Cerberus And The Horseman Of Pestilence

Cerberus stomped his paws into the ground and they dug up pieces of rock. It snarled and snapped as I stood with my sword drawn. Last time I encountered this beast I had the disadvantage, not wanting to kill it and allow the giants of Jotunheim to handle the problem. Not to mention, it put a reasonably deep hole in my left leg.

Cerberus charged towards me, knocking down some of the Stonehenge's pillars. I held my sword steady. This hound had proven to be quick in speed, but off balance. As it drew near, I dove to the side and sliced at it with my sword, barely cutting its front left leg. The heads snapped and turned to face me. They chomped downwards and I had rolled under the beast and was now at its tail. I jumped onto its back and rose my sword high in the air, but as I was bringing it down, the hound bucked hard and sent me flying through the air. I landed hard on my back. I rolled to my side and got up quickly, ready for the onslaught. The far right head snapped down and caught my blade with its teeth. I threw a hard left jab and the head whipped away from me. The center head tried to bite down and I brought my sword to parry. It cut deep into its mouth, but the hound seemed to ignore any pain. The far left head swung hard and threw me down to the ground. The three heads snarled and snapped, desperate to feed. Blood poured out of the center heads mouth, and like the horsemen, it was a sort of blackish color.

I rolled backwards on the ground to my feet. I staggered a bit and had to think of a way to get behind it. It moved slowly when it had to turn, but in front, I had to keep fighting off all three heads.

I had an idea. I threw my sword straight at the center head, it was too slow to dodge so it attempted to catch it with its teeth. Unfortunately for the hound, it sliced deep into the hounds center heads throat. Blood gushed heavily from the hound and the other two heads roared in pain. I ran towards the hound and jumped high into the air. I caught the hilt of my sword and pulled hard and began to cut down its spine. It bucked viciously and I nearly fell off. The sword had penetrated deep enough that holding on to the hilt would keep me from being sent flying. I pulled the sword out and with one quick swipe I cut the far right head off. The hounds body stumbled on the ground a bit before falling. The far left head screeched in pain and snapped at the open air, hoping for one last meal. I could feel its pain, its brothers, its own two heads being severed. I put it out of its misery by diving my sword straight down on its head. Cerberus had been defeated. The giant hounds body lay, pools of black blood formed underneath.

I pulled my sword from the hound. My adrenaline still pumping and sweat beading down my forehead, I turned to face the horseman.

"Such a pity that a magnificent beast, fell so easily." Pestilence stated.

I knew this hound was taken and its soul had been involuntarily ripped from its body, another pawn in Zeus's game of chess. I was angry. It was time I sent another pawn to the afterlife.

I began my slow pace towards the horseman. My blade slid across the ground beneath me, cutting it like butter. I was catching my breath but in turn waiting for the horseman to make his next move.

"You will pay for the hounds life in blood horseman." I said, fury taking over. I could feel my body heating up. I was feeling stronger. I could feel the air around me change.

"Is that so swordsman? Then let us begin our duel." Pestilence said with a mocking smile.

"Not a duel. An execution. I will show you no mercy. As Cerberus, Aldonis, Fjorn, and myself were never granted. I know Zeus can feel everything that happens to you. So I am going to send a message." I could feel my eyes burn slightly, I assumed this was due to the sweat.

I was about ten feet away from the horseman when he charged at me, scimitar held high. I dropped my own sword, and caught his wrist holding the weapon. I squeezed and could feel bones crack beneath my palm. Pestilence cried out in pain. With my other hand, I grabbed his throat and squeezed, just enough to keep him from passing out. When I felt his sword hand go limp, I began to furiously strike him in the face. Bones cracked and blood spewed from the corners of his mouth. I didn't hold back. The time for games were over.

I threw him to the ground. He rose slowly and I could see his hand dangling from the shattered wrist bone. His eyes glowed a silver color and he shot some kind of energy out of his hand that had collided with me in the chest. I felt instantly sick. I began vomiting all over the ground next to me. I felt so weak.

He walked over to me, gloating. He could tell I was in so much pain from whatever he just did.

"The plague hurts, doesn't it swordsman?" Pestilence cackled.

I held my hand out in an open palm. Without Pestilence noticing anything, due to his gloating, my swords hilt met my finger tips. I raised my sword quickly into the heart of the horseman. He gasped his last breath of air and fell to his knees. I rose quickly and severed his head.

"That's for Cerberus." I said, and almost instantly I fainted to the ground.

"Xander, wake the hell up!" Marie's voice echoed in my head.

My eyes shot open as she kept repeating. "Wake up dammit!"

She had tears in her eyes. We were on the ship now. Visibly I could see into the cockpit, we were out of the Earths orbit.

"You did it, you killed a horseman. But his plague did some serious damage to you." Marie said, with a worrying tone.

"I will be fine. I just need time to heal. Where are we headed now?" I asked.

"I put out the beacon when I noticed you were down. I didn't even realize that you had also killed Pestilence. The beacon responded, King Titus has requested you on Nibiru at once. He said in two weeks time. Then he sent me the coordinates, which by the way, hell of a decryption."

"Two weeks? Then we have time." I said.

"Time for what? You almost died down there. I got footage of everything, you changed. Something happened to you when you dropped your sword." Marie said frantically.

"We need to get Fjorn, and while we are on Olympus, find out who the hell Pestilence used to be." As I said that, I lost consciousness.

"Arriving to Olympus in twelve hours." The ships AI called.

I was blacking out again.

"Xander, we will be arriving soon." Marie echoed.

"Crap! We gotta get out of here!" Her voice still echoed as I trailed off.

I couldn't stay awake. I would regain consciousness just long enough to hear her shout something.

"Evasive maneuvers!" The ships AI called loud.

The ship shook and groaned as an explosion had gone off near the hull.

"Arriving to Agor'rath in approximately two days." The ships AI called.

"Don't worry Xander, I got you!" Fjorn said.

"Fjorn? How the..." I drifted off to sleep once more.

I was being transported. Darkness surrounded me. I fell into a dream once more.

I awoke suddenly. I was in the arena, on Zeus's planet. Zeus himself stood in front of me.

"Imagine that, you dying to the first horseman you encounter. They aren't even a fraction of my power, and you still fail. Funny." Zeus spoke. "Weak as ever. Imagine all that potential, and you die to a peasant. Or as you call it, a pawn?"

"I can tell that I am in some dream state, so I will take these words as nonsense, especially coming from you." I shrugged off the remarks.

"But that's the thing Xander, I am really here, speaking to you. Doesn't matter if it's in a state of mind that I cannot physically reach you in." Zeus stood and walked towards me. "The humans are so interesting. I remember their gods like it was yesterday. Hell, I even granted Hades the title of horseman. But Zeus, the real Zeus, was inspiring. He fought until his last breath. He stood for something. He was the pinnacle of holy attributes. He even almost beat me. But, as all things are, I won. I even took his son Hercules and made him the horseman of War. Can you believe that?" Zeus began laughing.

"Why the hell did he join you?" I asked, actually kind of curious of what proposition someone would have after they killed your father.

"Well, it was either join me, or watch me enslave the entire human race. Probably curse them as I did to the giants of Jotunheim. Instead, here we are, his mind has been altered and he has become a very strong ally, and the humans can live out their feeble little lives until I tire of their existence and wipe them from this board." Zeus paced around the pillars in the arena.

"You will never be the real Zeus. You will never inspire. You will live your life in fear until I come for you, I will behead you as I did Pestilence, and rid your empty husk for the hounds to devour! I will not let another world fall to you!" I shouted in anger.

"My dear boy, it's already happening. The amount of heroes that have told me the story of my own downfall is astounding. I love the entertainment, but our time here is done. You may live, or you may die. Either way, I will look forward to seeing your growth. The stronger you are, the stronger your soul will make me when I kill you."

As his words finished I felt myself wake from the dream state. I was in a large temple. I could hear droplets of water falling from overhead.

"Ayy boy, 'bout damn time you woke. I was getting restless, given this place doesn't have a drop of ale on them." Fjorn said with a smile, he sat next to me.

"There's a lot of explaining needing to be done here Fjorn. I fell asleep on the ship in orbit of Earth and now I am in some temple on a planet I don't know of, and my dwarven friend is sitting here." I let out a little laugh, it was hard to breath.

"Well, first thing first, welcome to Agor'rath. The underwater planet. You got Marie to thank for everything by the way. Now let's get things going, you are all healed up and we got about three days until we need to be in Nibiru." Fjorn said, awkwardly looking for his stuff.

"Fjorn, I am sorry for what I said."

"I know you are boy. But now's not the time for apologies, now's the time for movin'. We got word that king Titus might know where Famine is." Fjorn said with a seriousness I wasn't familiar with.