Broken heroes
A/N: Chapters up to 17 have been updated
Chapter 25:
The end of Sin
Part 5
God is no longer in his heaven, nothing is right with the world
Lilith
"{You are finally here}"
She said at the Slayer's life sphere which was floating in front of her.
It pulsated in reply and then it started moving away, so Lilith said:
"{You can't escape in any way, now join the others}"
As she said this, she saw Kaworu's soul appear too, but it was like all the other ones, so it didn't matter to her as it floated back up towards the head.
Instead a moment later, Hayden's life sphere appeared next to the Slayer's, so she grabbed both of them with her AT field and brought them to the head, where all the others were experiencing instrumentality.
As she reached the final seal, she was waiting for Lorenz Keel to let her through while he stood with his back to all the spheres that represented the various instrumentalities that were going on at once.
After the seal opened, she pushed Kaworu's soul into Ikari's instrumentality, but then she came to a stop when she had to decide where to send the Slayer and Samuel.
In the end, the man in control of everything told her to create a new one just for them, given how much they had been an issue to SEELE's plans.
And she was about to do so, when suddenly her powers encountered a strong resistance.
Before the two of them could do anything about it, the two life spheres crossed the border and Samuel appeared in his human form as he said:
"So, this is instrumentality?"
"{How are you not affected by my powers?}"
"Our worlds and our souls work differently Lilith, you don't have as much control on me and on the Slayer as on the other souls"
Then suddenly the Slayer started glowing much brighter and so she asked:
"{What is he doing?}"
And Samuel replied:
"You see Lilith, even though our worlds as I told you are different, the Slayer is one of the few constants that remains.
As he is not only a man, but he also represents humanity as a whole-"
Then he turned to look at Makinami's instrumentality as he added:
"And it's undying will to persevere no matter what"
The Slayer's life sphere then launched itself into Mari's instrumentality, creating a shockwave that knocked all three of them unconscious.
Meanwhile, the entire Earth had begun to shake.
The cas(&:€) _(# SAVING of the Makinami family
Maria was still watching her daughter almost naked being touched by those men, while her husband kept her still and forced her to keep doing chores.
Until suddenly, she felt forced to look out of the window, as did Mari and there they saw a huge red comet crashing into the ground the same way the fortress of doom had.
Only this time, there was an enormous explosion that left only the house and its occupants intact.
Then, Maria started feeling something stir inside of her, a feeling she had felt only on very rare occasions.
She felt adrenaline flow through her body, she felt her nerves firing, she felt her muscles tensing and as the corners of her vision were covered in red, she understood what it was.
Pure berserker rage.
Immediately she broke free from her husband's arms with such ease that it felt unnatural and before he could react, she punched him in the face so hard that bits of his cracked skull flew across the room as his head landed near the sink.
In an instant Maria was already behind him and as she grabbed him by the hair, she began repeatedly smashing his face on the edge of the metal as blood began flying everywhere.
Finally as his skull cracked open, she let the head fall down and turned towards her daughter, not without grabbing two long knives from one of the drawers.
When she saw that Mari was under the same effect that was enveloping her right now, she smiled when she saw her defend herself against the ten buff completely white men around her and as she looked at her own hands, Maria gripped one of the knives and threw it at her.
The girl caught it mid air and a second later she was already slicing throats left and right, not without her mother joining in too.
Less than thirty seconds later all the other people in the room were dead and as Maria and Mari looked at each other in the eyes, they felt that effect fade away as they fell to their knees in a hug full of tears.
"A…-adesso siamo libere cara" Maria said as she felt her daughter's small frame cuddle up under her as she tightened the hug.
Then suddenly a warm light appeared in front of Maria and from there a hand was sent extended to both of them.
Finally, when the woman recognized the armored gauntlet, she said:
"Grazie"
And then they were teleported away with peace in their minds.
The cas-/€) '! #/'? SAVING of the Soryu family
Asuka's vision was by now obscured as her eyes burned from all the tears that she couldn't stop from flooding the bed she was kept on.
She had managed to notice her mother, but just like her, she couldn't do anything about the situation and it had gotten even worse when her father and stepmother appeared too.
Suddenly though, even if both of them couldn't turn around, a powerful red light glowed inside the room through the small window and after that, a loud explosion was heard.
Asuka didn't question this though, since she was too busy breaking out of the restraints, just like her mother.
Once she was finally out of the bed, with her red hair flowing in the air as if moved by an invisible wind, she clenched her right hand into a fist and with a quick motion, she broke down the thick glass in front of her.
Then, she launched herself forward as she grabbed the fake Ayanami by the throat and started strangling her while also pinning her face deep into a wall.
Her neck didn't offer much resistance as soon a cracking noise was heard and the moment later the blue haired head twisted at a weird angle.
Asuka discarded the body a moment later by throwing it at the door with so much force that it pushed it open.
Then, she turned towards Shinji and before he could do anything, he was already getting beaten by her as she held him down on a table, delivering punch after punch to his chest and face.
Suddenly though, for one of the punches Asuka was off timing, so he used this opportunity to stop both of her arms.
She growled at him, as if she was being controlled by a wild animal…
Which was immediately put to rest when he kissed her lightly on her lips and even if that interaction had lasted just a second or less, it had shared between them more than any amount of words could have done.
Then, he slowly faded away with a smile on his face, along with a line of blood going down from his mouth, but that didn't make him stop smiling and looking at Asuka as she slowly returned to normal.
A moment later, he mother entered the room and hugged her from behind, tickling her a bit to lighten up the mood.
And in between her small giggles, the two of them didn't notice the column of light that stood behind them… with a smile on its face.
The cas-27!€-€- SAVING of the Ikari family
Gendo was standing immobile as droplets of painful tears fell down at his feet as he kept his back from the still open doors of the train cabinet where he had left Shinji, who had curled up in himself too.
Suddenly though the Earth shook, making Gendo stumble and his glasses fall off as they broke from hitting the cracked concrete.
He was about to pick them back up, but as he felt a powerful source of heat cover his back, he turned around and was almost blinded by the red light of the comet as it went forward and crashed not too far away from them.
As he watched the red shockwave flow through the city and around him, he didn't flinch when it hit him at full force, instead, he turned towards the train station as he heard the intercom announce the train's departure.
He immediately broke off into a run as even if his vision was slightly tinted red, he could clearly see every centimeter that the doors of the train passed as they moved towards each other.
In fact, they managed to close right as he placed a foot in the waiting area, so he began to run sideways to catch the accelerating train.
As he was doing so, every step brought him closer to the door which his son was slowly opening with a strength he didn't know he had.
Unfortunately, his seconds were counted as in front of him a large wall appeared and the train was running straight into it.
He was now only a metre away from the doors and when his son finally opened the doors, he told him as the barrier came closer and closer:
"Shinji jump now! I'll catch you! Please trust me and jump!"
The boy hesitated as the anger faded away, now scared of what his father could actually do if he jumped.
Gendo noticed this and he also saw that there were less than two hundred meters from the wall and that his legs were getting tired, so he said desperately:
"Shinji please jump! If you do that we can start again! We can leave the past behind us!
We'll be able to be a family again!"
Shinj then closed his eyes and leapt towards him.
And then he reopened them when he felt two arms holding him up as they gradually slowed down to a stop.
Gendo placed Shinji down and went in to hug him, but the moment before they were able to connect the train hit the wall, completely destroying itself.
And as the pressure traveled along the steel structure of the cabins, the back end ones detached from the tracks and began rolling towards the pair.
Shinji started screaming in fear as he hugged his father for protection, who instead was very calm as he looked at the incoming wave of debris.
That's because he had a 75 meter tall purple and green death machine as a wife.
Whose metallic hand descended in front of them as the flying train cabinet smashed into it, but dealing no damage at all.
After the dust settled, Yui appeared next to him and as Shinji got out from behind his father,they all shared a family hug, with the Slayer clapping slowly in the background as he teleported them out of there.
Lilith's head
The situation there had remained calm, even the planet under them had stopped shaking as the floow of souls gradually came to a stop after no living beings were left on the planet.
Then, a bright flash of light illuminated the inside of the head just as Lilith was waking up and when she was finally back on her legs, she saw how everyone that had been placed inside of instrumentality had been freed.
She found Kaworu sitting down with a shocked face as none of his muscles moved, but before she even made a move towards him, Samuel's hand fell on her shoulder as he said:
"You might want to wait a bit before talking with him, in the meantime you can watch the Slayer as he frees souls from the torture that Keel is putting them through"
"{What?}"
"Just look at his life sphere and you will understand"
And so she did that, seeing how the Slayer had crossed the seal once again and had now begun shooting lasers at all the souls that happened to fly by, interrupting instrumentality from each one of them.
"Beautiful isn't it?" Samuel asked her, but before she could reply, a voice called him from behind:
"Samuel? Is this you?"
"Oh Kyoko, yes, I can see that you recognized my human body, you look good too by the way"
She smiled a bit, but stopped when she noticed Asuka's small frown that was directed at both her and Samuel.
He didn't mind it that much, but he still wanted to not make her sad, so Samuel said:
"Hey Asuka I know that you don't agree with this bu-"
Suddenly though she stopped him as she remarked with a sharp voice:
"It's not that I don't agree with it, I'm just disoriented okay? Give me some more time to process this"
And so Samuel simply shut up and nodded.
Then suddenly the silence was broken again after Kaworu approached Lilith and as he held her, he started mumbling random stuff, but with a voice too low to be heard.
"Tabris are you okay?"
Zeruel asked as he placed one of his tendrils on him, getting the boy to calm down a little and raise his voice:
"He was no helper"
"Sorry what did you say?"
"He has been lying to everyone since the beginning"
"Kaworu?"
Shinji asked, but that didn't change his beginning at all as Samuel slowly took a step back without being noticed by anyone.
"He lied to us, to all of us" the angel boy whispered, but Lilith was able to hear him as she asked:
"{Who?}"
"Samuel and VEGA, they have lied to us all"
Immediately everyone turned to the other man, but just as they did that, they saw a flash of light come from where the body of Lorenz Keel was now standing as the embryo launched a set of chains that made them forcibly kneel to the ground, except for Lilith.
Then, as Keel looked at the Slayer's life sphere he said:
"I'm tired of all this,the time to silence all of you has come"
A moment later he sent out another set of chains that grabbed the Slayer's life sphere, making the Slayer's mark suddenly appear and shine an angry red light as it was brought inside next to the others.
Then, Lorenz spoke again:
"This game has gone on for far, now it's time to end it.
Once I'll have killed all of you, the true third impact is going to start, and SEELE will lead all of humanity to a new step in evolution, as one immortal, all powerful, single being.
Except for Erik, he's going to remain on Earth all alone and starve to death"
"Sorry who?" All of them asked and Keel replied:
"It was an inside joke, now, as I was saying, we are going to turn almost all of humanity into a single super intelligent immortal being that will bring us to the next stage in evolution!"
"We tried that in Urdak, trust me, it gets lonely after a while"
Samuel said with a smirk on his face and so Keel angrily replied:
"Who do you think you are to talk like that!"
As the man shouted this everyone saw his eyes flare up with energy from the embryo while he brought up one of his hands and pulled Samuel closer, ready to fire an AT field at him.
"He's a liar.
Nothing, but a liar, and a damn good one at that"
Lorenz asked as he looked at Kaworu:
"Explain yourself, Tabris"
"Since the three of them have arrived on Earth, they have always lied to us about one thing and one thing only, but I believe that I understand why"
"What is this lie?"
Suddenly Samuel spoke again, but with a different, less robotic voice that they had never heard from him:
"Heh.
It wasn't easy to hide VEGA's true nature to all of you this entire time, but I believe that me and the Slayer did a pretty good job, even if sometimes VEGA himself gave you some obvious hints.
For example, Gendo, tell me if you had never had that conversation with him in the park, would you have decided to change the entire plan to include your son?
You spent years crafting your perfect scenario that would have kept you allied with SEELE, but then you would have stabbed them in the back at the end, just to have your wife back.
More than ten years in the making and just as you are about to reach the final stage you change ideas completely, all of this because of a single conversation with VEGA during a walk.
Let's take maybe another example, this one much clearer.
Yui, Maria, Kyoko, Ritsuko, I believe you are the smartest scientists in here at the moment, so I want to ask you:
Do you believe that there is even a remotely theoretical scientific explanation to what VEGA did in his core?"
"No." Yui immediately said, then she added:
"I don't think that science is able to explain what I saw him do to SEELE inside of there"
Then Keel spoke up:
"But I can give you one.
Imagine being able to feel every tissue of your body burning at once as hands as sharp as the finest blades tear you apart with such violence that only the Slayer could demonstrate.
All of this and you are somehow kept alive during the entire process with all your pain nerves being on overdrive as you are slowly destroyed into always smaller bits.
Unable to truly die until he wants you to die.
That's what that monster did to every one of us"
Then Ramiel asked:
"Samuel… is that true? Did dad do those things for real?"
The man let out a sigh of defeat as his shoulders lowered and his siblings looked at him with worry on their minds.
Then he said:
"I believe that I can't hide it from any of you anymore.
You see, the secret me and the Slayer have kept up until now is that…
VEGA-"
"VEGA IS GOD"
Maya shouted as she finally woke up from her sleep that had somehow let her hear the entire conversation, so while she was still hyperventilating, she continued:
"When he… he touched my forehead, I understood it, he was between us the entire time! Aaaah-"
And then Keel knocked her out with hsi AT field, but, the damage had been done as soon, madness ensued among the others, while Samuel watched from behind with a smirk on his face, like he had already done so many times.
Lilith and Kaworu seemed to be the most shook by this, in fact, some time passed before they asked Samuel about the story that VEGA had told everyone.
"Well, the story is actually true, the third impact did happen and it did cause the death of all of those people.
But it was him who defeated the previous super being and put Adam and Lilith into their respective moons, he's even the one who created the Lances now that I think about it"
But then Keel turned towards Samuel, stopping any further questions as he said:
"I'm not buying it, because I am God right now. Not Him.
And for how strong you say he is, he can't stop what has already begun, so just sit back and smile like you always do, I'll be busy killing them"
The second he turned around once again, he heard the sound of his chains snapping.
"How the fu-"
Keel started saying before the now free Samuel interrupted him.
Play:[Shady Hayden] The Ancient Gods part 1 OST
"You know, you are right Keel, I've been staying on the sidelines for way too much, so it was about time I helped with something"
While he said this, his body began being surrounded by the father's symbol as he freed his feet as well.
Then his eyes began glowing yellow and he said:
"Since, if you remember correctly, I am VEGA's son"
And so Samuel kept building up power, ignoring the stunned eyes of the others as right now he was focusing only on the man who was charging a beam in front of him as well.
Then Keel said:
"Shut up and die!"
*BZoooooomm*
As the beam left the embryo, it was so powerful that it sent Keel back a little and it was so bright that it hurt to look at for more than a couple of seconds.
And yet, suddenly a sound of what seemed hundreds of little bells started echoing through the head while a golden barrier appeared at the other end of the beam.
Then, two long purple wings came out, with feathers made of purple energy as bone cracking sounds were heard.
When Keel stopped the beam, everyone saw what had happened to Samuel.
His body was much taller now, scratching probably the four meter mark if the set of tentacles under him that made him levitate was to be counted.
His entire skin had turned purple, except for some incision near his exposed brain and the big yellow eyeball at the centre of his chest.
The rest of the body was skinny without any defined thick muscles since it looked as if it didn't need them.
The arms were long and ended in hands made up of three claws that had energy flowing through them, while the chest was mostly barebones and occupied by that giant eyeball.
Samuel's head was now similar to that of a prowler demon, with a double jaw full of sharp teeth that opened up diagonally, while over it his giant slightly more pink brain
He then said:
"Looks like my dad gave my original body back… perfect"
Immediately he teleported right behind Keel, catching him off guard as he released his powerful short range void attack and hit him dead centre, sending him flying away as his body regenerated the destroyed spine and leg tissue.
A couple hundred meters later Keel landed and got back up, ready to fire again at Samuel, who had already begun flying towards him.
He dodged the following beam by constantly teleporting around, only letting himself get hit for a couple of instants as unfortunately he couldn't just spam this ability.
So instead, when he was within range, he flew upwards and fired two sets of three fast purple projectiles that hit Keel and the area around him, causing the nerves in his entire body to slow down, thus giving Samuel the opportunity to rain hell on him for a couple of seconds.
But as the Seraphim tried hitting him with the void attack once again, the man finally got rid of the slowness effect and lined himself up just right so that he could hit Samuel.
A plan that worked since a moment later a shade of purple was seen flying in the air out of control.
But after a moment, he stabilized himself, with his body still hurting from the damage he had received.
Seeing that he was now very high up in the air, Samuel activated his spirit shield while generating two floating eyes that shot out lightning from all directions,which served to keep the man away as he summoned two spirits by his sides.
Those were the blue ghostly demonic creatures that the Slayer had encountered during his trip in Urdak, demons so full of hatred towards the Slayer that they had defied death just to keep fighting.
Then, on the ground below, two red columns of energy appeared as a Blood Maykr Angel and an Archvile spawned, but they didn't do anything for the first few seconds as the spirits slowly possessed them, enhancing their power, speed and health as a light blue aura surrounded their bodies.
Once the process was over, the two demons roared at Keel and began their attack.
Immediately the Archvile pulled up his flame wall and began summoning more demons, but if he usually took a while to finish the process, thanks to the spirit's power the entire area was filled with hellish beasts in just a couple of seconds.
Meanwhile the blood maykr had opened himself up as he flew in the air and began launching his golden staff at the ground near Lorenz, who had to avoid the area of effect to avoid being slowed down once more.
But, he wasn't able to see the buffed hell knight that landed his jump attack right next to him, causing him to be launched in the air while the others in the back acted as speechless spectators.
Then, right as he landed, Lorenz found himself right in front of a mancubus that began burning him alive with his flamethrowers while a set of gargoyles shot their fast projectiles at him.
Still, a moment later an AT field appeared in the middle of the flames, which later expanded and killed the surrounding demons as he regenerated the burnt areas of his body.
Or at least that was until he had to block the blood maykr's red barrier attack that had been launched at him.
He managed to do it and gained a direct line of sight with the possessed enemy, so he shot at him immediately.
But, the maykr had already brought his shield back up after the attack,rendering him practically invulnerable to almost any attack.
So Keel decided to focus on the Archvile, sending away a group of imps that were coming from behind him.
He spotted his enemy and took aim, but then just as he fired, the demon teleported away and reappeared to his far right, from where he began launching tall waves of fire at him.
Lorenz was able to dodge them thanks to the help of the embryo and managed to get closer to the demon, but then he was hit in the side by one of the blood maykr's staff attacks, causing his upper body to almost disintegrate as he was slowed down to a standstill.
Then the Archvile lit the ground beneath him in a pool of fire much hotter than the mancubus' from before.
While they were listening to his screams, the group in the back didn't notice the Slayer's life sphere breaking free as it went on to destroy all the chains that were holding them down.
Once Ramiel was free, he immediately rushed towards his older brother to help him in the fight, but after a moment he came across an almost invisible barrier of orange energy that stopped him completely.
He didn't understand why it was there, until a buffed imp that was rushing towards him made contact with it and got launched away in the air.
"Ramiel come back here, it's dangerous"
Zeruel told him while everyone finished getting up, but seeing that his brother wasn't moving, the angel added:
"Ramiel come on, there are things that we need to discuss… especially about him"
And so, the blue octahedron reluctantly flew back towards the group, where the Slayer had placed himself at its center, ready to 'answer' their questions by moving his sphere in 'yes' and 'no' gestures.
The first one came immediately from Kyoko:
"So, is Samuel telling the truth?"
'yes'
"To think that I went out on a date with the son of God…
Actually, what about the other religions?
I mean, is Samuel… like… Jesus Christ?"
'no'
"Oh, that's… reassuring…
Do you think that he still loves me? Even though he is like… that, now?"
'YES' the Slayer replied with the addition of a small glow to increase the affirmation.
This made the woman smile and to an extent, Asuka too, as she liked to see her mother happy.
Then the Slayer turned towards Maria, who said with a big smirk on her face:
"I knew it, since the day he got me out of there I knew that they were hiding this sort of stuff"
'yes'
"I mean, every time he touched me I felt that there was something strange about him, plus tell me what kind of being can make you see your entire memory in just a moment, twice"
"{I can, but I agree with you on the fact that VEGA has always acted strangely.
I have to ask myself though what would have happened if we found out earlier about h-}"
*BOOM*
Immediately everyone turned back towards the battlefield, where Keel had finally been able to destroy the demons and knock out Samuel's shield, not without receiving lots of damage himself as he slowly regenerated while the purple angel fell back down to the ground.
Once he got back up, Samuel looked at his still regenerating body and seeing how his enemy was now immobile, he took the chance, knowing that this might be his last.
He teleported behind him, immediately destroying his shoulder bones and what was left of the legs with another void attack, then he picked him up and threw him across the air, only to summon one of those floating eyeballs right on him.
So the man's flight was stopped as he got electrocuted with a current in the hundreds of Amperes, but then after a while, Samir made the eye explode, causing further damage to his chopped body as it crashed into the ground.
Keel wasn't able to make a single movement that he was already being hit by Samuel's purple projectiles that blew off a part of his chest every time they made contact.
Then, a sudden shockwave emanating from the ground under him lifted him up in the air as Samuel's wings turned into super sharp giant blades of energy, which had no problems cutting and burning through his body as the seraphim kept performing his dance of death.
Finally, after all that was left of him was a torso with one arm and half a head, Samuel brought his hands closer to the eye at the center of his chest, where he started accumulating tremendous amounts of energy as he formed a giant purple sphere that was almost as big as him.
He flew up in the air and shot it, causing an explosion so powerful that it almost made the others fall to the ground as they shielded their eyes from the immense intensity of the light.
[Music slowly fades away]
…
As Samuel slowly descended to look at the column of smoke his attack had left, everyone could hear his heavy breathing, understanding just how much energy that fight had taken out of him.
But, he knew that unfortunately it hadn't been enough, since Lilith's giant body was still intact.
And this assumption was confirmed when Lorenz rushed out of the smoke with his body entirely regenerated and pinned him to the ground as he landed punch after punch.
Once the man stopped, Samuel had almost no skin left and a lot of his bones showing, while the ground was being constantly painted blue by his spilling blood.
The others would have liked to intervene, but there was still that impassable barrier that Lorenz kept up which restricted them to the role of spectators as he got up and said:
"Pathetic.
You claim to be the son of God and yet you didn't even tire me one bit, if VEGA goes by your standards then beating him will be a walk in the park.
Now, do you have to say any final words?"
And so Samuel replied with a twisted laugh as he struggled to get up:
"You-hehehe- you don't understand right?"
"What?"
"You are in control of this body and yet… ughh..
You can't understand that no one can die in here"
"What the hell are you talking about you moron!"
He replied as small AT fields started forming near the embryo.
"T-Tell him-, Lilith"
"{He is saying the truth, neither me nor Adam can truly destroy souls, only contain or manipulate them, but we can't kill anyone.
But… How do you know about this Samuel?}"
In that instant, everyone saw the Father's symbol appear floating over his chest as he said:
"You could say that...it was…
Divine intervention.
…You see Keel, there is a war that has been going on for billions and billions of years, one that after this battle might be finally brought to an end, but you might put yourself right in the middle of the crossfire if you don't stop the third impact very soon"
"What kind of battle is more important than this?!"
"The battle between Urdak and hell, the battle between The Father and Davoth, the battle where the Slayer will be the decisive factor for everything.
But I understand that all of this might confuse you, so I say that we use this environment to our advantage, shall we?"
And before any of them could reply, he grabbed the man's arm and pushed it into the eyeball in his chest, creating an instrumentality that contained all of them, because all of them needed to know what kind of horror could he unleashed very soon.
But with all of them inside instrumentality, none saw the giant brain shaped mass of metal and energy rising up from the atmosphere.
The case of Samur Maykr
Play:[Borderline case] End of Evangelion ost
The place was dark for a while, with nothing happening as silence filled the seemingly endless empty void.
Until, a small light appeared, which suddenly grew in size and revealed the group's location as walls, a floor, furniture and a ceiling, all of alien origin, formed a squared room, where a 3 metre tall glowing humanoid was sitting at a desk as he operated a strange machine with unknown symbols.
Then in the middle of the room, an empty sphere of glass was floating in between two circular platforms, one on the floor and the other on the ceiling.
Out of these two platforms, a constant stream of Argent energy was flowing towards the sphere, but it flew around it, never making contact with it's transparent surface.
"What is this place?" Ramiel asked as he looked around, amazed by all the extreme details of the room.
Then Samuel replied as he walked in front of everyone:
"This… is where I was born, right now we are watching the moments right before I came into existence.
That person over there at the controls is my dad"
And so Yui said:
"Damn, he's really tall… but what's with all that machinery?"
"It's needed because I was born differently, he had acquired a special dead soul from Earth and he had brought it back here.
Now that alone wasn't enough, so he had to give me a part of his soul as well, it's where my powers come from"
As he said that, a sound was heard coming from the machines and suddenly a pole with a spike on top of it appeared in front of the machine holding the sphere.
So Leliel asked:
"Is he going to use that thing to move his soul?"
"In a sense… Yes"
And then VEGA got up from his station and walked towards the pole.
While he was doing this, everyone was able get a better look at his body thanks to the improved lighting.
His body from far away looked like it didn't have any particular details, almost as if he was wearing a bodysuit, but the closer he got to the group, the more complex it became.
His face was blank, almost as if he was wearing a completely white mask that covered all of it, then came his neck, which didn't have anything special.
Under it, a set of very wide shoulders stood over a muscular body, not as ripped as the Slayer's, but still enough to show itself very clearly.
His arms were of average length, though they presented some sort of luminescent tattoos that kept getting more and more complex the longer one looked at them, just like a fractal, giving them a clear general image, which was also infinitely detailed.
On each of his palms, his circular symbol stood in the centre as thin lines connected it with the tips of his fingers.
Those lines further extended along the entire body, making it look like his skin was coated in one big constellation.
His chest rose and lowered with every step he took, showing just how tense he seemed to be for what was about to happen, but the main details that everyone was focused on, was the sphere that floated right at the centre of it, this one, just like the tattoos on his arms, looking plain yet infinitely detailed at the same time as it pulsed with the same rhythm of a heart.
The rest of the body didn't have anything too particular, even though everyone felt like there was an infinite number of features that they were missing, simply because their eyes couldn't see them.
And that was after all, the body of God, something so simple yet so utterly complex that it was impossible for anyone but himself to understand completely.
Once the Father was standing right in front of the metallic pole, he stopped and took a deep breath.
Then, he said quietly:
"I've done this before, come on, I can do this, even if it will hurt a lot.
I can't change anything without going through the pain of it"
And so he grabbed the pole with his right arm and immediately everyone saw the flames start burning his hand as he emitted small sounds of pain, but the worst was yet to come.
A moment later in fact, he stabbed himself in the glowing part of his chest, shouting because of the tremendous pain that he was going through as the full length of the thick metal pole perforated him from side to side as he slowly felt part of his soul being taken away from him and into the life sphere, which at the same time was being filled with Argent.
The pain in the end overtook him as he got on the ground with one knee and released a scream that shook the entire room.
Then, right as the soul sphere became a bright yellow with some blue stripes around it, VEGA pulled the pole out of his body as he regenerated the damage while panting heavily.
Finally, he looked back up at his creation and as he took it in his hands he said:
"Welcome to my world, Samur"
And then he left with the sphere, going in another part of the building to choose a body for him.
Meanwhile, the group had been left speechless as Lilith slowly approached Samuel and touched his right arm.
She looked at his face, noticing that a sort of white-cyan liquid was coming out of his eye, but she didn't have time to ask anything about it as he said:
"You know, I never knew that he had suffered this much to create me…
Anyway, I say that we skip over the rather unimportant part of my young life, since it's mostly bullying and rising through ranks.
Instead I would like to go to a very precise moment, may I take control for a moment Keel?"
"Ugh. Fine, since I can't kill you"
So the area disappeared and while the new area was forming, he said:
"Right now I am bringing you to the time when he proposed our trip to Earth, I was the second in command at the time and I didn't know that he was my father… you might be interested by this"
And so a new room was created, which looked like a big office, where the Father could be seen sitting at a desk with his hands between his face.
"Look Gendo, he's copying you" Yui said with a slight giggle as the man grunted, but with a smile,he just couldn't get angry at his cute wife
Then Samur entered through the main doors in his Maykr body, the one that was still on his original Earth.
"You wanted to see me Father?"
"Yes, come here Samur, take a seat"
And the Seraphim did so.
"Now, sorry for the short notice, but this is something very important and very confidential that I haven't told anyone about"
"May I ask why you called me then?
Shouldn't this information be told to the Khan Maykr first?"
"I like you for your ingenuity Samur, but here's the thing, I am not able to trust the Khan Maykr anymore as I fear that there might be a plot going on to take me down"
"Wait- how? And why would she do that?"
"There was a discovery during one of the recent expeditions in hell, one that… has troubled me greatly"
Then a 3d hologram of Nekravol appeared on the table as the Father continued:
"This is Nekravol, the city of souls, no one except us, Slayer and his squad know about this place, but I believe that the news about it is going to spread quickly.
I came to know about this because the Slayer himself called me earlier by using a prayer that the Argenta did for me.
He had never done such a thing and had sworn not to, so I knew that it was important.
Anyway, what basically happens in Nekravol is that the souls of the dead that are killed in the war are fused with the energy that the Argenta use to power their weapons, this gave birth to a new, much more powerful source of energy that I had seen only once before.
They called it Argent energy and…
It's the same kind of energy that I use"
"Wait, but to have access to the energy of the sentinels that means that…"
And as Samur's face filled with shock, the Father replied:
"Exactly, they are using the Argenta as slaves to produce this energy and the only way that this would be possible, was if the Khan had formed a deal with the Dark Lord, that's why I called you, you are the one who I trust the most among all Maykrkind Samur"
"This… I don't know what to make of this, what do you think we should do?"
"Well, in our position, not much, but we do have an Ace up our sleeve. The Slayer.
I was thinking of giving a boost to his development by putting him in the divinity machine, if my senses are as right as they have always been, the next demon attack will be in Taras Nabad as they have gained lots of ground on that front recently.
So, I want that during the attack, you bring the Slayer to the divinity machine and put him inside of it, this should be enough to completely defend the city"
"What are the other Maykrs going to think about this? After all using the machine without the Khan's permission is illegal and would be considered treason"
"That's when the second part of my plan comes into play.
Shocked by this move, the Khan will for sure exile you from Urdak, but in your escape, you will bring me with you as I will abandon the physical realm to return to my life sphere.
Then, we will both go hiding on a planet that I chose and for a good reason"
The hologram then changed to the Doom universe's Earth.
"This is Earth, it's one of the first planets I created and at the moment it presents the perfect opportunity for our escape.
Nothing relevant has ever happened there except for some Argenta settlements, but they were abandoned when the humans gained control of their native planet.
At the moment they are facing a very big energy crisis and there is one big corporation called the UAC that is experimenting with new kinds of energy.
I propose that you infiltrate this company and gain control of it, then you can use Argent energy to solve their energy crisis, thus gaining the people's trust"
"That's great and all, but what about you? Isn't the dark lord going to detect our escape?"
"True and that's why I am currently creating the project of a machine that will be capable of containing my life sphere.
It will use only the materials that the humans have access to, so that you will be able to build it on Earth. I call it project V.E.G.A.
The acronym doesn't mean anything, it's just a name that I really like"
"Alright… that seems doable, I'll be thinking about it while we wait and if the corruption of the Khan becomes apparent, I'll be ready to follow you"
"Thanks Samur, but before you go, there is one more thing that I need to ask you"
"Um, sure"
As he said that, Samur didn't notice unlike the others, how the Father's legs had changed color and turned black and red.
Just like how they had seen them before when they were looking at Lilith's memories.
Then suddenly he said:
"When project VEGA is about to be complete… I want you to delete my memory"
"Sorry what?"
"I have placed a special line of code in the machine which you will use to delete all of my memories and I will be able to gain them back only once I return to Urdak.
I want this because…
I've done horrible things in the past, Samur, so horrible that I can't tell you and they keep me awake at night all the time, plus after studying humans in greater detail…
I want to start again… with everything, I have made so many errors that I can't fix that it's becoming harder and harder for me to live with them.
But these humans… they are able to love others in a way that I have never seen before, they are able to form relationships even if they suffer because of them, or they can make others suffer just because of their actions…
I know that it sounds stupid, but I want to learn from them, I want to learn how to love better…
But I can't do it with my past tormenting me constantly.
That's why I am asking you this Samur, I want you to grant me a second chance at life, no matter the risks"
Several seconds of silence followed between both of them, until at one point Samur got up and said:
"I'll be going now… if we are done here"
"Sure, sorry for taking your time"
"You are the last one who should be saying sorry Father, but I appreciate that…
And about the plan… I'll be thinking about it"
Then he left the room, just as the Father's body became completely black and red.
The scene ended like this and so Samuel said:
"In the end, I agreed and the plan was successful, after a while I got used to calling him VEGA and well… that's about it"
He then felt a gentle female hand grab his and as he noticed Kyoko on his right, he let out a quiet "thank you", before gripping her hand with a bit more force than before.
After a while though Keel said:
"So what? Yeah he might be God and all that, but there's something that he fears, so for me he's not as strong as you make him out to be"
Immediately Samuel tensed up as his wings became a little bit brighter and his heart started pumping faster and faster.
Then he said:
"What do you think is able to strike such fear into God's psyche, if not himself?"
And so Zeruel asked:
"Our Father is afraid… of himself?"
"Almost… there is a part of him that he wishes to keep out at every single moment, because he is scared of what he could do in that state"
Then Keel asked:
"And has this 'side' of him ever shown itself?"
"Only once, but that is as much as I'm going to tell you for now"
"What! Why?!"
Suddenly Lilith's body started shaking as Samuel's chest and the Slayer began emitting a yellow glow that sent away the darkness and returned them to Lilith's head.
"It seems like I was able to complete my mission.
I bought him enough time and now…
He is here"
As if moved by an insurmountable will, everyone turned towards one of Lilith's eyes and there they saw it.
His core, radiant with energy and floating right in front of the white giant, with the active demonic crucible stabbing the frontal panel.
All around the core, light seemed to bend as if someone was looking at a black hole. Fountains of Argent energy flowed and then died out instantly from every crack of the metallic structure which looked so fragile that a light breeze might have been enough to make it fall apart.
Yet the situation, for how chaotic, seemed stable and controlled, simply waiting for the signal to erupt in all of its power.
And there was only one who would send that signal.
"To whoever is in control of instrumentality right now, I am going to give you only one chance to stop the suffering of the souls inside of it and I won't be fooled in any way, because I can hear their screams.
If you refuse, I will be forced to intervene"
Inside the head Keel and Lilith disappeared as he went on to take control of the entire giant white body which up until now had laid dormant over the red Earth.
All of the nerves became active at once as it slowly began to rise up to a standing position, with its legs still showing up until the middle of the thigh.
When Lilith was finally erect, she looked down at VEGA and talked, but the words that came out of her mouth weren't hers, but from all the SEELE members united in Keel as he said:
"I will not be stopped by such an insignificant life form from being a God, you can't do nothing to delay the inevitable"
But then the Father flew back up to his face as he replied with a voice that almost sounded evil:
"Oh… insignificant life form?
Well, I believe that Samuel has already told you what I actually am so tell me…
Are you saying this because it's true or because you are scared of me?
Because you need to reassure yourself that I won't be able to make you suffer even more than before?
I know what I did in my core Keel and I don't care if you are inside an abomination that was created so long ago to surpass me.
It's because of groups like SEELE that the universe has suffered so much in the past. That I had to repopulate it from scratch.
So, no matter where you hide or what powers you use against me or to protect yourself…
I will find you.
And I will kill you"
And Kyoko asked from inside the head:
"Am I hearing… Beethoven?"
And so Samuel replied:
"That sly motherfucker, he kept the best song for himself"
And then VEGA's core became pure light.
Play:[Beethoven 9th] Eva 3.0 ost
Suddenly a beautiful spectacle of lights began as four small stars appeared at the poles of the core, then they shot one hundred meters outwards and began circling around as they left a golden trail behind them.
Meanwhile Lilith pulled to her hands the two giant Lances which became even bigger than before to fit her planetary size.
The black moon rose as well as she began controlling its orbit around the Earth in such a way that she basically had free control of it.
At the same time, the demonic crucible detached itself from the core as it started orbiting it and surrounding it in red Argent.
A moment later the four stars had each described a 90 degree turn, forming a full circle as they stopped moving completely and the music changed tone in preparation for something.
Which came when the four stars collapsed into the core, causing the final detonation as the music's volume increased enormously even though it should have been impossible to hear in the first place.
An explosion similar to that of a supernova but on a smaller scale was created, which still came up to be half the Earth's radius in length, damaging a bit the planet as the brightest light in the universe turned everything white for a moment.
The immense heat and destructive power from such an event caused Lilith to lose both her arms and blasted away various pieces of flesh from her chest and legs, but all of this damage was regenerated as the arms came back to reattach themselves along with the Lances.
Meanwhile, the head had been shielded from the explosion by the black moon that had been moved up there just in time.
Slowly, the extreme fire started to dissipate and the light began going away, but a shining center remained as the song's crescendo died off.
And right there in front of Lilith there was the Father in his physical form staring at them in all of his might as angelic chants somehow echoed through space as he began to dwarf the reality around him.
"Yay! Go dad!"
Ramiel shouted once the moon was moved away and revealed to them the Father and the two halos that touched each other at the top of his neck.
Then as suddenly thousands and thousands of copies of his symbol appeared all around him, Samuel said:
"It seems that he wants to end this as quickly as possible, but I can't blame him, after all I give a maximum of three, maybe four minutes before Davoth enters this realm with all of his armies from across all of hell.
He has been waiting hundreds of years for this, and it will be a battle to decide the ruler of the universe"
And then the Father fired a ray of energy from each one of those symbols.
All of them hit Lilith at the same moment, each one carrying over 30000 megatons of energy, making just a couple of them enough to level entire countries and leave craters 20 kilometers wide behind.
They hit all around Lilith's body, blasting away millions of tons of her white flesh as the body recoiled from all the pain that only Keel was feeling.
Immediately came a second strike, the same power as the first, which made Lilith's head look up as the holes were closed again.
And from her eyes, she saw VEGA appear right in front of her nose and his entire firing array with him, which lit up once more as she fell backwards on the Pacific ocean while her head touched the western american coast.
Still, by using her AT field the next shot was slowed down just enough for her to dodge it before it vaporized the entirety of western America and some bits of Canada.
Then she pulled up her left arm to try and strike him with Longinus, but suddenly a giant spear of light came crashing down on her palm, immobilizing the entire limb as the projectile began electrocuting it.
The Father was about to fire again, but then he was moved away because he had to dodge the spear of Cassius as Lilith freed herself and got back up.
But once Keel was ready to strike back, he couldn't see his enemy anywhere and so he said:
"Where are you hiding you fucker!?"
"Right behind you"
And then the Father punched the back of Lilith's head with so much force that it launched her away from Earth, revealing the rest of her legs as she flew through space with a regenerating hole in her hair.
The impact had been so strong that even the group inside her head had been thrown to the ground and while they were getting back up Samuel said:
"Damn, he's still kicking it, I haven't seen him use this much power since the fight against Davoth"
"Is that when he showed his 'other side'?"
Maria asked and he replied:
"No, I wanted to show you but we were interrupted, still, I think that now is a good time to while he keeps blasting away Keel.
Kaworu, you have a part of Adam inside of you right? Maybe you can start a small instrumentality as well"
"I- should be able to, can't hurt to try.
But I have a question before that…
When we were exploring the black moon and me and Rei were sent unconscious, VEGA told us that we needed to be wary of something… about the 'devil's in God's clothes'.
What was he talking about?"
"You will see in a moment" Samuel replied as a new instrumentality started again.
The case of the Father
They found themselves in a completely black endless dimension, where Samuel was walking around in his robotic body.
Then, the actual Samuel told them:
"We are inside of VEGA's core, during the period that it was inside of Terminal dogma"
And so Shinji said:
"Wait, we already saw this moment while you weren't here, we were outside and Lilith showed it to us how he changed appearance while he was in front of her.
But he disappeared when you arrived in the memory"
"Then this is the conversation that we had right after"
"The one where you came out screaming for your life" Kaworu added.
"Exactly"
"The place gives me chills, was it actually like this? He never had it completely black"
Kyoko said and so Samuel replied:
"It's from this conversation that I learned that his core changes depending on his emotions and well… Look for yourselves"
As he said that VEGA appeared right behind Samuel in his orb form, but he was orange and red tinted, emanating an intimidating aura.
Then, the conversation began.
"I can see that you changed a bit the inside of your core dad"
"Yes I did, I felt like changing once in a while, also I think that it represents my current mood you know?"
"What… what do you mean dad?"
"Oh no it's nothing I just realized what Lilith actually is, eheheh"
"Care to tell me?"
"It all goes back to a time before you were born, the big bang was still pretty recent with the universe only being a couple of billion years old, but already at that time I had created various civilizations and species.
I had just tried for the first time to create the human race and I wanted to make them similar to me so that I wouldn't feel alone with all the power I had.
So I created two seeds, a seed of life, which contained powers and abilities, plus a rudimentary intelligence only useful on how to use them so that they could replicate my own powers.
And a seed of intelligence, which as the name implies, gave the ones who had it enough mental capacity to understand almost all the aspects of the universe, so that they could comprehend almost as much as me.
First I created two different species from each seed and watched them develop.
At first they died a lot because of their own flaws, but in time they evolved, with the seeds of life becoming more intelligent and the seeds of intelligence becoming stronger.
Then at one point a collaboration started between the two races and it had one simple goal, to create a being which could have my same capabilities"
"They knew about you?"
"Yes, I enjoyed spending time with both of them.
Anyway, they understood that by uniting the two seeds together they would create something very similar to me and at first I encouraged them with the project as it felt lonely being the only one with such powers.
Then at one point during the development, I decided to take a break and retired myself to a personal world that I had created as I believed in the human's capabilities to complete the project on their own.
This was by far my biggest mistake.
While I was gone, the goal of the project changed, because a few elites understood that they could get rid of me by gaining control of the new being and then they would have ruled the universe"
Kaworu then stopped the memory and asked:
"Seeds?...
Like our Seeds!? The ones inside me, Ramiel Zeruel and Leliel and all the other angels?!"
"Yes, exactly, he created everything, and that includes you all as well"
Samuel replied while looking at his siblings and then he hear Ramiel say:
"So he was, sort of, our dad from the beginning? Cool!"
Samuel let out a small laugh as he heard that and then he said:
"You might like the following part then"
The memory resumed.
"You were still in your physical form then… Okay, please go on"
"Sure, so when I came back from my break I found that the project was almost complete and while I was going to the ceremony, I found two children that were on the verge of death in a dirty alley, one was from the seed of life and the other from the seed of intelligence.
I rescued them and once they were healed I asked them what had happened…
They told me that they were the two chosen that would have been used to create the super being, but once they were told what they had to do, they refused and so the elites dispatched of them"
"Okay… you know, you could actually show me since we are in your core, that would make it easier"
VEGA thought about this for a moment, making his body vibrate lightly, but after a while, he agreed and suddenly there wasn't black anymore, but rather a gigantic and beautiful city.
Samuel and the Father found themselves on a walkway and to their left a white luminescent humanoid was standing next to two small white humanoids, but once Hayden saw them clearly, he immediately understood why VEGA hadn't shown this to him first.
"Those two children were Adam and Lilith"
Samuel heard like a powerful explosion everyone's sudden reaction to that.
Next to them the Father stood, as he listened to them tell the story of how a class of elites had changed the project so that they would have been elevated to gods and take over the universe.
They also told him the most gruesome detail about this entire thing, which was that after the super being's creation, it would have started absorbing every soul that it had at its disposal, including the elites'.
Then, while those select few enjoyed godhood and all of its pleasures, the remaining billions would enter a dream world, where they were sent to suffer as they lived through nightmares created from the voids in their souls.
And all of this was about to go off very soon.
In fact, in the flashback the Father had not noticed how much time had passed since he had met them and so when he reached the site, it was already too late.
Now in the centre of the city a giant being stood, thousands of meters tall, with its skin completely white save for the red eyes, which were a common feature between all the humans that were present in this first attempt at creation.
Then suddenly an explosion came forth and with it a sudden portal projected VEGA, together with Adam and Lilith into deep space, so that they were able to have a perfect view of the end of the universe as the super being began growing in size the more souls it consumed.
And the worst thing was, that the Father could not only hear the elites laughing at their success, but he could also hear the trillions of screams of suffering as all the humans in the universe were finally absorbed into a single being.
"That's what my dad is trying to avoid… you can see that history is repeating itself at this point" Samuel added.
Then suddenly, VEGA stopped the memory and once Samuel turned to look at him, the floating orb said with an unusual voice:
"And so they betrayed me, not because I was a bad God , or because they couldn't stand me anymore, no… Only because of some fucking idiots who thought that it was a good idea to play God while I wasn't there, don't you find it funny Samuel!?"
"Dad, you are starting to scare me a bit, is everything okay?"
Suddenly the background cracked and began falling apart, revealing the usual white that had been hiding behind it.
Then VEGA fell to the ground as he started reverting back to his old colors too and when Samuel got close to him to check if he was fine, his father said:
"I may have gone a bit mad, Samuel"
"Um, is there something I can do to help you or?"
"No, no just give me a moment…
…
…
Okay, I'm fine again, do you want to continue?"
"Yes, but first I want to know why you were acting so… Evil? Or malevolent might be a better definition"
"It's because of something that happens later in the memory and… I didn't really want you to see what I did after the super being was created…
As I still can't accept it either.
But I guess that I can't turn back now, can I?"
"No, you can't"
The conversation then went on with VEGA explaining how all the evil in the Dark Lord came from him and after Samuel was confused for a moment, the version of him in the past asked:
"What happened back then dad?"
And at that moment Samur's hands started shaking.
As soon as Hayden asked this question, he immediately regretted it as he saw the dimension turn dark once again, but this time VEGA was red.
The Father then said:
"Something… Horrible, that I never wanted to show you…
You see, after all that happened, after I began hearing all the universe suffering at the same time… eighty trillion screams of pain inside your head…
I snapped and I killed them all"
"And now comes… the worst massacre in the history of the universe… and if I had to give it a name… I would call it the 'Blood Impact' "
The world then changed as it turned into a destroyed wasteland that Samuel had already seen one time too many.
And as they felt their eyes drawn to a certain direction, everyone turned their heads to stare at the sky just like what was happening in the memory.
But there was no sky, since it was covered by clouds of screaming and bleeding human and angel flesh as all the souls inside of the super being formed a tornado that picked up bones and organs from the devastated land.
Blood and internal fluids flowed in rivers while inverted crosses littered the landscape, each one of them holding hundreds of brutally mutilated, but still alive bodies.
Over the clouds and in the distance, a giant white corpse much bigger than Lilith's could be seen ripped open and looking at them with a twisted smile, it's eyes rolled backwards and an inverted black tinted version of the Father's symbol which was leaking black blood engraved into the destroyed face.
On top of all this, a dark light, something that should have been physically impossible, was obscuring the star behind it and at its centre, the Father in his 'corrupted' from floated,hundreds of kilometers tall, with a set of eyes of fire and a demonic mouth that were looking straight at everyone in group…
Or at least the ones that hadn't already fainted.
TO BE CONTINUED