The swirling maw of the chasm pulsed with violet light, promising survival and ruin in equal measure. Bayu stepped onto the basalt path that snaked into its depths, the air immediately thickening with a chill sharper than mountain frost. Behind him, Ratna called out, “Bayu, be careful! I’ll be right here!” Jaka stood beside her, palm resting on the hilt of his short blade. Bayu didn’t look back. The basalt path twisted into a vast cavern lit by phosphorescent moss. Jagged crystals jutted from the walls, casting skewed shapes across the rock face. The first beast, a multi-limbed Lindu with eyes like fractured emeralds and talons of black glass, lunged from the gloom. It shrieked, scraping like metal on slate, before its claws swept down. Bayu met the strike with an open palm, striking directly through its center mass as red script burned into his retinas. [Essence Absorption Initiated. Target: Caldera Ravager. Esensi Gained: 2,500 units.] [Strength increased by 150. Agility increased by 100. Endurance increased by 120.] The creature’s shriek choked off. Its glass claws crumbled to dust, its facets dimmed, and its frame collapsed into ash. A surge rushed into Bayu's core, accompanied by an unsettling hunger. He pressed onward. Within minutes, more Lindu emerged from the hollows: skeletal shapes wielding edges of crystallized cloud-vapor, lumbering stone-hulks, and horned phantoms trailing vapor. Each broke under his palms, followed by flashes of red script and staggering increases in his baseline attributes. He moved without wasted motion, striking joints and vital cores. [Essence Absorption Initiated. Target: Mist Blade Ghoul. Esensi Gained: 5,000 units.] [Essence Absorption Initiated. Target: Stone Golem. Esensi Gained: 12,000 units.] [Essence Absorption Initiated. Target: Sky Leviathan. Esensi Gained: 35,000 units.] His muscles vibrated with internal pressure. The air around him warped, bending the cavern glare. Paths of spiritual fuel stood out in sharp relief across the stone, each pulling at his instincts. The whispers of the Star-Eater mounted into an endless, deafening vibration of insatiable appetite, drowning his awareness in cold, alien pressure. He climbed a ramp of iridescent quartz, breathing air thick with raw spiritual vapor. The light ahead shifted from violet to honeyed amber. At the peak, rooted in silver veins, bloomed the Sunpetal Lotus. Its petals unfurled over the stone, throwing off clean heat that pushed against the star-born chill in his veins. Bayu reached out, knuckles trembling, and brushed the silken edge of a petal. [Threshold: 99%] The red letters flared. The amber brilliance faded to grey. His own name felt distant, stripped of meaning. He closed his fingers around the stem. His satchel hung barely a foot from his hip, but his joints locked in place. The mental vibration surged into a deafening shriek. His thoughts tore apart like parchment. Memories of roasted cassava, Ratna’s laugh, and Jaka’s shouts dissolved into white noise. Then a steel needle point drove between his ribs below the left shoulder blade. It struck an internal pressure valve with surgical accuracy. The roaring inside his skull cracked into discord. His mind snapped back to the stone floor for a single second. “Fool,” Wira spat, arm still locked straight from the strike, chest heaving with terror. “You never learned to balance the flow.” The puncture had severed the internal circuit, halting the runaway intake—a forbidden meridian technique Wira had brought back from a ruined future. The brief clearing of his head gave Bayu his opening. Mobility returned to his fingers. He pivoted toward the cavern threshold where Ratna and Jaka stood by the entrance. With a violent snap of his torso, he hurled the Sunpetal Lotus across the chasm. “Ratna! Take it!” he screamed, tearing his vocal cords. The flower spiraled over the rock fields and past heaps of gray ash. Ratna caught it against her chest. Without breaking stride, she tore into the corolla and crushed the glowing core between her teeth. White fire erupted from her throat and chest. The frost glaze clinging to her skin crackled and boiled away into white steam. Her sunken cheeks filled with color. A column of uncorrupted spiritual radiance burst from her hands and lanced straight into Bayu's breastbone. He shouted as the radiance tore through his marrow, burning out the cold infestation. The alien resonance shrieked once and collapsed into silence. The predatory hunger tore free from his soul. His astronomical reserves drained like water through cracked porcelain, leaving his vessels vacant and limp. [Catalyst Purified. Star-Eater’s Hold Severed.] [System Deactivated.] The red glyphs stuttered, dissolved into static, and went black. Normal vision returned, bare of prompts and stat counts. His knees buckled onto the dirt. His arms shook under his own meager weight, entirely ordinary once more. Wira watched, his face a mask of complex relief and exhaustion. Jaka rushed past him, shouting Bayu’s name. Ratna reached him before he hit the stones, her arms catching his chest. The smell of crushed petals and warm skin filled his senses. He leaned his forehead against her shoulder, listening to the steady strike of her pulse through her collar. “You’re here,” she whispered into his neck. “You’re back.” He nodded against her collar, drawing in the humid air of the floating island.

The Sunpetal's Price