ANATOMY OF ESSENCE THEFT
10:15 PM WIB. Enver Eraly was inside an underground utility tunnel located five meters below the asphalt surface of Central Jakarta. Enver's internal body temperature reached 40.5 degrees Celsius. Biological sensors in his brain sent danger signals because the level of Essence of Life in his bloodstream was below 2 percent. Without an intake of essence within the next 30 minutes, Enver's heart would suffer mechanical failure.
The weight of Enver's black hair, which now reached 210 kilograms, exerted hydraulic pressure on his spine. Every time Enver attempted to shift, thoracic vertebrae numbers seven through ten experienced friction that produced a bone-cracking sound. Enver was unable to stand upright.
Ibu Sumiyati hovered over Enver's body. Her astral form as a kuntilanak appeared stable under the flickering neon lights of the tunnel. Ibu Sumiyati used her astral hair to bind Enver's waist. She acted as a pulley system to drag Enver's body along the cable pipe path.
"I smell pure essence at coordinates 300 meters to the north," Ibu Sumiyati said. Her voice was a low-frequency vibration that could only be heard by Enver.
Enver activated his contract vision. His right eye glowed a dim gold color. Through the concrete walls of the tunnel, Enver saw the building structure above him. He saw a group of humans walking on the ground surface. On the backs of those humans, Enver saw low-class parasitic astral entities shaped like transparent leeches. The parasites were sucking kinetic energy from the humans' muscles so that they would remain tired and obedient.
"Cortex-7," Enver whispered. "They are collecting essence from those leech parasites to be distilled illegally."
Enver and Ibu Sumiyati reached a steel wall that was part of a storage bunker belonging to the Cortex-7 syndicate. This wall was equipped with a magnetic field designed to repel astral entities. Ibu Sumiyati groaned as her hand touched the wall because the magnetic energy burned her ectoplasmic layer.
Z'loq manifested on the surface of the wastewater flowing on the tunnel floor. The demon's face looked symmetrical yet cold.
"You need an entry key, Enver," Z'loq said. "This security system uses a soul encryption code. I can open it for you, but the Idea 2 contract requires an equivalent exchange for assistance beyond your current physical capabilities."
Enver stared at Z'loq through his golden eye. "What do you want this time?"
"Give me your visual memory of Ibu Sumiyati's face," Z'loq answered. "You will still remember her name. You will still know she is your mother. However, every time you look at her face, you will only see a void. You will never be able to recognize the shape of her nose, eyes, or lips again."
Enver looked toward Ibu Sumiyati. The entity was enduring the pain from the magnetic radiation for the sake of protecting him. Enver closed his eyes. The memory data of his mother's smiling face from his childhood was permanently erased from the temporal lobe of his brain by Z'loq.
The steel bunker door opened automatically. Enver crawled into a sterile room containing hundreds of glass tubes. Inside the tubes was a clear blue liquid. It was Pure Essence of Life.
Enver took one tube and broke the tip. He inserted a syringe into the tube and sucked out the contents. Enver stabbed the needle directly into the golden vein in his neck. Cold liquid flowed into his nervous system. Enver's body temperature dropped drastically to 37 degrees Celsius. The pain in his spine decreased by 60 percent.
"System functions restored," Enver said. He stood upright while dragging his heavy hair.
Suddenly, all the lights inside the bunker went out. The security siren stopped abruptly. The air inside the room became so static that dust stopped floating. The steel bunker door, which was 50 centimeters thick, split vertically from top to bottom. The cut was very neat as if sliced by a high-pressure laser.
A two-meter-tall entity stepped inside. This entity was The Eraser Model-X. Its entire body was coated in shimmering white liquid metal. In its right hand, it held a sharp instrument shaped like a giant pair of scissors with blood-red blades. The instrument was known as the Fate-Severing Scissors.
"Target Enver Eraly found," Model-X said with a voice produced by a digital synthesizer. "Elimination protocol suspended based on the orders of the 7 Councils. Target status changed to forced pickup subject for genetic code extraction."
Ibu Sumiyati darted in front of Enver. She let out an ultrasonic scream with a strength of 150 decibels. All the glass tubes in the room shattered into pieces. However, Model-X did not move an inch. The liquid metal layer on its body absorbed the entire sound vibration.
Model-X opened its red scissor blades. "Astral vassal detected as an anomaly. Initiating the process of severing the soul connection between master and servant."
Enver pulled ten golden veins from his fingers. The veins now glowed brighter due to the influence of the pure essence. He stood beside Ibu Sumiyati, but as he looked at his mother's face, he only saw a flat white area without facial features. Enver had lost the ability to recognize his mother, but his anger triggered a surge of energy in his hair.
"Do not touch her," Enver said.
Model-X moved its scissors with a speed that could not be followed by human eyes. The red blade aimed directly at the golden vein connecting Enver's heart to Ibu Sumiyati's soul. The battle inside the closed bunker began without any other human witnesses.