Chapter 25: Mari

Chapter 25:
Mari

 

HER PACK WAS a mere diversion. She didn’t want anything to get in the way of what she was about to do. Mari’s Eva turned to the other giant and attacked Torwächter A1.

Wonderful… How did you achieve that form, Asuka? All the entities inside you make my pack seem solitary in comparison!

The Asuka/Eva synthesis abandoned her spindle, a weapon highly effective against the pack, without a moment’s hesitation. She knew that it would be useless in single combat against the U.S. Eva.

She held her empty hands in front of her. Black currents of electricity gathered and formed into the shape of a ball…the Type-F’s impact bolt. It was a weapon constructed from the Eva’s memories—from Asuka’s memories. She launched the black bolt at her attacker. Wolfpack began gathering energy through the ring around its waist—electrical energy this time instead of a particle blast. It fired its lightning, causing the bolts to crash into each other.

The two massive charges of energy swapped positions as they propelled forward.

A part of my memories die each time they introduce a new animal into my DNA. I can’t remember the faces of my mother and father, and I can barely distinguish myself these days… Whatever promises I made have ceased to be important… The only truths left are the souls within me. Nothing else seems real. That’s why I’ll risk everything to protect my pack! That’s why I want to become just like you!

Mari roared long and hard at Asuka instead of speaking. Several hundred kilometers of the avian wind blew through the choking vacuum of space. A1 stood within the white mist of the flock as it flew toward the moon, and Mari saw a barefoot girl clothed in crimson wind.

Red petals had fallen over North Africa, over the Valley of Human Bodies, where Asuka and Eva-02’s forms had amalgamated with the Ark’s databank of life. This was the true shape of the massive pack that Mari admired.

Yomotsu Hirasaka turned away from the sun, setting its sights on grazing Earth.

 

Torwächter B took a step back from the A.T. Field creatures that surrounded him and kicked at the ground. Mari’s beasts stayed on him, coordinating their attack formation to compensate for whatever losses he incurred. Although he was in possession of the lethal Lance of Longinus, it was far too strong for him, and he could barely hit his mark.

Even so, it had bought him some time. The animals were more cautious now that the humanoid form had a weapon. One of them tried to attack B from his blind spot, but by mere chance, he’d struck it with the lance. The red prongs pierced the animal, and he held it up to the stars. Light focused on the shade’s corpse before exploding in a luminous display of blood. It sprayed out like a fountain, drenching the rocky landscape and Torwächter B’s obsidian body, before freezing into crimson crystals in the cold dark of space.

 

Even on the chaotic battlefield of Novaya Zemlya, Mari had never lost an individual in her pack. Her family was ethereal, which meant they were virtually immortal. However, the Lance of Longinus had the authority to end all life, immortal or not.

B thrust the spear into the air in victory.

<<Return to the Ark, the final resting place of all life. From thence, life shall begin again,>> the black messenger exalted, using Shinji’s voice.

Mari growled. She felt the pain of one of her pack dying intensely, and it caused her Eva to reel as it leaped toward Torwächter A1. Asuka saw her chance. She dodged Mari’s A.T. Field-reinforced claw swipe and jumped over her, generating another impact bolt and shoving it into Wolfpack’s back.

“Argh!” Mari cried. But I’m not giving up yet!

Wolfpack shook its head and opened its jaws, slipping through A1’s arms and going straight for her neck. The Torwächter dodged, but Wolfpack managed to clamp its fangs on her shoulders. A1’s field shone brighter than before, keeping the fangs from sinking any deeper and generating a fireworks display as Mari’s teeth gnashed.

Beast and woman fell back onto the bedrock. Wolfpack clamped harder onto A1’s field, intent on breaking it. With a combined weight of over six thousand tons, the giants bounced across the ground.

Asuka/Eva opened her mouth to the sky, though no scream came out. Instead, her voice emerged from her floater slits, which looked like her hair. Gravitons vibrated violently, creating wavelengths that sounded like crackling silk. Red particles burst from A1’s body and engulfed Wolfpack.

During Asuka’s scream, Mari had started collecting the data on the countless lifeforms amalgamated inside her body. This was what she’d wanted from the start. To grow stronger. To devour and gain the power of her enemies. She didn’t care a cent for the consequences.

Wolfpack’s body had already grown after the battle at the Tower of Babel. It swelled even larger now, causing cracks to appear in some parts of its restraint armor, while downright changing others.

 

Nooo!

He was helpless to prevent it. His body continued fighting the enemies around him against his will.

He picked up a rock near his feet and threw it at the lightning snake who’d bitten the girl.

Why couldn’t I protect her?!

No… Why didn’t I protect her?!

 

Torwächter B spun the spindle and fired, cutting Wolfpack’s abdominal shield and knocking it away. The bestial Eva twisted in the air like a cat, landing perfectly on the floating landmass.

Mari growled through her increasingly canine fangs. More beast than man, she didn’t appreciate this disturbance to her data feast. Though she was being destroyed by the violent amount of life she was taking into her, it felt right. She didn’t care what form she took; she’d become one with the pack soon enough.

Alarms rang from behind her. Wolfpack was equipped with a monitoring robot to prevent Mari from being assimilated into her Eva. It could no longer sense the human amid the animal DNA.

 

He was angry at “himself.”

Where are you going?! Protect her! I thought you wanted to become another me!

He didn’t anticipate his heart’s response.

<<With all this power, you need no longer be shackled.>>

What?!

He’d assumed the heart that was taken away from him would hold dear the same things he held dear. He’d expected them to have a similar, if not identical mind. But this…

What are you saying? Our friends aren’t shackles…

<<What are you saying? I’ve been freed from all this nonsense, haven’t I?>>

Freed from all relations, for better or worse. The idea made his skin crawl. Not because his heart had said it, but because he could imagine himself saying it, as well.

You’re insane!

Anger overwhelmed his heart, and he picked up another rock, flinging it at the snake. He resisted the power within himself and rushed to the girl’s aid, refusing to give up on her.

 

Torwächter B swung the sling connected to the spindle in a huge arc as he dispersed the A.T. Field beasts around him with the lance.

Wolfpack was already drawing close to Torwächter A1 again after being knocked away. When the spindle came after it, the Eva beast twisted its body in a protean manner and took to the sky, the moon as its backdrop.