My world no longer held any color. The lush greens of the Grey Heart forest had withered into a lifeless grayscale, as if the very essence of life around me had been drained by the monstrous power surging from my arm. At my feet, Raka lay helpless. His armored visor was shattered, revealing a human face filled with pure terror. I could feel his erratic heartbeat through the ground beneath my feet; the frequency of his fear was a intoxicating residue for the Kalabendu within my veins.
My left arm—the Surya Majapahit Seal—throbbed wildly. The orange glow pierced through my jacket, feeling like white-hot iron being forced into my bone marrow. Black fluid, the Kalabendu, continued to seep from my pores, dripping onto Raka's chest plate and beginning to corrode the composite metal with a horrifying hiss.
"Finish him, Satria... Let Saptapala know that their steel cannot hold our blood!"
The voice of Brother Dirga thundered in my skull, no longer as a whisper, but as a motor command pulling my arm muscles to drive an energy claw straight into Raka's throat. I groaned, clutching my head with my trembling right hand. A bitter metallic taste filled my mouth—a sign that my brain's neural pathways were burning out from pillar radiation.
"Satria, snap out of it! Look at your hand, not your enemy!"
A sudden frequency blast slammed into my back. Not a Saptapala bullet, but a reflection of starlight focused through Mbah Gembong's Copper Mirror. The light felt like a dousing of cold water to my fried nervous system. I stumbled back, my grip on Raka's armor loosening. The numbers on my cracked sensory ring blinked erratically: Synchronous Rate: 82%—Stabilizing.
Mbah Gembong stepped between me and the unconscious Raka. His figure appeared like a silver silhouette glowing in my color-blind eyes. He didn't look at the fallen Saptapala soldier; his eyes were fixed on me, sharp and full of the authority of a mentor who had witnessed a thousand deaths.
"Avarice is feasting in your head, Cah Bagus," Mbah Gembong said, his voice clear yet heavy. "If you kill him now with Dirga's rage, you aren't freeing your brother. You are merely feeding the Tuyul Agung that guards this crater. Do you want to become just another slave to the pillars, like them?"
I panted, hot vapor escaping my mouth with every breath. "They... they called us property, Mbah. They treated Brother Dirga like he was nothing more than a machine!"
"That is the way of Saptapala," Mbah Gembong tucked his mirror back into his tattered black beskap. "They are greedy for power, so much so that they forget this mountain has a soul. But you cannot fight greed with dark vengeance. You need Manunggal Sejati (True Unification), not just becoming a vessel for residual rage."
Mbah Gembong placed a hand on my shoulder. His touch felt searingly hot, as if he were absorbing the metaphysical burden of the forest around us so it wouldn't collapse under my Kalabendu radiation. He pointed toward the summit, piercing through the tangled banyan roots that obstructed our view.
"Look at the peak. Semeru isn't erupting because of nature. It's screaming because its heart—your brother—is being squeezed by Arka's machines. They are initiating a Forced Harvesting because they know you are too close."
Suddenly, the earth beneath us shook violently. A low-frequency thud, far more powerful than thunder, echoed from the summit. In the distance, through the gaps in the trees, I saw a pillar of pale blue light shoot into the night sky, slicing through the volcanic clouds with a jagged edge. It was a Saptapala signal; they were drawing pillar energy at maximum capacity, ignoring the fact that it would destroy their biological host—Brother Dirga.
"Ugh..." I knelt, clutching my chest as it grew tight. Every time that blue light pulsed at the summit, the Rajah on my arm responded with a pain that made my vision darken.
"Time is short, Satria," Mbah Gembong urged me to stand. "If that pillar reaches its saturation point, Dirga will vanish and you will become an eternal Wiyangga without a soul. We must go to Sector Zero. Now."
We left the battlefield. Raka and the decimated Strike Team 01 were left scattered among the rotting vegetation caused by the energy residue. I moved with heavy steps, following Mbah Gembong's back as he ascended with a speed that defied logic.
Passing the boundary of the Grey Heart, the atmosphere shifted drastically. The trees vanished, replaced by a vast expanse of black sand and volcanic rocks. Oxygen grew thinner, replaced by the pungent scent of sulfur that stung my lungs. Here, on the ash-covered slopes leading to Jonggring Saloko, the tracks of Saptapala technology became more visible. Massive high-voltage cables were buried beneath the ash, pulsing with a dim blue light, siphoning every drop of energy from the bowels of the earth.
"Mbah, why didn't Father destroy these pillars long ago if he knew this would happen?" I asked amidst the roar of the howling crater wind.
Mbah Gembong paused for a second, looking back with an indecipherable gaze. "Your Father didn't destroy them because the pillars aren't the enemy. These pillars are the protectors of the Archipelago. Saptapala is the one who made them weapons. Your Father hid the Surya Majapahit Seal in your body so you could be the key to reclaiming these pillars, not to destroy them along with your brothers."
That statement hit me harder than any Saptapala bullet. I wasn't just a fugitive; I was the legitimate heir to a system now being abused by Arka.
Suddenly, the drone of jet engines echoed from behind the sulfur mist. Three pillar-powered surveillance drones—Unit Gatotkaca—emerged from the darkness, their red sensor lights immediately sweeping our position.
"Target confirmed. Subject 07 is at the forest boundary coordinates. Authorization for lethal force granted," a mechanical voice announced through the drone's speakers.
I clenched my left fist. The Kalabendu fluid crept back through my fingers. This time, I wouldn't let Dirga take full control. I took a deep breath, attempting to sync my heartbeat with Mbah Gembong's instructions.
"Let's go, Mbah. Let's show them who the true owner of this mountain is."
I lunged forward across the unstable sand, my speed exceeding human limits as I leapt toward the lead drone. The orange light from my arm slashed through the night, ready to destroy the technology that stood in my way to Brother Dirga.
ANTARALA GLOSSARY [Chapter 6]
Forced Harvesting: Saptapala's emergency protocol to unstabley absorb pillar energy, risking the death of the biological Vessel (Dirga).
Neuro-Achromatopsia: A clinical symptom of pillar radiation where the sufferer can only see in shades of black, white, gray, and dull blue.
Sector Zero: The innermost region beneath the Semeru crater which serves as the central control hub for the pillars.
Unit Gatotkaca: Saptapala's automated combat drones equipped with vital sensors and high-level pillar-powered weaponry