Path of the Unmentioned: The Missing Piece
Chapter 181: The One Who Started It All [5]

Chapter 181: The One Who Started It All [5]

The air exploded with a loud crack as Seris Voidcrest stepped out of her last portal. Her silver-white hair flowed behind her like a streak of moonlight.

The rift behind her shimmered and vanished, leaving her suspended midair. Her golden eyes glowing with cold fury.

She had crossed hundreds of miles to get here.

Solvayne Academy to Eldermere City wasn’t a short trip. Not even for her.

Five portals, each one tearing a scar through reality. The sound of each opening still rang faintly in her ears, like broken glass being crushed underfoot.

’How dare they.’

How dare someone target one of her students.

Her eyes swept the scene below.

Devastation.

The pavement was torn apart. Gaping cracks spider-webbed across the ground as if something monstrous had burst from underneath.

The ambulance was crushed and twisted, barely recognizable. The metal was bent inward. As if a giant had stepped on it.

Flickering flames spread over the wreckage. Broken glass glittered in the fading light, reflecting the pulsing red and blue emergency lights.

And at the center of it all. Two figures locked in a deadly standoff.

One stood tall. A hood drawn low over their face, a long blade of darkness in hand. They didn’t move. Didn’t speak. But their very presence seemed to draw sound away, like a void.

The other. A man in a black coat, dark hair tousled as if the wind had never left him. His black eyes gleamed with something between amusement and contempt.

The air around him twitched, distorted and alive with something... wrong.

A presence that made Seris’s skin crawl.

Demonic energy.

It clung to him like rot soaked in perfume. Thick. Suffocating. Hidden, but not well enough.

Seris didn’t ask questions.

She acted.

Her fingers flicked through the air, and space folded.

The fabric of the world twisted. Bending around the man like an invisible fist aiming to crush him where he stood.

He flinched back. Flickering away just as the distortion caught the edge of his coat. The fabric shredded, floating to the ground like torn leaves.

But Seris wasn’t done.

The hooded figure didn’t hesitate either. Their blade lashed out, darkness stretching forward in a sharp arc, aiming for the man’s throat. _{fre(e)webnove.l.c.om}

He moved fast.

Dark red energy surged from his arms, forming a shield just in time.

The blade struck with a boom.

A shockwave bursting outward, ripping through the broken remnants of a nearby hospital fence and sending debris flying.

Seris still in the air narrowed her eyes.

Her fingers twitched again, and a second distortion appeared beneath the man’s feet.

The ground imploded. Asphalt and concrete vanished in an instant. Sucked into a spinning hole of nothingness.

But he moved again. Flipping backward midair, his coat trailing like wings behind him. He landed lightly, untouched.

The hooded figure didn’t give him time to breathe. Darkness arced toward him again. Fast and sharp.

He parried with a flick of his hand. Red energy crashing into black in a burst of jagged light.

Seris’s voice rang out over the battlefield. Cool, sharp, and cutting through the chaos like a blade.

"Who are you?"

The man smiled, head tilting just slightly. "Now, now, Seris Voidcrest. Is that any way to greet a guest?"

Her eyes narrowed. "A guest doesn’t attack my students."

He laughed softly. "Ah, but I didn’t come for them."

His eyes gleamed.

"I just came for him."

’Him.’

Kyle.

The muscles in Seris’s jaw tightened.

"Are you a demon?" she asked, voice lower now.

The man gave a small, twisted grin. "Please. Don’t insult me by comparing me to those... things."

Then. He clapped his hands together.

The earth shook.

Roots burst from the ground. Thick, blackened, and pulsing with dark red light. They lashed out like whips, barbed and wild, flying toward both Seris and the hooded figure.

Seris didn’t blink.

She stepped up.

The air shimmered beneath her feet as she rose effortlessly. Space itself lifting her as though the world refused to let her fall.

She raised one hand, and the nearest roots shattered. Split apart midair as though they had been sliced by an invisible blade. Threads of warped space hummed around her fingers.

The hooded figure below was already a blur of motion. Their sword sweeping in wide, clean arcs.

Each strike cleaved through the attacking roots like they were made of paper, darkness spiraling outward with each swing.

It looked like they had the upper hand.

Until the roots glowed.

A deep, pulsing red.

Seris’s eyes widened a little.

The roots exploded.

A massive shockwave of dark red energy blasted through the air, shaking the ground and sending flames whipping sideways. The roar of the blast echoed through the empty streets, louder than thunder.

For a heartbeat, everything disappeared into smoke and dust.

But Seris had already raised her hand again.

A transparent bubble of folded space snapped into place around her. The blast smashed into it and rolled off harmlessly, like water against steel.

Below. The hooded figure, having already seen that attack once had raised their own defense. A dome of swirling darkness that drank in the explosion without cracking.

As the smoke cleared. Seris hovered above the battlefield, coat flapping around her, eyes locked on the man in the black coat.

He was still standing.

Smiling.

"Ray," he said, his voice echoing unnaturally through the air.

"Get me out of here."

A black-red portal tore open behind Vesper. It rippled like liquid, crackling with unstable energy.

Vesper flicked his hands again.

More roots burst from the ground. Thicker, faster, and more violent than before. They twisted wildly, thrashing in every direction. Attacking both the hooded figure and Seris.

Seris golden eyes glowed brighter. She clenched her jaw.

’No.’

She would not let him escape.

In a blink, she shot forward. Space itself bent around her.

She vanished and reappeared. Skipping through the folds in space, faster than normal eyes could follow.

Roots tried to grab her. Each one that came close imploded, crushed into itself by the pressure of her spatial magic.

The hooded figure lashed out with their blade. A powerful vertical strike of pure darkness, aimed right at Vesper.

Vesper raised a single hand.

Dark red energy flared around his fingers. And with a flick, he knocked the attack aside like it was nothing.

The hooded figure stumbled back. Even through the hood, their shock was clear.

But Vesper didn’t even blink.

Above him.

Seris’s hand snapped upward.

A massive, glowing sphere of purple mana appeared in the sky, swirling with power. It pulsed once, and dropped straight down.

It hit the ground where Vesper stood.

Everything vanished.

The roots, the dirt, the air itself. Erased. Gone without a trace. It was as if that part of the world had been deleted.

But Vesper wasn’t there.

His voice echoed through the air, smooth and calm.

"I’ll take my leave now, Seris Voidcrest. It was nice meeting you."

Seris’s eyes narrowed. Her hand clenched into a fist.

The glowing sphere collapsed, shrinking into nothing. The pressure vanished with it.

But the portal was already gone.

Only silence remained.

Seris stayed still, her breathing steady, her face unreadable.

The hooded figure didn’t move either.

Far away, faint at first, came the sound of sirens. Sharp and rising, growing louder.

Seris slowly lowered her hand. The glow in her eyes faded a little.

’That man escaped.’

But this was not over.

———