Neon Genesis Evangelion, Volume 12

behold the angels of God descending In 2015, the "Angels" have returned, and Shinji Ikari, a fourteen year-old child of the new Earth, is forced by his father Gendo--commander of the secret organization NERV--to pilot the monstrous biomechanical weapon called "Evangelion" to match the Angels' fearsome power...

a flaming sword, which turned every way Beaten unconscious in his first sortie, Shinji recoves from an encounter he neither understands or remembers. Moving in with his superior officer, the lovely Capt. Katsuragi, Shinji tries to start a "normal" life in school...

she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate The front line is everywhere in Shinji's life; in a darkened room...on a schooltop roof...across the battlefield. And he shares them all with his fellow pilot, the pale, remote, and beautiful Rei Ayanami...

the woman whom thou gavest to be with me As a carrier fleet steams towards Japan containing a mysterious embryonic form linked to the true origins of the human race, a hurricane is about to blow away Shinji's momentary peace: the wind through the red hair of Asuka Langley Soryu, the new Eva pilot arriving in Tokyo-3...

as one of us, to know good and evil Shinji's breaking point has now come, and he resigns in fury, departing even as the mighty Angel Zeruel smashes towards NERV HQ. Kaji, who has put such doubts in his mind, may also be the only one who can convince Shinji to return, for his own, dark personal reasons...

The Third Impact has come. As the unbelievably massive form of Ayanami towers over the Earth, the Instrumentality Project enters its last stages. While the world shudders in terror as it is engulfed in a sea of LCL, Shinji’s consciousness merges with Lilith’s, and he searches his memories for a final understanding of himself and the fate of humanity.

if this work be of men, it will come to nought Asuka moves in with Shinji, yet despises him for the offense of not being Misato's old flame, the tall, dark, and handsome Ryoki Kaji. The quiet Rei would seem closer to Shinji--but her true attraction is also to someone most inappropriate...

let me go, for the day breaketh Double agent Kaji has revealed to Shinji the terrible knowledge Gendo and his erstwhile secret masters have long possessed--and awakened Shinji's memory of the rice his mother paid to create the Evangelion. Now the next sacrifice demanded for the program is Shinji's best friend...

come now, let us make covenant, you and I As a disembodied Shinji drifts in visions, merged with the esoteric fluids of the Evangelion, his father's long-serving lieutenant, Fuyutsuki, is kidnapped for interrogation by SEELE--in German, the "Soul"--the council of superiors whom NERV has been double-crossing for some time now...

tell me, I pray thee, thy name Pride in being an Evangelion pilot--that is the essence of the Second Child, Soryu Asuka Langley. But the day she was chosen to be so was the most horrible of her life--and as that truth rises to consume her, Shinji finds a new comrade in the strange, beautiful and disturbing Kaworu Nagisa. Born on the day of the Second Impact, he has been sent directly by SEELE, ...