The Collection of The End

—? ? ? —

What happened?

Ikari Shinji looked at the black mist surging around him, puzzled.

He is very sure that after unable to find more "matching" classmates from the assembly garden, he has returned to the "office" of the academy principal to wait for the result. After squeezing out, he had to expand the scope of recovery to the entire Third New Tokyo City. After all, he had no impression of the personalities displayed by some people, and in that case, he would not have to find people by his own experience. Noah" analyzed the population data of the third new Tokyo city.

And if the number is enough, before the "Angel" condenses his body and becomes the eighteenth apostle, he has enough time to go from the "Ark" originally underground to NERV to start the first aircraft to meet the enemy.

Of course, it was the most important thing to return to Ayanami who was in the "on-hook" state in the Ark, so that she could see herself as soon as she opened her eyes.

Yes, that's right, she's seen it too many times, this kind of little trick to gain goodwill is useless, and it will definitely be ridiculed by the information integrated missing body, but "useless" and "don't do it" are two concepts.

If he remembered correctly, not long after returning to the "Ark", after "Noah" brought a pair of "deranged people" into the "Array of Restoration" without their knowledge, "Angel Falls" "The reverse recovery began, and those students who had not had the "physical examination" covered their heads one after another, showing a look of pain, and almost at the same time, Naoko Akagi, who had been hanging upside down in the solution column and had not responded, opened the door. eyes.

And then... he inexplicably ran to this place where he couldn't perceive himself, and there was black fog in front of him.

The darkness flowing in front of you may be fog, or it may not, or even, because you can't feel and control your body, you can't be sure if it's "eyes" that you use to "see" these black fogs.

He was a little anxious, because if the recovery plan for the fallen angel had been completed, then the "Fourteenth Apostle" would appear, and he had to solve it instead of being trapped in this inexplicable place.

But what if he was trapped here because of the restoration of "Angel Fall"?

After all, in another world line, there is a group of "Sister Ayanami", their strange speech habits, it is easy to find the unfortunate person who is their personality in the "academy city", and because of their special life experience , they can easily switch personalities without hindrance, but here... it takes five times more time, which may be the reason for the accident.

Sure enough, it's still too confident. The relationship with the incarnation of Eve is very good, can jump the world line, can interfere with the timeline, has card superpowers, and has a high synchronization rate with EVA, so I think I'm invincible.

As a result, "Angel Falls" was fine, but "Angel Comes Home" slammed into the south wall.

With Ayanami's ability, as long as she doesn't hide her clumsiness on purpose, she should be able to handle a mere apostle...

—

I don't know how long it took, maybe ten minutes, maybe a few hours, something different finally appeared in front of Ikari Shinji's "eyes".

【1.048596%】

It was a strange row of numbers that looked like they were made of old filaments. They appeared out of thin air in the black fog, but they wouldn't block them, so that Shinji Ikari could always see each of its numbers clearly.

I seem to have seen it somewhere, but I can't remember it.

I don't know why, these numbers vaguely give me a feeling of "seeming to move".

【1.048595%】

Ah, really moving.

call-

Although he couldn't hear any sound, the "black fog" in front of him instantly dispersed, so that Shinji Ikari automatically made up the sound.

And the scene after the black fog dissipated, surprised him very much.

What appeared in front of him, almost filling his field of vision, was an unusually huge earth, a blue ocean, and a continent of yellow and green. Rotate slowly.

Before Ikari Shinji could figure out what was going on, the next second, he began to "fall".

To be precise, it was his "viewing angle" that began to rapidly fall toward the "earth", and the speed was so fast that the edge of the field of vision was blurred. This high-speed fall, even if there was no sound, just looking at the picture was enough to make one sweat - although He doesn't seem to be sweating right now.

So I'm also an "angel"?

It's just so weird.

In other words, after landing on the ground, will he turn into a strange shape, and then be beaten by Ayanami with the No. 0 machine?

Don't do that kind of thing!

woohoo-

In the sound effects made up by Ikari Shinji himself, the trajectory of his descent was constantly twisted and skewed, and it was finally determined that after the Antarctic continent, the trajectory of his descent finally stopped changing.

Wait, think about it carefully, after the second impact, the ocean has completely turned red, and the picture in front of you is still a blue, that is to say...

Ikari Shinji looked at the blue ocean and at his destination.

The second shock was actually made by me?

No, wait, that's just an official statement. In fact, there are no meteorites that hit the Antarctic continent. Eve has existed since the beginning.

So, if you are not a meteorite, what is falling?

woohoo-

Except for the rumors of the brain, there was no sound or image that responded to Shinji Ikari's doubts.

No, I have to see.

He tried a few times, constantly switching perspectives, trying to see what "self" looked like, but in the end, it was useless except to skew the perspective.

However, although this kind of skew cannot see "self", he can see "others". From the skewed "perspective", Shinji Ikari can see that in addition to himself, there are at least three snow-white "meteors" leading With long bright white tails falling from the sky to the ground, they look like a useless EVA mass-produced machine just in terms of color.

One of them was faster than himself and had already touched the ground first.

Zheng—

At the same time as the contact, the "white meteor" disappeared, or, in other words, exploded directly in all directions.

As if being splashed with a bucket of paint, the location where the "white meteor" came into contact with the earth suddenly turned white, whether it was land or ocean, and other meteors "landed" in other places on earth that were not covered by white. , in an instant, the earth that Ikari Shinji could see was dyed a large piece of snow white, looking like a cow or a Dalmatian dog.

This is outrageous-

boom!

Before Ikari Shinji could figure out what happened, his "perspective" plunged into the Antarctic continent.

—

【1.048595%】

When Ikari Shinji changed back to looking down at the earth, the black mist did not reappear, but the row of characters that beat a number was still floating in front of his eyes.

He looked at the earth silently, and unsurprisingly, the earth showed a vast expanse of pure white, whether it was the land or the ocean, it was all frozen.

So, is this actually a "third shock"?

So next, it's time for Ayanami to "reset the world", right?

【1.048594%】

The strange number jumped in front of Ikari Shinji as if in response.

The next second, his "perspective" began to plummet again.

Ikari Shinji deftly distorted the "viewing angle" and looked to the side.

This time, because the earth has been completely frozen, there are no meteors that "accompany" him, but what he saw surprised him: he was at the top of a giant tree.

This is a giant tree with a thick trunk and lush branches and leaves. Its tips are down and its roots are up. It is planted straight towards the South Pole in a spear-like posture. The most incredible thing is that its whole All exuded an untimely bright golden light.

The fact that I can see "self" this time is not because of the smooth adjustment of the field of vision, but because the tree is really too big. Even if I can only slightly skew the angle of view, I can still see the branches and leaves and golden light in all directions.

Although there is no evidence, Shinji Ikari determined for no reason that it was "Eve".

a tree?

Ayanami is the incarnation of a tree?

That is to say... She can actually be regarded as the kind of "elf" that often appears in Western magic?

It's like... it's not okay?

If you think about it carefully... Isn't the love between short-lived humans and long-lived elves exactly what they sing about?

As soon as Ikari Shinji walked away, the golden giant tree poked its head into the frozen Antarctic continent.

Perhaps it was still a hallucination, and he seemed to hear the sound of ice breaking, roots stretching, and branches growing.

And with that poking, that line of magic numbers just skips the integer prefix.

【0.989962%】

Ikari Shinji originally thought that his "perspective" would return to the "universe" and make another rapid descent, but this time, although his perspective returned, it seemed to be fixed and did not descend again. See how it works from an angle overlooking the entire planet.

After the golden giant tree hit the "Antarctic Continent", it only paused for a while, and the golden light began to expand outward. Wherever the golden light went, the ocean and continent that were originally frozen by the "white meteor" quickly melted and recovered. into their original form.

No, "fast" is just my own feeling. Judging from the rapidly changing seasons on this "earth" and the twitch-like activities of biological populations, it should be that I have been "slowed down".

And what this earth shows itself is exactly what happened after the "first impact".

During this process, the string of strange numbers that had always been in front of Ikari Shinji was also constantly changing.

【0.756833%】

【0.523975%】

【0.328658%】

Ikari Shinji always felt that if this number was zero, something bad would happen, but in the state he could only "watch" now, he couldn't do anything at all.

But...what about "Second Shock"? Doesn't it mean that it has happened many times?

In the end, when the string of numbers jumped to [0.100000%], the human civilization on the earth has developed to the modern age, and when the calendar came to 1999, a mutation suddenly occurred.

The "starry sky" outside the earth was torn apart.

A giant monster with long horns on its head, bat wings on its back, wearing dark red armor, and burning flames all over its body, will definitely be judged as a "devil" in any cultural circle.

How huge is it? Visually speaking, his arm length is the diameter of the earth.

No, it's not a matter of size, why can he "tear" the starry sky directly? Is that some kind of space magic or technology? Or is the "starry sky" itself false?

While Ikari Shinji was still in a state of shock, the demon pulled out his saber—perhaps a sword, pierced the earth directly, and then re-covered the "starry sky" and disappeared.

This sword, pierced from the South Pole and pierced from Japan, instantly terminated the autobiography of the earth, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occurred anytime, anywhere, and the huge golden tree was directly cut into two pieces, or Said that the giant demon was directly directed at this tree.

When the earth was shaking and it was about to explode on the spot, the golden tree "melted", the half rooted in the earth sank into the core, repairing the damage, and the crown part rose to the sky and became Ikari Shinji The giant Ayanami Rei with eight pairs of golden wings, or Eve, has seen it once.

She made herself bigger than the murdering demon, but her body was so transparent that she almost disappeared. Then, she folded her hands and arms and embraced the broken earth in her arms.

Then, a white light flashed, the melted golden tree, the huge golden girl disappeared, the earth resumed its operation, but the ocean became as bright as blood, the axis of the earth was greatly tilted horizontally, day and night can still change, but the seasons are completely fixed. Most of the Antarctic continent sank, and human beings in various cities were panicked and panic spread.

At this time, the numbers that had disappeared for a long time after the demon appeared reappeared, but the numbers had shrunk considerably.

【0.015532%】

I have seen this line of numbers...

As if opening a drawer that was originally locked, Ikari Shinji remembered the origin of this string of numbers. It appeared when Ayanami kept resetting the summer vacation, and it seemed that 8 o'clock was deducted.

She can reset the world without a third shock at all, so Eve is?

As if sensing Ikari Shinji's thoughts, his "perspective" suddenly fell, all the way through the surface, and arrived at the giant hollow below the Third New Tokyo City. Of course, at this point in time, there is neither Third New Tokyo City nor NERV , there is only one sitting next to the stone wall, holding a red harpoon in her hand, gesturing at herself, and muttering "Eve" in her mouth.

This Eve's body shape is relatively normal, similar to what he saw in the closed space - not the one who played cards.

But, wasn't she sealed here by the gun of Longinus because she was about to launch a second impact?

Wait...if according to NERV they used that gun to stop the second shock, then why was this gun made before the second shock happened? Why are you sure it will work for Eve?

Unless, it was originally something of Eve.

Forget it, the known history is already a mess, and there are not many more.

At this point, Eve seemed to have finally made up her mind, raised her right hand with the spear of Longinus, and made some mental preparations, pierced the palm of her left hand with a puff, and then leaned against the wall with a sigh of relief and fell asleep.

After that, all the illusions in front of Ikari Shinji disappeared, leaving only the incomparably thick black mist in all directions.