Mage? Magic Engineer!

This was not the first time Rorschach had faced "himself."

When the Ancient Sage split the two "Rorschachs," he initially just felt a strange sense of rapport and mutual perception. After their souls merged and their two sets of memories converged, he saw them as a completely unified self.

But now, a mirror image had appeared—a seemingly independent, more perfect existence.

Red Robed Rorschach claimed to have already ascended to Great Mage. He seemed to have absolute control over the Tree of Law and this space, as if he were the perfect archetype of the individual named "Rorschach," inscribed in the Boundary Land.

The original Rorschach, however, was merely a Middle Level Mage. Upon hearing, "You’re the challenger," a seed of fear naturally took root. This fear wasn’t cowardice but an instinct traceable to infancy, a fundamental human response.

When an infant becomes self-aware, it recognizes the correlation between its reflection and itself. When it raises a hand and sees its reflection do the same, it experiences a sense of control. Rorschach had felt this before when commanding the Tower Spirit.

But when one’s perception of the mirror image suddenly disconnects from the self, creating a discrepancy, doubt arises: ’Is that me?’ It’s like the jolt you feel when opening your phone’s front-facing camera without a beauty filter. And from this fissure of fear, "Red Robed Rorschach" crawled out, grimly proclaiming, "I am me. You are the mirror image."

At that moment, Red Robed Rorschach raised his hand, and the Tree of Law sent out golden threads that merged into him. Instantly, the flow of all Magic Power in the Boundary Land shifted. For Rorschach’s Spirit Body, it was like being caught in a storm.

To counter this, the original Rorschach absorbed the violent Magic Power and channeled it outward, forming a stable Domain.

One side controlled the rules of the Boundary Land; the other struggled to maintain its own. The advantage was clear. Red Robed Rorschach applied pressure bit by bit, gradually compressing the area the original Rorschach held up, eroding it away.

Rorschach had previously confirmed that the nodes of the Tree of Law reached a maximum of nine levels. The corresponding link was the Miniature Black Hole Rorschach had once released in the Air Elemental Plane. It was an intertwining of Shaping Power and Transformation, reflecting Rorschach’s understanding of energy control while also relying on his comprehension of spacetime. Although Rorschach himself was not skilled at spacetime-related Casting, his fundamental understanding of spacetime itself was what allowed the "Miniature Black Hole" to work.

Now, Red Robed Xia spread his arms. The entirely golden Tree of Law erupted in brilliant light as multiple branches began to extend and intertwine on their own, creating more Ninth Ring nodes, followed by a tenth...

He was deducing and rapidly extracting the Magic Skills of the Ancient Sage, deriving Ninth Ring Spells to prove to the original Rorschach that his red robes were well-earned.

The entire Boundary Land was plunged into a thunderstorm. This was no ordinary lightning; it was an interweaving of gold and lightless darkness. They were the gaps between reality and symbol. Light represented energy erupting from the gaps, while the absence of light was an all-consuming fissure. Transmuting Dust was absorbed by the lightless fissures, only to be spewed out from the luminous gaps.

When the lightning struck the original Rorschach’s Domain, Rorschach could feel his Magic Power tremble and spiral out of control. With every strike, his Domain was forced to shrink.

Once the Domain completely under Red Robed Xia’s control triumphed and reached Rorschach’s Spirit Body, all manner of pain began to assail him directly. This pain was drawn from numerous Enchantment Spells uploaded to the Spell Cloud. Here in the Boundary Land, it didn’t need to rely on the nerves of a physical body; it tormented Rorschach’s Soul directly.

’Torment?’

Red Robed Xia paced leisurely and said, "I’m tormenting you. Does that make you think I don’t dare to kill you?"

He used a Mage’s Hand to gently lift Rorschach’s contorted face and chuckled. "In fact, my existence does not depend on yours. With a mere thought, I could easily erase you and use your Spirit Body to return to the Material Realm.

"But there’s nothing great about the Material Realm. It’s filled with crawling ants and monkeys. Only a small fraction of them can uncover the world’s truths and partially understand the ideas brought by ’Rorschach.’ As I see it, finding a clone would be sufficient.

"The Tree of Law, however, is my throne, and the Boundary Land is my Royal Court, from where I can look down and control Bayern and hundreds, even thousands, of Casters. Compared to being a so-called ’Great Mage’ crawling around in the Material Realm, I’d much rather be a Transcender."

The original Xia spat. "Then erase me and create a body for yourself! For a Great Mage, that should be effortless, shouldn’t it?"

"True. But even if I did create a clone, I would never again have an agent as dynamic as you. I must thank you. Without you, there would be no me, nor would the Tree of Law exist as it does today..." He gazed up proudly at the Golden Tree, watching the pathways of light flicker. "How lush, how beautiful."

Red Robed Xia turned around. "So, I came to express my gratitude. From now on, as long as you never set foot here again and stop obsessing over my existence, you can continue to do whatever you want in the Material Realm—deal with those monkeys, save them, pity them, enlighten them. Aren’t you enjoying that process?

"Furthermore, you can still become a Great Mage. Yes, I promise you here and now, you will obtain power no less than that of the Ancient Sages."

Rorschach didn’t agree with or believe a single word he said. "And what about you? If it were that simple, you could have just kept pretending to be the ’Tower Spirit.’ Why go to all this trouble?"

"Me? I will continue down this path, always one step ahead of you. I will be the ambitious Rorschach, not a Tower Spirit...

"When you become a Great Mage, I will naturally become a higher existence... To achieve godhood. That is a thought that has crossed ’Rorschach’s’ mind more than once. But you, out of some laughable, trivial obsession, always try to shy away from it. The difference between you and me is that I will walk this path unwaveringly."

"Didn’t Deryats make it clear enough? Right now, not a single corporeal Divine Level existence can be found in the Original Layer, and Divine Kingdom Fragments are scattered everywhere. Don’t you know about the immense danger behind achieving godhood?"

"So what? Can you avoid danger by remaining an ant? Can a mere mortal stand against Mother Earth? Your worries are just an excuse for cowardice."

Red Robed Rorschach increased the pressure again. Although Rorschach’s Spirit Body had no physical brain, he could almost imagine a sharp object plunging and piercing through the fissures of his mind.

"There is one spell that can’t be uploaded, nor can it be recorded in the Original Scripture."

"Of course, I know that just as you do. The Reversing Beam, right? It’s a spell that cancels other Magic, but that also means it’s impossible to cast in the Boundary Land because it lacks a perfect archetype." Red Robed Rorschach’s expression didn’t change. He was now seriously considering whether to erase his counterpart completely.

To Red Robed Rorschach, the "original self" before him was like an old system backup image. It was best to have him, but without him, he would still exist. However, certain undesirable changes would occur... This was something Red Robed Rorschach had extracted from the Ancient Sage’s memories.

He would never tell the "original self" what those changes were.

"I’m starting to think that while you may also be ’Rorschach,’ you are definitely not me." The original body gave a miserable smile. "On this point, our opinions diverge once again."

If the Reversing Beam were still categorized as Magic, then it would indeed be impossible to cast or record in this special space. But if one traced it back to its principle, in a place like the Boundary Land, which was similar to the Original Layer, it wasn’t difficult to cast at all.

Especially on oneself.

For the first time, Rorschach used the Reversing Beam on himself. His appearance began to change, his Magic Circuits faded, and by the time the effect was complete, he had lost his Casting Ability entirely.

Now, he had black hair and black eyes, glaring furiously at Red Robed Rorschach. The Rift Lightning still roared, striking the space between them, its scattering trails like cracks in glass.

The mirror shattered.