The Academy’s Weapon Replicator

“Ha! What did you expect, you idiot!”

The antidote Dier found was already stuck in Angus's body.

It was a device that automatically injected the antidote in case someone injected him with the mana serum.

The antidote in this device could never be opened without knowing the password.

“Hahaha! Did you think I would have a spare antidote? I predicted that bastards like you would threaten me with that kind of mana injection and prepared the antidote in advance! Even if I die, my mission will continue! Hahahahaha!!”

At Angus's mad laughter, Dier's eyes twitched.

Indeed, Dier had no answer to what to do with the mana injections that had already been spread. The important thing right now was to detoxify Ellen and himself, but there must be many more people who had been injected with this serum.

Distribute the antidote to all of them and completely stop the research on mana injections here.

Would that be possible?

Angus shouted and spread his palm. His hand was strange. A small button-like thing was embedded in the center of his palm.

It was a button just as it looked.

As Angus pressed the button on his palm with his thumb, a loud emergency alarm rang throughout the laboratory.

“Aaaaagh!!”

“T-the guy escaped! The d-door! Ugh!”

Suddenly, screams echoed through the laboratory. Hearing those screams, Ellen and Dier's expressions hardened.

“……That mana, it's not normal.”

“I know.”

Dier nodded at Ellen's words.

They now felt a tremendous amount of mana from a short distance away. It wasn't just a matter of quantity. An amount of mana that couldn't possibly be contained within one person was mixing and swelling up uncontrollably.

“……The prototype.”

“Prototype?”

“Yes. The test subject who has been continuously injected with the serum full of side effects since the beginning of this research. A guinea pig who has been repeatedly injected, treated, and injected again. I almost became like that.”

Ellen spoke calmly, but Dier knew how terrifying that was.

But there was no more time to talk.

It wasn't just the prototype who had opened the door.

“Ugh, ugh……”

“Kugh……”

People with awkward gaits appeared from all sides.

All of them had bloodshot eyes, rough breathing, flushed faces, and seemed to be in a state of excitement.

“……These people were also imprisoned.”

“Yes. It seems they've been imprisoned for a long time because of the side effects. They would have been destined to be eaten by monsters if left like this.”

As Ellen said, these were the people who had suffered when the side effects of the mana injection were still severe.

The symptoms were more severe than the current mana injection, and most of them were dangerous individuals with little consciousness and only the desire to unleash uncontrollable mana.

“……Senior Ellen.”

“Yes.”

“Can you kill these people?”

Dier asked the most concerning question, and Ellen flinched as if her secret had been discovered.

“……It will be difficult.”

The people with a tremendous amount of mana in their bodies were slowly approaching them.

Moreover, it was impossible for Ellen to kill victims, not even criminals. It was the same for Dier.

“They seem to want to kill us.”

“……That's right.”

“But you still can't kill them?”

“Can you kill them?”

“No.”

It was a meaningless question and answer.

Meanwhile, the shadow of death gradually closed in around them.

Dier and Ellen stood back to back and scanned their surroundings.

“We need to knock them unconscious, minimizing injuries as much as possible.”

The moment Dier uttered those desperate words, the people injected with the mana serum simultaneously attacked them.

They couldn't push them back with the clumsy force modulation of trying to knock them unconscious. The moment Ellen and Dier made some kind of resolve.

Bang!

A black wall pushed them away, surrounding Ellen and Dier.

Ellen and Dier immediately recognized the owner of this black wall.

“Frondier!”

“Sloth, Senior Frondier!”

Thump!

Frondier punched Dier on the head.

“Sorry. It was deeper than I thought.”

Frondier, after hitting him on the head, spoke to Ellen without a word to Dier.

Dier held his head and trembled.

“Why couldn't I dodge it with my dynamic vision……”

He just muttered to himself.

“Frondier, are you going to kill those people?”

“If there's no other solution, I will.”

Frondier said.

“——That side effect, it's caused by different types of mana colliding, right?”

Frondier, saying that, was somehow eerie.

“Then there's something I want to try.”