Path of the Unmentioned: The Missing Piece Chapter 180: The One Who Started It All [4]

The wall burst apart as Vesper smashed through it.

Plaster and broken pieces flew everywhere. Dust filled the air. Lit by the faint, flickering glow of ergency lights.

Vesper landed in a crouch. His long black coat flaring around him. His dark eyes gleaming with sothing between amusent and irritation.

Then, the hooded figure moved.

A blade of pure darkness cut through the air, silent as a shadow, aid straight for Vesper’s throat.

Vesper twisted at the last second. His hand snapping up.

Dark red mana erupted from his fingertips, colliding with the inky slash in a burst of violent energy.

The shockwave ripped through the room.

Kyle, still on his knees. Barely had ti to react before a do of darkness flared around him, shielding him from the blast.

The pressure rattled against the barrier, but inside. The air was still. Silent.

Zalrielle’s voice hissed in his mind. "Who the hell is that?"

Kyle didn’t answer. His fingers dug into the floor. His breath coming in sharp, uneven gasps.

His body still ached from the vines. But his eyes stayed locked on the fight.

Vesper and the hooded figure clashed again.

Darkness t crimson. Two opposing forces tearing at each other like wild beasts.

The hooded figure moved with eerie precision. Their sword flickering like a living shadow, each strike precise, lethal.

Vesper, looked annoyed. His usual smirk was gone. Replaced by a sharp, calculating glare.

Then—

The floor ruptured.

Tiles split apart like brittle bone. Jagged cracks racing across the hospital room as thick, gnarled roots exploded upward.

They moved like living things twisting, coiling, their bark-like surfaces glistening with unnatural moisture.

One snaked around Vesper’s ankle, thorns biting deep into his boot. Another lashed toward the hooded figure’s wrist. Barbed tendrils seeking flesh.

Neither flinched.

Vesper’s hand ca down in a sharp arc. Dark red energy flaring along his fingertips.

The root around his leg sizzled. Then fell away in two clean pieces, oozing black sap.

Across from him. The hooded figure didn’t even pause mid-step.

Their shadowed blade flickered once, and the roots around them disintegrated, collapsing into dozens of lifeless segnts that thudded wetly against the broken floor.

The air reeked of crushed vegetation and sothing fouler. Like rotting at left too long in damp soil.

And then—

Seraphina arrived.

The door didn’t open. It imploded, shattering inward in a hail of splintered wood and twisted tal.

Seraphina stood frad in the wreckage, her pink eyes burning. Her white coat was immaculate, untouched by the destruction. but her expression—

Kyle had never seen her like this.

Her gaze swept the room in an instant.

Kyle, still on his knees inside that protective do of darkness. His fingers digging into the cracked tile.

The hooded figure. Their blade still dripping with remnants of severed roots.

Then finally, to Vesper

Understanding flashed in her eyes. The hooded figure wasn’t the threat.

Vesper was.

Her nose wrinkled as the scent hit her. Thick, cloying, wrong. Demonic scent. Like rot hidden beneath perfu.

"You," she said, and her voice was soft. Deadly. The kind of quiet that ca before hurricanes. "Who are you?"

Vesper’s lips curled. Not a smile. The baring of teeth.

Then...

He moved.

Not toward her.

Toward escape.

In one fluid motion. He pivoted, his coat whipping around him as he lunged for the shattered window.

The hooded figure was already in motion, blade flashing. But Vesper was faster.

He jumped.

Straight out the tenth-story window.

The hooded figure didn’t hesitate. They followed.

Silent and weightless.

And then—

They were gone.

——

Wind scread past Vesper’s ears as he fell. The city lights below blurring into streaks of gold and white.

The hooded figure fell with him. A shadow against the dark sky. Their blade gleaming like a shard of the void itself.

Vesper twisted midair. His coat billowing around him. His hand snapped out—

A pulse of dark red mana erupted beneath him. A rippling shield of energy that cushioned his fall just enough.

The hooded figure didn’t bother with such tricks.

They landed.

Not with a crash, but with eerie, unnatural silence. The concrete beneath their feet didn’t crack.

It darkened.

The pavent blackening in a perfect circle around them as if the very ground recoiled from their presence.

Vesper touched down a second later. His boots scraping against the asphalt.

For a heartbeat. They just stared at each other across the empty street.

Then—

Vesper smirked.

"You’re wasting your ti," he called, his voice carrying over the distant wail of sirens. The first responders would be here soon. "This is the only way forward."

The hooded figure didn’t respond.

They just raised their blade.

——

[10th floor — Elderre Hospital]

Silence.

Kyle’s hands shook as the do of darkness dissolved around him. Leaving him kneeling in the wreckage.

His breath ca too fast, his pulse a deafening drumbeat in his ears.

The room spun...

Tilted...

Seraphina was at his side in an instant. Her fingers gripping his shoulder.

"Kyle..."

He didn’t hear the rest.

The world tilted.

And then...

Black.

———

[Ground Floor — Elderre Hospital]

The hospital’s ground floor was in pandemonium.

People scread, scrambling over overturned chairs and shattered glass as the echoes of explosions rumbled through the building.

A nurse dropped a tray of supplies. The tallic clatter drowned out by the blaring fire alarm.

An elderly man clutched his chest as he was half-carried out by two orderlies. His face pale with terror.

People were frozen in fear. Their eyes darting toward the ceiling as another tremor shook the walls. Dust rained from the cracks in the plaster.

Outside.

The night air was thick with the scent of smoke and ozone.

Hodded figure and Vesper looked at each other.

No words were exchanged.

Vesper moved first and slashed downward, sending a crescent wave of corrupted mana screaming toward the hooded figure.

The attack carved deep grooves in the asphalt as it traveled, sending up sprays of shattered pavent.

The hooded figure didn’t dodge. They raised their blade, and the darkness ca alive.

The inky sword seed to drink in the night itself, growing larger, heavier, until it t Vesper’s attack head-on.

The collision sent shockwaves rippling outward, shattering every remaining window in the hospital’s lower floors.

Before the dust could settle. The hooded figure was moving.

Their sword arced through the air, leaving behind a trail of inky blackness that lingered like smoke.

Vesper sidestepped. But the attack wasn’t ant to hit him. It was a feint.

The mont his weight shifted. The hooded figure twisted, their free hand slamming into the ground.

Darkness erupted from the pavent in jagged spikes, shooting toward Vesper like spears.

He reacted instantly.

His hands flicked outward. And from the earth beneath him, twisted roots burst forth. Thick, gnarled things pulsing with dark red energy.

They lashed out like whips, intercepting the spikes of shadow mid-air.

The two forces collided with a sound like shattering glass.

For a second, nothing happened.

Then...

The roots detonated.

A shockwave of corrupted energy ripped outward, sending chunks of asphalt flying.

The hooded figure was forced back. Their form flickering as they braced against the blast.

Vesper didn’t wait.

He closed the distance in an instant. His leg snapping up in a brutal kick wrapped in dark red mana.

The hooded figure barely had ti to react.

Darkness pooled around their stomach at the last second, forming a crude shield. But the force of the blow still sent them flying.

They crashed through a parked ambulance. The tal crumpling like paper. The vehicle skidded sideways.

Then a concrete bench. Then finally skidding to a stop ters away. They landed on one knee. Darkness swirling around them like a living thing, cushioning the impact.

Silence.

Then—

A shift in the shadows.

The hooded figure rose from the wreckage, their cloak torn but their stance unwavering.

They dropped into a low crouch, their blade held at the ready.

Vesper smirked.

"Persistent, aren’t you?"

The hooded figure didn’t answer.

They didn’t need to.

Suddenly...

Both of their heads snapped up at the sa ti.

A ripple tore through the air.

Vesper’s smirked.

"Looks like soone very annoying is coming."

The space in front of them split.

The air ripped open with a jagged tear. Pulsing with a cold, silver glow.

Then...

Seris Voidcrest erged.

She floated above the ground. Her silver-white hair swaying as if underwater. Her golden eyes burned so fiercely the air itself seed to shudder.

No words.

None were needed.

Her gaze landed first on the hooded figure. Then snapped to Vesper.

Suddenly,

A thunderous crack split the air.

Seris struck. Her hand swept upward in a smooth, deadly motion.

The space around Vesper twisted violently. Collapsing inward like a crushing fist.

He barely dodged. His body flickering as the attack grazed past him...

Only for the hooded figure’s sword to slam down toward him with brutal force.

Vesper crossed his arms, dark red energy flaring into a last-second shield.

The clash sent a shockwave exploding outward, flattening the last of the hospital’s broken fence.

As the dust settled.

The three fighters steadied themselves...

———