The gravity lift plummeted into the depths of Semeru's womb with a haunting silence. I leaned against the cold metal corner, my vision a tragedy: my right eye captured the world in a gray void, while my left was veiled by a hot, crimson mist that constantly dripped blood onto my chest. I was a biological failure being forced to walk.
Suddenly, the sensor bracelet on my left wrist—a thin shackle I'd worn since my abduction from the central lab—began to vibrate violently. Its cracked digital screen flared with a blinding neon blue light.
"Remote Re-calibration initiated," a cold, synthetic voice hissed from the bracelet. "Authority: Commander Arka. Protocol: Subject Termination."
In an instant, a pain unlike the burns or broken bones hit me. It wasn't physical; it was an electrical agony that bored straight into my bone marrow. My body convulsed, my back arching until I slammed against the lift wall.
"Aaargh!" I groaned, bitter fluid leaking from the corner of my twitching mouth.
"Satria! He's trying to fry your motor nerves!" Dirga's voice roared, fighting through the frequency interference in my skull. "Arka is using that bracelet as a transmitter to scramble your brainwaves. He wants to shut you down like a machine!"
Amidst the agonizing seizures, a small holographic projection flickered from the bracelet. Commander Arka's face appeared again, sharper and more menacing. He was no longer looking at me from a lab; he was broadcasting from the Saptapala command center, miles away.
"You've gone too far, Satria," Arka spoke calmly amidst my storm of pain. "I gave you a chance to be part of Nusantara's glorious future. But you chose to be a virus. Now, I must perform a hard reset on your nervous system."
"You... can't... own my soul..." I hissed through gritted teeth.
"Soul is an illusion, Satria. Your nerves, your bones, every drop of residue in your veins, is property of Saptapala. This isn't a murder; it's just ending a dream that lasted too long."
Arka pressed something on a control panel unseen in the hologram. A second later, the bracelet constricted, crushing my left wrist until I heard the sickening crunch of bone. My vision blurred as my consciousness was yanked between the void and reality. Arka was deleting me. He was shutting down my soul to leave a hollow vessel he could recalibrate.
"Satria! Don't give up! Destroy that thing!" Dirga pleaded, his energy surging through my arm, fighting the Saptapala logic circuits. "Use the heat! Burn his connection before he reaches your brain!"
I gathered my remaining sanity. My paralyzed right hand couldn't move, but my left hand, which wore the bracelet, was still burning with a smoldering heat. With a strength born of pure desperation, I slammed my left wrist against the steel floor of the lift.
Krak! Brak!
The bracelet didn't shatter. Arka chuckled in the hologram. "It's made of a tungsten-titanium alloy, Satria. You'll break your hand long before that thing gives way."
I stopped slamming. I realized physical force wouldn't work. I had to use the one thing he was trying to contain.
"Dirga... release everything..." I whispered.
"What? Satria, if I release all the residue now, that bracelet will detonate at close range! You'll lose your hand, Satria!"
"Do it! Or we'll be his puppets forever!"
I shut my eyes. I imagined the entire tide of Kalabendu churning in my nerves gathering into a single point: right beneath the circle of that sensor bracelet. I channeled the volcanic energy of Semeru, not to strike out, but to melt inward.
Synchronous Rate: 94.8%... 98%...
The temperature at my wrist skyrocketed to hundreds of degrees. I smelled the scent of my own burning flesh. White smoke billowed from behind the metal bracelet. Arka's electric current clashed with the pillar energy, creating a storm of orange and blue sparks in the cramped lift.
"What are you doing?!" Arka shouted, his holographic face distorted by the interference. "Stop it! You'll destroy your neural system permanently!"
"I'd rather be a ghost... than be your slave!" I roared.
BOOM!
A small but concentrated explosion occurred at my wrist. The sensor bracelet shattered into pieces, embedded into the lift walls. Arka's hologram vanished instantly along with the communication link.
I slumped to the floor, gasping for air that felt like lead. My left wrist... was a horrifying sight. The skin was completely charred, revealing charred muscle and several fragments of the bracelet still embedded there. The stinging pain was so intense I felt like passing out, but the pillar adrenaline kept my eyes forced open.
Silence returned to the lift. But this time, it felt different. The bracelet was gone. The constant status pings and the beeping of my vitals were silenced. I was truly alone. I didn't know how long my body could last, I didn't know how far I was from the breaking point.
I was truly free now. Without Saptapala monitoring me, without Mbah Gembong guiding me, only I and Dirga were unified.
"You did it, Satria," Dirga's voice sounded weak; he too had been exhausted by the explosion. "You severed their last tether. Now, Arka can no longer track us through the system. We are ghosts now."
"But for how long... how much longer can this body hold, Dirga?" I asked as I stared at my mangled hand. "Without that sensor... I don't know when I'll explode."
"It's better to be free, Satria. No one knows when we'll die. But at least, when we do, we die as humans, not as subject number seven."
The lift stopped with a violent jolt. The doors opened, revealing a room vastly different from the laboratories above. This space was dark, illuminated only by a blue glow from thousands of fiber optic cables hanging from the ceiling like giant jellyfish tentacles. The air here was heavy and humid, carrying a frequency vibration that made my ribs rattle.
This was Level B-7: Semeru Core.
The central energy distribution hub connecting the crater to the Saptapala turbine system. In the center of the room, I saw a silhouette that made me shudder: thousands of cables merged at one central point, as if they were a web coming from a giant spider.
And in the middle of that web, stood a large shadow. Not a human, not a Wiyangga.
It was Arka's Shadow—a prototype robotic suit controlled by Arka's digital consciousness through a neural link. The armored suit was sleek, with a single red eye that stared at me with disdain.
"You destroyed the bracelet, Satria," Arka's voice came from the machine, deeper and more soulless. "But you forgot one thing. In this place, I am the system. I am the god of this mountain. And you are just an insect trapped in my web."
I dragged my leg out of the lift, positioning myself in front of the killing machine. My charred left hand gripped my tactical vest. I no longer cared about vitals, I no longer cared about warnings. My life felt like a burnt fuse with only one goal left.
"I am no insect, Arka," I hissed, blood seeping from my left eye, drenching my blistered face. "I am the beginning of your end."
ANTARALA GLOSSARY [Chapter 13]
Remote Re-calibration: An emergency protocol to take over a subject's neural system through an emitter frequency.
Semeru Core: Level B-7 of Sector Zero, where pillar energy is distributed through a bio-optical fiber network to the entire facility.
Arka's Shadow (Unit Prototype): A neural-linked combat armor controlled by Commander Arka, designed for high-residue environments.