God of War: Daughter of War

Flurry found that the next week was full of preparations and training for the future, where she showed her father and her siblings the rune she had developed and would add to their protection staves, something Kratos approved of since that meant they would be able to withstand the effects of Fimbulwinter. In addition to that Pandora found a way for her to put the rune on their gear, the pieces that were outside Flurry's bag, as everything that was inside the bag was perfectly fine and untouched, meaning they were totally protected from the prelude to Ragnarok. Atreus wondered if Odin would come here seeking that information if he knew it existed, a rune that could prevent the effects of Fimbulwinter in it's entirety, for the area around where it was placed, or even around a person, though Mimir said it was best if the All-Father had no idea that Flurry could do this, since he'd pester her for answers to everything she could do. Flurry agreed with Mimir, she wanted nothing to do with the All-Father right now, and suspected that such a thing would remain the same until the very end of Ragnarok, which was why she turned her attention to all of the training they would be starting.

Atreus discovered the true meaning of training now that their focus was solely on it, as Flurry covered an entire area with her magic and summoned transparent versions of each weapon that happened to be inside her bag, which they could still grasp, thus allowing everyone to use something different during their training, so they mastered all types of weapons. Of course Flurry had to tone down the size of each one for when Atreus picked one out, since she didn't want him to fall over and be unable to train, though after some time they discovered that he really didn't have the power to wield heavy weapons, not like their father did. With that in mind Flurry made sure her brother's training was focused on focusing and honing his skill with a bow, plus his dagger since it was always nice to have a backup weapon in case enemies got close, something that their father agreed with, even though he refrained from using some of the weapons that Flurry summoned for them. She knew that some of these had bad memories for her father, something Atreus didn't know about, but for the time being it just seemed like her brother assumed that Kratos didn't need training with those weapons and focused on those that he felt he might be rusty with.

While they trained the family found that they had company after some time, as both Freya and Baldur happened to show up at roughly the same time, causing them to glance at each other for a few moments before turning away, as while they now had some shared ground of being screwed over by Odin, that didn't mean their bridges would be healed.

"Freya, you seem... more whole. Does this mean the curse has been broken?" Kratos asked, though at the same time Baldur walked off into the training area that Flurry had set up, grabbed the phantom version of the Serpent's Glaive, and started to thrust it at the magical targets she had also utilized into the magic of the area in case only a single person happened to be training inside the designated area.

"Not quite. I've undone just one of the damned curses that Odin has placed on me... Sigrun is helping me track down where he's hidden my ability to protect myself." Freya replied, where it was clear that she was annoyed by that fact, that she had already tracked down and broken one curse, likely a weaker one, and that it wasn't any of the true ones she was searching for, before she smiled for a moment as she watched her son actually do something that he enjoyed, "I'm also hunting down the curse that's keeping me from traveling to the other realms... I'm not planning on traveling, really, but I do want to be free of Odin's damn claws before the end."

"Let us know if there is anything we can do, while we still have access to the other realms." Pandora said, because Freya had helped them quite a lot during their last adventure and this was the best way they could repay her, other than sparing her son and letting him live, though after saying that she drew her halberd and leapt into the arena, clashing with Baldur not a few seconds later.

"Depending on where the other curses are located, I might just do that." Freya remarked, though she was serious, as Kratos and his children was incredibly skilled in their own right and she knew that she might need to call on them to aid her in her quest to break the curses so she could die a free person, given the fate of the Nine Realms, causing her to sigh as she took a moment to think about something else, "Kratos, tell me: have you said anything to Atreus about your past?"

"No, I was waiting for the right time to tell him about our past." Kratos admitted, as he had told Atreus a bit, mostly that he was a god and that he came from another land entirely, but after his descent into arrogance he had decided to hold off on telling his son anything else, as he judged him not ready for such a thing, but since Atreus had matured a little, enough for the remnants of Faye's spirit to forgive his actions, he guessed it was time to explain some things, "Though if you wish we can make an afternoon of it, for the tale is long and I am sure both of you would have many questions, some of which Mimir will no doubt answer during the course of the tale."

"Or at the very least offer another opinion on something that happened." Mimir said, because he knew that there wasn't much he could do at the moment, since he was just a head, but at the very least he could tell a tale and offer his own small thoughts on whatever they were told.

Kratos nodded as he called for Pandora and Baldur to join them, as he knew both would be interested in the tale, though as he did that Flurry weaved some of her magic into the air and formed a sitting area around a fire, allowing them to relax and even have some water or something to drink. Once the preparations were finished Kratos started to tell both his son and their new friends about his past, as in mentioning Deimos and how he was taken away, him marking himself to honor his brother, and his rise to being the youngest captain in the Spartan army, plus his defeat at the hands of the Barbarian King. It was then that Atreus learned the true meaning behind one of the boat stories his father had told him, about the horse that made a deal with a hunter to kill his enemy, the stag, but even after having his revenge he was denied his freedom and was turned into a slave, as his father called upon Ares and made a deal with him to get rid of the barbarians. Atreus realized why his father had the chains burned into his flesh like that, as they were from the very weapons that the Greek God of War had gifted to Kratos, searing the chains into his very flesh as a sign of his service, even though it was the start of his descent into pure madness.

He spared Atreus the full story about how he murdered his first wife and first daughter, but did mention that it was him and his army attacking that village on Ares' orders that caused his skin to look like this, where he could see that Freya knew that there was more to this particular tale and didn't say anything, likely knowing it was too painful for him to speak on.

"Wait, pause for a second... I had an uncle?!" Atreus said, because while the early life of his father was full of bloodshed, a fact that told him it really was a good thing he wasn't raised like an actual Spartan since he knew he would fail everything of his father's customs, his focus right now was on something he hadn't known until this point in time.

"You have an uncle." Kratos replied, letting his son know that Deimos was alive and well, though at the same time both he and his daughters knew that the others were now invested in the tale, especially since Freya was likely wondering where Deimos was since she hadn't seen him yet, all while Albis slithered up to join them, as she really didn't like hearing about her own death, even in this version of events, "Do not be alarmed, Albis is a friend. She is also Flurry's adoptive mother, as she is quick to remind me of whenever I introduce her."

"I see. And when did you two meet? By that I mean you and Flurry." Freya asked, because that was the part of the story that interested her the most, there was no mention of the daughter that predated both Pandora and Atreus, though now she had to assume that Kratos meeting Albis happened after he found Flurry, since Kratos seemed to be her adoptive father in this strange expanding story.

"I found her during my quest to sever my oath to Ares, to make myself into a free man once more." Kratos answered, which was the moment that Flurry added a light blue gemstone to the center of the area and he nodded his head, allowing him to focus on it as an imagine of him meeting a young Flurry appeared, something that took Freya and Baldur by surprise while Mimir seemed interested in the magic, "Flurry has developed a way for one to show their memories of what happened in the past, from their point of view, so you are seeing mine right now."

Freya nodded and watched as the tale continued, the pair continuing on Kratos' quest while Flurry, just a child, did her best to remain out of the way and not get involved, and in her early days it seemed like that was impossible, hence why when they reached the boat Kratos started to teach her how to use a bow and how to wield her weapons. She found that the pair had been a good team, even back in the early days, and that Kratos had done everything in his mortal power to make sure a young Flurry was unharmed by the foes that came at them, and the assortment of foes made her realize why both warriors were so skilled. Even Baldur was impressed by what he was seeing, especially when Kratos carved open a centaur while his charge was standing at a safe distance, though both of them were surprised by the arrival of the Furies, the battle that had followed, and Flurry assisting her father in battle. In fact the power of the amulet they carried was impressive as well, able to undo all the damage that had been done to the statue they were climbing around to get at another legendary item that had the power to help Kratos on his quest, all while explaining why the Furies would try to stop them once they realized what he was searching for.

Such a thing also revealed when Albis made her first appearance, presenting herself as a friendly gorgon, as the creature told them what she was, by hugging Flurry and showing Kratos that she meant the young one no harm, thus allowing her to go free, even though she returned later, to free Flurry from the Furies, thus allowing her to free Kratos so they could go on a rampage and kill all three of the sisters.

Freya felt Kratos' pain as he was forced to end Orkos, a friend who had been forced to hold onto Kratos' oathstone, a sort of failsafe in case the Furies perished, and they came to an understanding of sorts, Orkos meeting his end the way he wanted to meet it while Kratos' oath to Ares was forever shattered. Following that the trio, as Albis joined them, became warriors of the gods of Greece, doing missions for Zeus and the rest of his kind, though it was easy to see that some gods, like the Smith God known as Hephaestus, were much nicer to them than others were. It was some time before they were called into battle, facing the Persians as they attacked Attica, though that was also when the sun literally fell out of the sky, causing a dark fog to shroud the land while Athena called upon the pair to take on an important quest. Such a thing allowed them to see that even from an early age Flurry cared about life and when Persephone showed her true colors, that she didn't care about life at all, it triggered something in her and caused her to beat the goddess up, something that sparked the start of something big as she and Kratos killed Persephone.

Flurry also pointed out that her second adventure ended with her becoming a student of Hecate, the Goddess of Magic for their homeland, because they discovered that her true magical power was far more than they expected and learning from her meant she could actually wield her magic without becoming a risk to everyone else.

"Uncontrollable magic can be dangerous... she made the right call." Mimir commented, which Freya agreed with, especially since there was no telling what Flurry could have done had she lost control of her magical powers, after everything they had seen from her since the start of their quest to spread Faye's ashes.

Kratos also agreed with them and continued with the tale, eventually coming to the start of his revenge, as the gods finally called on him and Flurry to deal with Ares, even though they had to kill the Hydra before heading to Athens, which was when they found that the God of War was breaking every law that Zeus had created. They revealed how both he and Flurry had to travel to Pandora's Temple, where the legendary Pandora's Box was located, and solve countless puzzles in the pursuit of claiming that which Zeus wanted to keep hidden from the mortals of Greece, and that Pandora herself had never been to the temple her box had been stored in. Pandora also mentioned that it wasn't 'her box', rather her own father, who just so happened to be Hephaestus, had created the box to house the Evils of the world inside it, Evils that would give one the power to kill a god, even though the power of hope had been stored inside it as well. The long story was short as Kratos told them that he and Flurry recovered the box, but Ares, a sore loser, killed him by hurling a fractured pillar all the way from Athens, impaling him in the process, though his time in the Underworld was short since Zeus had dug a hole for him to get out through.

He also shared them beating the stuffing out of Ares and the truth that Atreus had asked about, along with the explosion that came from his death, but instead of being released from his nightmares Kratos was turned into a god, as in the new God of War, but thanks to Flurry's presence he was able to deal with that turn of events.

That was swiftly followed by the personal quest to rescue Deimos from the clutches of Thanatos, the God of Death, though it had some serious consequences as multiple locations were destroyed during the course of their quest, but they were able to figure out that it was Zeus behind most of the deeds, a fact they only determined long after the events in question. Freya, Baldur, and Mimir started to see the picture that was being formed, that after Kratos became the God of War it appeared that a drastic change had washed over many of the gods, some now lashing out at them or seeing the family as monsters, as if they were possessed by something darker. Kratos explained that they had saved Deimos, made him into a god as well, and tried to keep the peace with Zeus, who was fearful of the Marked Warrior prophecy coming true, even after he, Hera, and Hermes tried to frame them as warmongers not long after saving Deimos. Freya came to realize that Kratos definitely wasn't like most of the other War Gods, he only went to war when it was absolutely necessary, in fact she was seeing a lot of Tyr in him right now, and that Flurry was the same way, as war lead to a massive loss of life, causing her to wonder if the alicorn, as Mimir had called her, might be a Goddess of Life.

Eventually, as they found out, Zeus revealed his true colors and attacked, taking Kratos' godly power with a weapon that had acknowledged Flurry as it's one true wielder before killing him, but he pulled himself out of the Underworld and traveled to the island of the Fates, who he and Flurry destroyed before retrieving the blade and Kratos' stolen power.

"Wait, so you guys killed the Fates and then traveled back in time, to the point that Zeus betrayed you, to kick his ass and take back your power?" Baldur asked, though they could tell that he had a smile on his face, both from the fact that Kratos and Flurry weren't about to let such a thing slide and the fact that they had actually forced the King of the Gods to flee after that happened, "That sounds awesome!"

"We then went back in time and recalled most of the Titans to the future, sending them at Mount Olympus... which was the moment we learned the truth behind what happens when a god is killed." Kratos said, where they watched as he, Flurry, and Gaia fought Poseidon, his attempts to get the god to back down, and, when even that failed, them slaying him, before they watched as the seas rose in response to Poseidon's death, drowning the world in a matter of moments, "We had no way of knowing that would happen, as every god that had perished before that point had, in some manner, found a way to pick a successor, minimizing the potential damage... but Poseidon, one of the 'Big Three', had no such plan and we discovered the devastating consequences that came with killing a god."

"S... So that's why you were warning me earlier..." Atreus commented, as he couldn't believe that killing a god would flood the whole world, or at least the entirety of Greece, but he now understood why his father and sisters had been warning him about such a thing after Magni's death, though he had to wonder why killing the two Norse gods had done nothing to the rest of the realms.

"Yes, but we had to kill several more gods along the way... and discovered what happened to the Evils that had been freed after opening the box so father could kill Ares." Flurry said, where she waved her hand for a moment and the others simply watched as a few unfamiliar figures appeared in the magical image, Helios and the others, before Atreus found that each of them started to change, becoming more reptilian from god to god, "The Evils infected some of the gods, influenced their minds, and eventually started to corrupt them... but even they were deceived by one of their own, as Fear infected each of his fellow Evils, so the fear that each god felt towards us empowered their own corruption... until Zeus succumbed to Fear and was fully corrupted."

Atreus and the others watched as the image of Zeus transformed before their eyes, twisting into a snake figure that was far more evil looking than his father's father had looked before the sudden transformation, and while he knew that this figure was no longer of this world Atreus had to admit that it frightened him.

"Transforming into a being that called himself 'Korthek', the 'Emperor of Evil', the 'Lord of Fear', and the 'God of the New World', as he titled himself." Flurry continued, causing her to twist her hand once more and the image changed so that all of them could see the battle that unfolded between the figure and the godly family, including Pandora since she had joined her and Kratos near the end of the assault on Mount Olympus, "The battle was fierce, destroying what remained of Zeus' palace, but in the end we destroyed both him and the Prime Primordial Evil... sadly, with Greece in the state it was in, all we could do was leave for a new home, taking with us the survivors that had been gathered before the war broke out. Following that Pandora fully joined the family, marking herself in a blue version of her new father's tattoo to show that she saw it as a mark of hope, and we were invited to the Land Between Realms... an island between the various domains of the pantheons that exist in this world. After we settled the survivors we received another invitation from Tyr, by his bird to be exact, and the three of us set sail for the Nine Realms, where we were swept away by a time maelstrom and lost almost a thousand years in the process... then we met Faye and the rest is history."

"So... I'm similar to grandfather, in that both of us have transformed into a scaly creature... but we're different because I can fight my curse and return to normal?" Atreus commented, though at the same time he was grateful that he hadn't faced the dark being that was Korthek, as he was sure that he would have been wiped out before he could even do anything to assist in bringing him down.

"You are a good boy, Atreus, and I'm sure that you'll be able to undo the curse that's been placed on you." Freya said, as that was a true fact, he was good at heart and she was sure that Atreus would be able to break the curse, though at the same time she refrained from offering her help with this, as there was a chance that she might make things worse and bring the boy back to the state he had been in before his visit to Jotunheim, or even fully transform him since the mirror that gave him the curse had been powered by Vanir magic.

Flurry smiled for a moment as she told the others that she was going to check the edge of the barrier, as she was sure that someone was watching them, and Mimir wanted to come along, hence why she fled out while holding onto the rope that was wrapped around his head.

"Lass, I know there's something you and your family didn't include in the story: what you are the goddess of." Mimir stated, though while he knew that the family had good reasons for such a thing, since it could be a sense of embarrassment based on who was asked, he also knew that Flurry didn't get embarrassed and his curiosity had gotten the better of him once he learned that he was checking something away from the others.

"Mimir... if I tell you, you must promise not to tell anyone until I give you permission to do so... or until my father and sister decide it's time for everyone to know." Flurry replied, where she landed and used her magic to make the head float as she drew her bow, readied an arrow, and loosed one into the air, allowing Mimir to see that her target was one of Odin's ravens, meaning the All-Father knew where they were located and was going to be keeping an eye on them.

"You have my word. I won't tell anyone, especially Atreus, what you are the goddess of until you or your family say it's okay to do so." Mimir said, as there was another reason for him wanting to do this, because sometimes not telling someone a secret caused the holder to become stressed, and while he knew Flurry wasn't stressed he suspected it would be good for her to let someone else in on what she was the goddess of, followed by a magical barrier wrapping around them.

"Okay, then answer this: what follows in war's wake?" Flurry asked, as that was the easiest way to say such a thing without actually revealing the information, though at the same time this was just her having a bit of fun with Mimir since he loved stuff like this.

"Plenty of things, actually: poverty, illness, destruction, dea..." Mimir said, though when he got to the fourth idea he came to a stop, as everything he had seen from her over the course of his time with the family came rushing back, plus how she was focused on preserving life, plus he was completely stunned by this information, "Oh my... now I understand everything. I will keep my lips sealed on this matter, as promised."

Flurry nodded, glad that Mimir understood what she was the goddess of and why she wanted to keep it a secret from their new friends, especially her own brother, before glancing at the area that was outside the barrier as she wondered what the future held for her, her family, and their friends.