SOUL CIRCUIT CALIBRATION
1:10 AM WIB. Enver Eraly was at the bottom of the Final Disposal Bunker. The room temperature rose to 32 degrees Celsius due to the activation of old machines surrounding him. Acidic gas in the air began to corrode the mucosal lining in Enver's nose. The old man named Mbah Gito still gripped the end of Enver's hair. His wrinkled hands possessed a grip strength of 80 pounds per square inch.
"Why didn't I die while carrying this weight at the terminal?" Enver asked. His voice was hoarse and broken.
Mbah Gito did not look back. He pointed toward Enver's spinal structure, which protruded prominently behind his torn shirt. "The Idea 2 contract forces your parathyroid glands to work tenfold. Your body takes calcium from the bone marrow to harden the vertebrae. You are not dead because you are turning your bones into concrete. But every second you stand, your bones become as brittle as glass."
"Then why is my mother's face gone?" Enver stared at Ibu Sumiyati, who stood stiffly beside him.
"Zloq is an identity merchant," Mbah Gito answered. "He asked for the face memory not so you would forget. He took your mother's astral biometric data. That flat face is a sign that your mother's right to existence is being held hostage. If you don't take it back, she will become a commodity in the demon black market."
A loud thud echoed from the steel ceiling. A hole two meters in diameter formed. Three Model-Omega Eraser units slid down using carbon fiber cables. Unlike the Model-X, the Model-Omega had matte black armor with transparent vacuum tubes on their backs.
"Target detected. Initiating genetic code extraction," said the leading Model-Omega unit.
Mbah Gito released Enver's hair. "Use the Mass Lock technique, boy. Don't hold that weight in your neck. Channel the weight to the ends of your hair touching the floor. Make your hair your mechanical pivot."
Enver closed his eyes. He concentrated the flow of Pure Essence toward his tailbone nerves. He felt the 210-kilogram weight shift. His long hair hardened at the bottom, forming four pivot points like steel spider legs. The pressure on Enver's neck was instantly reduced by 90 percent.
The Model-Omega raised its vacuum weapon. "Activating astral suction. Eliminating kuntilanak-class vassal."
A magnetic wind vortex appeared from the muzzle of the weapon. Ibu Sumiyati was sucked toward the vacuum. Her astral body began to distort. Ibu Sumiyati let out a high-frequency scream that vibrated the piles of iron in the room.
"Don't let him take your mother!" Mbah Gito shouted.
Enver moved. With the Mass Lock system, he lunged forward at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour. He swung his hair to strike the vacuum weapon until it was thrown aside. Enver plunged his golden veins toward the Model-Omega's neck joint.
"Zloq!" Enver shouted in his mind. "Open full power access!"
Zloq manifested on the surface of the cracked Model-Omega helmet visor. "You want more power? Pay with your school-age memories. Give me all the data regarding the pain of bullying you experienced."
"Take it all!" Enver answered without hesitation.
Instantly, Enver felt his brain turn cold. Memories of the insults and blows he received at school disappeared. In their place, the golden veins in his hands lengthened to three meters and glowed with hot thermal radiation. Enver sliced the Model-Omega armor into two symmetrical parts. Machine lubricant sprayed onto Enver's face.
Mbah Gito stood in the middle of the room. He stretched out his arms, which were covered in digital number tattoos. "You've come to the wrong place for a cleanup!"
The hair cloak worn by Mbah Gito lengthened and connected to thousands of Model-X skeletons in the bunker. The rusted frames began to stand. Their eyes glowed a dim red. The disposal bunker turned into a battlefield between elite Council units and Mbah Gito's mechanical zombie army.
"Go through the ventilation hole in the east sector," Mbah Gito said while holding off laser fire from the two other Model-Omega units. "Find a place called Sector Zero. There you can summon Zloq physically."
Enver pulled Ibu Sumiyati back, who was nearly sucked dry. He carried the faceless entity. Enver ran toward the ventilation hole while dragging his hair, which now functioned as kinetic legs.
Before jumping into the ventilation shaft, Enver paused. "Mbah, why are you helping me?"
Mbah Gito turned. Half of his face had peeled away, revealing ancient circuits beneath the skin. "Because I am the first failure of the Idea 2 contract. Zloq is building a body using your remaining lifespan, Enver. If you don't stop him, he will manifest himself into this world using your own flesh and blood."
A massive explosion destroyed the center of the bunker. Mbah Gito was buried under the rubble along with the Model-Omega units. Enver jumped into the dark ventilation shaft. The sound of the Council's giant drill could still be heard above him.
Enver landed in a narrow, freezing tunnel. He checked his pulse. His remaining lifespan had now drastically decreased to only 400 days. He stared at his trembling palms. He had lost his mother's face and the memories of his past. Now, he only had heavy hair, a nameless vassal, and a demon planning to steal his body.
"I will kill you first, Zloq," Enver whispered in the darkness.
2:00 AM WIB. Enver continued to crawl away from central Jakarta. Outside, thousands of Council drones were combing every corner of the waste sectors. The war between the cursed human and the world's purification system had just entered a deadlier stage.
---
2:15 AM WIB. The structure of the Final Disposal Bunker had sustained 80 percent mechanical damage. In the center of the collapsing room, Mbah Gito stood atop a heap of Model-X carcasses. Mbah Gito's right arm was lodged inside the jaw of the Astral Gorgon. He was performing a forced neural synchronization, channeling biometric electrical currents from his brain directly into the monster's central nervous system. Mbah Gito offered his own arm's flesh as an energy source for the Gorgon so he could command the creature's motor movements.
Enver Eraly fell unconscious inside the ventilation shaft as the acidic gas concentration reached 5 percent. His brain activity entered a subconscious memory phase. Enver saw a flashback of his 14-year-old self in a narrow alleyway. He witnessed a young child die due to fatal bullying. Enver's pure rage released a blue radiation of Life Essence that pierced through the earth's layers until it reached the dimension of the Zero Abyss. Z'loq, the King of Pandemonium, was awakened by that vibration. Z'loq needed Enver to repatriate millions of his subjects who had defected to the human world as MAU parasites.
Enver woke up in Sector Zero, a white room without corners. In front of a giant silver mirror, Z'loq appeared in a small form, only 30 centimeters tall. Z'loq sat on Enver's left shoulder and stared downward through the dimensional floor.
"That old man down there was once one of several human vessels I occupied," Z'loq whispered into Enver's ear. "But I couldn't stay long in his body. Remembering what lies inside that man's mind makes even me shiver. Never trust him completely."
Z'loq handed over a piece of human skin containing the Synchronization Chant. "Read this correctly. If a single syllable misses its mark, your spinal cord will be crushed by the weight of your own hair."
Enver began to recite the mantra. The words were not a human language, but frequencies that vibrated the vocal cords. This process took six hours. Every time Enver mispronounced a tone, the 210-kilogram hair on his back jolted his central nerves until he vomited blood. Enver continued to repeat it, his body shaking violently.
Outside Sector Zero, Model-Omega forces attempted to penetrate the area. They fired dimension-shredding lasers, but the attacks were held back by a transparent shield glowing dark red. Z'loq was exerting his energy to keep Sector Zero stable. Black sweat poured from Z'loq's skin. He was using immense power to block the Council's technology from reaching the area.
In the highest command center, the 7 Councils that ruled the world reacted simultaneously. Their dimensional monitoring screens showed an unidentified energy surge. One of the Council members stood up and stared at the screen with anxiety.
"This power... how can it feel this strong? This exceeds the scale of our Model-Omega technology," the Council member muttered.
After six hours had passed, Enver successfully finished the final sentence of the mantra with a perfect tone. Instantly, the black hair on Enver's back fell away and solidified into a 60-centimeter black conductor's baton. Its texture resembled tightly coiled nerve fibers. This instrument was Aethelred's Resonator.
"This tool possesses a mass of 210 kilograms," Z'loq explained, panting from exhaustion. "When you twist the handle, the crystal tip will open into a censer. Blow your breath into it to release the purification smoke. Remember the three choices for humans: Vassalage, Prüfen, or Pure Death."
Enver gripped the baton. He felt the mass of hundreds of kilograms now transformed into destructive power within his palm. Enver walked toward the northern wall of Sector Zero. He swung the baton. The resulting air pressure created a shockwave that shattered the dimensional wall.
Enver leaped out and landed in an empty field on the outskirts of Jakarta. Ibu Sumiyati appeared beside Enver in a combat-ready stance. She held a neural chain connected to the energy of Enver's baton.
"The first target is ahead," Z'loq whispered.
Enver raised his conductor baton high. He twisted the handle of the instrument until golden smoke billowed from the tip. The purification war against the MAU parasites officially began under the hidden, fearful gaze of the 7 Councils.