The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 153

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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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Academy Weapon Replicator Episode 153
Chapter 49: Heavenly Punishment
After Renzo left.
I was the only one awake inside this residence.
Heldrey dead. Indus operatives eliminated by Mangot. Indus leadership unconscious.
It looked like the most ideal situation I could possibly control.
But in reality, it was desperately complicated.
‘Not a shred of Mana left. Seriously.’
I’d tried Weaving to break free from these Spider Webs, but I had nothing to work with. No crude weapon could cut through them, and to sever them in one clean stroke, I’d need Void Weaving.
Void Weaving is only possible inside Menosorpho, so that’s obviously out.
And more than anything—
‘……I’m so tired.’
The grueling schedule that started with Second Semester. One crisis after another piling up on top of that. Battles fought while consuming Dragon Hearts, followed by repeated Mana Depletion. And my current physical state on top of it all.
My exhaustion had hit its limit.
I looked ahead. Thomson, Kian, and Skyler were still sprawled out. They weren’t restrained or incapacitated—merely unconscious.
I needed to take precautions before they came to their senses.
‘Damn.’
My eyelids were impossibly heavy.
My head dipped slowly. A hollow sigh escaped from somewhere deep inside me.
I couldn’t fight off the crushing drowsiness that overwhelmed me. Bound to the chair, I fell asleep.

* * *
Kraken fled with everything he had.
He couldn’t escape through the Portal—its coordinates were locked to Heldrey’s Grand Residence.
He tore through the forest in blind panic. Twigs and thorns raked across his body as he ran, but he paid them no mind. Such trivial wounds meant nothing to him; he could regenerate them in seconds, and right now, such things didn’t matter.
“Hah—hah—!”
As Kraken gasped for breath, his body stretched and contorted against branches and stones. By now, almost nothing remained of his human appearance.
‘Frontdier controls the entire Mangot organization!’
He’d known Frontdier kept one of the Mangot members as a bodyguard. They’d crossed paths in the Auditorium at Constellation.
But he’d assumed Mangot was using Frontdier for their own ends. Whatever their purpose, Frontdier had his value. He’d thought it stopped there.
Yet such a significant number of Mangot operatives moved at Frontdier’s command!
He needed to disappear for a while. Change his face. Stay hidden for a very, very long time.
Yes—when no one left remembered him—
“Stop.”
At that moment, someone cut off Kraken’s path as he bolted through the forest at tremendous speed.
Kraken halted and saw the woman standing before him.
“I’ve been looking for you. Criminal.”
“……Criminal?”
Kraken tilted his head in confusion.
He didn’t recognize her face, but the uniform she wore was familiar.
“Ah, so you’re with Obsidian.”
“Quick to understand. Hands up.”
Esther, Obsidian’s warden, fixed him with a cold stare.
Kraken grinned wickedly and opened his mouth.
“How did you know it was me? And how did you even know I’d be here?”
Kraken’s confusion was natural. As someone capable of completely altering his face, he couldn’t be tracked. Witnesses meant nothing. So how did Esther stand here, at this exact location, as if she’d been waiting?
“Simple. You’re the shadow of Indus. A Monster playing human games.”
Originally, Esther had headed to Constellation to investigate Renzo’s movements after his death.
But along the way, she’d received a message from her Clone. Someone had broken into Obsidian and fled with Renzo’s corpse.
After that, Esther moved to find whoever had stolen Renzo. Since her original reason for going to Constellation was to understand why Renzo had died, finding the criminal would get her answers faster.
Beyond that, her temperament suited the pursuit of criminals perfectly.
According to her Clone, the criminal was a Monster who had likely infiltrated a human organization.
“A Monster that infiltrated a human organization. If that’s the case, there’s only one place I’d suspect.”
The moment Esther heard that information, she thought of Indus.
Esther had long sensed something suspicious about Indus and launched her investigation. While others remained oblivious, only she caught that foul scent.
They’d managed to escape undetected up until now, their tails tucked in. But recently, Indus had been sloppy, leaving mistakes scattered everywhere. Some of their operatives had even been caught red-handed.
Most of those incidents traced back to Constellation—or its students.
‘If I follow that trail to its source, who stands at the center will become clear.’
And Esther had found one name.
‘Frontdier de Roach.’
From Serf onwards to the present day. Whenever an incident emerged that peeled back the hidden layers of Indus, he was always there.
Moreover, Renzo—who at first glance seemed unrelated to Indus—also had a connection to Frontdier.
Because Frontdier was the one who reported Renzo’s infiltration into Constellation.
Whether Frontdier had severed Renzo’s arm or not, she could say nothing definitive about his principles and convictions, or how much he’d grasped of Elicia’s plan at the time.
‘But then Frontdier was kidnapped on his way back from the school trip.’
This was urgent news that had only recently reached Constellation.
Frontdier had been forced out of the train at Renzo’s coercion, and what happened after that remained unknown.
“If the monster that rescued Renzo truly belongs to Indus, then naturally Renzo will move with the same purposes as Indus. How long that will last, I can’t say.”
This was why Esther made her way to Heldrey’s Grand Residence, which she had long sensed to be the base of Indus’s leader.
By the time she drew near the residence, she had already detected an enormous concentration of mana, and it was she who cut off the escape route of Kraken—perhaps the sole one to have managed flight.
“In this forest, moving at such a tremendous speed without even flying. Apparently using almost no Aura to avoid pursuit, and that very restraint only confirmed my suspicion. A human body cannot reach such speed on its own.”
“……Heh.”
Kraken heard Esther’s explanation and opened her mouth in a long, silent laugh. She wasn’t even sure anymore if she was actually smiling.
“The people of Obsidian. They’re nothing special.”
Esther’s eyes narrowed at Kraken’s words.
According to what Esther had heard, Kraken had killed three jailers. This had all happened after her original body had already left the prison.
Esther pressed her white guard’s cap down firmly.
“Right. My people owe you a debt.”
In that moment, Kraken’s hand shot forward. With her nature as a monster already exposed, there was nothing left to hide.
Her tentacle strike—among the fastest in all of Indus. Tentacles unfurled from her fingertips, surging without hesitation toward Esther’s throat.
At that instant, Esther’s eyes beneath the cap grew cold as she spoke.
“Prisoner. State your name.”
In a heartbeat, Kraken’s hand froze. That same hand that was certain to pierce Esther’s throat went rigid in empty air.
“……Kraken.”
Kraken spoke her own name. It was not hypnosis or mental manipulation. Kraken possessed a clear and definite will of her own.
She simply felt an overwhelming terror, a terror from which she could not refrain, and so her mouth opened.
‘……This feeling. Surely not.’
Kraken looked into Esther’s eyes. They were not merely cold. Those pupils, the light that shone within them, and that low murmur of a voice—she had heard these before.
“A monster who wore the guise of a human, took lives, and concealed her true nature for so long—Kraken. Your sin is grave.”
With each word Esther spoke, her aura grew more potent.
It was not Aura. It was not Mana. Yet it was a familiar power. Kraken recognized that scent, and horror seized her. For one of her kind, this was the worst possible opponent.
“May the God Justitia look upon you with mercy. Though it will be long before that sin is forgiven.”
With those words, Kraken finally understood.
‘Holy Power!’
Kraken abandoned her attack and wheeled to flee. Holy Power was rare. In Aethius, where multiple gods existed, it was rarer still.
Yet for that very reason, it was the worst possible matchup for a monster like Kraken.
‘No, no, am I going to die here? I still have so much to do. I still have……’
She moved with desperate urgency to escape Esther’s field of vision.
Esther watched her movement with a disinterested gaze, and reached out her hand.
Kraken caught the gesture from the corner of her eye, and without thinking, her mouth opened.
“P, please—”
“Heavenly Punishment.”
Crack!!
Light fell from the sky. Unlike lightning, it descended in a straight line. That light cleaved the empty air vertically with terrible precision. A merciless hammer of judgment that permitted neither evasion nor defense.
“Gh, ghhhhh…….”
Kraken gave a short cry and collapsed.
Esther walked slowly toward Kraken. As she looked down at the fallen creature, her expression quickly darkened.
‘……Still alive.’
Her body trembling from the blow, her human form already dissolving into something resembling a soft-bodied creature, Kraken was nonetheless still breathing.
‘That’s strange. Every human I’ve struck down for such sins has died without exception.’
Heavenly Punishment delivers retribution proportional to the crime.
Was Kraken’s sin insufficient? Impossible. The scales of her guilt surely tipped toward capital punishment.
“……Perhaps this too is the will of God.”
Esther shook her head, then drew a Restraint Device from her pocket.
Ordinary manacles would suffice for a human, but given this creature’s nature, the method of restraint would need to be far more sophisticated.

* * *
After binding Kraken, Esther stepped into Heldrey’s Grand Residence.
Before coming here, she had confirmed Heldrey’s corpse in the forest. From that moment, she had sensed an ominous presence.
“……What is this.”
And now, Esther stood speechless at the carnage within the residence.
Bodies lay strewn across the floor. Walls and ground were soaked with blood, and scarcely a living soul remained.
Step by step, Esther moved forward slowly. The residence lay in such silence it seemed sound itself had been killed.
Could it be that whoever slaughtered all these people was also the one who killed Heldrey?
As Esther made her way to the front of the residence’s lobby,
she stopped in her tracks at the sight that greeted her on the stairs.
‘Who is that?’
A man sat in a chair—the first thing to catch her eye.
With his limbs bound and his head bowed, nothing was visible but his hair. Yet he wore a School Uniform.
From the uniform and hair alone, Esther could guess his identity.
‘Frontdier de Roach!’
Looking closer, she noticed his shoulders rising and falling gently. Frontdier was alive.
And he was not the only survivor.
Three figures lay sprawled before Frontdier. They too were merely unconscious.
‘Kian, Thomson, Skyler… They’re all key members of Indus.’
Esther’s face paled as she recognized their features.
‘Did that boy do all of this alone?’
Eliminating all the inconvenient figures, yet somehow knocking out only the important Indus personnel he needed information from? While bound to a chair?
Esther’s eyes swept the surroundings once more, almost against her will.
‘No. That’s impossible. It can’t be.’
She examined the corpses around her, studying their wounds. Some had been slashed or pierced by sharp blades, others crushed by blunt instruments. The weapons that had struck them were all different.
‘Right. The weapons vary completely. There’s no way he could have killed this many people alone. Not while bound to a chair.’
How could someone unable to use his hands or feet kill so many? And with weapons that differed for each one.
To wield such varied weapons without hands or feet was impossible—
‘Wait. Frontdier’s ability was…’
What was it again? She’d heard something. During Constellation’s final exam, to defeat her brother Artzie, he had—
Created swords from empty air itself, suspended spears in midair and aimed them at his neck. It was a manifestation perfectly suited to the carnage before her—
“Hey.”
A cold voice pierced through. Esther’s body flinched as her gaze snapped toward Frontdier.
The young man, who had kept his head bowed, lifted his eyes—now empty and unfeeling.
Exactly as Esther had imagined him, precise without a trace of hesitation.
“Would you mind undoing this?”
Languid yet arrogant.
He looked down at Esther from the top of the stairs.

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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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