Chapter 136 - The Academy’s Weapon Replicator

Arc 42: Deception Operation (2)

I watched the battle unfold, waiting for the right moment.

Ideally, I wanted the original plan Ospreet and I had agreed on to work. Right now, Ospreet was waiting for Heldre. Our original plan was to lure Heldre out, then have me throw Excalibur at him once Ospreet restrained him.

How to restrain Heldre in midair, how to control Excalibur’s power—Ospreet and I had put our heads together to work out every part of the plan.

Of course, all of it had only been possible thanks to Ospreet’s tremendous abilities and knowledge.

Even Heldre would certainly die if he took a direct hit from the combination of Penelope’s Cloth and Excalibur. Even if he blocked it, there was no telling whether he would escape unscathed.

‘But Heldre won’t come.’

Partly because this elevated railway wasn’t all that important, but also because certain conditions had to be met before Heldre would act.

Kian was one of those conditions.

So, to draw him out...

‘I’m sorry, President.’

The two of us had worked hard on the plan, but it had too many holes.

Both Ospreet restraining Heldre and controlling Excalibur had far too high a chance of failure. And with Heldre not coming in the first place, we couldn’t even put the plan into action.

I drew in a long breath.

“Menosorpo.”

With that single word, the magic circle’s domain spread outward.

Naturally, Skyler and Thompson noticed, but that didn’t matter. Isamaya and Pascal weren’t opponents they could afford to take their eyes off to watch me.

Menosorpo, Weaving

Grade - Divine

Chryselakatos, Iocheira

I held a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other.

When I had aimed at Kraken before, I had only managed to imbue Chryselakatos with Aura. I had been too intent on hitting that thing, and there had been far too little time.

But this time was different.

FWOOSH!

I drew the bow, imbuing both bow and arrow with Aura. As always, this bow needed no precise aiming. All I needed was to have Thompson and Skyler in my sights.

There. This time, both bow and arrow held Aura.

Eager to see what would happen, I released the string.

* * *

Though Thompson and Skyler were in different places, both had already lost the concentration they needed to continue fighting.

The presence radiating from the man atop the opposite cliff was anything but ordinary.

Despite the considerable distance, chilling mana washed beneath their feet like waves.

Their one consolation was that even Isamaya and Pascal, their respective opponents, had their attention drawn to Frondier.

‘What the hell is he planning...?’

From where Thompson stood, Frondier was directly in front of him. That was fortunate indeed.

But it was equally terrifying. He had to watch firsthand as Frondier drew his bow, radiating that dreadful power.

His aim was a little strange, though. The arrow pointed at neither Thompson nor Skyler.

If anything, it was aimed somewhere between them, a little higher up. Fired like that, it would only cut through empty air.

‘Hmph. Is he planning to change his aim just before he fires?’

Thompson narrowed his eyes and waited for Frondier to shoot. No matter when he fired or how impressive the arrow was, Thompson was confident he could knock it aside in a single blow.

But Frondier released the string with his aim still fixed on empty air.

“Huh?”

Watching the shot’s trajectory, Thompson voiced his disbelief.

Skyler probably felt much the same. The arrow was flying skyward, in entirely the wrong direction.

“What’s with that arrow? Where is he shoot—”

As if cutting Thompson off, the arrow burst in midair.

POP!

‘... I see! Is that the famous “Fireworks”?!’

Only then did Thompson remember a piece of information about Frondier. He had half dismissed it as unreliable, but somehow dredged up the faint memory.

He had heard that monsters had attacked Constel not long ago, and that a rain of arrows had killed the fleeing monsters all at once. They called it “Fireworks.”

Then that meant the boy wasn’t an impostor. He really was Frondier.

‘You lunatic. Showing your face right in front of us!’

Once I block this rain of arrows, you’re dead. Just as Thompson thought that—

POP!

POP! BOOM!

The arrows that had burst apart in midair burst yet again.

“... What?”

They had been bursting sporadically in the air, as though warming up. Then—

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Every arrow from the first split burst apart in midair with its own report. The first arrow had split into well over a hundred by a rough estimate, and each of those split into just as many again.

... How many did that make?

“Huh? No, wait.”

This wasn’t what the reports said. Surely there hadn’t been that many arrows.

With numbers like that, one shot would have been enough to wipe out all the monsters several times over. But according to the reports, there hadn’t been enough arrows, so several more shots of “Fireworks” had followed.

‘Pitch-black.’

Thompson’s thought was simple as he stared up at the sky.

The sky had turned pitch-black. No, every arrow was giving off light, so rather than pitch-black, it was... it was, well...

It was simply rain. Rain made of light.

Iocheira’s Trait, Falling Rain.

‘It shall become rain.’

“Surely he isn’t really going to...”

Just as Thompson feared, as rain, and as rain should,

the dense mass of light plunged straight toward them.

‘Impossible! Is he going to attack his own allies too?!’

Thompson stared at the falling rain in horror. There were more than enough arrows to blanket the entire area without a gap. Not only Thompson and Skyler, but Pascal and Isamaya were naturally within its range too.

But then the arrows began tracing strange curves.

All of them avoided Ospreet, floating higher in the air, and changed course to rush toward just two points. Toward Thompson and Skyler alone.

“Gah...!”

Thompson raised his prosthetic arm. Every tentacle installed within it shot out. He wrapped himself in Aura to protect the gaps, then dropped to his knees to make himself as small a target as possible.

It was every defensive measure he could take at that moment.

But...

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!

The downpour of arrows thundered against the earth. But this was no mere downpour.

“Gah! Urgh! Aagh...!”

The gale whipped up by his furiously spinning prosthetic arm couldn’t repel the arrows. Nor could the arm itself block them all. The merciless assault pierced the gaps and struck Thompson.

Thompson hunched lower still. Covering his face with his prosthetic arm, he curled up like a turtle.

It was an ugly sight, but he had no room to care. He pressed his face into the ground, gritted his teeth, and waited for the pain to stop.

Blood trickled between his clenched teeth and onto the ground. His face, pressed against it, became smeared with his own blood.

... The rain of arrows poured down for a long time. When it finally passed, Thompson lay facedown on the ground like a tattered rag.

The attacks that had pierced his Aura had torn his clothes and left him bleeding.

“Urgh, pff, haah...!”

Strange sounds escaped him. That single attack had nearly depleted all his Aura. Despite deflecting arrows with his prosthetic arm, mustering every last scrap of Aura, and wearing clothes that were excellent armor in their own right, he had still ended up like this.

If that attack came again, then...

Trembling, Thompson raised his head. Just as he had expected, Isamaya was unharmed. Incredibly, he hadn’t suffered so much as a scratch in that downpour.

“Hah, haah...!”

That attack must have made Isamaya certain. Those arrows would never attack him. It was an outrageously unfair technique that targeted only enemies.

So in the next downpour, Isamaya would attack Thompson without hesitation. The arrows and Isamaya’s attacks—Thompson had no way to withstand that combined assault.

‘R-right. Skyler...!’

Thompson searched for Skyler in the distance, at the foot of the cliff.

He couldn’t make out the details from so far away, but Skyler seemed little better off. He too was on his knees, unable to move properly. He couldn’t come to Thompson’s aid.

‘No. At this rate... our plan here has failed. I have to run. Run and work out our next plan.’

Thompson thought hard. This attack had been utterly unexpected, yet devastating.

‘Run. Don’t get any stupid ideas. One wrong decision and you’ll play right into the enemy’s hands. You’re smart. Stay calm. Stay calm.’

Thompson realized what the enemy—what Frondier—was thinking. His plan wasn’t merely to injure Skyler and Thompson.

The boy clearly knew more than Indus thought he did. Whether that was because of a traitor or something else, Thompson didn’t know. But something else mattered more right now.

‘You have to run!’

Thompson let out a soundless cry.

‘Kian!!’

* * *

“That’s far enough.”

As I readied my next arrow, I heard an unfamiliar voice. No, perhaps I should call it a voice I had dearly missed.

A girl approached me as I held the bow drawn.

She had a hand extended toward me in an aggressive stance.

“Lower that bow, or you’ll lose your head.”

“How scary, Kian.”

I spoke the girl’s name. Her eyes widened.

But they soon narrowed, filling with murderous intent.

“So information really is leaking.”

It seemed the word “traitor” was firmly lodged in Kian’s mind.

She looked at me as though to say, “Found you.”

But I felt exactly the same.

“Lower. Your bow. Now.”

Kian’s words were a warning.

I did as she said and slowly lowered my bow. I hadn’t intended to kill them anyway. Incapacitating them to that extent was enough.

From the start, I had intended to turn them into hostages. Hostages to draw Kian out. One of them might have guessed my intentions, but that hardly mattered now.

Kian was standing right in front of me.

“There’s a cliff behind you. Give up.”

Kian was right. I had been shooting from the top of the cliff, and she had approached from behind me. I was now in a position where I couldn’t escape.

But if that was true, why hadn’t Kian killed me immediately?

That was worth testing.

Looking at her, I asked,

“Do you know Kraken?”

“... Don’t try to... sound me out... like that.”

So she did know.

“Kraken told me I’d become a ‘sacrifice’ for Indus’s revolution.”

The corner of Kian’s eye twitched. She probably didn’t appreciate Kraken running its mouth without permission.

It was certainly the sort of thing Kraken would say, given its love of prattling on and its contempt for humans. But right now, the word “traitor” was in Kian’s mind.

“... So? You don’t want to be a sacrifice? Is that the bargain you want to make?”

“Hahaha. No, of course not.”

Kraken’s aim had been to frighten me. I was almost certain of that. Being called a “sacrifice” naturally inspired a vague fear. Especially when something as mysterious as Kraken appeared, said its piece, and left.

But to me, that was merely another piece of information.

“I got curious.”

“About what?”

“How important I am. How valuable I am as a sacrifice. Whether someone else could take my place.”

“...?”

Kian tilted her head.

She didn’t seem to understand what I meant.

Good. That meant I could stay one move ahead.

I smiled at Kian. An opponent’s sudden smile brought the observer’s thoughts to a halt, if only for an instant. I had learned that from Selena.

In that instant—

“Wh-what are you—!”

Leaving Kian’s cry behind,

I threw myself off the cliff.