The armies of Widarba and Jonggarba ripple like ocean waves over the battlefield. Meanwhile, Maespati's troops move lightly like the leaves of the lotus flower that are flying. Faced with strands of lotus flowers, it as if the ocean waves are caressed until they go quiet. That is how the padma-byuha strategy traps his opponent into drowning in the delusion of gentleness in the midst of the cruelty and violence of war. This short-lived delusion makes Widarba and Jonggarba's troops complacent. While they are complacent, there comes a bombardment of attacks from Maespati's troops.
In a stammering state, Bajobarang spits fire from his mouth. Before the fire spreads, an arrow from Kalinggapati has slashed his neck. The warlord of Jonggarba was killed, and a rumbling sound is heard when his body falls to the ground. Startled by the roar of destruction, Kalaranu throws his kunta weapon. The kunta weapon passes by Kalinggaprana’s sword. And at the time when the kunta weapon bounces, Kalinggaprana’s sword stops at his neck. Kalaranu is killed, his head rolling on the battlefield. Seeing that his two companions are killed, Amongmurka and Mamangmurka are getting very angry without wanting to leave their wrath any longer. They open their mouths simultaneously, and bursts of fire erupt instantly, licking the battlefield. Maespati’s troops fall.
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> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (80)
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Sumantri does not neglect this dangerous signal. He releases his Nagapasa weapon. The weapon weaves like a dragon, piercing through the flames that are becoming more intense. Amongmurka and Mamangmurka do not stop spitting fire from their mouths, so that they do not see Sumantri's weapon approaching them. As it approaches the two mouths which are gaping with a torrent of flames, the Nagapasa's heirloom splits into a pair of swords. The two swords then plunge into the two gaping mouths, like a dragon entering a cave. Both Amongmurka and Mamangmurka are killed at the same time.
As soon as the fire is extinguished, Suryakestu and Candrakestu move smoothly as light as a lotus flower that flies from a distance, toward Lindhusrenggi and Kalapragangsa. Before realizing the opponent who is coming, Lindhusrenggi and Kalapragangsa have already fallen down, their heads are crushed by the maces of Suryakestu and Candrakestu. Nearly at the same time a shrill scream of a giant is heard. The war stops for a moment due to the heart-wrenching scream. The battlefield is like crying, and its tears are blood. Arrows fall from the sky, like an avalanche of angsana flowers. Everyone asks, whose scream it is, that even the cruelty of war is sliced by its grievous sadness? It turns out that the scream comes from Prabu Jonggirupaksa, whose chest was torn apart by the Endrajala arrow released by Sumantri. The giant king of the Jonggarba kingdom is seen to flounder on the ground, die, going after his warlords.
Upon seeing Prabu Jonggirupaksa is killed, the soldiers of Widarba and Jonggarba withdraw, like the waves of the ocean subsiding. The battlefield of Magada recedes from the frenzy of weapons; however, it is not dry plains that are visible to the eye, but an ocean of blood. Everyone is shocked, must this ocean of blood happen just because they have to take over Dewi Citrawati? Sumantri himself wonders whether the ocean of blood is the compensation that has to be paid so that people can obtain the beauty of the Princess of Magada? Should this be the horror he has to endure, just to enable him to serve as a knight in Maespati? Imagining this, Sumantri shudders. How expensive and useless the dedication he has to experience. And for the first time, even though he does not know Dewi Citrawati's face, it glances in his mind how the beauty of the Princess of Magada actually is bloody. And when he sees the corpses of soldiers lying on the battlefield, he feels, how terrible the lotus flower will be if its tenderness and beauty have to grow on a sea of blood.
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> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (77)
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (76)
> The Bajang Child Swinging the Moon (75)
Sumantri breaks suddenly from his daydream, when he hears a rumbling sound on the battlefield. His armies disperse in disarray. His padma-byuha tactics fall apart. Even his four leaders, Kalinggapati, Kalinggaprana, Suryakestu and Candrakestu are separated from each other, falling apart like the leaves of lotus flowers that are flying. Along with the roar, the fire is seen to be chasing. The Maespati troops run from the fire. Many of them are engulfed in flames, scorched and die. It turns out that the fire comes out of the palms of King Darmawasesa's hands. Indeed, after watching his younger brother, Prabu Jonggirupaksa, killed along with his commanders, Prabu Darmawasesa is furious. He goes into the battlefield, like a commander in chief who has given up hope. He has nothing else, except the rajah (tattoo) that is attached to his hand, Rajapralaya. As soon as he stretches out his hands, there is a trembling sound like an earthquake, accompanied by bursts of fire like waves discharging hot flames. In the west the sunlight turns red, giving a sign that dusk has come. Prabu Darmawasesa does not want to give up. He defeats the sun's rays that begin to weaken with bursts of flames. The sun seems to lose, and the night has come. Being in the night, Rajapralaya seems to be given an eye. Then the fire grows hotter, knowing where it is going. It chases Maespati's troops relentlessly. Heart-rending screams are heard here and there, in the dark of the night that grips with death.
Witnessing the raging fire, Sumantri does not immediately know how to deal with it. His peace of mind is in limbo, like a useless meditation. The flower buds in the padma-byuha tactics withers and perishes in an instant, thereby making Sumantri lose his footing on the battlefield, like a hermit thrown from a cave of silence. Sumantri really loses his mind, and does not understand what to do as a warlord. It is impossible for the Endrajala arrow that had killed Prabu Jonggirupaksa to defeat Prabu Darmawasesa's fire. Even the Nagapasa arrow will also be in vain, because even a dragon will not be able to penetrate the incomparably great sea of fire. And if he releases the Bramastra arrow, the fire that comes out of it is only a meaningless lamp and will surely perish in the midst of the flames that radiate from the rajah of Rajapralaya.
This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo.
