God of War: Daughter of War

It took a while for the Fire Steeds to reach what had to be their destination, though both Kratos and Flurry were surprised to find that they had flown down into a large hole in the ground, likely created by their collision with the ground, and passed into the Underworld itself, something neither of them were expecting. Fortunately it appeared that Morpheus' fog hadn't reached this place, or maybe it couldn't since it didn't seem to be leaking through the hole in the underground roof, but at the same time both knew that they wouldn't find any aid down here, as Hades and all of the other gods of this place were no doubt asleep as well. Such a thing meant that they would likely have to fight their way through the Underworld, track down something, anything really, to figure out where Helios was being held, since the Fire Steeds had brought them here to find their master, and then free him to restore balance to the world. Flurry knew that there was a chance that they would have to fight Atlas, a titan, but she was hopeful that they could get to the imprisoned god before anything else happened, even if she also knew to expect the unexpected, a lesson her father had taught her over the years.

Of course there was the fact that the Fire Steeds reached the point where they were forced back into their statues, though as the Sun Chariot plummeted out of the air, heading towards a lake of blood, Kratos spotted a path and leapt towards it with all of his might, where he latched onto it with his blades and pulled himself up, only to find that Flurry glided down to him with ease.

"Helios is going to have a lot of work to do when we free him." Flurry remarked, staring out into the massive blood sea that was in front of them, or at least it sure looked like blood based on what she was seeing right now, because the Sun Chariot had landed far off in the distance, lifeless without the Fire Steeds pulling it around.

"Yes, he will. Now, eyes forward... there is no telling what this place will throw at us." Kratos stated, as the Underworld was the last place he expected the Fire Steeds to bring them, especially with all of the dangers that were said to be here, hence why he held his blades tighter than before.

Flurry nodded for a moment as she did the same, drawing her bow as they started to follow the path in front of them, one that seemed to be heading towards a large stone tower off in the far distance, only to find that they had to climb up some rocks walls, so she stayed back for a time, keeping an eye on her father's path. She was making sure that no enemies tried to stop her father from reaching the end of the path, though when he did so he turned and kept watch on her as she climbed on the walls as well, passing by a few stone statues that looked like they had been alive at one point. Such a thing meant a gorgon had to be in the area, as she had seen Albis use her petrification gaze several times over the years, so she kept her guard up as they reached a second stone wall, this one having undead legionnaires hanging on it that wanted to do them harm. With that in mind Flurry stood back and loosed a few arrows into the enemies that were in her father's way, taking all of them down in no time at all, and when the coast was clear Kratos remained near the ledge and watched over her, since he had magic that could be thrown at enemies from afar, but he found that he had no reason to do so, as nothing arrived to stop Flurry in her tracks.

After that they reached an area that a gorgon was definitely guarding, because the creature slithered out of the area that she had been hiding in and revealed herself to the pair, where Flurry discovered that this gorgon had green scales, instead of what she had seen in the past. This one didn't have the snake hood, like Albis had, so the snakes that happened to be her hair had more room to move around and do whatever it was they were supposed to do for the gorgons, and, just like almost all of the female monsters they had come across, this gorgon wasn't wearing anything. Instead of worrying about that fact, like she had done in the past, Flurry rushed at the creature and slashed into her side with one of her sickles, causing it to let out a hiss of pain before Kratos grabbed her head, slammed her into the ground, and literally ripped her head off, tossing it to the side once the deed was done. Of course there were two more gorgons waiting to join the battle, to which the father and daughter split up to tackle one each, where Flurry dodge rolled to her foe's right and jumped onto the gorgon's back, a fact that allowed her to raise her sickles and remove her foe's head, letting it roll as her father took his foe's head.

Kratos had to admit that five years of traveling and fighting, and training with him and Albis, had definitely turned Flurry into a skilled warrior, one he was proud of, though once the gorgons were dealt with the pair continued forward, keeping an eye out for additional enemies that might be waiting for them.

The next part of the pair was a set of stairs carved into the side of the mountain they were walking through, though there were broken sections in it, no doubt due to the fact that no one seemed to use this path anymore, at least not mortals since the Underworld was the realm of the dead, so they had to be careful. With that in mind they jumped at the same time, which caused part of the stairs to break and fall behind them as the pair reached the upper part of this area, but instead of taking some time to comprehend what had happened Kratos continued to move and Flurry followed him, knowing that it was best if they kept moving. The circular area that was just beyond the ruined stairs had a number of undead legionnaires for them to deal with, along with a couple of cyclops that appeared a few moments later, though this time around the pair decided to save time by utilizing their fire abilities to burn away their enemies, Kratos using the Efreet to burn the area around him as Flurry used fireballs to hit anyone not caught in her father's attack. There was one that Kratos stabbed with his blades, allowing him to climb up onto the cyclops' shoulders and forcefully remove it's eye in the span of a few seconds, though at this point Flurry wasn't even surprised by that anymore and was glad that it was the last foe in this area.

After that they had to jump over a decent sized gap, allowing them to cross over to a set of ruins that had some harpies and a gorgon guarding the area, where Kratos used his magic to burn away the flying enemies as Flurry hacked into her foe, dodging attacks as her sickles tore into the creature.

Kratos made sure that Flurry was done with her opponent before he bothered to explore the rest of the ruins, mostly to be sure she didn't need his help with the gorgon, though once she was done he discovered that the bridge connecting the ruins to the rest of the path was broken. With that information in mind he discovered a large moveable stone that could be used to form a way up to a portion of the cliff that rested above them, allowing them to climb behind a short waterfall, without any interruptions, before dropping down on the other side of the path. There were more legionnaires waiting for intruders to reach this part of the stone walkway, confirming that someone didn't want anyone to interfere with Atlas' plot to use Helios' power to bring about the end of the world, but the warriors dealt with them in no time. This time it ended in a dead end, at least until they discovered a path above them that seemed to be leading even deeper in the Underworld, though to access it Kratos smashed a nearby pillar and crushed part of ruins, allowing him and Flurry to continue moving, even if the path brought them to a large dead tree.

Beyond the tree rested a large stone gate that seemed important, since the tower was further beyond that, and to the left of the seemingly dead tree rested a locked door, hence why they headed towards the gate and discovered two animated suits of armor waiting for them, along with a number of harpies. In order to deal with the sets of armor the pair dealt with the harpies first, burning all of the flying foes away with some of their magic, before forcefully removing both of their large shields so they could deal some direct damage to the chest pieces. When they dealt enough damage the suits staggered back for a moment and the pair sprung into action, Kratos stabbed his blades into his foe's chest and landed behind it so he could pull it apart, while Flurry slashed at her opponent's chest and the life faded after her sickles cut into it. After that Flurry found that the energy of the two suits floated through the air before rushing backwards, where she followed them as her father stared at the gate, mostly to see if he could find a way to open it, only for her to discover that the energy did something interesting.

"Father, I've found the path forward." Flurry said, as the bits of energy had joined the door they had walked by and used their power to charge it, like soul energy being used to open the door, and her father nodded his head as he discovered what she had pointed out to him, causing them to continue with their weapons drawn.

The path in question held a smooth tunnel carved into the mountain they had been walking around, one that lead right to an arena with spinning blades moving from one side of the chamber to the other, complete with more suits of armor and harpies, the latter being a favorite in the Underworld as Flurry was discovering. Based on what she was seeing the layout of the Underworld really made no sense, even for a place of torment depending on which area one happened to be in, but having an arena like this, before what appeared to be a decent sized dock, didn't make sense. There was no reason for the souls of the dead to fight in this area, before boarding the ship that would take them deeper into the Underworld, but she guessed that was something that could be directed to Hades, if she had the honor of meeting him at some point, and just focused on cutting down their enemies while burning the harpies with her magic. Once they were done with their enemies the pair approached the dock and Kratos found a large bell resting off to the left, where Flurry let him ring it as she stared out at the massive river that was beyond where they were standing.

Sure enough a large ship moved down the river and rowed down to where they were standing, causing a walkway to lower into place so the pair could walk onto it's deck when it came to a stop, only to find an elderly figure with a long white beard standing nearby, wearing no shirt while having a golden mask of sorts over his face, plus he carried a scythe in one hand and wore the lower half of a robe over his lower body.

"Who calls for the Ferryman? Is it you, Ghost of Sparta?" the figure, Charon as Flurry recognized him from the tales she had learned over the years, inquired, though at the same time he moved down to where they were standing, faster than most of the enemies they had fought so far, before he turned and faced her for a moment.

In the following second Charon, as if sensing something only he could sense, jumped backwards and got away from them, but since he didn't seem to be taking a battle stance neither warrior drew their weapons, all while Flurry found that the figure seemed to be sweating for some reason.

"...Death... What business do you have here?" Charon asked, where Flurry was surprised by his tone, he seemed terrified or scared of her, which was odd since there should be no reason for her to do such a thing to someone like him, while her father seemed to be thinking about the situation they were in.

"We are looking for Helios. Athena tasked us with finding him and Eos said the Fire Steeds would bring us to where their master is being held... which apparently is somewhere in the Underworld." Flurry replied, figuring that if he was talking to her, and not her father despite the fact that he was clearly the more experienced between them, she might as well give him an answer, "So, um, we need to explore the rest of this place to find him and were hoping that you might be able to aid us in some manner... or at least find the titan Atlas, since he's the one holding Helios right now."

Charon stood there for a moment before beckoning for them to move, where he took his position on the ship and let the vessel move deeper into the Underworld, though at the same time Kratos stood there, taking in the fact that Charon, like almost every godly figure he had encountered, seemed to link Flurry with Death. This time it was more than figuring out that the two were linked in some manner, likely the sickles given what he had seen of them over the years, rather this time around Flurry's presence actually freaked out someone who was more experienced than her, someone who had no right being scared of his daughter. He glanced at the Ferryman for a moment and found that he was focused on moving them towards their destination, Atlas he reasoned, before noticing that the figure was glancing at Flurry, who was sitting near a stone statue at the front of the ship, of a woman crossed with a lioness. Charon was absolutely terrified of her, almost as if she were Thanatos himself, the God of Death itself, and that with a wave of her hand she could kill him with little to no real effort on her part, so it seemed like he was pleasing her to stay on her good side.

As he thought about all of that, however, Charon moved them into what appeared to be the depths of the Underworld, a place that seemed to be the opposite of what they needed, and positioned them near what appeared to be a small shrine to Zeus, which held an artifact of some kind inside it.

"The Gauntlet of Zeus... you will need it to deal with the now freed Atlas." Charon stated, where he tapped his scythe on the deck of the ship and a walkway formed for them to walk down to the small pitiful temple, though he made no move to leave as Kratos and Flurry started to walk down it, "Do not worry, I won't leave until you are back on the ship."

That, alone, confirmed Kratos' thoughts on the matter, the Ferryman was terrified of Flurry and he didn't want to upset her by leaving them without a way to get out of this cavernous area, though he focused on the suits of armor that seemed to be the guardians of the gauntlet. Like the pair expected neither foe stood much of a chance and it wasn't long before the area was clear, allowing Flurry to climb up the side of the statue before prying the golden gauntlet, with what had the face of Zeus on the upper portion of it, off of it's resting place. Kratos found that it seemed larger than it needed to be, as he knew that the King of the Gods wasn't too much taller or larger than he was, before they found that the object held the power to shrink and grow depending on who was using it, as it shrunk when Flurry put it on and it grew when he tried it on. The gauntlet also doubled as a weapon as they found some legionnaires coming to deal with them and Kratos used it to smash through the shields that their new foes carried into battle, a worthwhile thing since that meant they might have the power to break down walls and other things that were blocking the way.

With the Gauntlet of Zeus in hand Kratos and Flurry returned to Charon and he moved them deeper into the Underworld, this time no doubt heading in the direction of Atlas, or whatever the next step of their journey was, as they were following the bright light of Helios that was off in the far distance... and as they drew close to the palace Kratos heard the siren song once more, causing him to leap off as he called for Calliope again.

"Someone's using illusions to try and fool father... reminds me of the Furies." Flurry commented, which was just annoying that there was someone out there that would try and use this 'Calliope' against her father, sort of like how the Furies had used all sorts of tricks and people to try and do the same thing, causing her to turn towards Charon, "Thanks for the lift, Charon. I'll make sure the gods know that you did a good job helping us out... provided I can catch up with my father."

The Ferryman said nothing as he tossed a small green gemstone at her, which seemed to contain a green flame that she and her father could use to gain a new power, causing her to catch it and nod as she jumped off the ship and followed after Kratos as they moved into what had to be Hades' palace, and faced whatever dangers it might have for them.