Unit-01 still held its bow aloft, the lingering soul energy on its bowstring yet to dissipate.
The sharp crack of the Yomi-Hirasaka shattering still echoed across the metallic ground of Tokyo-3.
Webs of cracks covered the cold, hard steel. Countless chunks of rock peeled away from the storm-swept sky, hurtling toward the ground with piercing whistles and kicking up clouds of dust.
Kaworu Nagisa panted heavily, his synchronization rate still holding at its infinite peak.
Unit-06's red eyes remained fixed on the shattered physical barrier, waiting for the moment it collapsed completely.
According to their plan, the Spear of Longinus they had fired should have flown toward the center of the moon with this shot.
But, unsurprisingly, reality was not as kind as they had imagined.
Maki was the first to notice something wrong. She hovered in midair in Unit-08, her attention drawn to the black shadows writhing across the rocks:
"Hey, hey, what's going on?" Her slightly startled voice came through the communicator. "Those rocks... are they growing something?"
Everyone immediately turned to look.
Fine, densely packed black vines were sprouting from the fallen chunks of the Yomi-Hirasaka at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Like venomous snakes waking from slumber, the vines spread out of the cracks in the rocks. A crystalline sheen covered their surfaces, and every segment bristled with hooked thorns.
They grew at an astonishing speed, expanding from the size of pythons to hundreds or even thousands of meters long in mere seconds.
The crystals engulfed each chunk of rock like a black tide, swallowing the shattered continental plates whole.
"Those aren't plants!"
Ritsuko Akagi's voice carried an incredulous gravity. She rapidly tapped at her keyboard, bringing up close-range analytical images of the vines on the screen.
"They're energy aggregates! Their structures contain dense