God of War: Daughter of War

After taking a short break, since the pair had been moving for some time without rest and Kratos didn't want to exhaust his daughter by forcing her to do too much, Kratos and Flurry stared at the cylinder that was moving through the second ring, both wondering what needed to be done with it. The answer came when Flurry spotted a ladder that seemed to head up into the ceiling, though it's base was along the path of the cylinder, meaning that one of them would have to get on top of it and carefully ride it over to where the ladder was located, as she was sure it would lower once someone latched onto it. Kratos, knowing that his daughter was able to figure these puzzles out in record time, without needing to be told what to do, did just that, waiting for the cylinder to roll over to where they had stopped before jumping onto it, where he walked in the opposite direction, to stay in one section of it, before reaching the ladder. Flurry watched as her father latched onto the ladder without delay and found that it fell a bit, hitting the floor and revealing that they could climb it to the ceiling, all while a section of the floor opened in front of the cylinder and it fell in, meaning the pair wouldn't have to worry about it during the rest of their trek through the temple.

With that in mind the pair climbed the ladder up to a tunnel that seemed to be heading outside, no doubt to the next trial of the gods, and they stepped out onto a circular area without delay, where they found a small dog creature that climbed up over one of the ledges and growled at them, though as it approached the pair it expanded into a cerberus, a large dog with three heads that also spewed fire.

"Finally, a new enemy to fight!" Flurry remarked, because while she was more than willing to fight hordes of legionnaires, just like they had done to reach this point, she was glad to have some variety in the types of monsters that were trying to stop them from claiming Pandora's Box.

Kratos said nothing to that as he nodded, showing his daughter that he also appreciated having a new enemy to fight, to which they rushed at the monster as it tried to breath fire on them, though at the same time Flurry found that there were a number of smaller ones as well, seeking to join the fight. With that in mind, and she knew that they could transform in a matter of seconds, she and her father nodded before diverting their course to deal with the smaller ones, because having too many large creatures to fight, at the same time, would give all of their enemies the advantage, so eliminating a couple of smaller ones was the more reasonable path right now. Since the cerberi fought like dogs, trying to bite and chew on the pair, it was easy for Kratos and Flurry to avoid the incoming attacks and hack their targets apart, either going for the heads or just cutting through them, which was even easier to do when using Artemis' blade. The larger cerberi, as another large one appeared while the pair were dealing with the smaller ones, the pair did something different with, they separated the pair of monsters, climbed onto their backs, before slicing open both the left and right heads before wrapping the chains of their weapons around the main head to snap it's neck.

The cerberi were an interesting change of pace, something that made Flurry wonder what the rest of the temple might have to offer them when she and her father overcame the rest of the challenges that were currently in their way, though once the last one was taken down the pair continued along the path in front of them.

Of course it wasn't like they were given free reign to do whatever they wanted, because along the cliff path they found two cyclops coming at them, where Flurry switched to her bow for a moment as she loosed a few arrows at the one that was coming for her, all while her father slashed into the arms and legs of his foe. With only two enemies there wasn't much for the pair to worry about, hence why both cyclops fell in no time at all, though around the corner that both monsters had walked around they found ten undead archers lined up and ready to fire at them, where Kratos pulled back and started to move a large stone cube out into the open. Flurry used it as cover as she quickly and accurately loosed her arrows into the air, where Kratos found that she struck each and every enemy before they had a chance to even hit his daughter, which he was expecting since she was incredibly skilled with a bow, especially after Artemis' and Apollo's training. With her taking out all of the archers they were able to reach the end of the path that the cube was needed for and climbed up a ledge to reach another part of the exterior path, finding three more small cerberi in the process, though this time Kratos simply kicked each one and sent them flying off the path, letting them fall to their deaths.

A few more archers and small cerberi appeared in front of the structure that was their current target, though the pair cut and blasted their way through them with ease, allowing Kratos and Flurry to enter the structure and found a lever that caused the walls to rotate when it was pulled. With that in mind the pair waited for a time as they sought the single path that would take them deeper into the temple, even though it brought them to another section of the cliff path that they had been walking along, which Flurry suspected they would be dealing with for some time. In addition to that she glanced at the area far above them and noticed that there seemed to be more scaffolding above where the temple rested, which told her that there was likely more for them to tackle and that the rings that she and her father were dealing with right now were likely the best way to eliminate those unworthy of Pandora's Box. Other than that they found a new variation of the legionnaire enemy, these ones more armored up and carrying short scythes on their backs, though while they were far tougher than the variations they had fought before both Kratos and Flurry found holes in the defenses of their enemies and took them down by either cutting off their limbs or tearing their bodies apart.

In addition to that Kratos revealed an interesting way for them to deal with these particular enemies, forcing them to stab themselves in the back with their own blades, though Flurry decided to hack her foes apart with her sickles, allowing the pair to clear out the immediate area. Once their enemies were taken care of Kratos found that they would have to climb the cliff side, using ledges that had been left for such a purpose by the looks of things, though this time it was essentially both warriors hugging the walls, without enemies to worry about, so Flurry climbed behind her father since he insisted on taking point. Flurry ended up finding the path that lead to the chest that held the second muse key, which meant that they could unlock the door they went to if her wanted to do so when they were back inside the rings of Pandora's Temple, but after that she followed her father as he found where they needed to go next, all while both of them happened to get a fair view of Kronos as he wandered through the desert. When Kratos reached the end of the cliff wall he discovered another pair of minotaur walking towards them, where he utilized Medusa's Gaze to free one so he could smash the statue, while Flurry grabbed onto her foe's hammer and used it to crush it's original wielder into the ground.

A minotaur walked down the path that seemed to be taking them inside the temple again and the pair slew it before the monster even had a chance to do anything to them, before Kratos found that it brought them to a new area that had a small well of water off to their right, which he tasted for a few seconds.

"It is fine. No impurities or poisons." Kratos stated, because they had been fighting and moving for a long time, without any food or water, and while there had been water near their last rest spot he had elected not to drink it since there was no telling if anyone had died in the large pool, while this one seemed pure, like Poseidon himself had blessed the well for those who made it this far.

"Good, I could use a drink." Flurry said, where she did the same as her father, confirming that it was wonderful water and that it didn't have anything that would harm them, before she pulled out a pair of waterskins she had collected back on their ship, before they docked outside Athens, but she had forgotten to fill them and this seemed to be the perfect spot to do so.

Kratos was fine with this situation, as the pristine water was refreshing and allowed them to fill up the waterskins for later, reminding him that his daughter had a bag of holding and that, if he was smart, they would remember to set it up with all sorts of travel goods for the future, in case this happened again. When both of them were ready to go, and they were fully refreshed, the pair continued into the area beyond the well and found that this corridor was taller than many of the ones they had passed through earlier and that there were a number of hanging cages with living soldiers inside them, either for a punishment or something else. In addition to that there was a ramp that went up to a smaller chamber, which seemed to be their main target, though interestingly enough both warriors found no enemies waiting for them this time around, a fact that caused Flurry to switch to her bow as they walked towards the chamber, just in case they were wrong. A couple of moments later they found that the chamber had fire traps, like they were supposed to sacrifice someone to the gods or something, a crank handle for the damaged crank they had walked by, and a dead soldier with a pouch that seemed like it might have something interesting inside it.

What Flurry discovered, as her father picked up the crank handle, was two circular weapons that looked like they could be thrown, due to the sharpened outer edge, with a handle that allowed the user to hold onto them with their hands, while she also found a rather fancy handheld mirror that seemed magical in nature.

"These almost look like they belong to a goddess... this soldier must have stolen them from one of the gods and they got their revenge on him." Flurry commented, where she ran a finger on the edge of one of the weapons, which were unique and not of this land, meaning the god in question must have received them during a meeting with someone from one of the other lands, maybe Persia when she thought about it, only to find that the edge was dull, "I wonder how long these have been here... the edges are completely dull... though I suspect this mirror might belong to a goddess, but I'm not sure which one it might be."

"If they belong to a god, like you say, we can return them after our quest is over." Kratos stated, because his focus was on the lever and the notes that were in the chamber, about how one had to sacrifice the 'ultimate' to move forward, and not on the items his daughter had recovered, where Flurry nodded as she slipped the items back into the pouch and then put it inside her pouch, allowing them to focus on what needed to be done.

Kratos backtracked to the previous lever and fixed it, allowing him to lower a cage to the walkway in no time, though while the soldier informed him that they could still leave the temple, and get back to Athens, Kratos apologized for what the gods demanded of them, though Flurry, who was on the lower level still, found more legionnaires appearing on the ramp they needed to use. She provided cover fire with her bow as her father pushed the cage up towards the chamber, though as he did so one of the legionnaires got close and he swung Medusa's head towards it, only to freeze both the monster in stone and the unfortunate soldier, causing him to pause before shrugging and moving it once more. In his mind it was still a sacrifice, even if the person was trapped in stone, though he made sure to avoid letting the statue take damage by just taking the fight to all of the legionnaires, slashing them apart with his blades while Flurry dealt with those he ignored for a time. Once they were sure that the area was clear of enemies the pair pushed the cage up into the chamber and set it on top of the button that was in front of the door, moving the two flame devices into position without delay, causing Kratos to pull a nearby lever that caused the flames to wash over the statue.

What confirmed that this was acceptable was that the cage sunk into a slot in the floor, which opened after the lever had been thrown, before the door opened, allowing them to walk into another passage that would bring them even closer to their main goal, or at least the goal of the second ring.

The tunnel brought them to a chamber with two pools of water, one on either side of them, with a statue in front of them that happened to be holding a trident, though the statue was of Poseidon and the designs seemed to be linked to his own domain, though without another door it became clear what they had to do. Kratos grabbed the trident, which seemed to have the same power as the weapon they acquired during their previous adventure that allowed them to breathe while they were underwater, before handing it to Flurry, who slipped it into her pouch as part of her collection. After that both warriors jumped into the water and dived under it without delay, only to find a passage that went under the chamber and had a few corroded icons that looked like Poseidon, or his head anyway, where Flurry watched as her father rushed right through them with a dash attack he could only use in this situation. She didn't mind at all as they continued to explore the area that was below the main chamber, before finding that it brought them to a cavernous chamber that had a number of cerberi waiting for intruders, causing the pair to lash out at them with a bit of their magic this time, since the lesser ones were easier to hit in this state.

As it turned out there wasn't a path down here, rather there was a lever on the other side of a door that was connected to the main chamber, it only made sense when Flurry thought about it, to which she and her father doubled back to where they found the trident and discovered that a greater cerberus was waiting for them, though it hardly mattered as Kratos sliced it open with Artemis' blade, while Flurry took out the harpies that showed up with Zeus' Fury.

After taking out their enemies the father and daughter found that part of the wall behind Poseidon's statue had moved a bit and formed a path up to a circular tunnel, causing them to climb up to where it rested before heading into the tunnel, which brought them to another underwater section of the temple. With that in mind they dived under the water, though while Flurry found some ruined pillars and walls around them, likely caused by Kronos' movement, Kratos continued to move through the obstacle that was in front of them, only to find a nyad, which was a spirit of water and one of Poseidon's daughters, swimming ahead of them. Interestingly enough she didn't want to fight them or challenge them, rather they found that the nyad simply swam around them for a time, studying them for some reason, before leaning forward for a few seconds as she kissed Kratos on the lips, where Flurry guessed that the water spirit wanted to check out the person the gods had picked to carry out this important task. As she considered if she would be included in that, since there were two people chosen by the gods, the nyad swam over to her and kissed her on the lips as well, surprising both Flurry and her father, though the smile on the spirit's face meant she approved of them and swam off before either of them would really react to what had just happened.

Their immediate response to such a thing was to shelve the thought for the time being before heading down into what seemed to be the next part of the temple's latest challenge, only to find a passage that seemed to be getting smaller as all of the walls rotated inward, complete with spikes and even saws. With that in mind the pair shifted their stance for just a couple of seconds before utilizing the dash movement to cross the tunnel as fast as possible, passing through the opening on the other side as quickly as possible to avoid being crushed by the various traps. After that they were able to jump out of the water and found a platform that had a number of enemies for Kratos and Flurry to fight, just harpies and legionnaires, to which Flurry raised her bow and eliminated the flyers before they could do anything to them. Her father, however, used the Blade of Artemis and the Blades of Chaos to hack through his opponents with ease, demonstrating that both weapons were incredible, even against the monsters that were in this place, and it wasn't long before they completely cleared out the area and accessed the lever that was in the center of the area.

Upon pulling it, however, the pair discovered that nothing in the chamber had changed, to which they dived into the water once more and burst through where the rotating chamber they had passed through previously, before tracking down a part of a wall that had moved out of the way, revealing the way forward.

Following that they found a statue of Poseidon, a large one, just above the next part of the path and they swam down into the tunnel in question, though it did involve diving down into the carved out sections to avoid the moving spike walls that would crush them instantly if they were caught by them. In the end the two warriors were able to overcome the challenge and emerged in a new chamber, after descending through another hole and using it's tunnel to move forward, only to find two minotaurs wandering around another lever, one that seemed connected to a few pillars in the large pool of water. This time Flurry dealt with them by utilizing Artemis' blade, slashing the arm off one so it couldn't use it's weapon, causing it to drop to a knee for a moment before she removed it's head, while the second one missed her, due to her dodging it's attack, as she turned and hacked it apart. Kratos nodded for a moment as he pulled himself out of the water and pulled the lever, confirming their suspicions as the pillars raised and formed a path up to another statue, though Flurry stayed back as she loosed a few arrows into the air, striking down a couple of legionnaires hanging around the new statue, which seemed to be of Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife.

According to the tome in front of her, only Amphitrite knew the secret way out of the chamber, though Flurry figured it out with ease, as she found that the statue was pointing downward, right at the large pool of water, and, upon returning to the lever and pulling it, she spotted a chamber under the fourth pillar, which she and her father moved into before it pushed them down into the depths of the temple.

Interestingly enough the passage brought them back to the chamber with the crystal halves, though without the key that was needed for the next door, another skull no doubt, there wasn't much Kratos or Flurry could do but return to the rings and hope they provided the solution to their current problem. Upon returning to the area that the next skull door was in, however, Kratos spotted a tunnel heading under the area that the upper body of a statue was resting in and they quickly dived into the water, swimming down into it without delay since it seemed to be the way forward. The tunnel brought the pair to a small chamber that linked up to a much larger area, one that had a locked door off on their left that seemed far larger than any they had seen so far, meaning there might be a powerful monster, like the basilisk or Hydra, in their very near future. What Flurry found to be interesting was that the area had what appeared to be magma flowing out of parts of the upper sections of the walls, pouring down into vats while letting bits of flames dance off towards anyone who dared to make it this far, though while she had to question how the magma was up here, since the temple wasn't on flat land, she also knew this wasn't the time for that as they braced themselves.

After nothing happened, save for them checking out the area and found that there was a modified ballista that could fire logs at something, what neither warrior had an answer for, Kratos discovered a section of a wall he could smash and did so without wasting time, only to discover a passage heading to another part of the temple, only to discover that it brought them to an area dedicated to Hades himself.

"It seems that we have to make blood sacrifices to move forward... I hope we don't have to kill more soldiers." Flurry said, as she found an inscription on one of the nearby walls, a raised area above the rest of the chamber that they had access to, and had climbed up to where it was so she could read it, something that caused a surge of power to rush through the chamber as they turned towards two new magical circles that had appeared out of nowhere.

"I think the gods heard your comment. We have centaurs." Kratos stated, as the monsters in question were smaller than the ones he and Flurry had seen back during their exploration of Apollo's wrecked statue, though these ones had spiked bows that seemed to have energy in their bowstrings.

Flurry stared at them for a couple of seconds before rushing over to one of the altars, as that was what the message had called these zones, as she swung at one of the centaurs that was in her zone, where Kratos found that she knocked it onto it's back and promptly disemboweled it, cutting along the entire length with her sharp sickles. For a moment Kratos had to pause as he realized that maybe, just maybe, he had been far too vicious with some of his kills and that, after spending so much time with him, his daughter had started to copy him on certain enemies, which he might have to correct once they finally retrieved Pandora's Box. He also knew that this was her first time facing down this type of foe, so while the first one had fallen with ease Flurry kept her guard up as she dodged the incoming attacks and slashed into her remaining foes, just as he did the same with his enemies, who foolishly stepped into his 'altar' area as he clashed with them. Kratos found that these enemies, while stronger than some of the monsters they had encountered so far, were still nothing compared to their might, especially when either of them used Artemis' blade to hack a few apart, as it was becoming one of their new favorite weapons the more they used it.

In the end both he and his daughter were able to kill enough of them to break apart the magic that was keeping the pair of altars operational, where the door Flurry spotted earlier sunk into the floor, revealing a new passage for them to use as they continued to explore Pandora's Temple, which was much larger than they had originally expected.

Interestingly enough the passage was short and seemed to bring them to an area where no enemies showed up, which let Kratos open another door and discovered a second new passage, this one having sections of the floor moving in and out of alignment, forming a path before breaking and reassembling itself in seconds. With the magma below the path, however, it was easy for the pair to realize that a single misstep would result in their demise and whenever they reached a new portion like that one moved first and cleared the area before the other followed, since the passage was built with one warrior in mind and not multiple. In addition to that Kratos found a few arrow traps and even a guillotine at one point, showing them that the gods really wanted to keep the Box safe from anyone who might reach this point, before spotting a gorgon at what seemed to be the end of the current portion of the path, only to see that the area beyond the serpent seemed to be more like a maze. The gorgon didn't last long as Kratos tore her head off, allowing Flurry to keep her eyes on the legionnaires that happened to be in the maze as well, where she loosed an arrow every now and then to stun all of her targets, opening the way for her to cut them down or for her father to break them apart.

Flurry found that it really wasn't a maze, it was just passages that had legionnaires, gorgons, or even a few centaurs for her and her father to face, meaning it was just an excuse to have the seekers of the Box slaughter as many monsters as possible before the next door opened, one that was hidden behind a stone slamming against the opposite wall.

The passage on the other side of it was short and brought them to a short walkway that had a button on it, one that, when Kratos stepped on it, caused a statue of Hades to emerge from the small pool of red water that was in the middle of the area the centaur had attacked them in. There was a lever that could be pushed or pulled right behind the statue's head, a fact that allowed one of them to turn the head so it faced the dark chamber that was on the other side of the main portion of the chamber, though if it was left go it would reset in seconds. Flurry had an idea and had her father check the pool, as she suspected that there might be a lever down at the base of the statue, now revealed since they had raised Hades' tall statue to it's new height, causing him to nod his head before he dived into the pool. Sure enough a beam of light emerged from the statue's mouth a few moments later, where she smiled as she gripped the handle and pulled it into position, so the light was shining in the dark corridor that it was designed to light up, revealing a long chamber with multiple doors for someone to open.

In addition to that it looked like there were large flaming boulders for them to avoid as well, though there was also a long gap in between the entrance and the start of the path for the flaming hazards to fall into so they could be returned to the start and used again, forcing them to jump over the gap before rushing towards the end.

Flurry found it to be an interesting challenge, as they had to focus on the boulders and the pattern they were falling in, to avoid the others that were beyond them, while both she and her father ignored the other doors for now, as they seemed designed to entice people to stop and get crushed. The gods had definitely doing everything in their power to make sure Pandora's Box was safe from those who might misuse it, even using humanity's greed to bring about the deaths of those who were unworthy of the artifact's terrible power, but she and her father were able to overcome it in no time. At the end of the path Kratos spotted a chamber and moved into it as Flurry followed him, where they found a few legionnaires in it, a fact that didn't worry them as they dismembered the undead and kept moving forward, before discovering that there was no way out of the chamber. There was, however, a tome that informed them that there were eight doors and only a single way out, meaning they would have to track it down before moving deeper into the temple, causing Flurry to use her magic in a different way than she usually did, she made a barrier to stop the boulders, allowing them to pile up near the end of the path.

Kratos, while surprised by her power and curious as to why she never did this against other opponents or obstacles they had passed previously, quickly opened all of the doors before locating the one they needed to use, and once he found the way forward Flurry let go of her magic after catching up with him, allowing the boulders to continue on their way while she and her father continued forward.

Following that they found another area with a few minotaurs and a couple of legionnaire archers, where Kratos hacked all of the former apart with the Blade of Artemis, severing limbs while gutting others, as Flurry decided to utilize her Phantom Step, the move she used to vanish from thin air and reappear somewhere else, to help cull the archers. From there they found two more paths, the one on the right just leading them to a dead end with a number of undead archers pointing at a rope line they would have to climb their way across, so this allowed them to eliminate their enemies before Kratos took the first crossing. Sure enough enemies started to swarm both sides of the rope line and Flurry dealt with those coming up on the side that was behind him with her arrows, and once he was across she quickly took to it as well and made her way over to him without incident, a benefit of being the second to cross. The circular arena the rope brought them to just held more legionnaires for them to fight, where Kratos and Flurry unleashed a wave of Poseidon's Rage to decimate them, and the pair of minotaur that showed up, accompanied by a centaur, fell to Medusa's Gaze, as Flurry smashed the statues that were left in her father's wake.

From there they climbed a ladder and entered the upper portion of Hades' area, which involved walking across beams as they avoided spinning blade traps, though since neither warrior found any archers or harpies in the area they moved out at the same time, both keeping an eye out for enemies. As it turned out there was nothing for either warrior to even worry about, as they moved the spinning traps with ease, found their way up to a second set of traps, and repeated the motions until finding a rope leading diagonally down to a small passage that seemed to be heading backwards. In the passage the pair found a crank like the wheel of a ship, with Hades' design on it, to which Kratos spun it and they heard a what had to be a lock opening, along with something beating on said opening, causing them to understand what had happened as the nearby ramp lowered into place. With that in mind they returned to the chamber that the massive door had been in and found that it was mostly unlocked, with something beating on it from the other side, and as they walked into the chamber the door behind them closed before either of them could do anything.

Following that the creature smashed through the door and revealed that it was a massive minotaur, or the original that was far more massive than the others they had fought so far, plus this one happened to be wearing armor over every bit of it's body, meaning it could fight for longer than the lesser ones.

Instead of rushing back to the stake launcher, which they remembered was in the chamber, Kratos lashed out at the beast with his blades as Flurry leapt onto it's back and lashed out at the armor with her sickles, finding that she could, in fact, do a bit of damage to them and their combined might caused bits to release steam after some time. When enough pressure had been built up the Armored Minotaur lowered it's head and covered it, hiding from them to keep itself safe, though it only caused Kratos to latch onto it with his blades and slam it's armored head into the ground, stunning it. Flurry, upon seeing that happen, understood what to do as she used her shadow movement to get up to the stake launcher and pulled the lever, allowing her to load a flaming log into the device and launched it at the Armored Minotaur, dealing damage to the apparently weakened armor. The second time Kratos and Flurry did that series of actions they fractured the armor, or at least to the point where they could lash out at the rest of the armor and break it off after attacking them enough, and it continued to attack them once they revealed it's burned skin, or muscles and bone in places.

Kratos drove one more stake right into the beast's heart, which was now vulnerable, and the creature was sent flying into one of the walls near the door, where it struggled in vain to free itself and broke open a path for them to take, though in the following moment Flurry drove the Blade of Artemis into it's head, ending it's misery as it went still, before she and her father stumbled into the area behind the door.

"Flurry, let us rest for a time and recover... I suspect the obstacles from this point onward will require our full focus and energy." Kratos said, because after clashing with a powerful monster, and everything else they had done so far, he knew it was only going to get tougher from this point forward and wanted to make sure that both of them were ready for the rest of the challenges that the gods had for them.

Flurry nodded for a moment as she sat near her father and passed him one of the water containers, allowing them to take a bit of a break as she wondered what else the temple might have in store for them, and if they would be able to find the way to Pandora's Box before Ares destroyed Athens.