The ground beneath the banyan tree continued to tremble.
Laras stood alone in the middle of the ring of roots, while Mr. Wiryo's body had been dragged into the darkness.
“Dad!”
Laras tried to move closer, but the tree roots suddenly shifted and blocked her path.
Mr. Wiryo's voice came from beneath the ground.
“Laras!”
“Dad!”
“Don't follow me!”
The voice grew more distant.
Then came a scream.
Laras covered her mouth.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Before her, Mbah Ranu stood with a pale face.
“What did you do?” he asked.
Laras stared at him.
“I'm going to get my father back.”
“You don't understand the power you just awakened.”
“I don't care.”
Ranu shook his head.
“You think being the Breaker means you can destroy the pact?”
Laras didn't answer.
Ranu pointed at the white bracelet on her wrist.
“That bracelet doesn't belong to you.”
“It belongs to me now.”
“No.”
Ranu smiled faintly.
“It belongs to the person who successfully rejected the pact before you.”
Laras fell silent.
“Your mother.”
That name made Laras freeze.
“Mom?”
Ranu nodded.
“Five years ago, your mother almost succeeded.”
“Why did she fail?”
“Because she chose to save your father.”
Laras looked at the ground.
She was beginning to understand everything.
Her mother hadn't been an ordinary victim.
Sulastri had tried to stop the wealth-pact sorcery long before Laras knew the creature existed.
But to save Mr. Wiryo, Sulastri made a new pact.
And that pact eventually passed on to them.
“I'll finish this.”
Ranu laughed.
“It won't be that easy.”
“Why not?”
“Because to break the pact, you have to enter the place it came from.”
“Where is that?”
Ranu pointed at the hole beneath the tree.
“In there.”
Laras looked into the hole.
The darkness inside seemed to have no bottom.
“And if I go in?”
“There’s no guarantee you’ll come back.”
Laras looked at Ranu.
“My father is in there.”
“That’s precisely the problem.”
Ranu smiled.
“That creature will use your father to force you to give up.”
Laras clenched her fists.
“I’m going in anyway.”
Ranu stepped closer.
“Then there’s one thing you need to know.”
“What?”
“Down there, you’ll meet everyone who has ever been part of the pact.”
Laras swallowed.
“Even my mother?”
“Your mother too.”
Laras descended.
One step.
Two.
Three.
The darkness slowly swallowed her.
There were no lights.
No birdsong.
Only the sound of her own breathing.
The deeper she went, the colder the air became.
Yet the white bracelet on her wrist emitted a faint glow.
Laras kept descending.
Until at last she saw a room.
It was different from the underground room in her house.
The walls were made of black stone.
Thousands of names covered them.
Human names.
Family names.
Names hundreds of years old.
Laras walked slowly.
Then she saw one name.
**SULASTRI.**
Beneath it was written:
**REJECTED.**
Laras touched the inscription.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared.
Sulastri.
“Mom...”
The figure smiled.
“Laras.”
Laras ran to embrace her.
But Sulastri's body was made only of light.
“Mom, where’s Dad?”
“In the deepest place.”
“How can I save him?”
Sulastri looked at her daughter.
“You have to make a choice.”
“What choice?”
“Between breaking the pact... and saving your father.”
Laras fell silent.
“Can’t I do both?”
Sulastri shook her head.
“That creature always demands an impossible choice.”
Laras began to cry.
“I don’t want to lose Dad.”
“I know.”
“If I break the pact, what will happen?”
“All the debts will disappear.”
“Even Dad’s debt?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
Sulastri lowered her head.
“The person who serves as the source of the pact will disappear too.”
Laras froze.
“What do you mean?”
Sulastri looked at her.
“If you break the pact now, your father will die.”
Laras's tears fell.
“No.”
“That’s the price they’re asking.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You have to choose.”
Sulastri began to fade.
“Mom!”
“Laras...”
“I’m not ready!”
Sulastri's voice grew fainter.
“Don’t choose based on fear.”
Then she disappeared.
Laras fell to her knees.
She cried alone.
But a few seconds later, another voice rang out.
“Your father isn’t dead yet.”
Laras raised her head.
Someone stood at the far end of the room.
Mr. Wiryo.
But his face was different.
His skin was pale.
His eyes were red.
“Dad!”
Laras ran toward him.
But Mr. Wiryo raised a hand.
“Don’t come any closer.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t control myself.”
Laras stopped.
Behind Mr. Wiryo loomed a massive pig-shaped shadow.
The creature clung to his body like fog.
“Go, Laras.”
“No.”
“Now!”
“I’m not leaving you, Dad.”
Mr. Wiryo shouted.
“Go!”
The shadow moved.
Mr. Wiryo's body suddenly lifted into the air.
Laras ran closer.
“Dad!”
The creature laughed.
“Heir...”
Laras stared at it.
“You caused all of this?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“Humans.”
The creature moved closer.
“Humans always ask for wealth.”
“Humans always ask for power.”
“And when it’s time to pay... they blame us.”
Laras gripped the white bracelet.
“I didn’t ask for anything.”
“Because you haven’t been offered anything yet.”
The creature raised its hand.
Suddenly, the room changed.
Laras saw a mansion.
A beautiful house.
A vast yard.
Cars.
Money.
A life she had never had.
Inside the house, Mr. Wiryo smiled.
Sulastri was still alive.
The three of them ate together.
Laras froze.
“Mom...”
The creature whispered.
“All of that can be yours.”
Laras stared at her family.
For the first time, her resolve wavered.
“Your father won’t have to suffer.”
“Your mother won’t have to die.”
“You can all live happily.”
Laras closed her eyes.
She wanted to believe it.
More than anything.
But then she saw something.
There were no shadows beneath the figures at the dining table.
No shadow beneath Sulastri.
No shadow beneath Mr. Wiryo.
No shadow beneath herself.
Laras opened her eyes.
“This isn’t real.”
The creature fell silent.
“I don’t need wealth.”
The house began to crack.
“I just want my family to be free.”
The illusion shattered.
Laras stood.
The white bracelet on her wrist blazed brightly.
The creature stepped back.
“No!”
Laras raised her hand.
Light filled the room.
One by one, the names on the walls began to burn.
The names bound to the pact for hundreds of years began to disappear.
Screams filled the passageways.
The creature growled.
“Stop!”
Laras kept walking.
“This ends tonight.”
The creature attacked.
Mr. Wiryo was thrown aside.
Laras screamed.
“Dad!”
She ran over and embraced her father.
Mr. Wiryo opened his eyes.
“Laras?”
“Dad!”
Mr. Wiryo smiled weakly.
“Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m taking you home.”
Mr. Wiryo held his daughter’s face.
“No matter what happens... don’t let them take your heart.”
Laras cried.
Then she looked at the creature behind her father.
“Now I understand.”
The creature stopped.
“Understand what?”
“Why you’re afraid of humans who reject you.”
The creature hissed.
“Silence!”
“Because you can’t take anything from someone who wants nothing.”
The white bracelet grew even brighter.
Laras aimed it at the creature’s chest.
“This pact is over.”
Light struck like lightning.
The creature screamed.
The entire room shook.
The walls collapsed.
The names burned.
And for the first time in hundreds of years, the sound of chains breaking rang out.
**CRACK!**
Mr. Wiryo fell.
Laras embraced him.
“Dad!”
Mr. Wiryo opened his eyes.
He was still alive.
But the bracelet on Laras's wrist had cracked.
One line.
Two.
Then it shattered.
At the same moment, Mbah Ranu's entire body appeared at the far end of the room.
But his body began to turn to dust.
“No...”
He tried to move closer.
“I’ve guarded this pact for a hundred years!”
Laras looked at him.
“That’s exactly why it all has to end.”
Ranu screamed.
“I can’t die!”
Laras answered softly,
“No human lives forever.”
Ranu's body crumbled into black dust.
Then it vanished.
The room fell silent.
Mr. Wiryo tried to stand.
“Laras... we have to go.”
Laras nodded.
They walked toward the door.
But before they left, Laras stopped.
She heard her mother’s voice.
“Laras.”
She turned.
Sulastri stood in the middle of the room.
Smiling.
Laras cried.
“Mom...”
Sulastri nodded.
“Take care of your father.”
“I will.”
“And never come back to this place.”
Laras nodded.
“Goodbye, Mom.”
“Goodbye, sweetheart.”
White light filled the room.
Then everything vanished.
When the sun rose, villagers found Mr. Wiryo and Laras near the banyan tree.
Both of them were unconscious.
The underground chamber had collapsed.
The banyan tree that had stood sturdy for decades had now fallen.
There was no hole anymore.
No more coins.
No more pig statue.
The wealth-pact sorcery seemed never to have existed.
Mr. Wiryo opened his eyes.
Laras sat beside him.
“Dad.”
Mr. Wiryo smiled.
“Let’s go home.”
They stood.
But before they left, Mr. Wiryo saw something on the ground.
An old coin.
He picked it up.
There was no pig’s head on its surface.
No symbol.
Only a small inscription:
**ONE PACT ENDS.**
Mr. Wiryo threw the coin away.
They walked out of the forest.
Unaware that in the distance...
behind the fallen tree...
A pair of red eyes slowly opened.
A voice whispered:
“The pact has indeed ended.”
Silence.
Then the voice laughed.
“But not all debts.”
And from the cracked earth, a new gold coin emerged.
The coin spun.
Spun.
Then stopped with the image of a pig’s head facing upward.
**To be continued...**