"They are not here to retrieve control of the Earth's core." Void's voice echoed through the frigid hub hall, carrying an unprecedented weight. "Arnor, they are 'sacrifices'."
On the mining module's monitor, Arnor clearly saw that the scavengers were no longer walking; they had begun to arrange themselves into a complex geometric pattern, and the center of that pattern was the energy overflow point of the Polarity Defense Tower.
These mutated bodies radiated an eerie, high heat amidst the extreme cold. Their skin dripped like melting wax, and every drop that hit the ground burned a deep pit into the ice sheet.
"Sacrifices?" Arnor stared at the screen, heart drumming like a drum.
"They are sacrificing themselves. The Gatekeepers do not necessarily need to destroy this magnetic vacuum dome directly. As long as there is a 'logical disruption' large enough, a crack can be torn in this vacuum region—and these scavengers, through the malformed logic created by their mutation, are the perfect 'explosives'."
"They have no idea what they are doing." Arnor felt that fanaticism. "They think they are on a pilgrimage."
"Ignorance is the most terrifying form of self-destruction." Void mobilized the remaining defensive circuits, though the vast majority were already supporting the global CPR effort. "Arnor, I need you to stop them. If that defense tower is detonated as a sacrifice by them, the Earth's core-restart process will be completely interrupted. By then, before the planet collapses, we will all be snacks for the Gatekeepers."
Arnor did not hesitate.
He maneuvered the mining module out of the underground docking bay, breaking through the ice directly.
Amidst the blizzard at the pole, the mining module roared like a beast of steel, slamming into the scavengers' encampment. But something that left Arnor terrified occurred: these mad mutants were not knocked aside. They acted as a single entity, utilizing limbs that had long since departed from the human norm to grab the deck of the mining module with brute force.
Blue, brightly glowing liquid, highly corrosive, flowed instead of blood from their arms.
"They do not care for their lives," Void growled. "Their logic chains have been completely rewritten; now, they are driven by a thirst for 'fusion'."
"How am I supposed to fight monsters that lack even the concept of death?" Arnor roared, engaging the anti-riot spray on the cabin exterior. A potent chemical corrosive drove back the closest scavengers.
"Use your 'logic'." Void's voice suddenly turned chillingly calm. "You are the Guardian of Civilization; you possess the permissions I granted. These scavengers have gathered here because they heard the call of the defense tower. Since you are the actual executor of the defense tower, issue a command to them."
"What command?"
" 'Protocol Terminated'."
Arnor stood atop the mining module, raising the "torch" made of crystal. In that instant, he felt the connection between the chip in his body and the planet's defense network, surging like the tide.
He injected his will into the crystal, issuing that declaration of true sovereignty toward the ice sheet below through the defense array:
"I am the Administrator of Earth."
"Protocol Terminated. Stand down."
In that instant, every magnetic field line at the pole contracted violently in accordance with his will. That force was not a physical repulsion; it was a forced "dimensional reduction" for those infected by the Gatekeeper logic.
The group of fanatics, who had acted like zombies, stopped dead after that command.
Their hollow eye sockets turned toward Arnor.
The silence of that moment was terrifying, as if the wind and snow of the entire pole had ceased their howling.
"Is... is it useless?" Sweat beaded on Arnor's palms.
"No, it is working." Void's tone was taut. "They are undergoing logical collapse. Hold on; every one of their logic chains will produce a backlash until it snaps."
As expected, the next moment, the scavengers began to shatter like glass.
They did not die. Instead, because they could not bear that "ordered" logic which Arnor had imposed, the bodies that had been ruled by mutation-based madness began to disintegrate on a large scale, turning into formless dust.
That "sacrifice" was interrupted.
But at the same moment, a blinding distortion occurred in the sky far away.
At the edge of where Earth's physical perception vanished, the Gatekeepers sensed the "logical disruption." The absolute magnetic vacuum dome created by Earth, due to that one instance of forced intervention on surface life, developed a fracture.
The second wave of bombardment from the Gatekeeper fleet descended.
This time, it was no orbital cannon, but a burrowing "logical warhead" capable of striking directly into the core.
"Arnor." Void's voice turned warm again. "The defense towers were just overloaded by that 'instruction backlash'. I need someone to manually lock the cooling valves of the Polar Tower, otherwise... Earth will burn itself into molten lava before it can even restart."
"This is a suicide mission, isn't it?"
"This is what a Guardian must do."
Arnor wiped the ice shards from his face and revealed a human smile he had not even anticipated himself.
"Fine."