Aozaki Aoko [676-677] (Patreon)

Chapter 676: The Eighth Angel, Silenced!

Since the Eighth Angel's core couldn't be located for the moment, the pseudo-Lance lost its usefulness.

If it were the true Spear of Longinus, once thrown by its wielder it could autonomously seek out its "target"—namely the Angel core that needed to be stopped. But the currently manufactured pseudo-Lance is only a replica infused with some cells; it lacks any autonomous behavior.

So Gray decisively opened all the N2 mine launchers in Unit-05's legs and back, unleashing an indiscriminate bombardment against the Eighth Angel's massive body.

Explosions boomed one after another, the shockwaves nearly blowing Gray off the Angel's back.

But the high-altitude winds quickly dispersed the smoke, and only a small portion of the Eighth Angel's flesh was damaged—and it began regenerating rapidly.

"As expected, it's not that simple…" Gray muttered, frowning. "No matter what, we have to find the core first!"

Just as Gray piloted Unit-05 closer to the pseudo-Lance's insertion point, planning to "dig deeper" with it, all the "eye" spots on the surrounding "fur" lit up red, and then a black "silhouette" resembling an EVA's upper body appeared atop the Angel flesh on the side where she stood.

The slim black humanoid, only an upper torso, had an Angel mask-head glowing red. Its body was corded with muscle, with no visible skin structure—like an EVA only half-grown.

As expected, under certain conditions EVA, Apostles, and ADAMS can transform into one another. Humanity simply cannot currently recreate those conditions; otherwise the Third Angel would already have been converted into an EVA.

Gray silently pulled a weapon from the rear equipment rack. With a click it shifted from folded to deployed. She gripped the handle with both hands, and the weapon spun up with a buzzing whirr.

It was a "two-handed sword," but its blade didn't cut via high-frequency vibration or heat; its function was simple and brutal—a chainsaw sword made of two counter-rotating chains.

The design was straightforwardly violent, but its power supply and blade materials were packed with "hardcore tech."

Gray assumed the stance she used back when she was a gravedigger wielding a scythe and charged the Angel-humanoid, because she'd spotted a medium-sized red orb in its chest.

The Angel's core, Gray thought, focusing. Why expose the core at a time like this? She couldn't figure out the reason, but there was no reason to waste the chance. The engines on her back flared, propelling her toward the target.

But the Eighth Angel obviously had a reason to dare expose its core in front of Unit-05. Mid-charge, the humanoid and the surrounding "fur" suddenly flashed with a multitude of cruciform lights.

Having inherited part of Artoria's "Instinct," Gray immediately sensed tremendous danger.

She forced Unit-05 to dodge to the side and raised the weapon defensively before her chest.

Even so, the volley of light cannons struck her legs, severely damaging the mechanical structures and severing the link to the pseudo-Lance, flinging Unit-05 into the air.

Gray herself wasn't much hurt; in fact, Unit-05's "amputee" flaw became an advantage—losing steel and mechanical legs didn't inflict any neural sync pain. It just meant she'd need "new legs" later, which would be expensive.

With the back-mounted Type-A pack intact, Gray just barely maintained a flight attitude in midair. She looked back toward the Angel's receding back. The Eighth Angel didn't continue attacking her; instead it was straining to reconstitute its Absolute Field below and focus it downward. It still intended to blow itself up and flip the entire NERV HQ.

"Asuka!" Gray called her teammate over the magical comms. "The Eighth Angel's core is exposed, but it's on the back. I'll do firing guidance; you break it—hurry!"

"Got it!"

Asuka pulled down the G-type targeting visor in her cockpit and manually aimed the positron cannon. Gray's Unit-05 fed a constant stream of positional corrections for the Angel's core, making it hard for even an elite pilot like Asuka to lock on immediately.

But the pseudo-Lance was still lodged inside the Angel, continually degrading the Eighth Angel's ability to manipulate its Absolute Field; it could no longer reach the light- and space-warping intensities from before.

"Asuka, the humanoid part is submerging back into its body—if it does, we'll lose the core's position again!" Gray urged. "Shoot now!"

"I know!" Asuka gritted her teeth, her eyes faintly glowing. By tapping a bit of pseudo-divinity, she boosted her abilities and Unit-02's sync ratio, rapidly fixing the Eighth Angel core's position.

"Die, you giant starfish!" Asuka shouted as she pulled the trigger. A blue beam—

The next moment, the Eighth Angel's red core melted.

By then the Angel was only about three thousand meters above the ground. Its enormous body was plainly visible to the naked eye. Unit-01 and Unit-00 had already reached the predicted crash site.

But Asuka's shot cleanly destroyed the Angel's core. With a piercing scream, the Angel's colossal form collapsed entirely, turning into a rain of blood that flooded the whole valley.

A great cross of light lingered in the sky, heralding an angel's death.

"Target silenced!" In NERV HQ's Tactical Command Center, Makoto Hyuga reported loudly. "Unit-02's positron cannon successfully destroyed the Eighth Angel's core!"

"Phew…" Misato Katsuragi exhaled, rubbing her face. "Those two are such risk-takers… When Unit-05 got hit, I thought the operation had failed."

"At least the European branch's plan built in some redundancy," Ritsuko Akagi remarked. "The target was destroyed at an altitude of three thousand meters. Even if they'd failed, Unit-01 and Unit-00 still would've had a chance to 'make up for it' with your method."

"…Are you mocking me?" Misato shot her old classmate a dead-fish glare.

"Sigh, merely an objective assessment," Ritsuko said with a sigh. "As for the post-battle resource reallocation, let the Commander deal with the headache."

Chapter 677: Probing

At the same time, near the Kagoshima Space Launch Center, Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki struggled out of their reentry capsule.

A staffer hurried over to Fuyutsuki and handed him a report. After reading it, Fuyutsuki was silent for a moment, then said to Gendo:

"Bad news and good news. Which do you want first?"

"…Good news."

"The good news is, the Eighth Angel was successfully destroyed," Fuyutsuki said. "Seems NERV runs just fine even without us."

"And the bad?"

"The bad news is the ones who took it down weren't 'our people,' but Unit-02 and Unit-05.

Unit-05's legs were destroyed during the fight with the Eighth Angel, which made the landing trickier, but they managed. In any case, Unit-05's hands are intact, and the NM2 reactor's fine.

A set of 'new legs' is already on the way from France. JA equipment originally came from the European branch, so to get replacement parts you have to 'place a new order.'

On this point, Touko has also been preparing to cultivate 'genuine new legs' for Unit-05.

But compared to fabricating JA mechanical parts, growing new EVA legs requires far more prep. After all, using HQ facilities carries some risk of Gendo having tampered with them.

Gendo and Fuyutsuki soon returned to NERV HQ. The two old foxes didn't make a splash; only a handful knew they were back—likely because they didn't want to confront the European branch yet.

Counting the Eighth Angel, Asuka now has "two heads" to her name. Compared to Shinji's solo kills on the Fourth and Fifth Apostles, her tally seems a bit less impressive. But the current Asuka isn't as fixated as in the original timeline. Being an EVA pilot is only part of her life's meaning. She's happy, and that's that—after work she's going on a picnic with Gray.

Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami had no objections—if anything, they were happy the Angel was eliminated. Fighting isn't enjoyable to Shinji; who likes getting hurt and winding up in the ICU for no reason?

In the original timeline, Shinji lacked validation. But after the AI department treated him to a meal, he seemed to gain confidence. Rei's presence became an important emotional anchor, letting him understand his efforts weren't meaningless.

This diverges greatly from Gendo's original plan, but Gendo doesn't seem inclined to "correct" his son—perhaps he still remembers he's actually Shinji's father.

Of all the man's inhuman schemes, this, at least, is relatively human.

Shinji's departure from Misato's "care" left the "temporary guardian" feeling a bit defeated. For some reason, she then ran to the European branch's turf asking that Gray and Asuka also attend school.

Touko was speechless when she heard. Both Gray and Asuka have received extremely comprehensive educations; they don't need your "pilots-only class" at that unlucky middle school. Especially Asuka—she already earned a bachelor's degree at NERV's educational institute in France. She's the top of the top. What can your middle school possibly teach her?

"This really doesn't require your concern," Touko said to Misato with a smiling squint. "Asuka and Gray have undergone the strictest, most specialized education. They don't need supplemental coursework at junior high.

Please trust this. As their guardian, I can guarantee it."

"Hm?" Misato frowned at Touko's professional smile, recalling Kaji's warning. "But isn't a fourteen-year-old supposed to enjoy life on campus? Are you trying to deprive them of contact with peers?"

"Don't get it twisted, Captain Katsuragi," Touko took off her glasses, her gaze turning oddly fierce. "NERV is an institution dedicated to saving humanity from the Apostles, not a place for you to play house and indulge your Mother Teresa complex. Bethany Base and the European branch aren't under HQ's jurisdiction. We're independent departments. You do know that, right?"

"…I understand." Seeing Touko's stance, Misato didn't argue further. She nodded and turned to leave.

—Dividing line—

Lately, the Apostles haven't involved Aoko much; at most she's offered support from the rear via MAGI and DeepThought. So she finally had time for magical research and has made progress on her Legendary Spell Seed. She believes she'll soon gain her first Legendary spell.

Battles in the EVA world are absurdly large-scale. Apart from Aoko's over-spec magic cannon powered by the Fifth Magic, ordinary Mana-Net system spells don't do much against Apostles. Absolute Fields are just too cheat-like.

So Aoko also commissioned Touko to custom-build her a Key of Nebuchadnezzar (ADAMS).

But since she's a non-Third-Magic Magician, using the Key requires extra caution and is more difficult. Zelretch is the prime cautionary tale.

Originally, as a Magus Marshal, the Second Magician Zelretch had power comparable to a TYPE.

But after carelessly getting bitten by Crimson Moon and becoming a Dead Angel, his power plummeted, and his stance and perspective changed. Aoko has no desire to end up like that.

This is why the base template for everyone's Key of Nebuchadnezzar is ADAMS rather than an Angel. Although Apostles, EVAs, ADAMS, and the human genome are quite similar, in subsequent differentiation the one conceptually closest to "human" is ADAMS—the "original humans." So adding ADAMS information to oneself is safest and won't undermine one's original system.

In the Nasuverse, all Magicians were human when they first acquired the Five Great Magics. Their "names" are engraved in the Human Order. Calling Magicians "graduated humans" is the best proof of this view.

Because of the special nature of her own magic, Touko can avoid negative effects from the Key of Nebuchadnezzar, but that doesn't mean it's fine for Aoko to use it. So they must be extra cautious before official use. They have the patience and won't rush.