Chapter 49: The Burning Giant
Chapter 49:
The Burning Giant
The Burning Giant
T
HE WIND WENT
completely still, as if it were holding its breath.
Though her senses had been deadened by the hostile, repulsive force that came forth from the Ark and filled the canyon, Misato instantly shrank back. Even Kensuke cowered with fear, and he was already fighting through the excruciating pain of having lost his right arm.
A terrible, awe-inspiring force was coming.
Everyone present held their breath.
High above the canyon, the arid red rock of the mesa burst open like a fountain of water.
Two giant forms leaped out onto the rocks under the blue sky. The ground shook, and the canyon’s countless rock formations rumbled and trembled—as if they were afraid.
The giants grappled in combat, the smaller of the two constantly shifting shape as it bit down on the larger like a wild animal.
At first, Shinji thought they were Victor Three and the Angel Carrier, whom he’d failed to dispatch before leaving the spatial tunnel, and that they’d pursued him here. That would have made sense—so much so, in fact, that it took a moment before Shinji realized that the larger giant was not only
not
his first guess, but the last thing he would have expected to see.
The black giant was larger than the Victors and had far more quantum resonance plates. They covered his entire body like scales—or armor. To Shinji’s knowledge, only one being fit that description.
“Impossible,” he gasped.
Of all the possibilities, this was unquestionably the worst.
“But Armaros was on the moon!”
If Armaros has come to the Earth, then what happened on the moon?
His thoughts raced, and when they landed upon a girl—one with long hair gathered into double ponytails, a bewitching figure, and a confident grin—blinding rage swallowed him. Blood boiled in his veins. And then—
Ayanami Rei Trois was about to drop down from Super Eva’s palm to stand next to Misato and Kensuke.
“Ikari-kun?” she asked.
She looked up at Shinji, who was standing on Super Eva’s shoulder, then followed his line of sight and saw the dreadful turn of events.
“Commander Katsuragi,” Trois said softly. “Three o’clock. On the mesa.”
Misato gasped. On the flat stretch of land between the canyons stood a black giant whose identity was unmistakable—even if he’d lost a wing.
Armaros.
“What?” Misato said. “This can’t be real! Shinji-kun—”
Shinji’s furious yell cut her off. Super Eva’s body—that is, the moving parts visible between the plates of its restraint armor—let out a terrific sound and erupted into flame from the waist up.
“Shinji-kun!” Misato called out.
“Ikari-kun,” Trois said.
Super Eva’s upper body blazed like a giant torch, despite the Eva not containing any flammable components. The intense heat pulled the surrounding air into a vortex.
BATHUMP, BATHUMP, BATHUMP.
The Center Trigonus emitted fierce waves of energy, and Super Eva’s heartbeat resounded throughout the canyon, demanding to be heard.
Shinji panted, out of breath.
Beyond the blazing flames, Armaros noticed Super Eva’s heartbeat and turned.
Super Eva’s body creaked and shook with incredible force.
“You shouldn’t be here! You have to be on the moon!” Shinji shouted. The fire seemed to have spread to him, too—at least from where Trois watched. At the very least, his expression was ablaze.
Trois was frightened. She’d never seen him like this, nor had she ever wanted to.
Super Eva’s hand, upon which she still rode, began to groan with the sound of warping metal.
“Ayanami,” Shinji said, “jump down, quick!”
“I don’t know…” Rei Trois said. A pulsing, rushing sound came from within Eva-01’s hand, as if blood fiercely pumped within.
In that moment, Trois knew.
He’s burning himself up. He’s going to break.
“Get down!” Shinji barked.
Trois relented and climbed down from Super Eva’s hand. Just as she did—
FWOOM!
Super Eva’s hand was ablaze.
Trois reflexively stepped back.
To Trois, Shinji’s all-consuming rage appeared to be shutting him away from the outside world.
Without any hesitation, Shinji disappeared into the flaming entry plug.
“You can’t be here!” Shinji shouted at Armaros. “You mustn’t be here!”
Super Eva’s Vertex Wings roared to life, only now the sound had turned harshly dissonant.
“You were on the moon! We sent Cinq and Asuka to the moon to find you, and Cinq died before she could get there. She died!”
Misato shook herself out of her initial shock.
“This is no good,” she said. “I need to stop him.”
She knew that Shinji would never forgive himself for leaving Asuka to die alone on the moon.
She fumbled for her communicator and shouted, “Shinji-kun! Pick us up. We’re evacuating to the Pacific. That’s an order!”
But her command was drowned out by Shinji’s scream.
“Aaaaahh!”
Super Eva raised its head to the heavens and roared for the first time in its existence.
The mournful wail echoed to the horizon.
The sound waves from the buoyancy field rattled the nearby rocks, and then Super Eva was searing an orange trail through the sky in a straight line toward Armaros.
A powerful wind rushed through the canyon’s basin, as if to fill the void Super Eva had left behind. The gale knocked Misato down on top of Kensuke, and Trois tumbled across the ground.
“Trois!” Misato said, covered in sand and dust. “You have to stay by us. You’ll turn into a pillar of salt!”
“I’m fine. I’m shielded.” In order to ride with Shinji in Super Eva, Trois had put on special gear to keep her own thoughts from contaminating the Eva.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Misato said. “That suit is physical. Technological. But this force is something unnatural.”
Trois suddenly stiffened.
“Trois, are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Trois said.
But her shielding gear had been ruptured.
When did that happen?
she asked herself.
Probably before we arrived here, when Super Eva fired the new weapon and the magnetic forces took down all of its equipment.
The other giant had stopped grappling with Armaros and was continuing to lose its shape and slow its motions. Armaros turned his complete attention—and his fiercely intimidating gaze—to Super Eva.
The giant’s thoughts made themselves known not just to the Ayanamis, into whose minds he’d intruded, but to all around.
<<
Those energy waves… Cease thy heartbeat.
>>
“Shut up!” Shinji yelled as he flew undeterred toward Armaros.
It was less of an attack than a blind charge fueled by rage and grief. Several kilometers of open ground lay between them, but Super Eva crossed it in an instant. Even then, Shinji was so eager to attack that he swung the Bizen before he’d reached striking range—but the blade’s tip extended, or rather, the A.T. Field encasing the blade extended, to strike Armaros’ shield in a tremendous flash of light.
The blade hit first, followed by Super Eva’s shoulder. Phase light scattered out from where the two shields met, and the shock wave from the impact crashed through the canyon.
Shinji let all his emotions out.
“Why are you here?!” he screamed. “What happened to Asuka?!”
The boundary between them pushed back against the two giants, and they slid along its surface until the force caused them to switch positions.
A second reckless charge caused the remaining parts of the broken cannon to snap free from Super Eva’s right shoulder. But that wasn’t all. The immolating Eva’s autonomous defenses hadn’t been able to fully contain the impact, and the damage had extended into its body.
“You have to be on the moon! Asuka would never have let you escape!”
Violent jets of flame shot from Super Eva’s wounds like spraying blood. But Shinji kept on throwing himself into his enemy.
“Give Asuka back to me!”