Chapter 19:
The Sunlit Path of Yomotsu Hirasaka

 

TORWÄCHTERS B AND A1 took turns firing their power shields.

Mari attempted to counter the attack by using Ramiel’s particle acceleration cannon, which hovered around Wolfpack’s waist, but she didn’t want to harm Asuka in the process.

Mari wouldn’t be able to consume Asuka if her body was vaporized. The ring of light sparked and flashed like lightning, its energy finally dissipating, due to Mari’s indecision.

Part of the plate on Asuka/Torwächter A1’s transformed into a spindle-like shape, and she launched it. It was a smaller version of the atlatl B had used on Novaya Zemlya.

<<Be mine, Asuka!>>

Mari was intent on devouring Asuka. She used the Lance of Longinus as a pivot to stop herself. With her pack, formed out of the Eva’s A.T. Field, she changed formation to rush through the speeding spindles. After barely escaping the onslaught, they were now on the shortest path to Asuka/Eva. They jumped in for the kill but were knocked away by Torwächter B’s great bow.

B threw his weight into the great bow to enhance the force of his shoulder tackle, but something was off about it.

Its movements seem exaggerated. Why?

Mari didn’t have to try very hard to avoid him. She supposed he couldn’t properly control his movements in the low-gravity environment. Having missed his target, the excess momentum sent B crashing across the rocky surface.

According to the information she’d received from the Europeans at Novaya Zemlya, Torwächters were empty suits of armor. Yet the tackle just now had not been delivered by something so light.

Mari felt a sudden rush of power surge through the giant. He was far stronger and more agile than before, but she still didn’t understand why his movements were so exaggerated.

Torwächter B leaped and kicked at her.

These moves might make sense for a human, but for an Eva…? Is he doing this on purpose?

 

His hands and feet moved at an energetic pace, but it all felt wrong…

I’m being manipulated…like a puppet.

Against the lightning snake, he’d first felt ecstatic that he was moving faster than he could think. But he’d slowly come to the realization that his will was being overridden.

<<You called on me, and now I call on your body. That’s all.>>

The voice came from his chest. Was it his heart?

Who are you?

<<I will soon become all of you. There is no need to remember your own name.>>

 

The Eva-sized telegraphs were easy to read, especially in low gravity. Wolfpack ducked B’s kick by latching on to the ground.

What are you up to?

Torwächter B launched himself into a mountain behind Wolfpack, leaving an imprint on the boulder in the shape of an inverted cone. He proceeded to destroy his surroundings. What is up with this thing?

<<Stop flailing!>> Mari bared her fangs.

 

Agh! Pain rushed through him.

The one that was not him was using his body to make a mess of things. His attempts at suppression weren’t working.

<<Wow!>>

Stop! Give me back my body!

<<You’ve used my powers more than once.>>

What?

<<You had someone who could keep me in check back then. Not anymore.>>

Who was I with?

Were there others like this girl in the red wind?

An image of a thin, blue arc flashed across his thoughts. It distracted him for a moment before disappearing.

<<This body is amazing!>>

 

Torwächter B jumped toward Wolfpack while swinging his great bow, but Mari and the beasts of her A.T. Field dodged him. The plate on B’s back had driven into the ground of Yomotsu Hirasaka, embedded in the rocky mass like the roots of a great tree. When B’s jump yanked it free of the ground, it looked like a long, fat tail.

Mari saw her chance when the tail grazed Wolfpack. She twisted her body and pinned it with the lance in her mouth.

The plate-tail immediately shattered, exploding in all directions and releasing liquid black smoke from its rupture.

What?!

Wolfpack’s giant gray body was knocked back by this unknown substance. The smoke soon vanished into the blackness of space. That’s when Mari saw a gigantic shadow with a thin halo of light on its back. It was her first encounter with this particular entity.

<<The black giant…code name Armaros!>>

Wolfpack regained its footing as this new shadow, shiny and slick, crept across the sunlit surface of Yomotsu Hirasaka.

The new tail attached itself to the plate on B’s back. The beasts of Wolfpack’s A.T. Field leaped at the opportunity.

Torwächter B thrust his great bow into the rock. He reached for the Lance of Longinus, which now lay on the ground, and twisted his body. He swung the twin prongs, and the beasts of the field dispersed into particles as the red spear ran through them. Blood sprayed from their ethereal bodies, which crystallized into crimson shards under the Torwächter’s shadow.

<<Beast and Serpent, heed the words of Man.>>

Torwächter B cried out with Shinji’s voice.