The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 419 Part 1 - The Academy’s Weapon Replicator

Machia (8)

Come to think of it, I entered Pandemonium in this very position. I don’t know how much time has passed in reality, but it seems like Carla has been stuck with me all this time.

“Ah, I apologize.”

I let go of her face and stepped back. I truly felt sorry. I hadn’t known what kind of situation Carla would be in.

‘Athena, who cursed Carla, enters Pandemonium with me, but Carla herself is unaffected.’

I was hoping Carla wouldn’t faint, and it seemed she hadn’t.

‘While I’m in Pandemonium, I’m completely vulnerable. I need to keep this in mind.’

If my enemy possessed divine power, I couldn’t recklessly use Pandemonium.

The god who owned the divine power would be dragged into Pandemonium with me, but the human who received the divine power would remain unaffected. They could easily slit my throat while my consciousness was trapped in Pandemonium.

A thought occurred to me, and I asked Carla, “Why didn’t you just push me away? It must have been a very difficult situation.”

“It was really difficult! Incredibly difficult! So difficult I almost died!”

Can a person die from sheer awkwardness?

Carla spoke as if genuinely wronged.

“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to stay like that! I couldn’t move an inch! Your body! I put all my strength into it, but I couldn’t even budge a finger! It wasn’t that I wasn’t using my power! I wasn’t trying to make eye contact!”

“Yes, I don’t misunderstand that.”

I see. Unable to move. Is that a characteristic of entering Pandemonium? Good to know.

“So, I thought you had turned to stone…”

As she spoke, tears welled up in Carla’s already teary eyes and finally spilled over.

“It didn’t turn gray, but your body wouldn’t budge, so I thought it was another form of petrification, and I, because of me… I thought I had killed you.”

Carla covered her eyes with both hands and sobbed. Seeing her so frail and distraught filled me with pity. I almost apologized without realizing it.

“But what is this!”

Carla suddenly glared at me and yelled, leaving no room for apologies.

“Suddenly, life returned to your eyes, your focus came back, and you looked at me and greeted me as if nothing had happened! While still holding my face! How can a person do that? No, a human couldn’t do that! You’re a devil! You wicked man!”

“Am I a devil or a wicked man?”

“I thought you were dead, but you’re alive!”

“Why are you angry about that?”

“A-And, besides…!”

Carla’s indignant outburst was cut short, her expression shifting to one of confusion. She stared at me as if I were a strange creature, and said, “…And my petrification doesn’t work on you…?”

It was a rather belated realization.

Even Carla herself seemed unconvinced, her voice laced with uncertainty.

The curse of petrification.

Carla had some control over it, but it became difficult to manage under certain conditions.

I had assumed it was due to emotional turmoil, and it seemed I was mostly right. Carla herself believed she had used petrification on me.

Carla asked, “What happened?”

It was the most appropriate question, in a way.

I was about to kindly explain, but then…

“…Ah, right.”

I remembered Athena was still trapped.

“Just a moment. There’s one last thing I need to do. I’ll explain everything once this is over.”

I opened my senses, searching for the fabricated Pandemonium just as Baal had done.

Carla, though unaware of what I was doing, seemed to understand I was concentrating and stepped back, watching me quietly.

Then, she suddenly asked, “…By any chance…”

“Yes?”

“Are you the only one on whom my petrification doesn’t work on?”

The only one?

Her choice of words was strange, and I tilted my head.

Carla continued, “My petrification has never failed, whether it’s on an object or a living being, but are you an exception?”

From Carla’s perspective, it seemed that way. Her petrification ability was still active, but I was an exception.

I looked at Carla.

…There was a hint of anticipation in her eyes.

“No,” I said.

“It’s not that you’re the exception, it’s that you’ve come to the moment where you’ll become the exception.”

“…What does that mean?”

“It means that once this is over, you won’t be able to use things like petrification anymore.”

As I spoke, I found it. Pandemonium.

It was in the same spot where I had made eye contact with Carla. I had done it once before, but finding and seeing something that didn’t belong to this world was quite difficult, sensually.

I approached Pandemonium. Of course, Carla wouldn’t be able to see it.

“So,” I said, feeling a bit playful, “you’re becoming ordinary. With no powers whatsoever. You’re welcome to resent me.”

* * *

And so, Frondier stood still once more.

Carla knew the moment she saw him. It was the same as when their eyes had met.

“…”

Carla approached Frondier. Frondier, standing still, unmoving.

Step by step, Carla circled him, gazing at his face, poking his shoulder, back, and cheek.

‘It’s the same as before. Hard as a rock. Like he’s been petrified.’

The difference was that he wasn’t truly turned to stone, so to the naked eye, he just looked like he was standing still. And undoubtedly, he would be much harder than the stone she created.

When Frondier had grabbed her face and ended up in this state, she was too flustered and confused to think straight.

But now, she could at least think calmly.

‘Petrification didn’t work.’

Frondier had clearly been affected by her power, yet he was moving perfectly fine. Not even a wrinkle on his clothes.

Was it because Frondier was different from others? She thought so, but then Frondier said it.

That her power would disappear now.

That she would become just an ordinary person.

“Just what are you?”

Carla asked Frondier, who couldn’t possibly answer.

Their first encounter was strange. The moment she saw his face, her heart fluttered. The feeling was so unfamiliar and sudden that she was bewildered. A feeling of goodwill, affection, or even love. She had never experienced the phrase “love at first sight” so literally.

But now that she thought about it, a slightly different thought crossed her mind.

Of course, the feeling she felt could have been the sweet sensation of first love, but…

‘…What if I felt something completely different?’

Something alien she felt from Frondier. An unknown power that could never be felt from an ordinary human, something she could only sense because she had fallen into the category of monsters.

Carla instinctively knew that Frondier was different from other humans. And perhaps, because of that, she had hoped.

That he would solve her situation.

That if Frondier became her ally, he could solve her current predicament, the curse, everything, all at once.

In short, what she felt when she saw Frondier was similar to, yet different from, love at first sight.

It might have been closer to the feeling of encountering a prince charming on a white horse, a hero from a fairy tale.

But then again.

“What are you doing here?”

“!”

She knew it all along.

This world was not a fairy tale, and even if it were.

Princes charming didn’t approach monsters.

“Medusa.”

Carla pressed her lips together and watched from a distance the figure approaching her, the one who dared to utter her true name.

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