Back at the red line office, heavy atmosphere. Anton wore a neck buffer and bandage on his arm. Riani is still lying in the break room, receiving an IV to restore her fluid and electrolyte. Dr. Maya checked their condition anxiously.
Bimo sat in the chair, staring at the mirror of the soul lying on the table. His crystals remain dark, numb. There is no reaction at all.
"Nothing," Bimo murmured, pressing his palm on the bronze disk. "There's nothing. Like he disappeared at all from this city."
"Or he becomes so weak that it is not detected," Anton suggested, his voice was hoarse.
"Or he learned to hide himself," added Dr. Maya in a worried voice. "He has interacted directly with us. He has felt the power of Bimo and Riani. He knows how our tools work. It is very likely that he has developed a way to trick the soul mirror."
Bimo nodded slowly. It makes sense. The enemy is smart and adaptive.
"So how do we find it now?" Anton asked. "We need our eyes. Without a mirror of the soul, we are blind."
"Not entirely blind," Bimo denied. He closed his eyes. "I can still feel the city. I can still see the red line. He might hide from the tool, but every action, every soul he touches, will leave a trail on the thread of destiny. A very faint trace."
"But Jakarta is very big," Anton protested. "Finding a faint trace like looking for a needle in a straw pile."
"We are not looking alone," Bimo said, opening his eyes. "We have other resources." He stood up and walked to Pak Daru's file cabinet. He pulled out a thick map labeled "network".
"Pak Daru doesn't just work with us," Bimo explained, opening the map. In it there is a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers. "He has a network of informants. People who have low-level spiritual sensitivity, not like us, but enough to feel something wrong. Herbalist, Old Night Guard, Psychiatrist, Even some Religious Leaders. They are Daru's eyes and ears on the streets."
"You think they will want to help us?" asked Dr. Maya.
"They respect Mr. Daru," Bimo answered. "And they all care about this city. Anton, share this list. Contact them all. Ask anything unusual, no matter how small. Strange dreams, feelings of being supervised, reports from patients about specific 'appearance'. Whatever."
Anton immediately took over. "Ready, boss." He began to call, his voice was low and serious.
A few hours passed. The report began to flow slowly. Most are false alarm or things that are not important. A herbalist reports a "hot" aura around an old tree. A night guard reported the sound of crying from the drain. A psychiatrist said a patient who suddenly drew a strange symbol repeatedly.
Bimo listens to every report carefully, trying to find a pattern.
Suddenly, Anton raised his hand. "Wait. This is interesting." He spoke more intensely to the phone. "Mrs. Yuli? Can you repeat slowly? ... Where is it exact? ... And when was the last time? ... Okay. Thank you. We will follow up."
He hung up the phone and looked at Bimo. "A housewife, Mrs. Yuli. She lives in an old apartment in the Senen area. She reports that the neighbor across her, a lonely mystery novel writer, not visible for three days. Usually she ordered food online every day. It has stopped."
"It could be that he was going," said Dr. Maya.
"But there is something strange," continued Anton. "Mrs. Yuli said that the night before the man disappeared, she saw a faint green light from her window. And since two days ago, she felt very cold every time he passed the door of the man's apartment, even though the air conditioner in the building was dead. He also heard a whisper from inside, but could not hear his words."
Bimo immediately stood up. "That's it. Not a green light. That is the purple light of dark energy. And cold is a sign of withdrawal of life energy. That's the footsteps." He already took his jacket. "The address?"
Anton gave it. "We join," Anton said, trying to stand up.
"No," ban Bimo. "You and Riani are not in condition. I will leave."
"You can't go alone!" Protest Dr. Maya.
"I will not be alone," Bimo answered. He called someone. "Inspector? I need help. I have a location that needs to be investigated ... Yes, most likely the crime scene ... Thank you."
Within thirty minutes, Bimo and Inspector Budi along with two uniformed police officers were standing in front of the apartment door in Senen. The temperature in the corridor does feel cooler several degrees.
"The owner is named Bayu Pratama," Budi whispered. "Author. There is no close family. Apartment management gives permission to enter."
A police officer opened the door with a master key.
Once the door opened, the cold and the rancid odor ambushed them. The smell is a mixture of old blood and a sweet that is rotted.
Bimo entered the first time, his senses were alert. The apartment was a mess. The paper is scattered everywhere. Books fell from shelves.
And in the middle of the living room, they found it.
Bayu Pratama lay on his back on the floor. He died. His face froze in an expression of extreme fear, his mouth wide open in a mute scream. But what's more terrible is what is around him.
The floor around his body is full of graffiti. Not ink graffiti, but a scribble made of blood that has dried up. The scribbles form complex symbols and unreasonable mathematical equations, mixed with words in unknown languages.
"Oh my God," hissed one of the policemen, almost vomiting.
Budo immediately secured the crime scene. "Don't touch anything! Call the team.
"The forensic team is working," Bimo reported, his voice was flat and hard. "But we all know this is not an ordinary murder."
The photos showed Bayu's body and a floor full of blood graffiti. The symbols are complicated and unnatural.
"Is this ... writing?" asked Riani, disgusted.
"More than that," answered Dr. Maya, enlarges a picture of one of the symbols on the computer screen. "This is a diagram. A energy pattern. See how these lines intersect. This is very precise, not a scribble of crazy people."
"What for?" Anton asked.
"To concentrate energy," explained Bimo. "He uses the blood of the victim, which is full of fear and suffering when he dies, as ink. He uses the floor as a canvas. He is drawing a ... Filling station. A ritual to absorb the remaining energy of the victim's life and turn it into a force he can use."
"So, he doesn't just kill," hissed Riani, horrified. "He is hunting for fuel."
"Right," Bimo said. "And this proves something more dangerous. He no longer just eats dying. Now he is able to actively kill to get what he wants. He becomes stronger."
"But why leave the symbol?" Anton asked. "Isn't that like leaving a signature? Make it easy for us to track it?"
"Or maybe it's not for us," Dr. Maya. "Maybe it is part of the ritual. The symbol must be there so that the energy absorption process works."
Bimo nodded. "Or, maybe it's a message. A challenge." He pointed to a certain symbol in the corner of the photo, which was shaped like an eye with three pupils. "I have seen this symbol before. In Pak Daru's notes. This is associated with the worship of a very old entity, long before the 'master' appears. Like ... a sign of a family. A claim."
"So, what are we doing now?" asked Riani. "We can't wait for the next murder report."
"We break this code," Bimo answered firmly. "We must understand what the meaning of these symbols is fully. Maybe they can lead us to ways to predict the next target, or even find where the core of His consciousness is hiding."
"Language and ancient symbols are not my field of expertise," Anton said, frustrated.
"It's not mine either," said Dr. Maya. "But I know someone who might help." He opened his laptop and started searching in his contact database. "A philologist and historian specializing in the mystical writings of the archipelago. His name is Professor Widodo. He retired, but still actively researching. His house is full of ancient manuscripts."
"Contact him," Bimo ordered. "We need help. Now."
Dr. Maya called. The conversation took place briefly and seriously. After a few minutes, he hung up. "He wants to meet us. He lives in the Bogor area. He said the symbol that I described sounded very familiar and very dangerous."
"Good. Anton, you stay here," Bimo said. "Take care of the post. Monitor all communication channels. If there are any strange reports, even the most trivial, contact us immediately. Riani, you are with us. Your ability to feel energy might be useful."
They immediately left for Bogor. Professor Widodo's house is a large traditional Javanese house, surrounded by lush gardens. The air here feels fresher and calmer than Jakarta.
Professor Widodo is a friendly old man who is friendly, thick glasses, and has an aura of calm. He immediately took them to his library, a large room filled with bookshelves from the floor to the ceiling and the smell of paper and old wood.
"Dr. Maya said you have a photo of an interesting symbol," said Professor Widodo, sitting behind his messy desk.
Bimo shows photos on the tablet. As the professor saw the three -eye symbols, his face changed drastically. All hospitality disappears, replaced by deep concerns.
"Oh, no," he whispered. "This ... this is very bad." He stood up and walked to a high rack, taking a very old and large leather book. He put it on the table carefully. "This is one of the most secret manuscripts that I learned. Written by an ascetic from the 15th century. He wrote about 'who came from the darkness between stars'."
"From where?" asked Riani.
"Entities from outside our world," explained Professor Widodo to open the book carefully. The page is full of images of terrible creatures and complex symbols. He pointed to a picture that was almost identical to the symbol in the photo. "This is a sign of the 'lighting' worshipers. An ancient sect that believes that by offering souls in this entity, they will gain eternal strength and life."
"That matches the modus operandi," Bimo said.
"But this is not just about murder," said Professor Widodo, turning the yard. He pointed to a diagram that was similar to blood streaks in the apartment. "This ritual is more complicated. This is a ritual 'mapping of souls'. Every victim sacrificed in a certain way - with certain fear - will leave its unique 'traces' on the world's destiny network. This ritual, if done with quite a number of victims in the right location ..."
"If what is done?" push Bimo.
"This will create a ... network," answered the Professor. "A dark energy net that ensnares the city. This net will weaken the boundary between our world and their world, making it easier for a stronger entity to enter our reality. And the most terrible, this will give 'the switch' that is a map. A map of every vulnerable soul, every weakness of the city. He will know exactly where he must find the next food, and more importantly,
Everyone was silent, digesting the horror from that explanation.
"So, every murder is not just to charge," Bimo nose, his voice trembled because of anger. "This is to stick a marker on the map. He is building a strategic weapon."
"Right," said Professor Widodo sadly. "And seeing the complexity of the symbol in your photo, this is not a novice ritual. This is done by someone - or something - with very deep knowledge. This victim is how many?"
"We only find one," answered Dr. Maya.
"It's impossible," said the Professor. "Soul mapping rituals require at least three victims, forming a primary energy triangle. The first victim for 'foundation', the second victim for 'frame', and the third victim for 'eyes'. You must have missed the others."
Bimo immediately called Anton. "Anton, this is Bimo. Check the police database again. Look for unnatural deaths in the last three days that have strange elements. Symbols, graffiti, or maybe the victim is found in a strange position. Whatever is suspicious."
"Okay, wait a minute," Anton answered. The keyboard type sound sounds fast on the phone. A few minutes that passed. "Bimo! There were two other reports. A businessman was found dead in his office in Sudirman this morning. Reported a heart attack, but the janitor reported seeing a strange symbol like a 'spider nest' on a wall made of ... coffee? And the second, a park guard in Ancol was found dead yesterday afternoon.
"Sudirman, Ancol, and Senen," murmured Bimo, quickly visualized the Jakarta map on his head. "That forms a triangle."
"The triangle surrounds the city center," said Dr. Maya, who has opened a map on her cellphone.
"Not the city center," Bimo denied, his eyes narrowed. "It surrounds Monas. The zero point of Jakarta." He turned to Professor Widodo. "If the 'eyes' are placed at zero, what happens?"
Professor Widodo became very pale. "It will be a high-level ritual. 'Eyes' at zero will give him a clear view throughout the city. The net will immediately be active. He will see everything. And the next murder ... will not stop. It will be a mass destruction."
Bimo was standing. "We have to go. Now. Professor, thank you for your help."
"Be careful," the Professor ordered. "You are not only dealing with monsters, but with a plan for centuries that are being executed."
On the way back to Jakarta, Bimo called Inspector Budi. "Inspector, key to the Monas area. Evacuation of anyone in it. Do it right now. Say there is a bomb threat. Whatever the reason!"
"Bimo, what happened?" asked Budi, confused.
"Believe me. The lives of many people are at stake. And prepare the SWAT team. We might face something ... unusual." Bimo hung up the phone before Budi denied.
He looked at the road ahead. His face was hard like steel.
"We have left it," he told Dr. Maya and Riani. "He killed three times and we didn't even realize it. His ritual was almost finished. We can't let him finish his 'eyes'."
Hunting is no longer about finding a hiding entity. Now, it is a race against time to prevent an ancient ritual that can change Jakarta forever.