Orion was still in awe at how much success he had had so far as he stared at the headless body of the horse rider he had just killed. He had gone into battle outnumbered and out-experienced, and he had reduced the odds without taking any damage. He was still feeling proud of himself and the training he had received from his father and Lord Brian when he heard the sound of something cutting through the air like hot knife through butter. He quickly gave in to his instincts and jumped out of the way.
He successfully dodged the fireball, but it exploded and the force of the explosion flung him into the stream which was now so hot that it was only a few degrees away from being boiling water.
Orion groaned as he tried to get up to his feet. He clenched the spiked mace in his left hand and drew slow but deep breaths, trying to balance out the blood flow in his body and reduce the pains he was suddenly feeling.
"What in the world are you?" Orion strained to say, feeling blood flowing down the side of his head.
The leader of the four horsemen jumped down from his horse and walked into the calm stream.
"I should ask you the same, son," the man said and looked at the spot where Orion had killed his comrade. There was nothing there anymore, the body and the rock had been burnt to ash and carried away by the stream, but he had watched a young boy kill his men with a lot of risk and luck, but still, the fact remained that the young lad standing before him had killed three of his best men.
"Who are you?" the man asked. "You are not affected by the despair waves, you are able to fight back and defeat three of my lieutenants like they were children? You are not a normal one are you?" the leader asked Orion.
Orion could feel his chest burning with each breath he took, but he knew he couldn't back down now. He had come too far to give up.
'Besides, if I am able to get him to fear me, he just might back down,' Orion thought to himself and began to cook up a bluff.
For one, Orion could tell that the man before him was different from the rest. He wasn't someone Orion could beat even without any injuries, but Orion was injured and he felt like he could lose consciousness at any time. He couldn't afford to fight.
"I don't think you need me to give you the answer to that," Orion replied, making sure that he sounded and looked as confident as possible.
"You are him aren't you?" the last horseman replied. "You are the Chosen Son of Order, aren't you?"
Orion smiled internally, noticing that the horseman spoke with a tone of reverence.
"Yes, yes I am," Orion replied succinctly.
A smile slowly crawled onto his face as the horseman slowly went down on his knee, as if he was in the presence of his King.
"It is an honor to meet you, Son of Order," the horseman said with his head bowed.
"Never in a million years would I have dreamt that I would be given the opportunity to not only see you, but watch you fight, and above all, I never would have imagined that I would get the opportunity to take your head back to my master," he said and looked up at Orion.
Orion's eyes widened in shock and confusion as his peace left him. The man he thought was starting to fear him had just said he would be serving his head to someone.
Orion was not sure he had heard well, but he didn't need the horseman to repeat himself as the bloodlust in the man's eyes told the full story, the horseman was going to kill him.
The water underneath the horseman's feet exploded as he took off, shooting at Orion in the blink of an eye. He threw a punch at the lad, but the young Lord was just fast enough to keep up, as he quickly raised his mace to block the punch, but the force of the hit sent him tumbling down the stream.
"Hmmph, you are strong, Son of Order. You really are strong. You are not a disappointment at all," the horseman laughed maniacally and shot at Orion again with a double punch this time. Orion was only able to dodge the first punch, but the second fist sent the young lad tumbling further downstream, coughing up blood.
"You didn't block that?" The horseman stopped and looked at his left fist, a bit surprised.
"I guess you are not as powerful as I thought. But regardless, you are the Chosen Son of Order, your head will be returning with me to my master," he said and shot at Orion again.
Orion's eyes darted around, trying to keep up with the horseman, but he was moving randomly in a zigzag pattern and he was moving so fast that Orion couldn't see him. All he saw were blur lines, moving haphazardly, coming towards him.
He quickly made a prediction and raised the mace to shield his face, and he was right as the horseman's fist shot for his face, but his fingers slammed into the spikes of the mace.
Orion had blocked the blow, but the force still sent him tumbling further downstream.
The horseman looked at his fist which had been pierced by the mace and he smirked.
"It has been forever since I last bled, hmmph," he said and looked up to see Orion staggering to his feet. "Enough of the games then," he said and his fists up to his elbows were engulfed in the orange, unnatural flames that burnt rocks to ash, and the water around him began to boil.
"I never introduced myself to you, Chosen Son of Order!" he yelled out. "I am Xaltor Prune, the fourth of the seven horsemen. I am the Horseman of Destruction!" He introduced himself and with that, he shot at Orion to deliver the killing blow.
Orion's mind froze over at this point. He lost all instincts for survival, defense and escape. He knew there was no escaping this attack. Orion accepted his fate and watched as the man launched his attack.
He was truly the Horseman of Destruction as the water in the stream evaporated and dried off, leaving behind a dry and parched riverbed as he moved. The grasses a hundred meters away from the stream withered away and died from the heat the Horseman of Destruction was emitting.
Orion closed his eyes, awaiting his death. He knew it was going to be a terrible way to go. He was going to be first scorched by the heat before the blow even landed on him, further burning the life out of him.
'Chosen Son of Order?' a thought flashed through his mind in his last moments. 'Why was I given such a destiny in the first place? Who… Who even chose me?' he thought to himself.
"I did," a familiar voice resonated in his ears.
Orion was shocked as he recognized the stoic, expressionless voice. It was the voice of the giant of a man that had brought him to this world to watch him die.
'Wait… Why am I not dead yet?' Orion suddenly realized that he was still breathing.
He opened his eyes and staggered back in shock as he saw his death right before his eyes. The Horseman's flaming fist was merely an inch away from his face, but somehow, for some reason he had stopped moving.
'Asterion,' Orion quickly looked around, figuring out that the robed giant was the only one who would have been able to stop Xaltor Prune.
"I am here," Asterion's voice replied and he suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Orion was shocked but quickly got a grip on himself.
"What happened to not interfering?" Orion asked, trying to play smart.
"Well, I can undo the effects of the time stop if that is what you want," Asterion offered, but Orion quickly refused the offer.
"Why though? Why did you interfere?" Orion asked.
"Because you have seen what I needed you to see. You now understand the responsibility on your shoulders," Asterion replied. "Xaltor Prune is the fourth of seven Horsemen of Chaos. You do not need too much of an imagination to know what the others might be like, do you?" he asked and Orion shook his head.
"Why me though?" Orion asked after a while of silent reflection.
"Because the universe needs a champion to bring balance. And who better than the human whose veins flow with the essence of both Chaos and Order?" Asterion replied.
"What?" Orion was confused.
"Yes," Asterion nodded.
"Seven months after you were born, you died. You were killed by an illness. Both your parents had left you to find cures. Your mother had found a dark priestess that imbued you with the essence of chaos to save you, but at the same time, your father had struck a deal with me to save you with my essence," Asterion explained. "Orion Thorne, son of Mira and Alaric Thorne, you are no mere human."