Chapter 45: Inside the Pyramid

Chapter 45:
Inside the Pyramid

 

CLAAAAANG!

The edge of Super Eva’s sword struck the thin, transparent, soap-bubble wall from the inside.

The sound reverberated for kilometers in all directions.

On the battlefield, a reenactment of the myth of Babel was taking place.

The tower’s influence had cut off all forms of communication—every language, certainly, but even diagrams, symbols, electronic signals, and power conductors had been thrown into disarray. With no way to find any meaningful mutual understanding, the Russian and European allied forces were beginning to panic.

But in that moment, when the sound of sword against barrier rang out, everyone reacted in unison. All at once, they looked up at the tower rising above the clouds of battle.

Some gazed up with fear, others with curiosity. With the smoke swirling inside it, the tower looked like a giant cloud-in-a-jar experiment but with colossal shadowed figures clashing within.

 

“I hold up your hand!”

<<I swing your sword!>>

From far, far away, in the chest of a Torwächter flying through the transdimensional passages, the heart’s Shinji responded to Super Eva’s Shinji on the arctic island of Novaya Zemlya. This time, the sword’s downward swing synchronized with Shinji’s perceptions.

When he’d destroyed the Angel Sandalphon, which had been creating a sea of lava within the tower, Kesara’s tip had reached a velocity several times the speed of sound.

Tremendous power flowed into him from his faraway heart, and the Q.R. Signum scale began to belch black smoke, as if to express its displeasure. In reality, the scale’s energy, now unclaimed by Super Eva, was overflowing.

The scale sent sharp pain into Super Eva’s chest, but in that moment, Shinji’s exhilaration overwhelmed all other feelings. At last, he’d found freedom from Armaros’ black scale. Super Eva soared and so did Shinji’s spirits.

The stolen heart claimed that it, too, was Shinji. But Maya had said that he and Super Eva were two distinct entities that existed together in a shared state of uncertainty. Should I just think of myself as three now?

Whatever the details, for the first time in too long, Shinji once again had all the Eva’s energy at his fingertips.

 

From the air, Shinji looked down at Wolfpack bounding across the ground.

Super Eva was one being split into three, while Wolfpack was a great many souls in a single body. Though the pair had no way of knowing, they came from very different origins, despite their similarities.

<<Now, who’s next?>>

As Shinji looked for another target, his voice came not from his mouth but through the entry plug’s hydrospeaker.

He occupied a state of super-high synchronization. Under his orange coveralls, his body had gone completely stiff. He might as well have been part of the entry plug.

But he’s still warm, Rei Trois thought as she held on to his shoulders. As she braced herself against the rapid changes in acceleration, she quickly scanned their surroundings through squinted eyes.

“Eight o’clock,” she said. “The Ramiel carrier is getting ready to fire again.”

 

A ring of light had formed around the oversized Ramiel carrier’s waist—even with the cocoon—and it suddenly grew brighter.

“It’s at full energy!” Quatre said.

Super Eva raised his sword and performed an uneven corkscrew maneuver, just as the Ramiel carrier fired its particle cannon from the right side of its ring of light.

Super Eva narrowly evaded the initial burst, but the light beam persisted for approximately 0.6 seconds, during which Ramiel swept the beam after the Eva’s movements. For the briefest moment, the beam grazed the surface of Shinji’s A.T. Field. The air burst, as if from a mighty explosion, flinging Super Eva backward.

<<Ack! What is that light ring? Three years ago, when the Angel was a giant polyhedron, it never attacked like that!>>

Trois thought for a minute and then said, almost whispering, “Maybe the Angel needed to be that big…”

<<What do you mean?>>

“That ring seems to be acting like an accelerator for a particle beam cannon, and it would’ve fit inside the fully grown Angel’s body. When Dr. Akagi modeled Ramiel’s internal particle accelerator, she came up with a torus about that size.”

<<The Angels in the carriers’ cocoons are stuck as larvae. Maybe their bodies can’t grow to keep up with their weapons. In which case…what is Sachiel using as a substitute?>>

Shinji was trying to figure out the answer when, without warning, Mari’s voice spoke within the plug.

<<Shinji, you attack from directly above, and I’ll attack from below.>>

<<Mari?!>>

Everything was always so sudden with that girl. The U.S. Eva leaped up from the blasted and smoldering ground and toward the flying Ramiel carrier.

Shinji followed suit, accelerating toward the carrier. The air burned in Super Eva’s wake as he swung his sword.

He didn’t come in from directly overhead but rather from the side. This didn’t matter, however, as the beast had already drawn the Ramiel carrier’s attention. Shinji’s attack should still have taken the carrier by surprise. Yet without looking, the carrier brought its shield up and repelled Shinji’s sword.

Super Eva was thrown backward, while Mari’s Wolfpack tried to sink its teeth into the cocoon from below. The carrier managed to move its precious cargo out of the way, but Shinji saw the beast’s front claws tear deep gashes across the white giant’s thigh.

Shinji’s attack didn’t go as well as he’d hoped, but at least his sword had scanned the enemy’s field data. He returned the weapon to its sheath and initialized the reforging process. This time, the burden wouldn’t fall upon Trois. He could simply draw the power from his faraway heart.

Wait a minute… How did the American get through the carrier’s shield?

<<What’s going on here?!>> he asked.

“It’s the ring around the carrier’s waist,” Trois said. “Ikari-kun, the carrier is anchoring its field in the shape of a torus. Here, look at the quantum flux inclinations.”

She overlaid the measurement data on top of the external view display. Countless rings formed the wireframe outline of a tube that encircled the carrier’s waist.

<<Wait, so that means…>>

Trois finished for him. “The Angel Carrier’s field is acting as Ramiel’s particle accelerator.”

<<And the field is fixed in that position?>>

The carrier’s field still served as protective shield, but it would almost certainly be weaker to attack from directly above and below—through the hole.

<<Mari, how did you know?>>

Shinji sensed Mari’s puzzled reaction to his question.

<<Those were the only places that didn’t smell bad.>>

<<Oh. Okay.>> Shinji was disappointed, rather than impressed.

The girl and her Eva didn’t think logically in the same way that he and Trois did. They felt like a refutation of human culture and technology.

And their enemies seemed to share an almost visceral hatred for the Eva that had taken the form of a four-legged beast. But why?

Whatever the case, Shinji had a new battle plan.

 

Super Eva dropped altitude and accelerated, skimming over the ground below the flying Ramiel carrier.

The carrier changed directions to try to block Super Eva from getting at its weak underside and fired another particle beam. But Super Eva deftly evaded the beam. The sword had finished reforging, and without stopping, he slashed the ground with the red-hot weapon to temper the blade.

Steam erupted from the earth.

Directly below the carrier now, Shinji burst up through the white cloud.

But something was coming back down at him—the tip of a spiraling, spiked drill.

Oh, crap! I forgot about that part!

When the original Ramiel had encamped itself in Tokyo-3, the Angel had used the drilling organ to penetrate all the way into the Geofront. On a subconscious level, Shinji had wiped the drill from his thoughts. After all, the organ was essentially an earth mover—a piece of construction equipment. What use would that be in an aerial fight?

His sword and the drill scraped past each other like passing trains, with shuddering tremors and fierce sparks.

Then a heavy weight fell upon Super Eva’s shoulders, and in the next moment, something kicked him backward toward the sea of lava. As his view spun, Shinji saw a gigantic, tiger-like blur jumping over him.

Mari’s Wolfpack had used Shinji as a midair springboard to leap onto the Ramiel carrier. The Eva beast scrambled up the carrier’s wounded and bleeding leg and raked its claws across the cocoon in its belly.

<<Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!>> Shinji protested.

But he fell silent as he watched her nimble movements with awe—and then concern. She’d clearly gotten in too close.

Wolfpack crushed Ramiel’s larva in its cocoon, and the Angel burst into mirrorlike crystal shards. The ring of accelerating particles around the carrier’s waist began to wobble. But although the Angel was dead, its carrier was still alive. The oversized giant reached for Wolfpack with both arms.

The Eva beast dug its claws into the carrier’s chest and flung itself higher, slipping underneath the carrier’s arms and sinking its sharp fangs into the enlarged Q.R. Signum scale.

Shinji righted Super Eva and shifted power into his Vertex wings to go back on the offensive. The Angel Carrier was only moments away from grabbing the beast.

<<Mari! Let go of that Q.R. Signum and escape!>>

But her jaws remained clenched around the scale. Is she not listening, or is she stuck?

A large white hand took hold of the Eva beast. The Eva’s slate-gray armor plates cracked and crumpled. The beast’s neck snapped loudly.

<<Mari!>> Shinji shouted.

The Angel Carrier flung the U.S. Eva away.

At the same time, the bright ring of accelerating particles came loose, flying from the carrier’s body. Is that because Ramiel was destroyed? And does that mean that the carrier’s field is down?

Trois saw the opening, too. “Ikari!”

<<Damn you!>> Shinji cursed as he flew straight at the Angel Carrier. The white giant reached out one arm to grab him, but he batted it away with his sword. On the follow-through, the blade destroyed the Q.R. Signum in the carrier’s shoulder. The carrier went still and began to disintegrate.

<<Huh?>> Shinji said. <<But that was only one Q.R. Signum.>>

But then Trois was shouting. “Twelve o’clock! Ikari-kun, move!”

Shinji leaped off of the falling Angel Carrier.

In the next moment, a sharp, razor-like ribbon pierced the bloodied white giant and split its torso clean in two. If Shinji hadn’t gotten out of the way, his stomach would’ve been butchered, too.

<<Zeruel!>>

 

The Zeruel carrier had been standing still, with its back to the tower’s northern barrier, but no longer. As if to dispel any doubt that the carrier had joined the action, flashes appeared from the smoke from where the ribbon had passed, and countless explosions burst across Super Eva’s A.T. Field.

<<Whoa!>> Shinji said.

With smoke rising from his field, Super Eva dove downward. Shinji wasn’t sure how much cover the terrain would give him within the large basin, but he’d take whatever help he could get. He flew low to the ground. Meanwhile, the Ramiel carrier’s corpse splashed into the sea of lava amid a giant plume of fire.

Behind the veil of hot lava droplets, Shinji saw a light.

<<But how?!>> he gasped.

Ramiel’s accelerated particles traced a wobbly ring around the U.S. Eva beast where it lay on the ground.

Wolfpack unsteadily got to its feet.

In between the wafting trails of gray smoke, Shinji caught glimpses of the beast forcing its head up. Its jaws held the Ramiel carrier’s Q.R. Signum, still shining brightly. The accelerated particles circled the scale.

Mari had torn off the Q.R. Signum when the giant flung her away.

Even after the larval Angel’s death, the Q.R. Signum continued the last task it had been assigned.

<<What are you doing?>> Shinji asked.

<<You showed me I don’t have enough strength like this.>>

Wolfpack’s powerful jaws crushed the quantum resonance plate—no, the beast was devouring it. All at once, the many shapes that had been circling the Eva beast converged, feeding on the Q.R. Signum like a pack of hunters sharing a kill. When a Q.R. Signum was broken, it typically shattered into a mist of crystal particles, but this time, the process was hastened by the hungry swarm.

<<Wait,>> Shinji said. <<What happens when you do that? Trois?>>

“I don’t know,” Trois replied.

But there was no time to think. Zeruel’s ribbon came shooting out from the fog. Flying low, Shinji blocked the attack with both swords.

 

In a matter of moments, the pack of wolves had gorged themselves on the nearly double-size Q.R. Signum. Accompanied by a loud rumble, the scale reappeared, completely intact, over the Eva beast’s chest. The air wavered, and the Eva’s muscles swelled. Every part of the Eva grew larger.

<<You’re too reckless, Mari!>> Shinji said.

<<All I want is a place where my pack can be at peace. But to get there, I need to…>>

The orbit of the accelerating particles shifted around Wolfpack’s neck, and when the bright ring crossed the empty super-directional N2 explosive chambers, the field sent all four cylinders flying away.