Chapter 68 100: The Second Angel, Lilith.

The stale air, the scent of antiseptic, and the messily arranged pills—this was unmistakably Rei Ayanami's room.

Did she come here when she took leave? Or rather, was this the place where she was born?

Shinji's expression remained unchanged. He had long since guessed the girl's secret; the scene before him merely served to verify his hypothesis. Rei Ayanami was a warrior, his closest comrade-in-arms, and her fate had already been altered—her loyalty had already been proven.

Shinji was not a man to be shaken by anything. He exited the room, closed the door, and looked to his left. At the end of the corridor lay a massive chamber, from which a thick, metallic tang of blood emanated.

"That way—do you want to go and see?" Kaji emerged from a room, his expression deeply grave.

"What is it about?"

"Discarded EVAs. It turns out the E-Project started here." Kaji's eyes flickered, as if he had finally found many of the answers he was looking for.

Shinji followed him and looked inside. Before them lay a cruciform pit, filled with a mountainous heap of giant corpses. There was no telling how many times NERV had failed before successfully producing Unit-00.

The air was thick with the stench of blood. Having already understood the true nature of the EVAs, Shinji felt no surprise at the sight; instead, he found himself acknowledging the sheer capability of Gendo Ikari, Ritsuko Akagi, and even SEELE.

These people were highly talented. Countless failures and infinite trials and error had finally borne fruit. One had to understand that they did not have the luxury of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who could make breakthroughs through archeology; every step they took was into the unknown. Even Shinji could not imagine how they managed to manufacture bio-weapons tens of meters tall.

From the perspective of humanity, at this stage, they were also unimaginably loyal.

Shinji glanced across the pile of corpses at the mottled wall, where faded text was painted: GEHIRN (Artificial Evolution Laboratory).

"This was the predecessor to NERV?"

"Yes. After obtaining the Dead Sea Scrolls, SEELE formulated the Adam Project and the E-Project, entrusting them to GEHIRN. The original director was Commander Ikari." Kaji had been recording intelligence throughout, and after a moment's thought, he added, "To

intercept the Angels, they added armed forces and command authority, and thus GEHIRN became NERV."

Shinji nodded. The former was a pure research institution, while the latter evolved into a professional organization dedicated to fighting Angels. Gendo Ikari had played a pivotal role in all of this, and he couldn't imagine how much energy the man had expended.

'Done well. In the future, treat it as an inheritance and hand it over to me.'

Shinji recognized his capability, but it did not change how he intended to dispose of him. He gave a slight wave of his hand.

"Let's go. We are going to the most core location."

The power outage would not last long. Even if there were a multitude of secrets in the ruins of GEHIRN, Shinji had no intention of delaying any further. He headed directly for the deepest reaches of Terminal Dogma.

One heavy blast door after another was forced open. The two men soon reached the Central Shaft—a giant cylindrical cavern that led straight up to the 'pyramid' on the surface, large enough to accommodate two EVAs.

Shinji paused for a moment. Just looking at this shaft, it was clear that SEELE's intentions were impure. If they wanted to prevent the Angels from coming into contact with Adam, why leave a passage open? Shouldn't they have encased Adam in steel, ideally creating a coffin hundreds of meters thick?

"Look, if an Angel breaks through the defenses of Tokyo-3 and invades the underground headquarters, they can come straight down here to the core." Kaji leaned out, looking at the layers of armor above, his expression turning solemn. "It seems SEELE isn't afraid of the Angels coming into contact with Adam at all—or perhaps they are just too confident in you?"

Shinji shook his head. Such an assumption was fundamentally flawed. If it hadn't been for his return after serving in the Chapter, the Third Angel might not have been stopped, and as for Asuka and Rei, their combat power was limited. He couldn't exactly say the Dead Sea Scrolls recorded his own return as well.

"Let's go down."

"Huh? How do we go down?"

As Kaji looked on in confusion, Shinji walked toward the lift beside the cavern and started it with a beep. Kaji couldn't help but swallow hard.

"Shinji-kun, you really aren't an Angel?"

"I am."

Shinji's answer nearly caused the man's heart to stop, but he silently added, "But I am an Astartes of the Emperor."

With the low hum of electric motors, the two descended deep underground. In reality, this was the true Terminal Dogma; the secrets above were merely derivatives of what lay here.

LCL?

Looking down, all he could see was an ocean of orange fluid. The entire shaft was immense, visibly large enough for an EVA to stand and walk through.

"There is far too much of this 'Water of Life.' It's like an ocean." Kaji held his breath; he saw a destroyer floating atop the orange sea.

Shinji remained silent. As the elevator reached the bottom, he looked ahead, his pupils contracting slightly.

The orange sea, the steel walls, and the gargantuan entity at the far end.

It was a massive red cross upon which a limbless white giant with its arms outstretched was crucified. Below its waist, it looked as if it had been severed, consisting of a churning mass of human-sized white limbs.

"This is..." Kaji muttered. The white giant dealt him a powerful shock, causing him to tremble slightly.

Shinji remained calm. Searching for secrets was always accompanied by shock; if anything, he felt a sense of relief.

'Thank goodness it's a white giant. If it were some bird-headed freak with wings, I imagine my heart would have stopped from the fright.'

He took a closer look, noting the purple, seven-eyed mask on the white giant's face, and the orange liquid flowing from its 'wounds' dripping down the red cross.

In that instant, Shinji understood where all that LCL fluid came from, and his brows tightened.

"Something is wrong."

"What is it?"

"LCL is a necessity for piloting an EVA. How could it flow out of this thing? Since Angels are Adam's offspring—and I have killed five of them—why have I never seen a drop of this 'Water of Life'?"

LCL was the fluid injected into the entry plug; pilots used it to achieve neural linkage with the EVA and maintain their vital signs. If this were a product of Adam, why didn't the Angels, as direct offspring, possess it? Shinji knew well that every time he killed one, he was bathed in their blood.

Kaji squinted, preparing to offer an explanation, but Shinji raised a hand to stop him, his focus sharpening.

"No, this is not Adam."

He needed no instruments; his psychic senses had already provided the answer. He had faced too many Angels; this white giant was something fundamentally different from them. He turned his head to look at Kaji, who was hesitating.

"Don't waste time. Give me the conclusion."

Kaji looked stunned, but soon gave a bitter laugh.

"Shinji-kun, I didn't intend to hide it from you, but there were things I needed to confirm. This is indeed not Adam. It is the Second Angel, Lilith."

He possessed no psychic powers; he had arrived at the conclusion purely through deductive reasoning. After all, it was he who had transported the Adam embryo. Once he excluded the possibility of there being two Adams, the answer was self-evident.

"Lilith? The origin of humanity recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls? This thing is?"

Shinji furrowed his brow, feeling little impact. This was an origin he had no hand in deciding, and naturally, there was no need for self-doubt. There was only one thing he could decide.

If this alien being ever resurrected, he would use all his might to nail it back into its coffin.

"Huh? That's all the reaction you have?" Kaji found it incredible. Even he felt a shock that touched his very soul.

It was as if a plot from a fantasy novel had become reality—humanity had actually originated from this monster. Shouldn't one doubt the meaning of life? Shouldn't one's entire worldview be shattered?

"What happened billions of years ago is already set in stone. What matters is how to maintain loyalty and ensure the continuation of humanity. If you want to see me succumb to self-doubt or wavering, the seal on this cross would have to contain a Chaos Demon."

Shinji's tone was flat, firm, and frank. Astartes were masters at simplifying complex problems. This world was not the Dark Galaxy he served in, nor was there an Inquisition running around to test the purity of his genes. So what if this alien was the origin? He could not change the past.

Since he could not change it, why waver? In his long years of service, he had been subjected to countless temptations and discovered innumerable shocking secrets. If he were so easily swayed, he would have become a traitor long ago.

"Your mentality... is quite something." Kaji didn't know what else to say, so he gave a thumbs-up. Seeing the youth, who seemed forged from steel, he too regained his composure.

"Heh, no wonder those old men aren't afraid of things getting out of hand. So, what's locked under NERV isn't Adam after all. Even if an Angel breaks through all defenses and makes it here, they couldn't trigger the Third Impact."

Lilith was merely a lure, designed to draw Angels to Tokyo-3 to meet their deaths. Even if this fortress were conquered, it would be of no consequence.

Many questions were answered. SEELE was indeed a group of master manipulators who had held a trump card from the very beginning. But before he could contemplate how SEELE had deceived the Angels, the youth had already turned to leave.

"Hey, we're leaving already?"

"I have obtained my answer. Why stay? Now it is time to resolve the second matter. Even if it will not trigger the Third Impact, I will not tolerate those people continuing to scheme."

Shinji felt no confusion, moving toward the next moment with the precision of a clock. SEELE had revealed their flaw. If he didn't grasp it now, was he supposed to stand here questioning the meaning of life?

From a tactical standpoint, this mission was of immense significance. He now knew that even if the Angels tore through NERV, they could never trigger the Third Impact, for Adam was firmly in his own hands.

Kaji hurried to catch up, but seeing the youth's calm expression, he still felt a lingering dissatisfaction. As a well-informed agent, the moment he saw Lilith and confirmed his hypothesis, his own head had been buzzing with shock.

"Humanity and the Angels are of the same origin—are you truly not shaken at all?"

Tap.

Shinji stopped and looked back. "Self-doubt is the beginning of corruption. Do not let such things affect your reason and your loyalty. If there is one thing that truly touched me upon seeing this alien—"

He glanced at the white giant in the distance and shook his head lightly.

"It is that I have found a target. The source lies not in Lilith or Adam, but in something above them. If humanity is to become pure once more, I shall be the one to sever that source."

Sever the source?

Kaji didn't understand at first, but after ruminating for a few seconds, the corners of his eyes began to twitch.

While Kaji was thinking about taking samples back to confirm, the boy was already planning on "severing the source." Something above Lilith and Adam—wasn't that 'God'?

'I'm still doubting my own existence, and he's already planning on God-slaying? What kind of brain circuitry is this? A killing machine forged by another deity?'

Kaji finally understood why Asuka said this boy didn't seem like someone from Earth. Their thinking was not on the same level. He watched the boy's back vanish into the darkness and, in a trance, felt that his stride had become even more resolute.

Entering Terminal Dogma, seeing the origin of humanity in this world, and discovering that his own bloodline was not pure—that it did not flow with the Emperor's blood—Shinji was certainly affected.

Had it been a priest of the Imperial Cult, they likely would have collapsed on the spot. But he felt his reason remain clear and his soul remained pure and loyal; the long years of service had forged far more than just his body.

Astartes: steel, both within and without.

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Note: The Spear of Longinus was transported from Antarctica using the aircraft carrier 'Over the Rainbow' by the Commander and Vice-Commander while on an 'official trip' during Episode 12 of the TV series. Later, in Episode 23, it was retrieved by Rei Ayanami and thrown to the moon. This means at this point in the story, Lilith does not have the Spear.