Misato Katsuragi, who had been watching Unit-01 struggle against the Tree of Life, was suddenly interrupted by a commotion in the control room.
At the console, Ritsuko Akagi also noticed the operators' alarm and said gravely, "There... zoom in and put it on the main screen!"
The instant the display switched, a brilliant streak of light filled their entire field of view.
It was the Spear of Longinus, traveling at ninety kilometers per second as it crossed the sky in the form of the "Longinus Ring."
Even in broad daylight, the trail of light stretching to the horizon was clearly visible.
The spear's shaft had extended to eighty-two thousand kilometers, spanning more than half its orbit around Earth.
Just as everyone's nerves reached breaking point, the ever-extending spear tip abruptly stopped!
The entire sky shattered like glass.
Far overhead, beyond even the clouds, the "Longinus Interface," that transparent dimensional barrier, silently broke apart and sank into the void like melting ice.
"The interface is gone!" Misato Katsuragi cried out, immediately grasping what had happened.
This was no accident. Armaros had assigned the spear a new task.
The sky collapsed from west to east. Behind the low clouds in the east, the image of the bright moon shattered, revealing an utterly different sight beyond it.
Hum!
A faint gravitational pull suddenly descended over the entire globe. Though weak, it was enough to set the whole Earth resonating, making even the control room's instruments tremble.
"What is that?!" Midori Kitakami's voice shook with disbelief.
Behind the shattered canopy of the sky, an immense celestial body radiated dazzling light.
It was a moon more than twice its original size.
Even in daylight, the sunlight it reflected cast deep shadows on the ground, its enormous bulk filling the sky.
But an even more striking