The Villain Rising: Ascension of Arcane Trickster.-Chapter 211: The Silent Reaper Walks Toward Her Anchor.

Somewhere else within the treasury, a pure white-haired girl slaughtered monsters without end, her scythe tearing through even space itself, sending waves of black-red lightning crackling through the air.

Arza had been trapped in a chamber devoid of sound and light ever since they were teleported into the divine treasury after being captured by the elves.

Her hands never stopped moving as one monster after another fell, cut down with inhuman precision, even though she shouldn’t have been able to see anything at all.

In just a week of being trapped there, she had already reached the peak of D-Rank as somehow the space helped her accumulate mana as she killed the monsters

A normal person would have gone insane, locked in such isolation for so long but Arza, who barely possessed emotions to begin with, felt none of that. Especially when she still had a massive supply of chocolates provided by Rael.

As she slashed yet another shadowy monster that attacked her from the side, a ding echoed through the empty space and she finally slumped onto the ground.

That sound marked an interval.

Every time it rang, the monsters stopped spawning for half an hour and more importantly... it was the only thing she could follow in this endless darkness.

Each time the sound echoed, she traced its direction and walked toward it, hoping to find her way out. From the way its intensity changed, she could tell she was slowly getting closer.

And there was nothing else for her to do here anyway.

No matter how many monsters she killed, she didn’t grow any further in rank after reaching the peak of D-Rank, it was as if that was the limit of the growth allowed here.

"Status."

She muttered but no sound came out in that silent space as the void only ever allowed the ding sound to exist and yet, the system answered her.

A status window appeared before her eyes, its soft red glow cutting through the darkness like a quiet resistance against the emptiness around her.

—●『STATUS INTERFACE』●—

『Name』 → Arza Ashen Noctharion

『Classification』 → ????? Demon Variant.

『Rank』 → D+

『Core』 → Steel Core

『Core Affinity』 → ????, Death.

『Nexus』 → World-???▯▯ ▯Ɇ??▯Ň▯, the ??▯Ř?Ň▯?

『Nexus Potential』 → Cannot be determined.

『Flaw』 → Cannot be determined.

『Stat Matrix』

 ∟ STR → D+

 ∟ AGI → D

 ∟ VIT → S+

 ∟ END → B

 ∟ INT → C-

 ∟ WILL → —

 ∟ LUCK → —

 ∟ CHARM → SSS+

***

『Mana Reserve』 → 15000 / 15000

『Martial Technique』 → None.

『Registered Skills』 → [Click to Expand]

『Class Quest』 → [!!!!!]

—●『STATUS CLOSED』●—

There wasn’t much change in her status window aside from a few increases in her stats and mana but still, her senses felt sharper, clearer and more refined than before.

She closed the window without giving it much thought and pulled out a chocolate bar from her storage ring.

Calmly, she ate it while catching her breath after the endless slaughter and then, a certain face surfaced in her mind.

Rael...

I wonder what he is doing?

The thought came uninvited and with it, a strange sensation stirred in her chest. She didn’t understand why but every time she thought about him... everytime she was with him, the same unfamiliar feeling rose within her.

It had barely been a month and a half since she had met him... So why did he already feel so familiar?

She even considered that it might be an effect of her engagement with him, caused by the artifact that had bound them together for life... but she couldn’t sense any such effect from it. More importantly, no psychological skill should have been able to work on her in the first place, so that explanation made no sense either.

Lost in her thoughts, she finished the chocolate in her hand without realizing it. Carefully, she folded the wrapper and placed it into her pocket before checking how many had left.

There were many more in her storage ring, yet only one thought surfaced in her mind.

I need more... I need to find him.

It was unclear whether she truly wanted more chocolate... or if she simply wanted to see him as the answer to that was unknown even to her.

She lifted herself and began walking in the direction she had traced earlier from the sound... and soon enough, she finally saw it.

A golden ray of light pierced through the darkness, illuminating a particular area as a lone door stood in the centre.

Is that... an exit?

She moved toward it, her steps steady as no monsters appeared, even though more than half an hour had already passed.

The space was no longer completely dark as she got closer to the door.

The glow from the door spread a soft golden light around, pushing the shadows back but just as she was about to reach the glowing door—

A screech tore through the silence.

SCREEEEENCH!!

[Your Skill: Eyes of the ??▯Ř?Ň▯? Has resisted the effects of the Illusion.]

A massive beast appeared before her, its body covered entirely in countless eyes as they shifted unnaturally, one by one, until every single one of them focused on her.

Countless slimy tentacles hung loosely from its body as a distorted sound echoed from it.

"A candle?"

The voice was deep and mature at first... before abruptly shifting into a childish tone.

"My candle... it’s my candle."

The sound was wrong and unnatural but Arza didn’t care. She just tightened her grip on her scythe and prepared to attack.

Her body shifted into a slithering motion and in an instant, her serpentine eyes flashed as she appeared right behind the monster.

Dark-red lightning wrapped around her scythe as she slashed toward its neck but a tentacle intercepted her strike, getting severed in its place.

"Ouch, ouch, it hurts, daddy, it hurts."

A strange, twisted cry echoed from the cut tentacle before it vanished into nothingness. It was the kind of sound that would make most people hesitate.

But Arza felt nothing.

The monster itself didn’t seem overwhelmingly powerful but every time a part of it was cut, it screamed in different voices, shifting tones and emotions as if trying to make its enemies falter.

The monster was a psychological Eldritch type being, something that could deceive ordinary people, making them think they were in a peaceful world surrounded by angels as soon as they appeared anywhere near the glowing door before reaping lives of its prey.

But such tricks meant nothing to Arza as she could see its true form as easily as breathing.

Within a mere few minutes, she was done with the monster as she stood on its now dead corpse, still twitching and crying out in different voices... still trying to deceive her.

Her scythe was wrapped in dense mana as she attacked without even a flicker of hesitation, slicing through the threads that bound the souls inside the monster.

For a brief instant, those trapped within were allowed to breathe... before being completely annihilated.

The moment the beast fell, the door before her opened as she left without looking back, the ring on her finger glowing faintly as it guided her toward Rael’s location.

She knew he wasn’t dead from the fact, she herself hadn’t died. After all, the artifact ring from her engagement ceremony did bound them until death parts them.

With those thoughts, she started walking toward him.