The prickly needles of the giant hunger petals atop Barong's hump succeeded in lacerating Ki Semar's back. The Arcane veil that once shielded him had been but stray embers.

The history between Semar and Barong remained shrouded in mystery, but the creature seemed elated at the success of inflicting injury over him with a triumphant roar that echoed through the jungle. Not only did it injure, but the bluish veins that surrounded the headman's wound bore witness to the petals’ poison.

The venom felt like a metal yoke slamming into Semar's shoulders, hunching him over even further. His khodam, still actively flying, continued to strike Plant Barong relentlessly. Nevertheless, Semar showed no signs of complaining. Amidst the pain of physical torture, the old man still managed to smile.

"Oh, Wisesa. I'm getting older, but apparently, I'm not wise enough to look after you," rued Semar. "Sometimes I don't know if what I've been doing to you is right."

"Wisesa is not here!" Barong retorted with Yawa's tongue. Its two hunger petals tendrils ignored Semar's green khodam, choosing instead to coil around one tree trunk each. With Barong’s mana being exerted, they were able to crush the trunks and hurl their splintered remains towards Ki Semar!

Semar managed to fly and evade them, though staggered. "What is the fault of all of us for this misfortune, Banaspatiraja?"

"Old fool!" Barong roared. "Your presence alone is your fault!"

Another leap from Barong was made to pounce on Semar. Sharp roots jutted out of the ground like piercing spears! Poison began to eat its way into the old man's bloodstream, leaving him scratched by one of the sharp roots as he staggered in his evasive flight. This affected his khodam too; its spirit manifestation began to distort, and each of its attacks penetrated Barong's physique like the actual spirit it was.

"I have served you for countless years. Sang Hyang Sukra loves you deeply, but what have you returned in kind? Destroying all the art he has made with love!" Barong unleashed another unexpected move out of wrath and frustration. Its tail bloomed briefly before propelling a mortar of venomous orbs into the ground it was supposed to protect.

"You corrupted me, used me to satisfy your insatiable hunger for power," Barong continued, its voice quivering with emotion. "I feel dirty, I want to die, but I can't die! Your dark magic torments me, causing my realm of power to wither and die. I can't heal, this curse will torment me forever!"

Plant Barong launched a relentless barrage of amalgamation of its previous abilities. Bereft of further mana to sustain it, Semar's khodam decided to disappear from reality, not expressing the slightest regret. The old man's vision blurred, and he could only rely on his remaining senses for guidance. Despite his valiant efforts, Semar's body stiffened incrementally as the venomous stings accumulated.

As Semar struggled to maintain his prone form on the ground, Barong showed not even the slightest bit of pity to end him with a cheap, swift end. The petals on its tail slowly unfurled, not to throw acidic slime, but to release something more devastating as the luminescence revealed was menacing and sinister.

Semar's head snapped up to the source of the light. "On behalf of all the people of Lojitengara and the world, I implore you to forgive our failures, negligence, disobedience, and greed," his voice was stern despite his weakened state. "However, I beg of you, do not annihilate us all. Punish us if you must, but let us learn from our mistakes."

Barong emitted a harsh, bark-like retort, "Such is your punishment!"

Semar refused to back down, "But how can we improve ourselves if we are destroyed? What is the point of punishment if it doesn't teach us anything? Have you ever asked the blessing of your owner, Sang Hyang Sukra, to destroy the fruit of his labor that he loved so much?"

A strong wind blew, causing the petals of Barong's glare to rustle. A sweet fragrance emanated from Barong's tail. Little did they know that even the most lethal of attacks would not spare some of Barong's tail from its nature as a plant, here to colour the earth and offer a pleasant scent to breathe in.

"I have not seen my creator, Sang Hyang Sukra, for centuries," Barong growled. "Perhaps he has given up on you too. Therefore, I have no problem destroying you all to stop the torment in my head from being filled with your crimes!"

"I believe you can heal, Barong! Don't you see that Kalimasada-wielding woman? She is the chosen one, who can make you pure again and reconnect with Sang Hyang Sukra!"

"Fool! No one can heal me now, not even then!" the tail of Plant Barong was already half-bloomed. The air rippled as a green gale swirled towards the hole of light. "Despair has claimed me, and it will haunt all of you humans for the rest of your lives!"

"Ki Semar!" The call came from behind a mound of earth. They had just discussed about the Kalimasada-wielding woman, and now her true form was already among them.

Alicia was not the only one there. A number of villagers were with her. Suddenly, boiling water cascaded over Plant Barong, causing parts of its body to shrivel and its leaves to fall. The light hole on Barong's tail dimmed. The monster twisted its neck in search of the culprit that killed its body tissues. Another blast of boiling water came from a random direction, this time killing the pair of hunger petals on the beast's shoulders.

Semar's three sons—Gareng, Petruk, and Bagong—emerged from the tree. Gareng and Petruk stomped on Barong's shoulders and head with their magical feet, while Bagong used his shooting equipment, a new invention from Ki Semar's shortest son, to shoot the boiling water.

Barong retaliated by summoning dozens of sharp roots from the ground, so Semar's sons took a step back towards their father. Meanwhile, Alicia and the others were already near the headman, some of them carrying his body.

"Father, are you okay? When did you go from being 'magic' to being 'sick'? I thought today was the Uryanwarsa holiday, not the 'Ki Semar stopped being magic holiday'," Gareng said, sounding surprised.

"Getting slow and tired now, aren’t you? You should consider working out again so you don't gain too much weight. How many centuries has it been since you did that?" Petruk added.

"Sontoloyo! Do you think serving the villagers and serving four crazy children doesn't make me sweat?" Semar retorted hoarsely, still grinning through the pain.

Meanwhile, Bagong was still facing the monster. "You guys shouldn't joke around just yet because Barong isn't dead!" he warned.

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The series of attacks had only kept Barong momentarily occupied, and unfortunately, the humans failed to take advantage of the situation. The limbs perished due to the scalding water regenerated, and the old hunger petals disintegrated only to be replaced by new, more vicious ones. The light on Barong's tail petal sleeve reappeared.

These attacks also did not make Barong's gathering of destructive force stagnate one bit either, as evidenced by the noise emanating from the petals as the entire scene turned white, indicating that the petals were fully charged. Barong bellowed at them all, "Seda siro sedaya, o cursed creatures!"

Verdant energy crackled through the air akin to a lightning storm, unleashed upon the group of people with a fierce intensity. It cast an illuminating emerald hue upon everything in its wake, transmuting the world into a resplendent realm of green before plunging it into an all-consuming white void. Blindness and disorientation wracked those who had eyes and ears. Barong's cherished forest wilted and withered under its power, victims of their own protector's rage.

"Run!" Gareng's voice echoed through the chaos.

"No, don't run!" Alicia's voice was the one they should listen to. She united herself with Orb. "P-protect us, Orb! Everyone else, grab the hands of anyone you can reach! Hold on!"

It proved wiser to heed the words of the Kalimasada-bearer rather than blindly scattering. Everyone clung to each other, while Alicia, despite lost her “four eyes” sight and count, summoned an Arcane force field as expansive as she could.

Barong's power was nothing short of breathtaking. Its power as an aspect of the said creator of the earth, Sang Hyang Sukra, was not to be messed with. The monster's shot was split by the Arcane's protective dome, yet this did little to thwart the cataclysmic havoc it wrought for countless miles. The affected areas were seared and eroded, carving a colossal, interminable trench that menaced to cleave the very land into nascent islands.

When the light faded, the residents gazed back upon the destruction and fell. Even as the devastation was apparent, new life was already beginning to sprout from the trenches where the shots had been fired. Mosses and flowers of all kinds.

Barong's mossy gaze, however, was not brimmed with life, but rather, disappointment. A bellow of frustration deafened the ears. "No! How could you wretched beings not die?"

"You're amazing, Alicia!" praised Bagong. "You just embarrassed one of the Earth's guardians!" The others murmured their admiration as well.

Alicia could not take in all the flattery, because all her thoughts were distracted by Orb's recent convey.

"Orb said there's something around Barong's neck," Alicia relayed her ball friend's message.

"Something other than that dense foliage?" Petruk squinted his eyes. "Ah, yes. I can see it now. It's a necklace of sorts… quite unusual, with a spiderweb pendant."

"Spiderweb?" Alicia's expression turned anxious. "Do you have such a necklace? On Girahite’s outfit, perhaps?"

Petruk shook his head. "Not that I know of."

The answer Alicia had anticipated. Her emotions were a mixture of joy and terror, as she already had an inkling of what was around the monster's neck. She was relieved to finally uncover the cause of Barong's havoc, but at the same time, worried that the threat she had been dreading had arrived in Yawadwipa.

"This is terrible, absolute terrible!" Alicia muttered under her breath.

Petruk was curious, "What's so terrible?"

"We must remove the necklace from Barong," the Crimsonmane girl exclaimed. "That way, Wisesa can regain control over his body!"

Semar's three sons agreed, and the four of them dived towards Barong while the villagers took Semar to safety. Gareng and Petruk shared the idea of breaking Barong's four legs while levitating. However, their efforts were in vain as the monster's tail bite thwarted their plan. Bagong took his turn from the bottom, with another strange device that he pulled out of a sling bag. It must have been a magic bag, because there was no way a cetbang cannon would have come out of it!

The cetbang he pulled out just now was a new model, now designed to suit his dwarf hands. With it, he blew off one of Barong's legs! But to their dismay, the monster regenerated its leg faster than before! Faster than Bagong could even reload his cannon.

The movements of Plant Barong were too erratic for the three of them to handle, but that was enough for Alicia to take the decisive step to pay for their diversionary efforts. With Orb's help, the girl summoned dozens of blue threads that thickened into glowing ropes, entangling Barong's four legs and all its joints. Barong growled and struggled against the powerful Arcane rigging, but Alicia persisted, almost being dragged forward by the tiger's recalcitrance. The green surface of Barong was blistered and smoking from the glowing ropes designed to tame it.

"Now, pals! Take it off!" Alicia shouted.

Bagong rushed over and cut the necklace around Barong's neck with his kris, then retreated.

Alicia warned the other two Semar children who were still floating, "Stay back!"

As if she already knew what was going to happen, Alicia deliberately cancelled the Arcane snare. Her prediction was accurate. Relapsing epilepsy caused Barong to rake its dense network composition of plant tendrils. Plant Barong fell, revealing a glimpse of Wisesa inside the monster's torn visage.

The lad emerged from the plant tissue with eyes red, filled with horror.

"Dude, what's wrong with you?" Bagong tried to reach out Wisesa. The touch of skin was so sensitive that Wisesa almost slaughtered Bagong with his kris!

"Stop, Wisesa! We just saved you!" Gareng admonished. He was not prejudiced anymore, as he still felt guilty after being chastised by Alicia.

Wisesa's eyes finally met Alicia's again. He shook his head softly, then burst into tears again.

"Oh, Gading! Gading! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!"

The girl was distressed by the thunderous sobs and the hysterical calling of the foreign name, more frightening than the deafening roars of Barong.

"Calm down, Wisesa, it's us," Alicia walked over. "Who did this to you?"

Wisesa's eyes widened at the sight of the four of them and he slashed the air with his kris, making them retreat.

"Back off, all of you. Back off!" Wisesa screamed.

Alicia showed no sign of obeying. "W-Wisesa, speak to us! What happened?"

"Get away from me! Get away from me!"

Wisesa turned himself into the dimly lit forest, galloping into it.

"Wisesa!"

The girl's cry was ignored. Semar's three sons had no intention of chasing him either.

The closer they got to Alas Purwo's ultimatum, the stranger their day became. The search had to be suspended due to the tragedy, and the poor children were still nowhere to be seen.

A thousand curses of divine to those people. The confused and weeping parents had no idea that the Deer-Man in the form of Boko Rombeng was behind it all. He had constructed a pit to hold all the children from the Pulomas villages. Dead or alive, whole or skinless. Kept in a hole in the ground and no one would come for them. The Divine had given the sweet children a destiny too bitter to swallow, to the detriment of the senses and common sense of anyone who felt.

Meanwhile, the Deer-Man was busy dancing in the underground passageway adorned with bones to a love song on the radio. The screeching of youths made a beautiful song play out like a heart-pounding drama scenario. Too sadistic, too evil, too mad for a man with an animal head.

It was a tragedy for the children and the families left behind. Parents did not know where to look, children did not know where to take refuge. Cempaka's family remained unaware of her death, while Cahyaningrum and Kiran were left stranded with no escape from the approaching Deer-Man. When they saw the actual face behind the mask, they could not get out alive. The screams of fear of those who managed to flee could not last long enough to reach the villagers' ears who wandered around seeking hope. []