The three shimmering light screens vanished abruptly, plunging the platform into a silence so profound it felt like a physical weight. But the stillness lasted only a heartbeat.
[Warning: Consensus Inconclusive]
[Path Conflict Detected]
[System Override: Stasis Cascade Initiated]
The cold system alerts shredded the quiet. Then, an invisible force hammered the space. Gravity shattered. Bodies were slammed into the unforgiving floor; others tumbled helplessly in the sudden void. Frost-rimed metal walls webbed with cracks, and frenzied tendrils of blue energy lashed out, scorching everything they touched.
"Hold position!" Li Chenyuan's command cut through the chaos. He shielded the throne, deflecting a whip-like energy arc with his weapon, the backlash scoring a burn across his cheek. "It's not rejecting us—it's reacting to our discord!"
Lu Xingze fought to stabilize himself, his voice strained yet analytical. "He's wrong. This is a protective cascade. The system is waiting for true unanimity!"
"Unanimity?" The collaborator leader's laugh was a broken, grating sound in the distorted air. "There is none between purity and corruption! Only purification—" He raised a strange, ancient device, its dark core beginning to glow.
Then—
"Wait!" Wang Jing's voice, raw but triumphant. He was pinned against his terminal, but his finger stabbed at a line of code flashing on his screen. "Look! Atlantis never intended a dictatorship! 'Equivalent Sacrifice' is a last resort! The primary rule is—'Majority Will Prevails!'"
He gasped for air, each word an effort. "The vote wasn't rejected! It was a tie! Now... now she must break it!" All eyes snapped toward the throne.
Su Xiaolan was engulfed in light. Her consciousness plunged through agony until it met something vast, cold, and imbued with a profound sadness.
"P.D.?" she asked silently.
"Not entirely," the presence replied, a whisper like a fading echo. "I am her remnant... and the system's own resonance. Child, you have triggered the deepest protocol—'Witness Resonance.'"
Visions overwhelmed her. She saw not just Atlantis's fall but understood Ψ's true nature: not a ruler, but a prison, designed to contain a civilization's runaway consciousness. Synchronization wasn't salvation; it was funneling all humanity into that same cage for a false, eternal peace.
"Return..." Su Xiaolan fought to form the thought. "Not destruction, not submission... but giving the choice back. To every single mind."
"The cost is high," the presence warned. "Severing the link could cause a global psychic shock. Some may never wake."
"Better that than eternal sleep," her will solidified, clearer and fiercer than ever before. She wove this intent together with Li Chenyuan's steadfastness, Wang Jing's discovery, Lu Xingze's conflict, and even the collaborator's fanaticism, and poured it all into the system.
Outside, the collaborator leader's device reached its crescendo, poised to unleash oblivion.
"It's too late! We must stop him!" Li Chenyuan tried to charge forward but was driven back by the violent energy storm.
Then—
The throne erupted with light.
Su Xiaolan's voice spoke not through the air, but directly into every mind present, gentle yet absolute:
"In the name of the Fifth Witness, I define a new path: Return and Awakening."
[Directive Overwritten]
[New Parameter: "The Return" - Accepted]
[Initiating Global Consciousness Restoration]
The light from the collaborator's device died instantly, like embers doused with water. He stared, dumbfounded, at the crumbled ash in his hand.
The violent shuddering of Zero Station began to transform, the destructive frenzy giving way to a deep, resonant hum. The eerie blue circuits covering the server ship faded and flaked away, revealing ancient, solemn metal beneath.
[Warning: Multiple Anchor Points Detected Worldwide]
[Consensus Network Expanding…]
A massive holographic map of the world bloomed in the center of the cavity. Countless points of light ignited across the globe—Tokyo, Cairo, the Amazon rainforest, the Siberian tundra. Each light represented a potential Anchor, awakening. Their consciousness, though they might never know Zero Station, now resonated with Su Xiaolan's, sharing the immense burden of the Return.
"So this..." Wang Jing whispered, tears in his eyes, "this is the true 'Consensus Channel'... It wasn't about us voting... it was about awakening all the potential Witnesses worldwide to decide together!"
Lu Xingze watched the spectacular display of global lights, his usual cold demeanor shaken. The ultimate knowledge he sought was now revealed in a form far more profound and alive than he had ever imagined.
Li Chenyuan finally broke through the subsiding energy field and reached the throne. As the light receded, Su Xiaolan slumped forward, exhausted, into his waiting arms. The data patterns burning on her skin began to fade.
[Ψ Network Severance: 30% and climbing…]
[Global Synchronization Terminated]
The immediate crisis seemed to be over.
Yet, at that moment, the central and most imposing of the thirteen thrones—perhaps marked [Witness-0] or [Origin]—projected a brief, intensely blurred phantom. It had no clear form, more a coalescence of starlight.
A neutral, utterly emotionless voice, distinct from P.D.'s, echoed through the cavity:
"Custodian Mode activated. The cycle is suspended, not terminated."
With those words, the phantom vanished.
A deep, unprecedented quiet settled over Zero Station, like a machine that had run for millennia finally entering standby mode.
The polar wind whispered through new fissures, brushing against the faces of the survivors.
Su Xiaolan stirred slightly in Li Chenyuan's embrace, her eyes fluttering open.
"Listen..." she murmured, her voice barely audible. "The echo... of the world."
It was not an ending. It was the first heartbeat of a civilization, long lost, finally beginning to learn to navigate for itself.