Chapter 559: Ryo Manifests
The white Unit-03 stood tall upon the scorched earth. Tightened in its right hand was no longer a familiar Progressive Knife or any standard armament, but that incredibly long Lance of Longinus, radiating an ominous, dark-red glow.
The long spear felt heavy as it was received, its icy sensation faintly registering through the machine's sensors, sending a pang of dread through Asuka inside the cockpit. She could feel the terrifying power contained within this spear, sufficient to pierce through gods and demons alike.
She cast her gaze toward the distant gray Titan locked in violent combat with Unit-06. That was the primary target designated by the Commander—powerful, unknown, and full of threat. Meanwhile, though Unit-06 behaved bizarrely, it currently seemed to be countering that gray machine as well.
"Prioritize destroying the unknown gray unit!" Gendo Ikari's command resonated in her ears.
The leg muscles of Unit-03 tensed, preparing to explode with force to charge, the tip of the Lance of Longinus aligning directly with the EVA-Titan's back armor plates.
However, right at this threshold, an abnormality struck suddenly.
Above the knight-helm-like head of the EVA-Titan, space distorted into ripples resembling a water surface. In the next second, a figure clad in a researcher's white lab coat—appearing exceptionally microscopic against the backdrop of the massive chassis, yet incomparably clear—manifested out of thin air, standing steadily atop the Titan's head. The howling gale whipped the edges of his lab coat, yet he stood rock-firm.
That familiar face, which usually bore a gentle or calm expression, now exuded an alien majesty and serenity against the backdrop of the battlefield smoke, looking like a deity looking down upon mortal beings.
It was Dr. Ryo.
The entire battlefield seemed to have a pause button pressed upon it.
Inside the NERV command center, everyone who witnessed this scene gasped sharply. The communicator in Misato Katsuragi's hand nearly slipped, and Ritsuko Akagi's eyes behind her lenses suddenly widened. That Dr. Ryo, who had all along been viewed as a top technical expert and the head of ecological restoration, had actually manifested atop the head of that terrifying gray colossus in this manner?
Gendo Ikari's interlaced fingers suddenly tightened, his knuckles turning white.
The most profoundly shocked, without a shadow of a doubt, was Asuka.
Through Unit-03's panoramic screen, she clearly saw the figure standing atop the Titan's head. Her pupils constricted violently, her brain instantly turning into a total blank.
"Doc...tor?" Her voice trembled with absolute disbelief.
That Dr. Ryo, who had granted her guidance, fought for her machine, given her hope when she was despondent, and whom she immensely trusted and even admired—was actually the controller of this unknown, terrifying colossus? Was he an enemy?
A massive cognitive conflict battered her mind like a tsunami. Trust and betrayal, reliance and hostility—two extreme emotions tore frantically within her brain. She felt her worldview fracturing inch by inch, a suffocating dizziness washing over her, and even the LCL inside the Entry Plug seemed to turn bone-chillingly cold.
Her hands resting on the control sticks began to tremble uncontrollably, Unit-03's charging posture freezing right in place, and the Lance of Longinus drooped slightly.
"...Why... is it you..." she murmured subconsciously, her gaze beginning to wander, teetering on the edge of a total breakdown.
The instant Asuka's spirit was about to be completely crushed, Ryo's calm voice, through some unknown method of amplification, spread clearly across the battlefield, entering the cockpit of every single EVA and even resounding directly inside Asuka's mind: "Calm down, Asuka."
His voice remained steady, carrying a wondrous power that smoothed out chaos, exactly like when he guided her work back at the Ninth Research Institute.
"Look clearly at the enemy before your eyes, and understand the meaning of the long spear in your hand. Before you strike it down, you have a right to know exactly who you are fighting for, and what you are countering."
Ryo's gaze swept across the battlefield, ultimately landing upon the white Unit-03, as if he could pierce through the armor to see the girl teetering on breakdown inside.
"You believe the Angels are a natural disaster? No, they are merely neighbors who have been startled awake. The Second Impact, the catastrophe that destroyed half the world—its root cause was not an Angel invasion, but humanity. It was triggered by an out-of-control explosion when SEELE and its controlled predecessor organizations attempted to research and control the First Angel, Adam, in Antarctica!"
The information in his words landed like heavy bombs exploding in everyone's ears.
"And NERV, this organization that seemingly protects humanity—its supreme control authority remains grasped in SEELE's hands. Their objective has never been to protect humanity, but to execute the so-called Human Instrumentality Project. They intend to utilize the power of the Angels, the EVAs, and Lilith to forcefully open the Doors of Guf, dissolving and fusing the consciousness of all humanity to return into Lilith's body—becoming a sea of LCL devoid of individual form, devoid of loneliness and barriers, but also stripped of self and a future."
"What they desire is not the continuation of humanity, but its termination—a pathetic 'eternal life' existing in the form of a collective consciousness. And you, Asuka, the Lance of Longinus in your hand is nothing more than one of the tools used to complete this ultimate sacrificial ritual within SEELE's script."
Ryo's words acted like a scalpel, peeling away the mist blanketing the truth layer by layer. What he displayed were no empty accusations; along with his words, several filtered yet critically complete fragments of data—including portions of research records from the Antarctic incident, encrypted SEELE directive fragments, and analyses regarding the essence of "Instrumentality"—were synchronously transmitted into NERV's public channels and onto the screens of Asuka's cockpit.
The iron-clad facts presented themselves coldly and cruelly before everyone. Asuka stared blankly at the data scrolling across the screen, listening to Ryo's explanation, her brain struggling to process this subversive information.
So... the battle they had fought all along hid such a dark purpose behind it? Protecting humanity was a lie, and turning humanity into orange juice was the truth?
"Now, tell me, Asuka Langley Shikinami." Ryo's voice rose once more, carrying an unavoidable solemnity. "Having learned all of this, are you still willing to counter SEELE—which plots to destroy everything—and the NERV controlled by it, for the sake of defending the collective called 'humanity' along with the meaning and future of their existence as independent individuals?"
His gaze seemed to pierce through space, looking straight into Asuka's inner heart.
"Are you willing to fulfill that promise you made to me in the corridor—to protect my back?"
This sentence was like a flash of lightning, splitting open the confusion and chaos inside Asuka's heart. That evening, in the Headquarters corridor, the oath she had mustered up the courage to utter echoed incomparably clearly in her ears. That feeling of wanting to protect a certain important person was real and unquestionable.
She looked at Ryo standing atop the Titan's head. He was no longer that simple, trustworthy doctor, but his stance, the truth he revealed, and the enemies he intended to counter—seemed to be the direction truly worthy of her fighting for.