Time vector

"Now use the temporal vector lens!" Sudirja commanded.

Arga and Arjuna each pulled out an artifact—so did Sudirja. William, observing the artifact, found its shape strangely familiar.

"Isn’t that an eye lens?" William shouted.

High in the sky, Sudirja nodded, confirming William’s words.

“Don’t underestimate me!” the staff shouted, still controlling Dion’s body.

It lunged at Sudirja, but with the temporal vector lens, Sudirja could predict all of its movements—even before they happened.

Without even looking at Dion, he dodged effortlessly.

When the attack failed to affect Sudirja, the staff targeted Arjuna and Arga instead.

But what the staff didn’t know was: the result would be the same.

Arjuna easily repelled the hair attacks.

As for Arga—he didn’t even need to move.

The powerful wind generated by his ability shredded anything that came close.

Feeling humiliated, the artifact began preparing a magic circle. It intended to manifest part of its energy into a monster. It planned to create a massive crow with eighty thousand eyes, known by the indigenous people as Kromopati.

Although it wasn’t visible to the naked eye yet, the lenses—based on a law of physics known as temporal vector mechanics—had already revealed its form to Sudirja. The same went for Arjuna and Arga. All three of them waited with sly grins for Kromopati’s arrival.

Through Dion, the staff completed the summoning circle—a relatively simple one, dark blue in color, like the night sky.

“Kan asmo dadi molo dunyo dadi purwo rupo Sewu molo kan murko lan karmo pati dadi Kromopati,” the staff chanted with Dion’s voice.

Arjuna raised his hand to the sky, calling lightning into his grasp. Arga leaped from the ground, intending to replicate himself as many times as possible. Sudirja directed his blue orbs toward Kromopati, attempting to encircle it. Sudirja knew Kromopati was one of Sidran Gasra’s fragments. And what made him smile even more—the vector lenses had revealed that Kromopati was the strongest of all Sidran’s fragments. Meaning: if Kromopati was defeated, Sidran could no longer create new ones.

“You stupid or what, Sidran Gasra!?” Sudirja mocked. “Oh, right—artifacts don’t have brains. That explains it.”

Exploding with rage like a bomb, Sidran Gasra sent Kromopati to attack Sudirja.

But he didn’t know—Sudirja’s orbs had blocked all possible movement paths.

Kromopati lunged—

One blue orb hit its left leg.

The massive crow snapped back to its original position.

Out of its 80,000 eyes, one disappeared.

If the staff had been human, the pain would’ve been unbearable. But being an artifact, there was no pain—just a 5% drop in power.

And it still hadn’t noticed.

Arga spawned multiple clones around Kromopati, and they began pummeling it.

Three thousand out of 79,999 eyes vanished.

Sidran Gasra’s overall power dropped by 35%.

Still, the staff remained unaware.

One of Arga’s clones appeared before Sidran—not to attack, but to mock.
The clone lifted its nose, making a pig face.
“Bakekok, bakekok!” the clone taunted.
“Was this part of your plan, Your Majesty?” Arjuna asked.
“If it were just mocking, I’d rather do it myself than order others,” Sudirja replied, shaking his head.
He hadn’t expected Arga to do the same thing he had just done.
In truth, Sudirja’s purpose in mocking Sidran wasn’t just provocation—it was to verify that Sidran wouldn’t change his plan.
“In that case, I’ll do it too,” Arjuna added casually.
“Are you serious, Arjuna?” Sudirja looked at him, bewildered.
“Yes. Unless Your Majesty forbids it?” Arjuna asked.
Sudirja facepalmed, wanting to laugh. He never expected his comrades to act so ridiculously in such a serious moment.
“At this rate, we’re not fighting him—we’re bullying him,” Sudirja said.
“So, should we stop?” Arjuna asked again.
“No. Do it,” Sudirja replied. “But now I’m thinking of a more refined plan.”
“What is it, Your Majesty?” Arjuna asked.
Sudirja turned to Arga. “Arga, use the neuropental technology. You brought it, didn’t you?”
Arga, hearing the term technology, didn’t understand at first. But after thinking for a moment, he realized it referred to Sudirja’s custom-made artifacts—or ones with similar functions.
He wanted to summon it but realized he couldn’t materialize the item from shadow particles—not like Arjuna, who could manipulate quantum phenomena to recreate objects from memory.
Shadow particles were not supposed to physically exist, yet somehow, they did. These particles could only be detected through specific spells or artifacts. They didn’t absorb energy—they emerged from nothing—and only certain individuals could manipulate them.
Unlike Arjuna, who could excite these particles to form desired matter, Arga couldn’t. That’s why he always stored important tools using storage magic.
Arga drew a magic circle—triangular with a star inside, glowing orange like a sunset.
“Kan roso dadi rupo seng rupo kian nyoto,” he chanted.
A tiny object, no larger than a needle, materialized in the air. Arga grabbed it.
To use it, he had to pierce the left or right side of his neck. Its purpose: telepathy.
Without hesitation, Arga stabbed it into the right side of his neck. Pain didn’t even cross his mind. He only thought about one thing—if Sudirja, his king, gave the order, he must have a strategy in mind.
Seeing this, Arjuna also materialized his own neuropental from shadow particles. Originally, he wanted to use his wrist device, but he wasn’t as skilled in physical calculations as Sudirja. So instead, he had saved the artifact via storage magic.
Since the neuropental was relatively simple in structure, Arjuna could easily recreate it using shadow excitation.
He extended his palm; the neuropental appeared. Without flinching, he stabbed it into the left side of his neck.
“Arjuna,” Sudirja called.
Arjuna understood immediately.
“It’s done, Your Majesty,” he responded.
Now that both of them were connected telepathically, Sudirja needed to join them.
He could have just told Arjuna the plan, and let him relay it to Arga—but if Arjuna moved away mid-battle, Sudirja would have to shout, risking their strategy being overheard.
To prevent that, he too would need the artifact.
Sudirja began forming a new magic circle.
This time—not a branching type like before——but a single-key incantation.
The circle that appeared had a tiger’s head inside a triangle. Its hue was blue—like a clear sky.
“LAN Rupo saiki dadi nyoto,” Sudirja chanted.
The device appeared, and he immediately used it—ignoring the pain of insertion.