Why does he look like me?

“How foolish my past was,” Sudirja muttered, glancing at William without turning around.

“Well, never mind. After all, he is me.”

Sudirja turned his attention back to Dion.

He began forming a magic circle, though it had only one color—red. But the circle was extraordinarily complex. This was a branched magic circle. It wasn’t just a spell with two keys. This circle had five key incantations.

“At least I’ll use the language of my homeland for the incantations,” Sudirja muttered to himself. “At least once in a while.”

As Sudirja prepared to speak the incantation, Dion—who was still controlled by the staff—attempted to stop him. But his efforts were futile. Arjuna was always in the way. Arjuna struck him with such force that if Dion could seize his senses, he would have been in immense pain.

“You want to see one of my skills, don’t you, friend?” Arjuna teased. “This isn’t magic, though.”

Arjuna raised his hand high, calling upon his ancestral artifact. No incantation was spoken, no magic circle appeared. A magnificent bow materialized in his hands.

“No way!” Dion’s voice trembled. “An artifact made from shadow particles.”

“Bingo,” Arjuna replied. “Arrow… of Indra.”

Arjuna aimed the bow at the sky, pulling the string back. An arrow shot out from the empty air, and he released it. The arrow streaked through the air, and more followed, rapidly increasing in number.

“That’s too slow for me,” Dion muttered, controlled by the staff. “But there’s too many for me to avoid.”

Arjuna could have taken it easy, but his task was to keep the staff occupied.

“I could do this all day,” Arjuna continued. “But my job is to keep you busy, right?”

He glared fiercely at the staff.

“What?!” the staff exclaimed, surprised.

Arjuna vanished from the staff’s sight. The staff knew exactly what was coming next—

Arjuna was about to attack.

Dion, controlled by the staff, shifted into a defensive posture.

Yet, despite his best efforts, he still took a direct hit.

And the staff knew this would be a problem.

Arjuna’s artifact was a high-tier one.

It was impossible for the artifact to attack its own wielder. But if it didn’t handle these two matters simultaneously—

That would be fatal.

And in that moment, the staff realized something—

Touching the ground was a mistake.

But for now, it couldn’t levitate.

Not because it had lost the ability to float.

But because it had to resolve two troubling issues first.

The staff managed to block all of Arjuna’s attacks, as well as the arrows that threatened it.

However, not all of them could be avoided.

At least 80 of Arjuna’s strikes hit directly, and 1,033 arrows found their mark. Out of these, 102 hit the figure it controlled, while the rest pierced the staff itself.

Though the staff couldn’t feel pain—being an artifact—it was still weakened.

Before Arjuna could strike again, the staff quickly levitated the figure it controlled.

Arjuna, watching from a distance, wondered whether he should laugh or mock the staff.

He activated another magic circle, one that shimmered in gold, with the symbols of an elephant and lightning inside.

“Engkang asmo dadi rogo engkang wisongko dadi Rupo,” he chanted.

Something materialized from the empty air—a device. It looked like a bracelet with components resembling a touchscreen. William observed the object. If he had been an indigenous inhabitant of this world, he wouldn’t have known what to call it. But since he was a Shadow Exister, he recognized it as technology. Still, he didn’t understand its purpose. Nor did he know why Arjuna brought it out.

“Serious question,” Arjuna mocked the staff. “Are you stupid or just foolish?”

The staff was enraged by the question.

“Don’t—”

“Ah, never mind,” Arjuna interrupted.

Arjuna grabbed the object and wore it. He tapped the touchscreen once. There was no magic circle. Arjuna’s body floated in the air. Clearly, this was not magic.

“You really are impressive,” Arjuna murmured. “I didn’t expect you made this artifact. Oh, no, wait—it’s technology, not magic.”

He darted toward Dion. The staff, still in Dion’s hands, didn’t have time to react. Not because it was slow, but because it was still stunned.

“H-H-How could this happen?” The staff, using Dion’s body, was in shock.

“I’ll thank you if you keep staring,” Arjuna taunted, swiping at Dion’s hand. But the staff wasn’t let go yet.

“Arjuna!” a voice shouted from below.

Arjuna looked down, nodding quickly. Sudirja had finished forming his magic circle, and his goal was to prevent Arjuna from being affected by its effects.

“Why do you look like me?” a voice asked from behind him.

Sudirja recognized the voice. It was William—a version of him from the past.

“One day, you’ll understand,” Sudirja answered.

“What do you mean?” the voice asked again.

“At least once in a while, I’ll use the language of my homeland for incantations,” Sudirja murmured.

In William’s mind, he thought that the language of Sudirja’s homeland was Javanese. He knew this because, in his previous world, William had a pen-pal from Java. He thought, perhaps, Sudirja was his pen-pal from that world.

But something else startled William. Even more surprising was the fact that each word of the incantation came from his own country’s language, not internationally recognized words. They were words known only to the people of his homeland.

“Do you know words that are only spoken by people from England?” William asked in astonishment.

“Sorry, I can’t chat right now,” Sudirja replied.

Sudirja’s gaze locked onto Dion, but his focus wasn’t on Dion himself.

Something massive emerged from Sudirja’s magic circle.

Arjuna knew that the being that appeared was one of the calamity-class monsters. Luckily, it had been tamed.

By the indigenous people—

The giant monster glowed like fire, towering over them.

This creature was called Buto Mowo Geni.

“Should I destroy the staff, my lord?” The giant asked, eyeing Dion.

Arjuna was taken aback by the monster’s question. He knew that no matter how far he was from the beast, its attack would be devastating.

“Ultimate right away, my lord?” Arjuna shouted.

“It’s just a mental attack,” Sudirja shouted back.

“It’s a mental attack, but don’t go straight for the ultimate!” Arjuna yelled.

Arjuna sighed in relief at Sudirja’s response. He had nearly died.

Not because of the battle—

But because of something ridiculous.

Yes, he almost died—

Just from a heart attack.

“Now, for the real attack!” Sudirja yelled.

Sudirja spoke his second incantation. Buto Mowo Geni vanished, replaced by thousands of blue glowing orbs floating in the air.

Sudirja then spoke the third incantation. A device that resembled Arjuna’s appeared from the void. Sudirja wore it, tapping the screen, and then took flight.

Sudirja spoke the fourth incantation. Golden lightning crackled, but it didn’t harm him.

Sudirja completed the fifth and final incantation, and his body was enveloped in purple light.

If the staff were human, it would be trembling at that moment. But as an artifact, its fear wasn’t visible to others.

“The organs of the Demon King Semar should bow to age,” Sudirja taunted.

Upon hearing Sudirja’s words, the staff’s fear evaporated instantly, replaced only by rage.

“Don’t you dare treat me like a toy of that damn demon,” the staff roared using Dion’s voice.

Unbeknownst to the staff, it had just been lured into Sudirja’s plan.