Lyriel insisted they begin their investigation in the Forest of Light the heart of elven territory where mana normally flowed in perfect balance. If the continental pulse disrupted it then the problem was far worse than even Evan predicted.

Evan walked with Lyriel along vine bridges stretching across the canopy. Birds glowed softly as they flew through the branches but something felt wrong. Their movements were irregular. Their wings flickered in uneven colors.

Lyriel frowned. “The birds are unstable. Their mana feathers never flicker.”

Evan nodded. “Another sign. The pulse is affecting even micro patterns.”

They entered the deeper forest where mana streams usually flowed like gentle rivers of light. Today they pulsed in jagged bursts. Evan knelt and placed his hand near the glowing roots.

“Feel this,” he said.

Lyriel knelt beside him. The pulse beneath the ground vibrated like a heartbeat but skipped at strange intervals.

“It feels like the world is stuttering,” Lyriel whispered.

Evan pulled out a portable crystal array he designed after returning from the dwarven tunnels. He placed five crystals in a row and activated them. They synced immediately glowing in different intensities.

The readings were alarming.

Lyriel watched his expression. “What is it”

Evan tapped the crystals lightly. “These pulses are not just irregular. They are copying each other.”

Lyriel gasped. “Copying”

“Yes,” Evan said. “Look at the glow.”
The first crystal pulsed unevenly. The second followed with the same uneven pulse seconds later. Then the third replicated the second.

Lyriel whispered, “Like an echo.”

Evan nodded slowly. “Exactly. But natural mana does not echo. It flows. It drifts. It cycles. It does not repeat identical irregularities.”

Brumdir who had accompanied them muttered, “So the disturbance spreads like sound in a cavern.”

Evan stood. “But sound fades. This does not. It gets stronger.”

A sudden roar broke through the forest. The trees shook. Birds scattered. Lyriel raised her staff. Brumdir readied his hammer.

A mana beast emerged from the bushes glowing with unstable blue light. Its breathing was uneven. Its mana fur was shimmering uncontrollably.

Lyriel whispered, “It is sick.”

Evan stepped forward carefully. “No. It is destabilized. Look at the glow.”

The beast roared again but instead of charging it stumbled collapsing onto the grass. Lyriel hurried to its side. Evan placed his analyzer crystals around the beast. The readings pulsed erratically following the same echo pattern.

“Lyriel,” Evan said, “the beast is echoing the continental pulse.”

Lyriel covered her mouth. “It is affecting creatures directly.”

Brumdir growled, “If this spreads to our mountain animals we are doomed.”

Evan’s mind raced. Every creature in the world was tied to mana in some way. If the pulse destabilized them then this was not just a magic crisis. This was ecological disaster.

He knelt beside the beast. “We can stabilize it.”

Lyriel looked at him hopefully. “How”

Evan placed a stabilizer crystal over its chest. It glowed softly. The beast’s breathing steadied slightly.

“We interrupt the echo,” Evan said. “We force the pulse to break using a counter pulse.”

Brumdir raised an eyebrow. “Human you talk like a smith breaking metal stress.”

Evan smiled faintly. “Same idea. Data tells us where the pattern is strongest. We push against it.”

He activated the crystal. The beast growled but slowly its glow steadied. Its pulse synchronized not with the continental disturbance but with the local mana instead.

Lyriel exhaled in relief. “You saved it.”

Evan did not answer immediately. He stood and looked deeper into the forest.

Because now he saw dozens of flickers. Dozens of unstable glows. The entire forest was echoing.

“We cannot save them one by one,” Evan said. “We need a forest wide stabilizing system.”

Lyriel looked overwhelmed. “Such a thing has never existed.”

Evan nodded. “Exactly. We must build it.”

Brumdir crossed his arms. “A giant dashboard for the forest”

“More than a dashboard,” Evan said. “A pulse regulator. Something that breaks the echo.”

Lyriel’s eyes widened. “You want to reshape the forest’s mana flow”

Evan pointed at the unstable streams. “If we do nothing the forest collapses.”

Lyriel took a deep breath. “Then we build it. But we will need the entire Data Guild.”

“And the dwarves for reinforcement stones,” Brumdir added.

Evan nodded slowly. “And maybe more. Because if the forest is echoing it means other regions are too. We need a world scale solution eventually.”

Lyriel whispered, “This is bigger than kingdoms.”

Evan stared at the unstable pulses. “This is the world’s code unraveling.”

Lyriel touched his arm. “Then we stitch it back together.”

Evan clenched his fists. “Yes. We begin now.”

The forest trembled again.
The echo pulse spread like a whisper in the soil.
Evan felt it in his bones.

The world was destabilizing.
And only data could reveal how to save it.