The sulfurous smoke exhaled from Mahameru's womb was no longer mere toxic gas; to me, it was the final protective veil. At the rim of the Jonggring Saloko crater, which gaped like a hungry maw, the grayscale world grew even denser with soot and dancing heat haze. Yet, amidst that natural chaos, stood something profoundly unnatural.
Sector Zero.
A massive black steel cylinder was embedded directly into the crater, piercing the magma layer as if the mountain were merely a machine requiring an oil intake. The tower vibrated low, emitting a bone-chilling hum that made my teeth chatter. Thick cables, the size of human torsos, snaked out from the crater walls, disappearing into the darkness of the pit like the tentacles of a gargantuan steel squid siphoning life from the earth's core.
I collapsed onto the scorched volcanic sand. My legs were no longer capable of bearing my weight. The torn muscles in my calf felt like being seared by a hot iron every time I shifted. I gasped, inhaling sulfur-laden air that contained more ash than oxygen.
"Look at that, Satria," Mbah Gembong's voice drifted through the mist. He stood at the very edge of the crater, staring at the tower with a gaze that was difficult to decipher. "Saptapala didn't just steal your brothers' lives. They raped this mountain. They turned a sacred place into a battery factory."
I tried to look up. At the top of the tower, red lights rotated, marking every inch of the crater rim with precise lasers. "How... how do we get in, Mbah? My hand, my leg... I can't even stand straight."
"You don't need to stand, Satria," Dirga's voice slammed back into his mind. "You only need to become a ghost."
Mbah Gembong approached, kneeling beside me and touching my neck with fingers that felt ice-cold. "The gates of that tower use vital sensors. Saptapala has mapped the biometric data of your entire family. If you approach with a normal heartbeat, the automated defense system will categorize you as a target to be neutralized on sight."
"Then?" I asked with a trembling voice.
"You must die for a moment," he answered flatly.
I fell silent. Black Kalabendu fluid seeped from the Rajah on my arm, dripping onto the hot stones and emitting a hissing sound. "Die for a moment? What do you mean?"
"Stop your heartbeat, Satria. Use the energy residue from Dirga to suppress the vagus nerve in your neck. No pulse. No life sign. If you are 'dead', you will be considered a supply pack or organic waste entering the disposal system."
"I will guide you, Dik," Dirga chimed in. "But you must trust me completely. If you fail to pull back within thirty seconds, your brain will turn to mush."
I swallowed hard. This desperation had brought me too far. I had already lost my memories of my mother; I had already lost my bodily functions. What was a few seconds of heartbeats worth?
I crawled toward the main entrance at the base of the steel tower. This gate was a mechanical circle with laser scanners that moved like insect eyes. Mbah Gembong remained in the mist, watching from a distance.
I stopped right in front of the scanner. My heart hammered against my ribs out of fear—a supreme irony, for in a moment I had to stop it.
"Now, Dirga," I whispered.
I felt my left hand move on its own. Not by my brain's command, but because Dirga had taken over my motor nerves. His blackened fingers gripped my own neck. I felt a surge of sharp energy like a cold needle piercing my skin, searching for the nerves that controlled my life force.
Instantly, the world vanished.
Thump.
Thump...
Thi...
A terrifying silence engulfed me. The roar of the crater vanished. The hum of the Saptapala machines faded. I could feel my body temperature plummet in seconds. The oxygen in my lungs felt frozen. My vision, already gray, began to fill with swirling black spots.
The red laser from the gate swept across my body.
Scan: Subject 07. Vital Status: Non-Vital. Identification: Organic Residue. Optimization Accepted.
The hiss of hydraulic air echoed as the circular gate opened slowly, revealing a sterile white hallway that contrasted sharply with the darkness of the sea-level crater. My limp body was pulled in by a light gravitational pull.
I lay on the cold floor inside the facility. Darkness began to shroud my consciousness. My lungs, desperate for breath, failed to draw any in. At that exact moment, I felt a violent electric jolt from within my chest.
"WAKE UP, SATRIA!"
That voice wasn't a whisper, but a thunderclap. My heart jolted awake with a pain like being stabbed by a bayonet. I gasped, inhaling sterile, chemically-scented air with greed. My head slammed against the floor, sweating cold mixed with black residue.
I made it. I was inside Sector Zero.
I tried to look around. The hallway was long and curved, adorned with transparent pipes carrying a glowing purple liquid. Behind the glass walls beside me, I saw something that made my stomach churn.
Rows of large glass tubes. Inside them, small, bloated creatures with metallic skin and eyes that hadn't opened yet were submerged in a nutrient fluid.
"Tuyul Agung..." I whispered, my voice echoing in the silent corridor.
This wasn't just a military base. This was a breeding facility. Saptapala wasn't just harvesting energy from the mountains; they were creating a monster ecosystem using the residue from my brothers.
Each creature in those tubes had a digital ID tag on its base: Batch Dirga 04, Batch Dirga 05. The brother I had revered as a hero was suddenly a myth. The pain in my leg and the numbness in my hand felt small, replaced by a raging surge of adrenaline. They were butchering my family and turning them into biological commodities.
"Don't let the rage consume you now, Satria," Dirga warned, his voice sounding shaky, as if the 'presence' in those tubes was also hurting his soul. "We must move to the engine room. I can feel it... my body is still down there. Keep moving."
I tried to stand, using the wall as a crutch. My blackened hand left a wet, gray palm print on the pristine white wall. I began to limp, dragging my shattered right leg, leaving a trail of blood and soot on the laboratory floor that was sacred to the Saptapala scientists.
The hallway lights began to blink blue. The alarm system was active. Saptapala knew there was an intrusion in their system, though they didn't yet know that the intrusion was a crippled man carrying an army of souls in his head.
"I'm coming, Dirga," I whispered into the oppressive silence. "I'm coming to bring you home."
At the end of the hallway, a door opened, revealing a gravity lift leading downward, toward the deepest darkness within the Semeru core. I didn't know what awaited me there, but as the lift doors closed, I realized one thing: The Satria who was a coward had died at the crater's edge earlier. What remained was merely a vengeful vessel.
ANTARALA GLOSSARY [Chapter 10]
Vital Sensors: Saptapala's security system that detects signs of life (heartbeat, body temperature, brain frequency) to identify intruders.
Batch Dirga: The designation for mutant Wiyangga cloned using genetic samples and energy residue from the original Dirga.
Gravity Lift: Saptapala's vertical transport technology utilizing magnetic field manipulation to move personnel between levels within Sector Zero