God of War: Daughter of War

Flurry found that no new enemies showed up to attack them as her father jumped off the ship and she followed after him, which as understandable since this was the path leading to the palace of the god who ruled over the Underworld, and since the gods had tasked them with saving Helios it stood to reason they'd leave the pair alone.

"Father, slow down." Flurry said, as it was so strange to see her father, who was usually focused on the missions that they were given, be distracted so easily by the sheer possibility that his late daughter might be within reach, but at the very least her words seemed to stall him.

"I saw Calliope... I must make sure she's okay." Kratos stated, because due to his actions his own flesh and blood daughter had been denied the life that had been ahead of her, so he wanted to make sure her soul had found it's way into the Asphodel Meadows, one of the five regions of the Underworld that housed ordinary souls.

"As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I doubt that was her... she would have stayed here to see you again, right?" Flurry inquired, something that caused Kratos to pause for a moment, as what he had seen had turned and floated off in the direction of the palace they were currently walking towards, but if it really was his late daughter he realized that Flurry was right, Calliope would have stuck around to see them, "And, in the off chance that it is her, she might be playing around... but, since this is the Underworld, I'd wager what you saw was a wraith or some other foul creature that's designed to lure you, and others like you, to your untimely doom."

Kratos said nothing to that as he realized that Flurry was talking about the tale of the sirens, creatures who lured men that drank seawater to their doom by calling to them, promising that they were the wives and daughters they had left behind, a fact that caused him and others to throw the affected overboard, least they endanger the ship. Such a thing caused him to realize that his daughter was right, someone in the Underworld was trying to play at his emotions, using Calliope's form and music against him, and whoever had done so would feel his wrath in due time, once he found them anyway. It also made him realize something else, whoever was trying to trick him had only used his late daughter, instead of adding his late wife into the mix, meaning that part was either coming up next or they felt that he would ignore Lysandra. Now that he knew of the trick he also hoped that his wife was somewhere in the Asphodel Meadows, since she was pure like their daughter, to which Kratos steeled himself once more as he turned towards the palace, causing Flurry to smile as her father, the one she was used to, stood before her once more.

With his head screwed on right again, and he knew that the figure he saw was likely an illusion, Kratos and Flurry entered the palace, finding that it was more elegant than what either of them thought Hades was capable of, meaning this had to be a temple or palace that belonged to Persephone. Such a thing was confirmed as they noticed a few stone tomes that were open and placed in locations for them to read, where they detailed the story of Persephone and revealed that this was, in fact, her temple, not Hades' like they originally assumed when they first saw it. One tome revealed that the various seasons were created due to the God of the Underworld taking her as his bride and Demeter, Persephone's mother, just refusing to let the earth bare fruit until her daughter was returned, but, since she had eaten some pomegranate, she was cursed to spend half a year down here. Another detailed that life flourished and thrived when she was above ground, with her mother and everything she held dear, and that everything seemed to wither away and die when she returned to her husband in the Underworld, doing with the seasons Flurry had learned about over the years.

One thing she noted, however, was that this seemed to be one side of the story, designed to make one believe her plight while not giving everyone an idea of what had actually happened, causing her to keep her eyes open for any additional tomes as Kratos pushed open the door leading to the next level.

There they found that the phantom that Kratos had been following had disappeared and a number of foes appeared out of thin air, a fair amount of satyrs and even a beast of Morpheus, where Flurry did the reasonable thing by attacking the former as her father dealt with the latter. It was a fair division of labor in her eyes, as her father was stronger than she was and he could keep the beast contained in one area, and that wasn't taking their new green flame into consideration, as Charon's Wrath dealt good damage to their foes. Flurry knew this as she formed a fireball made of green flames at a pair of satyrs, burning them as they screamed in agony, giving her a chance to rush to her father's side so he could touch the crystal and access it's power as well, since she assumed Charon meant for them both to use some of his power. With the green flames in hand Kratos blasted the beast in the back after getting on top of it, causing the creature to howl in pain as it moved around the chamber they were in, all while he stabbed into it's back to keep doing damage.

Flurry, on the other hand, used the green flames as a distraction as she slashed at the satyrs, cutting into their legs while opening a path to their chests, where she could deal the most damage with her sickles, though when one knocked her to the ground she got back up and took it's head before it could even stop her.

"You know, this just raises more questions and leaves less answers." Flurry remarked, speaking the instant the last of her enemies were taken care of, while at the same time Kratos wrapped the burning chains of his around the beast's head and severed it, making her wonder if the ones near his wrists could do the same thing, "One would think that either Hades' or Persephone's latent powers would keep the temple safe from unwanted intruders, despite the fact Morpheus' fog put all of the gods and goddesses to sleep... so how did his minions get in here in the first place?"

"What are you thinking?" Kratos inquired, because Flurry was one smart girl, that was a fact he had come to understand over the years training her and witnessing her skills with his own eyes, and he could see that the gears were turning in her head as she glanced at the monsters that had been turned into corpses and bloodstains.

"I mean, this would be totally weird, and raise even more questions... but could Hades or Persephone be behind this and set this up as a trap to kill us?" Flurry said, as the only way she could see monsters getting around the protective barriers that the two rulers of the Underworld would have placed around their domains, to keep the various monsters out, was if those very gods allowed said monsters inside, which, if she was right, only made her wonder why they'd do such a thing in the first place.

Kratos had nothing to say to that, as he knew that there were some tales of Persephone being unhappy with her entire marriage and how she was only out of the Underworld for half of the year, but even then he couldn't see a god, much less one of the major Olympians, trying to destroy the entire world. Of course if it were Ares they were talking about he'd no doubt accept Flurry's suggestion as the truth, he despised the God of War for everything he had done to him, but since it was Hades or Persephone he couldn't say anything. All he could do was grunt and make a shrugging motion in response, telling her that he had no idea on the matter, especially since it made one wonder if the gods in question might be up and about right now, and if that was the case it would raise even more questions than before. There was also the fact that she was essentially accusing an Olympian of freeing a titan from his bindings so he could bring about the end of the world, a fact that the others would take offense to, especially after how she acted towards Athena earlier, so all he could do right now was hope that none of the gods were behind this series of events.

Since there wasn't anything else for them to talk about the pair pressed onward, moving from one floor to the next while keeping their eyes peeled for enemies, such as more satyrs and harpies guarding some golden icons that looked like they might be modeled after a gorgon's head. The icons, as it turned out, seemed to release bursts of energy that appeared to be the gaze of a gorgon, instantly crushing whatever monster or intruder got this far into the temple, which Flurry just found to be weird since there should be actual guards, who were currently missing. Kratos, of course, didn't have much to say about the situation, rather he focused on their enemies and the new hazard, showing her that he was really focused on figuring out what was going on, since the end of the temple likely had answers to some of their questions. Flurry also found a way to smash the icons to cancel their ability and give themselves more room to fight all of the monsters that had come to kill them both, ending with them wiping out the group of enemies so Kratos could open the next door leading up to yet another floor.

The next group of enemies the wraith brought them to happened to be armored cyclops and more harpies, though both of them were sure that this wasn't Calliope, since she clearly wouldn't try to kill her father, nor anyone that was close to him like Flurry was, but, without any other options, they had no choice but to follow it. Flurry found the construction of the entire temple to be weird, it was just one long series of floors with a single set of stairs linking one to another, going in a circular pattern as they moved higher and higher. She did find the armored cyclops to be an interesting challenge for just a few moments, mostly until she and her father discovered that they fought like their unarmored counterparts, so it was just a matter of remembering how to get around their weapons, climb their arms, and then slash them in the neck a few times to end their lives. It was actually somewhat disappointing to her, that the new type of enemy didn't have any new or different tactics, causing her to sigh as she brought hers down and watched as her father did the same with his, though he used his to crush some of the harpies as well, killing two birds with one stone.

There were a few more gorgon icon chambers and more floors with armored cyclops guarding them, meaning whoever had created this place had no originality, before they found a lift that one of them had to turn a crank to raise them little by little. Of course the lift was attacked by harpies, which seemed to be a favorite pass time of theirs, just attacking lifts or areas that people moved through to harass whoever was passing through, so while Kratos turned the crank Flurry raised her bow and loosed some arrows at her targets. The lift brought them to a new chamber, identical to a couple that they had passed through before this point, where they were attacked by more harpies and more gorgons, these ones wearing odd golden chains in an X pattern while exposing their breasts, not to mention they had purple scales. This time, however, Kratos and Flurry did something different, they used the gazes of the gorgons to trap their allies in stone and smashed all of the statues before the monsters could free themselves, before removing their heads to ensure the same fate didn't befall them.

After that they finally, at long last, reached their destination, the peak of the temple where they found a large tree with a stone bench resting next to it, with a grove resting around them, before discovering a figure with a black dress that just so happened to be sitting on the bench, which caused Flurry's eyes to widen in surprise.

"It... it can't be. Persephone's awake?!" Flurry remarked, keeping her voice low as she and Kratos stood at the opening of the passage that had brought them to this point, since it didn't look like the figure had noticed them yet, but she knew it was a rouse, the goddess knew she and her father were standing there.

"Steel yourself... something about this smells of trickery." Kratos replied, following his daughter's decision to keep his own voice low, because if all of the gods were supposed to be asleep, like Athena had told him, seeing one in the flesh, looking as if she was unbothered by Morpheus' fog, informed him that something was up, potentially what his daughter had said before this point, to which he gestured for her to follow his lead as he stepped forward, "Lady Persephone, it is good to see that one Olympian is still awake."

"You surprise me, Ghost of Sparta. I expected you to explode in anger at the sight of me sitting here, after searching for your late daughter." Persephone commented, which she knew either to being aware of what happened in the Underworld, at least to her own degree after working and living with Hades for some time, or because she knew about the wraith and was keeping back her disappointment over the fact that Kratos was still alive, causing her to turn towards them, "Calliope is well, in case you are wondering... living with the rest of the pure souls in the Elysium Fields. Shall I open the way to her, so you can see her again?"

"No... it takes a load off my mind, knowing that she is where she belongs." Kratos answered, an answer that pained him to make, because if he was alone, and didn't have Flurry with him, he was sure that he would have taken the offer without even thinking about it, even if it meant dooming the entire world to Atlas and Morpheus, before he considered something he hadn't considered until that very moment, "What of Lysandra? Is she with Calliope?"

"Your late wife? Honestly, I have no idea... her soul never arrived." Persephone said, something that struck Flurry as totally odd, because every soul eventually ended up in the Underworld, save for monsters anyway, so the fact that Lysandra's was missing should have worried the goddess in front of them, who seemed indifferent to this information, "Maybe one of the other gods snatched her soul, before she reached the start of the Underworld, and turned her into a monster... maybe you've doomed her to a cursed existence, never to see her daughter again while constantly being thrown at you, unaware of the fact that you've likely killed her over and over again. Or maybe her soul is still out there somewhere, uncollected just to spite you... really, I have no idea, and honestly I don't care... her fate doesn't concern me, Ghost of Sparta."

In the next moment Flurry found that Kratos raised one of his blades and held it close to Persephone's neck, where it was far too clear for her to see that the goddess had pushed a button she shouldn't have, as her father loved his late wife and hearing all of that hadn't done him any good.

"You... you will not speak of Lysandra like that. I couldn't... I wouldn't do that to her, not after the events that brought about her death!" Kratos stated, though at the same time he realized that there was no way for him to know is what the goddess had said was the truth or not, and if it was the truth it sickened him, because if his late wife had been turned into a monster it was likely that Persephone was right, he had cursed her and would never know it.

"Do not threaten me, Spartan, not while I'm being hospitable. Besides, you killed her once, along with your late daughter... so what's a few more times?" Persephone remarked, almost as if she was trying to manipulate Kratos into attacking her for some odd reason, where Flurry noticed that she made sure the large tree was behind her, before her mind registered what had been said and the goddess smiled at her shocked expression, "That's right, you never told this one the truth. You heard me right, little pony, the person you call 'father' killed his own flesh and blood with the very blades you've seen him use to kill monster after monster, all in his mad quest for glory and spreading his legend to all of Greece... really, it's only a matter of time until he gets you killed as well."

"NO! I did not knowingly kill Lysandra and Calliope... Ares drove me into a blood craze and manipulated me into killing my own family, all to make me the 'perfect warrior'." Kratos replied, though this wasn't how he wanted Flurry to find out that he had killed both his late wife and his late daughter, despite the fact that he had pushed it to the back of his mind in the hopes that Flurry would forget what she had learned earlier, "You know I would never let such a thing happen to you."

"And why should she trust you, Spartan? You don't really care about the mortal world, as I can see that without her you'd give up on the gods and join your late daughter." Persephone said, confirming that she knew how to manipulate Kratos, or at least use his emotions to cause some trouble for the pair, while at the same time Flurry realized that she was buying time for something to happen, or for someone to complete their terrible task, "You would give up on her in a heartbeat, if it meant being reunited with your slain child... even if you don't deserve it, after all of the innocent lives you've taken... especially not after turning into the monstrous slave that the Olympians use to do their bidding. You don't deserve Calliope, not after all of the terrible things you've done."

Kratos, enraged by Persephone's words, growled at her as he swung his blades at her, though as the goddess dodged, so his blades could hit the tree, Flurry threw her sickles and knocked the weapons out of the way, returning her father's to his side as her weapons did the same.

"I've met a few gods and goddesses over the years, but you, Persephone... you are the worst." Flurry remarked, though that was when Kratos discovered something interesting, he wasn't the only one that had anger issues, especially when she raised her sickles and spun them in front of her a few times so that the outer edges hit each other every now and then, "Well, Ares is bad too, and I haven't even met him yet... but I've figured out what's going on: you freed Atlas, allowed Morpheus to wake up and spread his fog, and are, even now, stalling us so the titan can complete his task."

"You know, I suspected that you might be trouble... but you are becoming a thorn in my side." Persephone stated, where it was clear that she wasn't even going to try to disprove what Flurry had just said, as she flexed her own power for a couple of seconds and transformed, growing a pair of wings that looked like a dark butterfly's and gained black armor that made her look more like a warrior goddess, "You are right, I did free Atlas, who is, even now, making his way to the pillar that holds up the world... with it destroyed everything will fall back into chaos, the Underworld will be eradicated, and I, at long last, will have the freedom I crave."

Kratos growled as he heard that, as Persephone was totally unhinged and wanted to destroy everything, all because she thought the gods had betrayed her when there was literally nothing that could be done to help her out, before Flurry just stopped spinning her sickles as she formed her sickle staff again. He wondered what was going through her head, as this was one of those rare times where she acted differently than what he had seen before this point, especially since this was the first time they had found someone who didn't care for mortals or the lives that people were living. Persephone clearly didn't value life, not like Flurry did, and he could tell that his daughter wasn't happy with this discovery, plus he could see that she wasn't happy about being proven right, that she had been hoping that she was being paranoid after discovering the fact that Persephone had been awake the entire time. In the next moment Flurry burst into the air and grabbed onto the goddess' face, surprising both her and Kratos in the process, before she moved into the sky, flying for the first time in Kratos' memory as she moved higher and higher, and he was taken for a ride as well, as her magic wrapped around him and pulled him into the air, so he didn't get left behind.

Somehow it was as if her rage and anger towards Persephone had caused an awakening of sorts in his daughter, allowing her to fly without even realizing it, though it wasn't long before Flurry slammed the goddess into the side of the massive stone pillar that Atlas was reaching the top of, only to hurl her into the floor of it's peak as she lowered her father down as well so they could deal with her.

Persephone, while clearly being annoyed by the fact that someone was treating her this way, stomped on the ground and raised rubble to hurl at them, where Kratos smashed through the rocks with the gauntlet as Flurry dodged to the side, as they were ready for combat and weren't about to back down now. The goddess rushed at Kratos with her hand, figuring he was the more dangerous foe out of the pair, only to growl in pain as Flurry caught up with her and slashed into her arm with one of her sickles, allowing her to understand that her weapons were definitely deadly. She then gathered some dark green energy into her hands and tried to crush both of them into the ground, though her movements were far too easy for the pair to read, meaning she must have had no training since she was brought down here all those years ago, but that was her problem as they dodged and slashed into her back. Flurry was, quite honestly, disappointed in Persephone, due to the fact that she relied on her magic to deal damage to her enemies, or at least make an attempt to do so, and seemed to have no weapons to use upon discovering that they were dodging her attacks and spilling her blood while she tried to move around the arena.

While they were dealing with Persephone, however, Atlas finished his ascent and smashed the upper portion of the pillar, though in that moment Kratos, upon seeing that his hands still had some of the chains around them, had a crazy idea and left the goddess to his daughter, as he knew she didn't need his help. As such he rushed at the edge of the arena and just jumped into the air, finding that the titan noticed him coming and reached out to grab him, where he used his blades to latch onto Atlas' hand and let him raise his palm towards the ceiling that was above them. In the instant before Kratos was crushed he leapt off the hand, pulled out the Gauntlet of Zeus, and struck one of the chains towards the ceiling, where it struck the stone and wrapped around his hand, sealing it in place while giving him only a little room to move it after this point. As he fell, however, the titan made another mistake as he reached for Kratos with his other main hand, where the warrior turned around and struck another chain, which wrapped around the giant creature's hand and quickly chained it to the ceiling as well, permanently making it so that he would have to hold up the world for the rest of eternity.

As he landed on the outer edge of the arena, and noticed that one of Atlas' other hands held Helios, as he had four arms in total and two needed to be chained before they left, he found that Flurry had knocked Persephone to the ground and had severed her left wings, and while the goddess fell away his daughter let out an eerie whistle as she swung her sickles and removed the other pair, causing the goddess to scream in pain.

"...I know we take lives for a living, but it both saddens and enrages me to see someone like you not valuing the long life you were given. Not valuing ANY OF IT!" Flurry stated, her tone confirming her words, she was angry with Persephone, far more than Kratos had seen her in the past, and he wasn't sure if he should step in and stop her, if it meant killing the very goddess that put this series of events in motion, or if he should just keep an eye on Persephone, "There are people that are far less fortunate than you, some whose lives are unfairly snuffed out early... some don't even get a chance to live their lives, dying while they're young or barely born... but you... you couldn't find value in anything. Once you were convinced that the gods had betrayed you, you gave up on living... you became unworthy of the life you had been granted so long ago... it's actually kind of sad that you never realized how much Hades loved you."

"Flurry, she is beaten... let us tie her up and deliver her to the Olympians for punishment." Kratos said, because while he suspected that they could, in fact, kill her for her dark crimes, especially after witnessing the end of the Furies at the end of their first adventure together, he suspected that Zeus and the others would have questions for her.

"Father, she freed Atlas... what's to stop her from waiting until we're dead before trying again?" Flurry inquired, which was due to the fact that her father was mortal, he could die at any moment like everyone they fought and killed before even reaching this point, and they had no idea how long she would live, her species was totally unknown, hence why she was even considering such a thing, "As much as I don't want to do this, it's for the best of everyone... she could free the other titans as well, since she knows how to undo their bindings, and then we'd really be in trouble. I'll end her suffering now, so she can move on to whatever afterlife awaits the gods... and hope that you find value in whatever comes next."

As Persephone got up, no doubt to stop what was coming next, Kratos slashed at her legs before she could get too far, a fact that forced the goddess to kneel before Flurry, who quickly swung her sickles and made the wipe off motion as she returned them to her sides, causing Persephone's body to go limp and fall to the ground as her head rolled off to the side for a moment. In the following moment her body turned into pure energy before exploding, or at least it sure looked like it to the pair, but Kratos and Flurry stood their ground, likely due to Flurry's unique magic or something, all while the blast in question caused Atlas to let go of Helios. The God of the Sun, naturally, expanded his energy and called forth the chariot he rode across the skies, where they found that he was able to energize the Fire Steeds with his own power, at least for as long as they were in the Underworld, to keep them from disappearing until they were above ground. Of course Helios was a little shaken by these events, as he had been turned into a weapon that would have been used to destroy the world, but seeing Persephone's death, at their hands no less, was also quite a shock, one that Zeus would no doubt be told of once they were back on solid ground.

"You have my thanks, Spartan, and so does your daughter... and, as my sister said, you shall have an ally on Olympus after today." Helios said, because after everything the Spartan and his daughter had done so far, and the fact that they took out an actual goddess on their own, he realized that it might be best to just stay on their good side, or maybe on Flurry's good side since that whistle was eerie and he didn't want to cross her in some manner.

Flurry, on the other hand, simply whistled as her father nodded his head, showing he appreciated having another god that might help him get what he wanted, all while she slipped the Sun Shield and the Gauntlet of Zeus into her pouch, since there was no telling what the future might hold for them or what the gods might give them as their next task, making her look forward to their next incredible adventure.