Chapter 43: The Eva Graveyard
Chapter 43:
The Eva Graveyard
The Eva Graveyard
I
N THE SKIES
of northern Africa, two Evangelions engaged in a firefight. The noise of their battle echoed off the rocks in the canyon and became an undiscernible cacophony. From the bottom of the gorge, it was impossible to track where the Evas’ battle had moved. The result was bewildering and all the more terrifying for it.
Ahead of Misato and the one-armed, cowering Kensuke, a dark glass structure peeked out from the rocks. Seele’s vessel—the former Kaji—had called it the Ark.
Calamities filled every corner of the Earth now.
The Longinus Curtain was shrinking the Earth with unstoppable power. With nowhere else to go, the oceans’ waters spilled over, and the swirling tectonic plates could visit disaster upon any person or place.
In that moment, the word “Ark” sounded like salvation.
But was it really? Did that mass of smooth-surfaced cubes really offer rescue? Misato regarded the gapless structure with suspicion. If the Ark offered salvation, why was it trying this hard to repel her?
The Ark emanated some kind of hostile power that turned people into pillars of salt, though Kensuke seemed to possess a method of resisting the effect. But even then, he’d lost his right arm, and both he and Misato continued to suffer the exceptionally unpleasant repulsing force. The power made it hard for her to concentrate, and as she faced the Ark, visible through the uncanny rock formations, which themselves seemed to be writhing, she began to feel that turning to salt might be preferable than experiencing this much longer.
The Kaji-vessel had said that this was the final battleground for hundreds of Evangelions.
And their emotions were left behind in this form.
Even as a fairy tale, the story would have stretched credulity. And yet, all throughout this deep ravine, the giants of the past world had left behind humanoid rock formations and scattered mounds of viscera-like rocks.
Misato draped her coat over Kensuke’s shoulders, then pulled out the sleeves and fastened them tight around his wound. The knot quickly turned red.
“I would’ve expected more bleeding…” he said. “I don’t understand why there isn’t, but I’m glad for it. Do you suppose that’s another divine miracle?” He grunted in pain.
“Spare the tough talk.”
He was right about the blood, or rather, the lack of it. But it still must have hurt. Kensuke was dripping with sweat. And still his eyes remained transfixed upon the Ark, as if he’d decided that, having already eaten the poison, he might as well lick the plate.
“Misato-san,” he said, with great effort. “Commander…it’s spinning.”
“What?”
Now that he said it, Misato noticed that the Ark was rotating horizontally. The structure spun almost imperceptibly—the only hint was the movement of the sun’s reflection off its many smooth surfaces.
Currently, the topmost point of one of the square faces was disappearing into a rock. The connecting edge followed, swallowed up by the stone. On the other end, the edges and face of the opposite side sprouted from the rocks.
“Does it not have a physical presence?” Misato wondered aloud.
The Ark was passing through the rocks as it turned. Could it be an illusion?
Smoke rose from beyond the ravine’s walls, and moments later, the roar of an explosion thundered across the rocks.
Ayanami Rei Quatre and her Eva were obeying the Kaji-vessel’s commands. And right now, he was commanding them to fight Eva Euro-II.
Above the ridgeline, Misato saw a burst of smoke and spreading shock waves.
Is that from Euro-II’s positron rifle?
She immediately threw her body over Kensuke’s. The shot seemed to have been fired toward the opposite side of the rocky mountain’s ridge, but—
FWUM!
The shock wave slammed into the pair, and moments later, pebbles rained down around them.
“Misato-san,” Kensuke said. “Please, protect yourself.”
The shock wave hurtled through the forest of rocky colossi; one crumbled, and the collapse opened a view to the sky above the ravine wall, where a dust cloud rose, and a rectangular window hung in the air.