The previously calm data stream instantly turned into a glaring blood red, and the siren's wail tore through the sky above the Matsushiro test site.
"Wh-what happened?! This is Control Center! There's a high-energy reaction inside unit-03!"
"Identification code... is it orange?! No, the waveform is changing! It's blue!!"
"Confirmed as an Angel! The Ninth Angel has parasitized unit-03!!"
At this very moment, inside the entry plug.
In the mental vision originally synchronized with the EVA, a deep red black hole suddenly appeared. Under Asuka's astonished gaze, it rapidly covered the entire cockpit, and the warm LCL liquid suddenly turned into a scarlet fluid, like a disintegrating angel core.
An eerie woman's laughter echoed all around, and an unstoppable force struck from behind, pushing her to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss-like dark blue entrance.
"Wh-what is this?!"
"Aaaaaaah——!!!"
Intense pain struck from the mental plane!
Pollution rate, skyrocketing!
Countless negative, malicious thoughts poured madly into her mind.
Loneliness, fear... The most fragile scars deep within her heart were ruthlessly torn open and doused with strong acid.
"You are not needed."
"You are just a tool."
"No one loves you."
Under the intense stimulation, her head felt like it was about to explode, as if something disgusting and malicious was desperately trying to crawl out from within.
"Don't... don't come here! Mom... Teacher..."
Just at the final moment, when Asuka's consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by that despairing blue abyss and her body was about to become an Angel puppet.
Time seemed to stand still.
A warm, domineering, and unquestionable voice resounded directly in the depths of her soul, which was on the verge of collapse.
"Have you given up already? Our ace."
The voice pierced through the Angel's noisy and disgusting mental pollution, like a golden thunderbolt, instantly splitting the darkness.
Asuka's pupils, which had already dilated, suddenly contracted.
In this dimension where only spirits existed, she saw it.
Above that despairing blue ocean, a towering figure stood out of thin air.
His body was wrapped in a platinum radiance that even an Angel could not compare to, and those deep eyes were watching her calmly.
It was Hansen.
"Tea...cher?" Asuka's consciousness trembled.
"The Ninth Angel, Matarael. Although it is an erosion-type parasite, it is barely qualified as nourishment."
Hansen's voice carried a sense of indifference that disdained all things.
As he reached out his hand, the consciousness of The Ninth Angel, which had been madly eroding Asuka's mind, let out a terrified shriek like a mouse encountering a cat.
"Since you have called for me, I shall grant you rebirth."
Hansen's finger tapped gently on Asuka's tear-stained forehead.
"Do not resist that power, Asuka, devour It, master It, and let it become a part of your strength."
Boom——!!
As Hansen's words fell, the platinum Divine Power erupted like a supernova.
The blue light that had been eroding Asuka's body was instantly devoured in reverse by an even more domineering golden radiance!
At this moment, Matarael was no longer an invader, but had become a tamed stream of energy, madly remodeling her cells and strengthening her body.
As her own functions grew terrifyingly by leaps and bounds, Asuka felt an unprecedented sense of peace and satisfaction.
The moment the Divine Power Link was formed, she understood her situation.
Without even half a second of hesitation, the girl devoutly accepted the new identity she had gained between life and death.
Hansen's [God-Awakened].
"Teacher..."
In the real world.
unit-03, which had been roaring madly and preparing for a massacre, suddenly stiffened.
Its arms, wrapped in blue mycelium, had already been raised, preparing to tear the air in front of it, but in the next second, a trace of human clarity flashed in those scarlet eyes.
By the shores of Lake Ashi, a heavy rain poured down.
eva unit-01 and eva unit-00 were already in position.
"Target silent! That is... an Angel!" Misato Katsuragi's voice trembled slightly in the communication channel, "Shinji! Rei! That is unit-03, parasitized by an Angel! We must stop it from entering the city!"
"But... Asuka is still inside!" Shinji Ikari took a deep breath, controlled eva unit-01 to drop its rifle, and said seriously, "Ms. Misato, Rei and I can save her!"
"Agreed." For the first time ever, Rei Ayanami's cold voice rang out, carrying the same unquestionable firmness as Shinji's.
"If we don't stop it, more people will die!"
Just then, the voice of the silent Gendo Ikari rang out, and he coldly issued an order.
"Cut pilot synchronization, switch to Dummy System."
"Wait! Commander!" Misato exclaimed.
However, just at the moment when the bloody and cold Dummy System was about to take over eva unit-01.
"Shinji-kun, watch."
Hansen's voice suddenly cut into the public communication channel, clear and calm, with a hint of playfulness.
"Who says that being parasitized by an Angel must mean they are an enemy?"
Everyone was stunned.
"Don't underestimate the bond between Asuka and everyone!"
As his voice fell, unit-03, which had been roaring like a beast in the middle of the battlefield, suddenly performed an action that defied all biological instincts.
It—or rather, Asuka, who was enduring hellish pain in the cockpit but had a fanatical look in her eyes—suddenly controlled the unit to stand straight.
"Get... get out... of my body!!!"
A shrill yet powerful cry rang out through the speakers of unit-03, echoing across the entire battlefield.
In the horrified gaze of everyone, unit-03's long, slender arms actually turned backward and viciously stabbed into its own shoulders!
Squelch!
The black armor plates cracked, and blood splattered.
It precisely grabbed those dark blue Angel parasitic tissues that were trying to control the unit's movements.
"Break... break, aaaaaaah!!!"
Accompanied by Asuka's heart-wrenching roar, unit-03 exerted force with both arms, actually forcibly tearing off its own shoulders and arms, which had been so severely eroded that they had begun to mutate!
Riiiip——!!
Blood rained down from the sky.
unit-03, having lost its arms, stumbled backward, but it did not stop.
Immediately after, it used the remaining strength of its lower limbs to leap up, completed an incredible turn in the air, and used the thrusters on its back to force a collision with a giant rock on the ground.
Bang!
That was the physical impact point used to forcibly eject the entry plug.
"What?!" Ritsuko in the control room was so shocked that she dropped her cigarette, "It is... self-excising the infected parts? This is impossible! The pilot's spirit should have been completely polluted by now!"
"Is this... what Teacher Hansen taught..." Shinji Ikari stared blankly at the screen, a flash of shock in his eyes, "Even when in a desperate situation, must one control one's own destiny?"
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