Volume 4 plot summary, at last:
Using the Super Eva, Shinji and Rei Trois go into space to recover Rei Cinq’s Unit-0.0. The operation is a success, and Super Eva returns to Earth while Trois prepares herself to go search for the disappeared Rei Six. However, her plan is interrupted when a piece of the bloated moon breaks off. Unbeknownst to everyone, Six and her Unit-0.0 Type-F Allegorica are in there. Meanwhile, in Norway, Mari decides that she wants to eat Crimson A1, hoping that it will grant her a much better connection with the animal souls inside Wolfpack. She mimics the heartbeat of the Super Eva, attracting the attention of both Crimson A1 and Torwätcher B, the one who stole the heart. They teleport to Norway and open a dimensional gate, sending Wolpack and themselves to the moon fragment. Around the same time, the replica of the Lance of Longinus arrives from Apple’s Core and crashes on the detached lunar landmass, where Rei Six finds it.
As Super Eva returns to Nerv, Shinji starts seeing through the eyes of Torwächer B. Moving almost on instinct, he grabs Azumateratsu, a giant bow-like weapon that Maya had excavated from Lake Ashi, and aims it towards the sky. The bow shoots an immense arrow of light which vaporizes half of the detached lunar landmass, from now on called “Yomotsu Hirasaka”. However, the energy output turns Super Eva, and Shinji, into a salt statue which crumbles as Azumateratsu disappears.
Shinji’s spirit takes control of Torwätcher B, but in doing so he forgets his identity. Azumateratsu manifests from his shadow, and Shinji uses it to fire at Wolfpack, who has the replica Lance in its fangs and is trying to attack Crimson A1. From a nearby mountain, Kaji/SEELE and Rei Quatre watch the fight, and the former reveals that he was the one who detached Yomotsu Hirasaka from the moon, using it to intercept the Longinus replica.
Inside a dream-like mindscape, Shinji sees a “girl clothed in red wind” being attacked by a snake made of lightning, and jumps in to protect her. In the real world, Wolfpack unfurls its AT-Field, creating a pack of spectral beasts that incapacitate Torwätcher B. Wolfpack reaches Crimson A1 and bites her shoulder. This causes Asuka’s consciousness to reawaken, and she calls out to Shinji, who hears her voice inside the dream-like mindscape and remembers his name. The “girl clothed in red wind,” now with a bite mark on her shoulder, scolds him for forgetting about her. She declares that, even if the world became a perfect place, she’d love him enough to be one real thorn in his side. Then she kisses him, and Shinji recognizes her as Asuka.
Now in full control of the Torwätcher, Shinji grabs the Longinus replica and fights back the horde of AT-Field beasts. In the process, the black armor cracks, releasing a reconstructed Super Eva, now reunited with its heart. Meanwhile, Rei is using her Unit-0.0 to blast the incoming fragments of Yomotsu Hirasaka, so that they don’t fall on Earth. She is infected by one of Armaros’ scales; but Hikari appears in Heuterbise and saves her. Shortly after, the Longinus Ring creates an enormous lens right between Earth and the incoming lunar landmass.
Just as Shinji tells Rei Six to take Crimson A1 away from there, Armaros manifests and reclaims Azumateratsu, which originally belonged to it. The black giant summons two more Torwätchers, ones that speak with Asuka and Rei’s voices. Kaji/SEELE reveals that the current Armaros is a Shinji from a previous world, one where Asuka and Rei died before the final battle. A wounded Wolfpack attacks and manages to absorb all the organic data from Crimson A1, and both dissipate in red particles. At the other side of the lens, in the entry plug of Unit-0.0, Asuka and Mari materialize, returning to their human forms.
As Yomotsu Hirasaka gets closer and closer to Earth, Shinji channels the power of Third Impact through Super Eva’s heart, becoming a giant of light, bigger than even Armaros. This allows him to change the collison course and decelerate the lunar fragment, hopefully minimizing the damage. Hikari uses a new weapon, the Devil’s Backbone, to seemingly kill Armaros once and for all. Yomotsu Hirasaka falls safely into the Pacific Ocean, but Shinji disappears.
Some time later, he reappears at the Tokyo-3 school, but he is acting weird. The pilots discover that they can meet there when they sleep, regardless of the real-world distance between them, and theorize that it must be Shinji’s dream. The deceased Rei Cinq is also present, although the narration implies that it’s actually Yui’s soul. She explains that Shinji froze Third Impact in its last 0.82, and that it will resume if he wakes up. Asuka arranges for an entry-plug to be translated to the classroom, and convinces “dream” Shinji to get inside with her. A few seconds later, Super Eva reappears in the ruins of old Central Dogma.
And a revised vol 5 summary:
Affected by pain, Shinji goes into an almost berserk state, making the Super Eva trash around; but Asuka manages to calm him down. She explains to him that, because of the unfinished Third Impact, his dream is now merging with reality, manifesting in anomalies such as the classroom. Maya finds a message carved onto a piece of metal, from Gendo Ikari and Ritsuko. They are alive, but trapped outside of time and watching events unfold. Meanwhile, in Europe, Hikari and Heuterbise become the new Armaros, taking Kensuke with them and causing untold destruction.
Asuka suggest they go to Yomotsu Hirasaka and destroy the lens, which are now siphoning seawater to the moon. She believes that such an action will attract Armaros’ attention. In the dream classroom, Shinji hops back into the entry plug, returning to his body, frozen in time inside the Super Eva. He reactivates it, managing to keep the last 0.82 seconds of Third Impact at bay. Super Eva –now christened as the Final Model–, takes off, with Asuka and Toji following in a VTOL. Meanwhile, using her mutant Eva, Rei Quatre takes Kaji/SEELE to Nerv, where he negotiates with Misato: information in exchange for the Longinus replica. Around the same time, Mari regains some of her animal instincts and features. She slips under Nerv’s vigilance and sneaks into a boat on route to Yomotsu Hirasaka.
In the new island, Shinji is attacked by the Angel Carriers, which have regenerated thanks to the power of the Ark. During the fight, he falls into subterranean magma and finds Lilith’s Chronostatic Sphere. Influenced by its power, Shinji contacts two other possible versions of himself, and together they summon the Lance of Lucretius. Shinji uses it to destroy the spatial lenses, bringing Armaros to the island. In the meantime, Asuka sees Mari running through the jungle and follows her.
Upon arrival, Armaros is attacked by a reconstituted giant Wolfpack, who now has Unit-02 embedded into its forehead. Mari fuses with Wolfpack while Asuka climbs to the head and manages to reactivate Unit-02. They aid Shinji in the fight against Armaros, but the black giant summons a Torwätcher containing Kodama’s soul, and then it turns Toji into another Torwätcher. The original Lance of Longinus comes down from space and tries to stab the Final Model, but it’s absorbed by the roots of the World Tree, which manifest all across the world, bloating the skies. In Nerv, Kaji/SEELE explains that the roots are “the road that connects the Human Instrumentality Project.” They’re also what Armaros, the Towätchers, the Angel Carriers and Quatre’s mutant Eva have been using to teleport freely around the world.
Using the Ark, Asuka fuses with Unit-02 one more time, becoming Crimson A1. Shinji is forced to use some of the power of the stopped Third Impact, but in doing so he brings the cataclysm 0.5 seconds closer to completion. With the original Longinus lost inside the World Tree, Armaros flies through the roots to Tokyo-3, to steal Nerv’s replica. Rei Quatre takes the replica Lance and uses it to crack the Glass Egg, destroying both in the process and bringing back the old HQ into reality, along with Gendo, Ritsuko and many others. After this, Kaji is freed from SEELE’s control. At the same time, a massive volcanic eruption in Yomotsu Hirasaka launches Lilith’s Chronostatic Sphere into the moon.
Armaros fuses with the roots of the World Tree, taking the form of an immense giant of darkness who threatens to destroy Tokyo-3. They urge Shinji to let as many people as possible inside dream classroom, since it’s indestructible as long as he’s alive. He also releases the final power of Third Impact, turning the Final Model into a giant of light. Shinji burns some of the roots of the World Tree and cuts one of Armaros’ arms, but in doing so he frees the original Lance of Longinus, and the spear plunges right though his heart, putting a stop to Third Impact. In the dream classroom, Toji reawakens Bardiel’s essence within his body, which allows him to take control of his Torwätcher form and extract Hikari and Kensuke from Armaros. Asuka realizes that Shinji’s consciousness must be intact somewhere, since his dream still exists, and so she calls out to him. Kaji tells her to “think of the one she loves” and that she “must give him a vessel.” On the real world, a dimensional rupture appears on Crimson A1’s lower body, and a brand new Eva, piloted by Shinji Ikari, comes out. This process returns both Asuka and Unit-02 to normal.
Shinji gets ready to destroy Armaros, knowing full well that he will become next one; but Mari appears, still fused with Wolfpack, and kills the black giant. Using her powers as the new minister of the Human Instrumentality Project, she takes the Ark and the Lance of Longinus to Apple’s Core. The moon becomes the New Earth, since the original has lost its Ark and too much mass. Shinji, Asuka, the Reis and the other pilots will have to look for a new moon to stabilize the orbit of New Earth; but first, Shinji wants to speak with his father.
The end.
Once again, thanks to YourBlandestNightmare.