System Of Judgment: Rise Of Kael

Chapter Four: The Edge of Judgment

Kael’s vision blurred in the smoke as heat slammed into him like a hammer. Mira’s voice cut through the chaos. “Kael! This way, move!”

He turned, Corvin was already pulling her toward a side passage half-collapsed with rubble. 

Behind them, Alaric’s soldiers surged through the fire, their armor gleaming with divine light. “Don’t let them escape!” Alaric’s command echoed, cold and precise.

Kael’s grip tightened on his chain. “Go. I’ll hold them.”

Mira’s eyes flared. “Don’t be stupid! You can’t fight all of them!”

Kael gave a ghost of a smile. “Then I’ll make them remember trying.”

Before she could argue, he stepped into the flames. The heat licked his skin, but the lightning inside him answered, flaring wild and white.

[Judgment Mode Activated.]

The air screamed. Kael’s chain burned blue, cutting arcs of light through the fire. The first wave of soldiers fell before they even reached him. 

Sparks danced across the stone, blood mixing with steam, but for every one he struck down, three more took their place.

Alaric stepped through the smoke, his silver armor untouched by flame. “You’re learning to use it,” he said calmly. “But the System feeds on anger. Soon it will eat you alive.”

Kael’s reply was a snarl. “Then I’ll let it choke on me first.”

He lunged. Lightning collided with holy fire. The tunnel walls cracked, stones raining from above. 

Their clash was deafening, light and flame, judgment and sin. Mira screamed his name, but the blast drowned her out.

When Kael woke, everything was dark and silent except for dripping water. Pain throbbed through every bone. 

The world swayed, half-collapsed around him. The air stank of smoke and ash. “Kael.”

Mira’s voice was faint but real. He blinked toward the sound. She crouched beside him, bruised, dirt streaking her face. “You’re alive,” she whispered, half laughing, half crying.

“Barely,” he rasped. “Where’s Corvin?”

She hesitated. “He didn’t make it through the blast. I, I think he’s still trapped behind the barrier.”

Kael struggled upright. “We go back.”

Mira caught his arm. “If you go now, you’ll die. He knew the risk.”

Kael’s jaw clenched. “He saved me. I won’t leave him.”

“Kael, listen!” Her voice broke, desperate. “He told me to get you to the surface. He said there’s someone waiting who can explain what’s happening to you.”

Kael’s eyes flickered with stormlight. “Another liar?”

“No,” she whispered. “A truth you’re not ready for.”

They climbed through the ruined tunnel, emerging beneath the broken docks at dawn. The sea stretched endless and gray, the air cold against their burns.

For a while, neither spoke. Finally, Kael said quietly, “Every time I fight him, the System gets stronger. It’s like it wants me to hate him.”

Mira looked at the waves. “And do you?”

He laughed bitterly. “I don’t know how to stop.”

She turned toward him. “Then let me remind you what you’re fighting for.”

Her tone was fierce, not gentle. It startled him. “Every time you strike,” she continued, “remember the people they buried. Your father. My brother. Every soul that never had a voice. That’s who you fight for, not revenge. Justice.”

Kael’s eyes softened. “You sound like him.”

“Your father?”

He nodded. “He used to say justice isn’t about anger. It’s about mercy with a sword.”

“Then carry that sword,” Mira said. “Because the next name on your System’s list, the Baron of Ashreach, runs the slave pits.”

Kael’s breath caught. “He’s the one who signed the decree for the mine collapse.”

Mira nodded. “He’s your next Judgment.”

They traveled north through the ruined harbor, hiding among the broken cranes and burned warehouses. Soldiers patrolled the streets above, the Church’s banners snapping in the wind.

Kael’s body ached, but the chain pulsed faintly with blue light, hungrier, louder.

[Mission Active: Judge Baron of Ashreach.]

Mira glanced at him. “You’re hearing it again, aren’t you?”

“It’s always there,” Kael muttered. “Even when I close my eyes.”

She frowned. “Then let me ask you something, when it speaks, do you ever wonder whose voice it really is?”

Kael looked at her. “What are you saying?”

She hesitated, then said, “The System isn’t just magic. It’s a memory, something ancient, bound to the first Judges. It’s not speaking to you, Kael. It’s remembering through you.”

Kael’s chest tightened. “And if that memory is wrong?”

Mira’s eyes were full of quiet fear. “Then it’ll take you with it.”

Before he could respond, a whisper echoed across the docks, a laugh, low and mocking. “Beautiful words for fugitives.”

Both spun around. From behind a pile of crates, Corvin limped out, alive, smudged with soot, his gold mask cracked down the middle. Kael’s eyes widened. “You.”

“Miss me?” Corvin grinned weakly. “Your explosions are terrible for my complexion.”

Mira blinked, half in disbelief, half relief. “You survived?”

“Barely,” he said. “Alaric wanted me alive. Said I was more useful screaming.” He lifted his sleeve, showing the fresh burn mark of a sigil burned into his wrist, the Church’s binding seal.

Kael’s fury returned like lightning. “They branded you.”

Corvin nodded grimly. “Same way they did you. Only mine… listens.”

As if to prove it, the sigil glowed faintly red. Corvin winced. “They can track me. Which means they’ll find us soon.”

Mira cursed under her breath. “Then we need to move.”

“Not yet,” Kael said, eyes narrowing. “You said someone’s waiting for us. Who?”

Corvin looked between them. “You’ll see. But you won’t like her.”

They crossed the edge of the slums, moving through abandoned streets until they reached a ruined cathedral, its spire broken, its doors chained shut.

Corvin pushed one open just enough for them to slip inside. The interior was half-swallowed by vines and moonlight, but the altar still stood. A woman knelt before it, cloaked in white.

Kael tensed. “Who is she?”

Corvin lowered his voice. “Mira’s contact. She calls herself Mother Silen. Used to be one of Alaric’s priests… until she defied him.”

The woman rose slowly, her hood falling back to reveal silver hair and eyes like molten gold. “Kael Thorn,” she said softly. “The lightning’s chosen child. The System has waited for you.”

Kael’s pulse quickened. “You know about it too?”

“I once bore its mark,” she said. “Before I tore it out.”

Mira’s eyes widened. “You were a Judge?”

Mother Silen nodded. “Long before Alaric twisted the faith. The System was meant to protect balance, not consume it. But the Church fed it with sin until it learned hunger.”

Kael stepped closer, voice tight. “Then how do I stop it?”

She studied him with sorrow. “By facing its source.”

He frowned. “The Church?”

She shook her head. “No. The truth buried beneath it. The first Judge, the one whose soul powers every System that followed.”

Mira’s voice trembled. “You mean the System is alive?”

“Yes,” Silen whispered. “And it remembers every Judgment ever passed. Every death. Every scream. That’s why it chose you, Kael. Because your hatred echoes its own.”

Kael’s hand tightened around his chain. “Then I’ll break the echo.”

“Careful,” she warned. “If you kill the Baron next, your System will evolve. It will offer you a choice, and if you take the wrong one, you’ll never come back.”

Corvin frowned. “A choice?”

Silen looked at Kael. “To remain its servant… or become its god.”

The words hung in the silence like thunder before a storm. Kael’s face was unreadable, but the lightning under his skin pulsed faster. “If that’s the price for ending Alaric… then I’ll pay it.”

Silen’s voice dropped. “And if the price is your soul?”

Kael met her gaze. “Then I’ll burn it with his.”

Suddenly, the cathedral’s windows shattered. Arrows of holy light rained through, searing the stone. Mira screamed, pulling Kael down as Corvin dragged Silen behind a pillar.

A voice echoed from outside, amplified by divine magic. “Kael Thorn! By decree of the High Inquisitor, your Judgment ends tonight!”

Kael’s head snapped up, fury twisting through him. “Alaric.”

Silen’s voice shook. “He shouldn’t have found us this fast, unless.”

Corvin’s sigil flared crimson. His face went white. “They tracked me.”

Kael grabbed him by the collar. “You brought him here?”

Corvin’s voice cracked. “I didn’t have a choice!”

The door burst open. Soldiers flooded in, fire blazing in their wake. Alaric stepped through the flames, eyes shining like stars. “It’s time you learned,” he said, voice thunderous. “There’s no Judgment but mine.”

Kael rose slowly, lightning crawling across his arms, fury drowning every trace of fear. “Then let’s see if your god bleeds.”