The Villain Rising: Ascension of Arcane Trickster.-Chapter 208: The Light at the End of the Tunnel.

Within the elegant and luxurious banquet hall, a boy moved as if his body had memorized every step through sheer repetition.

He entered the venue... took a few drinks... and then fought the invading elves without making a single wrong move. Everything was flawless and mechanical.

He was Rael Von Ashborn, the so-called Arcane Trickster and the one who was supposed to always have a way out and yet... Even he was starting to feel anxious and hopeless now.

Why can’t I understand the pattern?

It was already his fiftieth loop in the same nightmare, watching the same scenes unfold and trying and failing to find a way to inject those dangerous memories into the Mind Harvester and end it.

He knew only a few hours must have passed in the outside world and to anyone else, that would have been comforting but to him... it was maddening because while the world barely moved forward, he was trapped inside this disorienting chamber of suffering, burning through his sanity loop after loop.

At least not all of that time had been wasted. He had finally figured out how the monster was keeping him in prime condition even after getting punched by an A-Ranker at the end of every loop.

It wasn’t giving him any special nutrients or healing him in the normal sense. Instead it was rewinding time on his body or something similar because no matter how long he stayed trapped inside the loops, every time the Mind Harvester "healed" him, the countdown of his terminal illness reset.

The countdown was exactly fifty two days when he had first entered the loop and even now after fifty loops it’s still the same.

That realization alone sent a chill down his spine.

Rael had no idea how that bastard was even capable of something like that. It wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the novel but then again... nobody had ever survived more than a single repetition. So of course no one had discovered it either.

Still, he could feel his sanity slowly chipping away by every loop.

The same events played out once again as Rael was punched by the elven mother and the space started folding right after but this time, he didn’t enter the Domain and stayed still as the monster thought he was unconscious due to the punch.

He wanted to see the exact pattern of how his memories were being extracted and to avoid falling unconscious even as the Domain collapsed, he used a trick.

Before, whenever he acted strangely, the monster would forcibly collapse mana and air around him to knock him out but now at the natural end of loop itself, the monster simply assumed the punch itself would be enough to make him unconscious.

That assumption... became his opening.

As the loops stacked one after another, Rael learned how to time his body perfectly. He started throwing himself backward a micro-second before the punch actually landed.

So when the fist finally connected, its impact was slightly weaker than before. It still hurt him like hell as his face still shattered with pain but at least he didn’t lose consciousness.

He shrugged the pain, clenched his teeth and stayed awake with his eyes closed as he could feel the feeling of worms crawling in his mind, as the memories started leaking out of his body naturally.

"Rael, are you alright?"

Ra’s concerned voice echoed in his mind. The poor spirit was doing everything he could to keep Rael anchored, talking to him constantly so he wouldn’t forget about the Domain... or about him.

’I am not fine,’ Rael replied bitterly. ’I am not even slightly alright. I can’t figure anything out. I can’t see the pattern. Should I just give up, Ra? Should I stop resisting and take the risk... say His name and annihilate this monster directly?’

For the first time in a long while, his confidence wavered and even his narcissism was cracking.

"We can’t do that, Rael..." Ra said quietly. "If you take His name, He will know everything about you. Your existence, your past, your future and your intentions... all of it."

A short pause followed.

"And even if you somehow survive the Mind Harvester... you won’t survive Him."

Rael knew it himself, that HE was countless times more dangerous than Mind Harvester could ever be but he just couldn’t think logically... still, he controlled his mind.

No...

I can’t die yet... at least not like this.

He steadied his breathing as the Mind Harvester began healing his body once again. A strange warmth spread through him, dense mana wrapping around his form like a blanket. It felt disgustingly comforting.

But after so many loops, he didn’t care about that anymore. Instead, he kept trying to study the pattern.

Fuck...

But even this time he couldn’t understand anything as the space restructured and he was back to the start of the loop.

—

A few more loops passed and Rael finally began to grasp a tiny fragment of the pattern... but it was useless as it wasn’t something he could exploit.

It was just another cruel hint that he was getting closer... without actually getting anywhere.

There were even a few loops in between this time where he completely lost himself. He started laughing like a madman and the moment that happened, the monster immediately collapsed the space again and again.

That insanity kept repeating for a few loops continuously. Every single one of them ended the instant it began as if the Mind Harvester itself didn’t want to deal with a mind that was already breaking.

Sometimes, tiny details changed like the dresses his friends wore and the way their hair fell. Sometimes even their faces looked... slightly off but none of it mattered.

All he could do... was keep acting.

’Ra... what number loop is this?’ He asked.

Ra didn’t answer but Rael already knew, he had crossed three digits some time ago... probably several loops back.

"Rael... are you okay?" Ra asked instead.

Rael let out a dry chuckle. ’How am I supposed to be fine?’

He was lying on the cold banquet floor, his body still numb from the fresh punch of the elf, his mind walking on the edge while trying to piece together the pattern.

But he could feel it now, he was painfully close to comprehending it now. There was just one last mana pattern missing and once he grasped it, he was sure that he would be able to consciously rearrange his own memories, alter their order and feed the Mind Harvester exactly what he wanted it to consume.

After surviving this long with the Mind Harvester, his mind had started evolving beyond what was normal. His understanding of the mind and the Domain had reached a completely different stage.

He had nearly spent years inside this loop and outside at most... five days might have passed but that time wasn’t wasted. Not entirely.

After the first few loops, his body had memorized everything so, every step, every movement and every reaction became unconscious. So he used the remaining awareness to learn.

The manipulation of mana, his affinity and even his cards. His understanding deepened with every repetition as he spent time self-reflecting.

His physical stats hadn’t skyrocketed, not with the monster constantly resetting his body but they hadn’t remained stagnant either, they had started getting adapted to the space.

He could now survive even the collapse after witnessing it many times. He could stay conscious for a few minutes in an environment without air or mana.

A high ranking person can survive without air but staying concentrated without mana in their body was impossible for most beings.

He hadn’t even checked his status window, yet he could feel it. The accumulation and the stacking of comprehension had strengthened all of his foundations.

Once he escaped this loop...

He was certain he could break through multiple minor realms in one go.

Just then, his crimson eyes, which had been dull and lifeless until now, suddenly lit up.

’Ra...’

He muttered inside his mind, his voice trembling with something dangerously close to excitement.

’I think I finally found the last piece of the puzzle.’

’I figured out how this space is influencing my mana... how it’s forcing my own memories to be ejected like some kind of foreign substance.’

A slow breath escaped him.

’It’s like the space is tampering with specific parts of my mind to trick my mental immunity into identifying my own memories as interference... as contamination.’

’And because of that... my mind itself tries to reject them.’

His lips curled slightly.

’That’s how it feeds.’ 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

’If I can just tweak my mana a few seconds before it interferes and adjust the parts where dormant memories are stored... I can make it devour those instead of only the fresh ones...’

"That’s great—" Ra’s voice rang out, filled with excitement.

But before he could even finish, something strange happened.

The moment Rael’s understanding of the Mind Domain reached completion, a bright, golden flash of light wrapped around his body like a divine signal.

The space trembled and then... Something appeared before him, radiating with an aura so pure and heavy that it made even his instincts scream.

The time itself came to a complete halt and for a few terrifying minutes, even the Mind Harvester stopped restructuring. Its endless process of collapse and rebuild froze as if something far above its authority had pressed pause.

The entire world lost its colors, fading into lifeless grayscale. Only one thing remained untouched.

The golden light.

Rael slowly lifted his gaze, his crimson eyes reflecting the golden light.

"...You’ve got to be kidding me."

—

Author’s note: This Chapter is written in third person not by choice, but to show that even Rael can lose his voice when hopelessness becomes absolute.