The roar of the panicked stock exchange still echoed in Bayu’s ears, even hours later, back within the cool, sterile confines of Akademi Langit. His jaw throbbed, not from a physical blow, but from the sheer, burning humiliation. Jovan’s words, slick with condescension, had burrowed deep: *“Your family’s power is a relic. Mine is the future. I’ll even name the crater after you.”*
And that burly guard. The way Bayu’s nascent power had just… *stopped*. Like a deflated balloon. It wasn’t a block; it was an absorption, a nullification that made his own abilities feel like a parlor trick. Nenek Ratih had simply watched, her expression unreadable, before calmly extracting him from the chaos, leaving Jovan to bask in his digital victory.
“Pathetic,” his grand-aunt had stated, the single word cutting deeper than any physical reprimand, as they’d ascended in a silent grav-lift. “You barely grazed him, and they nullified it. Your ancestors would weep.”
He needed a shortcut. A cheat code. Something beyond Nenek Ratih’s endless, infuriating drills of catching kinetic projectiles, which felt less like training and more like advanced dodgeball with lethal consequences. He bypassed the training annex, his steps leading him instead towards a wing he hadn't yet explored: the ancestral archives. He pictured ancient scrolls, forgotten energy weapons, a 'break glass in case of apocalypse' power-up. An easy button.
The Archives were not what he expected. No dusty scrolls, no dramatic sarcophagi. Instead, a sprawling, multi-tiered chamber, each wall a mosaic of glowing data-screens and holographic projections. Rivers of shimmering light flowed along the floor, connecting towering, crystalline server stacks that hummed with quiet power. It smelled faintly of ozone and old paper, a paradox of technology and antiquity. Rows of meticulously organized physical books and data-slabs lined shelves between the glowing panels.
He wandered aimlessly for a long while, running his hand over smooth, cool surfaces, his eyes scanning for anything labeled 'Instant Power' or 'How to Beat Your Ex with Minimal Effort'. He found historical records of his clan's clandestine influence on global markets, schematics for atmospheric condensers, and even a detailed blueprint for an orbital debris deflector array. Nothing that screamed ‘magic superpower upgrade.’
Frustration gnawed at him. He pulled out a random, unassuming data-slab from a lower shelf, a plain, unadorned thing unlike the ornate, official-looking volumes. The interface glowed to life, displaying a simple title: *‘Jurnal Pribadi: Eliana Angkasa’*. Eliana. He hadn't seen her name in anything official. The house head had been notoriously tight-lipped about her. Nenek Ratih had only ever said, “She was… exceptional.”
He tapped the screen, scrolling through entries. The first few were technical observations on momentum refraction, theoretical physics, the kind of material that made his eyes glaze over. But then, an entry dated twenty-seven years ago, just before his own birth, caught his attention. It was less technical, more personal.
*“The singularity experiment is proceeding at an alarming rate. Chandra is convinced we can harness it, stabilize it, revolutionize energy production. He sees the glory, the family legacy. I see the tears in the fabric of reality, the sheer audacity of trying to cage a nascent cosmos.”*
Bayu frowned. A singularity? What in the blazes were they dabbling in? He scrolled further.
*“He calls me his ‘Aegis,’ his shield. He says my gift for stabilization is unparalleled, the only thing that might hold it. But this… this is beyond even our bloodline's reach. The pressure is immense. The council is pressuring Chandra, and Chandra is pushing me.”*
Sour bile rose in Bayu’s throat as the terminal's hum vibrated against his fingertips. He remembered glimpses of his sire's stone-faced demeanor, the quiet distance that had shut out every question Bayu had ever asked.
*“It ripped. The barrier buckled. We miscalculated. Chandra… he’s frantic. The anomaly is expanding, threatening to consume the entire facility. I have to go in. I have to try and close it from the inside. If I don’t… Tirtawijaya, the world, will be consumed. Tell Bayu… if he ever asks… tell him I loved him. Tell him I did this for him, for his future, for a chance at peace.”*
The entry ended there. Abruptly. Bayu stared at the final words, his vision blurring. A man-made singularity. His brilliant mom, pushed to her limits, sacrificing herself to lock away something his sire had unleashed. The pieces clicked into place: Chandra’s coldness, the calculated distance, the buried grief. And Bayu, hidden away, kept ignorant of a power that had cost her everything.
His anger flared, hot and sharp, eclipsing the earlier humiliation. Not just at Jovan, but at Chandra, at Nenek Ratih, at this entire hidden world that had stolen her away and then handed him a broken imitation of her gifts. He scrolled frantically, searching for more, for answers. A few more entries, dated shortly after, documented the 'neutralization' and 'stabilization' of the Angkasa-Vortex Anomaly. No mention of her fate, only clinical reports of the successful prevention of a 'Category 5 existential threat.'
Then, tucked away, almost as an afterthought, an attachment: a schematic titled *‘Project Siphon: Dynamic Amplification & Stabilization Matrix’* by Eliana Angkasa. A device. A way to focus and amplify their internal momentum. She hadn’t just survived disasters; she’d engineered solutions. He felt a surge of something he hadn’t felt in days: a flicker of hope. This wasn’t an easy button, but it was a path. A complex one, perhaps, but one she had charted.
The quiet hum of the archives was suddenly shattered by a blaring klaxon, an ear-splitting shriek that echoed off the crystalline walls. The glowing data-screens around him flickered, then unified, displaying a single, urgent message across every panel: red text against a stark black background.
**EMERGENCY BROADCAST – INCOMING KINETIC EVENT – TYPE: FRAGMENT-ALPHA**
**ORIGIN: ASTEROID K-01 (MAIN BODY)**
**STATUS: UNPLANNED ACCELERATION. SAMPAR SIGNATURE DETECTED.**
**TARGET: KAMPUNG CIPTA, TIRTAWIJAYA OUTER DISTRICTS.**
**IMPACT LIKELIHOOD: 98%. TIME TO IMPACT: 17 MINUTES.**
**IMPERATIVE: NEUTRALIZE THREAT. MINIMIZE CASUALTIES. HOUSE ANGKASA PRIORITY ALERT.**
A warning shot. Not the meteor itself, but a chunk, deliberately propelled. A message from Jovan. And it was heading straight for a populated area. The brutal stakes of his lineage crashed down on Bayu with the force of falling masonry. This wasn't training anymore.