The car drove fast to the National Monument, through a busy Jakarta traffic. The police car siren driven by the Budi Inspector is deafening.
"Status?" Bimo shouted on his cellphone.
"We're evacuating!" Reported Budi, his voice sounded busy and noisy in the background. "But this is a very large area, Bimo. It takes time!"
"We don't have time!" Bimo said. "Focus on the area around the monument pole! Wherever people can draw something on the ground!"
"Understandable! The SWAT team is in a position. They will follow your orders."
Bimo hung up. His face was tense. Riani in the passenger seat looked at him anxiously.
"You think we can stop it?" asked Riani.
"We must," Bimo answered briefly. His eyes could not be separated from the road.
Arriving at Monas, the crowd had begun to be arranged by the police. Confused and fear visitors are directed out of the park area. Some police helicopters fly above.
Bimo, Riani, and Dr. Maya was immediately welcomed by Inspector Budi whose face was sweating.
"We have combed the area. Nothing is suspicious so far," Budi reported.
"Bimo, look!" Riani holds Bimo's arm. He pointed to the monument pole. "Red line ... Everything is tangled. They are centered there."
Bimo turned his gaze. He saw it. The threads of destiny, which usually flows finely above the city, is now complicated and cussed like a horrible black whirlpool, all go to the bottom of the monument.
"There," Bimo said in a low voice. "He is here. He is preparing the last ritual."
They rushed to the monument. The SWAT team is fully armed around them, alert.
Approaching the basic of the monument, they saw it.
A young man dressed in a gardener was kneeling on the ground. He was scratching something to a paving block with a chisel and hammer. His hands were bleeding, as if he used his own blood as a paint. The pattern he draws exactly like the "eye" symbol they see in the photo.
Around him, three police officers and two park security officers lay not to move on the ground. They were not physically injured, but their faces were pale and their eyes were closed, as if sleeping in a very bad street.
"That's it," Bimo whispered. "The new container."
"Stand slowly! Raise your hand!" shouted Commander Swat.
The gardener raised his head. His eyes are no longer a white ball like a child in the warehouse. Now, his eyes are a thick black pool without a base. He smiled, showing very white teeth.
"It's too late," he said, his voice echoed strangely, like many sounds that spoke together. "Eyes will open."
He slammed his bleeding hand into the middle of the almost finished symbol.
A great energy shock spread out. All the lights in the Monas area go out. The helicopter above suddenly shakes and has to stay away. Swat personnel staggered, holding their heads like experiencing great vertigo.
Bimo managed to survive, his white fire blinked around him like a shield. Riani hid behind him, while Dr. Maya and Budi fell to his knees.
From the symbol on the ground, a black and purple pillar gushes into the sky. In the smoke, the horrific forms of spinning-the screaming faces, the hands that clawed. It was the essence of all the fear and suffering of the three victims.
The pillar rose high, then began to enlarge at its peak, like a giant giant umbrella, began to cover the sky above Monas.
"I can't ... there are so many ... voice ..." Riani groaned, closed her ears, bombarded by psychic suffering emitted by the Pillar.
Bimo looked up. Under the "umbrella" of the dark energy, he could see the red line-the destiny of thousands of people in Jakarta-began to vibrate and turn gray darkness. The net began to be active.
"He is mapping every weakness, every vulnerability in the city!" Bimo shouted. "We have to break the connection!"
He raised his hand and threw his strongest white fire at the smoke pillar. The fire was integrated with dark energy, causing the pillar to be turbulent, but did not disappear. It's like trying to dry the ocean with a bucket.
"The energy is too concentrated!" shouted Dr. Maya. "It is supported by three sacrificed souls!"
The gardener laughed, his hands were still attached to the symbol. "This map will guide me to the weak and desperate ones! This city will be my farm!"
Suddenly, a loud voice echoed from a loudspeaker in a police car. That is Anton.
"Bimo! I analyzed his energy patterns from here! His ritual was centered on the user! But he was protected by the victim's energy! You have to break the flow first!"
"How?!" Bimo shouted back, while continuing to throw the fire to hold the expansion of the umbrella of darkness.
"The victims! Their souls are still bound to the symbol! You have to free them! It will weaken the net!"
Bimo saw the three policemen lying. They are additional energy sources, used to strengthen rituals.
"Riani!" Call Bimo. "I need your help! Enter their dreams! Free them from their grip!"
Riani, who was still trembling, nodded. He ran towards the lying policemen and put his hand on one of them. He closed his eyes, full concentration.
In the dream world, Riani saw it. The police were trapped in repeated nightmares, tortured by the illusion of their biggest fear. Riani uses her strength, creating a dream guard for bright forms to fight the dream monster and wake the police officers one by one.
In the real world, one by one the police were awakened, coughed, confusion.
With every released soul, the smoke pillar becomes a little less dense.
"That's enough!" Raung Bimo. He can now feel the protection around the gardener's man weakened.
He stopped firing at the pillar and diverted all his strength towards his container. He formed a fire into a spinning giant spear.
"For Bayu! For your other victims!" Bimo shouted, and threw the fire spear.
The gardener tried to build dark shields, but it was too weak. The fire spear through his chest.
A scream that is not a human voice comes out of his mouth. His body did not burn, but a very thick black smoke gushed out of every hole in his body. The smoke shouted and raged, then was forced to force back into the current pillar.
The smoke pillar itself began to collapse inward, like a dried water hole. The umbrella of darkness on it was torn, turned into harmless steam before disappearing during the day.
The sky returned bright.
The gardener fell to the side, unconscious, but still alive. His breathing looks normal.
Silent for a moment.
Then, the sound of the city was heard again. The lights turn on again. It feels like a large pressure has been lifted from the chest of everyone present.
Bimo knelt down, running out of energy. The fire in his hand was extinguished.
Riani ran and hugged her. "We succeed, Bimo! We stop it!"
Bimo nodded, panting. He looked up. The red line has flowed back normally, clean from dark stains.
But he knows this is not an absolute victory.
Inspector Budi approached, his face was still full of amazement. "What ... what just happened?"
"We won a battle," Bimo answered, standing with difficulty. "But he escaped again. We destroyed his container and cut off his ritual, but the core of his consciousness - the black smoking - drew himself. He will look for a new container. He will try again."
"Then what should we do?" asked Dr. Maya.
Bimo looked at the city around them. "Now we know the plan. He wants to build a net to strengthen him and open the door for others. We must be alert. We must find a way before he finds the next victim."
He clenched his fist. The small fire blinks once more, full of determination.
"We react," Bimo said, breaking the silence. His voice was flat, tired, but full of determination. "We are always one step behind. He determines the game, and we only tackle the damage. It must end."
"How to?" Anton asked. "We can't even track it now. The mirror of the soul is totally dead."
"We don't need a soul mirror to find him," Bimo answered, turning to them. "We need to understand him. We need to predict him."
He pointed to the photos of the victim: Bayu the writer, a businessman in Sudirman, a park guard in Ancol, and a gardener at Monas.
"Look at this pattern. He chose people who are isolated, who have a weak bond, who is easily forgotten. But not only that. Every victim has certain expertise. Bayu is a writer, a thinker. The businessman is a planner. The park guard knows the land and nature. The gardener is a skilled physical worker."
"What do you mean?" asked Dr. Maya.
"He is not just looking for a container," Bimo explained. "He is looking for talent. He harvested the knowledge and expertise of his victims. Every time he took over a victim, he also got everything the victim knows. That is what makes his ritual more complex. Bayu's knowledge of symbols, entrepreneur's experience in logistics, understanding of the park guards about geography, the precision of the gardener. He is learning. And he is building something."
Riani looked at the photos in horror. "So, every murder makes it smarter and more dangerous."
"Right," Bimo said. "We are not dealing with monsters who are only thirsty for energy. We are dealing with an architect who is building something big, and uses human souls as the stones."
"Then, how do we predict the next target?" Anton asked. "Jakarta is full of lonely skilled people."
"We start from the beginning," Bimo answered. He walked to the boars in the corner of the room of Mr. Daru's private cupboard. "Pak Daru has examined this phenomenon for decades. He must have allegations, theories, something that can guide us." Bimo entered the code and scan his fingerprints. The door wardrobe opens with hiss.
In it, there is no money or weapons. There is a pile of old notebooks, flash drive, and some objects wrapped in cloth. Bimo took everything carefully and put it on the table.
"Let's look at the real legacy from the red line," he said.
They divide tasks. Dr. Maya took over a notebook full of medical and psychological writing. Anton took a flash drive to be accessed. Riani sees objects wrapped. Bimo took Pak Daru's thickest personal journal.
A few hours passed in silence that was only interspersed with the sound of the page reversed and typed the keyboard.
"I found something!" exclaimed Anton suddenly. "There is a hidden folder in this drive. Named 'Nexus project'. Inside there is a database."
"What's the contents?" Bimo asked.
"This is ... this is a list of people," Anton said, his eyes enlarged. "Hundreds of names. Equipped with address, job, and ... 'Psychic Vulnerability Index'. This is like a shopping list for that creature!"
Bimo rushed back to Anton. "Match the names with our victims."
Anton typed quickly. "Bayu Pratama ... is here. The index is 89%. Arif Maulana, Sudirman businessman ... is there. The index is 87%. Everything is here!"
"Pak Daru is not only studying the creature," whispered Dr. Maya, amazed and horrified. "He mapped his *potential *."
"But why?" asked Riani. "Why not save them?"
Bimo turned Pak Daru's journal page quickly. He stopped at an entry written in trembling letters, as if written in a very emotional state.
'Today I met the' dragon 'again. In the form of a daughter. He offered an agreement. He will stop preying randomly. Instead, I have to give him a list. List of people who have been on the edge, whose life is full of wounds, whose death will ... meaningful. I refused. But he showed me a picture of the future. Lautan API. The city of Jakarta is the altar of giant sacrifice. Millions of souls will be devoured to open a door that should not be opened. He said, sacrificing a little, we saved a lot. I ... I don't know ... '
Bimo read the entry in a loud voice. The room became quiet.
"He squeezed Mr. Daru," said Riani, shocked. "He forced Mr. Daru to choose."
"And Mr. Daru refused," added Dr. Maya. "But he still makes the list. As a way to *understand *, not to give up."
"No," Bimo denied, his eyes along the next entry. "He made a list for something else. He wrote: *'If this' dragon 'really wants certain people, then there must be specific reasons. I will learn the pattern. I will find the' Nexus 'project, the final goal. And this list will be a bait to snatch it.' *"
"So this list is a trap?" Anton asked.
"More than that," Bimo answered. "This is the key to predicting his movements. If we know who is on this list, and we know what type of expertise he is looking for next we can guess the next target and be there first."
They all gathered around Anton's computer.
"Sort the list based on the vulnerability and expertise index," Bimo ordered.
Anton pressed several buttons. The list rearranged himself.
"Look," Bimo said, pointing the screen. "Our victims previously had expertise related to knowledge, logistics, geography, and handicrafts. He built the foundation. The next logical step is ..."
He stopped, his eyes staring at a name at the top of the list.
"Name: Sari Dewantoro. Occupation: Structure Engineer. Vulnerability Index: 94%. Note: Experiencing severe depression after the building project collapsed and killed dozens of people. He blamed himself. Isolated himself."
"A structural engineer," Dr. Maya. "Expertise in building ... in creating something physical and sturdy."
"After planning and mapping, he needs someone who can make it happen," Bimo nose. "This is the next target." He saw the address. "He lives in an apartment in Kemang. Anton, check his status. Is there a strange report from that address?"
Anton immediately contacted the police data center. His face turned pale. "There is a report from a neighbor last night. Hearing the sound of the roar of the strong wind from his apartment, even though the window was closed. And felt unnatural cold."
"It's started," Bimo said, already taking his jacket. "He is weakening the defense of his victim. He will commit murder tonight." He called Inspector Budi. "Inspector, prepare the team. We have an address. We are moving now."
"Bimo, wait," said Riani. "This could be a trap. He knows we have this list."
"Maybe," Bimo answered. "But we have no choice. We can't let one more life taken. This is Mr. Daru's legacy. This is our job. To use it, not to hide it."
He looked at them all, the fire burning in his eyes.
"This time, we will surprise him. This time, we will wait."
They rushed out, leaving a quiet office. Bimo held the journal Pak Daru tightly. That is no longer just a notebook. That is a weapon. And for the first time, they did not run after the shadow. They walked to a point on the map, ready to welcome the upcoming demon.
The battle for the souls in Jakarta entered a new phase. A round where they can finally take the initiative.