Chapter 48: Zeruel

Chapter 48:
Zeruel

 

THE ZERUEL CARRIER’S severed hand was still locked around Super Eva’s head. The hand had stiffened, and its weight threw Super Eva off-balance and sent the giant falling yet again.

<<Come on!>> Shinji growled as he pummeled the frozen hand with the butt of his prog knife.

The hand shattered like plaster. Super Eva pried the last bits away and looked over his shoulder where the molten ground was advancing.

“Ikari-kun!” Trois said out of fear. But Shinji parted the sea of magma with his flotation field and pulled up above the surface.

This time, Shinji flew very high. With the Zeruel carrier focusing its attacks on Wolfpack, Shinji decided to look for an opening from above.

He stored his left-hand sword, Basara, in his right shoulder pylon and initiated the reforging process to attune the blade to the Zeruel carrier’s field.

 

Columns of fire exploded like geysers from the ground.

When Zeruel’s cocoon flashed, the attacks landed almost immediately. The same had been true of Ramiel’s particle cannon, but with Ramiel, the build-up of power had been observable. By not providing that same warning, Zeruel was far more troublesome, though Mari was adeptly dodging the energy bursts. The circling pack of air distortions alternated spreading out their formation and tightening it up again, enticing Zeruel to attack at moments when Mari was able to dodge. After each attack, she released the particles from the accelerator and fired them back at the carrier, then surrounded herself with her pack again—cycling from defense to offense and back.

The girl was undoubtedly cunning, but she seemed to be having a little trouble controlling her stolen hardware. Her attempts to fire in quick succession resulted in an unfocused beam, sometimes firing from multiple places on the ring at once. Even in this enclosed space of abundant energy, the cannon apparently needed a long recharge time before it would work at full power.

<<Shinji!>> Mari’s protest echoed inside Super Eva’s plug. <<Don’t stand there. I can’t shoot!>>

Now that she’d acquired a beam weapon, Shinji realized that positioning himself to attack the enemy from the opposite side was the wrong idea.

He wasn’t sure if his field could withstand a blast from her particle beam at full power. But attacking from above still provided an advantage. The extra kinetic energy from a diving run would boost his attack. He’d just try it from the carrier’s side rather than directly behind.

The Zeruel carrier flew upward. It still possessed one Q.R. Signum, and the Angel in its cocoon was alive and well.

In order to maintain his advantage, Shinji climbed higher as well—and then he realized he’d made a fatal error. The tower was a quadrilateral pyramid. The higher Shinji flew, the less room he had to maneuver.

Super Eva had unknowingly backed himself into a corner.

The Eva hastily dropped back down, but Zeruel’s ribbon flashed below, cutting him off.

In its adult form, Zeruel’s two ribbons hung like arms from its shoulders and seemed to have a maximum length. But in the larval stage, if there was a limit to the ribbons’ length, Shinji hadn’t seen it. Cutting the one ribbon had left it with an angled, razor-sharp tip but had done nothing to reduce its capability. And now Zeruel was weaving both into a latticework net that stretched from wall to wall, with the carrier at its center.

The Angel recognized that I was backing myself into a corner!

The netting was uneven and moved freely. Mari shot a hole through it, but the ribbons quickly filled the opening.

<<How much longer on the sword?>> Shinji asked Trois impatiently.

“Seventy seconds,” she replied.

It wasn’t fast enough. He had to prepare himself to handle the net without his primary weapon.

 

Before Shinji had any time to think, Zeruel’s light beam struck Super Eva. His A.T. Field managed to hold, but he still needed to stay alert. The ribbons’ tips were hidden somewhere in the net’s complex weave, and he couldn’t tell from which direction they’d attack.

Something struck Super Eva’s left arm, and Shinji grunted in pain. He looked down. A ribbon had sliced away his armor plating.

While he was distracted, the second ribbon split the empty scabbard of his broken sword directly through the quantum flux inclination sensors.

Now he’d have even more trouble sensing the shape and position of his opponent’s field.

Keeping her hands on Shinji’s shoulders, Trois sat upright.

“Four o’clock!” she shouted.

<<Huh?>> Shinji rolled his body to the side and lashed out with his prog knife. The blade repelled the sharp tip of an incoming ribbon.

“Six o’clock!”

Trois was doing much better at deciphering the movements of the latticework net.

Super Eva turned where she indicated and blocked with his knife while he let his sword finish baking.

But then, as he dodged one ribbon, another came from a different direction, opening a shallow tear in his leg armor.

“Ikari-kun, this is a losing battle—nine o’clock! You should be attacking the carrier itself.”

<<But how should I do it?>>

“Try to keep your maneuvers as small as possible. And stay out of reach of the carrier’s arms. Dodge the field projections and the light beam and keep hitting and running. Then, when there’s an opening in the net, drop through it.”

<<Okay!>> he replied eagerly, but not because he was in good spirits.

Shinji’s error had gotten him cornered and stripped Super Eva of his greatest advantage—speed. He’d begun to panic a little, and though he’d understood Trois’ directions, his mind was too distracted to really engage with her.

A large opening appeared in the net directly below him. Shinji didn’t let the opportunity go.

<<Now!>> he cried, as Super Eva accelerated.

<<That way’s a trap!>> Mari shouted.

Shinji reluctantly slowed his dive. But the Angel Carrier projected an invisible fist, ramming him in the back and pushing him down.

Mari fired her particle beam, as focused as she could manage to make it. Just as Shinji was about to pass through the opening, he saw the ribbon’s tip sliding to meet him on the other side, but it was vaporized by Mari’s beam.

He slowed to a stop. His haste had caused him to blunder into an obvious trap, but she’d seen the ambush coming from below.

<<You’re even more cunning than I thought,>> Shinji said.

With the netting once again closed below him, Super Eva crossed his arms and held his knife in a reverse grip as he flew toward the carrier.

 

Once Shinji began following Trois’ strategy, he understood why she’d proposed it.

By consistently attacking from just out of the Angel Carrier’s reach, he forced it to use its ribbons defensively.

Actually implementing the strategy, however, was easier said than done. In order to avoid the Zeruel carrier’s light beams and shield projections, he had to keep circling away, without getting too close or too far, all the while attacking.

His target was the carrier’s sole remaining Q.R. Signum. The range was too close for Super Eva’s signature acceleration to be of any use, and his opponent had taken note of his aim and adjusted its movements accordingly.

<<I’m sorry,>> Shinji apologized. <<I focused too much on the scale. The carrier is on to me.>>

“Try going for its spine,” Trois said. “You probably won’t kill it that way, but you should be able to restrict its movement.”

Her capacity for analysis seriously impressed him.

He couldn’t understand why she criticized herself compared to the other Ayanamis.

 

Not only was Zeruel a formidable adversary, but the Angel and Shinji also shared a significant history.

When Super Eva was fitted with the Vertex wings, Zeruel had been among the invading Angel Carriers. Super Eva had overpowered the carrier and its larval Angel, but that wasn’t the first time their paths had crossed. Three years before, Eva-01 had gone berserk in the fight against Zeruel, and the Eva had devoured the Angel’s flesh, absorbing its S2 Engine into its own body.

At the time, Shinji hadn’t known what his Eva was doing. He’d expended the last of Unit One’s internal power reserves and become trapped in the total darkness of his entry plug. He’d since watched the recorded footage of the event so many times he could have puked, but it still didn’t feel real to him. Facing Zeruel again like this put him in a strange mood.

This thing gives me chills.

A section of the net rose up in front of Super Eva to cut him off, and Shinji veered around it with as little movement as possible. He realized that another attack might be hiding on the opposite side, and he was ready for it.

But he’d been outflanked.

Something struck him from above. The Angel Carrier had flipped upside down and done something the carriers almost never did—it kicked Super Eva from outside his range, knocking him down.

Shinji was more impressed than anything, though this might not have been the best time to admire his adversary. Okay, I’ll give you that one. You’re really good at reading what I’m anticipating. Or is that just because Unit One took a part of you inside?

Time seemed to crawl. As he was sent backward, a ribbon came rushing in, and he blocked it with his knife.

His left hand was reaching for the hilt of his not-yet-reforged sword. The second ribbon appeared and lopped his arm off above the elbow. Grasping at nothing now, his hand and arm were flung away.

In that moment, time returned to normal, and a loud rumble filled the silence.

Blood sprayed from his upper arm, and a scream tore from his lips.

Shinji shrieked in unbearable pain. His cry sent fear into the typically dispassionate Trois. In North Africa, he’d screamed in despair—as flames had engulfed his body—and then he’d rejected her. But despite lingering doubts from that memory, she clung to him even tighter now. She’d made the decision to protect him. If that meant she’d be burned, then this time, they’d burn together.

As he felt the faint thrum of her heartbeat, Shinji managed to step back from the brink of panic.

I haven’t fulfilled my promise yet! he told himself.

He screamed again, but this time with purpose rather than despair. As the air left his lungs, he focused his strength and tried to think from a place of calm—at least, relatively speaking. But his next action came without conscious thought, and it took him by complete surprise.

The ribbon was still zooming past him. His right hand tossed the prog knife away, seized the ribbon, and pulled it to a stop in a shower of sparks.

If this is how it is…

<<If this is how it is…>> he repeated aloud, as if spitting the pain from his body, <<then I’m taking you for myself. Only this time, I’m doing it of my own free will!>>

He pressed the end of Zeruel’s ribbon against the hilt of the sword still baking in his shoulder pylon.

<<Take this as your arm!>> he said.

His heart responded from far away.

<<I will!>>

The sword drew in the ribbon. The Angel’s thin, flat appendage throbbed and swelled grotesquely, until it had taken the shape of Super Eva’s hand. His fingers gripped Basara’s hilt tightly.

The next section of ribbon transformed into Super Eva’s forearm, and the next became his elbow.

<<My arm!>>

<<Yes! Your arm, and my arm.>>

Unlike three years ago, Zeruel’s larval form had no S2 Engine to offer, but that didn’t mean Shinji couldn’t use its other organs. And so, Shinji brought down the wall between human and Angel, joining them together.

Trois could hardly believe what she was seeing. “Incredible. You’re in berserk mode, yet you’re still in control.”

But then the ribbon pulled back. Trois had supposed that the transformed end of the ribbon would reattach itself to Super Eva’s body, but instead, Zeruel yanked the arm toward itself.

The sword’s sheath opened with a clang.

Of all the possible moments, the Field Penetrator chose this one to finish reforging, and the ribbon retracted with the sword in Super Eva’s hand.

“Ikari-kun, the sword!” Trois gasped.

Zeruel had stolen Shinji’s weapon along with his arm.

The ribbon folded back into the cocoon. Zeruel held the red-hot sword directly in front of its face—right where the next light beam would come out.

Trois looked to Shinji as if to ask, What are you going to do?

<<It’s fine,>> he said. <<That’s my arm. Watch.>>

For an instant, Trois’ mind reeled.

And then the feeling passed. She looked at the outside world on the display. The view had zoomed in on Zeruel’s face—moments before it split open.

Wait…did Basara just stab the Angel’s face?

Her eyes went from the sword, to Super Eva’s left hand, to his forearm, to his elbow…which, had reconnected to Super Eva’s upper arm, good as new.

Zeruel let out a loud, grating death cry. “Gyoaaaaaaaah!”

Super Eva added his right hand to Basara’s grip and pushed the blade deep into Zeruel’s face. He twisted the red-hot sword up and out, brutally shattered Zeruel’s skull in the process.

Then he was wrenching the sword upward with both hands through the carrier’s rib cage, to sever the oversized giant’s arm at the shoulder.

The carrier couldn’t comprehend what was happening. It tried to grab Shinji’s hands, but the arm lost its fulcrum and fell through the air, the Q.R. Signum falling with it. Shinji swung his sword and shattered the scale in a spray of luminescent, bloodlike liquid. The liquid and the scale scattered into tiny crystals and vanished.

 

The air inside the tower vibrated, and the four walls began to ripple like the surface of a lake. As if on cue, the explosion of a massive cannon thundered across the battlefield.

Heurtebise had fired the eighty-centimeter Dora cannon at the tower’s wall. The wall shattered, and the Tower of Babel melted like an ice chip on a skillet.

Hovering inside the tower, Super Eva moved to the side, and the Zeruel carrier fell. The tower’s effects vanished, and the super-sized carrier began to compress in upon itself. Blood sprayed from every surface of its body, and by the end, the giant had crumpled into an unrecognizable lump of flesh, crashing into the smoldering earth.

 

<<Please, call on me again.>>

Shinji’s voice sounded in the entry plug from far away.

Now that the tower’s influence had gone, Shinji’s heart felt even farther away than it had before. But that was okay. They were still connected. The flow of power had lessened, but Shinji didn’t feel the same emptiness he’d felt when the heart had been stolen from him.

“About Asuka… Um… A word of advice. Don’t make her mad.”

Asuka—the Asuka/Eva synthesis—was likely still flying beside his heart. The warmth Shinji felt wasn’t just from the Trigonus. Her warmth was there, too.

 

Out on the battlefield, some soldiers were still firing in a blind panic, but most continued their silent exodus. With the tower gone, their ability to communicate was resuming, but only gradually. Normalcy wouldn’t return right away.

The radio frequencies offered only gibberish—languages weren’t yet coherent again. Shinji tried to get through to Hikari, but she didn’t even look his way. Heurtebise stood with its back to him, the Euro Eva pointing away from the battlefield.

Shinji and Trois were having trouble understanding what was happening around them, now that they’d emerged from the tower. But all things considered, the situation was favorable.

After barging into the middle of a chaotic battle, they’d defeated the Angel Carriers—but they’d also let the first Victor escape along with Asuka/Eva, who’d arrived as a second Victor. Politically, the fallout was going to be a challenge. But if Super Eva were to stick around long enough for the confusion to settle, the conflict might not just be political, but a violent, physical showdown.

Seeing no real option but to leave, Shinji flew through the thick smoke over to one of the Angel Carriers’ staves that had formed the corners of the pyramid. He retrieved the weapon and flew back into the sky, where the heat of battle had summoned storm clouds heavy with rain…and the unmistakable scent of ozone.

“Home, then?” Shinji asked.

His body had relaxed again. He looked over his shoulder at Trois, who still clung tightly to him, and offered her a pained grin. “Could you maybe let go a little? You’re kind of strangling me.”

“My arms fell asleep,” she said. “I can’t move them.”

He was fairly sure she looked sorry.