Chapter Summaries

Asuka Langley Soryu awoke as a soul inside Euro Unit-02 and revealed that she was the original Asuka, not a Shikinami clone. After Shinji recognized her from a childhood meeting in Germany, Misato reported that Kaji had changed, and the man on the screen identified himself as SEELE.

• Asuka woke inside Euro Unit-02, recalled seeing Shinji and Yui's family in Germany, and cried out that she did not want to die.
• Ritsuko explained that Asuka was physically dead but that SEELE had preserved her soul, and Asuka insisted she was Asuka Langley Soryu rather than a Shikinami.
• Ritsuko deduced that Asuka was the original from whom the Shikinami clones were made and linked her compatibility with Euro Unit-02 to the soul imprint of her mother, Kyoko.
• Asuka recognized Shinji from their childhood meeting in Germany and cried that he had forgotten her; Shinji recalled visiting Germany with his mother.
• Ritsuko planned to remove Asuka's soul from Euro Unit-02, but Misato showed them Kaji on a screen and said something had happened to him.
• Kaji addressed Shinji and revealed that he had once been called Noah but was now SEELE.

Ryoji Kaji revealed himself as SEELE, an Adjuster from another world, and explained that Kensuke Aida had caused Kaji to sacrifice himself. SEELE summoned Shinji Ikari to Dades Valley, where he showed him an ancient Ark and urged him to complete Human Instrumentality before Armaros acted.

• Ryoji Kaji explained the World Tree and said Adjusters from other leaves intervened to prevent this world's mistakes.
• Shinji Ikari named the entity SEELE and shot Kensuke Aida after SEELE exposed Kensuke's role in Kaji's death.
• SEELE offered Shinji information in exchange for meeting him at Dades Valley, Morocco.
• Shinji traveled to the valley in Unit-01 and saw rock formations left by a previous world's battle between over a hundred EVAs.
• SEELE showed Shinji the Ark, a database of life information, and proposed completing Human Instrumentality before Armaros acted.

SEELE explained that Almaloz was Instrumentality’s failsafe, destined to restart the world, and revealed a ritual intended to turn Shinji into a god. Shinji refused the sacrifice, while SEELE warned that Almaloz was a victorious version of Shinji and that the world could not escape its fate.

• Shinji challenged SEELE’s explanation of Almaloz, and SEELE said the Black Giant had no self or independent motive and existed to restart Instrumentality.
• SEELE described humanity’s repeated attempts at Instrumentality and revealed that SEELE had traveled between worlds after building the Ark of the Covenant.
• Misato learned through the communicator that SEELE planned to wipe them out, while SEELE prepared an Impact ritual using Shinji and Unit-01.
• Shinji refused to offer himself as a sacrifice and said he would face Almaloz with Unit-01.
• SEELE explained that Almaloz was the strongest Shinji from another world, succeeded by whoever defeated him, and urged Shinji to become a god.

SEELE began another Impact ritual to force Shinji Ikari into Instrumentality, but Almaloz took the exposed Ark away through a spatial rift. Shinji seized the Tree of Life and absorbed its power, souls, and S2 Engine energy, leaving the ritual's outcome unresolved.

• SEELE activated the Valley of Human Bodies and summoned the Tree of Life to pull Shinji Ikari into its planned Impact ritual.
• Two black giants opened a window to another world, revealing Almaloz, who took the Ark and vanished beneath the Atlas Mountains.
• Almaloz's departure destabilized the Tree of Life, and Shinji heard an encouraging voice from the boundary between the Positive and Negative Universes.
• Shinji transformed his A.T. Field into threads, used Unit-01's Seraphim QR Sigum to reverse the flow of energy, and drew the Tree of Life into himself.
• The Tree of Life faded, and its human-shaped cocoons became motes of light that merged into Shinji's field.

The Spear of Longinus shattered the dimensional barrier around Earth and pierced the planet, revealing a huge, crimson-fissured moon that was falling toward it. In the Valley of Human Bodies, Shinji Ikari absorbed the Tree of Life and prevented SEELE from escaping, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

• Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi watched as the Spear of Longinus shattered the Longinus Interface and revealed the enormous moon.
• The Spear of Longinus pierced Earth through the Valley of Human Bodies and emerged near New Zealand, while the moon's orbit shrank toward the planet.
• Unit-01 blocked Armaros's strike with the Spear of Cassius, and Shinji Ikari absorbed the Tree of Life's remaining energy.
• SEELE taunted Shinji Ikari and blamed him for humanity's fate, but Shinji refused to respond.
• SEELE tried to escape through space, but Shinji's AT Field stopped it, and he said it should wait for Kaji to return.

Shinji and the other pilots found Asuka transformed into the Mud Giant after she touched an unknown object on the moon. Shinji reclaimed her soul from the chaos of information consuming her, but Asuka ran off while expelling ancient organisms and their consciousnesses.

• Unit-01 seized SEELE, and Shinji questioned what Asuka had done as a figure fell from the sky.
• Asuka and Unit-02 arrived on Earth as a mudlike giant, her sense of self overwhelmed by information from countless organisms.
• Maki and the other pilots arrived and shielded Asuka, while Shinji used Unit-01's A.T. Field to find her soul and push away the information consuming it.
• Asuka's body shed the excess information, causing rocks around her to transform into enormous prehistoric organisms.
• Asuka's red form grew clearer as she ran through the transformed valley, and Shinji and the others pursued her.

Maki and the reconnaissance team chased the transformed Asuka through a prehistoric landscape until Shinji and Unit-01 stopped her, then returned to base with the others. As the group debated the Arks, Almaloz, and the repeated cycles of Human Instrumentality, SEELE agreed to explore a different plan, while Shinji privately told Misato he would kill him once he was no longer useful.

• Maki piloted Unit-08 after the fleeing Asuka through a valley where ancient creatures came to life from her information.
• Shinji and Unit-01 blocked Asuka, who embraced Unit-01 and cried as the creatures collapsed before dawn.
• Unit-01 used its new instantaneous movement to return Maki’s reconnaissance team and the others to base, where they discussed their losses and learned that Asuka had touched an Ark.
• Shinji, Ritsuko, and SEELE debated the Arks and whether SEELE’s repeated Human Instrumentality plans had been based on a wrong answer.
• SEELE agreed that they should explore other possibilities, while Shinji told Misato they would kill SEELE once he was no longer useful.

SEELE revealed that Earth and the Moon’s Arks could trigger the world’s reset, while Misato Katsuragi’s group resolved to stop Almaloz. Shinji Ikari and Maki then traveled to the training grounds, where Asuka Langley Shikinami and Asuka Langley Soryu were fighting in their giant units.

• SEELE explained that merging the Arks would activate the reset mechanism, leading from the destruction phase to the rebirth of the world.
• Misato Katsuragi insisted that the group focus on the present and find a way to kill Almaloz for good.
• Maki proclaimed that Shinji Ikari, a creator god, could defeat Almaloz, and Shinji’s words strengthened the group’s resolve.
• SEELE grew uneasy as it reconsidered how Shinji Ikari and Unit-01 had triggered an Impact three years earlier without the usual rituals.
• Shinji Ikari and Maki rode the underground train to the training grounds, where Asuka Langley Shikinami and Asuka Langley Soryu were grappling in their giant units.

Asuka fused with Unit-02 and the Angel within her, becoming the giant Crimson A1-Unit-02 · Integrated Form. After Asuka and Soryu stopped fighting, Asuka worried about her new existence but learned that Shinji considered her his servant and lover.

• Asuka and Soryu grappled until Shinji and Maki interrupted them.
• Asuka and Soryu noticed Shinji and Maki, then flew toward them using their newly revealed antigravity wings.
• Asuka asked Shinji what she had become, and he explained that she was a human-EVA fusion he had shaped into a servant.
• Shinji told Asuka that her combat abilities exceeded those of an ordinary EVA and even a true Angel.
• Asuka blushed when Shinji called her his and confessed that she wanted to sleep with him, but said her new form caused her mental stress.

Shinji Ikari helped Asuka Soryu accept that he cared for Asuka as her own person and offered to get to know her again. Asuka Soryu recognized their childhood meeting and awakened inside Unit-02, where Shinji explained that its S2 Engine had replaced the dangerous QR Sigum.

• Asuka Soryu accused Asuka of stealing her mother and Shinji, but Shinji told her he liked Asuka for herself.
• Shinji offered to introduce himself anew, and Asuka Soryu joined him in a childhood memory of meeting in a NERV Hamburg Branch sandpit.
• Asuka Soryu remembered playing with Shinji as a child, before her mother became mentally unstable and died.
• Asuka Soryu sensed Unit-02's gentle presence and said she felt weaker than before.
• Shinji explained that the S2 Engine had replaced the destroyed QR Sigum, whose link to the world tree could erode a pilot's soul.

Shinji Ikari told Miss Asuka Langley Soryu that NERV could eventually give her a cloned body, but Ritsuko Akagi had no time because she was trying to find a way to counter Almaloz. Meanwhile, Ritsuko continued studying Lilith in the Final Dogma Area, with no solution yet.

• Miss Asuka Langley Soryu asked Shinji Ikari to call her Asuka, but he refused, and Asuka mocked her until Shinji stopped Maki from joining in.
• Shinji Ikari explained that NERV could use the Germany Branch's gene sample to clone a body for Miss Soryu, but Ritsuko Akagi was too busy trying to save the world to do it now.
• Shinji Ikari said Ritsuko Akagi was searching for a way to overcome Almaloz and that he had full faith in her, leaving the NERV ANIMA technicians shocked by her apparent helplessness.
• In the Final Dogma Area, Ritsuko Akagi sneezed while studying Lilith, and Misato Katsuragi teased her about someone thinking of her.
• Ritsuko Akagi told Misato Katsuragi that her research on Lilith had not yet produced a way to counter Almaloz's unfair mechanics.

Shinji Ikari helped Rei Ayanami and the other Ayanamis endure the distress caused by Ritsuko Akagi’s experiments on Lilith. Ritsuko then explained that she was studying how Adam and Lilith’s cosmic laws might counter Almaloz, leaving the question of which rules held higher priority unanswered.

• Rei Ayanami brought the Ayanami clones to Shinji Ikari and asked him to help ease the distress caused by Ritsuko Akagi’s experiments.
• Shinji Ikari helped the Ayanamis, and three days later their dormitory room was peaceful and nearly empty.
• Misato Katsuragi confronted Shinji Ikari, while Ritsuko Akagi watched and teased them.
• Ritsuko Akagi admitted that she was studying Lilith and would need Shinji Ikari’s help to take Lilith apart.
• Ritsuko Akagi explained that Adam and Lilith represented the laws governing the universe and life, and wondered whether their rules could outrank Almaloz’s.

As Earth’s laws of motion collapsed and a continent-sized mass hurtled from the moon toward Tokyo-3, humanity rallied to prepare for the impact. At NERV ANIMA, investigators revealed evidence that the moon was draining Earth and asked whether Asuka could be separated from Unit-02.

• The collapse of Earth’s physical laws caused disasters worldwide, while geological upheaval isolated Tokyo-3 on the Mount Hakone caldera.
• The United Nations learned that a 1,200-kilometer lunar continent was heading for Tokyo-3 and would destroy humanity wherever it struck, prompting nations to send resources to the city.
• Asuka circled above NERV ANIMA in her enlarged Unit-02 Allegorica body, frustrated that she could not do what she wanted, while Maya Ibuki admired the improved flight system.
• Maya showed Misato, Fuyutsuki, Toji, and others evidence that material from Earth’s crust was being transported to the moon.
• Maya projected footage of a blue cube conglomeration on the moon producing small Angels, followed by the Angel Vessel, Almaloz, and two followers.
• Fuyutsuki reflected that the course of life’s evolution was reconstructed from the distant past, and someone asked whether the Technical Department could separate Asuka from Unit-02.

Misato and Maya considered whether NERV USA’s animal-gene experiments could help separate Asuka from Unit-02’s core. The United States delivered a quadrupedal EVA to Mount Daikan, while Shinji encountered Maki and a cat-eared girl whose altered soul and small body suggested the immortality experiment had changed her.

• Maya told Misato that separating Asuka from Unit-02 would be difficult, but suggested reversing NERV USA’s animal-gene modification process might help.
• Fuyutsuki and Aoba explained the risks and history of the American experiments, while Misato hoped their research could help Asuka.
• A United Nations transport aircraft delivered an iron-gray, quadrupedal American EVA powered by a QR Sigum to Mount Daikan Airport.
• Shinji lifted a small, cat-eared girl resembling Maki and realized that Dr. Akagi’s immortality experiment had altered her body and soul.
• Maki appeared and teased Shinji about the girl, then noticed that something about her felt wrong.

NERV USA introduced Mari, a cat-eared clone created to pilot the Wolf Pack EVA, and she chose to stay at the base with Shinji and the others. The command center learned that the moon’s detached landmass would fall to Earth in three weeks, and Misato gave it the codename Yomotsu Hirasaka.

• NERV USA’s technical director introduced Mari and explained that she had been created from Mari Makinami Illustrious’s genes and personality data to pilot the Wolf Pack.
• Mari rejected the claim that she was the same person as the other Mari, while Six marveled at her moving cat ears.
• The US EVA unit departed for a rendezvous, leaving Mari and several technicians behind to help intercept the approaching enemy.
• Shinji entered the Central Control Room with Six and Mari as Misato calmed the agitated staff and asked for the latest report.
• Aoba reported that the moon’s detached landmass would enter Earth’s orbit and fall in three weeks, and Misato named it Yomotsu Hirasaka.
• Ritsuko wondered who would stop the landmass, and everyone turned to look at Shinji.

Yomotsu Hirasaka hurtled toward Earth as the Moon convulsed and the planet suffered catastrophic disasters. Misato ordered a global defense and sent the EVA pilots to prepare for combat, while Shinji left the control room.

• The Moon swelled and fractured as Earth's crust flowed into it, while Yomotsu Hirasaka emerged from the Far Side and became an enormous, nearly indestructible continent.
• The United Nations launched its remaining super bombs at Yomotsu Hirasaka, but its A.T. Field left the landmass unharmed as it approached Earth.
• Shigeru Aoba reported that Yomotsu Hirasaka's A.T. Field was growing stronger as the distance between Earth and the Moon rapidly shrank.
• Ritsuko Akagi warned that Yomotsu Hirasaka would reach Earth's stratosphere in five minutes and that its impact could drive humanity to extinction.
• Misato ordered Level One Combat Status, directed the EVA pilots to the launch bays, and mobilized orbital cannons, N2 Bombs, and global defenses.
• Shinji Ikari watched the control room's preparations, then left as the loyal pilot of the Commander-in-Chief.

Mari prepared to pilot a Wolf Pack unit while Shinji and Kaworu readied Unit-01 for a mission they hoped would break the endless cycle. In orbit, Asuka narrowly dodged a Pseudo-Spear of Longinus and pursued it.

• Mari put on her combat Plugsuit and prepared to deploy, eager to show Shinji coordinated combat.
• Shinji and Kaworu stood before Unit-01, and Kaworu said the mission might offer a way to break the endless cycle.
• Asuka patrolled low Earth orbit in Unit-02 · Integrated Form when her sensors detected an approaching anomalous object.
• Asuka identified the object as Pseudo-Spear of Longinus · 01 and dodged its close pass by strengthening her absolute field and maneuvering aside.
• Asuka reactivated Unit-02’s weapons and pursued the spear, locking onto it while her auxiliary computer calculated an interception route.

Asuka battled Victor and Torwart as they tried to stop her from retrieving the Pseudo-Spear of Longinus. Rei Ayanami arrived in F-Type Unit-00 Allegorica, and the two pilots joined forces against the Black Giants.

• Asuka pursued the Pseudo-Spear of Longinus to Tokyo-3 and found Victor and Torwart guarding the spear.
• Asuka attacked Victor and Torwart, but their coordinated strikes damaged Unit-02 · Integrated Form's waist and shoulder armor.
• Asuka fired her shoulder-mounted particle cannon and retreated as Victor and Torwart prepared a combined killing blow.
• Rei Ayanami arrived in F-Type Unit-00 Allegorica and used the Angel's Spine to force Victor and Torwart to dodge.
• Asuka and Rei fought in sync against Victor and Torwart, fending off their attacks among the ruins.

Shinji Ikari reassured Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi before watching the battlefield as communications returned. He saw five Angel Vessels engaging Asuka’s Unit-08, lent support with the Spear of Cassius, and learned that Kaworu Nagisa had reached the Final Dogma Area.

• Shinji Ikari spoke with Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi while Unit-01 approached the battlefield, and they urged him to trust the other pilots.
• Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi joked with Shinji Ikari about their concerns and his LCL, while Ritsuko said her research was unfinished.
• Maya Ibuki reported that magnetic interference had cleared and battlefield signals had returned.
• Misato Katsuragi brought up the battlefield feed, where Shinji Ikari saw five Angel Vessels surrounding Asuka’s Unit-08 and Rei Ayanami supporting her.
• Shinji Ikari struck the ground with the Spear of Cassius to spread AT Field fluctuations, then Ritsuko Akagi reported that Kaworu Nagisa had reached the Final Dogma Area.

Mari, Maki, Asuka, and the Ayanami sisters fought five Angel Vessels whose QR Sigums housed multiple Angels. Mari’s Wolf Pack disrupted the vessels’ defenses, allowing the group to destroy one and escape while the remaining four pursued them.

• Maki, Trowa, Chang, Quatre, and the Ayanami sisters struggled against five Angel Vessels, while Asuka arrived in Otwis to help.
• Asuka and Trowa fought the vessels, but their attacks were blocked by the QR Sigums and the Angels concealed within the cocoons.
• Mari summoned more than twenty phantom field beasts with Wolf Pack, and they disrupted the vessels’ energy flow.
• Asuka pierced an Angel Vessel’s neck joint with the Cross Spear, and Trowa destroyed its QR Sigum with Metatron’s Angel’s Spine Laser Cannon.
• Mari and Maki used the phantom beasts to pin three vessels, giving the others time to break away as the remaining vessels pursued them.