"Teacher, that was what today's newspaper said.
Roland really did say that. We made a point of checking."
At the Katria School's residence, several school members had gathered in Grand Mage Malsin's private villa to discuss the latest news from the arcane world.
It was already the following day. Like a stone stirring up a thousand waves, Roland's prophetic declaration had sparked discussion on an even greater scale.
"What he meant should be that Seris runes can draw upon faith and respond, like a deity, to the resonance of their many users."
The vigorous Malsin put down his newspaper, chuckled, and pointed out the crux of the matter.
"What is a god, in your understanding?"
Mages had long studied questions like this. Several students answered without hesitation, "In the narrow sense, a god is a powerful being capable of directly exercising authority over laws and changing reality.
In the broad sense, a god is the natural world itself, the laws themselves.
A true god cannot be conceived of or discussed. Only by manifesting an avatar before mortals can it become known to them."
Grand Mage Malsin said, "That is the distinction between a religious god and a philosophical god.
From a religious perspective, deities are further divided into nature gods and personal gods.
From the heavens, earth, sun, moon, wind, fire, thunder, and lightning worshipped by primitive peoples, to the mysteries of the human body, and then the personified spiritual symbols that emerged after the humanist era-all are concepts familiar to us.
But do not forget that, besides the priests of the various deities, druids and rangers can also use divine magic.
They do not necessarily need to pray to a deity, yet they can obtain divine magic. That power comes from the natural world."
The students nodded to themselves.