I created this account solely to share my success in fixing this issue, in hopes that it may help others who encounter the same problem in the future...
The 'critical error', described in detail by the original poster, can be temporarily resolved by resetting your motherboard's BIOS.
There are several ways to do this—for example, by entering the BIOS (usually by pressing F9 while your computer is starting up), then choosing the option to restore factory/default settings. After that, just restart your system, and voilà, the error will be gone and the Divinity Engine should work again.
⚠️ However, keep in mind that the error may return a few weeks later, so you might need to repeat the process.
Resetting the BIOS to default may also cause your system clock to become incorrect, so remember to either fix the time before restarting or go back into the BIOS and manually set the correct time.
I don’t know the actual reason behind this error—it’s still a mystery to me.
