Artificial Apotheosis

**Artificial Apotheosis**, also called **False Messiah's Ascension**, is one of the Neo-Longinus that evolved after the Biblical God's death. It has the power to replicate all the miracles performed by Jesus Christ.

## Overview

The **Shroud of Turin**, also known as the **Holy Shroud**, is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a man. Some describe the image as depicting Jesus of Nazareth and believe the fabric is the burial shroud in which he was wrapped after crucifixion.

First mentioned in 1354, the shroud was denounced in 1389 by the local bishop of Troyes as a fake. Currently the Catholic Church neither formally endorses nor rejects the shroud, and in 2013, it is referred to by Pope Francis as an "icon of a man scourged and crucified".

The shroud has been kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Turin, in northern Italy, since 1578.

## Summary

Artificial Apotheosis is one of the Neo-Longinus, Sacred Gears that have evolved onto the levels of the Longinus after the death of the Biblical God and now possess exceptional powers and the potential to kill immortal gods and even destroy the world.

It is considered to be one of the **Holy Relics**, alongside the Holy Chalice, the Holy Lance, the True Cross, the Holy Nails, and the Crown of Thorns. It is known as the **Shroud of Turin**, the burial shroud in which Joseph of Arimathea had wrapped Jesus Christ after the crucifixion, and a negative image of him was imprinted upon the linen cloth afterward.

According to Raphael, the original Shroud of Turin had disappeared in the 14th-century in mundanes' views - though in reality, it was absorbed by the Sacred Gear system to be transformed into a new Sacred Gear - and the current shroud was a replica created by the Vatican to hide its disappearance. In addition, due to the "upgrades" Michael had implemented into the Sacred Gear system, the newly-transformed Longinus became adrift in time, resulting in past figures becoming wielders of the holy shroud.

Because of its miraculous powers, the Longinus transformed its wielders into messianic figures who inspired their fellow men. Two known wielders of the Artificial Apotheosis are Simon bar Kokhba, a Jewish military leader who led the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire, and Hamza ibn Ali, an 11th-century Ismaili missionary and founding leader of the Druze. According to Gabriel, while they aren't *true* messiahs, due to the messianic actions they had performed while using the Longinus, Heaven still considered them pseudo-messiahs all the same.

## Appearance

Artificial Apotheosis manifests a white-and-gold cloth whose form changes in accordance to the wielders' preference. In its original form, it is a rectangular piece of linen cloth, with the faint, brownish image of Jesus' naked body - his hands folded across his groin - imprinted upon it.

## Abilities

Artificial Apotheosis grants its wielders the power to "replicate the miracles performed by the Son of God". This is done by gradually modifying its wielder's body to mimic that of the body of Jesus, or rather - according to Azazel - based on the body of Adam, whose body was "made in God's image". However, as most of these modifications are unnoticeable things, such as similar skeletal frames or organ placements identical to the Son of God, for the most part, the wielder's physical appearance isn't changed.

The most noticeable changes the Longinus made on the wielder's body are the five "birthmarks", the *stigmata*, in the shape of blood-red stars and on the same locations where the five crucifixion wounds located on Jesus' body: His hands, his feet, and on the side of his chest. In addition, they also gain a divine charisma "befitting that of the Apostle, the High Priest, the Morning Star, Light of the World."

Its most well-known power, however, is its power to recreate all the miracles performed by Jesus, as mentioned in the New Testament, the Four Gospels, and in other tales regarding Jesus in Christian scriptures. However, this doesn't mean the miracles performed by Jesus are all that the wielder can create, in contrast to popular beliefs, but they are simply easy to perform. In addition, according to Raphael, the wielder will always performed the first seven miracles of Jesus, as mentioned in the **Book of Signs** (救世主の七つの奇跡ブック・オブ・サインズ, *Bukku obu Sainzu*).

* **Wedding at Cana** (カナの婚礼, *Kana no Konrei*): The first miracle of Jesus. While he and his mother were at a *seudat nissuin* in Cana, as Mary noticed the wine had run out, Jesus delivered a sign of his divinity by turning water into wine at her request.
* **Healing the Official's Son** (役人の息子を癒す, *Yakunin no Musuko o Iyasu*): While taking to a royal official in Cana, Jesus learned of his son still in a fever in Capernaum, and told him "Your son will live" and told him to go home. When he arrived, the servant told the official his son was healed exactly at the moment Jesus told him "Your son will live".
* **Paralytic at Bethesda** (ベセスダで麻痺, *Besesuda de Mahi*): When Jesus was invited to Jerusalem for feast, he encountered a paralysed man who wasn't able to enter the pool of Bethesda to perform the *mikveh*, and no one would carry him there as it was the *sabbath*. When he lifted the man up, he was completely cured, though the Jews were angry that he dared to heal this man during the holy *sabbath*. He responded by saying that "My Father is still working, and I also am working", which only angered the Jews more as they thought he was mocking them by saying he was equal to God when he said God was his father (... Neither side was wrong).
* **Feeding the Multitude** (多数の人に餌をやる, *Tasū no Hito ni Esa o Yaru*): When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been killed, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place near Bethsaida. However, a crowd followed him in admiration, he felt compassion and healed the sick among them. As night approached, instead of sending them away empty-bellied, he instead multiplied breads and fishes to feed the crowd.
* **Walking on Water** (水上を歩く, *Minakami o Aruku*): After the previous miracle, when the crowd began to depart for Capernum, Jesus had stayed behind on the mountain to pray alone. During their trip across the "sea of Galilee", the ship was distressed by wind and waves, and disciples began to see an apparition on the sea. However, said "apparition" was Jesus himself walking on the rough sea, and when he came on the ship, the storm ended and the ship immediately came to shore.
* **Healing the Blind Man** (盲人を癒す, *Mōjin o Iyasu*): At Siloam, Jesus came across a beggar named Celidonius who had been blind since birth. Hearing this, he spat onto the ground and anointed Celidonius' eyes with a mixture of mud and his saliva, and told him to wash himself in the Lower Pool. After bathing himself, the man "came home seeing".
* **Raising of Lazarus** (ラザロの育成, *Razaro no Ikusei*): Jesus' final act of miracle before the passion, crucifixion and his own resurrection. When he heard news of his follower, Lazarus, had died, Jesus decided to return to see his old friend. However, it wasn't until four days later that he arrived, and Martha and Mary lamented to him that, had he returned sooner, their brother would be alive. Hearing this, he wept and went before Lazarus' tomb before a group of Jewish mourners. There, he commanded Lazarus to come forth, and Lazarus did, still wrap in funeral-cloths.

Like other holy relics, it can be used to influence and manipulate the mind of followers of the Abrahamic religions, especially devout Christians, and if any controlled victim tries to resist or actively rebel against the wielder's command, their mind will be immediately destroyed beyond saving and they will fall into a persistent vegetative state.

## Forms

### Lylith Gomorrah

**Lylith Gomorrah** (罪の偽預言者の大神殿リリス・ゴモラ, *Ririsu Gomora*), also called **Grand Temple of the Sinning False Prophet**, is Artificial Apotheosis' original Balance Breaker. Due to its power, which is to materialize the events of the Book of Revelation, and thus, forcefully bring forth the Apocalypse before its intended time, Michael had sealed it away into "a scroll with seven seals".

## Trivia

* Ironically, as Raphael pointed out, none of its wielders are Christians.
* "Lylith Gomorrah" referred to two figures in Abrahamic mythology:
	+ "Lilyth" refers to Lilith, a nocturnal monster from Jewish myths who was Adam's first wife but rejected him and was transformed into a demon.
	+ "Gomorrah" refers to Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities in the Bible that were destroyed by God for their wickedness. Since then, their names become associated with "leachery, depravity, and male homosexuality" or simpy "crimes against nature".