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The Sphere of Longinus, positioned behind the head of Armaros
The Sphere of Longinus is a weapon created by Armaros when it stole a Spear of Longinus Replica from Asuka Langley Sohryu when she fought the Angel Carrier Type-2 with Evangelion Unit-02 Type II. Asuka, believing she would triumph over the Angel Carrier, lunged the spear directly into the stomach of the Angel Carrier. What she did not realize was that in doing so she allowed Angel Carrier to open a Leliel like tunnel to Armaros that then took the spear into itself and manifested the Sphere of Longinus behind it's head.
Attributes[]
The Sphere may initially seem purely aesthetic or ghostly in appearance as if not really there; in reality upon closer inspection the sphere is shown to refract any form of light or energy that intersects with it similar to an event horizon, despite this if one "sees" the sphere from the "rear" it instead casts light through it as though it were a window or eclipse; the sphere also has a bright distinguishing brilliance to it even at a distance.
All of these qualities deceive from the fact the Sphere is actually a weapon that can tear anything apart that is pulled into it with brutal efficiency, the Sphere's function in this way is very different from the Leliel effect (ie: transporting bodies via the Dirac Sea) and is more akin to a black hole's singularity in which nothing that enters can escape it; for this reason when Rei Cinq loses to Armaros and is dragged into the Sphere everyone at NERV presume her dead and unrecoverable unlike similar situations involving Shinji in the original series.
In later arcs the Sphere is also shown to be capable of projecting massive, almost impenetrable AT Fields than can consume entire celestial bodies.
History[]
After 2015 creation of the Sphere was the prime objective of SEELE, hoping to somehow retrieve an artificial Spear to "complete" Armaros on the Moon. SEELE accomplished this through a vast deception in which they initially capture and brainwash Ryoji Kaji, they then build and use Angel Carriers that can appear and disappear, thanks to having parts of Leilel built into their stomachs, to gain the attention of the Sword of Damocles network. Shinji deploys and encounters the known Angel Carrier whilst Asuka is sent on a separate mission to recover an Artificial Spear of Longinus that is now buried inside the GeoFront but is instead intercepted by another previously unknown Angel Carrier during the mission. She retrieves the Spear but in a moment of desperation she stabs the Angel Carrier with the Spear completing SEELE's first objective in three years. Armaros then manifests the Sphere from the Spear.
Trivia[]
- Because of it's appearance behind Armaros' head, comparisons can be drawn between it and Christian iconography, a running theme of the entire series.