Chapter 31:
The Thick of the Swarm

 

SHINJI LANDED back on the ground after his short hop and saw the Lance of Longinus, the forked tongue of the snake in his dreams, lodged in its own crater on the side of a cliff. He surveyed the area and found that the abandoned great bow Azumaterasu was perched on top of a hill.

He realized then what had happened. He knew why he’d been transported from Hakone to give flesh to the hollow armor of the Torwächter. He’d simply returned to where he was supposed to be. That was all.

The plates on the two messengers’ backs had shortened again. The swarm of beasts were already rushing them with the speed of demons in the wilderness. Shinji was afraid of engaging these terrible animals, who had no capacity for reason.

Do I have any other option?

His black body stepped toward the duplicate Longinus lodged in the cliffside.

“!”

Was that his subconscious? Or was he still being controlled? His steps faltered.

Mari’s still in that pack. I might kill her if I use this!

He looked toward the swarm again.

“No!”

The swarm kicking up the dust cloud wasn’t as large as he’d previously thought. They’d split up again.

Where’s Mari?!

He was looking at a diversion, which meant…

A large shadow fell over the lance. He turned, but it was too late. Shinji used all his energy to fling the incapacitated Asuka to the side and took the brunt of Wolfpack’s attack with his Torwächter body.

Super Eva had weighed in at about four thousand tons, and the Torwächter felt about the same. Shinji didn’t know Wolfpack’s precise weight, but he knew that it was heavier than he was and that there was no way for him to stop its tackle. The quadrupedal Eva pushed him to the ground and brought its sharp claws to his face. Shinji felt intense pain as his right eyeball was plucked out and popped.

“Gaaah!”

What came out of his eye socket wasn’t blood but the golden particles his heart pumped. Countless sparks flew out of Shinji’s face like a fireworks festival that was too close for comfort.

Shinji kicked the pack’s alpha off of him, and in that moment he felt its mind flow into him. Their last conversation on Novaya Zemlya had felt ethereal, since they’d needed no physical instruments to speak. This time, it felt visceral.

<<Eat! Eat! Consume them all! Asuka, the pack, everything that gets in our way!>>

This singular thought repeated itself, and it crashed into him like a tsunami. Mari’s will was final. He knew that she couldn’t respond no matter how many times he called out to her.

Shinji’s heart burned with consuming energy, his right eye immolated in the same fire. He struggled to get the black giant back on his feet.

“What the hell is going on?!” Shinji yelled in a voice that was not a voice.

Kaworu answered. <<Is something bothering you?>>

Wolfpack twisted its waist in the air and landed perfectly. The former terrestrial unit had come up with this maneuver as it adapted to the environment. It pointed its snout toward the sky and howled at the frequency of gravity.

Shinji stumbled toward Asuka, but he didn’t make it to her. One of Mari’s field beasts had slipped past his A.T. Field and knocked him away. The pack changed formation again and spread out in all directions.

“How is Mari managing this?”

The beasts had surrounded him by the time he realized what they were doing. This was the worst possible outcome. A mob was most intimidating not when you saw them as a single mob but when you realized they were a horde of like-minded individuals.

The swarm split up into squads that attacked him one by one. He didn’t have time to aim his sling, so he swung it like an oversized rod. Claws and fangs still managed to slip through his defenses and tear at his armored shoulder. His leg was ripped open, causing more molten gold to pour out of the wound. He could only fend off the enemies in front of him, and that wasn’t going to be enough. His vision darkened as he resigned himself to fate.

“Ah!”

Teeth sank into his arms and legs from behind. The world was spinning, and by the time he noticed, he’d been forced to the ground again.

His heart made a sound like a rushing waterfall. Energy from the higher dimensions began pouring out of his ever-increasing wounds, and it shook the ground beneath him. Yomotsu Hirasaka rotated on its axis, and the Earth peeked over the ridgeline.

<<Animals eat to grow and multiply. It’s only following the most basic of its instincts.>>

“But she can do better… After what happened on Novaya Zemlya…!”

Shinji gripped the sling and lurched to his feet.

<<Are you sure about that?>> Kaworu asked.

Through his one eye, he saw Torwächter A1, Asuka, hurled into the air like a ragdoll by the pack of wild beasts.

“No…stop that!”

Crimson blood sprayed out of the wound in Asuka’s shoulder as she was tossed about. Shinji fired an impact bolt near her limp body, but the arrow only singed the ground. Asuka fell back to the surface and was swarmed.

<<Beasts cannot sing.>>

“Waaargh!”

Deadly projectiles flew at the beasts, but the animals saw no need to dodge them.

When Shinji snapped the sling back into his hand, the particle weapon wasn’t the only thing that returned. He’d pulled in something else as well. A weapon that had been lodged in the nearby landscape. Shinji thrust his burning black fist through the pack of wild animals and spread his fingers. Torwächter B let go of the sling, but now he held the Lance of Longinus.

<<Though their howling might be beautiful, the beasts cannot sing. Only humankind has the right to hold an instrument. I hope you play it well.>>

As if it had been waiting for this moment, the Earth rising above the rocky horizon grew hazy, like he was viewing it through a lens.