The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 136

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Weapon Duplicator of the Academy – Episode 136
Chapter 42: Deception Operation (2)
I surveyed the battlefield and waited for my moment.
Above all, I hoped the operation I’d arranged with Osprite would proceed as planned.
Right now, Osprite was waiting for Heldrey. The original plan was for Heldrey to be lured in, and when Osprite pinned him down, I would hurl Excalibur at him.
A method to restrain Heldrey in mid-air, a way to control Excalibur’s power—I’d worked through every detail with Osprite, wracking our brains to devise the strategy.
Of course, none of it would have been possible without Osprite’s extraordinary abilities and knowledge.
Even Heldrey would die if he met the combination of Penelope’s Cloth and Excalibur head-on. Whether he could defend himself was another question entirely.
‘But Heldrey won’t come.’
Perhaps because this location with its aerial rail wasn’t so important, but Heldrey needs certain conditions to move.
Kian is part of those conditions.
So to summon him, I had to…
‘I’m sorry, Headmaster.’
Though we’d worked hard together on this strategy, it had too many holes in it.
Both Osprite’s ability to seize Heldrey’s movements and to control Excalibur carried far too high a failure rate, and since Heldrey wouldn’t come anyway, the operation couldn’t even be executed.
Breathe in—
I drew a breath.
“Menosorpo.”
A magical circle spreading out with a single utterance.
Skyler and Thompson certainly noticed, but it didn’t matter. Isamaya and Pascal were far from trivial opponents—they deserved my full attention.
Menosorpo. Weaving.
Rank – Divine Rank.
Criselacatos. Iokeira.
I drew a bow and arrows in both hands.
When I’d aimed at Kraken before, I could only infuse my Aura into Criselacatos. My will to strike him down was overwhelming, and time was far too tight.
But this time was different.
Snap—!
I drew the bowstring, infusing Aura into both the bow and arrow. As always, this bow needed no precise aim. My eyes finding Thompson and Skyler was all that mattered.
Now, this time I’d infused Aura into both the bow and the arrow.
With a sense of anticipation about what would unfold, I released the string.

* * *
Thompson and Skyler were in different locations, but both had already lost the concentration needed to continue fighting.
The man atop the opposite cliff had unleashed an aura that was far from ordinary.
Despite the considerable distance between them, an eerie magical force swept across the ground beneath their feet like a wave.
The only fortunate thing was that even Isamaya and Pascal, who were locked in confrontation, found their attention diverted to Frontdier.
‘What in the world is he trying to do…?’
From Thompson’s position, he had a direct view of Frontdier. This was fortunate indeed.
And yet equally terrifying. He had to watch directly with his own eyes as Frontdier drew the bow with such a dreadful intensity.
But something was odd about the aim. Those arrows weren’t pointed at Thompson, nor at Skyler.
If anything, they were directed somewhere between them—higher up. Shooting like that would only slash through empty air.
‘Hmph. Is he planning to shift his aim just before release and strike?’
Thompson narrowed his eyes and waited for Frontdier to fire. Whenever it came, no matter how formidable the arrow, he was confident he could deflect it in one stroke.
But Frontdier released the string with the bow still aimed at empty air.
“What?”
Thompson let out a sound of disbelief as he watched the arrow’s trajectory.
Skyler must have felt something similar. The arrow was flying upward into the sky, completely off-target.
“What is that arrow? Where’s he even—”
Thompson’s words were cut short as the arrow detonated in mid-air. Pop.
‘…Ah! Could that be the famous Fireworks!’
Thompson finally remembered. One piece of information about Frontdier. He’d only half-listened due to its low reliability, but somehow he dredged up the faint memory.
There had been an incident at Constellation Academy not long ago where monsters attacked, and he’d heard that the fleeing beasts were instantly killed by a peculiar arrow. It was called Fireworks.
If that was the case, then this man was no fake—he really was Frontdier.
‘A madman. Revealing his face to us on his own!’
If he could just block this arrow attack, the man was as good as dead. The moment Thompson thought this—
Pop—!
Pop, boom—!
Arrows that burst in mid-air split apart and detonated again in the void.
“…What?”
Those things that erupted intermittently in empty air, as if warming up—
Burst-burst-burst-burst-burst-boom-!!!!
The arrows that had split from the first volley all sang out their own piercing notes as they fractured across the empty air. From that initial arrow alone, easily over a hundred had divided, and each of those arrows in turn spawned another hundred of their own.
……So how many altogether?
“Wait, no—hold on.”
This didn’t match the records. There’s no way the arrow count had been this high before.
At these numbers, a single volley would annihilate every monster in the area and leave enough for several times over. According to the records, the arrow quantity had fallen short back then, so a few additional Fireworks had followed.
‘Pitch black.’
Thompson looked up at the sky and let a simple thought cross his mind.
The sky had turned pitch black. No—every arrow was radiating light, so it wasn’t so much that the sky had darkened as it was, well, that is to say.
It was simply rain. Rain made of light.
The characteristic of Iokeira: Rainfall.
‘It’s becoming rain.’
“There’s no way—not really.”
Just as Thompson had thought, and befitting rain itself, rain-like in every way.
The dark mass of luminous arrows plummeted directly toward them.
‘Impossible! She’s attacking her own allies too?!’
Thompson watched the descending torrent in horror. The sheer volume was enough to blanket this entire area and more. Himself and Skyler, of course, but Pascal and Isamaya would fall within the range as well.
Yet the arrows traced a peculiar curve.
They all avoided Osprite, who hung higher in the void, and redirected their trajectory toward only two points—hurtling down with lethal precision. Directly toward Thompson and Skyler alone.
“Ugh……!”
Thompson raised his prosthetic arm. The installed tentacles shot out in their entirety. He wrapped Aura around himself, fortifying every gap. He dropped to his knees, minimizing his profile to the smallest target possible.
It was every defensive posture he could muster in that moment.
Yet.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash-crash-!!
The arrows drummed against the earth with deafening force, but it was no mere downpour.
“Hack! Cough! Ugh……!”
The tempest whirling around his prosthetic arm could not push back the arrows. The prosthetic itself could not stop them all. Through the gaps, relentless strikes pierced into Thompson’s body.
Thompson curled further inward, shielding his face with the prosthetic arm, huddling like a turtle.
It was an ugly pose, but he had no space in his mind for such concerns. He pressed his face to the ground, clenched his teeth, and waited for the pain to cease.
Blood seeped between his gritted teeth and pooled on the ground. His own blood smeared messily across his pressed face.
……The arrow-rain poured down for a long time, and when it finally passed, Thompson lay sprawled across the earth like a wet rag.
His clothes were torn where the arrows had breached his Aura, and blood flowed freely.
“Ugh, cough, hack……!”
Thompson made a grotesque sound. That single barrage had nearly depleted his entire Aura reserve. He’d deflected with his prosthetic, he’d pushed back with everything he had left, and even though his clothing itself was excellent armor—and still he’d been reduced to this.
If that assault came again. Then.
Thompson raised his head, trembling. As he’d suspected, Isamaya remained untouched. Miraculously unmarred even within that devastating downpour.
“Hah, h-ugh……!”
With this attack, Isamaya must have become certain. Those arrows would never target him. A technique that hunted only enemies—monstrously one-sided.
So in the next downpour, Isamaya would press his assault without hesitation. The arrows and Isamaya’s attacks together. There was no way Thompson could withstand their combined onslaught.
‘Wait—Skyler—!’
Thompson spotted Skyler far below, at the bottom of the Cliff.
The distance made it hard to see clearly, but Skyler’s situation seemed just as dire. He too was on his knees, barely able to move. No support from that quarter was possible.
‘No. Like this—the plan fails here. I have to run. I have to escape and devise the next strategy.’
Thompson’s mind raced. An ambush he’d never anticipated, yet devastatingly effective.
‘Run. Stop overthinking. One wrong judgment and you’ll walk straight into the enemy’s trap. You’re smart. Get cold. Stay cold.’
Thompson grasped the enemy’s thinking—what Frontdier must be planning right now. His strategy wasn’t merely to damage Skyler and Thompson.
He knew more than Indus realized. Whether that knowledge came from a traitor or something else, it didn’t matter now. There were more urgent matters.
‘I have to run!’
Thompson released a silent scream.
‘Kian!!’

* * *
“That’s enough.”
When I prepared the next arrow, a strange voice reached me. Or rather, a voice I’d dearly missed.
A girl approached me as I held the bowstring drawn.
The girl held out her hand toward me. It was an attacking stance.
“If you don’t lower that bow, your head’s coming off.”
“Scary, Kian.”
I spoke the girl’s name. Her eyes widened.
But soon those eyes grew cold, kindling with murderous intent.
“Just as I thought—information is leaking out.”
The word “traitor” had clearly lodged itself in Kian’s mind.
She looked at me as though she’d found what she was searching for.
But I felt the same way.
“Lower the bow. Now.”
Kian spoke to me as a warning.
I did as she said, lowering the bow slowly. I’d never intended to kill them anyway. They were combat-ineffective—that was enough.
From the start, I’d planned to use them as hostages. Hostages to draw Kian in. Perhaps one of them had guessed my intention, but at this point it hardly mattered.
Kian had come to me.
“There’s a cliff behind you. Give up now.”
Kian spoke to me. Indeed, she’d fired arrows from atop the Cliff, and with her approaching from my rear, her words were true. I had nowhere to run.
And yet, why?
Why hadn’t Kian killed me on the spot?
It was worth testing.
I looked at Kian and asked her.
“You know about Kraken?”
“…Don’t try to probe me like that.”
So she did know.
“He said I’d become a ‘sacrifice’ for the revolution of Indus.”
Kian’s eye twitched. She clearly didn’t like that Kraken had spouted such things on his own.
Kraken, who naturally enjoyed running his mouth and held humans in contempt, would certainly say such a thing, but now the word “traitor” was lodged in Kian’s mind.
“…So? You don’t want to be a sacrifice? You want to make some kind of deal?”
“Ha, no. Hardly.”
What Kraken was aiming for was to instill fear in me. Almost certainly. When someone calls you a “sacrifice,” humans naturally grow afraid. Especially when something unknowable like Kraken shows up and spouts such things before vanishing.
But for me, it was merely information.
“I was curious, you see.”
“About what?”
“How much value I have. What my worth is as a sacrifice. Whether a sacrifice can be replaced by someone else.”
“…?”
Kian tilted her head.
She didn’t seem to understand what I meant.
That was good. It meant my next move would come first.
I smiled at Kian. A smile shown suddenly halts the thoughts of the one who sees it, if only for a moment. Selena taught me that.
In that instant.
“What—what are you—!”
I left Kian’s cry behind me,
and threw myself toward the Cliff.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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