Traveler Beyond Blind Eternity

When my eyes open, soft morning light filters through my window. I feel my body refreshed and ready to take on any challenge. I sit up, rubbing my temples, and I remember that I left behind my backpack, phone, and supplies at Rinjani. If I want to continue testing my ability, I must retrieve them.

I close my eyes and focus on Mount Rinjani.

I picture the tent I left behind. I focus on private areas I create for myself. I reach for that place, and reality bends to my will. The air compresses around me, then expands outward. Gravity ceases to exist for a fleeting moment as color bleeds away into a formless blur. I feel myself moving—not through distance, but through something deeper, woven into the fabric of reality.

Then—solid ground.

I open my eyes.

I can see my tent in front of me, untouched. I can see my dinner is gone. Wildlife already took my dinner last night, but all the important things are still there.

I smile a little. I can feel my body a little bit tired, but not as I did before. I think I can go for another jump before my body gets too tired. I think it is a combination of two things. The first one is that my body is starting to get used to my planeswalker ability. The second one is that I tap into this land and mark this place as mine.

That gives me an idea. To get used to my power, I need to use planeswalk often, and I am thinking of visiting a new land. It is practicing my new planeswalk power and getting more mana from it. That is a double-win situation for me.

I take my camping magazine out and flip through the pages. As someone who loves exploring, I have been to many places around Indonesia. I rarely visit other countries because there is a lot to be explored in this country.

After flipping through the magazine for a few seconds, I see a familiar sight.

"Kelimutu."

It is a beautiful palace to make a camp and a perfect place for me to start with. I know a quiet place for me to arrive. I camp in that area when I visit that place. I visualize the place I once visited. I imagine the forest clearing not too far away from the main campsite.

Once again, the world bends to my will, and willing myself to move through space. A few seconds later, I landed on solid ground. This time, I landed without stumbling. I can feel my body getting tired from the jump, but I can still manage to stand still.

I release a sigh and sit on the ground. I close my eyes, steadying my breath as I press my palm against the rocky ground.

The air hums with something different this time. This place feels different from Rinjani.

I let the mana from the land itself enter my body and soul, increasing my mana pool. I don't force the connection—I let it happen.

I can feel the land respond to my will and feel the mana enter my soul. I can feel eight Red Mana, eight Blue Mana, Seven Green Mana, and five Black Mana from tapping into the mountain and the land around it.

I blink a little because I receive information that is not known by the public.

At first, I only sensed the land—the lakes—the forests, the shifting energy, the flow of the world itself. But beneath that, there is something sinister. 

Something hungry.

The lakes are not just lakes. They are graveyards.

Images flood my mind—hazy, fragmented memories left behind by the land itself. People. Tourists. Strangers who never returned. Their last moments play out like echoes in time. Hands bound. Fear in their eyes. Forced to kneel at the edge of the crater. And then—the fall.

One after another, they are thrown into the depths. Not for tradition. Not for faith.

For something else.

The villagers… believe they are appeasing the volcano by offering these sacrifices to prevent an eruption. But it's a lie.

They are not feeding the land. They are feeding something inside it.

A presence lurks beneath the surface, hidden within the lake's depths—ancient, waiting, starving. And the villagers? They are nothing more than pawns, unknowingly sustaining a demon that preys on them as much as it does on the victims they bring.

I take a deep breath and expand my senses even more. My senses envelop the entire mountain and catch the source of the problem. I can sense it inside the deepest lake in this mountain, the Tiwu Ata Mbupu lake.

My awareness stretches downward, slipping past the surface and plunging into the dark abyss below. The deeper I reach, the more I feel it.

A presence. Huge. Ancient. Starving.

The demon lies at the bottom, its form slumbering but its hunger ever-present. I don't see it with my eyes—I feel it. Molten fire wrapped in abyssal hunger. A creature of destruction and desire.

Its power radiates through the water, faint but unmistakable. Fire and Demonic energy. It is bound here, yet it is not truly trapped. It feeds. It grows stronger with every sacrifice thrown into its depths.

And if the sacrifices continue… it will awaken.

This isn't just a random monster. This is a being that once held divine strength—a minor god reduced to slumber, waiting for the right moment to return.

And now, the question isn't just if I should stop it. It's how. But one thing is certain: I am determined to put an end to this threat.

I steady my breathing, my mind racing. I can't fight a Minor God head-on—not yet. But if I can bind it, weaken it, or force it into a deeper slumber, then I won't have to.

I need a way to seal it.

For now, I need to go to where it is located. I need to see if it is sealed or if it is slumbering. I stand on the edge of the crater and frown. There is a seal around and inside the lake. It is sealed, not slumbering.

I crouch near the edge of the crater, staring into the still waters of Tiwu Ata Mbupu. The surface is calm, but I know the truth—the deeper I look, the more I can feel the demon's presence.

I place my palm against the rocky ground, focusing my Planeswalker sense once more. This time, I don't just look for the demon—I look for the remnants of the prison that holds it.

And then, I feel it—a faint trace of something ancient.

Not the demon. Something older.

Something that came before.

The land itself remembers.

A long time ago, the demon was stronger—far stronger. It walked freely, spreading fire and destruction, demanding worship and sacrifice.

But then, something changed.

Someone—or something—sealed it beneath this lake, using the land itself as a prison. The lakes, the volcanic energy, and the shifting nature of Kelimutu were all shaped into a containment field.

But time has weakened the seal.

The sacrifices weren't just feeding the demon—they were loosening its bindings. The villagers, manipulated into this cycle, were unknowingly undoing the prison one body at a time.

If this continues, the seal will break completely.

And when it does… the demon will walk the earth again.

I groan and shake my head.

"It looks like I need to seal the demon or at least strengthen the remaining seal."