The aftershocks of Third Impact had yet to fully fade. In the pure-white dimension beyond the world, Shinji Ikari's white humanoid form shuddered slightly.
He could clearly feel the bond connecting him to Unit-01 pulsing in an entirely new way.
"It's back."
Shinji Ikari sank his consciousness into his body.
The pure-white energy began to reshape itself according to his will. No longer a hazy mist of light, it precisely traced Unit-01's outline while incorporating an entirely new form.
Its main armor was a deep purple-black, with angular plates interlocking layer upon layer, as though carved from dimensional crystals.
Orange and green accents flowed around its joints and core like channels carrying energy.
The purple giant's head bore a long, sharp horn. Its eyes glowed with a cold purple light, and several articulated wing panels extended from its back and shoulders.
When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer a lone humanoid figure. He had taken the form of this Evangelion.
His 180-meter-tall body stretched out in the pure-white dimension. The four articulated wing panels on his back spread fully, their energy patterns lighting up as though ready to slice through the barriers between dimensions at any moment.
"Is this... the new me?"
It was not this body that amazed Shinji Ikari, but the power that had constructed it.
He had created this unit out of thin air.
Space rippled violently, and a purple-gold pillar of light pierced the barrier between the void and reality.
A dimensional rift opened once more in the sky above Tokyo-3, and the Final Unit slowly emerged from the light.
The purple giant hovered in midair, its purple-black armor reflecting a soft sheen in the sunlight, all four articulated wing panels fully spread.
Inside NERV ANIMA's command center in Hakone, everyone looked up