The Seventh Angel

"Who authorized Unit-02's activation? No! Stop the startup sequence immediately and put the unit back!"

The major general looked panicked. He hurriedly raised the microphone in his hand and shouted, but before he could finish, Misato Katsuragi reached over and snatched it away.

"Ignore that old geezer. Asuka, deploy EVA Unit-02!" After excitedly giving the order, Misato Katsuragi turned and shot the furious major general a smug look.

"What did you say? The EVA and its pilot both fall under our direct jurisdiction. I will not allow you to act so recklessly!" The major general bristled with rage.

"What are you even talking about at a time like this? Do you want the entire fleet to die with you? At your age, you should just retire! A senile old fool has no business being a commander!"

"I'm still going strong... Damn it, you actually dare hit me? This is a command center, not a fighting ring! You woman... How uncouth!"

"Major General, sir, just you wait for your court-martial!"

At that moment, Rei Ayanami stepped forward from behind Misato Katsuragi and reminded her, "Misato, Unit-02 is still fitted with Type B Equipment."

"What!?" Only then did Misato Katsuragi realize she had overlooked something so important.

Listening to the bickering coming over the comms, neither Asuka nor Shinji Ikari felt like responding from inside Unit-02.

Asuka focused all her attention on piloting Unit-02, excited but also a little nervous.

After countless battles in Simulation Training, she should not have been this nervous, but this was her first real battle, and the boy beside her was watching.

With its yellow covering draped over it, Unit-02 looked like an elegant dancer in an opera as it leaped from warship to warship, finally reaching the aircraft carrier Beyond the Rainbow.

The tremendous impact of Unit-02 landing on the deck also stopped Misato Katsuragi and the old major general just as they were about to start grappling. Both turned to look out the window.

Misato Katsuragi had no time to keep bullying the old man. She hurriedly picked up the microphone from the desk and called, "Asuka, the external power system we brought is on the Beyond the Rainbow's flight deck."

"Roger!" Asuka's voice came over the comms. Unit-02 tossed aside the enormous yellow covering, picked up the giant three-pronged plug on the deck, and inserted it into the power socket on its back.

"Switching to external power!"

From activation to movement to connecting the power supply, the entire sequence flowed seamlessly. Compared with Shinji Ikari's unorthodox approach, it was practically a textbook combat demonstration.

If Shinji Ikari and Unit-01 were demon kings that had crawled out of hell in the Angels' eyes, then Asuka and Unit-02 had to be dazzling, graceful classical dancers on a stage.

"No weapons," Rei Ayanami reminded her again, her voice as calm as ever.

"That's why I say you're amateurs. A High-Frequency Vibrating Particle Knife is all I need," Asuka said proudly.

As she finished speaking, Unit-02's protruding shoulder armor opened. A knife handle popped out of its left shoulder, and when drawn, it extended into a particle knife resembling a utility knife.

Unit-02 had the greatest arsenal of all the EVAs. As the first combat-model EVA, it had the widest range of compatible weapons in the series.

Like Unit-01's, its High-Frequency Vibrating Particle Knife was a custom model. Its relatively brittle blade wore down easily, but the blade was replaceable and possessed tremendous destructive power.

As the High-Frequency Vibrating Particle Knife's blade began glowing pink, Asuka finally got a clear look from above at the enormous creature lurking beneath the water.

Its overall shape resembled a ray, with a broad, flat body, a grayish-white back, and a dark green belly. Its ray-like pectoral fins spanned a hundred meters, and its body was over six hundred meters long.

Fish Angel

Shinji Ikari saw a pointed, mask-like part on the giant ray's head, similar to the head of the Fourth Angel, Shamshel. This had to be the Seventh Angel.

The Seventh Angel had clearly spotted them too. After circling tentatively for a while, it seemed to finally settle on a target and charged toward the aircraft carrier Beyond the Rainbow.

"Here it comes," Shinji Ikari said.

"Just what I wanted. I'll take it down!" A confident smile curled Asuka's lips.

Watching Unit-02 take up a stance to intercept it, the major general, now sporting a black eye on his right side, looked utterly baffled. "How is it supposed to fight with a weapon like that?"

Misato Katsuragi glanced at his black eye and looked away, explaining guiltily, "The best way to defeat an Angel is to engage it in close combat!"

With Shinji Ikari watching, Asuka fixed a sharp gaze on the Seventh Angel charging toward her.

Crimson waves churned across the Pacific. Beneath a cloudless sky torn by gunfire, the Seventh Angel's flat body resembled a moving reef.

Its pectoral fins casually smashed the crests of the waves, and its pointed, beak-like head broke the surface, revealing the red glow of the core deep in its throat. At last, the enormous fish leaped out of the water.

Asuka had already raised her knife to meet it.

Type B Equipment was unsuitable for underwater combat. If the Seventh Angel had stayed submerged, there really would have been nothing she could do to it. Now that it had leaped out of the water, however, she had her best chance.

The Seventh Angel's enormous body seemed to blot out the sky as it bore down on the slender red unit aboard the carrier. The oppressive weight rushing toward her felt like a mountain crashing down.

Unit-02 and the Seventh Angel met head-on. First came the collision of their AT Fields, their rainbow barriers bursting with dazzling light in midair.

Then their bodies collided with nothing between them. After Unit-02 neutralized the Seventh Angel's AT Field, the High-Frequency Vibrating Particle Knife in its hand plunged into the Seventh Angel's body as though nothing stood in its way.

The pink blade gleamed like the sharpest weapon in the world. Even an Angel could not withstand its ravaging edge with flesh and blood alone.

The Seventh Angel's enormous body skimmed along the flight deck, leaving a gruesome crimson trail a hundred meters long that testified to its immense vitality.

In an instant, blood flooded over more than half the carrier, even splashing onto the island housing the command center. A hazy film of blood coated the command center's windows.

The Seventh Angel had been wounded first, but it had its own advantage. Its body was larger than the aircraft carrier itself, giving it an astonishing weight.

The High-Frequency Vibrating Particle Knife was embedded in the Seventh Angel's lower jaw, but even the weight of that head, combined with the momentum of its entire body, was more than Unit-02 could withstand.

Asuka had intended to slice through the Seventh Angel's flesh with the sharp knife and strike straight at the core deep inside its mouth, but its weight made Unit-02's hands tremble.

Only half of the Seventh Angel's body was exposed, yet it already covered almost the entire aircraft carrier Beyond the Rainbow. Its weight was terrifying.

Asuka had been gradually bringing the Seventh Angel's charge to a halt with Unit-02, but suddenly the footing beneath her gave way. A section of the deck had collapsed underfoot.

Caught by this sudden mishap, Unit-02 toppled backward uncontrollably beneath the Seventh Angel's tremendous force.

The Seventh Angel finally had its chance for revenge. It opened its huge mouth and clamped down on the slender unit, which was barely big enough to fill a gap between its teeth, then plunged straight toward the red sea.