After stabilizing the forest the Data Guild expected the land to return to normal. But Evan knew the echo pulse was only one symptom. The source was far deeper. And the continental dashboard showed the second spike rising steadily.

Lyriel approached Evan early the next morning. “The forest breathes again. But the sky does not.”

Evan blinked. “The sky”

Lyriel pointed upward. “Look.”

At first Evan saw only clouds drifting across soft blue. Then he noticed it. The uneven shimmer in the air. Like thin cracks of mana drifting between the clouds. They pulsed faintly. Not natural. Not consistent. But rhythmic.

The sky was echoing.

Evan immediately felt alarm. “The disturbance reached the upper mana layers.”

Brumdir crossed his arms. “Upper mana layers”

Evan explained quickly. “Magic isn’t just in the ground or the trees. It’s in the air too. Sky mana stabilizes weather flow. It affects storm patterns. It balances sunlight with magical absorption.”

Lyriel’s face paled. “If the sky loses rhythm the weather becomes dangerous.”

“We need readings,” Evan said firmly.

He led the guild to the highest platform in the city. The wind was strong here. The sky shimmered like ripples on water. Evan placed a sky crystal array on the railing and activated it.

The crystals glowed. Then shuddered.

“What is that,” Lyriel asked.

“A missing pattern,” Evan whispered. “The sky has a cycle. A natural beat. But something is interrupting it. Something that repeats every hour.”

Brumdir frowned. “So the sky is stuttering too”

Evan nodded. “Yes. Worse the sky pulse is stronger than the forest echo. The regulator cannot reach this far.”

Lyriel asked carefully, “Then what can”

Evan looked at the crystals. “We need a Sky Pulse Tower.”

Brumdir raised an eyebrow. “A tower that pushes mana upward”

Evan shook his head. “A tower that listens. Captures sky pulses. Filters them. It is like an antenna.”

Lyriel blinked. “Antenna”

“Never mind. The point is we need a structure high enough to touch the upper mana layer.”

Lyriel’s eyes softened. “We can grow one.”

Evan turned. “Grow”

Lyriel nodded. “The elves can shape living trees. We can persuade a sky tree to grow tall enough.”

Brumdir snorted. “While dwarves ground the base with stone foundations.”

Evan considered the idea. “Yes. That could work. A living tower stabilized by dwarven anchoring.”

They started immediately. Lyriel called druid elders to awaken a young sky tree. The druids placed glowing seeds around it and chanted softly. The sapling responded. Mana flowed like water up its trunk. It grew taller twisting and curving until it reached far above the treetop line.

Brumdir’s team hammered anchoring stones at the roots forming a stabilizing ring. When the tree reached the height Evan wanted he climbed the spiraling platform built around the trunk.

The wind grew sharper. But the sky shimmer clearer.

He placed the sky crystal array at the top and activated it.

The pulses roared.

Lyriel gasped below as the crystals shone bright white. “What do you see”

Evan swallowed. “The sky cycle isn’t broken. It’s overwritten.”

Lyriel stared. “Overwritten by what”

Evan shook his head. “A pulse from outside the region. Maybe outside the continent.”

Brumdir shouted up the trunk. “How far outside”

Evan looked at the sky.

The pulse vibrated like a whisper across the horizon.
Old. Deep. Ancient.

He whispered back:

“This is not a natural event. Something or someone is sending these pulses.”

Lyriel’s voice trembled. “Sending from where”

Evan stared toward the distant mountains. Distant seas. Distant clouds.

“Far away,” he said. “And they are getting stronger.”

The tree shook as a new pulse rippled across the sky.

Evan held the crystals tightly. “We are not dealing with a natural cycle. We are dealing with an intelligent pattern.”

Lyriel froze. “Intelligent”

Brumdir growled. “You mean something alive is doing this”

Evan’s voice was low. “Something alive or something built. But yes. The pulses match designed signal patterns.”

Lyriel whispered, “Then we are not facing an awakening.”

Evan nodded grimly. “We are facing communication.”

The crystal array shuddered violently.

A pulse stronger than any before hit the sky.

Evan gasped. “It is broadcasting again.”

And the world responded.