Creation began on 05-25-20
Creation ended on 09-05-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Sword of Destruction, Sword of Life: A Devil Unleashed
A section of the streets opened…and out came Unit-00, which then walked down said towards the skyscrapers being destroyed by the sphere of demonic energy that was the Dragon Twister unleashed by Gendo.
"Any sign of them, Rei?" Rei heard Misato's voice over the intercom.
"No, Major," she responded, looking down at the damaged streets. So much destruction. Did Commander Ikari really do this? Does he really hate Ikari-Kun that much?
BLAST! She looked further down the street and saw a building collapse.
-x-
For the first time, Gendo felt threatened by Shinji and his swords. The boy was not holding back, not showing mercy…and fleeing from his wrath. His own son was now dead set on putting him down, making sure that he couldn't harm anyone else. It almost made him proud…if he actually cared.
Shinji, after he had confirmed the building was empty, sighed at how his father seemed unwilling to call it quits after having it fall on him like a metaphorical ton of bricks. If anything, he had to accept the possibility that as long as he had Sō'unga and Tōkijin in his possession, the only way to stop him permanently was to obliterate his body. Tenseiga could resurrect people with more-or-less intact bodies and Sō'unga could revive the dead as zombies by altering the bodies of the slain, but neither sword seemed capable of performing such feats if the body in question was removed from existence down to the last strand of hair and drop of blood. As his Tessaiga glowed with energy, he decided that he needed to use the sword's strongest ability to do away with his father; even if he caused the deaths of several people in the process, he would do everything in his power to bring them back.
A demonic sword that protects the innocent, he thought, and a demonic sword that can bring back to life the innocent slain. Protect the people, protect the world from people like your father.
There was a series of conflicting winds blowing around them, and Gendo felt like the breeze was against him in favor of his son.
This mortal is desperate to end the suffering at all costs, Sō'unga told him. He's attempting to use the Backlash Wave. He has no chance of surviving such a move.
Gendo, however, wasn't willing to risk that Shinji was going to one-up him, and charged with Tōkijin. He was going to slice the brat in half!
"Dragon Strike!" He yelled, unleashing a bluish stream of demonic energy that took the form of a dragon and flew towards Shinji.
Shinji could feel the energies building. His father's hatred making almost stronger than he had been, but his conviction to protect all that mattered to him, the world from the danger he posed…made him a bit stronger than Gendo was right now.
"Take…THIS!" He yelled, and swung his sword at him, releasing a series of twister-like streams of energy at the Dragon Strike, which collided and were then sent towards Gendo.
"Aargh!" Gendo gasped and blocked with Sō'unga, which demonstrated a new ability: It was absorbing the energy of the Backlash Wave into itself. "Aaaurgh!"
When the attack ceased, Gendo swung Sō'unga and caused three more buildings to collapse around the two.
"Aah!" Shinji yelled as was surrounded by falling debris.
As the dust rose up and was swept in the wind, Gendo walked over the ruins and kicked over a piece of concrete.
"How does it feel?" He uttered. "How does it feel to know that you've failed? You wanted to be the hero? You wanted to think that you could save people without the Eva? You couldn't even save yourself from me."
Shinji was half-buried in the debris, the result of him trying to escape, and he was stuck, unable to move his arms from the rubble. He looked up and saw Gendo approaching him, and struggled to get free.
"Any last words?" Gendo asked him, raising Sō'unga up to deliver the final blow.
-x-
Rei had moved Unit-00 towards the site of the collapsed buildings in the city and her Eva's vision scopes zoomed in on two people atop the rubble. She could see the one buried in the rubble was none other than Shinji, looking as though he had seen better days, and the one over him was his father, raising a sword over his head.
"I have located them, Major," she informed Misato.
In Central Dogma, Misato and Asuka could see that Gendo was ready to execute Shinji.
"Rei, stop Commander Ikari!" Misato ordered. "Save Shinji!"
Rei had Unit-00 charge towards them, and saw Gendo turning around to face her…and then saw a stream dark red light.
-x-
Sō'unga anticipated an attempt to stop Gendo's final strike on the boy and made Gendo turn around to unleash an attack on this blue behemoth it understood as Evangelion Unit-00, sending it falling backwards after leaving a large, gaping hole in its abdomen.
"Aya…Ayanami," Gendo heard Shinji gasp. "Ayanami!"
-x-
It hurt due to the synchronization between herself and the Eva, but as soon as the nerve connections were disconnected, she'd be fine for the time being. She felt the nerve connections disconnect, allowing Rei to sigh in relief over the loss of the ill pain she had felt when the attack hit Unit-00.
Ikari-Kun, she thought sorrowfully as the image of Commander Ikari killing him flooded her mind. I am…sorry.
-x-
As Gendo turned to face him, Shinji struggled to get free from the rubble around them.
"Now," he uttered as he raised Sō'unga again, "where were we?"
"If you killed her, you'll pay," Shinji threatened him, feeling his right arm get closer to free from the rubble.
"If you knew who she was, you'd be afraid to face her."
"Any word that comes out of your mouth is just another way to cause suffering due to your hatred towards me. You think I'd believe anything else you say?"
"I really don't care what you think. Aurgh!"
Gendo brought down Sō'unga's blade…but it was blocked by the Tessaiga!
"Aaah!" Shinji groaned; he had only been able to get his right arm free in time to block his father's deathblow against him, but he needed both his arms to wield it offensively. "Aaurgh!"
He feels like his arm's fractured under the pressure of the strike, Sō'unga told Gendo. He won't be able to block a second time. Finish him. Finish him now!
Gendo pulled back the sword and raised it and Tōkijin up, intent on finishing the job and putting the boy down for eternity in the depths of Hell.
"Hell is for children," he told Shinji, and brought the swords down.
This time, there would be no miracles for Shinji.
BANG!
"Aaurgh!" Gendo reacted, feeling something pierce his back and out his front, preventing him from delivering the finishing blow on his son.
Shinji, prepared to skin his left arm to free it and block with Tenseiga, looked over to the right and saw some police officers, guns raised and one of them smoking due to a bullet being fired.
"Drop the swords, Gendo Ikari!" The guy that fired ordered. "Don't make me fire again!"
Shinji nodded in the negative; these guys might've been civil servants to the city, but against his father with Sō'unga and Tōkijin, they might as well have been using slingshots against Ginkotsu if he were alive.
"No!" He yelled at them. "Get away!"
But Gendo became agitated; just looking at them attempting to intervene made him want to murder them. He turned towards then and raised Tōkijin in front of himself, firing a stream of energy needles at the four policemen, sending them falling.
"No!" Shinji groaned.
Gendo turned back to face his son, and knew he needed to finish him off now.
"I grow tired of this debate," he told Shinji. "If it's not one thing interfering, it's another. The sooner you're gone, the better."
Shinji knew that it was either now or never to deal with his father or else more people were going to die.
"Aaurgh!" Gendo yelled as he swung Sō'unga down towards his son.
"Urgh!" Shinji yelled as he thrust his left arm out of the rubble, skinning it as he brought up Tenseiga, and blocked the blow with it and Tessaiga. "Aaaurgh!"
Blood dripped from the wrist and onto his face.
"Aaaurgh!" Gendo grunted, applying more force with Tōkijin in tandem with Sō'unga. "Just die already! You're already halfway buried in the ground! Look around us! We're practically in a cemetery! The rubble serving as a gravesite and the buildings in the background serving as tombstones! All that's missing is a corpse! Your corpse!"
Crack! Shinji felt the bones in his left arm fracture from the pressure of their swords, but he couldn't allow himself to call it quits now.
Don't give up, Shinji! He thought he heard Misato's voice in his head right then and there.
Don't let your father beat you, Shinji! He heard Asuka's voice now.
Ikari-Kun…don't die, he heard Rei's voice.
-x-
"Tell me, My Lord," went the voice Tōtōsai to the original master of Tessaiga and Tenseiga, "were you aware that Sō'unga had escaped from Hell?"
"I was not," the original master answered. "Sō'unga has been in hiding ever since the calamity that occurred fifteen years that released enough energy to create a crack in Hell, enabling it to escape and bring another sword with it. But like any sword, they require a wielder. But in any relationship between sword and wielder, Sō'unga is the one that decides what is and what will be if the wielder is a human. The second sword is Tōkijin."
"Tōkijin… That's the sword that had been forged from the fangs of a demon that broke Tessaiga. Goshinki, if I recall the name of the demon correctly."
"The demon whose fangs were forged into a sword imbued with its hatred. A sword of hatred…and a sword of death…make for a fatal combination. Death and hatred. But Tessaiga and Tenseiga are a stronger force when used together, especially when wielded by a compassionate heart."
"You believe in the boy you had me give your swords to is capable of defeating these two swords wielded by whoever is cruel enough to accept them?"
The Great Dog Demon lowered his head and responded, "To doubt in his ability to overcome such a difficult trial is to consider him a failure…and he is only a failure when he believes himself unable to prevail."
"But do you believe in him being able to defeat Sō'unga and Tōkijin?"
"Yes…I do."
To be continued…
A/N: Well, what do you think so far? Gendo is not making things easy for Shinji and his attempts to get rid of him are met with frustrations.