"Truly worthy of being the forr Sealing Designation Enforcer, the Clock Tower's foremost martial artist."
As Kirei dodged Shiomi's thrusting spear and drove a punch into the shaft of Gungnir, a shockwave burst outward from the clash between the two. The priest spoke in what sounded like genuine praise.
Then his tone shifted abruptly.
"No. Now I should say… an existence that has reached the divine realm."
His voice remained calm and unhurried, tinged with a faintly mocking smile and a pleasure that was difficult to tell whether it was sincere or not.
"Let's hope you can keep that half-dead expression all the way until you die."
Shiomi frowned. With a violent sweep, he knocked Kirei back with his spear. The Chosen Spear in his left hand imdiately slashed diagonally, the silver blade flashing with a cold glint.
After passing through so many Lostbelts, the Alien Apostles had already gathered nearly all of Shiomi's information.
By now, Kirei understood Shiomi's close-quarters combat style extrely well and could judge his movents with considerable accuracy.
So when the strike missed, Shiomi was not surprised.
A priest who excelled at survival would never have beco such a persistent nuisance, clinging like a parasite to bone, if he could be killed in a single exchange.
Several Black Keys shot toward him, fast as flying blades.
They were the favored weapons of the Holy Church's Executors, but they posed little threat to Shiomi.
Compared to the Noble Phantasm in his hand, those blades said to embody the words of God were hardly worth worrying about.
At most, Kirei's current state as a kind of incarnated Servant, combined with the Composite Divinity of an Alter Ego, made the Black Keys slightly more dangerous than usual.
Shiomi swept his spear, knocking the Black Keys aside, and charged forward again.
"I'll ask one last ti," he said coldly. "Why are you standing on the side of the 'Alien God'?"
"Your question is flawed from the start," Kirei replied while evading the attack and searching for an opening to counter.
"It isn't that I chose to stand with the 'Alien God'. Rather, I was chosen by the 'Alien God'. That's all."
Though he said that, there was no trace of helplessness in his attitude. If anything, he seed perfectly at ease.
Since he had been assigned the role of an Alien Apostle, he would simply carry it out to the end.
"That's all?" Shiomi didn't believe a single word. "Obeying the 'Alien God', participating in the destruction of Proper Human History… Kirei Kotomine, betraying your own faith like this… do you feel nothing about it?"
"Faith? Even now, I still believe in my Lord."
Kirei stepped back, widening the distance between them as he prepared for the next charge.
Turning his back at a mont like this would be no different from seeking death.
That spear, Gungnir, possessed a guaranteed hit and kill that was even harder to dispute than the cursed crimson spear.
"But I also have answers I wish to obtain. During the Fourth Holy Grail War, I once sought those answers, but you stopped . Fortunately, the 'Alien God' took notice of ."
Kirei's lips curved into a smile that clearly didn't match his words.
"Don't you think this is a good opportunity?"
"Your inborn flaw may be unfortunate," Shiomi said, pointing his spear at him, "but that doesn't give you the right to commit evil in its na. Caren has worked hard to find balance between her nature and her humanity. What about you?"
"How she chooses to live is her business."
Kirei pressed his lips together slightly.
"It has nothing to do with ."
"So you think the 'Alien God' holds your answer?" Shiomi almost laughed in disbelief. "You'd sacrifice the entire Proper Human History just to satisfy that personal desire?"
"Why not?"
Kirei glanced at his own hand.
"Faith in the Lord cannot explain why a being like was born. If that's the case, then I will simply seek another god."
His gaze returned to the spear tip pointed at him.
"You should already know that the 'Alien God' is not that broken Beast, but the celestial sphere Chaldeas in Antarctica."
"Of course I know," Shiomi replied. "After two thousand years of accumulation, the Animusphere family finally completed that thing. What they intend to accomplish with it… I do plan to go to Antarctica and see for myself."
"But that hollow god…"
"I don't need the 'Alien God' to answer my question."
Kirei spoke as if lost in his own thoughts.
"When everything is complete, when this bleached planet takes its next step, the answer I seek will exist within that result."
Clearly, what he wanted was simply to witness the completion of the Alien God's undertaking.
Even if there was no answer in the end, Kirei likely wouldn't care.
What he desired now was rely the process itself, even if that process ultimately led to nothing.
A man born without normal human emotions was walking steadily toward that emptiness.
"I see."
Shiomi felt there was no reason to ask any more questions.
No one could truly understand Kirei Kotomine, let alone correct him.
Anything further would only waste breath.
"There's no point in probing further, Tenkei Shiomi," Kirei said. "Perhaps even the 'Alien God' itself cannot see what lies ahead. This so-called plan is rely a brief episode within a far grander design."
"You seem very certain of that," Shiomi replied.
"After watching your battles along the way, I realized just how badly the 'Alien God's' plans have been disrupted. None of the Alien Apostles could complete their original mission. In the end, all of them will return to dust within this Lostbelt."
Kirei spoke of failure without the slightest concern.
"That includes her as well. The 'God' who leads the six 'Alien Apostles'."
"So she really is a Servant," Shiomi said quietly.
"She's nothing more than a spare prepared by the 'Alien God'," Kirei said without hesitation. "The being who was originally ant to beco 'that' was taken away by you."
"Now, after blindly coming into contact with your authority, she has already lost the fundantal principles that allow her to function. Sooner or later, she will disappear along with this Lostbelt."
"For her, that may even count as a kind of happiness."
Shiomi's grip on the spear tightened slowly, the weapon creaking under the pressure.
Anger rose within him.
Even if she was only a counterfeit, even if she was an enemy, U-Olga Marie had been nothing more than a discarded pawn from the very beginning.
As a being created for that purpose, fighting until death had been her only reason to exist.
"How compassionate," Kirei said, clasping his hands behind his back. "To feel anger over the circumstances of an enemy."
"Or perhaps that is what divinity truly looks like?"
"It's nothing," Shiomi replied calmly.
"Just a little righteous anger."
His body gradually relaxed, yet the killing intent radiating from him grew even stronger than before.
"Even toward enemies, I can show a certain level of respect… except for you."
"Respect or the lack of it ans nothing to ," Kirei said. "What would truly be harmful for you is if I manage to escape from here alive."
Then the mana within Kirei Kotomine began to undergo a violent transformation.
Black sludge suddenly seeped out from the cracks in the desert.
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