---
Chapter 4 — The Shattered Light
The morning came with a silence that felt wrong — heavy, unnatural, and suffocating. The sun rose sluggishly behind a veil of crimson clouds that bled across the sky, staining the quiet town below in shades of dying fire. It wasn't dawn. It was an omen.
Kael Riven sat at the edge of his mother's bed, his fingers trembling against the fabric of her blanket. He had spent the entire night awake, listening to her shallow breaths and praying to gods he no longer believed in. The candle beside her had long melted down to nothing, and the air was cold enough to make his breath visible.
His mother's illness had worsened. The fever had come without warning — one day she was strong enough to laugh with him by the riverside, and the next she could barely move. The town healer said it was a sickness of the blood, but Kael knew better. He had seen the signs — the same faint dark mist that sometimes clung to the shrine where he'd spilled his blood.
It had been weeks since that night in the forest. Weeks since the mark burned into his hand. He had tried to ignore it, to live normally again, to be the quiet, kind boy his mother raised. But every time he closed his eyes, he could hear the voice — low, patient, and cruel.
> "You're chosen, Kael Riven. You cannot escape me."
He didn't tell anyone. Not even his mother. Especially not her.
Now, as she lay there, her skin pale and cold, her eyes fluttered open weakly. "Kael…" she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath. "You've been crying again, haven't you?"
He quickly looked away, wiping his tears with the back of his hand. "No, Mom. I'm just… tired."
She smiled faintly, and that simple gesture broke him more than any wound could. "You've always been strong," she said softly. "But strength isn't just fighting back… sometimes it's knowing when to forgive."
Kael swallowed hard, trying to hold himself together. "You'll be fine. I'll find help. I promise."
She reached for his hand — the one with the mark — and when her fingers brushed it, the sigil glowed faintly beneath his skin. She didn't notice, but he did. The light pulsed once… twice… like a heartbeat.
"Promise me something, Kael," she said quietly. "No matter what happens, don't lose the kindness in your heart. The world is full of monsters. Don't become one trying to fight them."
He wanted to answer, but his throat felt locked. He just nodded and held her hand tighter.
Then her breathing changed. It grew faster… then slower… then halted altogether.
"Mom?"
No response.
"Mom!"
Kael shook her shoulder gently at first, then harder, panic flooding through him. Her body went still. Her chest didn't rise again. The room suddenly felt colder, darker, emptier than it had ever been.
He screamed.
"PLEASE! Don't leave me! Please, I'll do anything!"
And that was when it happened.
The mark on his hand ignited in a burst of red light, casting shadows across the walls. The air rippled, vibrating with an otherworldly hum. From the far corner of the room, darkness began to swirl — thick and alive, like smoke rising from a dying fire. The temperature dropped sharply. The candle flames died, and the window cracked under invisible pressure.
Then a voice echoed — deep, resonant, and cold enough to freeze the blood in his veins.
> "You call for me again, child of flesh."
Kael's heart stopped. "You… you—"
The figure took form — tall, cloaked in shadows that flickered with embers. Its eyes burned like molten iron, and its grin was a crescent of razors.
> "You beg for life," the Devil said, his voice a twisted echo of calm amusement. "And yet you offer none in return."
Kael trembled, tears streaking down his face. "Take me! Please—take me instead! Just bring her back!"
The Devil chuckled, a sound that made the air vibrate. "You misunderstand, my vessel. Your life no longer belongs to you. You were marked the moment your blood touched my seal. You are mine — body, soul, and wrath."
Kael's breath came in ragged gasps. The mark on his hand spread up his arm like molten fire, etching glowing veins of red through his flesh. Pain unlike anything he'd felt before ripped through his chest.
He screamed — not from fear, but from loss.
"WHY HER?! She was all I had!"
The Devil's smile widened. "Because love is the purest thing to destroy. Only through pain can the Punisher rise."
Kael fell to his knees as the mark reached his heart. The world around him blurred. His body trembled violently, bones cracking, skin splitting with radiant crimson light. Then, with a sound like thunder tearing through the heavens, something burst from his back — massive, blood-red wings with feathers that shimmered like fire.
He gasped as they spread wide, filling the room with an infernal glow. His once gentle eyes burned with twin circles of orange and gold.
The Devil leaned closer, whispering into his mind.
> "Grieve no longer, Kael Riven. From this day forth, you are The Punisher. You will judge the wicked. You will destroy corruption. And when the world cries out for mercy…"
The voice paused, echoing like a promise carved in flame.
> "…You will not answer."
The room erupted in flames. The wooden walls cracked and burned, yet Kael stood untouched in the inferno. His mother's lifeless body lay on the bed, peaceful in the blaze, and he fell to his knees beside her.
For a moment, the boy within him wept. Then, as the roof caved in and the fire consumed everything he loved, his tears dried. His heart hardened into something unbreakable.
By the time the villagers came running, it was too late. All they saw was a figure with crimson wings standing in the ashes — eyes glowing like the sun, fire swirling around him.
And as the smoke rose into the blood-red dawn, Kael Riven whispered to the sky, voice trembling with rage and sorrow:
"Mother… I swear… I'll make them all pay."
And from somewhere deep within him, the Devil laughed.
---
TO BE CONTINUED