As the cross marking the Angel's fall rose, Shinji Ikari and Unit-01 returned to Headquarters.
After Ritsuko Akagi worked her magic, power was soon restored to Headquarters.
The candles went out, replaced by electric lights-one of the hallmarks of humanity's technological progress-coming back on.
The work left unfinished before the blackout resumed in an orderly fashion. As night fell, brilliant lights illuminated every room, and this proud achievement of human technology came back to life.
Engineers carried materials aboard enormous lift platforms, traveling between the underground levels and the structures above.
Although the Rain Angel had died from a single glare from Unit-01, meeting a thoroughly humiliating end, the damage inflicted on Tokyo-3 was anything but minor.
All twenty-four layers of armor had been corroded clean through in just thirty minutes, even faster than Ramiel had breached them.
But that was the extent of this Angel's accomplishments.
According to the report from Fuchu Base, their efforts to intercept the Angel had met with little fierce retaliation.
Apart from spewing acid from an eye, the Tenth Angel only had an enormous body to intimidate people with, and possessed no other combat abilities.
Although the Technical Department's analysis suggested Matarael was a contender for the weakest fully formed Angel, they still had to be grateful that Headquarters had Shinji Ikari, their ace Eligible.
The Headquarters Base's armor was no thicker than the twenty-four defensive layers. At the rate Matarael's acidic fluid corroded armor, breaching Headquarters would have taken only a few minutes.
As far as they were concerned, humanity had been mere minutes from extinction. Fortunately, Shinji Ikari had arrived just then.
One second to deploy, one second to annihilate the Angel. The entire operation had taken two seconds from beginning to end.
Most of them had already been on the verge