Arael

Arael hangs above the Earth as a winged, jagged shape composed of brilliant bluish light. So intense is its glow that the core is difficult to locate; two lower wings hold the organ outside the main body. Judged against the Spear of Longinus, its wingspan runs to several times an Evangelion's height, though no Eva ever closes to within physical reach of it.

NERV detects the Angel settling into orbit above Japan. Defying her launch order, Asuka takes point in Unit-02 with long-range weaponry while Rei stands by in Unit-00, a storm rolling over Tokyo-3 below. The standoff holds until a ray of light stabs down into Unit-02. First mistaken for a particle weapon, the attack proves to be a mental probe, and it plunges Asuka into worsening agony. She empties her positron rifle skyward, but the bolts scatter uselessly at that distance. Warned by Ritsuko Akagi that her mind faces permanent damage, Asuka still refuses Misato's order to withdraw, insisting she would sooner die than accept defeat.

Rei answers with a maximum-yield shot from a heavier positron sniper rifle. The beam actually reaches Arael, but so much energy bleeds away over the distance that the Angel's defensive field brushes it aside. Meanwhile the probe drags Asuka through her worst childhood memories, her mother's suicide among them, and her collapse plays out live before the helpless command staff. Shinji begs to sortie in Unit-01; Gendo and Fuyutsuki initially refuse, judging the contamination risk far too great, before Gendo unexpectedly relents and instead sends Rei into Terminal Dogma to pull the Spear of Longinus out of Lilith. Fuyutsuki protests that SEELE will never sanction spending the Spear this way, but Gendo, quietly content to remove the relic from everyone's reach, insists no other option can kill this Angel.

Rei returns with the weapon and hurls it once a ten-count runs out, with force enough to break up the storm overhead. The Spear punches through Arael's A.T. Field, shatters its core, and sails onward into a lunar orbit from which it cannot be retrieved. In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku, Arael opens the series in the form of a crow whose core Shinji claims after its defeat. The manga adds a grimmer aftermath for Asuka, leaving her comatose from the mental shock, and Arael stands as the only Angel of the TV series that never touches the Earth.

Arael's signature weapon is an unusual use of its A.T. Field: a diffuse beam that probes a human mind directly, an intrusion so traumatic it can shatter the target's psyche, though whether the harm is deliberate or a side effect of information gathering stays unclear. Combined with a perch in orbit that puts it beyond every weapon NERV fields, this made it among the most dangerous Angels. Its defensive field turns aside even maximum-power positron sniper fire launched from the surface.