Chapter 57: Clash of the Titans

Chapter 57:
Clash of the Titans

 

“THE THIRD IMPACT stopped?!” Misato shouted, shocked at the footage the JSSDF had sent her.

Kaji scratched his chin and then pointed with his index finger. “Of course. The spear!”

The spear could sever the ties of causality. Indeed, it could even stop Lilith’s perpetual birth. Now, it had stopped the impending catastrophe.

“How ironic that the spear that was to be Shinji’s punishment would halt the curtain call.”

“Only for the time being!” The voice came from the lower decks, reminding them that they’d only delayed the inevitable.

“Ritsuko—Dr. Akagi?!”

Ritsuko entered the middle deck, where Hyuga and Aoba were stationed, in a dirty lab coat. A sentry looked over to the command deck, unsure whether to let her through, but Misato gave him the go-ahead. He kept his eyes on Ritsuko while she stared Misato down over the gap between the middle and lower decks.

Maya interrupted the silence. “Look at the spear!”

The Longinus, within the giant’s hands, slowly resumed its course. He no longer had the strength to stop its penetration. Shinji’s very consciousness was fading.

The same thing had happened the last time he’d turned into a giant of light.

There was no way he could retain his humanity, given the vast amount of energy.

<<Mount Fuji!>> someone at the caldera observatory exclaimed.

The highest peak had just been blown away.

Armaros had jumped over the sea from the continent in the west, and had tripped over the greatest mountain in the archipelago while her shoulders groped for purchase in the root-filled sky.

All fell silent as they saw the mighty mountain obliterated like it was a sandcastle. They felt the earthquake before they heard the sound. It came from the south, and the more sensitive technicians began to feel as if their bodies were floating.

“Yomotsu Hirasaka’s approach has deeply disturbed the Earth’s crust. We’re gaining altitude! The entire Hakone caldera is going up!”

In just one more step, Armaros would probably arrive from the northwest. Though Shinji had amputated her right arm, her left continued to drag Yomotsu Hirasaka from the southeastern sea. The island ripped through the ocean floor, opening fissures of sulfur and lava. Meanwhile, the giant of light was still on his knees, pierced by the Lance of Longinus.

<<The island has passed the gap of the Izu Peninsula!>>

Doom approached Hakone from all sides.

Please, someone do something!

Final Model’s hands fell limp to his sides as the lance resumed its motion. The wings of light fluttered.

“Calling all Evas!” Misato shouted. She hadn’t thought of a brilliant strategy to get them out of this situation. This was a simple plea. “Calling all Evas. Our children. Please respond!”

She remembered her father and the part of her that had been burned away by the Second Impact.

Had she been alone, she would’ve been content to die within the light of the Third Impact. As it was, she wanted her family to be with her.

Shinji and Final Model had become the giant of light. The Asuka/Eva synthesis and Trois’ Eva-0.0 were in the unreachable space of the World Tree’s roots.

Their only remaining Eva, little Rei Six’s Eva-0.0 Type-F, was locked in combat with Armisael. She was currently blocking its double helix, which flew about the command district. She was too busy to answer the call. Her stuttering telemetry showed that her heart was clanging like a bell.

Most of the city had been destroyed. They fired their remaining armaments into the air in waves to fend off the falling, half-formed creatures that came out of the roots. Unmanned N2 Flankers took advantage of the situation and shot out of the caldera with their maser guns blazing.

The situation was hopeless, as far as anyone could tell. The end of civilization had arrived, and it would begin at Hakone.

Misato’s arm went limp as she held the receiver. Kaji, now released from Seele, supported her before she could fall.

<<Yes.>>

<<What? I’m busy.>>

The distorted signals came from Eva-0.0 and Eva-02.

“Trois?! Asuka?!”

Misato looked southeast.

The Magi flashed with an earthquake warning.

The outer rim of the southeastern mountains exploded, forming a sort of curtain. The upper crust of the Hakone caldera rippled, and the white, foaming waters of Laki Ashi rushed into the city.

 

The island-pulling arm was now above Tokyo-3. Two Evas flew out of the stump where the giant’s other arm had been—Trois’ Eva-0.0, and the Asuka/Eva synthesis, Crimson A1.

Each wielded one of the Field Penetrators, Kesara and Basara.

They knew exactly where to strike.

“I’ll take right. You take left.”

<<Don’t boss me around.>>

Waves rocked the Hakone caldera, knocking down structures that had been built to withstand an earthquake. The Yamato, which had landed on the western shore of Yomotsu Hirasaka Island, was now sliding into Lake Ashi.

The orange Eva-0.0—equipped with a propulsion unit, but possessing no airborne mobility—flew in a parabola that was practically a straight line. Crimson A1 spiraled around it with great agility.

They were both headed for the giant of light.

“Ikari-kun!”

<<Stupid Shinji!>>

The two Evas looked like dolls next to the giant of light. Still, Trois and Asuka brought their swords down with a bright flash.

Back on the surface, Eva-0.0 Type-F slammed into the hardened double helix of the Armisael Carrier with the Field Piercer. In the southeastern sky, Six saw Eva-0.0 and Eva-02 slice through the giant of light’s four wings. She turned away from the intense glare.

At the same moment, the Longinus finished running through the giant’s chest and disappeared into the Pacific.

The giant of light wavered.

Perhaps that title was no longer appropriate for him. He was quickly losing light.

But then, kicked out of his crouching position, the fading Eva leaped over Hakone. He was headed toward Armaros.

He wouldn’t be satisfied unless he tried.

Shinji, now a gray giant, struck Armaros’ face, which had already been blasted by Trois’ shot, with his fist. The impact produced something that looked like four suns overhead. They burned brightly, illuminating the two monstrosities.

Four new wings cut through Shinji’s shoulders and spread throughout the sky. When they touched the roots, a torrent of pure white light poured forth.

BRRRRR!

The shrunken Earth shook as shock waves rippled across the planet. The four wings were like flaming torches burning in the blackness of space. Auroras appeared all over the globe. Shadows larger than the clouds crept over the ground in slow motion.

The land around Hakone continued to rise, the quakes having arrived in old Gotemba now. The gigantic figure compressing the atmosphere slowly collapsed, spawning clouds as it fell. The four torches swayed in the sky, burning as far as the moon’s former orbit.

As the light of the Third Impact faded, the gray giant began scattering like ash. Rei Trois and Asuka had thought that cutting Shinji off from the impact’s power would save him. But they were wrong.

<<Asuka…Ayanami…I—>>

Had his consciousness survived, despite the loss of power?

“Ikari-kun! Ikari-kun…! Ikari-kun!” Rei Trois continued calling out his name.

Shinji didn’t know what to do or say at this point.

And so he crumbled into the atmosphere and was blown away.

 

<<That was way too quick, Shinji.>>

Toji clicked his tongue, his image riddled with noise. He’d watched everything through the window of the oddly quiet classroom.

<<Here we go, Soryu!>>

Asuka stood still next to him. <<What the hell…did that idiot…think he was doing?>>

This was the conscious half of her. The other half was piloting Crimson A1.

<<Not the time to mope, Soryu!>>

<<How can I not?!>>

THUD!

Toji rolled his prosthetic leg in her direction. <<Get a hold of yourself! Where do you think we are? Our physical bodies are outside, but our egos are in here. In Shinji’s dream!>>

Asuka gasped in understanding.

<<That’s right,>> Toji continued. <<We’re not done yet!>>

She watched as Toji took a pale left leg out of the LCL canister. It was little more than an amputated femur, which he attached to his own stump. The limb connected itself to him without stitch or suture, and the pale leg pulsed with the hyphae of an Angel.

The Angel Bardiel.

<<Argh!>>

The prosthetic anchor was forced out of him from the inside, along with any muscular tissue attached to it. The prosthetic joint fell with a bloody thud.

The limb itself wasn’t possessed by an Angel. Toji and Eva-03 had been infected three years ago, and Bardiel would reawaken upon sensing his full humanity. He’d given up on organic limbs and lived with cybernetics for that very reason.

Toji’s face wrenched with pain, but he smiled all the same. <<Shinji’s body…might just be a vessel… Even if he died…to him it might be like getting lost…>>

<<What… What are we supposed to do then?>> Asuka asked.

<<I dunno. Something. Anything. As for me…I’ve got a score to settle…>>

Toji stood. He looked over at the slouching shade at the other desk, the shade they’d supposed to be Hikari. He returned his gaze to Asuka and slapped her shoulder with his fading hand.

<<Urgh… See you…on the outside!>>

Toji disappeared from the classroom of Shinji’s dream.

 

Do something, he said. Well, what?!

Why was she getting so depressed over something Shinji had done?

She felt like she was being taken for a ride. It was time to ask the driver.

She opened the classroom window.

<<Don’t you dare get off here! I’m going to kill you if you do!>>

Beneath her, people gathering on the school grounds in droves, even though the dream was supposed to be impenetrable.

THROB!

Was that an answer? Where is it coming from?

<<Where are you, Shinji?!>>

The people looked up at Asuka. As she scanned the crowd, she realized they were looking at something above her.

<<The World Tree!>>

There was a gaping hole in the root-covered sky. The roots of the World Tree were supposed to be impervious to physical phenomena. And yet, Shinji’s Third Impact had burned right through them.

The roots were flaking and falling but disappeared before they could reach the Earth.