I'm a magnetic field madman

But he seemed to ignore the pain, or rather, the crown of thorns on his head made all the pain seem to be non-existent for him.

Meanwhile, Kiritsugu Emiya, who was being dragged along, was not having such an easy time. The closer they got to the top of the Thorn Tower, the more intense and indescribable panic spread through his heart!

It was as if at the top of that tower, something existed that would overturn his thinking.

Kirei Kotomine gave Kiritsugu Emiya no chance to discuss things. He climbed to the top of the spire, and strangely enough, no one had stopped him so far.

Perhaps it's because Kirei Kotomine himself is the Pope of the divine kingdom, or perhaps it's because—the great Lord is so merciful and capricious.

Even if his own followers blaspheme him, it doesn't matter, isn't that the Lord's mercy? After all, being humiliated and blasphemed by his followers is not the first time for the Lord.

Kirei Kotomine, dragging Kiritsugu Emiya along, climbed for a long time. The thorns that wrapped around his body pierced his body beneath his priest's robes, leaving him covered in wounds. But soon, they finally reached the top of the spire.

But the highest platform of that spire was completely empty.

As the dwelling place of God, there are no magnificent temples here, no angels singing praises... It is nothing like the beautiful and flawless paradise that their missionaries proclaim.

All that exists here is a massive thorn mountain, formed by the endless interweaving and intersecting of thorns.

At the summit of the mountain is a figure sitting upright on a stone seat.

His face was obscured, as his entire body was bound by countless thorns beneath him... but there was no doubt that he was alive, judging from his gentle breathing.

A living...Holy Spirit!

"vomit!"

Kiritsugu Emiya couldn't control himself and instinctively knelt down and vomited!

He looked at the figure atop Thorn Mountain, countless wails and painful messages passing by his ears!

Kiritsugu Emiya's expression was one of utter terror, for he sensed that the direction these painful sensations were pointing was—towards the figure on the Thorn Throne!

"Yes, you've sensed it too, haven't you?" Kirei Kotomine sat cross-legged, looking at Kiritsugu Emiya, whose face was deathly pale, and pointed at the figure, speaking calmly...

"That is our Lord, our great Son, the most perfect Savior in the hearts of us believers."

"Because we believe that only by enduring suffering can we be qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven... Therefore, the Lord gives us the opportunity to exchange suffering for miracles. And because He could not stand by and watch us suffer, the Lord chose to bear our pain, just as the Bible says."

"Isn't he a great man? He is so indulgent towards us worthless believers, a great Lord, a great object of worship."

When Kirei Kotomine said this, there was no respect in his tone whatsoever; in fact, you could hear the strong sarcasm in his voice.

Such an attitude is nothing like that of a devout believer, much less like that of a pope who shepherds sheep for the Lord!

Faced with such a twisted miracle, what could Kiritsugu Emiya possibly say? What else could he possibly say?

Should we condemn the source of this miracle, and criticize the root of this distorted suffering?

But this holy son is bearing the suffering of people! Everything he does is simply because his believers want it this way... and as God, he is merely responding to their pleas!

So, should these believers be condemned?

Has a great life been twisted into what it is today by some nonsensical, painful faith?

Unaware, Kiritsugu Emiya had neither the desire nor the ability to find a target to attack at that moment!

The more he looked at the figure on the throne of thorns, the more he could feel the pain—and this was even more true for the Holy Son who had willingly been bound to that throne!

The pain of the entire world, the suffering of all Catholic believers, every knife inflicted upon him by those mad, self-destructive believers, every torment that pounded into him, all transformed into a torrent of agony that surged into his body.

What a terrible torment this must be!

It is a torment that even the toughest man in the world could not endure... a torture that no description or word can adequately describe!

But Kiritsugu Emiya could sense that this great man accepted all of this without complaint or regret... because Kiritsugu could hear his screams in his ears.

He could feel it, he could see it: a blond man with a single ponytail, suffering unbearable pain from losing his lower body! And all that echoed in his heart was pity and pleas for the world.

Lord! At this moment, please let me share the suffering of the world!

Shock. That was the only word Kiritsugu Emiya could use to describe his feelings at that moment. He had thought that all the Magnetic Field Madmen were extreme and insane people, but what did he see? He saw someone who was absolutely great, even among great people!

"But don't overestimate his greatness," Kirei Kotomine said in a slightly flippant tone.

“Our great Son absorbs pain from us, and in doing so, he also gains his special power. The power of pain, the power of magnetic fields—these are the source of our miraculous suffering.”

“And Kiritsugu Emiya, do you know? For us, the great Lord is an indispensable thing... but for the Lord, we believers are also important to Him.”

"For without us, the Lord's invincible power would never have existed."

98. Traitor

Born from the desire to shatter dreams, shaped by the world's perceptions, bearing pain and sin, only hoping to relieve the world from sorrow and agony.

How did Jesus Christ, born from such pure thought, become the distorted figure he is today?

How did it become something so ugly and insane, even worse than the devil in the Bible?

No, it's not his fault, it's the believers, it's these extreme, crazy believers who think they've interpreted God's will and then recklessly and fanatically carry it out!

The Lord did not say much about these believers' explanations; He yielded to their answers... perhaps because He simply favored His own people.

A holy son who loves his people, a great man, a god who... has been twisted into an evil form by his own followers.

No, that's not right either. How could Jesus Christ be evil? He has never done anything bad since his birth.

He wanted to kill Kuangfeng and Tianzun, because these two people deserved to die.

He rewarded the monks who practiced asceticism in preparation for his coming, for he was so kind and compassionate.

Isn't Jesus Christ today even more kind and pure than he was in the past?

But isn't boundless kindness just like parents who excessively spoil their children?

Love taken to its extreme is no different from the most terrifying evil.

He seems to represent the objective laws of religion: there is always a great beginning, followed by malicious distortion, then reform and an end.

But if the God of this religion of love is unwilling to go against the children's wishes, then even the God's own appearance... will become distorted by the willful children's twisted desires.

But no matter what, this holy son who loves the world is still absolutely "good" to this day.

He responded to the expectations of his believers, accepted their suffering in its entirety, built the towering final wall, and protected everyone who prayed for him.

He accepted all the pain, understood all the good, and protected all those who were willing to follow him.

No one can be kinder than him. In this world, you will absolutely not find any magnetic field master who is greater than him!

Even the most benevolent and righteous person with a strong magnetic field would find it difficult to be so kind to ordinary people.

Jesus Christ went even further, not only sacrificing himself to protect his people and believers, but also choosing to bear their suffering.

But... even without such thoughts, Jesus Christ himself drew "strength" from his believers.

"Faith, legends, and stories—these were once factors that determined the power of heroic spirits. But our Lord is purer than those ethereal things."

Kirei Kotomine gazed at Jesus Christ, who was tightly bound and unable to move on the throne of thorns, and said softly...

“Every bit of our suffering is transmitted to the Lord through faith, and in turn, our pain strengthens the Lord’s magnetic field, the power of His suffering.”

"At the same time, as long as we exist, as long as we can still cause pain, the Lord's power is inexhaustible—in their words, the Lord who possesses us may not become stronger because of our equal suffering... but will have an infinite flow of power because of our vastly different suffering!"

"This……"

Kiritsugu Emiya's expression immediately turned extremely serious. Having followed Bai Jingtian for a long time, he certainly understood some "magnetic field terminology"...

An unlimited flow of power—what does that mean?

That means the continuous magnetic field power itself... means that the output can exceed the original power level, and it also means that cell recombination can completely change from an "active skill" to a "passive skill"!

To put it in a game-like way, it's like fighting in someone else's fountain. No matter how high your damage is, unless you kill them in one hit, their recovery rate might be higher than your damage output!

"Unfortunately, our lord doesn't use this power intentionally," Kirei Kotomine chuckled.

"He stands here silently, like a deity, bearing our pain without a sound, and the only way to restrain this power is—"

He paused, looked into Kiritsugu Emiya's eyes, and said with amusement and a hint of mockery...

"Kill us all! Kill all of us, the believers of the Lord!!"

The answer was expected, but even so, Kiritsugu Emiya felt a chill run down his spine in the face of such a cruel outcome.

"Then why do you help us? Isn't this the kind of world you long for?"

Kiritsugu Emiya looked at Kirei Kotomine and asked in a deep voice...

He couldn't understand Kirei Kotomine's purpose in doing this...

Even if, as he himself said, he was just a piece of trash who longed to see others suffer... then shouldn't this world be paradise for him?

"Hahaha, Kiritsugu Emiya, you really don't understand at all."

Kirei Kotomine laughed and shook his head, saying with a mixture of admiration and disdain...

"How could I have ever considered you one of my own kind? Ha, you think I'm the kind of person who finds joy in seeing others suffer, and I don't deny that... But I don't think the world under the sway of this 'Lord' before me is worthy of my affection."

Kirei Kotomine silently clenched his fists, and said in a suppressed and low voice...

“When I was surrounded by suffering, I did feel happy. But soon I realized that this place was nothing but hell for me, a beautiful hell…”

"They no longer suffer because of hardship; on the contrary, they rejoice in suffering. The pain they feel, the separation they accept, and the things that are taken from them, they feel only joy!"

"Because all suffering will turn into happiness, then where in this world is there any suffering? Such a blissful paradise is not beautiful at all to me! Not beautiful at all!"

"Damn it! Everyone here looks so happy and carefree. Those people are practicing asceticism for happiness, and they're getting happiness in return. Damn it, they're happy, but what about me?"

At this point, Kirei Kotomine suddenly covered his head and roared, looking depressed and on the verge of going crazy!

Yes, for Kirei Kotomine, a lover of hellish jokes who seeks out the suffering of others, a place filled with happiness, even distorted happiness, is enough to suffocate him.

It wasn't that he couldn't tolerate the mundane, but being in this highly distorted world, even he, Kirei Kotomine, was made to vomit by this awful place!

Kiritsugu Emiya silently watched the priest, this Kiritsugu Kirei, who spoke of pleasure and joy—though it was hard to accept what he was saying, he could understand it.

To put it bluntly, for a sadist, the fun lies in seeing the other person being tortured against their will.

If the other person accepts your sadism willingly and sees it as entertainment, then there is no pleasure in it for a sadist.

Waaah!! So, in the end, S and M are never a couple at all!!

"So I hope you can leak this information." Kirei Kotomine stopped his tirade, calmly speaking to Kiritsugu Emiya...

“I would rather see our Lord die than anyone else in the world, and I’m sure my fellow believers would feel the same way—he is probably more benevolent to us in the Bible than in the real coming of God.”

At this point, Kirei Kotomine pulled out Kiritsugu Emiya's confiscated telegraph machine from beneath his wide priest's robes, tossed it to Kiritsugu amidst the gently rippling imaginary waves, and laughed...

"Then tell your emperor everything you know."

Kiritsugu Emiya hesitated for a moment, then typed out the information he had obtained here on the telegram.

He had considered the possibility that it was a trap, but he personally still felt that Kirei Kotomine didn't need to go through such a long and complicated process just to spread a false message.

His anger was genuine; this mentally unstable, pleasure-seeking priest was truly tormented by this blissful paradise.

Moreover, even if we take a step back and assume the worst, he has nothing left to lose in his current situation, and for Bai Jingtian...

Kiritsugu Emiya believed that even in the worst-case scenario, the other party would be able to make a rational judgment.

Following the secret code sequence, Kiritsugu Emiya swiftly sent out all the known information.

As he put down the telegraph machine, Kirei Kotomine suddenly spoke...

"Emiya Kiritsugu, what kind of person do you think Bai Jingtian, whom you serve, is?"

Kiritsugu Emiya remained silent, nor did he prepare any counterattack.

His body's condition was so bad that he no longer possessed the ability to activate his inherent time control.

"In your eyes, he is a calm and kind-hearted monarch, but he is by no means lacking in decisiveness—but in my eyes, he is actually a very impulsive fellow."

"He's a nagging old woman, yes, according to those magnetic field enthusiasts, he's a nagging old woman!"

Kirei Kotomine suddenly burst into a fit of maniacal laughter, and the next moment, Kiritsugu Emiya saw the black key piercing through the center of his chest!

"Your intelligence has been sent out, and I will now announce to the public that I will execute you, this incorrigible spy who refuses to accept divine grace!"

"Hahaha, do you think the monarch you serve would be willing to risk coming to your rescue?"

"..." Kiritsugu Emiya just silently watched Kirei Kotomine, blood flowing down from the corner of his mouth... and the mad priest stopped laughing, and then—on his forehead, an eyeball broke through the skin and slowly came out.

"I was the first to suffer, and perhaps for that reason, the miracle my 'great' Lord bestowed upon me was 'foresight.'"

Kirei Kotomine's low laughter

"Although it's not certain, I can see the outcome, the future, and the possibilities that come with the choices."