Enver Eraly stepped out from the shadows of a narrow alley in West Jakarta. 3:45 AM WIB. The asphalt beneath his boots creaked violently. Every time Enver's right foot made contact, the concrete road surface cracked two centimeters deep. Enver's body mass, now carrying a kinetic load of 210 kilograms, created an unnatural gravitational pressure for the city's infrastructure.
"Stop for a moment, Enver," said Z'loq, perched on his right shoulder. "You're destroying the road. If you keep walking like an elephant, the Council's surveillance satellites will find your coordinates in seconds. You must perform a frequency calibration right now."
Enver halted his pace. He took a deep breath. His lungs felt stronger after the process in Sector Zero. "How? This baton feels light in my hand, but my feet feel like they're treading through mud," Enver asked in a low tone.
"Press the small button at the base of Aethelred's Resonator. Channel a bit of your Life Essence toward your feet. You must make your mass float one millimeter above the ground using resonance waves," Z'loq replied while cleaning his black fingernails.
Enver pressed the button. A subtle vibration traveled from his palm to his spine, then down to his feet. Instantly, the sound of cracking asphalt stopped. Enver felt his body become more stable. He resumed walking toward a large house with a three-meter-high steel fence at the end of the street.
"The target is inside. His name is Haryo. He's an official hiding fifty billion rupiah in corrupt money beneath his bedroom floor. The MAU parasite on his neck has reached the Adult phase," Z'loq said.
Enver looked toward the house using his astral vision. He saw a lump of black energy attached to the back of the neck of a sleeping man. The lump had tentacles burrowing into the man's spinal nerves. Beside Enver, Ibu Sumiyati stood in a standby position. She held a neural chain connected to Enver's Baton. Ibu Sumiyati's flat face turned directly toward the target.
Enver approached the steel fence. Two guards armed with automatic weapons emerged from the guard post. They immediately aimed their muzzles at Enver.
"Stop right there! This is a restricted area! Leave now or we fire!" one of the guards shouted.
Enver did not stop. He simply raised his black Baton horizontally. He didn't touch the fence. Enver performed a short swing in the air. The air pressure generated by the 210-kilogram mass moving at high speed created a kinetic shockwave. The one-ton steel fence was hurled backward ten meters until it slammed into the house wall. Both guards were thrown back and knocked unconscious by the air pressure hitting their lungs.
"Go in. Time is limited," Z'loq commanded.
Enver stepped into the master bedroom. Haryo woke up, his face pale. He saw Enver carrying a black rod and a woman with a terrifying flat face. Haryo tried to reach for the phone on the table, but Ibu Sumiyati's neural chain moved faster, shattering the phone into plastic fragments.
"Who are you? I'll give you whatever money you want! There's a safe down there, just take it all!" Haryo shouted, trembling.
"I don't need your money. I'm here to take the burden off your neck," Enver answered.
Enver twisted the handle of the Baton. The crystal tip of the Baton opened. Enver blew his breath into the crystal opening. Instantly, golden smoke billowed out and filled the room. The smoke had an aroma like burning iron. As soon as the smoke touched Haryo's skin, the MAU parasite on his neck began to react. The parasite shrieked with a high-frequency sound that shattered every glass window in the room.
The MAU parasite was forcibly detached from Haryo's neck. It resembled a giant leech with many small legs. The parasite tried to flee, but Enver's golden smoke bound it and dragged it into the Baton. The process was completed within three minutes. Haryo fell to the floor in a weak condition. His entire skin tone turned a pale gray.
"Now, give him the choice," Z'loq whispered with a sinister smile.
Enver stood before the gasping Haryo. "You have three choices. First, Vassalage: you become my follower and surrender the rest of your life to my mission. Second, Prüfen: I will erase your entire memory and you will live again as someone who knows nothing. Third, Pure Death. Choose now."
Haryo looked at his piles of money, which now seemed like trash to him. "I don't want to die. But I don't want to remember all these sins either. Do the second one. Erase everything," Haryo said, weeping.
Enver pressed the tip of the Baton to Haryo's forehead. A high-frequency vibration flowed into Haryo's brain. Technically, the waves destroyed the neural circuits storing long-term memory and self-identity. Haryo's eyes became vacant. He no longer recognized his own name or his wealth. Haryo had become a blank slate.
"Done. Let's go. Model-Omega units have entered this zone," Z'loq said suddenly.
Enver went out to the courtyard. Three Model-Omega units had landed using jet thrusters on their backs. They were two-meter-tall humanoid robots with bulletproof ceramic armor. Their eyes glowed red, signaling that the 7 Councils were monitoring directly through the robots' cameras.
"Subject Enver Eraly. You have committed a level-one economic protocol violation. Surrender or we will perform total physical termination," the robot's voice echoed through static-filled speakers.
Enver gripped his Baton tighter. "Z'loq, how long can I hold out against them?"
"Don't hold out. Just destroy them. Use the pure mass of your Baton," Z'loq answered.
One of the Model-Omegas lunged forward at high speed. It activated a transparent energy shield on its left arm. The shield was designed to withstand grenade blasts. Enver did not dodge. He performed a vertical swing from top to bottom.
The black Baton slammed into the Model-Omega's energy shield. The shield shattered into light particles in an instant. Enver's Baton continued its trajectory and struck the robot's shoulder. The incredibly hard ceramic armor crumbled like a biscuit. The entire left side of the Model-Omega's body was crushed and driven into the ground by the 210-kilogram weight falling at high velocity.
The two other Model-Omega units stopped moving for a moment. They were transmitting data of this impossible damage to the Council's command center. From one of the robots, a different transmission voice was heard. The voice was hoarse and full of signal interference.
"Enver, listen to me," the voice was Mbah Gito's. "Don't let Z'loq consume the essence of the MAU parasite you just captured. If you do, you will give Z'loq the access to control your body entirely. Run now, don't fight them all."
Enver was stunned. He looked at Z'loq on his shoulder. Z'loq only chuckled. "Don't listen to that old man, Enver. He's just jealous because you are greater than him. Come, destroy the rest of this scrap metal."
Enver felt confused, but he saw additional Model-Omega forces beginning to appear in the night sky. He immediately leaped over the ruined fence, followed by Ibu Sumiyati moving at high speed. Enver's steps no longer damaged the asphalt, but his heartbeat raced as he realized he was in the middle of an information war between Z'loq and Mbah Gito.