NARAK: The Blood Covenant

The koi pond still shimmered unnaturally, its surface unnaturally flat after the spectral whisper vanished. Everyone stood frozen, the echo of "Why did you forget me?" still haunting their minds.

Nyi Roro Kidul closed her eyes for a brief moment.

Her posture was calm, but her voice… carried the tremor of something ancient waking.

"It's begun."

She turned to the trio.

"We must go. Now. Before she slips deeper into the cracks. The longer she lingers, the more the world forgets reality itself."

Before they could respond, Tigris stepped forward, eyes locked onto Nayla.

"Wait."

"Before you walk into a nightmare... you should have this."

From beneath his robes, he pulled out a black string necklace holding a curved tiger fang, pulsing faintly with protective energy.

He knelt before her, respectfully.

"This belonged to the first of our line who served Prabu Siliwangi. A fang from the tiger that guarded the sacred forest."

He gently placed it around her neck.

"If you're in danger… it will call me."

Nayla's eyes softened, touched. "Thank you, Tigris..."

"Awww," Daramahesa said with mock sweetness, curled on the floor near the pond."Such a touching moment. Now all she needs is a knight with wings and we've completed the royal RPG party."

"Should I make you a leash, cat?" Tigris shot back.

"Please. I'd make you look like a house pet in under five seconds."

"You two done flirting?" Avici echoed inside Vicki's head.

"Says the one who tried to burn her palace because someone spilled seawater on your cloak."

"IT WAS DRY CLEAN ONLY, ARKANA!"

Nyi Roro Kidul raised a hand, shutting them all up instantly as the koi pond shifted again, this time into a swirling portal of liquid emerald, the surface shimmering like moonlight on a midnight sea.

"This gate leads to my palace beneath the Southern Ocean. From there, I can anchor us close to her domain.But you must prepare yourselves. Where we go... the questions are not words. They're truths screaming in silence."

Vicki took a deep breath and nodded. "We're ready."

Raka adjusted his coat. "As long as I don't have to wear one of those sea-ceremony dresses, I'm good."

"No promises," Nyi Roro Kidul smirked.

"Wait—" Daramahesa lifted his paw. "I did not sign up for another underwater PTSD trip."

"You were reincarnated for this."

"I reincarnated for naps and sarcastic commentary. NOT sub-aquatic trauma!"

Before he could leap away, a current of seafoam wrapped around him like a leash.

"Oh no—no no no—LET GO OF ME YOU SOGGY MONARCH—"

SPLASH.

And just like that, they were pulled into the sea.

The mist swirled, petals scattered, and the surface calmed, leaving only the scent of jasmine and salt behind.

Beneath the waves...

The gate opened into a vast corridor of translucent jade coral.

Giant fish swam lazily above their heads.

Schools of glowing shrimp darted like stars.

They stood inside Istana Laut Kidul, a palace carved from the soul of the sea itself.

And ahead of them, a door stood shut, marked with a symbol none of them recognized.

But Daramahesa's fur bristled.

"She's close."

"The Question?"

"No."

"The place she was sealed… is breaking."

"Which means…"

The water above the palace trembled.

A shadow passed overhead.

A tiny girl's silhouette—floating upside down—drifted across the sea ceiling.

And whispered…

"...Why didn't you ask me first?"

The underwater throne room should've been beautiful.

Should've.

Crystalline pillars arched high above them, swaying with light and sea-dust.

Pearl walls shimmered like they were woven from moonlight itself.

Everything moved slowly, like a dream.

But something was wrong.

The throne was empty.

The currents whispered backwards.

And a single seashell on the floor... was screaming.

"...do you hear that?" Nayla whispered.

"It's not sound," Arkana said softly in her mind. "It's memory... looping."

Vicki narrowed his eyes. "That shell is echoing something."

"Not something," Daramahesa muttered. "Someone."

Then the shell cracked.

Water twisted into the air like steam, and from it emerged a childlike voice,

"Why do you dream of fire, Vicki?"

He froze.

"Why do you pretend, Raka?"

"Why do you fight, Nayla?"

Each name was followed by a pulse—like a hammer inside their skulls.

Their vision blurred.

Suddenly, the sea palace shattered.

The walls turned to pages.

The water became ink.

They were now standing in the center of an infinite library, but none of the books had covers.

Just torn-out questions.

Raka reached for one. It bit his hand.

"Okay! That's new."

"She's pulling us into her mind-scape," Avici growled.

"A twisted realm of broken thoughts. Where nothing answers, but everything accuses."

Then she appeared.

A little girl, maybe eight years old. Pale.

Her mouth sewn shut with threads of gold.

Her dress: a decayed version of a school uniform from an era long past.

She stood behind Nayla.

Then blinked, now in front of Vicki.

Then to Raka. Then… inside his shadow.

Putri gasped.

"She's asking questions with her presence."

"You don't belong here."

"You shouldn't have looked for me."

"You don't even remember my name."

Each mental echo frayed the edge of their sanity.

"She's not attacking us physically," Arkana said in Raka's mind. "She's dissolving our certainty. Piece by piece."

Suddenly, Vicki's flame turned cold.

Raka's ice turned black.

Nayla's hands were shaking, her Echo Core flickering uncontrollably.

"What the hell is happening?!" Vicki shouted.

"She's making us doubt ourselves," Daramahesa said. "And when you question yourself... you create cracks."

"And cracks... let her in." Avici hissed.

The girl now stood above them—floating upside down like a marionette.

She pointed toward Vicki.

"There's something inside you."

Her threads snapped. Her mouth opened—

"WHO PUT HIM IN YOU?!"

The walls screamed.

Everything shattered.

Suddenly—BOOM!

A burst of violet light erupted from Daramahesa, shielding the group just as the library imploded into glassy shards of doubt.

He snarled.

"ENOUGH MIND GAMES, YOU PINT-SIZED NIGHTMARE!"

He pounced at her.

His shadow collided with hers midair, causing a psychic detonation that bent the world like a warped reflection.

The scene twisted back into the ocean.

But everything was cracked.

Reality flickered.

Voices looped. Reflections moved wrong.

The trio looked at each other, and their faces swapped for a second.

"This isn't over," The Question's voice whispered in their minds.

"You found me. Now you must bury me again. Or I will bury your truth."

A single door appeared in the center of the coral hallway.

Carved in spiraling script:

Ask nothing. Say nothing. See everything.

The door opened by itself.

Inside: darkness.

A hand stretched out.

Not human.

Something else is waiting.

The door opened, and they stepped into nothing.

A void.

Black sea.

Stars swirling below their feet, as if gravity had given up entirely.

And in the center of that space… was The Question.

No longer a child.

No longer a whisper.

Now, she was a young woman draped in silence itself.

Her body flickered like static between forms.

Her mouth remained sewn shut, but the threads were burning.

"This is her final form," Daramahesa said.

"Oh great, she evolved. This is why I hate RPG boss fights."

"Her presence is warping the seal around this place," Nayla muttered.

"We end this now." Avici's voice sharpened.

"AVICI NARAK!" Vicki roared.

"ARKANA ARHAD." Raka followed.

A burst of silver fire and frozen mist exploded outward.

Their eyes ignited—red and sapphire.

Their bodies surged, transformed.

Avici stepped forward, flame cloak roaring behind him.

Arkana followed, every step freezing the very void beneath them.

And then The Question moved.

With no warning. No buildup. Just chaos.

Reflections of her appeared in all directions, each asking unspoken questions.

"Why did you let me be forgotten?"

"Why are you fighting me?"

"Why does no one answer anymore?"

Each echo slammed into them like psychic daggers.

Avici hurled a spiral of dark flame, "Narak Satya: Veilbreaker!"It carved through three illusions only for more to form.

Arkana unleashed "Arctic Chain: Frozen Mantra."Ice circled like rings of judgment, freezing dozens of spectral copies.

Still she came.

"There's no end to them," Nayla hissed.

"She's memory that was never answered," Arkana whispered. "The longer she exists… the more questions she becomes."

Then—suddenly—The Question stopped.

Her threads snapped.

Her mouth opened.

And all the voices of everyone who ever forgot her screamed at once.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

It was soundless.

It broke the world.

The team buckled.

And then—

BOOOOMMMM!!!

A burst of obsidian energy tore across the battlefield.

A figure dropped from above like a falling god.

Tall. Cloaked in torn shadows.

Eyes glowing silver.

His presence made the sea tremble and reality crack like glass.

"WHO—?" Nayla gasped.

Avici and Daramahesa froze.

"No…""It can't be…"

The man raised his hand.

And in one flick, shattered The Question's form into a billion falling memories.

"Useless creature."

"A question without purpose."

He crushed a fragment of her spirit in his hand—like dust.

"ARANA SHADRIPUS MOHA."

Vicki's voice cracked.

Avici's rage ignited. His flame became wild erratic.

"What are you doing here?!"

Moha turned, smiling faintly.

"You should thank me. I just erased a threat you couldn't handle."

"She wasn't yours to erase," Avici growled.

"Neither are you, cursed fire."

Without warning—Moha attacked.

A wave of pure Nameless Balance energy surged, splitting the void apart.

Avici clashed with it, countering with Narak Infernum.

The shockwave knocked even Arkana back.

Moha grinned.

"You're burning hotter, Avici. But you're still caged."

"And you," Avici spat, "are still just a man terrified of a child."

Moha's smile dropped.

They rushed toward each other, ready to collide again.

And

BLACK.

Somewhere in the void…

A whisper echoed.

"If questions are erased…""...who answers what's coming next?"