Orion looked up at Asterion with confusion written boldly in his eyes.
"What… What are you trying to say? What… What do you… What do you mean?" the young lad couldn't help but stutter.
"Are you trying to tell me that I am… some sort of a demigod?" Orion quizzed.
"You are much more than that Orion," Asterion replied and turned his attention to the burning world all around them. "You are humanity's last hope."
"Last hope?" Orion raised a brow in disbelief. "I… I think you are making a mistake here. If there is anyone that can help humanity, it is definitely not me," Orion chuckled nervously.
"I mean, I… I am not even an adept yet, and… and according to the Chief Oracle, Chief Ludwin, I just might never become an Adept. I might never get the chance to awaken my gifts," Orion replied, but Asterion said nothing in response.
"You know, that illness that you claimed to have healed me or resurrected me from? It is still there. Eating away at me every single day. And according to Chief Ludwin, I might end up killing myself if I was to awaken any gifts.
"There is no way someone like me would have the task of saving humanity. I'd die before I can even face anyone, not to talk of facing off against any one of the Seven Horsemen, or even defeating their master that that Xaltor Prune was talking about," Orion quickly listed out the reasons why he couldn't be anyone's savior.
Asterion sighed and nodded. "Yes, it is true that the illness is a part of you. It is a part of your destiny, your natural weakness. It is also true that once you awaken with a gift, you will be killing your cells each time you use your gifts, but you seem to not understand who I am, do you?" Asterion asked and Orion looked a bit puzzled.
"Are you… Are you not one of the gods?" Orion asked.
"I am far beyond such notions. I am God to those gods you worship. If you will be my champion, if you will be my Chosen Son, I will make your illness a matter of the past. It will have no effect on you, whatsoever, for as long as you are my Champion," Asterion replied.
Orion was silent for a while as he pondered upon the offer. Whether or not he awakened a gift or used his powers after awakening them, he was still not going to live a full life, since he had received a latent gift for supernatural physical abilities from his father. It was going to keep gnawing at his lifetime, and the older he gets, the more of his life force would be stolen.
Asterion was offering him a new life, a new body, a chance to live long.
'But then again, who is to say I would survive the war he wants me to fight? Who is to say I wouldn't die at war?' Orion thought to himself, but of course, Asterion had heard his thoughts.
"You are a brave warrior, Young Thorne. You have nothing to fear of the battles ahead. You have time to build on your skills and to sharpen your intuition," Asterion replied.
Orion scoffed and shook his head at Asterion's response.
"My father always said that such thoughts sent powerful men to their early graves. Besides, we both know that I was only able to survive this encounter because you interfered. And I am not just talking about Xaltor Prune. You were the reason why every risk I took yielded positive results, weren't you?" the young boy asked with a brazen look on his face.
Asterion was silent for a while, but he nodded in affirmation.
"I am the Lord of order, Young Thorne. I merely ordered the steps of the horse to ensure it didn't trample upon you."
"And the little stunt when I threw the dagger? Did you order the direction of my throw as well?" Orion frowned as his pride in his combat skills started to shatter.
"No," Asterion shook his head. "That was all you. All I did was ensure the rider lost his balance to avoid the flames in his hands from finding their way to you," he explained.
"So the god of war and horses was not smiling at me then?" Orion asked, although he already knew the answer.
"There is no god of war and horses in this Chaos Era, Orion. When chaos won, it destroyed them all, obliterating those it could obliterate without consequence, and imprisoning the others," Asterion replied.
"Yes, I helped you, but you were the one that made your attacks, I just helped in your defense. And beyond all that, you, young Orion, a fifteen year old boy, parried two hits from the Horseman of Destruction and survived taking one hit. You have done what very few people have been able to do and you will live to tell the tale."
"Only because you interfered yet again," Orion frowned and turned his eyes to the frozen body of Xaltor Prune.
"You need to give yourself more credit, son," another voice came from behind Orion, and the young boy turned to look, and was met with the shock of his life.
"Father?" Orion's eyes widened as his eyes fell upon his father, Alaric Thorne.
"Hello son," his father smiled, and walked into the stream to join them. "It has been too long, you have grown so much," Orion's father said with a smile.
"And you haven't aged a day," Orion said with a look of caution as he took a step back. His enthusiasm and joy from finally seeing his father again had suddenly disappeared when he realized that Asterion could be playing a mind game on him.
"If I was to explain why, it would take too long, and I do not have much time," Alaric Thorne, Orion's father, said.
"I can tell from your reaction that you don't believe that I am really the one, and I am proud of that. I am happy to see that you have not forgotten the skills I taught you before I left, but to be frank, you are right, this isn't really… me," Alaric said and looked at his own body, and it began to glitch, making Orion take a few steps back.
"What you are seeing is a projection of my physical form. My consciousness is real, however, I have too little time.
"I am guessing that by now, the gemstone I left with Chief Ludwin is already dimming and the whole clan is panicking, fearing my death, and I am afraid that they are actually not wrong. I am dead, in physical terms, but I cannot explain. However, I have been able to stall the apocalypse that you can see here today, but I do not know for how much longer I can stall for time," Alaric Thorne said with a serious look on his face.
"Listen to me son, this is a lot to take in, and I understand that, but I need you to prepare for the inevitable coming of chaos. Your mother needs you, the clan needs you, the whole world needs you," he said and paused for a moment, giving the young Orion time to process the things he was saying.
"But you… But you always told me that you would never ask me to do anything that was beyond me," Orion said as his eyes began to water.
"Don't you think this is all a little too much for a fifteen year old boy to handle? The fate of the entire world?"
Alaric opened his mouth to speak, but he ultimately closed them, knowing that there was nothing he could say to pacify his son.
"Orion, I am so sorry that things turned out this way," Alaric finally said after almost thirty seconds. "The whole reason I left in the first place was to try to prevent you from having to bear this burden, but… but I failed," he said and a tear rolled down his left eye.
"I am proud of the man you are becoming, son. You are already more of a man than I could have ever hoped for, and…"
"And that doesn't answer my question dad!" Orion yelled out, cutting his father off as tears began to flow down his eyes.
"You promised me that you were going to come home soon. It has been over five years and I am not even seeing the real you, yet you have the guts to ask me for something as heavy as this?" Orion asked, his lips quivering as he tried to hold back the sea of tears and screams that were threatening to tear their way out of his body.
Alaric sighed and looked up at Asterion, then back at his son.
"I am not asking this of you, Orion. The universe has already demanded it of you. Whether you want it or not, your path will cross with this chaos. That is your destiny.
"I am only here to prepare you, Orion."
"Except you aren't really here, are you?" Orion replied. It was evident that he had unconfessed pains in his heart, an anger towards his father for leaving and not coming back.
"I am sorry son," Alaric apologized. "But you need to prepare yourself. The Seven Horsemen of Chaos are more powerful than you can imagine. They will be sent to find you, the Chosen Son of Order
"But I haven't accepted to be his champion," Orion shook his head and turned to Asterion, wondering if the Lord of Order had made him his champion without consent.
"It is like I said, son, the universe demands it of you. Whether you accept it or not. This is your destiny," Alaric replied.
"But… But I can't hope to fight off these Horsemen," Orion shook his head, subconsciously accepting his fate.
"You said it yourself, the awakening gives only one gift, except in special cases like yours, and the gifts are not always useful. What if… what if I am to be awakened as an Insect Adept? Having the ability to communicate with insects? Like whisperer Wan? What good would that do me?" Orion was already panicking. "I… I can't accept this. I mean… I mean there has to be a way to change my destiny right?" he said and turned to the giant, Asterion.
"You! You said you were God to the gods, you can change it right? You can reorder the paths of events so someone else can do this right?"
Asterion looked at Orion then shifted his gaze to Alaric, as if to say 'explain this to your son Alaric'.
Alaric sighed and said, "Orion, that was the first thing I did. After learning of your destiny, I sort out to find Asterion in hopes that we could change it, and that was why I left to end the Chaos era in your place, but I failed to do it effectively. You have to finish this battle, there is no other way. Or at least, there isn't enough time," Alaric explained, and Orion went silent, unable to find a response.
"And if I get the wrong gift?" Orion asked, fully accepting his fate.
"You won't," Alaric shook his head with an assured smile.
"But, if it helps your confidence, I am sure that Lord Asterion here wouldn't mind putting your fears to rest by giving you a gift that will surely help you out in your battles to come. Just like he gave me. And in so doing, whatever gifts the gods bestow upon you, it'll be nothing but an added bonus."
Orion looked at his father, then at Asterion, and then he nodded in affirmation.
Asterion nodded slowly and faced the lad, placing his right hand over Orion's face, eclipsing all the light.
His fingertips began to glow with a golden hue and soon, Orion's body followed suit as he transferred a gift to him.
"By the time I am done, you will wake up in the real world, but you will have no memory of what happened here. You will have dreams and flash visions of it, but they will only serve to remind you of the task ahead," Asterion's ethereal voice boomed across the time frozen landscape.
"I, Asterion, Lord of Order, ordain you, Orion Thorne, as my champion the Chosen Son of Order," Asterion said, and with that, a bright golden light exploded around him and then slowly dissipated.
Alaric watched as his son was made a champion, unsure of if to feel proud or sad. He watched until the lights vanished and his son was no longer there.
"What gift did you give him?" Alaric asked Asterion as his body began to glitch and fade.
"He is going to be a bridge between Chaos and Order, he can't rely on one gift for this, and hence, I gave him an all-encompassing gift, I made him a Universe-Adept. Like you, he will have all the gifts of nature, but he will possess the ability to manipulate the cosmos itself," Asterion explained to Alaric and Alaric smiled as his body began to vanish.
"A Touch of God indeed," Alaric's voice said as his body vanished.