Chapter 42: To the Light
Chapter 42:
To the Light
SEVERAL HUNDRED KILOMETERS to the north of Yomotsu Hirasaka, in the skies above the Ogasawara Islands, Shinji was locked in a ferocious battle. He’d been carried away by Type-3 Angel Carriers, and the winged white revenants were refusing to let him go.
I could fly if it weren’t for these roots!
Even if Hakone command had told him that he was the origin of the roots of the World Tree, Shinji probably wouldn’t have understood. The roots had a glossy black sheen to them, as if they were covered with resin. It was the same shade of black as Armaros and the mindless Torwächters she manipulated.
The whole thing was like a nightmare.
Something caught on Final Model’s leg. An arm extended from the cocoon of the Carrier behind him—a thick arm, with sharp claws.
Which Angel is this supposed to be?!
He forced himself away from it, but another Carrier tackled him with its power shield before he could regain his footing.
“Urgh!”
The A.T. Field-like shield knocked Final Model away, sending him tumbling across the sky into one of the roots.
“Dammit!”
He fired a depleted uranium round from the light alloy sabot of the Powered 8 railgun, but it was instantly turned into a puff of rainbow ions by the shield. Final Model was still off-balance, but he took the knife and attached it to the point of the Powered 8 CL.
“Come on!”
THRUM!
Final Model’s heart throbbed as the quantum warp moved the micro black hole to the point of the knife. The bayonet glowed menacingly as Shinji brought it down on the Carrier latched to his leg.
The micro black hole blade glowed with heat rather than vacuum, and Shinji thrust it deep inside the cocoon.
I hit something!
But whichever Angel possessed the arm didn’t die. It was clamping as hard as it had been before. The Carrier whirled, and Shinji saw a power shield-encased staff coming right at him. The blow hit Final Model hard, in a rush of blinding pain.
What is happening?!
He held the bayonet in front of his chest to fend off the next attack, but it never came.
He could no longer move in free fall. The sea was approaching quickly.
Suddenly, Maya’s voice came in from the command center.
<<Shinji-kun, you have to get back to Asuka! That girl is about to synthesize with her Eva again!>>
A giant pillar of saltwater rose up from the center of the Pacific as Final Model slammed into the ocean at peak velocity. Then the water was sucked back in, and a whirling white spiral broke the surface.
Don’t do it, Asuka!
The water was boiled and electrified, instantly turning to plasma. A powerful shock wave overwhelmed the three Carriers, breaking their shields and turning them into mincemeat.
A glowing left arm pointed at the sky like a blade. It rushed through the Q.R. Signums in two of the Carriers’ shoulders with intense heat. But the arm went right through the cocoon in the third Carrier’s abdomen.
“I see!” Fuyutsuki said. “The larval Angel of the seemingly immortal Carrier was the twin Angel Israfel, and both had to be destroyed at the same time!”
The elation in his voice didn’t last long. What came next shook everyone.
Eva-01 Final Model leaped out of the swarming clouds, his left side shining bright.
“What on Earth?” Misato whispered, watching as the camera on Chichijima shook.
The next moment, the giant plummeted into the ocean again. His mass created a path through the unfathomable depths, a path he used to speed away in the direction of Yomotsu Hirasaka.
The vertical roots dangling over the archipelago were no more. If these had been the doorways to the tunnel network, it would explain how one could warp to a place with no earth.
All that was left now was a straight line. The sky burned red with remnants of the quantum effects, reflecting on the divided sea.
“Has it finally begun?”
Final Model faded into the distance. While his size remained the same, half of his body glowed with the intense light.
Maya sank into her seat on the top deck with resignation. Still in shock, she turned to look at the status board that reported Final Model’s telemetry.
Shinji had burned into his life span again. 0.5 seconds had been taken out of his remainder. The Third Impact inched ever closer within his compressed time.