Chapter 45: Substitute

Chapter 45:
Substitute

 

“She’s looking this way. Why?” Kaji whispered. “What is she…?”

He turned around, eyes flitting from one chaotic display to the next, stopped at one screen in particular.

Lake Ashi, darkened by a power outage. The Glass Egg…

“Katsuragi!” The Kaji-vessel suddenly called out. He took a step forward, and the two armed guards blocked him. He paid them no heed. “Get Ikari’s puppet out of here!”

The top deck crew all stared at the dangerous man.

Misato and Fuyutsuki looked quizzically at him.

“What are you talking about?” Misato asked.

“The black giant is coming here to take the replica!” he shouted, despite the guards restraining him. “The moon’s expansion has halted ever since the Longinus disappeared from orbit. You saw how the tunnel network ceased transporting materials from the Earth’s mantle. It stopped because the lance is no longer pressurizing the Earth!”

This was the explanation for the strange sight they’d seen shortly after the appearance of the World Tree’s roots.

“So…all those roots are like needles that sap the Earth of its lifeblood?!”

“That’s why the Longinus is necessary for the creation of a new world! Even if it got lost within the tunnel network, the black giant should have retrieved it and flung it into orbit. Should being the operative word.”

“What do you mean?”

“This new Armaros… She knows that she can use a substitute rather than wasting time trying to find the lance within the vast quantum flow!” Kaji tore his arm away from the guards to point at the Glass Egg. “And there is the replica Longinus!”

The spear that Ayanami Rei Trois had stolen to prevent it from being handed over to Seele.

Misato wasted no time. “Trois, keep yourself locked up! We’ll get you armed soon!” She spoke into her headset, broadcasting to all of HQ. “Alert! Armaros is coming!”

Fuyutsuki didn’t question her. He issued orders to the middle deck. “Lift the barricade on the Glass Egg. All sectors evacuate and ready shelters! Initiate urban combat procedures!”

“Urban combat procedures deployed.”

The alarm was followed by Magi’s hollow, artificial voice reading a canned message. <<The entirety of Tokyo-3 and the Hakone caldera has been put under Class One Threat.>>

“Six! Abort mission, now! Take the Unit Zero Type-F to the urban area.”

<<All right.>>

“Tell her to escape, Katsuragi!” For a moment, Kaji’s tone resembled the man who’d been Misato’s lover.

“Inform the JSSDF stationed at Gora and Mount Daikan Airport! We need all the help we can get!” And with that, Misato hung up the console and turned to the Kaji-vessel.

“Escape? And where to? Can you think of any place in the world that isn’t covered by the roots of the World Tree, Kaji-kun?”

“You promised us the lance!”

“Security, take him away.”