"Those intruders are about to reach level eighty-one. They're actually taking such a huge risk to invade the very heart of the facility," Maya Ibuki couldn't help saying.
Shinji Ikari thought for a moment. "Could their target really be down there?"
Maya Ibuki stopped what she was doing, her brow suddenly furrowing.
Maya Ibuki
"The MAGI mainframe, the Womb Angel's Sealing Program... and some core secrets that someone at my clearance level isn't authorized to know."
"Those are all I can think of. But if those secrets are on the same level as the MAGI mainframe and the Angel embryo, they should all be worth coveting."
"Right, the Womb Angel." Shinji Ikari's voice grew slightly excited. It wasn't that he had identified the intruders' target; it was simply that what that Angel possessed mattered most to him.
For a hazy instant, Shinji Ikari seemed to hear an infant's cries. Clearly, the Womb Angel had been nothing more than a child yet to grow up when it was sealed away.
With those terrifying human intruders about to appear before it, the child seemed so weak, helpless, and pitiful.
This frightened, helpless child in danger clearly needed God's help. God was the parent of all living beings, and could not bear to see this child suffer so.
Shinji Ikari felt he ought to help it.
"Maya, can you plot the shortest route down for me?" Shinji Ikari asked, a tremendous sense of responsibility welling up in his chest.
"Are you going to the lower levels, Child of God? I can do that, but even if you reach Central Dogma District, what will you do then? You don't have authorization to enter!"
Maya Ibuki reminded him. Central Dogma District's defenses were nothing like the thin body armor the intruders wore. Most conventional missiles