The observatory remained unnaturally quiet after Vijaya completed itself.
Golden energy still flowed faintly across the weapon resting in Arin's hands while the celestial mechanisms overhead continued rotating beneath the open night sky. The atmosphere throughout the chamber had changed completely now.
Not heavier.
Sharper.
Like something ancient had awakened fully inside the kingdom the moment the fragments merged together.
And deep beneath that silence—
Vijaya continued pulsing.
Not toward the kingdom anymore.
Toward somewhere far beyond it.
Arin could feel it clearly now.
The final fragment was still out there.
Waiting.
But unlike the others, this one did not feel stable.
The resonance coming from it distorted strangely through his mind, like the fragment itself existed somewhere reality struggled to hold together properly. Every few seconds the pulse shifted unnaturally—sometimes near, sometimes impossibly distant, sometimes almost completely gone before violently returning again.
It felt wrong.
Even Vijaya itself seemed restless because of it.
Liora noticed the change in Arin's expression immediately while standing beside him.
"…you can feel the last fragment."
Arin slowly nodded without looking away from the weapon.
"…it's different."
Elyra stood quietly near the observatory center while watching him carefully.
"Yes."
The Regent's voice echoed softly through the chamber afterward.
"Because the final fragment no longer exists within ordinary space."
Everyone immediately looked toward her again.
Riven frowned deeply.
"…I'm sorry what does that even mean anymore?"
No one answered him immediately.
Because Elyra's expression had changed slightly.
For the first time since they arrived inside the kingdom—
the Regent looked genuinely concerned.
She slowly approached the center of the observatory afterward while the golden symbols across the chamber walls glowed softly around her.
"You need to retrieve the final fragment soon."
Her voice carried unusual urgency now.
"The Entity is already moving."
Arin's grip around Vijaya tightened slightly.
The Entity.
The same being that called him Suryaputra.
The same force serving the System itself.
Elyra continued quietly,
"And when it comes…"
Her golden eyes shifted toward the others standing behind Arin.
"…it will not only come for you."
Silence fell heavily afterward.
Liora immediately understood what she meant.
Everyone around him would become targets too.
Selene crossed her arms uneasily.
"So the System finally decided subtlety wasn't working."
"In simple terms?" Kael answered quietly.
"…yes."
Elyra nodded once afterward.
"The moment Vijaya awakened further, your existence became impossible for the System to ignore."
Another pulse moved through the completed weapon in Arin's hands.
"The surviving versions are dangerous enough already."
Her gaze sharpened slightly afterward.
"But a surviving version recovering Vijaya completely…"
The atmosphere darkened.
"…is unacceptable."
Arin remained silent while listening.
Because deep down, he already felt it too.
The pressure surrounding the world itself had changed the moment Vijaya completed another fragment.
The System had noticed him fully now.
No more hiding.
No more partial awareness.
War was coming eventually.
Elyra continued afterward while slowly raising one hand toward the floating celestial mechanisms surrounding the observatory.
Golden light shifted instantly across the chamber.
The stars above rearranged themselves unnaturally while an enormous map formed in midair before the group. Continents of light stretched across the observatory while glowing lines connected different regions together like veins of energy running through the world itself.
Then suddenly—
one area pulsed violently red.
Everyone's attention shifted immediately toward it.
The region didn't resemble ordinary land anymore.
Space itself around the glowing point appeared distorted. The map twisted unnaturally there, folding inward repeatedly like reality itself had collapsed around the location.
Liora stared toward it carefully.
"…what happened there?"
Elyra answered quietly.
"The final fragment happened."
The observatory grew colder somehow afterward.
"The last piece of Vijaya carries the strongest pulse among all the fragments."
Another pause.
"And unlike the others…"
Her voice lowered slightly.
"…it was never dormant."
Arin's eyes narrowed immediately.
That explained the unstable resonance he felt from it.
The fragment wasn't sleeping.
It was active.
Elyra continued speaking softly while the distorted region pulsed violently within the map above them.
"For centuries the fragment has warped everything surrounding it."
Images began forming within the glowing projection now.
Massive landscapes collapsing into impossible shapes. Forests twisted upside down. Mountains floating above black oceans. Entire ruins suspended endlessly in fragmented skies.
Everyone stared silently.
Because the place looked less like part of the world and more like reality itself breaking apart.
Riven finally whispered quietly,
"…that place shouldn't exist."
"It barely does," Elyra answered.
The projection shifted again afterward.
Dark storms moved endlessly across shattered land while glowing fractures spread through the sky itself like cracks across glass.
"Space collapses constantly there."
Another image appeared.
Time distortions swallowing entire regions. Creatures aging into dust before reversing backward again moments later. Rivers flowing upward into broken heavens.
"And time no longer behaves naturally either."
The atmosphere inside the observatory became suffocatingly tense now.
Elyra looked directly toward Arin afterward.
"The final fragment exists at the center of all that distortion."
Another pause.
"In a place now called the Fractured Expanse."
The name itself felt ancient.
Forbidden somehow.
Kael slowly frowned afterward.
"If the distortion is that severe…"
His expression darkened slightly.
"…then how is the fragment still stable?"
Elyra's answer came immediately.
"Because the fragment itself is causing the distortion."
Silence.
Complete silence.
Arin slowly looked down toward Vijaya in his hands afterward.
And for the first time since restoring the weapon—
he felt something else beneath its resonance.
Fear.
Not his own.
The weapon's.
The realization unsettled him immediately.
Because if even Vijaya itself reacted that way toward the final fragment…
then whatever waited inside the Fractured Expanse had become far more dangerous than merely another missing piece.
Elyra continued quietly,
"No ordinary person can survive entering that place."
The projection shifted again while entire regions of the distorted landscape disappeared and reappeared unnaturally.
"Most lose themselves immediately."
"Some are erased from existence entirely."
"Others become trapped between moments forever."
Liora instinctively stepped slightly closer toward Arin afterward.
"And you're saying he has to go there."
Elyra nodded once.
"Yes."
Another pause.
"Before the Entity reaches him first."
The observatory fell silent again afterward.
Arin remained motionless while staring toward the distorted projection overhead.
Fragments surfaced quietly inside his mind again now.
Not memories this time.
Instinct.
Recognition.
Somewhere inside the Fractured Expanse—
something was waiting.
Not merely the fragment.
Something else connected to it.
Then suddenly Elyra spoke again.
"There's something else you should know."
The tone of her voice changed immediately.
More careful.
And somehow—
heavier.
Arin slowly looked toward her again.
The Regent remained silent briefly before continuing.
"The first Karna eventually recovered Vijaya completely."
The weapon in Arin's hands pulsed softly.
"But after what he became…"
Elyra's golden eyes darkened slightly.
"…Vijaya slowly began rejecting him."
The words struck the observatory like thunder.
Everyone froze instantly.
Arin's expression hardened slightly afterward.
"…rejecting him."
Elyra nodded quietly.
"The first Karna changed after escaping the cycle."
Another pause.
"No one knows exactly what happened to him afterward."
The celestial map above them dimmed slowly now.
"But whatever he became…"
Her voice lowered further.
"…it no longer aligned with Vijaya."
Arin felt cold suddenly.
Because the implication behind those words terrified him more than anything else tonight.
Even the first Karna—
the one who escaped—
lost compatibility with the weapon itself eventually.
Elyra continued softly,
"So he abandoned it."
Silence filled the chamber.
"Threw it away after centuries of carrying it across worlds."
The idea felt impossible somehow.
Vijaya belonged to Karna.
To him.
And yet even that bond eventually broke.
But Elyra wasn't finished.
The Regent slowly looked directly into Arin's eyes afterward.
"And after abandoning Vijaya…"
Golden symbols across the observatory walls pulsed once more.
"…he mastered another weapon equally feared across existence."
Something inside Arin's soul reacted violently the moment she said that.
Not Vijaya.
Memory itself.
Elyra spoke the name quietly.
"Gandiva."
Everything stopped.
The observatory vanished around him instantly.
Memories exploded through Arin's mind harder than anything before.
Kurukshetra.
A battlefield drowning beneath endless fire and blood.
Five warriors standing together beneath a burning sky.
The Pandavas.
And at their center—
a figure holding a divine bow glowing brighter than sunlight itself.
Calm eyes.
Unshakable focus.
A warrior whose arrows split armies apart like storms descending from heaven.
Then another memory.
Laughter beside campfires before war.
Arguments.
Respect.
Hatred.
Brotherhood buried beneath destiny itself.
And finally—
one name surfaced violently through all the memories together.
Arin's breath caught slightly afterward.
"…Arjuna."
The name echoed softly through the observatory.
And somewhere beyond the edge of reality itself—
something ancient suddenly awakened.