Chapter 207: Great! The Angel is Attacking!

That’s not right.

Why did I come here so directly, without even bringing a helper? Even in the movies, people bring a whole gang to catch an affair.

At the underground headquarters, Asuka paced back and forth in front of the lounge level, agitated and spinning in circles.

She arrived in a furious rage, then slowed her pace, then wandered aimlessly, sweating profusely from anxiety.

Initially, her “god-slaying” aura made staff members scramble to retreat, wondering who had angered this young lady again.

‘What? Shinji-kun?’ Then it was fine.

But as she approached the destination, the sweat on her forehead increased. As her reason returned, Asuka realized a very serious problem.

‘Err, I’ve realized a lot of serious problems today, but whatever, this one is the most serious.’

Too late. It’s already too late.

That was what was in Asuka’s mind. She had delayed for nearly an hour before coming; whatever Rei Ayanami wanted to do, she would have finished it long ago. Usually, she wouldn’t be this inseparable from Rei, but for the past few days, she had a lingering feeling that this “dummy” was about to get serious.

That’s why Asuka had been especially careful today, her “disciplinary committee member” radar cranked to the max. But—

“It’s all Misato’s fault. No, it’s all idiot Shinji’s fault. I got distracted.”

Misato’s gossip was too big; how could she ignore it? But now it seemed she had lost the watermelon to pick up a sesame seed.

What exactly were those two doing inside?

She pressed her ear against the door, but this was a military facility, and its sealing was far superior to a home door. She couldn’t hear a single thing. But seeing the “LOCKED” indicator on the door, if one used their brain, it was impossible that nothing was happening inside.

A man and a woman in the same room, with the door locked, plus that uneasy feeling from the past few days.

Asuka’s face grew redder, and her breathing grew heavier. She had secretly memorized Rei’s door password; opening it wasn’t the issue. The question was what to do after opening it. Various indescribable images kept popping up in her mind.

‘That dummy couldn’t have learned this fast, could she? No, no, she’s always been unpredictable. As a disciplinary committee member, I won’t allow such impure interactions.

Should I open the door? No, what if it really is what I think it is? Can I accept that?

Maybe I should go find Mom and discuss what to do? Hmm, the “courage” gauge is empty; it should be refilled.

Buck up, Asuka! You’re a mature adult. I can accept whatever happens inside. I don’t care that much about winning or losing now.’

Her finger hovered near the door. Just half a meter away, she had already thought about how to gracefully give a wedding gift for their children. She imagined a child with ice-blue short hair innocently asking:

“Is this Auntie Asuka? Mom, why do you always call her a ‘loser’?”

‘SHUT UP! No!’

She pulled her hand back. She really didn’t want to see the happy, cozy faces of Rei and Shinji after opening the door. What would she do then? She would probably cry and run back into Unit-02.

‘This is absolutely impossible. How would I be able to hold my head up in front of them later?’

But standing here like a fool wasn’t an option either. Just like in anime, where the boy and girl do happy things inside, the “loser” can only bite her fingers and cry outside the door.

‘Anyone, just help me open this damn door! Where the hell are the Angels? Where have you all died to?!’

Asuka clenched her fists, completely forgetting that she had been praying for the Angels not to come and cause trouble lately. Perhaps the merciful Emperor heard the girl’s plea. In just an instant, the lights in the corridor flickered, and a shrill alarm sounded.

[ANGEL ALARM] [ANGEL ALARM, ALL FORCES TO LEVEL 1 COMBAT CONFIGURATION]

‘Huh? An Angel actually came?’

Asuka looked up, bewildered. Her plan for the day was completely ruined, yet she almost cheered, completely forgetting how she had been begging the gods for the Angels to stay away just a few days ago.

‘Finally, it’s here. It came at a good time! Given idiot Shinji’s personality, he will come out immediately no matter what he’s doing.’

Beep.

Sure enough, the electronic lock turned green. Asuka flashed to the corner of the corridor with the fastest speed in her life and poked half her head out, staring fixedly at the room.

‘Are their clothes disheveled? Are their faces flushed? Should I pretend I didn’t see it? Should I walk up and greet them nonchalantly? Or demand to know what these two idiots were doing leaving me behind?’

Her mind was a mess, but in an instant, her racing thoughts came to a screeching halt.

A suit of armor walked out. It was so tall that it had to bend down to exit the room. It was so magnificent; every part of it was filled with the glory of loyalty.

Crimson paint, the brilliant Imperial Aquila, the lifelike laurel wreath, the dense clusters of honors and decorations…

‘Ah???’

Asuka’s mouth hung open. In those few minutes, she had imagined countless scenarios, but never a fully armored Astartes walking out of the room. She couldn’t help but rub her eyes.

‘Am I thinking too much and hallucinating?

What is this Asuka up to now?’

Shinji glanced at the corner on the left, catching sight of an orange head quickly retracting. How could such a cliché “catching in the act” scenario happen to him? Asuka had been locked on by his psychic senses before she even reached the floor.

Furthermore, there was nothing to catch. He had accepted Rei’s declaration of love, donned this armor that he missed so dearly, and told stories of the past as he always did. Because Astartes barely sleep, those hundred-plus years of stories could be told for many years without repeating.

But wearing this “clothing” with the most ritualistic significance, the feeling of telling them was different. It felt as if every word was filled with loyalty, and every sentence was spreading the Gospel of the Emperor.

“You didn’t have to tease her,” Shinji turned his head, his voice booming from beneath the helmet.

It was Rei’s bad idea. Shinji had told her Asuka was coming, but she insisted on waiting a while, letting someone pace around anxiously outside the room.

“I just used her to vent some of my frustration,” Rei said, wrinkling her nose.

“Frustration? Do you have any complaints?”

The girl tilted her head. She had no complaints, because Rei was certain that Shinji had fully understood her words and accepted her confession. This was completely different from the classmate Asuka who loved speaking German.

In the most solemn posture, with the most sacred ritual, she and Shinji had become true lovers. Although the process exceeded a normal person’s imagination, the result was no different from the “after-school gym” scenes in romance anime.

The only frustration was that the follow-up development was different from what Dr. Ritsuko had instructed. Shinji was indeed in high spirits and immediately shared his glory with her. That wasn’t wrong, but Dr. Ritsuko had instructed her to “strike while the iron is hot” and soften the “hard” youth to achieve Instrumentality. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

But the youth who was already “hard” was now wearing an even harder suit of armor. How was she supposed to “soften” him? She could only brace herself and keep listening.

Seeing her dazed expression, Shinji shook his head slightly and asked, “Do I need to announce the results of the duel to Asuka? This is your honor.”

‘I could! I really want to see what the ‘loser’ the class rep talks about looks like.’

Rei almost blurted it out, but looked at the corner on the left, resisted the urge to laugh, and shook her head: “Not for now. Now that the Angel is attacking, Asuka will cry and hide back in Unit-02, so she wouldn’t be of any use anyway.”

“What loyalty, willing to sacrifice honor to ensure the war goes smoothly.” Shinji looked gratified. He vaguely realized this would deal a critical blow to Asuka, but this was Rei’s honor, and it had to be decided by her.

“Asuka, why are you hiding so far away? The Angel is attacking, why aren’t you at the hangar?!”

With a loud roar, the person hiding at the corner trembled and jumped out.

“Y-you, are you Shinji?”

“Nonsense. Aside from me, who else is qualified to wear this power armor?” Shinji removed his helmet. That youthful, handsome face paired with the menacing armor looked rather strange.

This power armor was indeed a counterfeit without practical combat significance, but Rei hadn’t made it out of “cosplay plastic.” The lightweight alloy could defend against direct hits from 20mm cannons, and it weighed hundreds of kilograms; he needed to power it with his psychic energy.

‘So, what kind of weird play are you two doing? Is this something an Earthling could think of?’

Asuka looked up, not knowing what to say, but she could see the youth was very happy. Well, ten times happier than a die-hard Tokusatsu fan receiving a prop suit.

Thump, thump, thump…

Shinji strode toward the hangar. NERV members running quickly to their stations along the way cast looks of awe, thinking the Research Department had developed some new weapon. This thing looked powerful just by glancing at it.

‘Phew, thank goodness. According to my ‘rich’ knowledge of health and hygiene, he shouldn’t be able to do much while wearing such heavy armor.’

Asuka followed behind, her heart settling back into its place, and she looked at Rei beside her with some triumph.

‘He makes me have a headache, but you can’t handle him either.’

“So you were secretly making this all along? Humph, wanting to coax him into being happy, huh? You actually hid it for so long.”

“Ikari-kun is very satisfied with my gift,” Rei replied expressionlessly.

Asuka was choked. She hadn’t even thought about giving a gift. Shinji’s birthday was in June; why give one now? She had to admit, she had lost miserably this time.

Rei was too thoughtful and knew too well how to cater to his interests. With Asuka’s carefree personality, she would never have noticed those details.

But “German victory logic” only has “small win, big win, and huge win.” There is no “lose” in the dictionary.

“Humph, so what? This idiot is not a normal person at all. Strategies to cater to his interests are useless. Are you feeling frustrated now?”

‘You’re so annoying. I’ve already tried my best to leave you some face.’

Rei turned her head. She really wanted to tell her that the confession had already succeeded, and Shinji had given a positive response—completely different from the “whispering in German” that Asuka did.

“W-what?” Asuka felt her scalp tingle under that gaze.

Rei continued to look at her, listening to the Angel alarm. It wasn’t the time to hit her now, but if she didn’t say anything, she wouldn’t be able to vent her frustration.

After a few seconds, her eyes narrowed slightly, and her lips curled upward, revealing the mysterious smile of a certain brat from another world.

‘Hehe, guess for yourself.’

“What’s the situation?”

When Shinji burst into the Central Command, everyone was startled, especially Misato, who jumped right off her swivel chair.

“Sh-Shinji? Why are you dressed like that?”

“Do you have any complaints about my loyalist form?” Shinji glanced sideways. He didn’t feel embarrassed at all.

Even if you made a die-hard Tokusatsu fan wear a suit on the street, they might feel ashamed, but if you were truly a Kamen Rider, it would be different. This was a uniform—what was there to be embarrassed about?

“Err, none at all.” Misato dared not offer any opinions and hurriedly looked to the side, thinking: ‘So this is your plan? The illness has clearly worsened.’

To her surprise, Ritsuko Akagi ignored her entirely and stared at Rei. Seeing her nod slightly, she smiled with satisfaction.

‘Very good. The ‘Shinji Ikari Instrumentality Project’ is proceeding smoothly.’

Completing Shinji didn’t mean cutting off his connection to 40K—that was impossible—but utilizing the deeply rooted values in his mind. She didn’t know how Rei had managed to do it.

“The situation is as follows: at 17:58:07, a huge abnormal material was observed in Earth orbit. Two minutes later, a reconnaissance satellite was dispatched to detect it, and the biological signal was confirmed as blue.”

“It’s the 17th Angel.”

Ritsuko entered combat state. As she spoke, Maya Ibuki brought up the images.

Against the backdrop of the pitch-black universe, there was a massive mass of light and shadow, emitting a deep blue glow, with six wings. No core could be seen on the surface.

“Playing the orbital bombardment card again?” Shinji focused his gaze. The 17th Angel had been named the “Bird Angel” (Arael). Indeed, like its name, it looked like a bizarre giant bird.

“Unknown. The Angel has not launched an attack yet, but the orbital altitude is 50% higher than the previous Sky Angel.”

“It’s staying at a high altitude, as if it’s waiting for something.”

“No need to think about that—it’s definitely waiting for the EVA.” Shinji made an immediate judgment, clearly feeling that this Angel was strange.

After so many battles, he had seen all kinds of Angels: microscopic like bacteria, direct ones, those that did mental or physical erosion, and these long-range ones. The Angels had used various means, but none could breach Tokyo-3, which was guarded by him.

“Where is Kaworu Nagisa?”

“He left, just as expected. The Angels still possess uniqueness,” Ritsuko Akagi explained. This was good news.

The Angels didn’t come when Kaworu was here, and as soon as he left, they followed one after another. Was this a progress-blocking mechanism?

Shinji didn’t complain about Kaworu leaving without saying goodbye, nor did he regret that the peace couldn’t last. What should leave will leave; what should come will come. It just had a strange taste to it.

“If I remember correctly, this is theoretically the last Angel.”

The first phase of the “Human Instrumentality Project” had a total of 18 Angels. 17 were children of Adam, and the 18th was a human—a child of Lilith.

After these 18 Angels were annihilated, the whole project would proceed to the next step: the distance between the real universe and the negative universe would further shorten, and only then would the Gate of Evolution be opened. This was one of the key pieces of evidence supporting the theory of reincarnation, because according to Kaworu, after multiple reincarnations, the option of annihilating all Angels was no longer needed for the second step. The real universe and the negative universe were already very close.

‘Digressing—this should be the last unknown Angel from the original script.’

“That’s the theory of the original script; it doesn’t apply to the present. After investigations during this period, I have almost confirmed that five signals are gestating Angels.” Ritsuko corrected. Now, the binding force of the Dead Sea Scrolls was already quite weak.

“It’s still meaningful. Defeating it proves that we have completely broken through the old framework and reached the critical point of the old world line.” Shinji was very clear about the difference. He incidentally glanced at Asuka; she was more silent than usual, just staring at the screen without blinking.

For some reason, she felt panicked whenever she looked at this Bird Angel, as if she had encountered a natural predator. She didn’t jump out to request battle, and the cheerful melody of “Ode to Joy” echoed inexplicably in her mind as she looked around suspiciously.

“Prepare to intercept. Let’s put a perfect end to the old order.” Shinji didn’t ask. SEELE had become his vanguard. Destroying the Bird Angel meant completely stepping toward the unknown.

“Yes, I will immediately issue orders to the United Nations Forces.”

Intercepting Angels was still the same “old three”: probe, suppress, annihilate—using mortal power to the limit. In a world line controlled by an Astartes, there was sufficient preparation for any enemy; there was no such thing as an “unreachable Angel.”

[Near-Earth Orbit Defense Array Activated, Laser Satellites Adjusting Posture] [Optical Signal Tracking Good, Thrusters Activated] [High-Energy Battery Injected, Energy Level 25%]

The entire Central Command became busy. As Earth’s core defense hub, it wasn’t there to watch Shinji act cool; equipment updates had never stopped.

After the attack of the Sky Angel, one would have to be incredibly stupid not to make some preparations. The products made by the Ito team weren’t just used on the EVAs, and the Near-Earth Orbit Defense already had a prototype.

[Fire Control Radar Illuminating with Optical Signal] [N2 Mine Connected to Data Chain]

Shinji pressed both hands on the railing, looking at the dense data on the big screen. The laser satellites began to aim, and a series of heavy satellites loaded with N2 warheads deployed in outer space. With this space interception, there would be no sequelae of excessive firepower.

“Shinji-kun, everything is ready.”

Everyone looked at Shinji. Now, Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki no longer came to the command center. The youth had become the true NERV Commander—no, in fact, he controlled the United Nations forces numbering in the millions.

From the American fleet to the iron torrents of Russia, to various nuclear missile silos and the Strategic Aerospace Force—all military power on this planet was in his hands.

But holding such massive power, the youth remained expressionless and asked, “What is the completion rate of the Near-Earth Orbit Defense Array?”

“The available power is around 57%; the overall project completion is 67%.” Misato Katsuragi stood straight, no longer looking like the “slacker” she usually was.

“What about the number of N2 mines?”

“417, with NASA responsible for the transport, plus 200 hydrogen bombs from the Russian military.”

“Very good. No need to follow the third contingency plan.” Shinji looked up at the Angel just hanging in high orbit and waved his hand: “Fire them all.”

At his command, ten thousand shells were fired simultaneously. The pitch-black space appeared to have a large expanse of light points, and in front of these warheads were dozens of thick beams of light.

The universe was boiling. Human industrial strength reached its peak in the hands of an Astartes. All factories ran at full capacity to produce weapons, and all scientists poured their entire energy into the development of armaments.

There was no sound in the vacuum environment. The screen was illuminated by the strong light, and the explosion of megaton-class nuclear bombs was like a series of dazzling pearls, allowing the light of destruction to flicker in the universe.

Shinji squinted. In this brilliant radiance, he could see layers of polygonal light curtains unfolding. That was an extremely powerful AT Field, like a canopy. Countless lasers, nuclear bombs, and electromagnetic guns landed on it, stirring up ripples one after another.

[AT Field Detected, Analyzing] [Energy Level 13, Extremely High Intensity] [Energy Wavelength Analysis, Unable to Determine Angel Core Energy Point]

“Looks like this Angel is being unconventional again. Based on observational data, it doesn’t even have a normal form.”

Ritsuko Akagi calculated the data. It was quickly concluded that the giant bird’s light and shadow were just a virtual image. From her perspective, the Angels were also evolving; at least the later Angels all hid their cores extremely well, not giving you a chance for a one-hit kill.

“Hmm, ultra-long distance, super-strong field, and deliberately hiding its power.” Shinji nodded. He never thought about blowing up the Angel with conventional ammunition, but that didn’t mean the United Nations Forces were useless.

The Angel was cunning, so the hunter had to be more cunning than them. Just think about it: why could Shinji crush the Angels every time? It wasn’t just a simple case of “combat power hacks”; in fact, the current Angels were already extremely strong. The AT Field intensity of this Bird Angel was actually 30% stronger than the Power Angel.

He just used every part of the war machine to the limit and turned massive amounts of dollars into tentacles to acquire intelligence. The Angel wouldn’t expose its power, but it was repeatedly forced by him to reveal it.

“Looks like this Angel isn’t physical-type or erosion-type, and has no speed advantage. It’s just staying there acting like a sandbag.”

“So you’re not sending the EVAs, preferring to waste ammunition?”

“Of course. Taking out your trump card first is a stupid act. I never do such stupid things.” Shinji sat securely on the fishing platform. Anger rising and drawing a sword? That was the madness of a Khornate berserker. No Astartes was that unprofessional.

“Since it wants to be a sandbag, let it be one. The energy of the S² engine isn’t infinite. As long as the consumption is greater than the energy it gets from the negative universe, the AT Field cannot be maintained.”

“Notify the entire UN force: don’t spare the ammunition.”

Ritsuko Akagi’s eyes sparkled. She didn’t like the “hack-using” youth, and she hated screaming battle maniacs even more. Only this kind of wisdom made her heart beat faster.

How professional, how steady. After obtaining world power, this was a total war between Earth and the Angels under the leadership of the King. She nodded to Misato Katsuragi, who was glaring at her fiercely. The latter snorted, knowing what to do.

It was precisely not to let the EVAs attack, but to let the UN Forces waste their tax money frantically, forcing the Bird Angel to play its hand first.

To Shinji, whether he was a transmigrator or understood the plot didn’t matter. Regardless of the unknown, he had a way to turn it into the known. Dozens of combat plans had already unfolded in his mind.

‘Compare patience with me, play mind games? You guys aren’t qualified yet.’