Chapter 51: The Clashing Giants
Chapter 51:
The Clashing Giants
The Clashing Giants
A
RMAROS EXTENDED HIS ARM
toward the charging Super Eva.
The black giant’s rear plate changed shape, and a small piece peeled off, shooting in the direction its master’s arm was pointing—right at Super Eva. Two more pieces followed in rapid succession.
This was the first ranged attack Armaros had displayed.
Is that a kinetic weapon?
Misato wondered.
But when Super Eva evaded the projectiles, something strange happened. Its flames appeared to manifest in the form of another Eva—or, perhaps, a giant-sized human—and separated themselves from it. The effect was as if the Eva’s body lagged behind the flames. One of Armaros’ projectiles grazed the Eva, snapping off the right side of its armored helmet and the intake on the side of its neck. A moment later, the cast-off body caught up with the flames, and the two were rejoined.
The other three projectiles struck the rock face behind Super Eva, and a beat later, the entire mountain split open, melting from the inside out. Super Eva returned to the attack—but when it swung its arm, the arm of flame reached the enemy first.
Something’s not right,
Misato thought.
Super Eva had looked like it was burning, but now it appeared as if a separate body of flames was overlapping its real body, and they’d begun to move out of sync.
Kaworu’s words echoed in Shinji’s mind.
I told you, didn’t I?
Once you’ve left your human vessel, do you really think you can return?
But Shinji didn’t hear him. With no regard for the destruction of his lagging body, he kept pressing the attack.
Each time the giants clashed, more fragments of Super Eva’s XI-class restraint armor went flying. Super Eva’s distinctive A.T. Field, which usually matched the form and movements of its body, had also fallen out of sync and could no longer properly protect it. Meanwhile, its attacks weren’t getting through Armaros’ powerful A.T. Field-like shield.
Even after losing a rear plate, Armaros was still Armaros. Not even Super Eva could break through a shield powered by the dozens of scales that covered the black giant’s body. Relying on nothing but sheer force, Shinji pressed Armaros, shield and all, into the mountain and split a vertical, thousand-meter-deep cleft into the cliff face as he drove the giant all the way down to the base of the canyon.
A dust cloud swept through the valley like a tsunami. When a sudden gust of wind cleared away the cloud, the first to emerge was Super Eva, careening from the cleft and slamming into the opposite cliff face back-first. Stones tumbled, and cracks spiderwebbed the rock wall.
“Give Asuka back to me!” Shinji yelled.
Flames burst out from every crack. As the cliff collapsed behind him, Super Eva stepped forward, spewing jets of flame from its body like lava from a volcano. Then the dust cloud parted, and Armaros reappeared.
A strong wind blew across the mountain range. Clouds gathered above and began to scatter hail.