NERV Headquarters, First Hangar.
Asuka leaned against the railing, idly browsing the news on her mobile terminal.
Today's headlines heralded yet another day of "humanity is doomed."
Those pessimistic headlines appeared every day now. Today's report was about the Eurasian Plate gradually contracting toward its center and sinking.
The technicians paid no attention to any of that. They were performing major surgery on the EVAs.
Unit-02, Unit-08, Unit-09, and the other three angel units were their patients.
The Seraphim unit was among them.
The QR Sigum had grown onto the Seraphim like a skin graft. Even the Technical Department had been helpless to deal with it, and forcibly removing it could have caused the unit to self-destruct.
But Shinji Ikari had stepped in and performed a minor surgical procedure with his miraculous AT Field, forcibly peeling it off.
Now that sigum was sealed on Unit-01.
Asuka said nothing as she watched Unit-02 go from red to the grayish white of the moon.
The units undergoing surgery would head to the lunar surface together for reconnaissance in force.
Because Almaloz had disappeared there.
The dazzling Divine Spears circled overhead, but although they could see them, they could not touch them.
It was as though they did not exist in this world.
Their only option was to find the culprit.
Based on the Angel Vessel's behavior, they speculated that Almaloz could move across space.
That was why three EVAs were being left at the base. Unit-01, in particular, had to stay.
He was their strongest combat asset.
Unlike the moon, where they did not even know whether the giant was present, the base held two very real Divine Spears and Lilith.
Four Divine Spears had already brought Earth to the brink of destruction, and Lilith was the very core of the Human