Inside the Polar Tower, the interior was an industrial furnace dancing on the edge of hell.
When Arnor forcibly rushed into the cooling-valve control room, the temperature inside the cabin had already broken through four hundred degrees Celsius. The high-temperature resistant protective suit he wore was emitting a shrill alarm—the sound of his life counting down to the limit.
"Ninety seconds remaining," Void could barely maintain its frequency in his consciousness. "The burrowing logic warhead has shattered the surface. It is utilizing gravitational potential energy to fall directly toward the core. If you cannot lock the valve before it arrives, the feedback loop will completely burn out the planet's core."
Arnor sprinted toward the massive mechanical valve disk suspended in mid-air. It was not merely a piece of metal; it was composed of countless parts possessing high-pressure magnetism, each rotation requiring immense physical force.
He cast aside his spear, gripped the icy edges of the valve with both hands, and let out a rending growl.
"Turn it!" Void guided the stress points of the defense network. "Use the leverage of your own body!"
Above the polar tower, the logic warhead spun at high speed like a meteorite. Because it was a weapon targeting logical structures, a sensation of intense "existential tearing" was generated around it. In that moment, Arnor felt all the colors of the world peeling away from his vision, along with his memories of "home" blurring rapidly.
"I... I can't remember the tribe's name." Arnor gritted his teeth. The smell of charred flesh and scorched skin rose from his palms in the intense heat.
"You do not need to remember," Void force-fed data back into Arnor through the chip. "Just remember one thing: 'You are the Guardian of Earth.' Everything else is redundant."
Arnor pushed with all his might. The valve emitted a strained, metallic cry and finally pried open by five degrees.
But that was not enough.
Simultaneously, the logic warhead above touched the final layer of the defense net—the outer shell of the vacuum dome held open by the Earth-core console. In that instant, Earth, this fortress disguised as "nothingness," was illuminated by the warhead's deluge of logic.
"They are inside." Void said softly.
This was not a complaint; it was a verdict.
The warhead crashed into the magnetic field barrier, emitting a shrill logic screech like the wailing of a vengeful ghost. That was the Gatekeepers attempting to parse Earth's defense protocols. If they succeeded, this would be Earth's final moment.
"Lock the cooling valve, Arnor!" Void's voice was filled with a mad, desperate resolve. "I am going to detonate all the remaining energy of the tower to create logical interference. I need you, in this instant, to fix the cooling valve at maximum output position, even if your body is vaporized by the shockwave!"
Arnor glanced at the continuously rotating red countdown timer.
Thirty seconds.
"If I am vaporized," Arnor breathed, "does there still need to be anyone to watch over the rebirth of this planet?"
"There does." Void answered. "Therefore, I have transferred every one of my logical nodes into your skin and your bones. From this second on, it is not Arnor guarding it; it is the entire defense matrix of Earth, using your hands to complete its final self-forging."
This was a fusion that transcended matter and will.
There was no longer any separation.
Just as the warhead was about to tear through the spherical magnetic field, Arnor's palms jammed rigidly into that valve.
His body, in the face of ultra-high temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees and the high-energy radiation of the collapsing tower, began, as Void had said, to disintegrate bit by bit. But that collapse was not accompanied by pain; on the contrary, he felt a vast, infinite tranquility.
He saw a cobalt-blue great sphere slowly rotating in the dark universe.
He saw, beneath that blue, in the depths of this planet, those tribespeople he had rescued, living in symbiosis with fungi.
"Is this what you wanted me to protect?" Arnor whispered.
No answer.
Because one second later, the entire Polar Tower exploded.
It was a white light brighter than the sun, directly reducing that logic warhead to nothingness amidst the impact. All the defense matrices of Earth connected in an instant, like a behemoth that had been submerged for ten thousand years opening eyes that could shatter the stars.
The detectors of the Gatekeeper fleet burned out from the overload in that instant.
Only one line of data remained on their screens:
[TARGET OBJECT: RECTIFIED]
[DEFENSE FORTRESS ID: 001. STATUS: IMPENETRABLE]
Between a sliver of destruction and a sliver of rebirth, the lingering heat of the Earth's core enveloped all consciousness.
Arnor closed his eyes.
He heard it: the entire planet, for the first time, emitting a true, grateful vibration toward him.