As the colossal shadow of the Eighth Angel, Sahaquiel, loomed over Tokyo-3, and the shrill air-raid sirens harmonized with NERV's highest-level combat alert, Osiris knew the moment he had been waiting for had arrived.
The entire focus of NERV was tightened like a spring by an invisible giant hand, concentrated solely on the imminent threat descending from the heavens.
In the corridors of the headquarters, the pounding of running feet, the shouting of commands, and the metallic clangs of automated systems locking down interwove into a chaotic symphony of noise. This was the perfect background din and cover for infiltrating Central Dogma.
Shedding the white lab coat that symbolized his status as a researcher, Osiris revealed a form-fitting tactical suit disguised beneath. He did not wear the overly conspicuous Hades-pattern Terminator Power Armor; it was ill-suited for an operation requiring such extreme stealth.
He activated his psychic talents, bolstered by his Gene-Seed. These were not used for offense, but for delicate self-shrouding and environmental interference. An imperceptible ripple of psychic energy enveloped his body, warping the path of surrounding light and subtly interfering with the sensors of nearby surveillance equipment. While not true invisibility, it was enough to turn him into a blurred, easily ignored shadow while moving at high speeds.
Relying on a map of the headquarters he had long since memorized and real-time security vulnerability reports provided by an AI virus, he moved like a disembodied ghost. He silently bypassed one heavy gate after another—barriers that theoretically required high-level clearance or simultaneous multi-person authentication.
His psychic energy acted as a master key, reaching into the delicate electronic locks to simulate legitimate passage signals or creating minor moments of distraction in the blind spots of the guards' vision.
The deeper he descended underground, the further the surface clamor receded, replaced by a cold, oppressive silence that felt almost deathly. The air here carried a unique scent—a mixture of disinfectant, machine oil, and an unnamable, faint odor of decaying biomass. The walls were no longer the metallic grey of the outer layers but a strange, dark red material that seemed to pulsate with life.
Finally, he reached the last barrier leading to the innermost core of Central Dogma. According to information gathered through viral infiltration, this was not only where the "Key of Nebuchadnezzar" was kept but also where the most core secrets of NERV—or rather, the SEELE plan—were sealed.
Using a backdoor command provided by the virus combined with a brief psychic influence on the guards' minds, he successfully bypassed the final set of rotating laser grids and biometric scanners, slipping into that legendary forbidden land.
The sight before him was enough to shatter the mind of any first-time witness.
It was an unimaginably vast underground space, so wide it gave the illusion of being in a subterranean world. The main body of the space was occupied by a vast, horizonless lake of crimson liquid that emitted a faint glow—highly concentrated LCL.
In the center of the lake stood a massive white cross. Nailed to the cross was a gigantic, white giant that resembled a human female but was decidedly not human. It lacked a lower body; from the waist down, it seemed to merge with the cross or the space itself.
Most striking of all was a spear of strange design, entirely dark red and of staggering length—the Spear of Longinus—which pierced its chest, pinning it firmly to the cross. The area where a face should have been was covered by a featureless white mask with no openings, bearing only the fig-leaf emblem of NERV.
Lilith.
The source of the Second Impact, or rather, the "God" named and sealed by humanity.
Even in its sealed state, that massive body radiated a silent, vast pressure that made the soul tremble. The air was thick with invisible whispers originating from its very essence. Osiris' psychic perception felt as if it had crashed into a bottomless, cold, and deathly silent ocean. It shared a source with the dormant consciousness he had sensed within Rei Ayanami, yet it was millions of times more massive.
However, this did not trigger much emotional fluctuation in him. Through his dimensional communicator, his main body had long since transmitted the memories of this world's core secrets to him. Everything before his eyes was merely a confirmation of expectations.
His gaze quickly swept across the core area and immediately locked onto a protruding platform near the shore, beneath the cross. On the platform, suspended within a precision-engineered transparent container, was the primary objective of this trip—the "Key of Nebuchadnezzar."
Just as the intelligence described, it was not a metallic creation. Its main body presented a strange form resembling a bundle of human nerves, emitting a soft biological fluorescence. At its "top," it was connected to a complex, clearly mechanical key-like component. Biology and machinery were perfectly fused in a way that surpassed NERV's current conventional technological level.
Without hesitation, Osiris' psychic energy extended like an invisible hand, easily bypassing the container's physical and energy locks—top-tier for this era. The container slid open silently. He took out the Key of Nebuchadnezzar; it felt slightly cool to the touch, and he could sense an extremely subtle pulse of energy within. He quickly placed it into a specially made shielded storage box.
Having completed his primary objective, he turned his gaze toward an area behind the side of the platform. There, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of giant cylindrical cultivation tanks were arranged like a forest of cold tombstones.
The tanks were filled with a pale yellow maintenance fluid. Inside each tank floated the naked body of a young girl with short blue hair and pale skin—Rei Ayanami. Their eyes were tightly shut, their expressions as peaceful as if they were sleeping, their bodies connected to various tubes like spare parts waiting to be used.
From a biological perspective, they were no different from the Rei Ayanami he had interacted with on the outside; all were clones created based on Lilith's cells and Yui Ikari's genetic template.
Osiris calmly recorded this scene. Cloning technology itself was not unusual to him; in certain dark corners of the Warhammer universe, it was even the norm. What mattered was the direct connection between these clones and Lilith's main body, as well as the specific role they played in the "Human Instrumentality Project." All of this matched the memory information sent by his main body.
In the distance, the faint roar of an EVA launch and the violent tremors of the Angel striking the city's defensive walls could be heard. The battle above was reaching a fever pitch.
Osiris lingered no longer. He took one last look at Lilith nailed to the cross and that silent forest of clones, then turned and retreated quietly the way he came.
The entire process of infiltration, observation, evidence collection, and extraction was efficient and cold. He triggered no alarms and left no physical traces.
By the time he safely returned to the Ninth Research Institute, NERV headquarters was still completely preoccupied by the Eighth Angel. He sat before the console, watching the intense battle footage on the screen.
The target was acquired; the core secrets were verified with his own eyes. The next step was how to use this intelligence and the physical object to manipulate the chessboard of this world—to secure the greatest interests for himself and for the main body's dimensional exploration plan.
And NERV remained entirely unaware.