God of War: Daughter of War

"So out of curiosity, if you are still bound by the spell, which we know is still active, how will you travel with us?" Pandora asked, because that was the only flaw in the plan they had come up with, there was no way for Freya to actually travel with them so she could point out where the core of the spell was located.

"I crafted a special ward that should, in theory, stave off the effects of the spell until we find the core." Freya replied, though she didn't fault Pandora for asking such a thing in the first place, it was a valid question to have, especially in the face of Odin's spells and curses, before she thought about another piece of information to share with them as Brok used the Seed for Vanaheim on the Door, something she'd have to ask about later, "However, if the ward fails to do it's job I do have an... alternate method... that will allow me to travel with you in Vanaheim, or at least I think it'll work, but it will prevent me from being able to fight beside you."

"Your falcon form?" Flurry inquired, as that was the most logical option left for Freya, save for her sending the goddess into her bag until they figured out where the spell's core was located, but this was the better option in her eyes, and she found that Freya nodded her head in agreement, "Well, if it comes to that you won't have to worry, as you have a number of skilled warriors to take down any enemies that get in the way of breaking the spell."

As they walked into the Realm Between Realms, and waited for the other Door to appear, Baldur asked Brok why he was so interested in coming with them, not knowing that one of the dwarf brothers was usually following them in the realms to make sure their armor and weapons were well taken care of. Brok told them that it was due to the fact that he had an old drinking friend he wanted to meet up with and helping them get into Vanaheim, and to the spell's core, would point him in the right direction, since he knew she was running with Freyr, Freya's brother. That, of course, caused Freya to think about her brother for a moment, no doubt remembering the last time they had actually spoken to each other, before she sighed as she realized that she might have to amend the bond that existed between them, or at least make an attempt. Kratos, on the other hand, was a little interested in meeting Freyr, because if Brok said the path would bring them to him than he trusted his judgement, as he spoke plainly and he had his own bond of friendship with the blue dwarf, he liked him more than his brother most of the time.

Flurry, on the other hand, remained silent as they reached the end of the loop that they walked whenever they needed to move from one realm to another, as the Door appeared before them and they stepped through it, where she and the rest of the group found that they were in a lush forest, where the Door was inside a tree hollow.

"Okay, I feel the pull of the binding curse." Freya said, though as she prepared to take a step forward Flurry stopped her for a moment as she stepped out into the open herself, something that caused her and Baldur to glance at each other for a few seconds before she glanced at Kratos, "What is she doing?"

"Watch." Kratos replied, which was when Flurry closed her eyes and sent her magic out, pinpointing the exact locations of the green ravens that were Odin's eyes, spying on everyone against their will no less, before she pulled out her bow, drew and readied one of her arrows, before loosing it into the air, where it burst into a number of magical arrows that simply disappeared into Vanaheim.

"There, all of Odin's green spy ravens have been taken out... may their souls find comfort on the Raven Tree." Flurry stated, where she returned her bow to where she normally kept it and drew the Serpent's Glaive, as she figured it was time for her to use a different weapon that wasn't her sickles or something new she had obtained, before she turned her gaze towards the rest of the forest, "Let's go crush Odin's foul spell!"

As they found a way forward, which involved having to wedge between a wall and some roots, Freya discovered that even her ward spell was no match for the power of Odin's spell, or maybe it was Fimbulwinter for some reason, to which she did the only thing she could right now, she turned into a falcon and flew above them. While she did that Freya also warned the group about some of the plants, as some were extra aggressive thanks to the humidity that was part of Fimbulwinter, due to the fact that there was one with bulbs that enlarged when someone got near them and would explode in a poisonous way if they were touched. The best way to move forward was to deal damage to it from afar, which Kratos was able to do by just throwing the Leviathan Axe at the obstacle in question, allowing them to enter a ruin that seemed to be part of the path they were following, while Flurry dealt with a few using a small bit of her magic. Baldur noticed Pandora looting a wooden chest and had to ask about it, where she told him that they generally looted any chest they came across, since the resources went into Flurry's bag and, if they needed them for one of Brok or Sindri's projects, they were always close at hand.

While they did that Freya mentioned that this had been a market at one point in time, which explained the layout, and that it had been a place where multiple villages had come to trade, but it pained her to see that the people never rebuilt it while making her wonder if Odin was behind the ruins they were seeing. Kratos also found a golden chest that contained a blue power gem, letting Freya and Baldur watch as he absorbed the power from it and then handed it to Flurry, who added it to the collection that was in her bag before telling them that she had a whole collection of gems, armors, resources, and other things. Pandora chuckled as she noticed the look Baldur was giving them, even though he had trained with Flurry for a time, and told him that the collection of weapons he had seen was nothing in comparison to the true collection that was inside her bag, and the only way to do that would be for Flurry to invite them inside to take a peak. Of course they were interrupted by some of the brood enemies they had fought before, back during their previous adventure, though these seemed more like they were made out of wood and nature magic, like they had been made by Freya before she married Odin.

Freya found that her presence wasn't even needed right now, as Kratos slashed his way through the elementals with ease, Pandora dodged attacks and crushed her enemies, Baldur did well as he tore through those that came at him, and Flurry needed no help as she ducked and weaved around her foes while slashing them apart, like a goddess of battle.

Their time in the area ended after Kratos recovered yet another of Kvasir's many poems, which Flurry added to the shelf she had made for them in her bag, earning her a look from the falcon that was Freya that looked like she wasn't sure if she was joking or not, but decided that it was best to not question Flurry. Freya did have to ask if the reason behind things was due to Odin invading after she was exiled, unable to come and help her people in their time of need, and Mimir admitted that he had no idea, he was imprisoned not long after Odin cast his spells on her. Brok also commented on the fact that they made sure to get every bit of loot, it was just an observation on his part, before they fully left the market area and continued along the path that Freya was following, before circling back as she told them that there were gulon up ahead. Sure enough Flurry, her family, and their friends found that the gulon were aggressive, rushing at them in an attempt to tear them down and eat them, but Flurry rushed at one of them and jumped into the air, thrusting the tip of her glaive into the back of her foe and into the ground.

Such a thing allowed her to use a bit of her magic as she replaced the weapon with a magical duplicate and spun around it while using the real one, slicing through all of the gulons coming at her, and once they were done she dismissed the magical copy and cleaned the head of the real glaive.

"I know you told us about some of your fights, and even showed us some of them... but now I understand why Baldur was so eager to clash with you." Freya commented, as Flurry was constantly showing her why she was a force to be reckoned with, and that wasn't the insane magical power that she could use against her enemies, and part of her was actually starting to dread the day that something forced her to use her full power.

Baldur chuckled for a moment, because he had told his mother about his encounters with Flurry, both during the hunt and during his training, and how she understood why he had been so eager for his meetings with her, and while she was worried about Flurry's full power he was eager to see her in action. Brok, on the other hand, talked about the broken bond that Freya had with her brother, though she, for the most part, was silent on the matter, because she either didn't want to take about it or really had no idea what her plan was if she ended up meeting Freyr. There was another reason Brok was taking the time to talk about this, as he knew that Atreus was being a 'right pain in the ass' and that Flurry and Atreus needed to mend their own bridges as well, because at the rate they were going one of them was going to do something they would regret. Pandora was excluded from the topic since she didn't seem to be fighting with Atreus all too much, rather she seemed to be letting her sister do all the work on that regard since she was the eldest sibling, causing her to nod her head as she focused on the path they were following.

Kratos stopped at a runic chest and quickly tracked down the spinners that were linked to it, allowing him and his daughters to break the lock on it without delay so he could loot it, though Freya was focused on the devastation that was around them, causing her to wonder how much of the damage was just Mjolnir.

"It depends on the wielder... and sometimes on the weapon. This weapon ended the First Titanomachy, or First Great War, and was considered the most feared weapon on Olympus." Flurry remarked, taking a moment to draw the weapon that was on her back, allowing Baldur and Freya to get a better look at the reforged Blade of Olympus, as they knew that it had been remade before the end of the Second Great War, "In my hands it killed multiple corrupted gods and ended our war with Zeus and the Prime Primordial Evil... one wielder used it to install fear into everyone, another used it for hope and freedom."

Brok nodded his head as the blade was returned to it's place on Flurry's back, waiting to be used against a foe that was worthy of facing it's might, while they passed by a runic mirror that was like the one in Alfheim's desert, something Kratos might find the way to unlock during this visit. Following that they found a wulver that was eating an animal it had caught, as it was stripping the last of the meat off of the bones, before it noticed them and rushed towards them, which was when Baldur showed off a bit of his skills as he spun his weapon and parried the incoming attack. In the next instant he turned it around and slashed at the wulver for a few seconds, removing it's arms before taking it's head clean off, showing them that he was more effective than he had been when he fought them with his fists, which meant Flurry's training had paid off in the end. Of course that wasn't the only one that attacked the group, as a few more dropped down to fight them, though Freya wasn't surprised to find that Kratos, Flurry, and Pandora cleaved their way through their foes without wasting much time, demonstrating why they were such a hard group to take down.

Brok also opened a trap meant for the Aesir so they could use the path that both he and Freya were following, until he just stepped into a rope trap that wrapped around his right foot and hauled him into the trees, causing them to rush after his cursing as Kratos discovered a camp at the end of it.

"Now what do we have... here?" a voice asked, where they found a vanir figure, who looked a lot like Freya, stepping out of the shadows as he talked, though in the following moment he noticed Baldur standing among them, something that caused him to stop in his tracks as he realized that something was wrong, "I... I don't understand. Baldur? What are you doing here?"

"...Right, Odin's probably told everyone that I was dead, since my 'death' was supposed to start Fimbulwinter... the reality is that me losing my immortality caused Fimbulwinter to start." Baldur replied, his tone revealing that he was annoyed with his father, to the point that he was calling him by his actual name and not either his title or what he was to Baldur, something that caused the stranger to pause for a moment, "Also, just so you and your friends know, Freyr, I'm not on Odin's side... he's done nothing to earn my loyalty."

"We're here to assist Freya with a problem that Odin left her with... I would suggest you lower your weapons, all of you, as I can see the four of you, and the dog, hiding in the shadows." Flurry stated, where Kratos found that a few lights sprung up around the camp, revealing a female dwarf cutting Brok down so he'd fall on his head, a dark elf and a light elf standing side by side, and a Traveler that wasn't wearing the traditional Traveler armor, plus a big dog that yawned, "Your sister is well, Freyr, and we are no friends of Odin's."

As Freyr opened his mouth Freya flew in and landed near her brother, who seemed surprised before being shocked as she did something reckless, she let go of the falcon form for a few seconds, to let him and the others see that she was telling the truth, before reapplying the spell to avoid being torn from Vanaheim. Freya explained that she needed the family's aid to break a curse that Odin had placed on her, she couldn't do it on her own, but promised him that once this task was done, and she was sure it was fully broken, she would come back and talk with him. She also told her brother why Mimir, who was someone Freyr hated thanks to her marriage to Odin, was with them, that he had aided Kratos' family and to help them he had to be killed and raised in his current position, and he had been helping them a lot over the years, in his own manner since he no longer had a body to assist them. In fact Mimir offered to help Freyr with resisting Odin's invasion, or whatever he was doing right now, while at the same time Brok followed the female dwarf over to the smithy she had set up, since she was who he had been searching for, to which Kratos set Mimir on the stone war room table before following Freya to the gate that lead out to another portion of the realm.

"You know, seeing you and Freyr reminds me: I should speak with Deimos again." Kratos commented, while they headed out through the gate and entered a passage that allowed them to progress once more, moving through another forest area in the process as Freya continued to follow the tug of Odin's curse, where he noticed Baldur's confused look, "Flurry has a very special mirror, given to her by the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite, so we could communicate with the gods of the Land Between Realms, a place Tyr invited us to after the Second Great War. Every now and then we use it to speak with them about events... or catch up with our friends."

"The Goddess of Love, eh?" Freya inquired, where Flurry found that the falcon looked at her in a new way for a few seconds, like she was imagining something that hadn't been said, before moving deeper into the forest and came to a stop in an area that looked like another ruined village, only to find something in the way, "An Ancient!?"

"Not a problem." Flurry remarked, causing Freya and Baldur to pause as she drew the Blade of Olympus and spun it around for a moment, awakening the power that was inside it as she flashed forward, ducking under the Ancient's arm as it tried to punch her, where a series of slashes appeared on the limb as Flurry stabbed it in the heart, killing it instantly, before using a swift turn to shatter it into it's various resources as she sheathed the blade, "All done."

Kratos had to catch Freya as she fell to the ground, in pure shock to be exact since she wasn't expecting this to happen in the first place, and once she was ready to depart they quickly made their way through the ruins that were in front of them and found an area with some gulons. Together the four warriors brought them down as Freya continued to make sure the path was clear, often reporting what she saw so they had a better idea of what to expect, though she found that any worry she had was quickly dashed as they tore through each group of enemies. She had seen them fight when they were checking out the shrine that Atreus wanted to show all of them, after Odin had revealed that truth to his family, but this was on a whole new level, like Kratos and his daughters were focusing on the bonds they had formed before coming to Midgard. In fact she was sure of that when Flurry switched to her bow, arrows piercing enemies before they could even reach the group, with a scary amount of accuracy, and even the creatures that dared to hunt her while she was in the air were taken out as well, as her reflexes were out of this world.

Even the Einherjar stood no chance against them, which was when a chill ran down Freya's spine as Flurry let out a whistle that seemed so eerie that made her wonder if the goddess in question had made it, since she didn't believe someone like Flurry was capable of creating such a thing, all while she faded into the mist and attacked her Einherjar by stepping out of the mist and lashing out with the sickles. It gave way to a disturbing idea, that Flurry's godhood wasn't what they thought it was and that there was something else she was attuned to, something no one would want to be known as, and yet Freya found herself refusing to even accept that she had thought of such a thing in the first place. Sure, there were signs that could lead one to believe such a thing, but even then it was hard to believe that someone like Flurry would take that position, so she simply discarded the idea entirely, rather choosing to believe that she was either linked to battle, which made sense due to her father being the God of War, or maybe life itself. She also found that the lion-bull gradungr of Vanaheim were really no match for the family, as their battle plan seemed to be letting their foes reveal their tactics first, to get a sense of what a foe was capable of, before bringing them down, and the gradungr was no different, all while Flurry made sure to collect the new resources that were dropped.

They even passed by a draugr hole of the Hateful and brought her down in a matter of seconds, which was amazing in her eyes, and any obstacles were brought down before she or Baldur could say anything, demonstrating just how skilled the trio was, before Freya eventually found where the core of the spell was hidden: a building that was significant to Freya.

"Let me lend a hand." Flurry said, as the moment they entered the building Freya revealed that the curse was bound in the roots of the World Tree, meaning Nidhogg would come running if they messed with them, to which she created a barrier in the area they were in and made it it's own little dimension, like her bag, before she nodded, "Go ahead."

"What did you do?" Baldur asked, which seemed to be a common one when dealing with Flurry, she did things that were just beyond the scope of what someone else could do, while at the same time his mother tore into the roots, picking Vanaheim's first and destroyed the part that was in front of her, allowing her to assume her normal form before continuing her work on the other eight.

"I temporarily moved us into a private dimension, cut off from the other realms... damaging the roots would cause Nidhogg to come and attack us, and I'd rather not kill her." Flurry replied, though at the same time she smiled as she imagined the look on Odin's face as he realized that this curse was being broken at long last, while Freya also let a smile appear on her face as she crippled the curse, tearing more of Odin's claws out of her so she could be the goddess she once was, "This will give Freya the peace she needs to break the spell."

Baldur decided that it was best to just let Flurry do as she wished, allowing him to watch his mother as she growled and let out a few small screams of agony as she tore at the roots, breaking each one as she tugged and pulled at them, until the knot that was the core shattered and the runes on her arms glowed as the spell was broken, just like what happened when his immortality was removed.

"It's... It's gone... the spell is finally gone!" Freya said, something that allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief as she nodded to Flurry for a moment, who lowered the dimensional area and allowed her to walk out into Vanaheim, though this time she found that she wasn't in danger of being torn from the realm and could freely walk in her home realm once more, plus all of the others if she wanted to, before she smiled at them, "Thank you..."

Kratos nodded, as he was pleased to see that Freya was free of Odin's curse, though as Flurry released her magic she found two things, one being a Frozen Flame and another being an odd amulet that seemed to have enchantments that could be inserted into it, though with her bag the enchantments could be passive gains, causing her to smile as she looked forward to what the future held in store for her, her family, and their friends.