God of War: Daughter of War

Kratos and Flurry found that it took some time for them to reach Sparta, to drop off the refugees they had picked up from the Aegean Sea, though it would have taken longer had Poseidon not granted them a swifter journey, no doubt as some sort of reward for killing the Hydra. The short visit gave them a brief chance to restock their supplies, as the Spartans knew that they were on a quest for the gods and wanted to make sure they were on their way in no time, and it wasn't long before the ship was sailing once more, aided by the God of the Seas once more. Albis and the crew found that the pair spent most of the trip to Athens in silence, both thinking about what Athena has asked them to do, track down an Oracle to figure out how to bring down Ares, the God of War himself, and the fact that this would bring an end to Kratos' pain. Flurry, however, was curious as to what they might learn from the Oracle, especially since the one her father had sought in order to figure out how to break his bond to Ares had sent him on a long quest, so she was wondering if this would be a similarly lengthy quest or a short one.

When they finally got close to where the city was located, however, they and the crew could see the massive fires from the sea, saddening the crew, since some of them likely had family in Athens, while enraging the pair, causing them to get ready for when the ship reached a safe harbor for Kratos and Flurry to use.

"Kratos, Flurry, the soldiers and I will remain with the ship, to create a safe haven for anyone you can save." Albis said, as she knew this quest was important to the pair and suspected that the path would be impossible for her to traverse once more, just like what they found in the area that the Hydra had been assaulting, so this was her way of making sure they knew she would be safe while doing her best to serve the gods.

"With how long the attack's been going on, I doubt many people are still alive... but I'm going to hope that I'm wrong and that we can save the people of Athens." Flurry remarked, because with the smoke and the fires both she and her father knew it was unlikely that they would find people to save, but that didn't stop her from hoping that she was wrong, even though their foe this time around was Ares and his army of monsters.

Kratos said nothing as he found several undead legionnaires appearing on the docks, though as he got ready to deal with all of them he watched as Albis made the first move, slithering up to one of the undead and unleashed her stone gaze on it as it's companions slowly turned towards her. Kratos and Flurry lashed out at all of the other undead with ease, the former just hacking his way through his opponents while the latter disarmed her foes before taking their lives, all while Albis finished turning the undead she had picked out into stone, only to smash the statue with a swing of her tail. With that done she took a moment to bow her head before returning to the ship to help everyone else defend it, leaving the father and daughter to follow the rest of the dock towards the city, only to discover that the main path seemed to be blocked and that they would have to find an alternate route. Such a thing meant finding a hole in one of the walls and jumping into some water, though it was an incredibly short experience as they climbed out and utilized a doorway to head into the city, or at least a path that would bring them closer to their current objective.

As it turned out that wasn't the way forward, as it just looped around to the first part of the dock they had fought on, but in the following moments Flurry found a lift and pointed it out, where Kratos forced the lever into position and forced the lift to move up to the next level, allowing them to progress once more.

In the following moments they found a pair of minotaurs slaughtering two of Athens' defenders, one having a few seconds to get out that the beasts had taken the city before his death, though once they were done with the soldiers the pair turned their attention on Kratos and Flurry before rushing at them. Kratos found a way to disarm his foe, allowing him to take the minotaur's axe and slice off one of it's legs, though once it was resting on the wooden walkway they were on he got onto it's chest and slashed it open, allowing him to brutally tear out it's still beating heart, causing it to perish in seconds. Flurry, on the other hand, decided to change things up for a moment and combined her sickles into their staff form, where she used her speed to dodge the incoming attacks, making sure to avoid dealing damage to the walkway itself, as she slashed at both of her foe's legs and arms. Kratos found that his daughter was as skilled with the staff as she was with the individual sickles, dealing impressive damage to her foe in a matter of moments, and when her minotaur fell to it's knees she reverted back to her sickles and removed it's head with ease, allowing them to resume their journey.

There was another minotaur on the solid ground they were walking towards, though this one stood no chance against them as Kratos and Flurry attacked from two different directions, forcing it to pick who to attack and who to defend itself against, and in the end it was slain before it could do anything to the pair. With the minotaurs defeated Flurry found another lift and they used it to reach another section of Athens outer wall, one that seemed more like a fighting arena than a work area, not to mention it had an armored cyclops guarding it, who had a large spiked ball attached to it's right arm. Since it could only focus on one foe at a time it turned it's attention on Kratos, either on Ares' orders or because it deemed him to be the most important target, though both of them were fine with this arrangement as they tore into it's exposed skin and avoided it's spike ball whenever it used it. Flurry also found that utilizing their Poseidon's Rage power, as she was calling it, against the cyclops was a good move, as the creature growled in pain as they struck it with the electric power, and when an opening appeared Kratos took it, ducking under the creature's legs before getting onto it's back to stab it's head, causing to to fall in a matter of seconds.

As the first cyclops fell, however, Kratos and Flurry found that two more jumped into the area they were in, causing them to simply nod to each other as they each took one, as he knew his daughter was strong enough to deal with their enemies on her own, without needing to rely on him all the time. Flurry did find that her father had a power he rarely used, which he called his 'Spartan Rage', a power that utilized his own rage and allowed him to deal great damage to whoever he was fighting, something he saved for when it was needed since he'd rather not waste it's power on minor things. It wasn't like all of the powers they gained from the gods or the relics they collected, rather it was an innate power unique to him, since Flurry didn't have something like that in her arsenal, but she was fine with that, since it meant they had different strengths when it came to how they fought their enemies. Kratos, on the other hand, focused on utilizing the power as it generated small flames around his body, though they were overshadows by the blue lightning that coursed around him, a sign of the Olympians as Flurry thought about it, and his power in this state allowed him to tear down a fourth cyclops that appeared in the arena, without breaking a sweat.

With the cyclops dealt with the pair entered the building in front of them and found that they had to climb around a few large boxes, not to mention part of the walls, to reach a chamber that had a new set of godly statues, though Flurry found that the statues weren't of Athena, despite this being Athens, rather they represented a stunningly beautiful lady who had breasts that were larger than the ladies her father took to bed and wore revealing clothing.

"Lady Aphrodite." Kratos said, because while he was still annoyed by what they had discovered during their battle against the Hydra, and the monsters that had been near the beast, he also knew that showing respect to the gods would grant him and Flurry new powers and safe passage to the rest of Athens.

Kratos, Flurry, we are pleased with your progress, but we know that you will require more powers to bring down Ares and his monstrous armies. the goddess stated, which was understandable, since they had no idea what else might be waiting for them in the future, so adding more powers to their arsenals meant the pair would be able to deal with all sorts of enemies, before Flurry heard something slithering in the darkness, My gift is the power to turn your enemy's to stone, but to earn this gift you must bring me Medusa's head.

Interestingly enough the Gorgon Queen herself was here, that was the slithering Flurry had heard, even though it was a tad bit odd that she was showing up now, instead of later on to avenge her fallen kind, where she found that Medusa had a more human head, with snakes for hair, while her fingers were more like skeletal talons, and she had bones sticking out of her spine, going down from her neck to the end of her tail. Suddenly everything made sense to her, Medusa had been slain by Perseus in the past, she had heard the tale once upon a time, and so far it seemed like Ares was using undead and monsters to wage his war, so the gorgon's new form made sense, due to her being raised into some sort of undeath to aid the God of War in striking down Athena's city. Surprisingly Medusa fought exactly the same as the other gorgons the pair had fought in the past, meaning Kratos was able to dodge her attacks with ease, since she targeted him and not Flurry, a fact that ended as he slammed her into the ground, stood on her back, and tore her head off with his bare hands.

As that happened a few minotaurs appeared out of the shadows and Flurry flew up to the opening they used to reach this area, allowing her father to channel the power of Medusa's Gaze at his foes, rapidly turning them to stone like Albis did to her enemies, allowing him to smash each one to bits before they could even free themselves.

With Aphrodite satisfied by his deeds her visage disappeared and the magical door that had been blocking their progress disappeared, allowing the pair to progress once more, though Kratos had to make a holder of sorts for the head since he didn't have a pouch to contain it in, leaving it hanging on the back of his waist. Flurry knew that if it had been some sort of power or armor piece it would have been easier to carry it, but at the very least this meant her father could use Medusa's head every now and then, no doubt blessed by Aphrodite in some manner so it could remain pristine for the duration of their quest. Of course she knew that they could have just used the amulet from their first adventure to keep it pristine, but her father seemed insistent on only using the older tools when they absolutely needed to, which meant it was up to her to make that decision, based on what she had seen so far. Flurry decided not to worry about it too much as they found a very short ladder in front of them, which seemed to be the way forward, along with some legionnaires blocking the way, but all of them fell as her father unleashed the power of Medusa's Gaze and turned them to stone, allowing her to smash them before they moved up to the upper level.

The pair found that there was a ballista to fire and a wooden wall blocking their path, to which Kratos pulled a lever that was in front of them and moved the weapon into position, as the area it was resting on spun, and once it was in position Flurry pulled the bolt back before letting it loose, breaking the door down with ease.

"I know you have a question on your mind." Kratos commented, though as he said that he found a way forward and just jumped down onto the lower level, a different area than where they had been previously, because he was interested in the potential revenge he could have by destroying Ares, but he knew his daughter well enough to know when there was something on her mind.

"I was just curious as to why only Medusa's head works like this, since we've killed plenty of gorgons." Flurry said, since she had seen her father tear the heads off of their gorgon enemies in the past, but instead of utilizing their gaze against their enemies, like he just did to appease Aphrodite, he usually tossed the heads to the side without using them, "Is it because she's one of the three main gorgons, the sisters who stand above all other gorgons? Or is it due to the fact that a goddess blessed it with her power?"

"Flurry... I do not know." Kratos admitted, as it was hard for him to determine which was the truth, even though he felt it might be Aphrodite's influence that allowed them to utilize the power that Medusa possessed, but as he considered that he noticed a few more legionnaires appear in the middle of the path they were following, "We can talk about this later... for now, let us focus on our enemies."

Flurry nodded as they tore into the undead legionnaires that dared to block their path, only to find that it was just a way back to where all of the cyclops had been located, to which they doubled back to the upper level and found another ladder to use, this one heading up to a third level, which seemed far more reasonable to the pair. Sure enough it even brought the pair outside, where more legionnaires were positioned, though Kratos stabbed a few in their chests as Flurry removed her foes' heads with her sickles, before they found that to move forward they had to climb along a wall again. With that in mind Flurry switched to her bow and readied herself, because when her father started to make his way to the end of this area she found more targets on the walls, causing her to loose a few arrows to take them down, opening the way for her father to safely reach the end. While he did that Kratos found that there were breaks in the wall that allowed him to glance out at the battlefield that was in the distance, the soldiers of Athens fighting a losing battle against the monstrous army of Ares, and it annoyed him to see such a thing play out, though once he reached the end of the path he found that it had brought him to the backside of a large statue of a scholar.

He gave a silent prayer to Athena, that she would forgive them for what they had to do, before pushing the statue with all of his might, pushing it into the arena the cyclops had been in and it shattered when it hit the ground, leaving the head in an area for them to climb up to a new area. With that done Kratos utilized a nearby ladder and dropped down into the area he and Flurry had been in earlier, allowing him to utilize the head's new position so he could reach another portion of the wall, though as he did so he was assaulted by a pair of gorgons, who he dealt with in a matter of seconds. While he did that Flurry flew down to where he was standing and turned towards the statue when she landed, where he watched as she pulled out the amulet and turned it's power on the statue, restoring it to it's pristine nature in no time at all, and once that was done she put it back in her pouch. After that Kratos and Flurry utilized a ladder to reach the upper level, only to find a couple of minotaurs and a gorgon waiting for them, to which they split up for a moment, Flurry removing the gorgon's head without wasting time while her father turned his foes into stone before smashing them to bits.

From there they broke a few pillars, forming the path forward, and found an area with more legionnaires to deal with, which is what the pair did without wasting time, only to find another ballista that they fired without delay, the bolt hitting another part of the walls with a rope attached to it, to which Kratos started to climb along it. Flurry found that more legionnaires appeared on either of the long rope and started to climb after her father, one group coming from the ballista and another coming from the opening that was their destination, to which she flew over to an area that gave her a good view of the rope and readied her bow. She was incredibly fortunate and thankful that Artemis had gifted her an enchanted quiver during one of her birthdays, one that magically replenished her arrows and gave her an endless supply, since she was using them far more often during this quest than the others she had been on. Such a thing allowed her to focus on the enemies that were coming from where the weapon was located, letting her father focus on those that were in front of him, and once he finally reached the end she found that no more legionnaires dared to show up, allowing her to fly over to her father so they could continue into the city.

The rope brought them to the backside of the dead end they had spotted earlier, with the weapon that smashed down the wooden door earlier, to which Kratos utilized the weapon once more and not only broke down the door, but also a couple of minotaur, though the ladder on the other side of it allowed them to leave the walls at long last and start to walk toward the city itself, only to be stopped on a bridge by a magical projection.

Do not fear, Kratos and Flurry of Sparta, for I am the Oracle of Athens. a voice said, where they found an image of a lady, almost looking like one of the ones that had been on the ship earlier despite the transparent robe, which allowed the pair to see her breasts and even her privates, making Flurry wonder why clothing like this was even allowed for someone like an Oracle, I am here to help you defeat Ares. Find my temple in the east, and I will show you how to murder a god.

"We must need something specific to kill the God of War." Flurry remarked, speaking as the magical projection faded into nothingness, allowing her and her father to walk up the stairs that were in front of them, granting them a greater view of the battlefield that they had seen some time ago, before they spotted a massive armored figure whose hair and beard almost looked like they were on fire.

"Ares..." Kratos growled, where they watched as the God of War tanked the attacks that were coming his way, because the defenders of Athens were trying, in vain, to do any sort of damage to him, while the god, in turn, created a large fireball that he tossed down at his attackers, blasting them to death so he could turn on another group as his army of monsters tore into the other groups of defenders, before he held a hand out, "Flurry, stop... we will seek the Oracle."

"Father... he's the one who ruined your life. He ought to get a magical arrow to the eye." Flurry said, as she had been in the middle of readying one of her arrows, one she had intended on pouring a massive chunk of her magical energy into, just for a chance to deal some damage to the God of War, but when she looked at her father's face, and how he didn't approve of the idea to directly assault the deity without finding the Oracle, she sighed and returned her arrow to her quiver, "Fine, let us find the Oracle."

Kratos headed to the left of the balcony that they had come to a stop on, which allowed them to stare out at Ares and his dark army, only to find that they were actually able to enter the outskirts of Athens, at long last, and that one of the God of War's attacks destroyed one of the taller buildings, causing pieces to fall and squish some unlucky civilians. With the main street partly blocked, and not wanting to waste time in trying to move everything since he was sure it might tell Ares that they were there, if he could feel Flurry's magic, he and his daughter entered the cavern to their immediate left and found that the door slammed shut behind them. Two minotaurs, these ones wielding large hammers, happened to be inside the cave in question, with a button that seemed to be linked to a wall that wasn't important to them at all, it was just a chest with green markings on it, only for Flurry to investigate it's area and found that it actually contained a path that would get them around the wreckage. With that in mind the pair dealt with the pair of enemies, because instead of freezing one with Medusa's Gaze, like one would expect, Flurry utilized the oath stone to create a copy on the pressure plate, where she and her father walked through the opened gate and returned to the main street, allowing the power to deactivate once they no longer needed the stone's power.

As they returned to the street, however, they found more civilians under attack by the undead legionnaires, who cut them down before the pair could do anything to save them, which just annoyed Flurry as she rushed forward and slashed apart her targets, leaving none of the undead alone as she eliminated all of them. Kratos wasn't about to stop her from taking out the enemies that were in front of them, because he knew his daughter well enough to understand when not to get in her way, and when she was like this, hurting those who disliked or mistreated life, something in her snapped. This was just like what happened with Persephone five years ago, his daughter's rage got the better of her and she lashed out at those who triggered her, much like how he reacted at times to those who pissed him off, so he allowed her to do that as he dealt with the gorgons who happened to get in his way. There were also a few minotaurs hanging out along the street, which he and Flurry dealt with as they realized that the pair were even there, and they had to pause for a moment when they found a massive missing section of the street, where Flurry flew over to the other side as her father found a pair of ropes that he could use to swing over to her position.

From there the pair turned a corner and made their way into the town square of Athens, where fireballs were falling down on the buildings, harpies were carrying the citizens into the air so they could pull them apart, and a couple of unarmored cyclops were slaughtering the people that were ignored by the harpies.

Kratos and Flurry rushed out at them while they were distracted, where Kratos climbed onto the back of his foes and just jumped down while bringing his blades down into their heads, surprising the cyclops in the process since the monsters clearly weren't expecting them to be there. Flurry, on the other hand, dodged the incoming attacks that came her way and slashed at the arms and legs of her opponents, weakening them a little as she studied their movements, before jumping by their heads as she swung at them, allowing her to cut open the sides of their necks and kill them with ease. Once both of them were done they found another doorway to walk through and discovered a lady at the far end of the passage who just fled the moment she noticed them, though it was hard to tell if it was the Oracle or someone else that thought they were monsters. The building she happened to be running through was full of dead soldiers, no doubt guards to keep the Oracle safe, and she even headed outside for a moment before moving into another section of it, and it all came to a sad note as the lady, fearing for her life as Kratos approached her, seeing him only as Ares' monster and not Athena's hero like the Oracle did, fell off a balcony and plummeted to her death.

Flurry could only let out a sad sigh as she flew down to where the lady had landed, where she found that the lady just so happened to have a small golden key on her, though after collecting the key she flew back up to her father's position so they could track down the lock it went to so they could progress on their quest to bring down the God of War and bring an end to her father's nightmares.