The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 177

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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 Replicator of the Academy 177
Chapter 57: Sacrifice (2)
The people on the Barrier saw it.
Spears that appeared suddenly in the sky were skewering the approaching monsters. The blades did not stop at a single creature—they pierced through the beasts like shish kebab, continuing until their momentum ran out.
The flying monsters that had been advancing fell from the sky in a sprawl before slowly, cautiously retreating. They were a formidable force even as winged creatures alone, and they had come to seize the initiative against humans who struggled with aerial combat—
Flutter-flutter-flutter—
But when their audacity was rewarded with grotesque death paraded in succession, they wheeled about with flapping wings. Of course, they continued to die even as they retreated.
“Th-that… what…?”
Soldiers and knights lost their voices, watching the spectacle. At first, they could not tell whether the spears that had appeared so abruptly were friend or foe. Yet since they were now slaughtering monsters, they chose to believe them allies—
But if those spears turned their direction toward the soldiers? That would become a hell far more terrible than the vast army of monsters they now faced.
“Is it Captain Silbain’s power…?”
The knights’ gazes immediately fixed on Silbain. Certainly those spears were being created around him. While everyone else recoiled in shock, he alone observed the battle situation with unshakeable calm.
That solid, composed bearing brought color flooding back to the knights’ faces.
“It is the Captain’s strength! Everyone, do not yield to fear—hold your positions!”
At last someone shouted to rally the soldiers’ spirits, and—
“Waaaahhhhh!!”
In that wake, the Barrier erupted with tremendous morale, and the roar surged across the battlefield.
“……”
Yet Silbain’s composed expression was, quite literally, only that—an expression.
He could not make sense of what was unfolding before his eyes.
The flying monsters, too, had been stained black by the darker beasts. Meaning they would be proportionally harder than the monsters from outside, and he had felt that hardness keenly when the archers fired upon them earlier.
And yet those spears were cutting them down one by one as though it was nothing, skewering them with certainty. What was more, it seemed insufficient—they flung themselves at any nearby monster and pierced them as well.
‘Each of those spears is not something hastily made. They are high-grade weapons that would command a premium price. To use dozens of them like that, and without even a wielder in sight…’
“Captain.”
Then Frontdier opened his mouth with careful deliberation.
The flying monsters retreating and the terrestrial monsters advancing—the two were converging, their lines meeting as they approached. In other words, a full collision was imminent.
“Give orders to the archers.”
Only after hearing Frontdier’s words did Silbain grasp the present situation. Until a moment ago, his best effort had been to pretend he was not startled, following Frontdier’s lead. Even that had been difficult enough.
“Archers! Ready your bows!”
Following Silbain’s command, the archers aligned their weapons with unwavering discipline. Their movements were swift and precise, even accounting for their training as seasoned soldiers.
The spears striking down flying monsters as though they were sparrows. Everyone believed those miraculous spears to be Silbain’s doing.
Silbain, who did not panic, who did not falter, who calmly stood firm—his first command. The soldiers’ morale could reach no higher peak.
And within that fervor, the Aura they wielded and the force and accuracy of their arrowheads were transformed.
“Fire!!”
Shhhwick!
Crash-crash-crash!!!
The same archers firing the same arrows produced a distinctly different sight than yesterday. The number of arrows bouncing off the black sections fell sharply, and the archers themselves now avoided those hardened parts, striking unerringly at the creatures’ weak points. In a world where Aura existed, morale was quite literally what transformed the quality of soldiers.
Observing this, Frontdier spoke.
“I will continue targeting the flying monsters. The terrestrial ones—you must hold them back, difficult though it may be.”
Frontdier withdrew without waiting for a reply. Why leave his position so suddenly? This vantage point was ideal for observing the battle. Such a question arose, but was answered immediately.
“Silbain.”
After Frontdier had gone, Angen approached him.
“Those spears flying through the sky—did you truly do that?”
Angen’s eyes narrowed with suspicion as he studied Silbain. Ah, so that was why he had left his post. The man’s instincts were sharp, after all.
“Silbain, I once attended the end-of-semester examination at Constellation Academy.”
“……”
“And I saw something very much like those spears flying about now.”
There was no doubt. Angen had nearly discerned that the flying spears were Frontdier’s work. Yet he asked Silbain directly for a reason.
‘He is asking whether I would conceal Frontdier.’
If Silbain lied now, there would be no returning from it. He would have colluded with Frontdier and violated Angen’s command. Angen would never forgive that.
Then should he tell the truth instead? Angen had already deduced nearly everything, and what point was there in a lie now? Frontdier was not someone Silbain must protect at all costs. More than that, if he truly wanted to protect Frontdier, the better course would be to inform Angen at once and seek his protection.
“Silbain, did you create those spears?”
And so, when Angen posed this question in that severe voice, Silbain’s answer was already decided.
─Soon you will shed tears of gratitude. For me, and for Frontdier.
“Yes, sir.”
“…Hmm.”
Silbain was startled by his own answer. Why? Why was he protecting Frontdier? He knew the right choice!
Yet even as he was startled, his heart grew calm. As a result, his expression showed no crack.
“Using magic circles, I devised a method to suspend weapons in the air and discharge them. It is an application of Telekinesis.”
Even now, he should have spoken truthfully—but Silbain’s lips continued weaving lies with remarkable fluency, pouring them out with ease.
“……The scope of this magic circle extends far beyond the Barrier, doesn’t it?”
“Haven’t you marched to their lair alongside the Roach Knight Order? We began preparations from that very moment.”
An outright impossibility.
Scarcely two days had passed since that first battle ended. Drawing a magic circle of such magnitude in so brief a span was beyond reason.
More than that, Silbain had been continuously attending meetings and training.
Even as Silbain spoke such an obvious lie, his face betrayed not the slightest tremor of doubt.
Only then did Silbain recognize his own true heart.
‘……Frontdier is.’
Necessary to this war.
Monsters of a scale beyond all expectation. To contend with them, one must eliminate the enemy’s variables to the greatest degree possible. Only Frontdier—swift to dispatch winged monsters on sight—makes that feasible now.
He was the most useful warrior on this battlefield, a keen sentinel who could read the entire tide of battle, a knight capable of executing tactics through individual action.
He could not be withdrawn from the field under any circumstance.
“…….”
Angen’s gaze pierced through Silbain. A killing intent almost palpable seized him from scalp to sole, tightening gradually around his entire frame. Silbain stood motionless, his face as blank as burlap sewn in place of flesh.
Watching him thus, Angen,
“……Hm.”
Soon closed his eyes, letting that face soften and settle. Silbain was struck—almost shocked—by the sight.
“I see.”
Merely those words.
Leaving only a voice gossamer-light enough to be carried away on the wind, Angen turned from Silbain and walked.
Rather than ascending the Barrier, he vaulted over its wall and took position ahead of the Barrier. The same place as the first day.
Silbain understood his intent. Originally, Angen was to fight atop the Barrier in this engagement—a decision made with the winged monsters in mind.
Until the Barrier fell, the true threat had come from the winged monsters; hence, Angen fighting from atop the wall—able to strike at monsters regardless of distance—had been the optimal strategy.
Yet Angen had descended. Its meaning was singular.
‘He’s entrusting the winged monsters to Frontdier!’
Understanding this intention, Silbain cried out.
“Archers! Target the Black Monsters! Pierce their filthy hides clean through!”
The variable after the winged monsters—the elimination of the Black Monsters.
That was his charge.

* * *
“Hah, hagh! Hagh……!”
Frontdier clashed with monsters atop the Barrier, his sense of time now lost. From the sun’s height, it seemed noon. He could scarcely lift his head without risk.
“You! Soldier! Steady your breathing! If you must die, die to the monsters—don’t strangle yourself to death on your own breath!!”
Someone beside him—a higher-ranking soldier, perhaps—roared. Frontdier had no clear sense of what rank he appeared to hold now. He didn’t wish to know.
He tried to settle his breathing, but it lay beyond his grasp. His eyes, drawing in ragged breath between his teeth, suddenly blazed open.
Whish, wheeze!
Splurch—
Through the chaos of battle came the winged monsters; the instant Frontdier’s eye caught them, he hurled a spear of force skyward and crushed them.
Each time, mana drained from him in great chunks, his breathing grew harsher, and his legs trembled.
“Hah, Captain Silbain. Extraordinary work. So you had such a technique in reserve. Without it, we’d have been overrun by those winged devils long since, and the Barrier would’ve fallen.”
The soldier who had been roaring at Frontdier murmured in admiration at the sight. Then, turning to Frontdier once more, he bellowed.
“Blast it! Lift your head, boy! What’re you doing gasping like that! Without eyes open ahead, death’s all you’ll see!”
“……Y-yes, sir.”
Frontdier answered briefly and raised his head. Rough as his speech was, the words rang true. If he didn’t keep his eyes wide open from this moment forward, he would never open them again.
“Vile creatures…….”
The soldier, watching the sight below the Barrier, had gone ashen.
They were brutishly stacking their own bodies to form an incline, clawing their way up the wall.
Their staggering numbers made it possible. The Black Monsters in particular moved with nimble grace, treading across their kin and reaching the wall’s face. Those Frontdier confronted were largely these Black Monsters.
Yet their movements lacked training; they would collapse beneath their own weight as they tried to cluster together, and with no capacity to learn, they repeated this cycle again and again.
And yet,
‘They don’t stop……!’
The soldiers gritted their teeth at that relentless surge. Countless monsters crushed beneath their own weight as they clustered. And still they came—as if bewitched, building their ramps, treading upon their own heads as they ascended.
As if death itself were meaningless, they hurled themselves forward with all the devotion of creatures staking their very lives on breaching the wall.
‘Corpses pile beneath the wall. Soon they won’t even need to build a ramp.’
Whether struck down by human weapons or crushed beneath their own kind, most of the dead monsters piled before the wall.
As time passed, their numbers accumulated; the height of corpses slowly began to draw nearer to the Barrier itself. Once the bodies reached sufficient height, the monsters would climb atop them.
This had likely been their tactic from the start. They possessed numbers vast enough to make it viable.
Of course, the human side would not allow such a scenario to unfold.
Whiiissh—
Crash!
The fireballs, boulders, and whirlwinds unleashed by the mages atop the Barrier swept away the mountain of corpses piled before it. With each wave, the heap collapsed and monsters were scattered, dying.
Yet the mages’ expressions remained grim.
‘Wasting spells on the already dead……’
There were still plenty of monsters yet to fight, but they were burning Mana just to clear away corpses.
Mana was not infinite, and clearing the bodies stacked against the Barrier required proportional expenditure. The mental fortitude and time needed for casting were merely additional costs.
Worse still, using Magic to clear away the creatures at the Barrier’s base inevitably dealt collateral damage to the Barrier itself. Even exercising maximum caution, one could not avoid it entirely.
“You bastards! Don’t let them touch the Barrier!”
“Damn it, you think that’s easy?!”
Shouts and curses erupted across the battlefield. There was no room for restraint. They spoke nothing but raw emotion. Curses and screams—all would be forgotten once the war ended. Should anyone harbor lingering resentment, a single drink would wash it away.
But the dead did not return. Knowing this, all fought with absolute desperation.
Yet then——
“That, that creature—what is it doing?”
A change befell the Black Monsters that had rushed forward, trampling over their lesser kin. They began scaling the mountain of corpses not yet cleared.
Flattening themselves atop the heap, they extended their blackness like wooden tendrils. The clusters of corpses they touched adhered together as if bound by chain, the spreading darkness sealing individual bodies into a single mass. The structural integrity it lent was formidable.
“Those, those insane creatures……”
Now the congealed corpse-masses would not crumble even under direct magical strikes. To breach that blackness required force the mages could no longer muster with their dispersed spells.
Shriek, shrieeeek!!
Growl, grrrrowl!
The monsters’ cries drew closer. Ascending the unbroken mound, they neared the Barrier.
“Ah, uh, uuuh……!”
One soldier cried out in terror. Fear spread like contagion, and the outer monsters—creatures long feared—and the Black Monsters of unknown nature began pouring over the Barrier like leeches through filth.
In that moment, Frontdier spotted Angen defending the Barrier’s gate. He was wielding his sword before the gate’s entrance.
Under his assault, dozens of monsters became corpses scattered through the air, yet more pressed through the gaps, bulky creatures blocking his advance.
Should Angen’s focus waver even once, the gate would be shattered in an instant.
No reinforcement would come from Angen. Silbain was in the same predicament.
Grind——
Frontdier clenched his teeth.
Weaving, Black River.
Grade—Divine Rank.
Krisela Catos, Iokaira.
The Necklace shattered, and the black droplets gathered in his hands became a bow and arrows.
Frontdier, who could not summon Dragon Heart.
While annihilating the winged monsters with aerial Weaving, he simultaneously cut down the creatures scaling the Barrier before him.
His remaining Mana was already spent.
Frontdier, who had repeated Mana depletion in both training and live combat, knew better than anyone the price of exceeding his limits.
“……I’m getting drowsy.”
Frontdier laughed. He felt his own blood burning. All moisture had evaporated—even sweat no longer fell. The smallest motion of drawing the bowstring sent his entire frame creaking.
But it’s fine.
Even if his body breaks apart, even if the hand holding the string trembles uncontrollably, even if his vision blurs and he cannot see a thing,
these arrows will not miss their mark.
Whoosh——
A single arrow shot skyward, then burst like fireworks.
The sky blazed bright with light, yet cast its shadow downward all the same.
An selfish rain that would drench only the monsters was about to fall.

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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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