The car lurched through the increasingly deserted streets of Jakarta. Bimo held the Mirror of Souls tightly in his lap, his eyes glued to the crystal beam that incessantly pointed in a new direction. Fatigue was evident in their bones, but there was no time to rest.
"Where is it going now?" Anton asked, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"South," Bimo replied, his voice even. "Still moving. Slowly."
Riani sat in the back seat, still looking pale from the incident in the tenement house. She stared out the window, watching the shadows of the city pass by. "He's like a tick. Clinging to the weakest, the most dying."
"That's a sound strategy," Anton muttered. "Those who are dying can't fight back. Their energy is easily taken."
After twenty minutes, the light from the Mirror of Souls began to pulse faster and grow brighter. "He's close," Bimo said. "Slowly."
Anton slowed the car. They were now on a small street in the Mampang Prapatan area. The light pointed to a small clinic that looked old and unkempt. The words "Klinik Pratama" (Pratama Clinic) were faded.
"Here," said Bimo.
They got out of the car. The air around the clinic was cold and stuffy, a stark contrast to the usual humidity of Jakarta. Bimo pushed open the locked clinic door.
"Locked," he whispered.
"Let me," said Anton. He took a tool from his pocket and with a few quick movements, the lock on the door clicked open.
Inside, the clinic was dark and smelled strongly of disinfectant mixed with something sweet and putrid. A small waiting room with empty plastic chairs. From a room in the back, a weak groan could be heard.
Bimo walked ahead, the Mirror of the Soul raised. The crystal light now pointed directly at the door.
Cautiously, Bimo opened the door. It was a treatment room. A middle-aged man lay on the bed, hooked up to an IV line and a heart rate monitor showing a flat, flat line. But the man was still alive, his breathing ragged and shallow.
And above his chest, a black, smoke-like shape similar to the one they had seen before was crawling. But this time, its shape was denser, more defined. Like a scorpion made of smoke, its tail stabbed straight into the man's heart, sucking out the last vestiges of life.
The heart rate monitor suddenly let out a long beep, signaling cardiac arrest. But the man continued to breathe, tortured, his eyes wide with unspeakable fear. The entity was keeping his body "alive" enough to continue exploiting it.
"No," Riani hissed, feeling nauseous.
The scorpion shape sensed their presence. It lifted its "head," and two purple dots of light flashed like eyes. A harsh, hissing sound rang out in their heads.
*Guard... disturbing...*
Bimo didn't hesitate any longer. He raised his hand, his white flames blazing. But the entity moved quickly. It pulled its "tail" from the man's chest and with a swift, whip-like movement, it hurled something at Bimo a psychic projection of its victim's pain.
Bimo staggered, clutching his head. He saw a brief vision of excruciating pain, the fear of death, and despair.
Seeing Bimo distracted, the entity spun and lunged at Riani, targeting the emotion of fear she was radiating.
Anton reacted quickly. He threw a small device that immediately emitted a high-pitched sound. It was a frequency jammer he had modified to disrupt the concentration of non-physical entities.
The scorpion entity screamed in pain a sound like creaking metal and its movements were hampered.
It was the distraction Bimo needed. He banished the painful vision from his mind and gathered his strength. This time, he shaped his flames into a long, pointed spear of energy.
"From a distance," he muttered to himself.
He aimed and threw the fire spear. It streaked across the room and lodged itself squarely in the scorpion entity's "body."
The creature hissed loudly, its smoke-filled body churning and disintegrating. It tried to crawl back toward the man on the bed, but Bimo had already thrown a second fire spear that destroyed it completely. Only the smell of sulfur remained.
Bimo immediately ran to the bedside. He placed his hand on the man's forehead. There was no longer any dark energy surrounding him. But his life was also almost gone.
"Please..." the man whispered, his breath growing weaker.
"Calm down," Bimo said. "It's over. You're free."
The man nodded weakly, and then, peacefully, his breathing stopped. The heart monitor remained flat, this time for good.
Riani called an ambulance and the police anonymously. They couldn't stay.
Back in the car, Bimo looked at the Mirror of Souls. Its crystal light went out, then after a moment, lit up again, pointing in another direction. Southwest.
"This is endless," Anton complained, starting the car again. "He's everywhere."
"We have to keep going," Bimo said, though exhaustion was also visible in his eyes. "Every fragment we destroy weakens Him."
The hunt continued throughout the night. They traveled around Jakarta, from one point of darkness to another. Each fragment of "Master" they encountered had a slightly different shape and strategy.
In an old warehouse in Penjaringan, the fragment took the form of a giant spider, ensnaring a night watchman awake in its web of hallucinogenic fear. They rescued the guard just in time, and Bimo burned both the web and the spider with a wide blast of fire.
In a boarding house in Tebet, the fragment hides in the nightmares of a stressed-out college student, magnifying his despair to the point of nearly killing himself. Riani must enter his dreams using her abilities, creating a dream guardian to protect the student while Bimo burns the entity from the real world.
Under an overpass in Casablanca, the fragment targets a starving street child, giving him sweet dreams of food and family while slowly eating away at his soul. Anton distracts him by playing loud music from his phone, giving Bimo the opportunity to burn the fragment without harming the child.
Each battle is draining, both physically and mentally. Anton is nearly out of his gadgets. Riani looks paler with each use of her abilities. And Bimo's fire, though still strong, is starting to look unstable, occasionally flickering like a candle flame in the wind.
As dawn breaks, they return to the Red Line Office. They all collapse into their chairs, exhausted.
"How many have we destroyed?" asks Riani, her eyes closed.
"Eight," Bimo replied, placing the Soul Mirror on the table. The crystal now emitted only a very faint, almost invisible glow. "The vibrations are much weaker now. He's hiding."
"So we won?" Anton asked, hopefully.
Bimo shook his head slowly. "No. We only cut off his tentacles. His head, the core of his consciousness, is still there somewhere. He's just withdrawing, gathering strength again." He stared at the dim glow of the Soul Mirror. "He knows we're after him now. He'll change strategy. This hunt has just become more dangerous."
"So what do we do now?" Riani asked.
"We rest," Bimo said, though it sounded reluctant. "We recover our strength. Anton, see if you can increase the range of the Soul Mirror. Riani, go to sleep. I'll keep watch."
"You need sleep too, Bimo," Riani protested.
"The fire inside me gives me more energy than you guys," Bimo replied, though it was clearly not entirely true. "I'll be fine. Go."
Riani and Anton finally gave up and went to the break room, leaving Bimo alone in the command room.
Bimo stood and walked to the window. The city of Jakarta was beginning to wake up. The rising sun illuminated the skyscrapers. Everything looked normal. Peaceful.
But Bimo knew the truth. Beneath the morning light, in the dark corners of the city, a malignant cancer still lurked. They had won some battles tonight, but the war was far from over. His enemies now knew how they worked, knew their strengths, and knew they were after him.
He clenched his fists. A small white flame flickered between his fingers, loyal but tired.
The hunt might have paused for a moment, but it was not over. It would only get harder.