Zeruel

Zeruel
ゼルエル
Number	14th
Symbol	Strength
Appearance(s)	Episode 19
Defeated by	Eva-01

Zeruel is the Fourteenth Angel, and one of the most powerful, representing the paragon of Angels that focus on direct, conventional combat. It is among the three to penetrate Nerv Headquarters, and the only one to do so through a direct assault. Zeruel bears the unique distinction of providing (however unwillingly) the S² Engine that elevates Eva-01 to "god" status.

Biology

Zeruel is a vaguely humanoid entity slightly larger than an Evangelion. Its undefined, slab-like body is adorned with an array of exoskeletal elements, with key points of reference being a face, a large core centered lees than halfway down, stumpy legs, and -- Zeruel's trademark feature -- ribbon-like cutting arms.

Zeruel's arms being deployed (click for animation)

The distinctive arms hang from the "shoulders" of Zeruel's bulky "exoscapulae". When not in use, they are folded up onto themselves into small packets. Upon employment, the heavily folded arms drop (visually evoking accordions) and are promptly straightened and extended, capable of reaching lengths at least three times Zeruel's height. They function like razor-sharp ribbons, able to effortlessly slice through an Eva (armor and all). Each of Zeruel's arms possesses a "thumb" at the tip, which sometimes lays flat to provide a seamless cutting edge. Four additional "digits" are briefly apparent (when Zeruel grasps Eva-01's head to throw her), although it's unclear if these are always present, held flush together and simply undetectable, or if they must be specially formed. Zeruel is also capable of forming fists with these digits, although this ability is only depicted in production drawings. Zeruel can also straighten and stiffen the ends of its ribbon-arms so that they effectively form spears for stabbing with, as seen when it attacked the depowered Eva 01's exposed core.

The face, which resembles a malformed skull, is situated at the top of the body at a slight upwards angle (when Zeruel is standing straight). The face is made out of hard bone-like material, notably making sparks when Shinji ground it into the side of an Eva launch tube as they were catapulted upwards. It appeared to be much more malleable and pliant after Eva 01 killed it, but this could just be because Eva 01 snapped its face backwards in the process of killing it, thus breaking the face-plate material. Zeruel's face is attached to a sinewy "neck" normally kept inside the body and possesses a cartilage-like consistency that gives it a limited range of movement. The two eyes hidden inside the deep "sockets" are, as with Zeruel's kin Sachiel and Israfel, employed for both vision and energy projection -- however, their capabilities in the latter area are considerably more potent.

Zeruel demonstrates an enhanced ability for firing the familiar crucifix-shaped energy-blasts fired by previous Angels: a single shot instantly penetrates 18 of the Geofront's 22 protective armor layers (achieving in an instant what Ramiel accomplished in hours), and, even more extraordinarily, it has the unique ability to project multiple blasts in rapid succession (at least up to four in a row). It can also fire focused energy beams directly from its eyes, a last-resort tactic saved for tight quarters, where the arms cannot be freely maneuvered. This weapon is disadvantageous, in that it takes seconds to charge and only provides a single quick burst of energy, albeit a rather powerful one.

Zeruel typically moves by (presumably A.T. Field-assisted) levitation, whether on a vertical course or, as an alternative to bipedal locomotion, slightly above ground level. The lower legs, while vestigial and lacking defined feet, do not go without use: the Angel briefly takes to all fours when it breaks into the Command Center.

The Angel also possesses what appear to be four orange-colored armored hard-points, evenly spaced with two in the "knee" area and two directly below the shoulder-bone plates. Zeruel's blood is colored red.

The core is rather large relative to Zeruel's body, and the S² Engine within may be, accordingly, "oversized", perhaps accounting in part for the discrepancy in power between Zeruel and other, similarly sized Angels. Zeruel possesses a protective lid-membrane capable of shielding the core when threatened, and it serves as a testament to Zeruel's incredibly tough constitution: even when an N² bomb is detonated in direct contact with the (protected) core, not only is the red sphere left completely unscathed -- the rest of the body is, as well.

Psychology

Most of the Angels do not seem to be truly "sentient", and Zeruel is no exception. Most, including Zeruel, seem to be functioning on mostly animalistic instinct. Further, Zeruel's attack on Nerv HQ does not use a particularly large amount of intelligence, but it simply bludgeons its way into the base using raw brute force. However, unlike some previous Angels, Zeruel actually seems to experience some basic emotions, such as anger and frustration. Case in point, Zeruel remains fairly "unemotional" as its advance through Nerv HQ (defeating Eva 00 and Eva 02 in the process) succeeds, however Eva Unit 01 then savagely attacks Zeruel, haltings its advance and nearly defeating it before Eva 01's power supply ran out. Zeruel could have simply then destroyed the inert Eva 01 with a quick strike, but it did not. Instead, Zeruel appears to act out its anger and frustration at Eva 01 by proceeding to slowly stab it repeatedly, as if sadistically trying to make Eva 01 suffer as much as possible for nearly defeating the Angel. Zeruel also shows an interest in harming the humans in the Nerv HQ command center: most Angels show no interest in humans, only attacking what they perceive to be direct threats to their single-minded advancement towards Tokyo-3 and Adam, such as the Evas. For example, after Bardiel disabled Eva 00, rather than finish Eva 00 off, once Bardiel had removed the hindrance to its advancement it simply proceeded along its way and ignored the damaged Eva 00. Zeruel could have continued down through Nerv HQ to Terminal Dogma, or more probably the Eva holding pens where Gendo Ikari was (Adam being secretly fused to Gendo's hand). However, Zeruel instead stopped to attack the Nerv HQ primary command center, and tried to kill the humans inside which had been coordinating the defensive effort trying to repulse the Angel. Zeruel did this even though the humans in the command center were no longer a threat to it, almost as if it perceived that Ritsuko, Misato, and the rest of the staff were the ones responsible for the failed attempts to stop it and was exacting a primitive revenge.

Battle

Appearing soon after the fight against the 13th Angel, Bardiel, Zeruel attacked Nerv before it had time to fully recover from the previous Angel's attack. Zeruel rapidly blasted its way straight into the GeoFront, piercing through all of the defensive armor layers almost instantly, and then descended into the GeoFront. Because of the speed of its attack, Nerv had no time to try to engage it outside, and deployed Eva 02 inside of the GeoFront to engage it. Asuka fired on Zeruel with a full range of guns and rocket-launchers, but Zeruel's AT Field was so strong that even this concentrated fire from Eva 02 had no effect. Zeruel then unfolded its razor-arms, and instantly amputated both of Eva 02's arms.

Zeruel slicing off Eva 02's arms

Enraged, Asuka recklessly charged Eva 02 at the Angel. Just as Zeruel was about to decapitate Eva 02, Misato quickly ordered Asuka's connection with her Eva severed so the shock of Eva 02's head being sliced off would not kill her. Zeruel proceeded towards Nerv HQ, as Eva Unit 00 was deployed against it. With no time to repair Eva 00 after her fight with Bardiel, Unit 00 went into battle missing her left arm. As a result, Rei charged Eva 00 at Zeruel with an N² bomb cradled in her remaining right arm, then jammed the N² bomb at Zeruel's core through its AT Field. However, Zeruel covered its core with a protective membrane, and the N² bomb did not succeed in harming it, while extensively damaging Eva 00 and the GeoFront. Zeruel then slashed at the wounded Eva 00, slicing her face in half vertically, and she too was incapacitated.

Zeruel then crashed into the Nerv headquarters' pyramid itself, and descended to Central Dogma, crashing through the wall into the command center's central display area. Just as it was about to fire its energy-blast and kill the entire Nerv command staff, Eva 01 (piloted by Shinji) crashed through another wall and punched it away. The pair then crashed through another wall into the Evangelion pens and continued fighting. Zeruel blasted off Eva 01's left arm, but Eva 01 was still able to keep fighting and force it into one of the Evangelion launching catapults. Misato then fired the catapult, to at least get the Angel out of the base, as Shinji pushed Zeruel's face against the side of the shaft, grinding it against the wall as they were fired upwards.

Upon reaching the surface, the pair tumbled in mid-air until Zeruel landed on the ground with Eva 01 on top of it. Despite Zeruel's awesome power, and the loss of one arm, Eva 01 was still able to use her remaining arm to savagely pummel Zeruel and tear at its bony face-plate, and Eva 01 was on the verge of gaining the upper hand in the fight when her internal battery power ran out.

Zeruel then threw Eva 01 against the hillside and blasted apart Eva 01's chest plate, revealing its own core. Zeruel used its razor-arms to steadily stab at Eva 01's core, and the repeated shocks were on the verge of breaking the Entry Plug inside the Eva. However, Eva 01 then entered "berserker mode" as Shinji entered into a (previously thought to be totally impossible) 400% synchronization ratio with the Eva. Eva 01 quickly pushed her hand straight through the razor-edge of Zeruel's right arm while suffering no damage, then grabbed Zeruel and pulled it right on top of herself, impaling Zeruel's eye structure with her horn. She then kicked Zeruel, sending it flying backwards onto its back while ripping the Angel's arm off. Eva 01 then horrifically merged Zeruel's arm with the stump of her own left arm to regenerate it. Zeruel tried to attack Eva 01 with its other razor-arm, but Eva 01 wielded its own A.T. Field like a weapon, shattering Zeruel's remaining arm, knocking its A.T. Field out of alignment and cutting huge, bloody gashes through the Angel's body. Eva 01 then advanced on Zeruel like an animal and the crippled Angel tried to fire another energy-blast at her, but Eva 01 simply snapped Zeruel's upper "jaw" backwards, crushing its head and killing it, and then immediately began to devour its body. Horrified Nerv personnel looked on as Eva 01 ate the Angel's corpse, culminating in Eva 01 consuming Zeruel's S² Engine. This resulted in Eva 01 no longer needing any external power supply to function.

Notes

• Due to the way Zeruel's arms are segmented into smaller sections, along with their appearance in general, they are often likened to toilet paper by fans.
• The black and white color pattern on Zeruel's front vaguely resembles a human face (seen from the left) with its core as the "eye".
• Zeruel has a very powerful energy or projectile weapon that sets off crucifix-shaped explosions, very similar to that used by Sachiel. Zeruel appears to use the weapon out of both the mouth and the eye holes, as the first time the weapon is used the mouth seems to light up. The crucifix-blast weapon might be a projectile weapon, since Zeruel can shoot at four seperate locations at once. Hyuga is notably aghast at how Zeruel's crucifix-blast was capable of piercing 18 out of 22 armor layers above Nerv HQ with a single shot.
  • Zeruel also uses its eye sockets for a separate charge-up energy attack powerful enough to blow off Eva 01's chest armor, although the entry plug underneath seems unaffected. Sachiel's cross-blast weapon is unable to seriously harm Eva 01 with a point-blank shot after she goes berserk, and Ramiel heavily melted all the frontal armor in a few seconds and almost boiled the pilot alive but did not have the time to destroy her entirely. This makes Zeruel's optical blast the most powerful directed energy weapon used by an Angel, although Ramiel's particle beam can be sustained for an indeterminate period of time.
• Zeruel was (along with Sachiel and Shamshel) designed by Yoshitoh Asari.
• Zeruel's namesake is an angel "set over strength", from The Biblical Antiquities of Philo.^{[Source needed]} The name Zeruel literally means "arm of God" -- probably no coincidence, all things considered.

Angels

Angels (general)

First and Second Angels (Seeds of Life): Adam | Lilith

Third to Seventeenth Angels (Adam's Children):

Sachiel | Shamshel | Ramiel | Gaghiel | Israfel | Sandalphon | Matarael | Sahaquiel

Ireul | Leliel | Bardiel | Zeruel | Arael | Armisael | Tabris

Eighteenth Angel: Lilin

Rebuild of Evangelion: ?Adams? | Lilith | 3rd Angel | 4th Angel | 5th Angel | 6th Angel | 7th Angel | 8th Angel | 9th Angel | 10th Angel | 11th Angel | 12th Angel | 1st/13th Angel

Other: Extracanonical Angels