized in the Material Realm to produce miracles?"

Feuerbach seemed to believe the Creator (the world itself) was a chaotic and foolish entity, and Its own infinity created a terrifying meaninglessness.

"Since you have read the works of Faust, you know how important so-called ’Order’ is. And Order must grow from ’finitude’."

Rorschach tried to understand his words. Following the earlier "monkey and typewriter" analogy, the "monkey" was the Creator in Feuerbach’s eyes. He was emphasizing that even if a "masterpiece" truly existed within the endless permutations, it would lose all meaning because the content was "infinitely" vast. The prerequisite for finding the masterpiece was to extract a finite existence from the infinite.

The limitations of intelligent beings like humans as individuals are precisely the prerequisite for bestowing meaning upon the world and creating miracles.

Thus, in Feuerbach’s view, intelligent beings like humans, Elves, and Dwarves were all equal intelligences, and this even included Divine Spirits.

"Therefore, I would say that humans and other intelligent entities are the intermediaries that produce symbols and symbolic order, allowing the world to emerge from infinite chaos and achieve self-reflection."

"Some foolish, humble believers say, ’When man thinks, the Creator laughs.’ That’s right. What we see is what the world sees. Our thoughts are the Creator’s thoughts. And I certainly don’t deign to hide my scorn for such an idea." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

He continued sharing the results of his research: "Divine Spirits are also divided into the primordial gods who first split from the Creator and the later gods of Authority. The first group of Divine Spirits were merely splinters of the Creator—light, darkness, earth... They still possessed infinity, still acted blindly, just like natural phenomena such as wind, rain, and lightning. They merely existed ’in themselves,’ not ’for themselves.’"

"But intelligence, whether it awakens in a weak creature or in a primordial god, becomes the world’s intermediary, further bestowing finitude, and granting names, meanings, and the next generation of gods their Authority and divine office."

If intelligent entities are the intermediaries through which the world attempts to grasp itself, then what is the intermediary of the intelligent entity’s consciousness?

"Symbols. The special nature of symbols thus becomes apparent. Don’t limit your thinking to written or spoken language. Any abstraction defined and governed by intellect is a symbol. Our diagrams, our writing, even our Magic Circuits—they are organized to mediate consciousness, Magic, Divinity... and I call this method of organization ’symbolic order.’ Due to the special nature of symbols, a greater price must be paid to restore them once they are destroyed."

Rorschach believed that what Feuerbach called "symbols" and "symbolic order" was the same as Faust’s "Order." However, the latter was more general. Feuerbach had grasped that symbols themselves did not depend on any single, isolated individual, but followed a set of rules in their transmission and use by every consciousness.

"But symbolic order..." From this phrase, Rorschach’s thoughts turned to the god widely worshipped in the Holy Kingdom.

Feuerbach was pleased with Rorschach’s association. "Exactly! This is the source of the God of Order’s power! The core of Its strength is not stability, or harmony, or some wonderful, just social order... Those are just tricks for luring in believers."

The Master’s expression grew agitated, his pipe long since extinguished in his hand. "It is obvious that all equal intelligent entities co-created order, especially symbolic order, yet this Divine Spirit has stolen that Authority for Itself, shamelessly proclaiming Itself the ’Lord of Order.’"

"Only by striking down It and Its servants—those Bishops, Kings, and Emperors—can we take back the power the Creator bestowed upon us! Regardless of whether they believe in It, anyone who upholds the old order that It commands must be eliminated. Not a single one left!"

’Huh? I came here to learn Magic, how did it get to this?’ Rorschach’s mind had been stretched taut trying to follow the Great Mage’s line of thought, but somewhere along the way, it had turned into an inflammatory speech.

Rorschach was taken aback by Feuerbach’s radical ideas. Of course, it made no difference to him personally. With or without such a justification, Rorschach had already planned to do just that. The young man only found it a shame that with an audience of one, the Great Mage’s grand speech was going to waste.

"I couldn’t agree more with your ideas, but may I ask what all of this has to do with the Reversing Beam Magic itself...?"

Feuerbach calmed down a bit, handing his pipe to the Gargoyle to be lit again. "As I was saying, all of this implies the principle behind the Magic’s implementation. You should have already encountered similar ideas in Faust’s works. The key lies in the Reversal."

"In fact, your ’Expulsion of Divinity’ has already grasped the occurrence of a reverse process, you just haven’t taken it any further. To put it in highly abstract terms, it is the cancellation of what Faust calls ’Order,’ or what I call the ’symbolic order’ of Magic."

"The Casting process may be complex, but canceling the result of a complex process does not require you to ’retrace your steps.’ We only need to anchor the state before the Casting and then arrive there directly."

"First, what is the state of the Magic itself before Casting? Disordered, infinite Magic Power. Good. This step alone can dispel many magical states. And as for my repairing the parchment after burning it, it is in fact different from the Repair Skill. The first spell was the destruction of the Material Realm’s current state, whereas I destroyed the previous ’destruction.’ Can you understand?"

...Rorschach wanted to say no, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He had a vague idea now and just needed to sort through his thoughts.