Chapter 552: The Fused Lilith
Just as the broken Unit-00, cradling the N2 bomb, charged toward Zeruel like a moth to a flame and was about to be intercepted and devoured by those lethal ribbon-like arms—
"Don't think you'll get your way!" Mari's manic voice exploded over the communication channel.
The beast-form Unit-02 unleashed astonishing speed, resolutely inserting itself between Unit-00 and Zeruel. Its alienated, swollen claws tore forward violently, and its rampant A.T. Field outputted with full force, managing to briefly neutralize Zeruel's impenetrable barrier once again, forcefully ripping open a pathway ahead of Unit-00!
"Now, Rei!" Asuka's shout followed closely behind.
The grenade launcher on the white Unit-03's shoulder flashed continuously, and several "Cherubim-Type I" grenades arced through the air, exploding around Zeruel into a pure azure curtain of purification light. This distracting attack failed to cause substantive damage, but it effectively pinned down the movements of Zeruel's other ribbon-like arms.
Almost at the exact same moment, the miniaturized Positron Cannon on Unit-03's back roared once more!
The "Cherubim-Type II" warhead precisely shot into the Angel's main body area exposed by the field neutralization!
Concurrently, Unit-00 seized this fleeting opportunity. Rei Ayanami controlled the broken chassis, using every ounce of her strength to violently hurl the massive N2 bomb she cradled straight toward Zeruel's massive white torso!
However, Zeruel executed an extreme evasion at the final moment. The N2 bomb failed to strike its absolute core area, instead violently slamming into the edge of its torso.
In the next instant, an earth-shattering explosion occurred!
The pure azure light of the "Cherubim-Type II" warhead and the searing white destructive energy of the N2 bomb erupted and intertwined almost simultaneously!
The catalytic particles frantically eroded the Angel's biological tissue, dissolving and decomposing a massive area of it, while the terrifying energy released by the N2 bomb completely evaporated and tore apart those eroded tissues along with the surrounding matter!
A massive fireball and shockwave swept across the entire battlefield, and the blinding glare instantly overloaded the observation equipment.
When the light and smoke gradually dissipated, what manifested before everyone's eyes was Zeruel's massive body, almost completely destroyed with only a few remnants remaining, along with...
Levitating in mid-air, still pulsing slowly and emitting an ominous light—the Angel's core.
Unit-00's self-sacrificing strike and Unit-03's precise support, though successful in destroying the vast majority of Zeruel's physical form, had failed to completely eliminate its most fundamental existence.
Almost before the smoke from the N2 bomb could completely scatter, the moment Zeruel's core was exposed, an abnormality struck suddenly!
The remnant, still active biological tissue of the Angel, along with that pulsing core, as if possessing a will of its own, transformed into a white torrent. With lightning speed, it lunged violently toward the nearest unit, Unit-00, which had temporarily lost its balance due to the explosion's shockwave!
"Warning! Anomalous biological reaction! Unit-00 is enveloped by an unknown force field!" The alarms in the command center blared shrilly.
Under everyone's horrified gazes, Zeruel's remnant tissue and core, like a greedy parasite, forcefully drilled into, entwined with, and fused into Unit-00's broken yellow armor plates.
Unit-00's body began undergoing an exceptionally bizarre and rapid deformation. The external armor plates disintegrated and reshaped during the fusion, its morphology shifting from a mechanical humanoid silhouette toward something more massive, closer to the outline of a giant, white female body.
A bizarre aura interwoven with holiness and blasphemy diffused outward from this emerging fusion entity.
"What... What is this?!" Asuka cried out in shock inside her cockpit, the scene before her completely exceeding her scope of understanding.
"The Angel... fused with the EVA?" Mari also reined in her mania, her tone carrying an unbelievable gravity.
Shinji Ikari looked at the massive white shadow gradually manifesting a blurry female outline, especially remembering that Rei Ayanami was still inside; a massive terror and confusion left him almost suffocating.
However, in stark contrast to everyone's shock was the absolute, icy composure of Gendo Ikari on the command seat. He didn't alter his signature hand-crossed posture even a fraction, and the order he issued through the communication channel carried not a single ripple of emotion: "Target confirmed mutated. Unit-01, Unit-02, Unit-03, continue combat missions. Eliminate Unit-00, which has been eroded by the Angel."
This command was like freezing ice, piercing through the heart of every single pilot. Especially Shinji; he couldn't believe his father would so coldly demand that they attack a machine that might have fused together with Rei Ayanami.
Meanwhile, at the technical observation station, though a trace of surprise flitted across Ryo's eyes at this peculiar fusion phenomenon, his expression quickly returned to his habitual composure. Within the memory information from his main body, descriptions regarding the possibility of an Angel deeply bonding with an EVA or a human did indeed exist. Although the specific shape before him was unknown, its essence did not entirely escape his cognitive framework.
The abnormality occurring before him, in its essence, far exceeded a mere physical fusion between an Angel and an EVA chassis.
Ryo's pupils constricted slightly. His psionic perception and the memory information from his main body completed their connection in an instant, allowing him to immediately pierce through to the truth behind this terrifying spectacle.
"The target isn't Unit-00 itself..." he realized grimly. "Zeruel's core instinctively perceived a more fundamental existence—what it wants to fuse with is the Unit-00 pilot, Rei Ayanami, who serves as the vessel for Lilith's soul!"
The remnant Angel tissue and core, like sharks smelling blood, had lunged toward Unit-00 regardless of the cost, and their foundational objective was precisely to devour Rei Ayanami inside, thereby directly contacting and fusing with the fragments of the soul originating from Lilith's main body that she carried!
Contact between an Angel and Lilith was already one of the conditions to trigger an Impact, and at this moment, this contact was taking place in the most direct and violent manner. What was occurring was a forced union between an Angel (an Adam derivative) and Lilith (the soul carrier)!
That rapidly shaping, increasingly clear giant white female torso was not a morphological evolution of Zeruel itself, but a forced manifestation of Lilith's true image in this world! It was the "divine posture" close to one of the origins of life presented after Zeruel devoured and fused with the vessel of Lilith's soul (Rei Ayanami).
Ryo did not rush to act, but his observational focus turned significantly sharper. He stared fixedly at that gradually consolidating, massive white goddess-like silhouette, analyzing the jump velocity of its energy tiers, and assessing whether its behavioral patterns were dominated by the new consciousness following the fusion.
Concurrently, his psionic perception extended with all its might, attempting to capture the existence state of Rei Ayanami's individual consciousness within it—had she been completely devoured, or did she still retain some degree of independence?
This distorted fusion entity was both an unprecedented crisis and something that might harbor precious information regarding the essence of souls and the origins of Angels and humanity.
The battlefield situation, due to this forbidden fusion touching upon the foundational rules of the world, was elevated in an instant into an entirely different dimension.