God's in his heaven. All's right with the world.

Words emblazoned on the wall, the letters reflecting in the limited light, making the phrase seem like taunt to a higher power. Behind his hands, Commander Ikari smirked. A taunt indeed.

Things had been progressing quite smoothly so far. The third and fourth Angels had been defeated, and while the damages to Tokyo-3 were certainly costly thanks to the pilots inexperience it was nothing their benefactors couldn't take care of. They were only buildings, after all.

Yes, Shinji had done well. The boy had lacked the conviction to stay in the fight, but he had come scurrying back like a domesticated pet that thought it could survive without others. He didn't doubt that the boy would lose his courage in the future, but at the same time he knew that there was nothing else for him. Black pawn, G6.

He glanced at the report on the screen in front of him. Unit 0 had begun to be removed from its prison of plastic at that very moment, and as soon as that was complete Rei would partake in another activation test, ensuring she would be able to participate in the next confrontation with the ever looming threat. Black knight, F6.

And then there was the fourth Angel. Somehow the Third Child had managed to defeat it in such a way that had kept all the important parts in one piece, more or less anyway. Even more impressive considering his last attempts could be summarised as him falling on his face and surviving only by sheer dumb luck, though he was among the few that knew that luck had played no role in that victory. For now, luck was a convenient excuse. As for the Angel's corpse, there was much that could be done with it, but he knew that his benefactors would have their eyes on the core regardless of how damaged it was, though he already had set into motion his own uses for it before it was inevitably plucked from forever. No matter , though thought with a smile. Let the old men struggle and fail, satisfied knowing that I couldn't use it. As if he needed it in the first place. Black bishop, G7.

Everything was moving just as it needed to, smooth as silk. So naturally that was when a higher power threw a stone into the water.

An alarm went off on the bridge below, catching the room's inhabitants by surprise. The commander narrowed his eyes, refocusing before his subordinates. Without the Captain on hand, it fell to him to take charge of the situation.

"Report," He ordered, voice cutting through the room.

"Unknown energy signal detected sir!" Came a response from the jump Hyuga as he desperately tried to keep his cool. "It's coming from the Minato region in old Tokyo."

"Analysing target." A feminin voice, Maya Ibuki, called out from the side. "Target… target has…" She frowned. "Uh, it seems to be having some issues."

The Commander frowned, his glare making the individuals below him flinch. "What is the meaning of this?"

"The MAGI are struggling to pin down what this energy is coming from," Aoba ran his fingers through his long hair nervously. "Whatever made it doesn't match any of the possible variables."

Ikari scowled, leaning forward once again. This was completely unanticipated. This shouldn't be possible, he reasoned. The MAGI has never failed since being implemented into our system, which means that it's either been compromised, or… He trailed off, the gears in his head turning almost audibly. Or this is something entirely new .

"And here I thought today would be quiet," Mused the man next to him.

"Indeed."

"What course of action should we take?" The older man turned, an uncharacteristic look of fear on his face. No, not fear , the commander recognised. Concern .

"Our systems may have been compromised. If that is the case, we cannot ignore this potential threat."

"And if not?"

Ikari felt the corners of his mouth twitch. "If not, then this is something new and perhaps dangerous. Is it not our duty to defend from such things?"

"Indeed." His companion returned his attention to the information being displayed. "Though if SEELE has a hand in this, there may be consequences."

"Yes. How unfortunate."

Looking down at the younger man, Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow. "You really must practice if you want to sound more convincing."

"This is an unprecedented event," Ikari said coolly. "A real one, not one we keep to ourselves and then pretend to be shocked by. Which means we've been kept in that dark, or that there is something outside our scenario. Either way, we must press the opportunity. Inform Captain Katsuragi of the situation. Have her bring the Third for deployment and prepare to have Unit 1 transported to the site. And contact Dr Akagi, we need a diagnostic to see if the MAGI has been compromised."

He ignored any response that followed. Once Katsuragi was at the helm he would slip away from command, and all he would need to do was watch as whatever situation they found themselves in occurred. Running the possibilities through his head, he couldn't help but give a wicked smile. Yes, it seems that they had been taunting the heavens, and he couldn't wait to see how a higher power planned to punish their blasphemy.

Misato Katsuragi liked to think that she had a decent hand on her life. This was of course, a bare faced lie, but at times she was able to act the part, and right now there was no time for error. "You alright in there Shinji?" Her voice was calm and controlled, ringing through the entry plug and eliciting a small nod from its inhabitant.

"Yes, Miss Misato," Shinji mumbled, his hands tightening around the control sticks. He wasn't enthused to be back inside the giant purple monstrosity, especially so soon after his last battle with the fourth angel, but even he could tell how tense everyone was about the current situation. At the very least, being inside the Eva while it was attached to a plane was admittedly pretty cool.

"Alright then," The dark haired woman sighed before pumping her fist, determined. "We're nearly at Tokyo-1, where the signal was picked up. The target is at Tokyo Tower, and you just need to eliminate any threat as quickly as possible. This aircraft will provide you with power, but this far from Tokyo-3 and on such short notice you have to be ready to rely on your internal battery."

"Um, Miss Misato?" The boy raised his hand as if trying to get the attention of a teacher. "What exactly are we here to do? You haven't told me what's going on."

There was a brief silence before he got a response. "We don't know."

"What?"

"We don't know." Misato chewed her lip. "It could be an Angel, but the MAGI couldn't identify it, and it's not behaving like an Angel should." This didn't inspire confidence in Shinji. In fact, he was feeling a lot more nervous now. Up in the cockpit, Misato noticed his sync rate dropping. "Focus Shinji!"

"Y-yes! Sorry!" He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with liquid. That didn't exactly calm him either, but at least his sync score corrected itself. Misato sighed. Things were already off to a great start.

"Captain Katsuragi, we're arriving at the drop point."

Misato leaned forward, her eyes analysing the horizon of old Tokyo. She still couldn't understand how the city had escaped so much destruction. After the Second Impact and the use of nukes in the immediate aftermath, it sometimes felt that the only reason it was still habitable, let alone thriving, was thanks to some miracle or another. And right at the centre of their view of the miracle city was the Tokyo Tower. And nothing else. She narrowed her eyes. "Are we sure that the signal hasn't moved?"

"Affirmative."

Crossing her arms, Misato decided that she didn't like this situation at all. What if this was some elaborate trap? Were the Angels even capable of such intelligence? And if it was, would Shinji…?

"Shinji, listen up."

"Miss Misato?"

"We're about to release your Eva. We'll try and keep close to you but be ready to detach your power cable if you need to move quickly, and we'll try to get back into position to reattach it before you run out of power."

"Right."

"Shinji…"

He frowned. "Yes, Miss Misato?"

There was a slight pause before she responded. "Please stay safe, ok?"

The young boy blinked, surprised by her shift from professional to concerned in such a short amount of time. Despite how nervous her concern made him, he couldn't help but feel a strange sort of happiness. "I'll try," He said with a small smile.

"Alrighty then," She straightened up. "Activate Unit 1!"

Shinji felt power rumble around him as the Eva was roused from its slumber, and prepared to sync up with the titan.

"Begin pilot synchronisation."

The entry plug flashed images and colours too quickly for him to process before shifting to the view seen from Unit 1's eyes. He inhaled quickly, caught off guard by how weird it felt to be flying through the air, before calming himself and focusing on Tokyo Tower. "I'm ready."

Misato nodded. Raising her arm, she waited for the precise moment to release the Eva; even connected to the Umbilical Cable, there was only so much power they could supply. So when the order came, there was no going back.

"Release the Eva!"

Shinji felt the restraint pull away and suddenly he was falling. Shifting the Eva's body he aimed his feet for the earth and when they met the concrete street cratered around his feet and sent shockwaves through the city. Bringing his arms down beside him, he jammed the controls forward and forced the Eva into a sprint, eyes locked onto the tower.

"Can you see the target?" Misato prompted, the agitation evident in her voice.

"Not yet. Miss Misato, are you sure- Wait." There, circling around the tower. It looked like a dark cloud, barely visible. "Miss Misato, can you see that?"

"I can," She murmured grimmly. So, this was a real threat after all. On some level, she was relieved. "Shinji, I need you to magnify the target."

"Right," Taking a moment to concentrate, he forced the Eva to focus on the cloud, prompting a small window to pop up in the entry plug and revealing just what they were up against. "What is…?"

"What the hell?" Misato whispered, leaning forward to get a closer look at the screen showing what the Eva saw. This cloud was a single being like the other Angels. This was dozens, maybe hundreds, of smaller creatures, all independent of each other. And these things were not Angels at all. They were small, winged imps with misshapen smiles plastered on their faces, and each one help a golden trident. They were pointing, laughing, acting like children… like humans. Misato stepped away from the consol. This was not what she had expected at all.

"Miss Mistato? Miss Misato!" Shinji called out, trying to get the attention of the captain. "What are they? What am I supposed to do?"

"I… uh… I have no idea." She checked the readings again, the MAGI still offering nothing. "What the hell…"

"Ah! Miss Misato!"

Her attention shot back to the consol. The imps seemed to have taken notice of Unit 1, swarming towards it like wasps. Some of them started waving their tridents around their heads, flames building at the tips, before tossing the balls of fire at the Evangelion. Even with their pitiful aim, Unit 1 was so big that dozens of the fires struck its body, drawing cries of pain from the pilot as he brought the Eva to a stop and tried to defend himself. While it was nowhere painful as what the third and fourth Angel had inflicted, each one felt like a lit match being extinguished against his skin, and his attempts to defend himself only resulted in his hands being scorched.

"Shinji!" Misato called out, gripping the consol. "Whatever they are, they're clearly not friendly. You need to fight back!"

Grinding his teeth, Shinji ignored the pain and took a swipe at the swarm. There was no real focus or fineness behind his action, but the imps were too numerous and too slow to avoid him and collided with Unit 1's open palm. He drew the Eva back, looking at the empty space gouged into the cloud, then spared a moment to look at his hand. He expected to find the corpses of the creatures splattered against the metal palm, but the only thing left was a glowing crimson light that was fading away. From within the aircraft, Misato blinked in surprise.

"Huh," She muttered. "Ok, that's good to know."

Enraged by their companion's deaths, the shadowy creatures swooped in at the distracted Eva, ramming their weapons into its armour. Instinctively Shinji swatted at them like bugs, but as another cluster of light dissipated against his palm he realised something; these couldn't actually hurt him. Sure, it felt like he was being stung by a group of wasps, but they weren't even stretching the Eva. He was not in danger. That was unexpected. He swung a fist into the cloud, leaving a trail of crimson light where those creatures had once been. A backhand, taking out dozens more. The only challenge he was having was that the Eva was so big that the displaced air would move some of the imps out of the way of his attacks, but for the most part he was just flailing around and reducing them to whatever that light was.

Misato sat down, crossing her arms. They had been there for less than two minutes and already Shinji had taken out three quarters of the swarm. Perhaps it was a bit premature, but she started to relax a bit.

At this point, the remaining creatures realised that they had achieved nothing against the purple monster who was slaughtering them so effortlessly. One by one, they started to flee, with the slower ones not realising they were alone until it was too late. Misato cursed under the breath.

"Shinji, we can't let them get away! They're too small to track down with an Eva."

"Right!" He grunted as slammed his fist into the ground, taking out the remaining attackers in one fell swoop before turning his attention to the retreating imps. One group had been spread wide, while a closer one had descended in order to escape his fists. Shifting Unit 1's weight, he moved forward and swung his leg at the closer group, watching as every imp exploded against him, then chased after the other group. Theyhad believed that by spreading out it would be harder for him to take them all out, but this illusion was quickly shattered when he clapped his palms together, and suddenly the skies were filled only by the quickly dissipating red light. Shinji glanced around, looking to see if there were any other creatures still left. "Is that all of them?"

"Probably not," Admitted Misato, checking for the energy signal that was now too weak to track. "But that's also probably all we can deal with ourselves. We can't have an Eva looking down every street in Tokyo now, can we? That would be silly."

"But what about-"

"We'll contact the JSDF, they can deal with those whatevers. Besides, they don't really like it when we start showing them up in their home city."

Shinji looked behind him and only now noticed the massive footprints he'd left behind him. No one would be using that road anytime soon. "Sorry. I should have been more careful."

"Ah, don't worry about it," She waved the apology away with a smile. "Let's get back home. I'll make dinner, my treat."

Shinji was thankful she was looking away from the monitor, as it prevented her from seeing him grimace. "That's ok, Miss Misato. I'm happy to cook tonight."

"Nonsense! I told you it's my treat, so you'll be treated! Now follow the plane so we can get Unit 1 packed back up and go home."

Shinji sighed. "Yes ma'am." At least she was back to normal.

Not many Daemon's had escaped the wrath of Unit 1, but there were more than a few that watched and waited as the purple abomination strode away, carefully minding its step as to not cause more collateral damage. One such Daemon hid in a dark alleyway, its coal coloured skin making it melt away. Slowly it peaked its head out, wary of any further threats. It hadn't come to the human world just to be killed, and now it was here there was so much to do. It could smell them everywhere, their blood so fresh. It had forgotten what it was like, and now like an addict it was lost in the sensation, so much so it almost didn't notice that there was one of those humans behind it. But it did. Grinning, it flapped its wings and turned to the prey, fire burning at the tips of its trident. It was wearing some form of black armour. The Daemon grinned. This human thought they were strong. They didn't stand a chance.

And then the Minotaur appeared and crushed their head like an egg.

The man stood there for a moment, hand resting on his side arm, before approaching the demon. He observed as the crimson light faded away, then turned to the demon.

"Can you sense any more?"

The Minotaur grunted, sniffing the air. "Many still fill the city, all eager for blood. But they are weak."

The man nodded, saying nothing. He continued out the alley, watching as the Evangelion faded from view. He rested his helmet against his knuckles, lost in thought, until the comm in his ear began to ring. Pressing a finger against his helmet, he answered.

"This is Akira" A moment passed as he waited for the caller to finish. "I've deployed most of the Force already, and they've dispersed through Minato to take out any remaining demons." He walked back into the darkness, silently sending the Minotaur off to continue hunting. "Yeah, you saw it too? I'd heard about those things in Tokyo-3, but damn. Never thought they'd work against demons, even small fry." A moment of silence. "What are you thinking? I know that silence. Spill." When he got his answer, the man's eyes narrowed. "You serious? I mean, they took out a swarm of Daemons, but how can we be sure they'd stand up against demons that are actually organised?" He sighed. "You know best sir. I just don't want to spread ourselves too thin." The man paused. "If I can ask Director, what caused the demons to cross into Tokyo?" The response was inconclusive. "Helpful. I'll try to make sure the others keep their eyes out in case there are any signs of the worlds getting closer. I should get going, there are still demons about. No sir, I'll have my report in before tomorrow. You just worry about your little idea, ok? Akira out." He hung up and took one last look at the Evangelion, but it was now out of sight. A united front against the demons? The man shook his head. Yeah, that's already working wonderfully. Bethel can only take one more blow before everything comes tumbling down. I hope NERV knows what they're getting into.

Somewhere infinitely close yet infinitely far, a young man stood at the top of a sand dune, his golden eyes scanning the horizon. As far as he could see there was that filtering sand, laced with gold that shone as it scattered to the wind. He could see ruined buildings, skeletons that survived the flames of hell and storms of that same sand. And amongst those ruins he could see them, moving in the shadows. Beast and creatures that could kill in an instant, and think of it less. His own thoughts turned to his classmates. Atsuta had to still be alive, he was smart enough to survive even in this hellscape, but Daizi? He'd seen that he stood no chance here. He needed to find Dazai, and then… He didn't know. Go home? Was that even possible? Did home still exist? Was there anything left for them at all?

He turned back to the tower behind him, his hair catching in the wind, the long locks swaying like clouds. While no body remained, there were still markings on the ground from where the Hydra had fallen. He had seen countless demons flee after his victory, no longer certain that he was easy prey. He didn't know where they went, and right now he had other things to worry about. He turned back to his small winged companion, beckoning him over, and he steeled himself for the coming battles and slid down the dune's slope, the fine sand blasting against his metallic skin. His mind, however, remained by the tower.

He could not forget the six winged titan, the power that radiated off him like an inferno, and not the words he had spoken.

The God you cravenly revere is dead.