Creation began on 09-05-20

Creation ended on 09-13-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Sword of Destruction, Sword of Life: Grievous

Gendo had clearly bitten off more than he could chew with Shinji. Although the boy had been half-buried in the rubble of several buildings and as close to defeated as he cared to believe, the wielder of the two evil swords was now on the defensive.

Shinji, consumed by guilt-fueled rage over the actions of his father, swung Tessaiga like a lunatic at Gendo, forcing him to jump back just to avoid getting hit. Four more people were dead, and his father had to pay for this. Even if he wasn't being influenced by the darkness given off by Sō'unga and Tōkijin, it was too great a risk to allow Gendo to walk away after the slaughter he committed against dozens of people. Anyone with this much hatred against one person that was willing to harm others was someone that had to be dealt with to ensure the safety of others.

Clash! Clash! Clash! Their swords collided as Gendo was forced to move back, wondering where this injured brat was getting such strength to swing such a heavy sword.

He's just afraid for everyone we can kill without restraint, went Sō'unga to Gendo. Fear…such a human emotion that serves no place in a world where lives are expendable.

What Sō'unga failed to mention to Gendo was that Shinji, due to his heartless actions, was more angry than afraid.

Shinji, still feeling the adrenaline running through his body, had managed inflict a grievous wound on his father: He had severed his left leg off just below the kneecap.

"Aaaurgh!" Gendo groaned as he felt his leg get separated from his body. "Damn you!"

Clang! Tessaiga and Sō'unga were locked against one another as Gendo was barely standing with just his right leg, requiring this short battle of attrition between father and son.

"You killed those cops," Shinji grunted. "Even without your swords, you have absolutely no remorse or empathy towards others!"

"You didn't care for anyone until I sent for you to pilot the Eva!" Gendo reminded him; Sō'unga had confided in him this much after many blows between their swords.

"Because back then, I had nobody! I had nobody because of you and Mother! If the Eva was all that you invested yourselves in, then neither of you deserved to have children!"

Clash! Shinji pushed him back with Tessaiga, forcing the disgraceful father to hop in order to keep from falling.

Gendo used Tōkijin to balance himself by wedging its blade into the ground. He grimaced as he felt his left leg regenerating, surprising Shinji, as he thought his father couldn't recover from the injury. This was another of Sō'unga's powers keeping him beyond mere mortals.

"You can't kill me," he told Shinji, "and I can regenerate from harm, no matter what you do."

"That's only so long as you have Sō'unga," Shinji responded, sharing his understanding of the demonic sword. "If you're separated from it, you can be harmed like anyone else…and die…just like anyone else."

With his foot regenerated, Gendo gripped Sō'unga and pulled Tōkijin from out of the ground.

"Think about it, boy," he tried to intimidate his son, "how are you going to feel if you kill me?"

"How will I feel?" Shinji questioned. "How about we find out?"

-x-

It was another risk, but one they had to take.

Asuka, in her plugsuit, synced with Unit-02 and was sent up to the city with the orders to find Shinji and, if need be, drop a building on Gendo Ikari; Misato had given her authority to commit murder against this madman after finding out he had murdered several hundred of people in the base and in the city.

"Unit-02 is in the city," she told Misato as she walked down the streets to where Shinji and his father were last seen on several street cameras. "I see them now. Gott im Himmel…are you seeing this?"

"We're seeing this, Asuka, but having a hard time believing it," Misato responded.

Through Unit-02's optical sensors, they saw Shinji, looking like he seriously needed major medical attention, swinging his larger sword against his father's swords, who was forced to back away on the street. The boy must've been running on pure adrenaline if he was moving his left arm that appeared to be skinned down to the muscle and nerves that were bleeding minutely; it was anyone's guess if he was feeling any pain right now.

Asuka raised her Pellet Rifle up and took aim at Gendo, but couldn't get a lock on him. Not only was Shinji in the way, but Gendo was constantly moving to get away from Shinji. If she fired at the wrong time, she could end up hitting Shinji and killing him.

"No shot," she told Misato.

-x-

Gendo knew his son was desperate to stop him, but he didn't expect the brat to be giving it his all against him, swinging Tessaiga with such ferocity. It was like he was turning into a monster in a way. Or rather, this was what he was like when enraged.

He's running on fumes, Sō'unga told him. Wear him out.

The sight of Unit-02 in the background with its rifle raised had Gendo wondering if NERV was aiming to kill him.

Clang! Shinji's Tessaiga was blocked by Sō'unga and Tōkijin.

"Grr…" He growled at his father, feeling fatigue starting to set in his muscles.

"You can't win," Gendo told him.

"I don't need to win," Shinji responded. "I just need to make sure you don't kill again."

Then, before he felt the nerves in his left arm give out, he raised his Tenseiga, turned it downward…and thrust it into his father's neck. Unlike the last time he used Tenseiga on a living person, it was merely to demonstrate that it couldn't harm the living. While this rule still existed for the sword, Shinji wasn't actually trying to kill his father using Tenseiga. He was merely trying to disable him long enough to relieve him of Sō'unga and Tōkijin.

Gendo, while technically still alive due to the sword being unable to kill him, felt the blade pierce through his neck and cause him unease. It was such that he let go of both his swords for just a moment to try and push Shinji back. But all Shinji needed was a moment.

"Aaurgh!" Shinji grunted, and bashed his forehead against his father's face, knocking him backwards onto the ground.

"You petulant brat!" Gendo groaned, sporting a bloody nose.

Shinji looked down and kicked Sō'unga far to the left and Tōkijin to the far right on the street, making sure that his father couldn't retrieve either one without receiving further injuries.

"Give up now!" He told him. "Don't make me kill you!"

"Do you really think you can?" Gendo challenged him. "You don't have the guts!"

Shinji gripped Tenseiga's hilt and pulled it out of his neck…and then swung Tessaiga down, severing his left arm.

"Aaaurgh!" He yelled, and saw Shinji swing the oversized blade again, this time severing his right arm from his body. "Aaaurgh!"

"How does that feel?!" Shinji yelled at him.

Gendo tried to move away, but he was starting to feel the sense of exsanguination affect him with his arms gone; with nowhere else to circulate, blood flowed from his veins and onto the street. He looked up at Shinji, seeing him starting to look like he was ready to drop dead, but still clinging to consciousness.

"Mercy," he begged. "Mercy, please."

"No," Shinji told him, raising Tessaiga up again, its blade changing from its sword-like shape into a sword-like shape that look like somebody took a cutout of the cosmos or something similar. "Every breath you take…is mercy from me. Every second you live…is just another second where you can kill someone else that doesn't deserve it."

All Shinji had to do was drop Tessaiga's Meidō Zangetsuha-enhanced blade onto Gendo…and he would be instantly transported to Hell, still alive, but trapped there forever. Even if he didn't have the guts to murder him, he knew that there were fates far worse than death. And he would make sure that his father knew of them, as well.

PIERCE! Shinji felt a blade stab him in the back…and saw that it was a large blade that he hadn't seen before.

"And to think," he heard a demonic voice from behind, "you severed his arms off. Haven't you learned of adaptation, boy? Separating me from whoever wields me doesn't necessarily mean that I'm defeated."

Shinji looked back…and saw deformed suit of armor without a head and right arm, wielding an abnormal blade with an embedded jewel in it for a left arm.

"How…how… Urgh!" Shinji, losing consciousness, passed out and dropped his swords, which then vanished from sight.

Then, the strange creature threw Shinji aside into an alleyway.

-x-

Asuka saw the horror that Shinji hadn't noticed happening behind him while he had prepared to do away with his father now that he had severed his arms off. Somehow, one of the two swords had taken possession of one of his severed arms and transformed into a suit of malformed armor with a large blade for a left arm. Once it stabbed Shinji in the back and threw him aside, she saw an opening and emptied every bullet she had in her rifle across that road; she didn't give a rat's ass about Commander Ikari or the accursed swords he had, so long as there was a chance that Shinji was still alive and could be saved from what had to be a fatal wound. Once the dust had settled, she couldn't see Commander Ikari or the swords; with the streets riddled with craters and mangled bullets, it was more than likely that they were obliterated from the face of the planet.

"There's no sign of Commander Ikari," she informed Misato.

"Never mind him," she heard back. "Retrieve Shinji and Rei. Bring them back to base."

"Understood."

-x-

The gateway to Hell was still opened, but due to its host being injured, the effects were of Sō'unga's Dragon Twister were hampered until he had recovered. Fortunately, Sō'unga could afford to wait until Gendo recovered. The attack it laid on his son was so traumatic that even if he wasn't dead, he was going to die from the pain of his injuries.

Even when he wielded Tessaiga and Tenseiga, Sō'unga thought, he was unable to overpower me. The son was weaker than the father.

As long as there were people under its control roaming the streets and keeping the weak and helpless at bay, Sō'unga could suffer a small reprieve from the desperation of humans. Until its host regained strength and could perform the Dragon Twister once again, restoring the might of the gateway's opening and envelop the very mortal realm into the depths of Hell.

To be continued…

A/N: Now, you're all probably wondering: Is Shinji alive or dead? Wait until the next chapter.