"But harken warrior. Beware drowning in the blood you crave, sweet though it is. That shall strike you down as surely as any spear or sword." Inscription found in the Sognefjord ruins.

XXXVI

"Prog knife!" Shinji snarled.

At his command, a compartment built into Unit 01's back slid open, and the blade in question jutted out. The prog knife was a short thing for an Eva, a gleaming dagger some ten metres long with an edge that vibrated as it cut. So high was the vibration's frequency, it was thought the blade could slice something down to the molecular level.

Compared to the Seraph it wasn't much.

It will do.

Shinji took it and, with a half-practiced slash, cut the spear in two and stood. With his other hand, he grasped the steel shaft still embedded in his shoulder and ripped it out. Adrenaline pumped to deaden the pain, but the unpleasant sensation of blood sloshing in his lung still bit at the back of his throat.

"Shinji…withdraw…there's nothing you can do…" Misato said quietly, remorse and fury mixed together. It came with the promise of future retribution.

The words passed over him like clouds in the wind, and that roar filled his lungs once more. The future could not come quick enough.

Pain didn't matter anymore. Tactics, strategy, fear, the machinations of Nerv and the shadow of his father, were nothing.

Shinji would kill it.

He'd rip its miserable life away just at had done to so many thousands this very day. Japanese blood had been shed and every drop would be avenged.

"Shinji, withdraw. That is an order!" Misato's voice, now faintly alarmed, remained as distant as ever, pushed away by whatever monster hid in the corner of Shinji's heart. It wanted blood and it would get it.

Kill. Some primordial part of his mind spat.

He obeyed.

Shinji charged, the ground shaking beneath each of Unit 01's mighty footfalls. Godlike strength pumped through his veins, and the boy sank back into relishing every moment of it on a primal level.

Countryside and concrete whistled past as in a matter of seconds he had re-entered Nakisawame proper. Unit 01's armoured boots splashed in the mush of the 5th Seraph's handiwork, splattering more gore on the city's buildings.

The Seraph had just made a swish of its tendril, causing a line of people some few hundred in number to disintegrate, then paused and looked over its shoulder to see the Eva charging towards it. There was no surprise in its eyes, only a gleam of delight.

Took you long enough, you pathetic child. Let us test your mettle, killer of Ierfr, spawn of those who took my boys and my Ingrid. Lazily, it gave one final, spiteful swish to extinguish another hundred lives, then advanced to meet him.

It approached slowly. Tendrils swished through the air as the Seraph appeared untroubled by fire from remaining military forces, or the utter wrath in its primary foe. A part of Shinji's mind, unclouded by blood lust and fury, noted to some satisfaction that those trapped had a window to escape now. Already he could see soldiers ushering people by the dozens, then hundreds, out of his enemy's makeshift pen.

As the two were almost upon each other, the Seraph slashed out with both its whips, cutting a great x shaped gash in Unit 01's grey chest plate. Shinji hissed in pain, and he felt the tug of instinct to roll out of the way, but he was much too angry for that.

To the Seraph's surprise, Shinji ploughed straight into it. Their H-Field's slammed together and mutually cancelled themselves out. The impact let loose a shockwave that shattered every window in Nakisawame. Even the muddy villages of Yokohama heard the clap of this dread thunder.

The enemy tried to back away, slashing in a frenzy, but Shinji got his arm around the beast's head. Chitin crunched and snapped from how hard he gripped, and with his free hand Shinji mindlessly stabbed the creature in its fleshy underside again and again. Blue ichor splashed on thick red, as now it was the enemy's turn to have its blood run like a river.

The Seraph roared and bucked as it tried to shake him off, but Shinji refused to stop. Shops, apartment blocks, streets, all collapsed in the wake of the monstrous clash as Shinji tried oh so very hard to take the fight as far away from Nakisawame as he could.

The Seraph reared back and crashed its head into Shinji's ruined shoulder. He cried out and staggered. His grip slipped.

Ah, is your shoulder hurt little human? What a pity…

A moment was all the Seraph needed. It slashed at and gutted Unit 01's belly, then flicked both its tendrils up. The Eva's jaw detached from its head.

Shinji howled as he stumbled back, further hammered by an abrupt blast of the enemy's reconstituted H-Field. He careened through Nakisawame and almost toppled over but managed to steady himself on a hapless skyscraper. Shinji's hands trembled as he touched his jaw, desperately reminding himself that it was still there.

It's all in your head. It's all in your head.

His momentary awareness caused him to look behind and see that his passengers had both passed out from the shock of pain. A pang of bizarre concern shot through his heart, but he didn't have time. The Seraph wanted to kill him and get back to its hobby of slaughter; he could not allow it.

Some seven hundred metres away, the enemy paused and assessed itself, surprised but not perplexed or frightened by its injuries. A waterfall of blue ichor streamed from its chest, and its head armour was cracked and chipped with more of its alien blood trickling out.

It fixed its black eyes on Shinji, this time hatred mixed in with the look of a cat that had caught a mouse.

Under its headpiece, where it connected to the main body, a hole appeared to open. Black and filled with teeth, it was still flecked with whatever liquid it had spewed out earlier.

The hole moved and a voice boomed like a thunderstorm.

"Jald."

The panicked cries of Nakisawame's people suddenly fell silent in shock. Even on the radio chatter a hush descended.

Good.

Again, that brutal slap to the forehead that made Shinji wince.

The Seraph straightened up. Its tendrils made a spinning motion.

"Jaldrgung."

Very good.

As if a monster from a horror film, needle like legs, dozens of them, uncurled from beneath the lower part of the Seraph's body. They stabbed into the ground and thundered like a canon shot from the impact.

It crawled forward like some kind of demonic centipede, quickly and with whips trailing behind it. Shinji knew that his foe had just thrown off any pretence of playing with its food and now, with joy, saw this as a fight to the death.

Good. That primal part of his mind snarled. Come to me and die.

Shinji quickly thought of the ways he could kill it. To his slight shame, he was grateful the thoughts of the other boys could no longer jumble his own.

Then, glinting in the light of the midday sun, he saw it.

His frantic stabbing had hacked away a chunk of flesh and bone, revealing a navy-blue gem embedded in the Seraph's chest.

There was the mortal wound. Just as Sachiel had fallen so would this one.

Shinji knew what to do.

He gripped his prog knife with both hands and charged, bracing himself for whatever pain would come from the laceration of the enemy's whips. The Seraph immediately slashed at Unit 01's throat. It opened the Eva's larynx and cut all the way to the spine. Shinji gagged at the phantom flood of blood in his airways, but still hit the enemy with his good shoulder.

The Seraph didn't budge, "feet" dug in to provide firmer footing. It was like striking a brick wall and Shinji swore he could feel bone shatter, but he thrust all the same. The blade cut through skin and muscle, and the Seraph growled, but he hadn't struck the core.

Shinji was barraged with multiple pulses of the enemy's H-Field, finding himself pushed back and only just ducking another slash at his head. His enemy coiled a tendril around an apartment block and tore the roof off to throw at him. It continued to do this in a barrage of debris. The first few projectiles struck home even though Shinji tried to avoid them; the rest he wilfully blocked with his own body, realising that even if it missed, the Seraph still hurled missiles in the general direction of trapped civilians.

He staggered, then once more reached within himself to push out with his Field. In a flash, the enemy's projectiles harmlessly disintegrated into clouds of dust against a wall of red lightning.

In these few merciful seconds of respite, Shinji's dove into the depths of memory to find any bit of information he could use. Panic niggled at his fury for a worrying moment, until his absentee Gods lit a light in his head.

How I…it…killed Sachiel…he thought of the fuzzy recording he'd seen of the battle against the 4th, of how his Eva had taken on a mind of its own and used trickery and the enemy's own strength against it. The Seraph, with its Field down and armour cracked had been straightforwardly run through with a makeshift spear of steel.

This one's armour is cracked. What can I use?

The Seraph came for him again, pulsing with its own field to neutralise his own. As he braced to fight again, to suffer more pain, Shinji caught a glint of sunlight.

A skyscraper, knocked down in their battle, still had its foundations in place. Mighty steel support beams jutted out of the mound of concrete, built to withstand earthquakes and even limited artillery barrage.

Shinji grit his teeth.

That'll have to do.

The Seraph sliced at Unit 01's throat to fully decapitate, but this time Shinji was ready. He caught the tendril and gripped tight despite the burning. He screamed as he pulled, and the tendril nastily jolted with a crack. The Seraph roared in agony, wobbled off balance, and exposed its gleaming blue jewel for a split second.

Shinji would have made do with less.

He surged forward in a crouch, using his grip on the tendril to pull himself. The Seraph's free tendril desperately slashed out at him, opening Unit 01's stomach. Nausea pumped through Shinji's veins as he felt something slip out of his abdomen, but he pushed on. The blade glinted in the midday sun as it cut through the air…then straight into the Seraph's beating heart: its Manmitsu Organ.

Shinji buried the prog knife up to its hilt for good measure.

The enemy paused for a moment, air being pushed out of its mouth as if in a gasp, before it snarled. It brought its full weight down on him and stabbed both tendrils into the Eva's already open stomach. Shinji felt white hot heat curl around his boiling intestines and stomach, and then the sickening tug as they were slowly torn free. The Seraph's warm, heavy body pushed down on him as if it were the sky itself. Royal blue blood gushed down on his face.

Shinji gagged, fighting the urge to collapse, or double over. Yet all was going as according to his mess of a plan.

With a final mighty heave, Shinji lifted his enemy off its feet for a moment, high into the air, then slammed it on its back into the ruined skyscraper's support beams. Iron pylons punched straight through the Seraph's weakened back; one crashed through its core. It jolted its head back and let loose an ear-piercing scream.

After a few agonising seconds of struggle, the Seraph lost its strength and calm descended. Its grip on Unit 01's innards slackened, and it gave what sounded like a pained sigh, flecked with blood.

so this is what it's like?

A cruel, low laugh reverberated through Shinji's skull.

Slain by a whimpering child? I'll never hear the end of this in Slagnhal...see you soon, Ierfr.

That blue jewel in its chest finally cracked. The Seraph went limp. The glow of its whips faded as they slipped out of Unit 01's abdomen.

Shinji relinquished his grip and slumped to his knees, panting hard.

It was dead.

The adrenaline ebbed away and the pain, the throbbing in his shoulder and the burning laceration across his body, hit him like a wall. Anger slipped its grasp, and fear and horror finally broke free. Shinji started trembling.

Then the wails started.

Screams for loved ones, children, parents, friends, echoed across the grave that Nakisawame had become. Some soldiers called for stretchers whilst others ripped off their helmets and all but dived into the crowds, in vain looking for their kin.

Surrounded by a sea of muddy crimson, covered in a similar substance, and with the lamentations of thousands pouring into his ears, Shinji Ikari buried his face into his shaking hands and wept.


Author's note:

Well, so ends the life of Grisca.

And bugger, bugger, bugger, I got a little mixed up as to the current status of Yokohama. In another chapter I'd marked it as a reef whereas it should be muddy, but far from underwater land thanks to the great damming initiatives of the late 2000s and early 2010s. So yes, Yokohama region has been somewhat re-inhabited by 2017, although it is only a few villages. Old Tokyo itself remains a memorial to the dead of the Eruption, much like Kyoto is to those who died in the Third Sino-Japanese War.