Aozaki Aoko [692-693]

Chapter 692: Third Impact?

Perhaps, before the Tenth Angel was completely neutralized, Unit-01 piloted by Shinji merely possessed "pseudo-divinity." But the moment he tried to separate Ayanami Rei's soul—dissolved within the core of the Angel of Power—back out again, the nature of everything truly changed.

Unit-01 "awakened."

A colossal "gate" surfaced in the heavens. The firmament split into a pitch-black void. Under the impetus of human will, the boundary between the positive universe and the negative universe began to melt away. Yet this was not his true wish—merely a byproduct of exercising another authority.

"Soul materialization."

At some point, Touko had come to stand beside Aoko. The look she cast at Unit-01 brimmed with feeling. She produced a cigarette from who-knows-where, took an epic lung-busting drag, then exhaled a beautiful smoke ring.

"Yeah," Aoko said. "Looks like the conditions for triggering an Impact are obvious now: 'an awakenable individual' + 'a sacrificial bearer of the Fruit of Life.' Unit-01 itself shares a high similarity with ADAMS."

"Mhm… With Ayanami Rei's soul already fused with the Angel, for Unit-01 to rematerialize it in the form of soul materialization—i.e., 'internal core-ization,'" Touko nodded and continued, "means Unit-01 has obtained a 'sacrifice' in another form. That's why it can deify, open the Gate of Guf, and begin Third Impact… Ah, look, here it comes."

With a vicious yank of Unit-01's right hand upward, a gigantic, vivid-red "Ayanami Rei" was wrenched out of the Angel's core. At the same time, the Angel of Power's entire body ruptured, dissolving into scarlet, materialized fluid, which ultimately became a part of "Ayanami Rei."

Unit-01's dorsal armor thundered open. Twelve pairs of light-wings pierced the clouds.

Buildings in Tokyo-3 crumbled to powder amid the tremors. Melting phenomena sparked by the skyrocketing L-field density spread like a plague. People on the streets didn't even have time to scream before their bodies burst like punctured juice pouches, their invisible souls soaring toward the black void in the sky.

Their souls would be sent to the far shore of the negative universe, until the covenant with Lilith was fulfilled.

"…Humanity is done for," Akagi Ritsuko said, a dead-eyed look on her face. "As the price for the birth of 'new life,' the old life will go extinct…"

"The continuation of Second Impact—Third Impact has begun… exactly like fifteen years ago!"

As a survivor of the Second Impact in Antarctica, Katsuragi Misato's PTSD flared the moment she saw the wings of light bloom on Unit-01—let alone the familiar sight of people turning into orange juice, plus the added effect of gravity failure.

She clenched the cross in her hand, her nails carving bloody crescents into her palm, glaring at Unit-01 with unyielding eyes, as if sheer will could stop everything.

But no matter how deep Katsuragi Misato's thirst for revenge ran, the onset of Third Impact wasn't something a mere mortal like her could stop. This drama still lacked one final, key actor who had yet to arrive.

Gendo Ikari and Fuyutsuki also emerged onto the surface via an emergency passage. Stepping over a melt-softened, re-hardened alloy doorframe in polished leather shoes, Gendo—at some point—had donned a pair of techy "smart shades," making his already impassive face seem even colder.

"So they really did awaken Unit-01 with just those two…" Fuyutsuki Kozo said, staring up at the deified Unit-01.

"We're now just 'a tiny step' from success," Gendo climbed out of a hidden passage, looked up, and said. "Or rather, now is when the script truly begins."

"Commander, awakening Unit-01 before the covenant with Lilith is fulfilled—the Committee won't let you off."

Standing in his wrecked, mangled watermelon patch, Kaji Ryoji muttered to himself with a sigh. Things had progressed far beyond his expectations. He knew Gendo had his own little abacus and hoped to leverage the friction between him and the Committee to maneuver—but he didn't expect Gendo to go this big, setting a trap to forcibly push Unit-01 into awakening…

If he stayed in Tokyo-3 any longer, the Committee's people would definitely ferret him out, and then he'd be in for a round of torture. As for NERV HQ's Operations Chief, Katsuragi Misato—she was in even greater danger, practically dragged onto Gendo's war chariot.

"Sigh, maybe this is as far as I go?" Kaji scratched his hair, looking troubled. "Should I take Misato and run to the mainland…?"

This unexpected Impact didn't leave Kaji in despair. In fact, he didn't think this was "the end of the world." What he worried about was the Committee's post-incident purge of NERV HQ sweeping up Katsuragi Misato.

And his confidence wasn't baseless: if the Committee could forcibly halt the Second Impact back then, they could forcibly halt the Third now.

A crimson spear fell from the heavens, piercing through the ever-widening Gate of Guf and striking Unit-01—already deified, bearing two cores—dead-on.

In an instant, heaven and earth cleared. The red sky and earth, the inverted gravity field, and the Gate of Guf that ended all—vanished.

That spear—whose shape was completely different from the Spear of Longinus—nailed Unit-01 to the ground. The blue-gray giant, haloed, descended from the moon high above. Like a god gazing down upon all beings, he forcibly severed the ritual that would have ended everything.

"The appointed time has come, Shinji," SEELE's emissary, the gray-haired boy Nagisa Kaworu, piloting MARK-6, arrived at what had once been called Tokyo-3. "At least this time, I will make sure you find happiness!"

Everyone at NERV HQ was thrown into utter confusion. The machine before them was undoubtedly an EVA—yet not any EVA they knew. Its capabilities far exceeded the conventional EVA range. Where did it come from? And what had it come here to do?

Twelve pitch-black monoliths suddenly appeared around Unit-06. Their overwhelming presence seized every gaze on scene. NERV's upper ranks recognized them at once as the symbol of their parent organization—SEELE.

"The Committee?!" Akagi Ritsuko's eyes went wide. "Why is the Committee here—?"

"Gendo," from the monolith numbered first, came a deep, aged male voice. "You awakened Unit-01 ahead of schedule and broke the covenant we made."

Chapter 693: Why Are There Angels Everywhere?

"For you who violated the covenant, We shall mete out due punishment," the second monolith rumbled. "However… in consideration of past merits, We will ask one last time—are you willing to accept censure and continue to act as executors of Our plan?"

"Your plan is nothing but a self-deluding mirage. Having altered the form of your souls, you're incapable of understanding this," Gendo rose into the air, hovering before the SEELE monoliths and MARK-6.

"Death…

…cannot nurture anything."

"Then let death be the portion of the oathbreakers," the first monolith replied with placid indifference. "Within the fate of destruction lies the joy of rebirth. For God, for humanity, and for all life to return smoothly to an immaculate pure land, you must first perish."

With that, the twelve monoliths of the Committee vanished abruptly. Only MARK-6's halo continued to revolve in the air, proclaiming that this terminal drama had not yet reached its end.

"Ritsuko, Misato! We need to leave immediately!" Kaji Ryoji appeared suddenly, grabbing Katsuragi Misato's wrist, his tone urgent. "SEELE's serious this time! Everyone's in real danger!"

"Kaji?!" Misato snapped back to herself, eyes tangled with shock and suspicion, and immediately demanded, "Do you know something? What did that conversation between the Commander and the Committee mean?!"

"This will take a long time to explain, but we don't have time. We have to—" Before Kaji could finish, new upheaval burst across this apocalyptic battlefield. The NERV members' just-relaxed nerves snapped taut again, hearts leaping into their throats.

"Pattern: Blue—Angel signature!" Aoba Shigeru exclaimed over the damaged monitoring systems. "Target is— the Commander?!"

Gendo cast one last, long look toward Unit-06, confirming that aside from floating above Unit-01, it would do nothing. Then a halo—indistinguishable from those of the Angels and MARK-6—appeared above his head.

"So that's how it is…" Akagi Ritsuko's voice trembled. "Commander, you willingly abandoned your humanity and used the Key of Nebuchadnezzar?!"

"I merely added body information that exceeds the human range of identifiers," Gendo removed his glasses, revealing eyes that had become cross-shaped voids. "There will be no issues."

"This is thanks to Dr. Aoko Aozaki's research. It bore fruit in your hands, Ritsuko."

With that, Gendo allowed no time for questions. He turned toward an open patch of ground; a cross-shaped beam lanced from his "eyes," vaporizing the surface and exposing the hidden passage beneath.

A VTOL jet rose from below and hovered beside Gendo. In the cockpit, Fuyutsuki Kozo cast a meaningful glance at the crowd.

Thus, under everyone's gaze, Gendo and Fuyutsuki boarded the jet and departed. MARK-6 continued to watch in silence, letting the two vanish into the clouds, leaving the rest to stare at one another, wide-eyed.

"All right, our turn to take the stage," Aoko dispelled her invisibility, looking down and saying, "Is 'that' ready?"

"Done half a month ago," Touko also revealed herself, handing Aoko a Key of Nebuchadnezzar. Unlike the others, this Key looked more complex. "This one's custom. Took me quite some effort, so don't forget my overtime pay, okay?"

"Don't worry, I don't make a habit of breaking promises to my own people," Aoko took the Key of Nebuchadnezzar and, without hesitation, stabbed it into her neck. "It's just that using this thing is a bit—oof, not very comfortable." If Touko's halo when activating pseudo-divinity skewed toward a warm, liquid-gold hue, then Aoko's halo now leaned more toward an icy blue.

Look closely, though, and you'd see every color shot through those halos, like a rainbow after rain.

"New Angel signature! Right above us!"

Aoba Shigeru and the other tactical analysts were completely done for. Why were there Angels everywhere today? Even their own Commander now pinged as an Angel. Where were all of you when we were fighting the Angel of Power—playing dead?

In truth, with NERV's current detection model, there was no way to reliably distinguish between "humans" who'd used the Key of Nebuchadnezzar and actual Angels. So to NERV's eyes, the readings—including Touko and Aoko—were all "Angels."

"Two Blue-pattern signals right above us—no, four!" Hyuga Makoto reported loudly. "How is this possible? Why are there Angels everywhere?!"

Having been silent on this battlefield for some time, Asuka and Gray finally finished their downtime. Fired up, they each activated their pseudo-divinity, lifting their "badly injured" EVAs into the air.

Unit-02 and Unit-05 each manifested halos above their "heads," larger in scale than Aoko's and Touko's. "Four Angels" gathered together, floating above the heads of the many "mortals."

Unit-05 still looked relatively "normal," only missing an arm and a mechanical leg.

But Unit-02 was downright terrifying. Its halo hovered above a severed neck; both arms were nowhere to be seen. Though no longer in Beast Mode, its appearance was gruesome all the same.

"Asuka, don't leave Unit-02's 'parts' behind," Aoko reminded. "Frugality is a virtue."

"Ah, almost forgot—sorry, Sister Aoko," Asuka's breezy voice came from within Unit-02, the tone making the scene feel oddly surreal. "Let me see—found them~"

From the distant rubble, Unit-02's blood-soaked head and two severed arms flew back toward the body, then simply hovered near the torso. They did not reconnect, nor attempt to heal.

"All right—thank you all for taking such good care of me this whole time," Aoko said to the NERV crew with a cheerful smile, waving lightly as though bidding farewell at a tea party. "Working at NERV HQ has been quite fun for me, but all good things must end. It's time we took our leave for now."

"Aoko—no, Dr. Aozaki—both of you!" Katsuragi Misato shouted up at the sky, agitated. "Was all of this arranged from the start—between you and the Commander, or you and the Committee?! Then what does that make the rest of us?! Answer me!"