"Heh… people are destined to vanish eventually. All of this… it's futile."
Jack's voice echoed softly. He smiled faintly, then pressed down hard—crushing the device he'd used to activate Unit‑04.
"What did you just say, you madman?! Raise your hands! Surrender—now—or we'll shoot!"
A squad of soldiers leveled weapons at him, voices trembling with rage and fear.
"I don't want to die. I… really don't…"
Jack looked upward—only to see a ceiling of steel beams, not the open sky.
He lowered his head with sadness. The silent EVA-04 rumbled behind him.
No one knew he was from Moscow. No one would know he died—his friend back in town would never find out.
In those years in Nevada, Jack had known happiness.
And now… it was ending.
"What's happened here? You monster—what have you done?!"
As they saw Unit‑04 suddenly powering up, the soldiers shouted in panic at Jack.
But he said nothing more. He had no intention of speaking again.
Then, with a thunderous roar—
A massive surge of energy erupted from the EVA‑04 frame.
At the core of the mech, an orb of crackling, dark energy formed. It was terrifying—a force that seemed to devour everything in its path.
Jack's lips curved into a sad smile. As if released, he opened his arms wide.
In a flash, his short frame vanished completely—no blood, no bone.
It was as if Jack—and everything around him—simply evaporated.
Walls, steel beams, dust—all dissolved into nothingness.
"Escape! Get out while you still can!"
The panic-stricken soldiers screamed as the energy grew even more intense.
But escape was impossible. The engulfing force spread faster than any human could run.
In seconds, all were consumed—every last one of them.
The energy expanded outward, swallowing the entire NERV Second Branch, then rapidly grew in scale—encapsulating all of Carson City.
Wrapped in that abnormal energy field, the whole city and its citizens vanished without a trace.
Carson City disappeared—as if erased from existence.
Ten miles away, at the silver mine, stood the big guy, swaying drunkenly with a nearly empty bottle in hand.
Even in his intoxication, his bleary eyes caught sight of something unimaginable in the distance.
Above Carson City hovered a dense, dark orb—pulsing with ominous black energy.
"Did… did I imagine that?" he muttered.
He rubbed his eyes, looked again—and froze.
The dark orb was receding.
And—Carson City itself—was gone.
Completely absent from the horizon.
"It's… it's gone. Carson City… just… disappeared…"
The drunk miner stared in stunned silence at the empty landscape.
The disappearance of Carson City triggered a cascade of alarm across the U.S.:
Reports traveled from local officials to Nevada's state government, and quickly reached Washington, D.C..
Inside the White House, from the Oval Office to the Situation Room, panic reigned.
Under an emergency order, all information about Carson City's disappearance was classified.
"What the hell is going on?! How can an entire city just vanish?!"
The President paced angrily.
"I want the truth. How did Carson City just disappear like that? Was the report real? What actually happened? Why hasn't anyone given me answers?"
Silence followed. Even the heads of the FBI and DHS could not respond.
"Are we all just on their payroll? Why hasn't anyone briefed me?"
The President fumed.
"Didn't the Department of Homeland Security detect any intel before this?"
The head of Homeland Security finally spoke:
"Mr. President, the disappearance is unprecedented and deeply disturbing. We're gathering data… but so far, no evidence of man‑made cause. It may involve supernatural or anomalous forces.
And remember—NERV's Second Branch was in Carson City, housing two Evangelion units."
"This must be investigated immediately. I want every agency working on it. No one is to rest until we know what happened."
The President's roar echoed throughout the West Wing.
Within thirty minutes, a special ten-person investigation team was dispatched from the White House to Carson City, tasked with uncovering the truth behind the city's disappearance.
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