As Shinji Ikari stepped into the elevator, he could feel himself descending at tremendous speed. That meant he would soon reach the legendary Central Dogma.
Everyone at NERV knew about Central Dogma and the existence of Progenitor-class life-forms, but only three people in the entire base had permission to enter.
All the others knew was that if an Angel entered the Final Dogma Area at the lowest level, bombs would automatically detonate, destroying the entire NERV base and even Tokyo-3.
This was no longer a domain the "unauthorized" could set foot in, and Shinji Ikari was now genuinely curious about what secrets this forbidden place concealed.
"Only as far as Level 81?" Shinji Ikari looked at the floor numbers displayed in the elevator.
Although Ritsuko Akagi had told him the Womb Angel was on this level, he had actually been hoping to accidentally wander another floor or two down.
Shinji Ikari glanced at the red indicators beneath the display, marking the next two levels as off-limits.
Unlike the other, normally numbered floors, Level 83 was labeled the L-EEE Level. It was the lowest level, also known as Final Dogma.
Level 81, where he was, housed the MAGI Mainframe and the Womb Angel's containment system.
Despite the cautionary example of Bethany Base, Headquarters in Japan was still bold enough to place the Womb Angel as close to Lilith as possible.
That was because the Womb Angel now posed very little threat.
Its S2 Engine had been removed, and an N2 Bomb had been placed inside its core.
At the slightest unusual movement, the N2 Bomb's blast would rip its core to pieces from the inside out.
In truth, Shinji Ikari had little interest left in the Womb Angel itself. It could have been eliminated long ago.
But Ritsuko Akagi believed the