The third impact never came.
William remained motionless before the enormous circular structure.
The opening in the mountain was still there.
Darkness filled the space beyond it.
Nothing emerged.
Nothing attacked.
And yet the silence felt heavier than any battle.
Mira stood beside him, her eyes fixed on the opening.
"William..."
"I know."
"Do we close it?"
William didn't answer immediately.
He examined the structure again.
The ancient symbols covering its surface were still glowing faintly.
He could feel the connection running through them.
It wasn't a simple formation.
The entire structure seemed to be part of something much larger.
Adrian moved closer.
"Can you understand it?"
"Not completely."
"But you can feel it."
"Yes."
"What does it feel like?"
William placed his hand against the stone.
"Like a connection that has been inactive for a very long time."
Mira frowned.
"And now?"
"Now someone activated it."
Adrian looked into the darkness.
"From our side?"
William shook his head.
"No."
His eyes narrowed.
"From the other side."
They waited.
Nothing happened.
Minutes passed.
Then an hour.
The darkness beyond the opening remained completely motionless.
Eventually, Adrian spoke.
"Maybe whatever was there left."
William shook his head.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because the connection is still active."
Adrian looked at him.
"You can still feel it?"
"Yes."
William closed his eyes.
He focused on the structure.
The sensation became clearer.
There was a path.
Not a physical path.
A connection between the door and something far away.
William followed it carefully.
For several seconds, everything was quiet.
Then he felt something.
A second connection.
Then a third.
Then many more.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Mira immediately noticed.
William opened his eyes.
"This isn't one door."
Adrian looked around.
"There are more?"
"Not here."
William pointed toward the structure.
"It's connected to other places."
Mira stared at the symbols.
"The observation points."
William nodded.
"Exactly."
The realization settled over them.
The ancient network wasn't merely observing the boundary.
It was connected to these gates.
Adrian's expression became serious.
"Then the ancient powers built a network of doors."
"Perhaps."
"For what?"
William looked into the darkness.
"I don't know."
A faint vibration passed through the mountain.
The opening became slightly wider.
William immediately raised his hand.
"Stay back."
Mira and Adrian moved behind him.
The darkness shifted.
Something appeared.
Not a creature.
Not a person.
A small fragment of light.
It floated in the darkness for a few seconds.
Then it moved toward them.
William watched carefully.
The fragment stopped at the edge of the opening.
It didn't cross.
It simply remained there.
Mira whispered:
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
William extended his perception.
The fragment reacted.
It moved slightly toward him.
William stopped.
For an instant, he felt the same sensation he had experienced at the observation point.
Something had noticed him.
But this time, it was closer.
Much closer.
William slowly extended his hand.
The fragment moved toward it.
Mira immediately grabbed his arm.
"Don't."
William looked at her.
"I need to know what it is."
"And if touching it is dangerous?"
"Then I'll find out."
"That's exactly what worries me."
William remained silent.
She released his arm.
"I know you want answers."
She looked at him.
"But you don't have to put your hand into every unknown thing just because you can."
William smiled faintly.
"Fair."
He lowered his hand.
The fragment remained in place.
Then—
It disappeared.
The opening closed.
The mountain became silent again.
Adrian looked at William.
"What do you think it was?"
"Maybe nothing."
Adrian stared at him.
"You don't believe that."
"No."
William looked at the place where it had disappeared.
"I think it was a response."
"To what?"
"To me."
Mira frowned.
"Why you?"
William didn't answer.
He didn't know.
But he had a suspicion.
His ability had allowed him to sense the network.
Perhaps that had made him visible to whatever was connected to it.
He didn't like the thought.
They remained at the mountain until dawn.
Nothing else happened.
Eventually, William decided to leave.
"We're going back."
Adrian looked surprised.
"Already?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because we don't know enough."
Mira nodded.
"And continuing blindly could make things worse."
William looked at her.
"Exactly."
They turned away from the mountain.
But after taking several steps, William stopped.
He looked back.
Something was different.
The ancient symbols had changed.
Only one.
A symbol near the center of the gate was now glowing more brightly than the others.
William walked back.
He examined it.
Mira and Adrian followed.
"What is it?"
William touched the symbol.
The moment his fingers made contact, a sensation passed through his mind.
He saw something.
A vast darkness.
Countless points of light.
And seven enormous structures scattered through the darkness.
The vision lasted less than a second.
Then it disappeared.
William withdrew his hand.
Mira noticed his expression.
"What did you see?"
William breathed slowly.
"Seven."
"Seven what?"
"I don't know."
He looked at the symbol.
"But they were connected."
Adrian frowned.
"Seven gates?"
"Maybe."
"Where?"
William shook his head.
"I couldn't tell."
He remained silent for a moment.
"All I know is that this place wasn't built alone."
They began their return.
The journey was quiet.
William kept thinking about what he had seen.
Seven structures.
Seven connections.
Seven points within a network whose true purpose remained unknown.
He didn't know whether the number had any importance.
He refused to assume that it did.
But he also couldn't ignore it.
Mira eventually noticed his silence.
"You've been thinking about the vision."
"Yes."
"Do you think it has something to do with the seven disturbances?"
"I don't know."
She smiled.
"You really use those words a lot."
William looked at her.
"Because I'm not going to invent an answer."
Mira nodded.
"Good."
When they finally returned to the valley, the situation had changed.
The ancient cultivators were gathered around the main hall.
Several messengers had arrived.
The moment William entered, the old man approached.
"Where were you?"
"Following the network."
The old man froze.
"You found one?"
"A gate."
His expression immediately became serious.
"Where?"
William explained what they had discovered.
When he mentioned that the gate had been activated from the other side, the old man became silent.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"And you saw something?"
"A fragment."
"What kind?"
"Light."
The old man frowned.
"Did it attack?"
"No."
"Did it cross?"
"No."
"Then what did it do?"
"It responded to me."
The old man's expression became more complicated.
"To you?"
"Yes."
He remained silent.
William noticed.
"You know what that means."
The old man shook his head.
"I have a suspicion."
"Tell me."
"Not here."
William looked around the hall.
Several people were watching them.
The old man turned toward a private chamber.
"Come."
Inside, only the old man and William remained.
The old man closed the door.
"You said there were seven structures in what you saw."
William nodded.
"Yes."
The old man sat down.
"Then perhaps you're beginning to see what the ancient records couldn't explain."
William waited.
The old man continued.
"Long ago, the people who built those structures weren't trying to open the boundary."
William frowned.
"What were they doing?"
"They were connecting themselves to it."
"Why?"
"To observe."
"Only observe?"
"That's what we believed."
William stared at him.
"And now?"
The old man sighed.
"Now I'm not sure."
William remained silent.
The old man continued.
"If those structures are still active, then someone may have been maintaining the network all this time."
"Someone?"
"Or something."
William's eyes narrowed.
"You're saying the network could be active without the ancient powers knowing?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because until today, there was no evidence."
William understood.
"And now there is."
"Yes."
William stood.
"There's another problem."
The old man looked up.
"What?"
"Someone knew we would arrive at the first barrier."
The old man's expression changed.
William continued.
"The message wasn't yours."
"No."
"The formation wasn't yours."
"No."
"And someone expected us."
The old man nodded slowly.
"Yes."
William's voice became colder.
"Then whoever has been manipulating the situation knows about the network."
The old man didn't answer.
"Which means they may know about the gates."
"Possibly."
William stared at him.
"Or they may know more than we do."
Before the conversation could continue, the door suddenly opened.
The old woman entered.
Her expression was unusually serious.
"We received another report."
William turned.
"What happened?"
She looked at the old man first.
Then at William.
"One of the ancient observation points has disappeared."
William frowned.
"Disappeared?"
"Completely."
"What do you mean?"
"The structure is gone."
"Destroyed?"
"We don't know."
"Then how do you know it's gone?"
"Because the land where it stood is still there."
She paused.
"But the structure itself..."
Her expression hardened.
"...isn't."
William immediately understood.
"It was taken."
The old woman nodded.
"That's what we believe."
William looked at the old man.
"Where?"
She answered.
"Near the western boundary."
William's expression changed.
The western boundary was far from the gate they had discovered.
Yet it was connected to the same network.
Someone was moving.
Not toward the gates.
Toward the observation points.
William thought about the message carved into the first barrier.
You were expected.
He had believed the enemy was waiting for him.
Now he wasn't so sure.
Perhaps William had simply arrived at the same place as someone else.
Someone who had already begun collecting pieces of an ancient network.
That evening, William gathered Mira, Adrian, Leon, and Elias.
He explained what they had learned.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Finally, Leon asked:
"Do you think the people behind the attacks took the observation point?"
"I don't know."
Elias frowned.
"But if they did, why?"
William looked at him.
"That's what we need to discover."
Mira crossed her arms.
"Are we going after them?"
William nodded.
"Yes."
Adrian looked at him.
"Because they may know what the network is?"
"Yes."
Leon asked:
"And because they might be the ones manipulating the disturbances?"
"Maybe."
William looked around the group.
"But there is something more important."
"What?"
"We can't assume the people we're chasing are working for the outsiders."
Everyone became quiet.
William continued.
"They may not even understand what they're dealing with."
Mira nodded.
"So we don't know who the real enemy is."
"Not yet."
William looked toward the mountains.
"But we know someone is moving pieces."
He paused.
"And until we know why, we shouldn't let them move freely."
Far away, beyond the territories controlled by the known powers, a group of people stood around an ancient structure.
The structure was enormous.
Its surface carried the same symbols William had seen.
One of the figures placed his hand against it.
"The western point has been secured."
Another figure asked:
"And the eastern one?"
"Still active."
"Then we have enough."
A third person remained silent.
He was staring at a small fragment of light floating above the structure.
It moved slowly.
Then stopped.
The man frowned.
"What is it?"
Nobody answered.
The fragment had appeared without their intervention.
It had not been there before.
The man reached toward it.
The light immediately moved away.
He froze.
Then he whispered:
"Someone else touched the network."
The others looked at him.
"Who?"
The man stared into the darkness.
"I don't know."
The fragment suddenly disappeared.
But before it did, the man felt something.
A connection.
Brief.
Distant.
Yet unmistakable.
Someone had been looking back.
At that exact moment, William stopped walking.
Mira looked at him.
"What happened?"
William stared into the distance.
"Someone touched the network."
Adrian's expression changed.
"You felt them?"
William nodded.
"Yes."
"Who?"
William remained silent.
He didn't know.
But for the first time since this strange journey had begun, he was certain of one thing.
The people manipulating the ancient network were not simply hiding from him.
They had finally noticed that he was looking back.