Chapter 553: Deification of Unit-01
At this moment, the situation on the battlefield had become starkly defined.
Mari's Unit-02, due to the excessive overload of its beast-form, was no longer capable of maintaining its savage posture. Forced to exit the beast mode, the unit knelt half-bent on the ground, temporarily losing its combat efficacy.
Although the previously heavily wounded Unit-01 had restarted, with the purple giant standing tall on the earth once more, Shinji Ikari's inner mind was filled with massive chaos and resistance when facing the fusion entity that displayed a clear female silhouette bearing Rei Ayanami's facial features. He had almost completely lost the will to attack.
Only the white Unit-03, piloted by Asuka, maintained its full combat capability.
Looking at the hesitant Unit-01, she yelled anxiously over the communication channel: "Idiot Shinji! Don't space out! Coordinate with me and use the 'Cherubim' system! Just like how we dealt with the parasitized Unit-03 last time! We can separate Rei from inside that thing and save her back!"
Asuka's words acted like a warning bell, striking awake the Shinji who was immersed in pain and confusion.
"Save back... Rei?" This thought, like the sole light in absolute darkness, caught his nearly drowning consciousness in an instant.
"Right... I must save Rei!" Shinji's gaze refocused, but within it burned a near-obsessive flame. He no longer hesitated, and under his control, Unit-01 emitted a low growl, assuming a combat posture once more.
However, Ryo keenly noted that Shinji's mental state appeared abnormal; an obsession mixing a desire to rescue, fury, and a certain delirium was dominating him. Concurrently, Unit-01's synchronization rate readings began to skyrocket at an unnatural rate, as if the pilot had resonated with something far deeper inside the unit.
Just as Ryo was evaluating the risks of Shinji's abnormal state, he suddenly jerked his head up, his gaze piercing through the observation window toward the firmament. A vast, strange, and absolutely tangible presence of a consciousness abruptly intruded into his psionic perception range like an invisible meteorite!
Immediately following, a dark shadow broke through the cloud layers, descending onto the edge of the battlefield with an oppressive weight that felt as if it originated from antiquity. It was a unit painted entirely in deep blue, its silhouette vastly different from any known EVA—EVA Unit-06 from the Moon!
What caused Ryo's mind to shake even more violently was that his psionic senses explicitly perceived a vast, ancient soul and will inside that Unit-06, which was no inferior to Lilith's main body. Moreover, unlike the dormant Lilith in Central Dogma, this consciousness... was awake! It was active, carrying a definitive purpose!
"Adam..." Ryo made the core judgment almost instantly, "It's the soul of Adam!"
This discovery caused him to immediately feel that the situation had turned unfavorable to the absolute extreme. Unit-06 descending at this precise moment meant that all the critical elements to trigger the "Third Impact" had, through a series of accidents, been forced to converge at the same time and the same place—the vessel bearing Adam's soul (Unit-06), the vessel bearing Lilith's soul (the fused Unit-00/Rei Ayanami), and as the critical trigger point, Unit-01 with its abnormally soaring synchronization rate and its highly special internal situation.
The cogs of destiny seemed to emit an overloaded roar. Ryo realized he could no longer wait. Any trace of wavering might cause the situation to slide into an un-recoverable abyss. He had to intervene immediately to break this perilous equilibrium!
His consciousness instantly plunged into his depths, elevating the dimensional communication channel established with his main body to the highest priority.
"Emergency situation! All Impact elements have converged, and the critical point is drawing near! Requesting immediate authorization and deployment of the Titan! Repeat, authorize immediately!"
The descent of EVA Unit-06 was like pouring ice water into a boiling vat of oil, instantly shifting the fundamental nature of the battlefield.
That machine, painted entirely in deep blue and bearing a non-human aesthetic, stood silently atop the ruins. The pressure radiating from its mere existence was not a single fraction inferior to the white female form ahead, which was rapidly consolidating while emitting increasingly thick waves of "divinity" after fusing with Zeruel's core and Lilith's soul fragments.
In its hands, it held a strangely shaped long spear. The spear body presented a dark-red metallic sheen, its structure somewhat resembling the Lance of Longinus, yet exuding a completely different, introverted, and resolute aura.
"The Spear of Cassius..." Ryo murmured its name under his breath. His psionic perception clearly captured the rule-based power of "choice" and "breaking the deadlock" contained within the spear body, standing in direct opposition to the forces of "termination" and "confirmation" held by the Lance of Longinus.
Unit-06 made no superfluous movements, completely ignoring the tightly arrayed Unit-01, Unit-03, and the temporarily disabled Unit-02. Its objective was absolute and clear—that white female form that was about to fully consolidate, radiating stronger and denser waves of "divinity."
Unit-06 raised its arm, holding the Spear of Cassius high above its head. The dark spear body reflected no light under the gloomy sky, appearing to devour all surrounding illumination. In the next instant, it violently hurled the long spear out!
Without an earth-shattering commotion, the Spear of Cassius transformed into a near-virtual shadow, ignoring spatial distance to instantly cross the battlefield, precisely and silently piercing right into the dead center of the white female form's chest.
There was no explosion, nor any flesh flying apart.
The pierced white female form violently shuddered, and its rapidly consolidating progress suddenly froze. Countless dense fissures, resembling blown electrical circuits, began surfacing across its massive frame, radiating an unstable light. An indescribable pathos, making it feel as if the entire world was mourning, diffused outward with it as the center.
"Rei—!!!"
Inside the Entry Plug, Shinji Ikari let out a heart-rending, gut-wrenching shriek.
From his perspective, that dark long spear had, without a shadow of a doubt, completely "killed" the white giant displaying Rei Ayanami's facial features. The final shred of hope for "rescue" in his mind shattered completely along with that strike piercing through the chest.
An absolute despair, a wild fury from having something precious stripped away, and a loathing directed at his own powerlessness consumed his remaining sanity in an instant like molten magma.
"Aaaaaahhhh—"
Unit-01, as if sensing its pilot's broken mental state, emitted a deafening roar. Ominous red light violently burst forth from the gaps of its purple armor plates, and above Unit-01's head, a massive, white halo radiating an aura of holiness and terror materialized out of thin air!
Unit-01, Deification initiated!
An unimaginably vast A.T. Field exploded outward with Unit-01 as the center. No longer a tangible barrier like before, it transformed into a golden energy storm that was near-substantial, twisting reality itself! The ground buckled and disintegrated like ocean waves under this power, and the surrounding structural ruins were crushed into dust in an instant.