Arya ran down streets that were becoming harder and harder to recognize. He gasped for breath, sweat running down his face and neck. Now and then he slowed down to look at the intersections he passed, trying to recall the route he had taken. He had to find the big tree covered in jasmine flowers, just as the mysterious man had told him.
But the farther he ran, the thicker the fog became. The buildings around him slowly vanished behind a drifting white veil. His view grew more and more limited, making it hard to recognize places that had felt familiar before. Several times he looked back, hoping to make out the way he had come. But all he could see were faint streets, buried in fog.
Arya kept running until his steps slowed at the sight of a large structure ahead of him. A tall white wall stretched across the road, with a huge gate that looked like part of the walls of the Yogyakarta palace. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, then raised his eyes, trying to identify the building.
Plengkung Gading.
This historic landmark, sacred to some of the people of Yogyakarta, now stood grandly before him. But in the thick fog that surrounded it, its grandeur gave off a different feeling. Its white walls looked faint, and the dark passage of the gate seemed to hide something behind it.
Arya stared at the structure with mixed feelings. He had no idea how he had ended up here, let alone whether the road he was on still led to the big jasmine tree he was looking for.
His thoughts turned back to his meeting with Rika. He tried to recall their conversation, from the way she had suddenly made an issue of him holding her hand, to her sudden embarrassment before she simply left. Arya frowned, trying to work out what exactly he had said wrong.
"No wonder I'm still single," he muttered, then suddenly let out a bitter laugh. He straightened up and shook his head, as if he had just found the answer to his own love life problems.
His laughter rang out loudly, bouncing off the buildings and the fog-wrapped walls of Plengkung Gading. But as the laugh slowly faded, the place felt strange again. No other sound answered or interrupted. There was only the echo of his own voice, fading into the cold air.
Across the street, behind the thickening fog, a small child peeked out from behind an abandoned angkringan cart. Only part of his face was visible, while the rest of his body was hidden behind the cart. His pair of black eyes watched Arya closely, following his every move without blinking.
At first, the child's face looked innocent, like any ordinary child's. But slowly the corners of his mouth began to lift, forming a thin smile that felt unnatural. His gaze, once full of curiosity, turned cunning, as if he had just found something interesting in a place he had been watching for a long time.
"Could he be... HUMAN?" he whispered to himself.
His smile grew wider, showing a strange delight that was hard to read. He seemed to savor his own thoughts, as if Arya's presence in this place were something he had never expected. The passing fog slowly covered part of the cart, so that the small figure sometimes looked faint before showing again from behind its shadow.
Suddenly, a small voice called out to Arya from a distance.
"Big brother..."
Arya's head snapped up. He looked behind him, then to the side of the road, trying to find the source of the voice. But as far as he could see, there was only thick fog blanketing the street. The buildings across the way looked faint, some of them almost invisible. He stood still for a moment, trying to be sure whether the voice had really come from someone or whether his ears had simply been wrong.
Before long, a small shadow began to move behind the fog. The figure slowly came closer until it became clearer. A young child stood not far from him, wearing old-fashioned traditional Javanese clothing in a simple cut that looked strange to Arya. The clothes were a little worn, as if they had been on for a very long time. The child's face looked gloomy, with a sad gaze fixed on him. It seemed as though the child was waiting for someone.
Arya watched him for a while. He hesitated, but the child's expression made him feel that something was wrong. Slowly, Arya began to walk toward him.
"What's wrong, little one? Are you okay?" Arya asked gently. He bent down a little to be at the child's eye level, trying to show he meant no harm.
"I... don't know the way home," the child answered softly. His voice sounded weak and a little shaky, as if he were about to cry. His eyes looked up at Arya full of hope, and his face still held a sadness that was hard to hide.
Arya paused for a moment. He studied the child, trying to understand how such a small kid could be lost all alone in a place like this. But seeing the confusion on the child's face, he didn't have the heart to just leave him.
"Oh, I see. Then how about I help you find your way home?" he offered, and the child nodded slowly.
Without thinking twice, Arya started walking down the road with the child. Every so often he looked back to make sure the child was still following. They passed rows of buildings and intersections that looked more and more unfamiliar.
The road they had been walking on slowly turned into alleys that were hard to recognize, while the fog kept limiting what they could see. Several times Arya stopped to ask whether the child recognized the places they were passing. But each time, the child only shook his head. Even after walking quite far and crossing several intersections, not a single place felt familiar to him.
Arya began to slow down. He glanced at the child now walking beside him, then looked back at the road ahead. At first he had only meant to help a child find his way home, but now he began to wonder where exactly they were going.
"Who's that?" Arya whispered to himself.
His eyes were fixed on the shadow of a woman in the fog, quite far ahead of him. He sensed something off, something hard to explain, enough to make him uneasy. But the question that left his lips simply hung in the air with no answer.
"What a great honor, to be visited in person by the legend herself... NAGINI," the child said, putting emphasis on the name. His tone was full of mockery, as if he had deliberately offered the greeting to belittle the figure who had just arrived from behind the fog.
The smile that had been on the child's face all this time slowly faded. His expression changed, as if the friendliness he had shown before had only been a mask. At the same time, his voice, once soft and innocent, began to turn deep and heavy. It echoed with an intimidating tone, as if it came from something hidden behind his small body.
The moment the name was spoken, the fog around them began to churn. Clumps of grayish white moved in all directions, pulling apart and crowding together as if responding to the presence of someone whose name had just been called. The atmosphere around them grew even more oppressive.
From behind the curtain of fog, which slowly parted, a woman began to appear. She wore a red gown that stood out against the foggy surroundings. Her steps were calm, without a trace of hesitation, and the terrifying aura around her made the space around her feel heavier.
She stood tall, with a commanding posture. Her sharp gaze went straight to the child, showing no interest at all in answering the mockery he had just thrown at her. The two figures now faced each other, separated by only a short distance, but wrapped in a tension that could be felt.
"That's enough, Buto. How long do you plan to play with that human child?"
A woman's voice suddenly echoed from the fog. Her tone was cold, but firm and full of authority. Every word seemed to carry its own weight, enough to make Arya stop in his tracks.
"Leave that human alone. Let me be the one to guide him," Nagini continued. This time her voice was sharper and carried a much clearer threat. As she spoke, a terrifying energy began to radiate from her body. An invisible pressure spread in every direction, making the air around them feel heavier, as if the whole space were under the influence of her power.
"Unfortunately, I must refuse your order, Commander," the child replied in a mocking tone.
An evil laugh followed. The smile that had looked like a child's had turned into a horrifying, cunning grin. His face slowly showed a far more frightening expression, as if he no longer tried to hide his true nature behind that innocent appearance. His gaze stayed fixed on Nagini. There was no sign of fear or doubt in his eyes. Instead, he seemed to enjoy the situation, as if his refusal were an open challenge to the figure standing before him.
Nagini didn't give her opponent the slightest chance to continue. Before the child could even react, she had already swung one hand. At once, golden light burst from her palm, forming an energy attack that shot forward at incredible speed. It flew right past Arya's side, leaving a dazzling flash of light before slamming squarely into the child's body.
A violent impact shook the area. The child's body was thrown far back, crashing through the front of the building behind him. The walls collapsed in ruin, leaving rubble and dust rising into the air. In an instant, his figure disappeared behind the fallen debris.
But in the middle of that destruction, Arya began to feel something far worse.
Without understanding what was happening, Arya sensed a strange change in his body. His heartbeat suddenly sped up. It wasn't just something he could hear in his chest. The pulse seemed to spread through his whole body, making every part of him tremble to an unnatural rhythm. His legs lost their strength. He tried to keep his balance, but his body could no longer hold him up. In an instant, Arya fell face-first to the ground.
Pain began to spread from his head, then through his entire body. His vision slowly lost focus. The figures in front of him looked blurred and stacked on top of one another, and the scene around him became harder to recognize. Arya tried to lift his head, but even that simple movement made the pain worse. His breathing grew heavy. He tried to understand what was happening to him, but his mind found it harder and harder to focus.
Soon, something warm began to flow from his nose and mouth. When he realized it was blood, panic took hold of him at once. He didn't understand what was happening. Moments earlier, he had been standing there, watching the fight in front of him. Now even moving his own body was a struggle.
What is this? What is really happening? Arya thought. He fought hard to hold on to consciousness through the growing pain.
His breath was heavy and uneven. With what little strength he had left, he tried to steady himself enough to see what was going on in front of him. But his vision was still filled with faint, indistinct shapes.
As Arya grew weaker, movement behind the fog drew attention again. Slowly, a figure began to emerge from the clouds of dust and smoke surrounding the ruins. The child had reappeared. His body now looked almost whole, as if Nagini's attack had done little to him. Only a few faint scars were visible on his skin, a small sign that he had indeed taken that direct hit. He stepped out of the fog casually. There was no sign of pain. Instead, a thin smile returned to his face, as if the attack he had just taken were nothing more than an ordinary greeting.
"What a warm greeting, the first one since we last met, General," he said in a mocking tone.
His gaze was fixed straight on Nagini. He even sounded like he was enjoying himself, as if the destroyed building and the blow to his body were nothing worth worrying about. Slowly, the child's appearance began to change. His small body transformed, growing larger as time went on.
The change continued until the figure that once looked like a small child became a huge, towering presence, far more intimidating.
In one hand he now held a large iron club, and his face had grown more frightening, with long fangs jutting from his mouth. His voice was deeper and more menacing. A thin smile still lingered on his face, but now it looked far more threatening. With his massive body and the club in his grip, he stood facing Nagini, fully ready for battle.
"Ahh~ So, your little game of father and child is over?" Nagini said in a belittling tone. The corner of her mouth curled into a faint smile, her eyes fixed on Buto. Her words sounded like a taunt, deliberately thrown to mock the giant before her.
"You didn't come here for that human, did you? What exactly are you hiding?" Buto said. His deep voice boomed like huge boulders grinding together, and he glared at Nagini with sharp hatred.
Nagini smiled at the accusation. But her eyes stayed sharp and cold. There was no real change in her expression, as if Buto's words had not shaken her at all.
"It is not for you to know what I do. Remember your place, Buto," Nagini said with a condescending, threatening smile.
Buto raised his huge club. Its tip dragged across the ground with a harsh scraping sound, leaving gouges and cracks in the earth beneath it, and he gave no answer to Nagini's words. Instead of replying to the jab, he swung the huge club at Nagini with all his strength. The giant weapon tore through the air with a rumble that shook the area.
The pillars of the buildings along its path were destroyed at once, some snapped in half and others ripped right out of the ground by the force of the blow. Nagini dodged immediately. With a graceful, measured movement, she tilted her body and let the huge club pass without touching her. At the same time,
"You haven't changed," Nagini said as she avoided the next strike. Her movements stayed calm even as Buto's club swept through the space around her again. "You always attack without thinking. That's what makes you weak."
"And you always talk without acting!" Buto shot back in a thunderous voice.
Without waiting any longer, Buto leaped at Nagini.
His huge body rose high, stretching across the clouds of fog until, for a moment, it blocked the foggy sky above them. His massive club was ready to strike again, following the motion of his body as he came down from the air. But before the next attack could land, something unexpected made both of them stop in mid-motion.
Nagini's nose and Buto's nose twitched at the same time. Both seemed to catch the same scent, one so distinctive that their attention was pulled away from the fight at once. Their movements froze. Their eyes, which had been locked on each other, slowly turned in a different direction.
"This scent..." they said, almost in unison.
Their eyes now fell on Arya, still lying on the ground. A moment later, Buto's expression changed. He sniffed once more, as if to be sure of the scent he had just caught. A terrifying smile began to form on his face.
"Blood of the lineage..." Buto said, his deep voice now filled with hunger.
Without wasting a second, Buto turned all his attention to Arya. He charged at him with huge strides that shook the ground. His giant body moved fast, his eyes locked on Arya, who lay there helpless.
He looked like a starving monster that had just found its prey. He had no more interest in the earlier fight. To him, Arya was now far more interesting than Nagini, who had been his opponent all along.
Nagini immediately tried to stop Buto, who kept charging toward Arya. But before she could get close, Buto quickly swung his arm and hurled the huge club in his grip at Nagini. The sudden attack forced her to change direction. Nagini dodged at once and backed away several steps to avoid the blow. The giant weapon flew past her, costing her the chance to go after Buto right away.
"Get away from there! You'll die!" Nagini shouted at Arya.
This time her voice sounded far more panicked than before. Her eyes were fixed on Arya, who was still lying helpless, while Buto drew closer with his huge strides. But Nagini's warning came when the distance between them had almost run out. Just as Buto was about to touch Arya's body, a tremendous wave of energy suddenly slammed into him.
The force was so strong that Buto's giant body was lifted off the ground and thrown far from where he had been. His attack stopped at once, as the power that struck him came without giving him the slightest chance to prepare.
"Don't you touch my friend!" Rika said in a firm, furious voice.
Her words rang out clearly through the fog and ruins. She didn't take her eyes off Buto, as if giving a stern warning that he should never dare go near Arya again.
Seeing Rika appear, Nagini showed a faint smile.
"Ahh~ So she finally shows up," she said.
Nagini's gaze then moved to Rika. A small smile still lingered on her lips, but her eyes showed a dismissive attitude, as if Rika's arrival were neither surprising nor impressive to her.