The red line office was quiet, only illuminated by the dim light from the Anton computer monitor that was still burning. Bimo is still standing near the window, staring at a city that slowly began to be filled with morning activity. Even though his body was tired, his mind was alert. The fire in his chest spinning, restless.
The soul mirror on the table emits a very dim light, almost like fireflies, pointing to the northwest. It's stable, not moving as before. That means the last fragment remaining silent, maybe hiding, or maybe being gathering strength.
Suddenly, the phone at Dr. Maya rang, broke the silence. Bimo turned and lifted it. "Hello?"
"Bimo?" The voice of Inspector Budi sounded tense and in a hurry across there. "Are you still in the office?"
"Yes, Inspector. What's wrong?"
"We got a strange report. Very strange. From all over the city."
"What report?" Bimo asked, already feeling bad.
"People ... see something," Budi said. "Not mass hallucinations like in the mall. This is more ... personal. They report to see the people they loved. Husband, wife, children. They appeared for a while, calling names, then disappearing. Nothing is dangerous, but this makes people scared. Our emergency calls are flooded."
Bimo looked at the mirror of the soul. His dim light suddenly blinked, then was dim again. "Here it is. This is the way to hunt now. He no longer takes a dying one. He fishing lives. Using memories and longing as bait."
"What? What should we do?" asked Budi.
"We will handle it," Bimo said. "Continue to collect data. Tell us the most report locations." He hung up the phone and immediately woke up Riani and Anton who fell asleep in the break room.
"There is a new emergency," Bimo said, his voice forced them to immediately realize.
While they were preparing quickly, Bimo explained the situation. Anton immediately sat in front of his computer, connecting data from the police.
"The report is spread," Anton said, his eyes looked at the map on the screen filled with red dots. "But there are some clusters. The most populous around Tanah Abang. Many people, lots of memories."
"Tanah Abang," Bimo murmured. "That is in accordance with the direction of the soul mirror." He took the tool. His crystal rays are now flickering stable in that direction.
Meak rushed to the car. This time, Bimo who drove, broke through morning traffic which began to be congested.
Arriving in the Tanah Abang area, the atmosphere was different. The market crowd looks nervous. People whisper to each other, look up the sky, or stare blankly into the dark corners. Collective mood is a mixture of confusion and restrained fear.
Suddenly, a middle aged woman on the sidewalk shouted. "Adi! My son!" He ran crossing the road in disapproval, almost hit by a car, chasing something that was not visible. People just look at him with a sense of compassion and fear.
"Look!" Riani pointed to a narrow alley.
There, an old man knelt down, his hands out of the shadow of escape shaped like a woman. "Here, let's ... I'm waiting for you." The shadow smiled and then disappeared, leaving the man crying sadly.
"They use illusions to attract victims," hissed Riani, her face was pale. "But this is not my illusion. This is real ... and evil."
Bimo raised a mirror of the soul. His crystal rays are now throbbing quickly and brighter, pointing at the center of the old Tanah Abang Market. "The source is inside. He is there."
Meak through the crowd, following the soul mirror instructions. They arrived at a lonely part of the market and almost collapsed, the storage of old goods.
The ray pointed to a steel warehouse that was tightly locked.
"He is inside," Bimo said.
Anton immediately opened the door lock. Once the door opened, the unnatural cold welcomed them. The warehouse is dark and full of piles of cloth and old cardboard.
And in the middle of the room, stood a boy. He might be eight years old. He wore a clean pajamas and turned his back to them. He was playing with an old car.
"Hey, son?" Call Anton carefully.
The child turned around. His face was pale and beautiful, but his eyes ... his eyes were milk white eyeball without pupils, just as Bimo saw in his vision.
He smiled, but that was not a child's smile. It is an old smile and full of self -satisfaction.
"Bimo," said the child, in a sweet voice but made the hair stand on the hair. "Finally we met in person. More precisely, meeting with the container I chose."
"This ... this is your last fragment?" Bimo asked, getting ready.
"Fragment?" The boy laughed, his voice was like a bell. "Oh, no. They are just bait. Distraction. I spent the remaining energy I got last night not to make more fragments, but to find this ." He patted his own chest. "A perfect container. Young, strong, and most importantly, his heart is full of deep longing for his father who has left. It's easy to enter."
"Let go of the child," Bimo growled. The fire began to blaze in his hand.
"Let go?" said the entity through the child's mouth. "And lose the opportunity to really feel this world?" He raised his hand and looked at him. "To feel the sun, wind, heartbeat ... it's amazing. I understand now why humans are so afraid of losing all of this."
He looked at Bimo. "I owe you. By destroying my 'core', you forced me to evolve. To be more ... personal. And now, with this container, I no longer need to hide in the dark. I can walk between humans. I can grow. And finally, I will finish what has started."
"We will not let you," said Riani, her voice trembled.
The boy looked at Riani. "Ah, the illusionist. You can show me many things." Suddenly, next to Riani, a woman's illusion appeared that was very similar to her late mother. "Riani ... my dear ..."
Riani gasped, her eyes enlarged. The illusion was so perfect, so convincing.
"Don't listen to him, Riani!" Bimo shouted.
But Riani stunned, tears flowed down her cheeks. "Mother?"
Meanwhile, Anton dropped an electromagnetic packet. The device buzzed, but had no effect on the entity that now has a physical container.
The boy laughed. "Your tool is useless now." He raised his hand, and an invisible force threw Anton on the wall. Anton fell hard and not moving.
"Anton!" Bimo shouted.
Bimo can't hold back anymore. He threw a burst of white fire at the child.
With an unnatural agility, the child jumped to the side, avoiding fire. "Be careful, Bimo. You can hurt this body. And you don't want to hurt an innocent child, right? That's not your nature."
Bimo growled, frustrated. He could not attack freely.
The child used Bimo's doubt. He raised his hand again, and this time, Bimo felt a fierce pressure on his chest, as if he was squeezed by a giant hand. He was thrown back, falling near Anton.
Riani is still fixated on the illusion of her mother, who is now persuading her to approach.
"Riani, please!" Bimo shouted, trying to get up.
The entity in the child approached Riani who was helpless. "With your strength, we can make the whole city see what they want. We can control them easily."
The boy reached out his hand to touch Riani.
Suddenly, a loud voice echoed in the warehouse. "Stay away from him!"
Inspector Budi stood at the entrance, surrounded by four armed police. They aimed their weapons at the child.
"Police!" shouted Budi. "Let them go!"
The boy looked at the police indifferent. "An annoying fly." He waved his hand in small movements.
A tall iron rack full of cloth rolls apart from the walls and fell on the police. They shouted and tried to avoid. Budi managed to jump, but two police were crushed.
The chaos was enough to break the concentration of the entity in Riani. The illusion of his mother disappeared. Riani blinked, regained consciousness, and saw the child who was now very close to him. He screamed and retreated in fear.
Bimo saw this opportunity. He could not attack directly, but he could do something else. He focused the fire not to the child, but on the * floor * around the child's feet.
He threw a wide and low burst of fire. The concrete floor did not burn, but the white fire created a circle of fire that surrounded the child.
The boy screamed a bit of anger and a little pain. He jumped back, away from the fire. It seems that Bimo's holy fire still influences it, even through a physical container.
"You can't confine me!" The boy shouted, his voice lost all the independence and now full of the anger of the devil.
"No," Bimo answered, standing with difficulty. "But I can drive you out." He saw Riani. "Riani, now! Make him see him! Make him see what he fear most!"
Riani, although still trembling, nodded. He focused everything left of his strength, entering the mind of the angry entity.
The illusion he created was not seen by others. But the effect on the child was immediately seen.
The boy suddenly looked scared. His white eyes widened. "No ...! That's impossible! You're broken!" He screamed, protecting his face with his hands, as if seeing something terrible that approached him.
"What did he see?" whispered Budi who was awake and approached Bimo.
"He saw my fire," Bimo answered in a low voice. "But it's not the fire I have now. He sees the fire as it is in the original. The purity fire that will burn it until it runs out without leaving anything."
The entity screamed, locked in the illusion of his biggest fear. He fell into his knee, the boy's body was shaken violently.
"Now, Bimo!" Riani shouted, blood flowed from her nose because of extraordinary pressure. "I can't hold it for long!"
Bimo jumped forward, past the circle of the fire. He did not attack. Instead, he grabbed the child's head and put his palm on the child's forehead.
He focused all the power of his purification fire. Not to burn, but to expel .
"Get out of him!" Bimo shouted, his eyes and mouth shine with bright white light.
A long and inhuman moan came out of the boy's mouth. Dush black smoke gushed out of her eyes and mouth, soaring to the warehouse ceiling. The smoke was spinning angrily, then with a sound like the final hiss, disappearing altogether.
The boy fell limply into the arms of Bimo. His eyes were closed. His pale skin began to regain a little color. His breathing is regular and peaceful.
Bimo hugged the child, then handed it over to Inspector Budi. "Take him to the hospital. He will be fine now."
Riani fainted due to fatigue. Anton began to regain consciousness, groaning in pain.
Bimo looked around. The police helped their colleagues who were hit by a shelf. The commotion outside has subsided. The illusions that captivate people have disappeared together with the defeat of the entity.
He walked to the mirror of the soul that fell on the floor. He took it. The crystals are now totally dark. No light. There is no pulse.
For now, "Sir" has been lost.
But Bimo didn't feel relieved. The entity has achieved its new goal: get a physical container. They only managed to drive him out of one container. Whenever there are people who are weak, hopeless, and full of longing, he can try again.
War is no longer about destroying crystals or hunting fragments. Now, war is about maintaining every soul in this city from infiltration of a dark consciousness that now wants the body to be called a home.
Bimo clenched his fist. The battle has just changed fundamentally. And that will be the hardest so far.