Matarael

Four immense legs, each rising higher than the surrounding skyscrapers, support Matarael's comparatively tiny central body, giving the Angel the silhouette of a gargantuan harvestman. The pattern of eyes scattered across that body is a deception; the markings are camouflage meant to confuse attackers through mimicry. Only the single eye set into the underside appears genuine, granting the creature sight and doubling as the outlet for its weapon, an orange acid capable of burning through any material it touches.

No core is visible anywhere on the Angel. Like Ramiel and Sandalphon before it, Matarael seems to carry its core somewhere inside its body.

Matarael displays no communication or visible emotion, but its assault demonstrates a kind of opportunism. It comes ashore precisely while Tokyo-3 sits paralyzed by sabotage, faces no radar, no surface guns, and no Evangelion interception, and then settles into a patient siege, letting its acid eat downward through the Geofront's armor rather than striking at anything directly. Its name translates as premonition of God, and its rain-themed title matches this slow dripping method of attack.

Rising out of the Pacific, the ninth Angel makes landfall near the old Atami district while an unidentified human party has cut Tokyo-3's electricity. Blind without power, NERV neither detects the arrival nor mounts any resistance, and Matarael walks unopposed to a position over the Geofront, where its central eye begins releasing acid to melt through the armor plating below.

Once NERV realizes what is happening, the Evangelions launch by hand, fitted with supplemental battery packs, and climb through the access shafts toward the intruder. A splash of acid catches them beneath the Angel, forcing the units to lose their weapons and tumble back down the shaft. Asuka Langley Sohryu improvises a counterattack: Unit-02 cancels the enemy A.T. Field while shielding the others from the acid, Unit-00 dives to recover the fallen pallet rifle and passes it up to Unit-01, and Unit-01 empties sustained fire straight up into the Angel. The prolonged burst kills Matarael, making it the sole Angel of the original series destroyed by nothing more than standard gunfire.

The JSSDF generals monitoring the crisis call the creature the eighth Angel rather than the ninth, a discrepancy possibly explained by NERV secretly counting Lilith while outsiders cannot.