Chapter 36:
Landfall

 

“TAKE HER, Six!”

Once Shinji had cut off the Torwächter’s back plate with the replica lance, he twirled it in his hand and flung it to the Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica, shaft first.

He knew what was coming. He knew the shadow behind him belonged to the black giant, Armaros. And he knew that his body was on fire. Shinji and Super Eva’s shared heart was dangerously close to initiating the Third Impact.

<<What are you doing?!>> Six yelled. She seemed annoyed at his reckless handling of the replica relic.

“Take care of it. It’s the most powerful weapon we have, and it might be the key to the world’s fate. We can’t afford to lose it!”

<<All right…you can have this, then!>>

Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica removed the two racks on the left wing pylon above her rear legs and unsheathed the Magorox sword. She threw the weapon to Super Eva.

“Thanks! Now, take Asuka and—”

Run before I become a monster of light.

But the black shadow moved before he could decide how to finish his sentence. Black pillars extended from the shadow’s palms. Shinji sensed the attack and jumped out of the way.

Super Eva was off the ground before Six could secure the Asuka/Eva synthesis. He positioned himself behind the black giant and noticed the lack of a back plate. He used to have two of them, and they were both connected to the tunnel network whose gate the Torwächters could open. Shinji had destroyed both Super Eva’s and Eva-02’s back plates and set them free. The fact that Armaros was missing the back plates himself could be taken as proof that the Torwächters were no more.

Six caught the replica lance as she fought off the Angel Carriers. <<Why did you stab Mari?!>>

Wolfpack lay motionless. She was nailed to the tree of life behind the ridgeline the black giant had emerged from. Shinji had been forced to kill the U.S. Eva, since it was the only way to stop them from eating Asuka. That was why he’d handed Six the spear. He was expecting her to do the same to him, should he lose his mind.

Shinji didn’t answer Six’s question.

His body was burning, and he could smell it.

Before Super Eva landed on Yomotsu Hirasaka, he took the weapon rack he’d gotten from Six and mounted it on the rails of his arm. It didn’t quite fit, however, so he had to settle for banging the thing into place. Super Eva’s armor was no longer factory standard. Bits of the Torwächter’s design remained on him, even after he’d molded to his own body. His old decals were gone, so he could only imagine what was going on with the internal machinery. He knew he hadn’t reproduced his internal quantum mirrors perfectly. He couldn’t even stop his newly returned heart from going berserk.

Another black pillar emerged from the giant’s left hand. He combined the pillars together and equipped himself with a shield and halberd.

“What?!”

Shinji gasped. The black giant was suddenly right in front of his face. He maintained his neutral posture, and the terrain behind him lay undisturbed.

Could he be warping somehow?

Super Eva reacted to the tip of the halberd by blocking it with the SRL Magorox. Both weapons had been reinforced with A.T. Fields, which oxidized to create sparks in space.

This was the being who’d come into the world when the Human Instrumentality Project had failed.

“Armaros!”

The name was Nerv Japan’s designation for the giant who was even stronger than Evas. No one knew his actual name.

“Damn it!”

Shinji let his field explode and somehow managed to push Armaros and the surrounding rocks away. The tremendous power pumping through his body was spiraling out of control. The heart, which had forgotten the rhythm of its own pulse, kept pushing energy through the hyperdimensional window into Super Eva. Particles seeped out of his every pore, igniting even his restraint armor.

Maya’s going to yell at me again…

Also, what happened to the Q.R. Signum in my chest?