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Chapter 8 — The Devil's Whisper
The fire had died, but the world was still burning.
Kael walked alone across the wasteland where the City of Ashes once stood. The ground was glass beneath his boots — cracked and shimmering with the faint reflection of his red angel wings. The air reeked of iron and death. Above him, the clouds moved like slow, bleeding hearts.
Each step echoed too loud.
Each breath felt borrowed.
He had won. He had destroyed Azrael.
But victory tasted like ash.
His mother's voice still haunted him — soft, fading.
> "My little star… promise me you'll stay kind."
Kael laughed bitterly, his voice trembling. "Kindness is dead, Mom. You saw it burn."
But then, beneath the sound of his own words, something else answered — faint, overlapping whispers carried on the wind.
At first, they were just noise. Then they began to speak.
> "Murderer…"
"Savior…"
"Child of the curse…"
Kael spun around, gripping his scythe. The horizon shifted. The faces of the souls he had slain shimmered in the air like heat mirages — men, demons, and even Azrael. Their eyes glowed hollow white.
"Get out of my head!" Kael shouted. His wings flared, casting embers into the mist.
But the voices grew louder, crawling into his mind.
> "You're not human."
"You belong to him."
"He whispers because you listen."
Kael dropped to his knees, clutching his temples. "SHUT UP!"
The wind stopped.
The world went silent.
Then came the voice — deep, smooth, cruelly familiar.
> "Why silence them, Kael?" the Devil whispered. "They only speak truth."
Kael's pulse spiked. "Leave me alone."
> "You call that alone?" the Devil laughed. "You carry me inside you, boy. Your power, your pain, your fire — all mine."
Kael rose, eyes burning with red light. "I don't need you."
> "Oh, but you do. You think you control the flame, yet every spark answers to me."
The Devil's presence coiled behind him like smoke forming a shadow with horns and eyes of embers. Kael refused to turn.
> "You think yourself a hero?" the Devil continued. "You think vengeance will bring her back?"
Kael's voice broke. "It's all I have left."
The Devil chuckled. "Exactly. That's why you'll never let go."
For a moment, Kael almost believed him. His wings dimmed, his strength fading. The glow in his veins faltered — until a flash of white split the darkness.
A single feather fell from the sky — radiant, pure, untouched by flame.
Kael looked up.
A man floated above him, clad in white armor etched with light. His eyes were calm, yet endless — eyes that had seen eternity itself. His hair shimmered like silver fire.
"Kael Riven," he said softly. "Your soul is crying."
Kael staggered back, squinting. "Who are you?"
> "Seraphion," the angel answered, wings unfolding in a blaze of light. "Sent by the Watchers to cleanse what the Devil has corrupted."
The Devil hissed inside Kael's mind.
> "Do not listen. He is a liar — a chain disguised as light."
Seraphion's gaze fell on Kael's mark — the burning sigil on his hand. "That seal feeds on your hatred. Every soul you punish strengthens him."
Kael gritted his teeth. "Then what do you want from me?"
> "Your choice," Seraphion said. "To be his weapon… or to be human again."
Kael almost laughed. "Human? You think that's still possible?"
The angel's expression softened. "Even fallen stars can rise again."
For a moment, Kael saw it — the version of himself he used to be. The boy who smiled. The son who brought his mother flowers. The dreamer who believed in light.
But then, the laughter returned.
The Devil's laughter.
> "Tell him the truth, angel. Tell him what red wings mean."
Seraphion's face tightened. "The mark of a fallen seraph. A soul claimed by both heaven and hell. You were chosen, Kael… because you are the bridge between them."
Kael's pulse thundered. "A bridge?"
> "A weapon," the Devil whispered. "A Punisher born of mercy and wrath."
The air split in two — one side blinding white, the other bleeding red. Kael's body convulsed, caught between the two forces. His veins glowed, alternating between gold and scarlet light.
"STOP IT!" Kael roared. His wings exploded outward — one half pure crimson, the other flickering white. The ground beneath him shattered, and the sky screamed with lightning.
Seraphion shielded his face. "You must choose!"
"I can't!" Kael shouted. "I just want her back!"
The Devil's voice turned low and tender.
> "Then burn the world for her."
Seraphion's reply was soft, sorrowful.
> "And lose your soul forever."
Kael's breath came in shudders. The voices of the dead returned, whispering, begging, accusing. He fell to his knees again, wings trembling.
The Devil and the Angel both reached out their hands.
> "Choose vengeance."
"Choose redemption."
Kael screamed.
The world exploded in red light.
When the dust settled, Seraphion was gone — vanished in a burst of white feathers that rained down like snow. Kael stood alone in the crater, his body scorched, his eyes glowing faintly gold and red — both sides of him now fully awakened.
His red angel wings folded behind him, dark at the edges, flickering with hellfire.
He whispered into the smoke:
"I didn't choose either of you."
Then he raised his scythe and walked away, his shadow stretching across the dying land.
> And far below, in the pit of the underworld, the Devil laughed.
"So be it, Kael Riven. You will forge your own path — and damnation will follow."
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TO BE CONTINUED