The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse heralded the beginning of the end, a world judged anew.
War, Famine, Pestilence, Death.
They represented calamity, four unending afflictions brought about by life itself.
Wherever Wisdom existed, conflict arose. Conflict erupted into war, war caused shortages, and scarcity allowed death and pestilence to spread.
Death was the eldest of the Four Horsemen, the final destination of every life.
So even Fate's Child could not alter these fates that were meant to unfold.
That was also why Death alone had escaped judgment at the hands of Adam and his companions.
John had intercepted Death and placed him inside the Casket of Ancient Winters, where even time was frozen.
Without the passage of time, death would cease.
John had used the sword of fate to cleave him in two, leaving behind fragments representing calamity, just like the three slain Horsemen.
The Dusk Sword, reforged for John by the Dwarves King Eitri, had a sturdy body capable of withstanding many kinds of energy.
There was good reason the divine weapons produced in Nidavellir were so sought after.
As a sword used to power a spaceship, the Dusk Sword became suffused with an ominous aura after being infused with the power of calamity.
John could tell from the tentacles protruding from the spaceship's interior walls.
The power of calamity was altering the ship.
Uncanny whispers occasionally echoed through its interior.
Listening to those whispers that could drive a person mad, John fell into thought.
"Looks like gathering calamity together really does invite trouble."
The spaceship traveled to Alpha Centauri.
This place had living conditions similar to Earth's, with dense forests, plains, swamps, and lakes.
John established a temporary research station over a stretch of sea.
First, he peeled away the fragments of the Four Horsemen of the