The Artifact's Self-Defense System

[Jedoi]

The Artifact has decided to protect itself. If you hit it, it blasts you away, sometimes even off spawn. Lets figure out hats going on, shall we?

 

[Leasaur]

Technically, the Artifact's always had a self-defense system, since the area around it is "protected by the ancients", so we can infer this is part of it's respawning activity, meant to keep us and itself safe in a certain radius.
However if, in the new world, one attempts to touch the glowstone core of the Artifact, it reacts by spitting out embers and smoke and pushing the player away. I think this is because the Artifact may be becoming more unstable (we transferred worlds twice in a short time, it must be having an effect).