As it continued to ascend, Aeon's metallic eyes flickered faintly with a crimson glow.
It was hungry.
The smooth, featureless metal mask—once devoid of all facial features save for those eyes—suddenly split open, revealing a gaping crimson maw filled with rows of jagged teeth and a long, whip-like tongue.
Its four arms stretched outward, giving it the terrifying appearance of a ravenous beast.
Which, to be fair… it was.
"AaaAAARRGGHH~~~"
With a deafening roar and a blast of scarlet light, a surge of turbulent air exploded outward.
A massive blood-red sphere materialized behind it.
Civilians, fleeing Purgators, even the military personnel currently engaging one such target—everyone's eyes were drawn to the sky.
As chanting echoed faintly across the sky, ripples of red, ring-shaped energy began emanating from the blood sphere behind Aeon.
Towering inverted crosses surged from the ground, and ghostly flowers of Deathblossom drifted into the air like petals caught in a breeze.
The sky twisted blood-red.
Gravity itself began to invert.
Buildings, vegetation, the earth—everything caught within those ripples started to disintegrate.
Inanimate objects crumbled into fine, invisible dust.
Living beings were seized by an indescribable terror, and under an irresistible force, their bodies dissolved into crimson liquid, streaming upward to be absorbed by Aeon.
Within seconds, half of New York had become a lifeless wasteland.
And as Aeon rose higher, the radius of devastation only grew.
Moments later, even astronauts aboard an orbital space station could see a massive blood-red halo spreading across the surface of the Earth.
In a panic, the military deployed all forms of weapons of mass destruction, desperate to halt the unfolding catastrophe.
But nothing worked.
Every modern weapon that entered the expanding red zone short-circuited, malfunctioned, or was forcibly disassembled—rendered utterly useless before it could strike.
Thirty minutes later.
The entire planet—land, sea, and sky—had turned a uniform shade of blood-red.
The faint murmurs of chanting had grown into a chorus of praise, a hymn of worship.
A resonance from the soul.
In the world of Evangelion, all humans were originally one being—the 18th Angel.
Due to unknown circumstances, that single entity split into countless individuals. In gaining self-awareness, they also became fragmented, conflicted, and fragile.
To resolve this, some among humanity devised a plan, driven by their deep, instinctual desire to return to unity.
That plan was called the Human Instrumentality Project.
Its goal: to dissolve the boundaries between individual consciousnesses, merge all hearts and minds into one collective, and restore humanity to its original, perfect state.
As for the other Angels—
The 11th Angel: Angel of Terror
The 16th Angel: Angel of the Womb
They, too, possessed abilities related to spiritual fusion and transcendence.
And Aeon, as the inheritor and enhancer of both of their abilities, was no exception.
Under Orsaga's careful calibration, this power had evolved into something far more terrifying—a kind of divine authority, a will-suppressing force.
Anything within range whose existential rank or willpower was inferior to Aeon's would have its mental defenses dissolved, forcibly assimilated—body, mind, and soul—into Aeon's being, fueling its evolution.
Orsaga called this power:
Life Complement—The Evolutionary Staircase.
One hour later.
There was nothing left alive on the planet—not even Death itself remained.
All life energy had been gathered into one mass.
Floating amidst a storm of reverse-gravity blood tides in the upper atmosphere, a colossal figure emerged in outer space.
It stood over 10,000 meters tall.
A divine—or perhaps infernal—radiance emanated from its form.
Aeon had evolved.
It was no longer an it, but a He.
---
Neutral Zone, Main Hub of the Matrix Purgatory's Domain
At a quiet café on the roadside, Orsaga casually sipped his coffee, gazing at the man seated across from him—Li Hanhe.
He asked offhandedly, "Something you need?"
Li Hanhe adjusted his oversized sleeves before finally speaking his piece:
"I just wants to ask if you still have any Venom Grenades in stock?"
Orsaga replied honestly, "I do—but due to my contract with Heart of Elte, I'm not allowed to sell them anymore."
Li Hanhe frowned slightly. After a moment of thought, he let out a helpless sigh.
"I see… Well, that's that."
As Li Hanhe turned and walked away, Orsaga waited a few minutes before speaking to another figure walking toward him:
"Seems like you guys didn't manage the aftermath very well."
The woman approaching was Luna, deputy leader of Heart of Elte.
She shook her head calmly. "People are greedy. Even though we gave him substantial compensation, clearly… it wasn't enough for him."
Orsaga chuckled.
"Greed is only natural. If people were that easy to satisfy, where would ambition come from?"
Luna thought for a moment and nodded. "Fair enough."
Both of them intentionally avoided one specific truth:
Had Heart of Elte never intervened, Li Hanhe could've made far more profit.
But the reality was plain:
Weaklings don't get to choose.
Once Heart of Elte stepped in, someone like Li Hanhe—just a small fry—had no choice but to pack up and leave.
Orsaga asked, "So, why are you really here?"
Luna didn't beat around the bush.
"No particular reason. I'm just curious. As a newcomer, why are you… so special? Your ID number is 8748574, which means you only recently entered the Matrix Purgatory. But from what I've heard, you spent over 3 million points in the Red Light District alone. That's an astronomical amount. Even the top-ranked teams would bleed hard to gather that much."
She clearly wasn't easy to shock, but that figure had rattled even her.
Orsaga, however, simply smiled casually and replied:
"That's personal information. I don't believe I'm obligated to tell you anything."
His face remained calm—no trace of guilt or tension.
After a moment's hesitation, Luna got to the point:
"I want to leave this place. Or rather, our team wants to leave."
Orsaga replied flatly:
"And?. Every Purgator here wants to leave. Besides, don't you already have a way out?. Survive 50 mission worlds, and you'll earn your freedom. Not easy, sure—but at least it's a possibility."
Luna gave a bitter smile.
"That 'possibility' isn't worth much. We've never heard of anyone actually making it out. It's like a carrot dangling in front of our faces—forever visible, but never within reach."
Hearing that, Orsaga chuckled and was just about to reject her proposal outright—but in the split second before he opened his mouth, a strange premonition tugged at his thoughts.
He paused.
After a moment of consideration, he said:
"If that's the case, then I'll give you a chance. When you go back, repeat the same sacrificial ritual you used to obtain the Deathblossom flower. This time, the entity on the other end will give you an answer."
Luna froze, eyes widening in sudden realization.
She stared at Orsaga in disbelief.
Her instincts screamed that something was very wrong.
All she had wanted was an escape.
But the being before her—
He wanted to start something far, far bigger.
_____
T/N:
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