Chapter 550: The Strongest Angel Attacks
However, destiny played an incredibly cruel joke on Gendo Ikari.
Unit-01, the machine that had fused with the soul and will of Yui Ikari during a contact experiment accident, only recognized her biological son—Shinji Ikari, who shared the same bloodline—as its sole pilot deep within its core. This bond, originating from the very source of life, surpassed any technical means or human orchestration.
This forced Gendo Ikari to personally push his own son—whom he had subconsciously tried to "protect" or "exclude" from the ultimate plan—straight onto the absolute center of the stage, transforming him into the most critical and dangerous executor of the scenario.
Shinji's existence thus carried a dual significance. He was not only the sole pilot of Unit-01, but because of his unique, unbreakable deep connection with his mother's soul inside the machine, he had become one of the indispensable living keys to triggering the "Third Impact."
According to SEELE's ancient script and the personal plots Gendo Ikari was covertly adjusting, initiating the Third Impact and opening the "Doors of Guf" required the convergence of three key elements. One of them was known as the "Vessel of Adam"—an existence capable of bearing and activating Adam's power, serving as the detonation point for the Impact.
And this "Vessel" was precisely Unit-01, which imprisoned an Adam core while being guarded by Yui Ikari's soul.
Completely oblivious to it all, Shinji had already become the most central and tragic cog in his father's grand design—a plan aimed at reuniting with his deceased wife, even at the cost of annihilating the existing world.
Ryo's seemingly casual guidance acted like a precisely thrown pebble into a calm lake. It not only rippled waves of truth-seeking within Shinji's heart but also triggered a hidden yet violent undercurrent beneath Gendo Ikari's frozen emotions and strict layouts.
This father and son, played by fate, were being irreversibly dragged in completely different ways toward the absolute center of a massive vortex concerning the survival and restructuring of the world.
Ryo, meanwhile, stood like an observer at the edge of the storm, calmly noting every shift. The strings he had lightly plucked were already beginning to elicit a deep resonance. He knew deeply that when Gendo's obsession, Shinji's confusion, the secrets of Unit-01, and the nearing completion of Unit-06 on the Moon finally intersected, the deciding moment for the future would arrive. All the preparations he had made had to be fully ready before that instant.
Under Ryo's leadership, the comprehensive modification overhaul of EVA Unit-03 was officially declared complete.
This machine, utilizing white as its primary tone and supplemented by sharp red stripes, stood silently inside its exclusive hangar. Its internal systems, weapon interfaces, and even parts of its core logic had been deeply integrated with Ryo's technological concepts and pre-set protocols. It was no longer merely a NERV EVA, but substantially an exclusive armament platform responsive to Ryo's will.
Concurrently, Unit-03's designated pilot, Asuka, had also completed her preliminary synchronization and adaptation training with the new machine. Although her operations had been slightly adjusted due to changes in the machine's traits, her formidable combat talent, paired with her ever-increasing trust and execution of Ryo's commands, made her the most suitable master for this white EVA.
This Unit-03, reborn through Ryo's hands, along with its pilot, constituted the first layer of insurance in Ryo's plan to deal with future upheavals—a force he could relatively directly deploy and rely upon.
Right at this moment, during another routine cross-dimensional communication, his main body at the base on the Death World in the Warhammer universe transmitted a critical piece of progress.
The information flow within the communication explicitly indicated that an EVA belonging entirely to "Chen Yu" (which could be dubbed the "EVA-Titan" model)—cultivated and modulated by utilizing the EVA technical data and biological sample information Ryo had continuously transmitted back, combined with the biological modification technologies and STC system optimization algorithms unique to the Warhammer universe—had successfully completed its foundational construction.
However, the main body also pointed out the current constraints. Due to resource and priority considerations, the main body had not specially manufactured a new avatar with a fully independent consciousness for it. Instead, a deeply modified, refined version of the "Dummy System"—originating from the decoded Dummy System technology and fused with Adeptus Mechanicus cybernetics—had been integrated inside this newborn EVA-Titan.
Operating this system required relying on a powerful external consciousness for a psionic connection and remote piloting.
The main body explicitly informed him that if the development of events truly necessitated it, he could cross-dimensionally deploy this EVA-Titan to the EVA world. But when that time came, Ryo (the second avatar) would need to personally establish a connection using his own psionic energy, bearing the dual physical burden of actually "piloting" a massive engine of war while managing his own actions.
Despite this, this EVA-Titan existing in the Warhammer world, capable of being deployed as a surprise force, still constituted the second layer of insurance in Ryo's plan. It was a hidden trump card, an ultimate unit of violence belonging completely to him, controlled by neither SEELE nor NERV.
To this point, Ryo had initially constructed a two-tiered guarantee system to handle the drawing storm: overtly, there was Unit-03, deeply modified by him and piloted by Asuka; covertly, there was the EVA-Titan that could descend from an alternate universe, personally controlled via his psionic energy if necessary. He even held the ancient technological relic as a final insurance policy—if required, everything could be reversed with that item.
All preparations were accelerating, and all layouts had been spread wide. He merely awaited the arrival of that critical node. Whether these two layers of insurance could be effectively triggered would directly decide whether he could snatch the final victory in this chessboard interwoven between gods and men.
The critical node arrived swiftly as the Tenth Angel, Zeruel, aggressively launched its attack.
Its massive black torso resembled an abstract geometric structure, with a large skirt-like architecture extending from its base. Most prominent were its two sharp, highly extendable ribbon-like arms.
Shinji took the lead by launching in Unit-01 to intercept, followed closely by Asuka's white Unit-03 and Mari's Unit-02.
However, Zeruel displayed an overwhelming show of strength.
The multi-layered A.T. Field it deployed manifested a strength far exceeding any prior Angel; Unit-01's close-range slashes and Progressive Knife could not even stir an effective ripple against it. Unit-02 attempted to utilize its mobility to flank and attack, but was struck like a giant whip by one of Zeruel's suddenly extending ribbon arms, instantly thrown back with its armor fracturing.
Asuka, piloting Unit-03, set up the miniaturized Positron Cannon from a distance and loaded a special "Cherubim-Type II" warhead.
"Cherubim-Type II, fire!" The special warhead encapsulating catalytic particles transformed into a stream of light, slamming into Zeruel's A.T. Field.
However, the purification light that had been universally victorious in the past yielded very little effect this time. After piercing through multiple layers of the A.T. Field, it was stopped solid—Zeruel's A.T. Field strength far exceeded the instantaneous breakthrough threshold of the "Cherubim-Type II."
To make matters worse, Unit-01 was tightly ensnared by Zeruel's other ribbon arm during close-quarters combat, the formidable force causing Unit-01's armor plates to creak and groan. Immediately after, a lethal beam fired from Zeruel's eyes precisely pierced Unit-01's shoulder armor, inflicting a severe wound.
The three EVAs, along with humanity's currently most advanced "Cherubim" weapon system, appeared pale and powerless before Zeruel's absolute strength and defense.
Inside the NERV Headquarters command center, the atmosphere turned grave to the absolute extreme. Misato Katsuragi clenched both fists tightly while Ritsuko Akagi rapidly calculated various possibilities, but the red warnings flashing continuously on the screen and the rapidly plummeting machine status data all declared that the battle situation was exceptionally grim.