Chapter 10
For a moment, the time guardian who was usually immersed in temporal chaos stood still, allowing herself to feel a simplicity that had almost been forgotten.
At her side, Arya Wiratama was already occupied with post-operation procedures.
The device on his wrist projected a series of blue holographic lists into the air.
His fingers moved swiftly, checking and marking off each protocol item.
"Residual energy trace cleanup, complete," he murmured softly, his voice like a whisper in a library.
"Minor structural glass damage restoration in progress, automated.
Preliminary incident report logged. No biological contamination detected spreading."
His work was methodical, a calming contrast to the chaos of the battle that had just taken place.
Each check mark was a guarantee that this timeline, with all its innocence, would remain intact and continue ticking along its rightful historical course, unrecorded in any textbook about a battle in its skies.
At that moment, as Nirmala used the tip of her finger to brush away bread crumbs clinging to the corner of her mouth, and Arya exhaled, ready to announce a relocation decision, the tranquil sky was suddenly torn apart.
Not by lightning or explosion, but by a voice that echoed with cold, mechanical authority, filling the entire field as though it descended from the heavens themselves.
"Cease all activity."
The voice was flat, toneless, yet heavy with undeniable bureaucratic weight.
It clearly originated from the external loudspeaker system of a large vessel, though no ship was visible to the eye.
"Securing and straightening the flow of time is the sole and exclusive mandate of the Temporal Cross-Police.
Individuals named Nirmala Surdaya and Arya Wiratama possess no authority, license, or right to perform any temporal intervention within the boundaries of this time sector."
Each word was delivered with lethal clarity, slicing through the previously peaceful night air.
"Your actions tonight, recorded as high-level paradox energy disturbance and mass memory manipulation, cannot be categorized as law enforcement, but as deliberate disruption of historical flow.
You are destroyers of the timeline."
Before the echo of that warning fully faded, the air around the field began to vibrate.
With several nearly inaudible "whoosh" sounds and brief flashes of pale blue light, eight silhouettes appeared, forming a perfect circular formation around Nirmala and Arya.
They were members of the Temporal Cross-Police, identifiable by metallic gray combat uniforms accented with neon green lines along their arms and chests, and full-face helmets with pitch-black visors.
Their weapons were not ancient or hybrid like Arya's, but sleek, glowing pulser rifles aimed steadily at the two ununiformed time guardians.
There were no further warnings.
Only a measured and threatening advance.
In unison, the eight officers stepped forward, one step at a time.
Their movements were synchronized and disciplined, tightening the encirclement with mechanical precision.
Every precisely ten seconds, the thud of their boots striking the dusty ground created a tense rhythm, like the ticking of a countdown clock.
Fine dust drifted upward in the moonlight, shrouding their legs in a faint haze.
One of them, identified by insignia on his shoulder as the unit leader, raised a hand.
The voice emitted from his helmet speaker sounded closer, more personal, though equally flat.
"Place all temporal devices and weapons on the ground.
Slowly.
Then raise both hands. Higher than your heads. No sudden movements."
The obedience radiating from Nirmala and Arya was a perfect illusion.
They stood rigid, hands raised high, faces empty in surrender beneath the aim of eight advanced rifles from a distant future.
Temporal Cross-Police officers felt the tension begin to ease.
The breaths held within their helmets were slowly released, audible as faint static hisses through internal communicators.
A sense of relief, almost like a minor victory, flowed through their formation.
The two most elusive and difficult-to-capture "timeline disruptors" had finally been secured without incident.
Their full names, Nirmala Surdaya and Arya Wiratama, were clearly recorded in the database as dangerous independent entities, and they would soon become detainees.
The unit leader gave a subtle signal with two fingers.
Two officers stepped forward, hands already reaching for the glowing green energy cuffs at their belts.
Their strides were steady, confident.
The attention of the entire squad focused on the arrest process, on the raised hands of the two time guardians who would soon be restrained.
That was the moment.
Precisely when the two officers were only three meters away, a small, seemingly accidental incident occurred.
The simple metal bracelet on Arya's right wrist, which had appeared to be nothing more than an accessory or basic communication device, suddenly slipped free.
Not intentionally removed, but as though sliding from a sweat-dampened wrist.
It struck the dusty ground with a sharp metallic "clang."
The sound alone was enough to draw attention for a fraction of a second.
What followed was not a visual explosion.
From the bracelet now touching the earth erupted a wave.
Not a physical shockwave that pushed bodies back, but an Ultra-High Frequency Sonic-Neural Wave.
The wave was invisible, yet its presence was felt instantly like an icy blade plunging straight into the marrow, particularly through the auditory canals and central nervous systems.
For the Temporal Cross-Police officers with their advanced helmets, standard filters for explosions or screams were useless.
This wave was engineered to bypass such defenses, resonating directly within the inner ear and the brain's balance centers.
The effect was immediate and crippling.
All eight soldiers screamed simultaneously inside their helmets, their cries muffled into hoarse shouts.
The year-2900 firearms that had been steadily aimed now wavered and drooped.
Their hands, instead of pulling triggers, reflexively clamped against the sides of their helmets, attempting to block the unbearable torment though knowing it was futile.
Some staggered, dropping to one knee, their heads shaking as though trying to expel bees buzzing within their skulls.
The perfect encirclement collapsed in an instant, transforming into a cluster of individuals battling dizziness, nausea, and acute disorientation.
The high-frequency hum still filled the air, forming an invisible cage trapping them in sensory agony.
That crippling sensory chaos was a window of opportunity that would remain wide open only for a few seconds.
Nirmala and Arya, their bodies trained to function under the most extreme imbalance, moved not like two individuals fleeing, but like two components of a machine suddenly activated.
Nirmala, positioned closer to the two soldiers who had collapsed before her, did not use her fists.
She utilized the momentum of her rotating body.
Her raised knee drove forward with full force into the solar plexus of the first soldier, a short and lethal strike that caused him to choke and tumble backward before he could remove his hands from his ears.
Her movement continued without pause.
Her sharp right elbow slammed like a sledgehammer into the side of the second soldier's neck, targeting a pressure point to momentarily cut off blood flow to the brain.
The two gray-uniformed bodies collapsed almost simultaneously, adding to the chaos on the ground.
To be continued…