Seven days ago. Here in Kidang Alas, beneath the collapsed cliffs, I was buried alive. My condition was critical: my body was crushed, bones fractured everywhere, flesh torn, and my blood had dried. Worst of all, my chest was punctured.
My regeneration process was running, but agonizingly slow. I felt one bone fuse, then stop, waiting. Then the next bone would start. Tissue growth proceeded step by step, with long, frustrating pauses in between. At this rate, I knew I needed months, maybe years, to recover fully. Yet, my body fiercely refused to die. No matter the pain or the slowness, the regeneration persisted.
My consciousness drifted. Darkness. Silence. Emptiness. Then, a light.
I found myself standing in the endless Void again, facing the long-haired Man with an intense gaze. He didn't smile this time. He just stared and then raised his hand.
Two gates appeared before me.
The left gate. A warm, familiar, peaceful light. I could feel home. My mother's voice. Adul's laughter. My old life. Return.
The right gate. Dark, cold, and reeking of blood and dust. I felt suffering. Sugeng dying. My friends are weeping. Bagong's laugh. Continue.
The Man stared, the silent demand clear: Choose.
I stared at the gates, my hands trembling. The left gate felt so safe. Mother... But I couldn't look away from the right one. I am not finished there. I decided that even if there were another chance later, I had to choose this path now.
I stepped toward the right gate, toward the world of wounds and unfinished business. The Man offered a smile of understanding. I walked through, and the Void dissolved.
I opened my eyes. I was still buried in the dark, my body still crushed, and regeneration was still slow. But I sensed something new.
I felt a flow, not qi or energy, but a more fundamental essence. I had always noticed it when using my stances or near a berserk state, but I'd ignored it. Now, facing death, I focused and merged with that flow.
My body began to change. My skin absorbed and integrated with the mountain's surface, my blood drew minerals from the soil. My bones grew harder, stronger than ever. My flesh became dense, like steel.
The agonizingly slow regeneration suddenly exploded.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Bones snapped together. Tissue surged. Wounds sealed. My hair turned yellowish. In a matter of minutes, the recovery that should have taken months was complete.
But the price was immediate HUNGER.
HUNGER.
This wasn't the ordinary hunger I used to feel. It wasn't just a painful craving. This was a hunger with a consciousness of its own. A hunger that violently drove me to prey immediately.
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All around Kidang Alas, the beasts sensed the energy disturbance I was creating. Hundreds of them started moving toward the cliffs.
I rose from the rubble. My body was whole and stronger. My hair was yellow, and the look in my eyes had changed. Dominance, tyranny, cold cruelty... The old me was gone; what remained was the hunger of a predator ready to hunt.
The first beast, a large wolf, leaped, fangs bared. I moved without thought or technique, driven only by instinct. My hand clamped down on the wolf's head.
CRACK!
Its skull shattered. Then, I bit. Raw meat, warm blood, crunchy bones. I devoured it like a killing machine.
The second, third, and dozens more beasts rushed me. I killed them all. I ate them all. I wasn't fighting; I was hunting. My claws ripped, my teeth bit, my hands tore. Blood soaked my body. Flesh and bone littered the ground. I never stopped eating.
The beasts that were initially attacking me now felt sheer terror at the scene. Their instinct screamed danger. But it was too late. I will not let a single one of my prey escape.
By sunset, hundreds of beasts were dead. I stood amidst the mountain of carcasses.
Emptiness.
My hunger began to subside. My consciousness slowly returned. I saw my blood-soaked hands and the carnage around me. I remembered preying on them.
I knew I should feel nausea, horror, or guilt. But nothing. No guilt, no horror, no emotion whatsoever. Only the satisfaction of a predator that had finished its hunt.
I tried to summon feelings for Sugeng, Tono, or Hartono. Nothing. Just emptiness and a hunger that had been temporarily satisfied.
What happened to me?
Even that question was devoid of emotion, merely an observation. I lost something. But I don't care that I lost it. I registered that this was a problem, but I didn't feel the emotional impact of it being a problem.
Night fell. I stood in the slaughter field and looked up toward the mountain peak where the White Tiger lived. Something surfaced within me—not a thought, but pure instinct. The Target is there, a powerful Target that threatens me.
Fear was replaced by rivalry. "There cannot be two tigers on one mountain."
My eyes glowed—not the red of berserk, but a cold gold, the focus of a predator.
But then, I turned. I faced away from the peak.
I started walking in the opposite direction, toward the exit portal of Kidang Alas. My steps were slow and deliberate, unhurried and firm. I walked like a predator who knew his moment was not yet here.
On the mountaintop, the White Tiger opened its eyes. I felt its awareness, its threat, and the change I represented. It rose and roared.
ROOOAAARRR!
The roar shook all of Kidang Alas, a declaration between two apex predators.
I did not look back. I kept walking toward the exit, leaving the carnage and the peak. For now.
My footsteps disappeared into the dark forest, leaving behind a trail of blood and the White Tiger's slowly fading roar.
I carried the Jade Moon Lotus, for the person who was now absent from my heart, but still important in my mind.