Introducing The New Cloud

A giant flashing red button appeared on my keyboard as if the gods had answered me. I looked at everyone and nodded firmly. Z sighed and braced himself for the worst. After that, I slammed the red button, and the entire room went black. I could only imagine it was the same for the Domains.

Only the monitor was turned on and showed a blank slate with a caret at the top left of the screen. I punched in the code to activate the hardware. A huge desktop emerged from the tabletop. This desktop was the one that powered the entire Domain... And it looks beautiful.

The side panel was opened to allow access to the ports to stick in a hard drive.

"Z, have you got the backup?" I asked, trying to locate the plump man.

I almost dropped the backup when Z appeared behind me. After swearing, I stuck the backup into the desktop and waited for the new Cloud to download the data. Once the initial download was done, I quickly typed in the password and established a connection to the rest of the devices.

With an extensive sigh of relief escaping my mouth, I stepped back from the keyboard for a moment to rest. The room illuminated as streams of purple lights danced around the room as if it was showing me the connections in a physical form. It was like the electric currents were coming to life.

I've changed all of the devices' IP addresses and overwritten the old code to connect with the new Cloud. As soon as everything was stable, I implemented a software and grabbed out every Mage in the Arks. I'm about to use this new software, but I figured I needed to spice things up.

I decided to add a little twist by changing from using the Mages' faces to tracing their Elemental Core. While reading about the Elemental Cores, Vania noted that Elemental Core Patterns are more difficult to copy than fingerprints.

Unless you are a human being forced to have an Elemental Core, two Elemental Core Patterns can never coincide. This realm has got Shapeshifters, so using fingerprints or faces would be useless to protect such a precious archive.

A Mage can have only one Elemental Core Pattern at any given time. Thus, their initial Pattern would be the only Elemental Core Pattern the system would detect from the Shapeshifter. The Pattern refers to the Magecraft Veins, like electric circuits in a motherboard.

The Veins create a pattern that is unique to the individual. And luckily for me, the backups have such information. So I glanced around the room and searched for the occupants' Elemental Core Patterns, and it was a success.

I downloaded the new software I made and opened up six new monitors with a scanner in the middle of the screen. Instead of the blue and green holographic screens, everything was now in a shade of purple.

"What is that?" asked the little flying Valkyrie, pointing her tiny finger at the floating monitor.

"It's a door. To allow access to the archives and all devices in the new Cloud, you have to open a new door with a new key. This time, this key is unique to every Mage in the Arks. So, everyone, stand in front of the monitor nearest to you and allow it to scan your Elemental Core Pattern."

Mavislin did so without hesitation and changed to her adult form for an accurate measurement. Seeing his boss agreeing to the matter so quickly, Bryan followed suit. Finally, Tomoe went towards the screen and allowed his tail to grow out. I had no clue the fluffy tail could grow any bigger.

Raiyen saw that Tomoe was still alive and allowed the scanner to do its job. Interestingly enough, Raiyen's Elemental Core was the same as the hacker's. I got that information when I was looking at the hacker's profile. Unfortunately, the Headmaster and Z were the last to step forward.

As they did, the Signal Crystals and other devices throughout the Five Domains were back online. Raiyen took a look at a shining glass tablet that was in his hands. I had failed to see it when he barged in, but I'm guessing it was used for tracking the Vigilante's whereabouts.

"Connections within my Ark have been confirmed. Thanks, Lizzie. All the best for whatever you were doing before this problem occurred. See you at breakfast tomorrow," said Raiyen, glitching out of the room.

Z wanted to stop the Time Boy but was a step too late. But I wasn't done yet. I fished out the hacker's profile once more and punched his IP address. Sure enough, the guy was brilliant and had changed his IP address. However, it only changed by going to one number higher than before.