The Villain Rising: Ascension of Arcane Trickster.-Chapter 219: Holes Are Truly The Enemy of Mankind.

After wandering through the treasury for a while, Vance finally arrived back at the Arbiter’s location.

Although the Arbiter could teleport people directly to him, doing so consumed a noticeable amount of his energy so unless it was absolutely necessary, he avoided it and instead, he gave everyone tracking artifacts, tools that always pointed back to his position.

As soon as Vance stepped into the chamber indicated by the artifact, he straightened his back unconsciously.

He wasn’t a nobody anymore after what had just happened, especially since he was acknowledged by someone who worked with Her.

His breathing steadied as he felt a faint sense of pride as for the first time since entering this world, Vance felt like he was standing on the edge of something very big.

With that feeling, he walked forward as he could feel the card Sir Orion had given him pulsing softly inside his pocket as he walked closer to the hooded man seated authoritatively on a chair, three others standing nearby.

The man wore his usual calm smile as he spoke to his subordinates.

Vance recognized two of them immediately.

A boy with red hair and green eyes, Aron and beside him, a girl with brown hair and gray eyes, Shila.

Those brats were younger than him, yet they never showed any respect and always looked down on him just because they had been ranked higher than him in the game and were stronger than him now.

Standing slightly apart from them was another woman, her face hidden behind a mask and her head covered by a hood. She was also a transmigrator but unlike the others, Vance knew nothing about her except that she called herself Nightowl and worked directly under the Arbiter as well.

"Why are you back so soon, iamlazy?" The Arbiter asked calmly. "Didn’t I order you to watch over the Mind Harvester?"

Fucker.

Vance resisted the urge to curse him out. The bastard sat here comfortably while ordering his subordinates around and to make it worse, he still called Vance by his old username, a name he had picked on a whim back then and deeply regretted now.

"I was watching over the Mind Harvester." Vance replied, keeping his tone steady. "But by the time I arrived, the monster had already been killed."

For the first time since Vance had arrived, the calm smile on the Arbiter’s face vanished as a cold expression replaced it with an immense wave of power which leaked out unconsciously.

"No... that can’t be." He muttered, disbelief seeping into his voice.

The others around him mirrored the shock.

"Nobody should be able to kill that Eldritch abomination." The Arbiter continued, his eyes narrowing. "Such creatures aren’t limited by ranks and even low-tier gods would struggle against it, especially inside this treasury. So how could it have been killed... and by whom?"

A smug smile appeared onto Vance’s face as he felt a surge of pride in knowing who had actually done it and even more pride in the fact that he had been personally offered a position under that very person.

His smile didn’t go unnoticed as the masked woman, Nightowl, tilted her head slightly. "Judging by that expression you seem to know something." Her voice was eerily neutral.

The Arbiter’s gaze snapped to Vance at once. "Who was it?"

Vance’s smile widened just a little as he straightened his posture. "He was one of us, Arbiter." Vance said confidently. "You might know him as Sir Orion."

He expected recognition, shock or maybe even respect. After all, if Orion truly worked with Her, then the Arbiter, who was clearly a subordinate in the hierarchy, should know that name as she should have informed him but instead of any of that, a crushing wave of pressure slammed down on Vance.

His knees nearly buckled.

"What are you talking about?" The Arbiter said, his voice so cold it felt like it could freeze lava itself. "There is no one in our ranks by that name."

The smugness on Vance’s face finally cracked.

"N–no, sir." He stammered. "There must be some misunderstanding. He knew about you and about Her as well. He said he worked directly with Her and that they were partners."

The temperature in the room suddenly lowered and in the next instant, the Arbiter vanished before he reappeared right in front of Vance, his hand clamped around his neck, lifting him clean off the ground.

"She is our only leader." The Arbiter said, his voice low and lethal. "No one is at her level and no one is above her."

Vance struggled, his fingers clawing uselessly at the grip as his heart pounded in fear and nervousness.

"So tell me..." The Arbiter continued coldly. "Who was it? What did he look like?" And did he say... anything important?"

The Arbiter released his grip around Vance’s neck as he fell onto the ground, gasping for air as he finally realized that whatever he had just met in the Divine Treasury... was something the Arbiter himself had never accounted for.

"H–he had cracked skin covered in dark yellowing fluid and white hair." Vance stammered, his voice trembling as he struggled to breathe for a few seconds. "His face was covered with a half clown mask... only his green eyes were visible."

The Arbiter meanwhile sat back on his chair, listening to the description carefully.

"He said he worked directly with Her and that he was ranked in single digits back in the game." Vance continued quickly. "He also said that he didn’t know much about you because you had never met."

"But he gave me something to give to you." Vance hurried to say something desperate. "He said you would know who he was and what to do once you see it."

"What is it?" The Arbiter asked, his voice controlled but tense.

The other three grew interested as well.

There weren’t many single-digit rankers among them, only the Arbiter himself, Her and Nightowl. So whatever a supposed single-digit ranker had entrusted to the Arbiter was bound to be important.

All of them looked at Vance as he walked toward the chair where the Arbiter stood, his hands trembling as he reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out a golden coloured card before extending it forward.

Aron, Shila, and Nightowl leaned in instinctively to see the golden card. It was beautiful and was etched with an image of a man kneeling before a full moon as the engraving seemed impossibly detailed and almost alive as the card itself emitted a faint mystical glow that pulsed softly.

The Arbiter stared at the card for a few seconds before slowly extending his fingers toward it as he felt no immediate danger except a very faint residual mana on its surface.

But as soon as his fingers made contact with the smooth gold card, the smile etched onto the kneeling man on it twisted and widened unnaturally before the moon on it flared and in the next instant, the card erupted in a blinding light.

BOOM!!!

A devastating explosion erupted through the chamber in an instant.

The Arbiter barely reacted in time, space warping as he teleported himself away at the very last moment while Nightowl vanished just as swiftly, her body dissolving into her own shadow as the blast spread over the area.

The others weren’t so fortunate.

Aron, standing closest to the Arbiter, was hurled backward like a discarded doll. His body slammed into the sharp, curved horn of a massive beast corpse he had personally slain earlier. The horn pierced straight through his neck, tearing his head off his body as his headless body twitched violently for a few seconds before finally going still.

Shila, who had been just behind Aron, had managed to put a shield in front of her but the shockwave threw her across the room as she crashed into a distant wall with a sickening crunch as bones shattered on impact and blood poured from her mouth as she collapsed, barely conscious but alive.

Vance was even worse as he had been handing the card. The explosion engulfed him directly as his right arm was completely blown away. Blood sprayed violently as he was thrown into the wall with crushing force. His body hit hard as his limbs twisted at impossible angles as he slid down the stone.

A wave of immense pain coursed through his body as he couldn’t do anything except feeling the pain as even breathing hurt but he was alive as well.

"FUCK!!!"

The Arbiter in the meanwhile cursed, two of his fingers which had barely touched the surface of the card were missing and one of his subordinates had died uselessly while other two were barely breathing.

Nightowl appeared from the shadows as well, her expression wasn’t much better either as she looked at the condition of her teammates.

The explosion wouldn’t have been a serious problem if they were outside the Divine Treasury as even their bare flesh could have endured it but inside the treasury where everyone was forcibly suppressed to mere D-Rank, that blast was more than enough to kill.

The Arbiter looked toward Nightowl, his expression far from calm. "Find him." He said coldly. "Find and bring the bastard responsible for this."

He understood it now. Whoever this Orion was, he wasn’t just another transmigrator, he was the one interfering with the plot and the one who had derailed events so badly that even the main characters had been dragged into the Divine Treasury ahead of schedule and if that wasn’t enough, he also seemed to have a knowledge of their existence.

The Arbiter had restrained himself before, waiting for Her orders but now, with one of his subordinates dead, the fury he had been suppressing finally came out.

"I will kill that bastard." He muttered, each word filled with murderous intent. "I will kill him in the most painful way possible."

He turned and walked toward his injured subordinates with an intent to heal them.

Meanwhile, Nightowl remained still for a moment before her body dissolved into shadow as she vanished to hunt down the man known as Orion.

—

Meanwhile, chilling in an empty chamber deep within the Divine Treasury, Rael let out a long satisfied sigh.

"Finally... I feel clean."

He glanced at the now-empty space where two out of three massive water barrels he received within the storage ring used to be. The filth from the Mind Harvester had been unnatural and one barrel had barely made a dent so a second one had been mandatory.

Once he was perfectly clean, he pulled out a fresh set of clothes from the storage ring and thankfully, from the looks of it, they were clearly unused... and clearly not his size.

"I guess beggars can’t be choosers."

At least he no longer smelled like dead meat roasted with suspicious Eldritch juices and that alone was a win.

After carefully burning all of his traces with his Arcane Jestfire which was now considerably easy to use with his new skill, his emerald eyes focused towards the exit of this chamber as a thought appeared in his mind.

"I hope my present was well received."

With that satisfied thought, Rael finally started moving as there was still a lot to do. He had to find the artifact he actually came here for and also gather around his unworthy friends before they got themselves into some useless trouble and died in the most embarrassing ways possible.

The moment he stepped out of the chamber, the entrance behind him disappeared immediately as a vast lobby stretched before him with four massive roads branched out in different directions but he wasn’t much surprised as he knew that, this was how this place worked.

He was just about to pick a direction when his eyes narrowed and he saw a crimson silhouette appearing into view from one of the paths.

"Bearlo..."

A genuine smile appeared on Rael’s face.

...only to instantly shatter.

Because standing right next to Bearlo was what Rael could only assume to be a female bear from how she carried herself. She had white fur and pristine white robes.

Rael’s eyes twitched.

"...This bastard."

His smile vanished, replaced by pure rage.

"This absolute bastard was busy romancing while I was fighting eldritch horrors and getting hunted by gods?"

He cracked his neck and started storming forward.

"BEARLO, YOU BASTAR—"

The world betrayed him again as without any warning, a massive hole opened beneath his feet. He didn’t even get to finish swearing before gravity with her unfiltered obsession with him, claimed him.

"WHAT THE FUCK—?!"

His voice echoed as he plummeted into darkness before the hole which he entered through closed completely.

—

Meanwhile... Bearlo suddenly stopped mid-step, his ears twitching as he turned his massive head, scanning the empty lobby behind them.

Bearlina tilted his head.

"Is something wrong, Bearlo?" He asked gently.

Bearlo frowned before shaking his head.

"...Nothing." He said slowly. "I thought I heard my liege."

Bearlina smiled warmly. "Perhaps you are just tired."

Bearlo nodded, reassured. "Yes... perhaps."

With that, he continued walking beside him as behind them, Old Bear Semo limped along, his body still half-broken after the important lesson about deceiving from Bearlo.