The courtyard turned eerily still after Evan spoke those words. Even the wind quieted as if the world itself was holding its breath. Lyriel stared at the glowing board her face pale with disbelief.

“A download request,” she repeated softly. “Evan I do not understand. How does magic download anything”

“It does not,” Evan said. “Not on its own. But mana is information. Mana carries patterns. And someone or something is trying to extract those patterns.”

Brumdir slammed his hammer into the ground. “Meaning what exactly human Speak clearly before the mountain cracks again.”

Evan pointed at the sky. “Something out there detected the dashboards. It realized the world’s mana now has organized structure. That structure resembles a data network. And now it is trying to connect.”

Lyriel gasped. “Connect to what”

Evan swallowed hard. “To whatever it thinks the data source is.”

Brumdir frowned deeply. “And what is the data source”

Evan hesitated.

Then Lyriel whispered the terrifying answer.

“You.”

Evan froze.

Because she was right.
He was the only thing in this world with analytical logic from another dimension.
He built the dashboards.
He defined the patterns.
He created the structure the pulse was responding to.

Brumdir looked at him with new tension. “Human are you saying the sky is trying to read your mind”

Evan shook his head sharply. “No. Not my mind. My work. The dashboards. The logs. The regulator. The continental board. Everything we built.”

Lyriel’s voice trembled. “The world has never had this kind of structure before. Your arrival changed the flow. The world’s mana now forms patterns for the first time. The pulse senses it.”

Evan nodded. “Exactly. And now it wants access.”

The crystals suddenly flashed.
Bright. Blinding.
A sharp inverted pulse struck them like an electric shock.

Guild members gasped. Brumdir shielded his face. Lyriel held her staff defensively.

Evan shouted, “Back up”

The continental board lit up with runes Evan had not carved. Runes forming on their own. Light bending into shapes that looked both magical and computational.

Lyriel panicked. “Evan the board is forming new glyphs”

“I know,” Evan said. “It is responding to the pulse.”

Brumdir growled. “Meaning what now”

Evan examined the spontaneous glyphs. Each symbol mirrored sequences from the sky. They translated into numbers. Coordinates. Queries. Requests.

“This is a negotiation,” Evan whispered. “The pulse is waiting for our response. If we do nothing it may escalate.”

Lyriel asked, “Escalate how”

Evan’s stomach twisted. “By forcing the connection. The same way mana storms force instability. The sky pulse could overwhelm the world’s mana system.”

Brumdir swore loudly.

Lyriel grabbed Evan’s arm. “Then what do we do”

Evan stared at the glowing glyphs. “We respond carefully. We send a controlled signal. We show we are aware but not compliant. Enough to satisfy the sequence but not enough to give full access.”

Brumdir snorted. “You speak as if bargaining with a god.”

Evan nodded. “Maybe we are.”

He placed his hands on the two central crystals. “Lyriel channel small mana flow into the board. Just enough to carry signal. Brumdir stabilize the base so the pulse does not crack the board.”

Lyriel closed her eyes and touched the board. Mana flowed gently into the crystals. Brumdir anchored the bottom with stabilizing stones humming with deep resonance.

Evan pushed the pulse back through the sequence.
Twenty seven
Eight
One
Three
He removed the last two pulses.

The board glowed.
The sky stilled.
The pulse paused as if… thinking.

Lyriel whispered, “Did it work”

Evan exhaled. “We delayed it. It will try again.”

Brumdir cursed. “Then what next”

Evan turned to the guild. “We prepare a firewall.”

Lyriel blinked. “Fire wall”

“A barrier that blocks unwanted connection. But in this world we build it using mana resonance not code. A magical shield that prevents the pulse from extracting data.”

Brumdir cracked his knuckles. “Now you speak my language.”

Evan nodded. “We build a Firewall Array. Large enough to cover the continental board and strong enough to hold off the pulse.”

Lyriel frowned. “And if we fail”

Evan looked toward the shimmering sky where faint light curled like a restless serpent.

“If we fail,” he said quietly, “the pulse will access the world’s mana directly.”

Brumdir swallowed. “Meaning what exactly human”

Evan stared at the horizon.

“It will rewrite magic.”

Silence spread through the courtyard.
Every elf. Every dwarf. Every apprentice.
All stared at Evan as if he had spoken prophecy.

Lyriel found her voice at last. “Then we must not let it happen.”

Brumdir grinned fiercely. “Aye. Let the sky try. We will hold the world together with stone and numbers.”

Evan nodded slowly.

“We begin the Firewall Array at dawn.”

Because the next pulse would come soon.
And the world’s magic hung by a thread.