God of War: Daughter of War

When Kratos and Flurry walked through the opening that was on the other side of the circular stone door they found that the start of Pandora's Temple seemed to be a ringed area, maybe with more beyond what they were seeing right now, along with the fact that the door closed behind them, informing them that there was no way to leave.

"So this is Pandora's Temple... I'm going to guess that we'll have to overcome some challenges and unlock the rings so we can get to the center of this place." Flurry commented, where she found that the walls were made of solid stone, likely the type that had been blessed by the gods to prevent challengers from smashing through all of the walls, there were gears in the walls, and there were ancient banners that were too faded to tell what they once were.

"Seems like a reasonable assumption." Kratos said, because it sounded like something the gods would create to challenge those seeking a powerful relic, and he was positive this place would somehow reset once everyone like him and his daughter were taken care of, otherwise someone would have solved the place by now.

After taking a moment to study the area around them the pair explored the outer ring for a time, quickly finding a large skull on a door that happened to have a slot in the forehead for an actual skull to be inserted in, no doubt a very specific one that they would find in due time, likely guarded by monsters. Across from where the door was located they also found a tunnel leading to a new area, though it had a number of spiked stone grinders crushing the area between them every now and then, causing the pair to simply walk through the tunnel without the hazards touching them. The chamber at the end of the tunnel happened to have some undead archers waiting for them, though as Flurry used her arrows this time around she also noticed that there was a pool of water in the center of the chamber, likely something they'd use later on, there was a stone door for them to open at some point, and there was a stone statue of some importance. Once the archers were taken care of, as they weren't hard to deal with since her arrows had knocked some down and her father cut his way through the rest of them, Kratos approached a lever near the two halves of the statue and pulled it, deactivating the grinders that were in the tunnel they had walked through a few moments ago.

As they moved away from the halves the pair discovered that they could, in fact, use a handle that extended to move both halves into position, forming a crystal that fired a beam of light at the skull door for a few moments, meaning that they had to deal with a few things before they could get at the center of the temple.

With that in mind Kratos and Flurry returned to the outermost ring of the temple and found that there was a new platform off to their left that had a crank on it, one that, when Kratos decided to turn it, happened to rotate the entire ring, meaning the door they had walked through was one they were going to use quite a lot. Flurry was amazed by what she was seeing, as the feats of engineering that went into making places like this, especially when she thought about the insides of Apollo's tall statue and it's mechanical insides, were very impressive and made her wonder how the rest of Greece would benefit from what they had seen so far. She did, however, have to move out of the way as her father rotated the crank and moved the outermost ring for a time, causing her to walk alongside him as she looked for openings for him to stop at, though he knew that if he had been doing this alone he would have had to stop and strain himself to see if he had found something new to investigate. With Flurry helping him Kratos was able to focus on moving the ring and only stopped when she found a new tunnel for them to explore, where one happened to be a short walk to a golden door missing two pieces that looked like the Muses, the daughters of Zeus, something to keep an eye out for during their quest.

The next tunnel she spotted, however, happened to have a magical door preventing one from moving forward and held two statues on either side of it, a sign that they were about to gain a new power from another god, causing the pair to approach the door, all while Flurry recognized the humanoid statues of Artemis.

"Lady Artemis." Kratos said, though this was a far more pleasant surprise for him and Flurry, because she was one of the few gods and goddesses that they trusted, in fact she enjoyed teaching his daughter how to use a bow and how to use her wings to fly, all lessons that had come in handy over the course of this quest.

Kratos, Flurry, it is with a heavy heart that I tell you that Zeus demands more of you. Artemis stated, as she had grown fond of the pair and had enjoyed their company, especially since they treated her and her brother with respect, even after discovering their more bestial forms, and disliked how the King of the Gods wanted them to talk down to the pair, who she could see knew that Zeus must have forced this upon her, You, Kratos, have learned to wield the Blades of Chaos well, and you, Flurry Heart, have done the same with your sickles, and while they might carry you through to the end of your quest, I will help tip the odds in your favor. Take the weapon I once wielded to strike down a titan and use it to overcome any and all obstacles that are between you and your goal.

The weapon, as it turned out, was a curved broadsword with purple designs on the blade and it's guard was shaped either like a bat or like the moon, where Kratos stepped forward for a moment and swung it around, finding that it was incredibly light, which made sense given Artemis' bestial body, and was likely very deadly. Flurry found that when her father used the weapon, as there was only one for them to share by the looks of it, his own weapons disappeared for a time, until he made the decision to utilize the Blades of Chaos once more, but when she tried it out she found that her sickles remained on her belt, as if she was given more freedom than her father. The chamber at the end of the tunnel happened to have a number of undead legionnaires waiting for them, where Kratos summoned the Blade of Artemis and slashed his way right through some of them, finding that the blade was just as sharp and as deadly as his own weapons, hence why Artemis no doubt granted it to him and Flurry for the foreseeable future. Flurry found that this was also confirmation on the fact that her father knew how to wield nearly every weapon in existence, even if he was forced to use the Blades of Chaos since the chains linked to those blades were burned into his flesh and the weapons were bonded with him, but instead of focusing on that she turned her attention to their enemies and lashed out at them.

Artemis' weapon, as they discovered, made short work of the undead legionnaires that were coming at them, something Kratos let Flurry experience as he dismissed the blade and his daughter summoned it into her hands, while the force of gorgons that showed up proved to be more of a challenge, due to the number of them that appeared. This time around it was four to five gorgons at once, instead of just one or two at a time, but both warriors expected this to happen, as Flurry knew that those slain in the temple were eventually brought back as guardian monsters and were positioned accordingly, which also explained the additional aid the gods were giving them. Zeus and the others knew that they might have made this whole temple far harder than necessary, thanks to the monsters overpopulating the place, and to make sure the pair were ready to tackle it's challenges they were tipping the odds in their favor, all while hoping that they were able to claim the Box and use it's power to bring down Ares. With that in mind Flurry raised her sickles and focused on the battle as she removed a gorgon's head and shocked another into submission, while her father did the same with Poseidon's power and the new weapon that had been added to their ever growing arsenal.

Once the chamber was clear of enemies the pair discovered that they would either head down another tunnel or climb up onto an upper walkway, the latter having a number of legionnaires for them to worry about, so while Kratos attacked the undead in melee range Flurry dealt with the archers before they could do anything.

"Remind me to thank Artemis later, as this is a fine weapon." Kratos said, as he was grateful for her aid in this quest, due to her being one of the few gods he actually trusted, especially since her blade made short work of the majority of the foes that were in front of him and his daughter, hence why they took turns using it so no one got overconfident during their time in this place.

Flurry nodded as her father pulled a lever that was up on the second floor, a ruined floor with a raised walkway and even a winding one that he had to carefully cross, where they watched as a heavy stone in the ceiling was lowered down into the depths below them, a floor they previously couldn't access, but now they could thanks to the rope that was tied around the stone. With it in place Kratos and Flurry grabbed onto the rope and slid down into the floor that happened to be right below the main floor, where they found that there were far more than monsters in this place, as there were all sorts of soldiers, those from Athens based on their armor, fighting and dying to monsters. While Flurry wanted to help them, since it seemed like a lot of wasted life she was seeing right now, she knew that if they did so the men would no doubt trying to use her and her father in their own quest to claim Pandora's Box, so this time she let out a sad sigh as she turned away, a fact that made Kratos wonder when the cruelty of the gods would end. With that in mind Kratos started to climb along the rope that was right in front of them, since it seemed like whatever was on the other side of the chamber was important, and while he did that Flurry used her arrows to take down a number of undead legionnaires that tried to harm him, so he could focus on the enemies in front of him.

Once they were back together the pair walked up a short set of stairs and found an altar with a silver shield of a god on it, Hades based on the designs since it depicted a helm, though when Kratos picked it up a spiked wall dropped down onto the walkway behind them and started to come towards them. With that in mind the pair made their way to the other end of the passage, tearing their way through the undead legionnaires who had been assigned to this part of the area, though as that happened Flurry took count of just how many were between them and the end of the passage. Based on what she was seeing there were between thirty to forty enemies in their way, counting those who dropped down into the area as well, but because the spiked wall moved slowly they were able to take their time and deal with their enemies safely. Once all of them were dead the moving hazard rapidly moved back into the wall it came from and stopped moving, allowing the pair to relax for a few moments before retracing their steps to where the rope between levels was located, since this told them that there had to be a slot for the shield to go into.

The moment they were back on the main level of the area both Kratos and Flurry paused for a moment, just to make sure no more enemies showed up to get in their way, before heading into the other tunnel, finding that it brought them to an area that happened to have a door with two shield slots on it.

"Based on what we've seen in the past, the other one is close by." Flurry commented, though at the same time she found that the icon on the door in question was of two Greek soldiers battling for Pandora's Box, with their shields being where the slots were located, but instead of inserting the first one right now they turned to hunt down the second one.

Kratos remained silent as he stared at the pressure switch on the floor and found that when it was pressed into the floor it caused the wall off to the right of the door to spin, revealing a backside that would likely bring them to the other shield for the door, causing him to remember a container of rocks that looked like it was moveable. Flurry followed him for a couple of seconds before realizing what he had in mind, where she watched as her father moved it out of where it had been left by the workers and moved it to the area between the spinning wall, causing her to position herself near the wall while her father did the same. With a powerful kick Kratos pushed the container and it moved onto the button, allowing the wall to spin and bring them to the other side, where they found more legionnaires that quickly moved in to try and kill the pair, a fact that they were becoming familiar with since everything in this place wanted them dead, but it didn't stop Flurry from lashing out with her sickles as her father crushed the others with Artemis' blade. After taking care of the monsters the pair found that there was a ladder for them to climb, bringing them to an area right above where the door rested, though on the other side of the upper level Flurry spotted another altar, where her father crossed over a couple of beams and came to a stop in front of it in no time.

A few moments later Kratos returned to her, showing Flurry the golden shield of Zeus, before they dropped down onto the lower level and inserted the keys into the slots, placing Zeus' on the left and Hades' on the right, where the door just raised into the ceiling in three sections and opened the way for them to progress.

On the other side of the door they found a path heading deeper into the temple, as in it was descending this time, only for it to bring the pair to a ladder, causing the father and daughter to shrug as they climbed up it and used the door that was at the end of a walkway to reach a new chamber. This one, however, seemed to be more of a trap since there were a large number of spinning blades moving from one portion of the chamber to another, in predetermined lines based on what was on the ground, so they simply waited for them to move by before walking forward. There were two levers for them to pull, one moving the horizontal bars that were blocking a doorway out of the way and another doing the same to a set of vertical bars, though while they could deal with it easily the pair headed through the unblocked passage first. Such a thing brought them into contact with more undead legionnaires, a damaged wall that Kratos smashed through, and a few more grinders that they avoided rather easily, and at the end they discovered a path leading to an exterior walkway, which was where a number of harpies were flying around.

It took them no time at all to take the harpies down and enter the area that they had been guarding, which seemed to be a decent sized cylindrical structure that could only be accessed by climbing on a cracked wall, to which Flurry took up her position as her father did the climbing, allowing her to hit each legionnaire before they could even do anything. With the aid she provided Kratos was able to reach the end in no time and lowered a thick chain for Flurry to climb up, though once they were back together they walked through yet another short tunnel and discovered that it was a chamber with a long altar on the left side, with what appeared to be a crank of some kind on it. Of course more enemies showed up, sirens and a number of undead shield legionnaires, causing them to lash out with their magic and weapons once more, Kratos doing his best to break through the magical shields with his blades as Flurry shocked the sirens to death. The one thing that did make them pause for a moment was when the wooden floor, which could double as a door, shook, as if some massive monster was coming for them, but instead of worrying about it they grabbed the handle, after making sure their foes were dead, and retraced their steps back to the trapped chamber.

With two of them they were able to pull both levers and pass through the open door without delay, avoiding the massive gap in the ground by hugging the wall to their immediate right, before reaching another door, where Flurry noticed that the figure on the door was very familiar.

"Atlas, holding a sphere on his back, which I'm assuming is the world itself... curious. How would the artisans know to even make such a thing, when it hadn't been done yet?" Flurry commented, though at the same time her father quickly opened the door and they walked into a chamber that had a couple of undead legionnaires in, archers to be exact, but they were taken down by a swing from her father using Artemis' blade, all while she glanced at the large statue behind them, "Not to mention the fact that the artisans who made this statue got everything wrong... did no one know that Atlas was a titan and that he'd cause chaos in the future?"

"Perhaps the Fates are involved, even through their will is unknown to even the gods." Kratos offered, where he found a minotaur off on the other side of the chamber and readied himself, only for Flurry to call the Blade of Artemis to her side as she moved forward, swinging her arm a few times as she hacked the monster apart before it even had a chance to realize that she had taken it down.

"Still, it makes you wonder, doesn't it? If they knew to carve all of these statues and representations, why did no one keep an eye on Atlas?" Flurry remarked, all while she and her father turned on the rest of the enemies that were in the chamber, a few more legionnaires and another minotaur, before lashing out at them like they had done to all of the monsters that had crossed their path previously, before she shrugged for a moment, "But I guess it hardly matters anymore, since we chained him up in his new prison."

Kratos really had no idea what prompted his daughter to talk about Atlas, save for the statue and carvings that didn't match the titan in question, but figured that any questions she might have would be better saved until later, once they were out of Pandora's Temple and had struck Ares down, since only the gods could answer her questions. Once both of them were sure that the area was secure, and that there were no more enemies for them to deal with, Kratos found an area to insert the handle they picked up not that long ago and slipped it into the waiting slot, allowing him to make a crank. Flurry watched as her father moved the crank around and that it caused the statue of Atlas to lift the world onto his back, before locking into place once everything was in it's proper place, though she did find a small chest behind the statue that just so happened to have one of the golden muse keys inside it. With that in hand they discovered a path leading out of the area and took it, all while finding a circular walkway that happened to have some legionnaires for the pair to take down, who stood no chance against their might as they tore through them and the archers that were on the second floor.

After all that Flurry found a lever and her father pulled it, where they watched as Atlas' statue pulled it's hands back and just threw the world at them, or rather the massive locked door that it smashed through, opening the way for them to head out onto what appeared to be the end of this path, as the walkway in front of them ended in a platform that had a large coffin in the center of it.

"It seems that this is the tomb of Pathos' youngest son, who died while building this temple." Flurry said, as she had learned how to properly read over the ten years she had spent with her father, meaning that she could read the writing on the tome in front of the tomb in no at all, all while her father walked up to the large coffin and pushed the lid open, causing her to realize what they needed to do, "The skull door... we need a skull to open it, meaning we'll have to defile this tomb to gain the key to move forward."

Kratos paused for a moment, mentally debating what to do about this situation, especially with Flurry watching him, before he sighed as he leaned forward, uttered a prayer and an apology to the son's soul, for what the gods demanded of them, before using one of the Blades of Chaos to sever his spine and free his head, though with that done he returned the lid to it's proper position, causing the coffin to move out of the way.

"A path back into the temple... should have known." Kratos remarked, though after everything he and Flurry had seen over the years he realized that this was something he really should have suspected that they would encounter at some point, a bit of safety before returning to the madness of the temple.

"Father... are you alright?" Flurry asked, as while she understood the fact that they needed the skull, since it was the key to them moving deeper into the temple itself, it was also easy for her to see that this did impact her father somewhat, and if that was the case she suspected what might be going through his mind.

"Yes... I am fine." Kratos replied, though he didn't tell Flurry what he had considered before he removed the skull, that part of him had envisioned either of them losing the other, like Pathos had lost his youngest son, to the hazards that were inside the temple, but it only served to aid him in hardening his resolve, that they would make it out of here with Pandora's Box and finally bring Ares down.

The passage below the tomb was long and winding, full of cobwebs due to the fact that nearly no one had been here since it was constructed, in fact they might be the first ones to walk through this place, though when they reached the area near the end they found a number of slain bodies. Such a thing caused Kratos to briefly remember the fateful battle that ended with his bond to Ares, a long battle with the barbarian armies and their King, and the way Ares struck down his enemies was why the dead soldiers in front of them triggered that painful memory. The good thing was that with Flurry standing beside him he was able to shake off the memory with ease, as she did bring joy and happiness to his life, just as he was told she would, and continued towards door that served as the end of the passage, leading them back into the chamber with the pool that held the crystalline halves. The tunnel with the turned off grinders happened to be where some more legionnaires decided to attack them, though once again the pair was able to deal with them in record time before approaching the skull door, where Kratos pulled out the youngest son's skull and carefully inserted it into the slot, where the door actually seized the skull as it lowered into the floor.

Such a thing allowed them to enter the second ring, of however many there were, and found a large cylinder rolling around the ring, though since it had just passed by them Kratos and Flurry walked behind it, eventually coming to a set of stairs that allowed them to get above the hazard, though that was when Kratos insisted that they rest for a few moments before they tackled whatever the next trial of Pandora's Temple happened to be.