Inside the Core Control Room, the little girl changed faces again.
A crazed face.
She tapped wildly at the control console, her eyes bright as two balls of ghost fire, giggling, "Fun, fun! This is so much fun!"
In a mere instant.
Mechanical City fell into chaos.
The Light Gate could not be closed.
The various weapon systems, which had been turning toward the Zombie horde and had already deployed in defensive formation, suddenly had their commands overwritten.
Their barrels swung around in unison, aiming at the buildings, streets, and crowds inside the city.
And that was not all.
The Mechanical Soldiers were suddenly pulled from their posts and began racing all over the city.
The moment one reached a position, the next command arrived;
the moment it turned and ran the other way, a third command yanked it in yet another direction.
Every Mechanical Soldier was being sent running in circles by one contradictory command after another, buzzing around the city like headless flies.
In the conference room, the Grand Elder slammed his fist onto the table.
Bang!
"Damn it!"
Although the thing inside the Core Control Room was not nominally the city lord, it was still a part of the city lord, and its authority outranked his.
Within Mechanical City, he could not possibly act against that thing.
Then something even more despairing happened.
It was not just the Light Gate. Every gate in Mechanical City opened.
First, the gate of the Barbican.
Then, the gate of the Outer City.
Then, the gate of the Inner City.
And finally...
The gate of the Core Area.
Every gate, without exception, stood wide open.
The little girl's fingers danced nimbly over the control console, as though playing a funeral march.
The Zombies could now charge straight into the Core Area