The floor beneath Kenji wasn't just liquid; it was a "Deletion Pool" a swirling vortex of raw binary code designed to strip the identity of any object that touched it. Kenji's boots began to pixelate, his very history as a Scrapsmith being converted into 1s and 0s.
[WARNING: IDENTITY DE-COMPILATION IN PROGRESS]
[DELETION PROGRESS: 12%... 18%...]
"You are a glitch, Kenji Tanaka," the three remaining Lead-Archivists chanted, their triangular heads glowing with a harsh, sterile light. "A glitch must be erased to preserve the sanctity of the Machine."
"Kenji!" Elara shouted, sliding across the frictionless floor to reach him. "Don't fight the pool! If you resist the deletion, it only works faster!"
"I'm not resisting," Kenji said, his voice sounding like a distorted audio file. He looked down at his pixelating hands. He didn't feel fear; he felt a familiar, cold hunger. "I'm a Scrapsmith. I've spent my life taking things apart to see how they work. You want to turn me into data? Fine. I've always wanted to know what 'Truth' tastes like."
[SKILL ACTIVATED: DATA RECYCLING (RANK 1)]
Instead of pulling back, Kenji plunged his hands deeper into the Deletion Pool. He didn't try to keep his shape. He used the Scrap of Eternal Hunger (still dormant but acting as a passive vacuum) to "eat" the deletion code.
[SYSTEM ERROR: SOURCE CODE MISSING]
[ATTEMPTING TO DELETE... VOID DETECTED]
The pool began to turn from gold to a deep, bruised violet. The Lead-Archivists screamed as the "Deletion" they had unleashed began to flow backwards through the light-threads, pulling their own Ranks and memories into Kenji's core.
"He's... he's consuming the Logic!" one Archivist shrieked. "He's a Logic-Eater!"
[LEVEL UP: 15 -> 19]
[NEW ABILITY: BINARY BLADE (IMPROVISED)]
Kenji stood up, his form flickering between flesh and shimmering, violet pixels. He reached into the air and "pulled" a sword out of the Deletion Pool. It wasn't a metal blade; it was a jagged shard of "Un-written Code."
With a single blur of motion, Kenji slashed through the second and third pillars.
[GRAVITY ANCHORS 02 & 03: RE-ASSIGNED]
The containment web holding the Scrap-Venture buckled. The ship groaned, its Recursive Iron hull beginning to "heal" as the violet beams of the audited pillars fed it fresh mana.
"NOW! MATEO!" Kenji roared.
Below the forge, a massive explosion of steam and gears erupted. A small, spherical drone the Scrap-Probe shot out of the sub-levels, followed by a blast of blue light.
Mateo and Priya burst from the holding cells. Mateo was carrying a jury-rigged "Logic-Jammer" made from a broken Archivist head, and Priya was glowing with a soft, radiant light that neutralized the "Deletion" static in the air.
"We're here!" Mateo yelled, his fingers flying across the jammer's interface. "Kenji, the last pillar is the Master Anchor! If we flip that one, the ship's engines will jump-start the whole Spire's power grid!"
"I've got the back!" Priya shouted, casting a [Holy Scrapshield] over the team. "The Guardians are regrouping!"
The Spire responded to the loss of three anchors by deploying its "Final Sanction." From the ceiling, a Rank 35 System Arbiter descended. It was a humanoid figure made of pure, white light, carrying a sword that looked like a lightning bolt.
[BOSS DETECTED: SYSTEM ARBITER - UNIT ZERO]
[RANK: 35]
[STATUS: JUDGEMENT INITIATED]
"Bjorn, Elara take the Arbiter!" Kenji commanded, his eyes fixed on the fourth pillar. "Priya, keep them alive! Mateo, get to the ship's bridge! I'm finishing the Audit!"
"On it!" Bjorn roared, leaping toward the light-giant. He didn't use his axe to cut the Arbiter; he used the [Combat Recycling] Kenji had taught him to catch the Arbiter's light-blade on his axe-head, "echoing" the energy back at the boss.
Elara surrounded the Arbiter in a "Thermal Prison," cycling the temperature so fast the Arbiter's light-body began to "flicker" and lose cohesion.
Kenji reached the fourth pillar. It was protected by a "Final Firewall" a wall of solid light that burned anything that touched it.
Kenji didn't use his Binary Blade. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Rank 0 Locket.
"This is the one thing you can't calculate," Kenji whispered.
He pressed the locket against the firewall. The Rank 35 security system tried to analyze the locket. It found: No Mana. No Value. No Rank. Sentimental Value: INFINITE.
The firewall didn't break; it confused itself to death. The logic-circuits overloaded trying to assign a numerical value to a mother's love. The wall vanished.
Kenji slammed his hand into the final pillar.
[FINAL AUDIT COMPLETE]
[SPIRE OWNERSHIP: TEMPORARY OVERRIDE]
[INITIATING: THE GREAT RECLAMATION]
The Scrap-Venture's engines roared to life. The blue light of the Stasis Diamond flared, and instead of freezing time, it emitted a pulse that "Locked" every security drone in the Spire into a state of permanent inactivity.
"The ship is ours!" Mateo's voice boomed over the Spire's own intercom system. "Kenji, get in! The whole Spire is about to go into a 'Manual Purge'!"
Kenji grabbed the Binary Blade and leaped onto the ship's boarding ramp just as the Arbiter disintegrated into a cloud of harmless pixels.
[MISSION COMPLETE: THE GREAT RECLAMATION]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 120,000]
[LEVEL UP: 19 -> 25 (ASCENDANT)]
As the Scrap-Venture tore itself free from the golden webs and rocketed out of the Spire, Kenji stood at the prow, looking back at the "Golden Gears."
"We have the ship," Elara said, coming up beside him. "And we have the team. What now?"
Kenji looked at his hands. The violet pixels were fading, returning to solid flesh, but his eyes... his eyes were still glowing with the light of the "True Code."
"Now," Kenji said, "we go to the Jade Empire. If the Architect wants an army of Void-Walkers, he's going to need the Spirit-Silk from the Eastern Sectors. We're going to get there first."
[NEXT DESTINATION: THE JADE EMPIRE (SECTOR 5)]
[CURRENT RANK: 25]