God of War: Daughter of War

After speaking with Athena, and learning the truth of what was going on, Kratos and Flurry explored the rest of the outside of the Sun Chariot, just to see if there was anything important for them to do or collect before they headed inside the main structure, only to find that the lone gate was closed and there was nothing to pick up. With that in mind the pair walked into the main chamber and discovered that it happened to contain a lift that would bring them to the temple's entrance, so they stood on it as Kratos moved the lever and let the lift move them up to the next level. In the following seconds they found a couple of satyr, wearing nothing for some odd reason, guarding a couple of gates, two that were intact and one that had been shattered by the Sun Chariot violently hitting the ground earlier, causing the pair to draw their weapons once more. Flurry really had no idea why there were satyrs outside Helios' sacred temple, but she decided not to question what they were seeing right now and focused on taking out the enemies that were blocking their way, all her father gutted one of the satyr as she loosed an arrow into one that was behind the left gate.

Once the couple of satyr were dealt with the pair found that none of the main gates would open, but Flurry did spot what looked like a path to the left of the lift, where she and her father found more satyr to fight, these ones carrying two blades in their hands and putting up more of a fight than the previous ones. The ones with weapons were definitely tougher than those who went into battle without gear, though both she and Kratos had experience in the dual wielding type of combat and that meant that none of the three satyrs had a chance, especially when one of them was grabbed by Kratos and pulled in half a few seconds later. As soon as their enemies were taken care of the pair continued down the rest of the path and found that it was rather short, ending in a lever for them to pull, so while Kratos did so Flurry held her bow at the ready, just in case something tried to attack her father, only to discover that they were left alone. Interestingly enough the lever did open a gate, though it was one that happened to be resting near Athena's statue, requiring them to return to the lift and walk back to the statue, before heading up another path they had ignored earlier.

There were a few more satyr to deal with along the way, but with the father and daughter working together it was hard for any of them to even get a hit in, as Kratos used his experience to avoid harm while slaughtering his foes, with Flurry backing him up by loosing arrows into the ones who were at a distance and using her sickles on those who got close.

With the satyr taken care of the pair found their way to the area that the lone ranged satyr had been in earlier, where Kratos pulled another lever and found that all it did was open the gate right in front of them, though it did nothing for the main gate that would lead into the temple. In that moment Flurry had an idea as she had her father latch onto the door with both of his blades, causing him to nod his head in agreement, he saw it as well, allowing her to watch as he tore open the main door in a matter of seconds, one half still on it's hinges while the other was almost torn off. Flurry wasn't too worried about the bits of damage they were inflicting on the area, because once this was back in the air she was sure it would mend itself and return to what it had been like before the Sun Chariot fell out of the sky, or at least she sure hoped so. The pair paused for just a few moments, just to be sure that nothing came rushing out of the now opened passage, and when Kratos was sure that the coast was clear he entered the temple as Flurry followed close behind him, bow at the ready.

The inside of the temple was made of smooth stone, to the point where Flurry was sure that she could see her reflection at times as she looked at the floor, but for the most part it seemed like the entire structure, which was well lit thanks to all the torches on the walls, might have nothing to throw at them.

"You know, for a temple that would normally be off limits to the mortals of the land, this place is actually quite nice." Flurry commented, because while she knew that the godly beings liked to have great monuments made for them, and she had seen a few of them in the various cities they had visited over the years, she found it odd that Helios, of all the gods, would have such a nice place, especially given that it was constantly moving through the sky.

Kratos said nothing to that as a group of harpies moved down to attack them, where he concluded that the temple was safe from monsters when it was up in the air and was overrun after being knocked out of the sky, since it made more sense to him, though the majority of his focus was on the enemies that were blocking the way forward. Interestingly enough these harpies were far too easy for them to take down, as one well placed attack was more than enough to take them down, but that only made him wonder where the true threat was lurking, since there was always one, based on his experience. They discovered two statues that could be moved and levers to flip, one opening the leftmost door while the other did the same for the rightmost door, though they decided to move into the right one and found a single legionnaire guarding the chamber that was on the other side. As Kratos started to deal with it, however, they found that a few more appeared without much delay, causing the father and daughter to glance at each other for a moment before unleashing their fire powers on them, taking all of them out in no time.

Such a thing allowed Flurry to find that the chamber they had picked was the dead end, complete with a lever that just so happened to open a door in the other portion of the temple, causing them to back off and pass through the leftmost door so they could continue their exploration, and with no enemies they were able to pass through the now open door that the lever was connected to.

Following that Kratos and Flurry found a large lift that was locked into place and shattered the locks with their weapons, allowing it to descend into the depths of the temple, though as the lift started to move more undead legionnaires started to appear around them. Since the monsters appeared on the edge of the circular lift the pair simply did the smart thing, as in they latched onto each foe and hurled them off the lift, either by throwing them off or kicking them off, though at the same time both warriors kept their guards up in case something else showed up. After a few moments the lift came to a stop at a floor that was identical to the one they had walked down to reach the lift in the first place, and once it was locked into place they discovered what appeared to be a suit of armor with a flaming spirit inside it, which animated it, that came to deal with both of them. The key to defeating it, as they soon discovered, was for one of them to take away it's shield so the other could blast it with a bit of their fire power, and when Flurry did it, as she went second, her magic destroyed their foe entirely, no doubt due to being weakened from her father's attacks.

The pair stood on the lift for a few more moments, just to be sure there were no more enemies to deal with, before they headed up one of two sets of stairs that were in front of them and walked down the passage that was at the top of level of this floor, allowing the duo to head deeper into the large temple. As they walked through the main door and stared at the large chamber it had brought them to, however, Kratos and Flurry found that the door closed behind them, meaning that they either had to find something to unlock it or find another path to continue on their quest. It didn't appear that there was a way to actually cross over to the center of the chamber, though that was when Kratos found a ruined pillar that he could push, forming a makeshift walkway for him and his daughter to use to reach the center platform. Flurry looked at the area that was around them and found that there was a single statue for them to look at, a large one of a lady who had nothing over her chest and some cloth attire over her lower half, and she was holding a sun icon.

I am grateful that you have come, Ghost of Sparta and Flurry Heart. a female voice said, which was definitely coming from the statue, which was alive thanks to the essence of another goddess, making Flurry wonder how many of them were actually hanging on before they slipped into Morpheus' slumber, The titan Atlas has been freed from the pits of Tartarus, and he has taken my brother, Helios, from his rightful place in the sky.

"Eos? What does Atlas want with the God of the Sun?" Kratos inquired, naming the goddess that was talking to them, as it gave Flurry a chance to know who they were talking to, even though there were a lot more gods and goddesses than she was expecting when she started her various lessons.

"Well, most gods and goddesses are connected to their aspects... Zeus for the sky, Poseidon for the seas, and Helios for the sun," Flurry remarked, which made a lot of sense after seeing how removing Helios caused the sun itself to crash into the ground, something that made her wonder what might happen if a major god was slain, a terrifying thought that she quickly shelved, never to be opened again, "I take it that leaving Helios in Atlas' hands is a bad thing?"

...yes... Helios holds within him the power of the sun, and in Atlas' hands the titan holds the power to destroy the entire world. Eos replied, which caused Flurry to remain silent for a moment, as she wasn't expecting that answer, all while her father stood there and considered what needed to be done now that they knew a titan was involved, something that was followed by a door on the opposite side of the chamber opening, Please, take the Sun Shield from his throne... walk through the gates of Olympus and you will find me. Hurry, heroes, as the fate of the world rests in your hands.

As the statue went dark, just like what happened with Athena earlier, Flurry found a stone tablet at the edge of the central platform and noted that it was a message from Eos, informing them to find the Cave of Olympus, which might be a key for them to track down more information. With that in mind Kratos did the only thing reasonable in this situation, he raised his blades and smashed the stone tablet until it was nothing more than rubble, making it look like it had been broken at the same time everything else had been damaged in the temple's fall. As he did that Flurry found another pillar that could be used as a walkway and latched onto it with her sickles, pulling it down like her father did earlier, allowing them to leave the area and head over to the now open door to collect the Sun Shield, or fight it's guardian and then pick it up. Flurry did think it was odd that there were no enemies in this portion of the temple, both monsters and guardians, especially since a powerful relic was waiting to be collected, before they came to a stop in front of a cruddy stone throne.

Both of them were expecting a godly throne to be much better than this, though given the state of the rest of the temple it was easy for the pair to determine that colliding with the ground had ruined nearly everything, causing Kratos to use his blades to smash the throne as Flurry picked up the shield that had been stuck in it. It was different than most shields she had seen so far, mostly because it seemed smaller, like a buckler, and seemed to be designed with Helios' likeness on the surface, causing her to hand it to her father as he placed it over his left arm. As he did that a couple of legionnaires quickly appeared and attacked them, where he raised his left arm and they found that bright solar energy burst out of the shield and formed a circle around it, taking the form of an actual shield as Kratos blocked an incoming blow and knocked his foe backwards. Flurry stood off on the sidelines as they realized that these monsters were here mostly to allow her father to get used to the shield and it's powers, since none of the undead legionnaires came at her, where she found that he was able to repel attacks and even projectiles, which was very interesting.

When another pair showed up Kratos understood what they were seeing and handed Flurry the Sun Shield, where she did what he had done, knocking the melee foes back while redirecting projectiles at her opponents, and once they were both done Kratos, with the Sun Shield in hand, unlocked a door and found a set of stairs that they had to walk up.

As they emerged from the underside of the temple, though an opening that brought them back to where Athena's statue was located, Kratos and Flurry found that things had changed, as there were masses of darkness that seemed to be more of Morpheus' power manifesting. Such a thing told them that they needed to get started on their quest, because with what they were seeing it was only a matter of time until his darkness consumed the world itself, though at the same time they found more legionnaires and even one of the monstrous beasts they had fought earlier. Flurry leapt onto the back of the beast and latched her sickles into it's back, securing herself so the creature couldn't shake her off as she forced it off into the group of legionnaires that were off in the distance, leaving her father to take down the rest of them. Kratos wasn't even remotely surprised by this turn of events, as he was getting used to the fact that his daughter was capable of many off things, and that was without taking her new magic into consideration, but he did keep an eye on her while he tore his foes apart.

While Flurry dealt with her enemies, cutting them to bits with her sickles, Kratos found that the Sun Shield could be placed in the center of the platform they had walked by earlier, to access the left gate quite a while ago, and beckoned for her to join him, where she did so without delay and found that, when the shield was in place, the ring around the center of the platform sunk, forming another path for them to use.

"A secret passage, in Helios' temple? This is confusing." Flurry remarked, because this entire structure was usually up in the sky, so it didn't make sense for there to be a passage like this in the first place, and when she glanced at her father she found that he really had no idea why this was here either, but it was their path and they had to follow it.

Kratos found that the hidden stairs brought them to another sealed door, with another Sun Lock, as Flurry was starting to call them since they required the Sun Shield to undo, though as they entered the hidden section of the temple the door closed behind them for some odd reason. Based on what the pair could tell there was a single door for them to open and there were two locks, one on either side of the stone structure, plus there happened to be two statues that could be easily moved into position on either side of the door. With that in mind Kratos and Flurry each took one of the stone statues and started to move them so their weapons could be inserted into the slots that were on either side of the stone door, which did lower into place so beams of bright light could hit the weapons. In the following moment they discovered that the door wasn't actually a door, rather a golden bar emerged from the lower side of the structure and Kratos pulled it out, revealing that it was to form a set of thick steps for them to jump up and reach the upper level of this place.

Such a thing allowed them to reach an area where a statue of Euros rested, along with another Sun Lock, the latter just leading to a dead end, before Flurry had Kratos pull the steps out again and discovered that there was a carved out area for them to stop in, so when it returned to it's natural state they found that it brought them to a new area. This chamber just so happened to have two more statues that were directing the beams they had created with the statues in the prior chamber, so they split up and moved these ones into position as well, directing the beams onto two sun icons. With them in position Kratos climbed up to the sun icons and used the Sun Shield to gather some sun energy into the material before firing it at a sun icon that was on the upper portion of the steps they had climbed up earlier, causing it to light up as the steps moved out. Once the steps were no longer moving Kratos and Flurry headed back into the previous chamber and discovered something interesting, the statue of Euros had moved up slightly to reveal a hidden base, one that happened to have a Sun Lock waiting for them.

The pair glanced at each other for a moment before Kratos inserted the Sun Shield into the lock, where they found that it released a bit of solar energy that likely did more than what they were seeing right now, but it meant that whatever they were doing had to be the right thing. Flurry suspected that the solar energy might do something to the pillars she and her father had seen when they first entered the outskirts of Helios' temple, meaning there had to be two more statues that represented the two other Fire Steeds. Another thing happened as the energy started to shine, part of the flooring by the first two statues sunk and revealed yet another hidden section of the temple, meaning this might allow them to awaken all three Fire Steeds so they could move onto whatever the next part of their quest might be. Walking down the newest set of steps revealed a path that lead back to the area that Eos' statue was resting in, complete with a stone structure that was off to the left of the entrance, which had magic that reminded Flurry of the magical gate they had used after killing Alecto and her sisters.

With that in mind the pair passed through it and discovered that they appeared in what seemed to be a cave, one with two large statues and a path they could climb to reach another area, where Flurry wondered if they would find Eos before the other two Fire Steeds and had to wonder what might happen next.