The black sands of Semeru felt like thousands of micro-needles piercing through my pores. I lay prone, inhaling the pungent scent of sulfur and volcanic ash that choked my lungs. Through the lens of Neuro-Achromatopsia, the vast expanse of ash looked like a gray, shoreless sea—a dead world, devoid of saturation, mirroring exactly how I felt inside.
My sensory ring emitted a high-pitched, continuous beep, slicing through the silence of the slopes. Synchronous Rate: 87%. The number flickered in the gray darkness—a threat, for what I saw was no longer a blinking light, but a shadowy abyss waiting to consume me. My body no longer belonged to me. With every heartbeat, I felt wild surges of static electricity crawling from my left wrist to the base of my brain.
"Don't fight the gravity, Cah Bagus. This mountain does not favor those who sleep upon their wounds." Mbah Gembong's voice sounded distant, distorted by the high-frequency ringing in my ears.
I forced myself to roll over, staring at a sky that had lost its color. "Why... why must it be me, Mbah?" my voice cracked, drowned out by Brother Dirga's low snarl still trapped within the labyrinth of my psyche. "Why didn't Father give this seal to Brother Dirga? He was stronger. He was a soldier. I... I'm just a language teacher who wanted a quiet life."
Mbah Gembong sat cross-legged in the ash, seemingly indifferent to the grit staining his beskap. He pulled out a weathered, unlit cigar, twirling it between his wrinkled fingers. "Because Dirga is the sword, Satria. And you are the scabbard. A sword without its sheath will eventually cut anyone who holds it, including itself."
"He's lying, Satria..." Dirga's voice exploded in my head, making my temples throb. "Father made you the vessel because you were the weakest. The easiest to mold. We are all just components. Seven, look at your hand! That isn't skin, it's a circuit!"
I clutched my head, trying to silence the voice. But alongside Dirga's growl, a memory began to evaporate from my mind. I tried to recall my mother's face as she cooked in the kitchen; I tried to smell the scent of the sambal terasi she used to make. It was gone. The memory felt like paper burning at its edges—blackening, curling, then turning into ash. In its place, technical schematics of the Surya Majapahit seal were projected onto the walls of my mind.
"Your memories are eroding, aren't they?" Mbah Gembong looked at me with sharp, undeniable firmness. "That is the price you pay for housing such energy without Saptapala's chemical injections. You must empty the 'space' in your head so you don't explode."
"This isn't an instruction, Mbah. This is a curse," I whispered bitterly.
"Your Father's instructions were clear, Satria," Mbah Gembong leaned forward, his voice dropping into a whisper sharper than the mountain wind. "He said: 'If this day comes, let the youngest pull back all the strings I have woven.' You are not a spare weapon. You are the center of gravity for all these pillars. Your Father knew Saptapala would never stop exploiting your brothers. The only way to save them is to bring them home... into yourself."
"By destroying myself?" I laughed grimly as black Kalabendu fluid began to drip from the corner of my eye, staining the black sand beneath me.
Suddenly, a familiar mechanical drone cut through our conversation. Three red laser dots—the sensors of Unit Gatotkaca—emerged from the ridge below us. They moved tactically, fanning out in a formation that locked onto my thermal coordinates.
"Target located. Subject 07 in critical condition. Initiate live capture protocol. Use neural shock rounds." The synthetic voice echoed through their internal speakers.
I tried to stand, but my right leg felt numb, paralyzed by the excessive sync-load. Panic began to creep in, but Dirga's voice within laughed. "Let me out, Satria. Let me crush Arka's toys!"
"Don't give Dirga full control!" Mbah Gembong slammed his staff into the ground, yet he didn't move to help. He left me. "Use the second instruction! Manunggal Ing Laku! Fight with the energy, don't fight against it!"
The first drone fired a blue shock round that moved like lightning. Under normal conditions, I would have been finished. But at that exact heartbeat, I didn't think. I let the ancient instinct embedded in the Surya Majapahit seal take over my motor functions.
I didn't stand. I dropped my body lower into the sand, using the Harimau Mencakar Bumi (Tiger Claws the Earth) technique. My blackened left hand plunged thirty centimeters deep into the ash.
I didn't strike; I pulled.
BOOM!
A wave of reddish-gold energy erupted from beneath the ground, blasting the surrounding sand into a massive static dust storm. It wasn't just dust; every grain of sand carried a residual Kalabendu charge that scrambled the sensors of the Gatotkaca drones.
The drones began to spin out of control, their navigation systems overloaded by the erratic pillar interference. I rose with jagged, predatory movements, resembling a wounded but lethal hunter. With one leap that shattered the sand beneath me, I reached the nearest drone.
KRAK!
I crushed the drone's steel casing with my bare hands. The cooling fluid sprayed onto my face—cold and salty. I felt no satisfaction. I only felt empty. One by one, I tore the drones apart until they were nothing but useless scrap on the slopes of Mahameru.
When the last drone went silent, I fell to my knees. My right hand was trembling uncontrollably, limp at my side. My breath hitched. The gray world was darkening at its edges.
"Enough, Satria," Mbah Gembong approached, holding my smoking shoulder. "You have just proven that you can channel that energy without losing your consciousness entirely. But this is only the beginning. Your Father... he didn't just leave a seal in your body. He left a riddle at every pillar."
Mbah Gembong looked westward, across an imaginary ocean toward other islands. "In Kalimantan later, you will learn that your mother was no ordinary woman. Project Penabur (The Sower Project) that she pioneered is the reason you were born with blood that could swallow gods. But to get there, you must pass through Bali. You must fetch Sarwa."
I looked down at my blackened palm. I could no longer remember what my home in Cirebon looked like. I couldn't remember the color of the curtains in my room. Everything had been traded away to destroy those drones.
"Let's go, Cah Bagus. Saptapala will send a larger unit within hours. We must reach the crater's edge before dawn."
We continued the ascent in silence. Amidst the receding sandstorm, I realized one thing: I was no longer Satria, the language teacher from Caruban. I was a remnant of humanity being reconstructed into something terrifying. And Father was the architect.
ANTARALA GLOSSARY [Chapter 8]
Project Penabur: The code name for the initial secret experiment by Saptapala involving genetic manipulation within Satria's family.
Manunggal Ing Laku: A pillar energy control technique where the user doesn't resist the energy, but integrates it into their motor movements.
Static Sandstorm: A phenomenon where volcanic sand grains are charged with high-frequency pillar residue, capable of scrambling even the most advanced electronic sensors.