God of War: Daughter of War

Once Kratos and Flurry took a few moments to rest and regain their energy, where it was hard to tell time in the area of the temple that they were currently in, the pair headed up the circular walkway that was in front of them, noticing that there were several pillars of magma flowing down into a pit below them. The staircase didn't have any foes for them to deal with, like the Armored Minotaur was the only thing assigned to this portion of Pandora's Temple, so they were able to reach the top in no time at all, coming to a walkway that was missing the central section of it. Fortunately Flurry found a large chain container that bridged the two halves together, allowing her and her father to cross over it with ease before discovering that the end of the path seemed to be a chamber with another elegant coffin, where they would find the second skull. Kratos took a moment to look at the stone tome in front of them and discovered that another of Pathos' family members had been laid to rest here, his second and last son, causing him to sigh as he pushed the lid back and repeated what he did when they found the first coffin earlier, he took the skull and offered his prayers to the son's spirit.

With the lid back in position, and the second skull was in his pack so they could open the last door in the temple's rings, the pair headed back to the chamber that was below them, only to find that the door leading out had changed, it now had a pair of statues with another god on either side, the armored form of Hades, and a magical barrier.

"Lord Hades." Kratos said, though he wasn't surprised by this at all, because two of the three strongest gods had already lent them some aid, those being Zeus and Poseidon, so it was only a matter of time until he and Flurry found that the last one did the same, to make sure they were ready for whatever the future held in store for them.

Kratos, Flurry, your progress has been impressive, but your skills will not carry you to your ultimate goal. The souls of the dead stand ready to fight at your side. Hades stated, confirming that this was another power to add to their arsenal, for the duration of their time in Pandora's Temple and for the rest of their current quest, though Flurry was happy to see that he wasn't annoyed with them over Persephone's death, likely putting his feelings aside for the good of the world.

Sure enough, as a new power rushed into their bodies, the pair found a number of enemies, legionnaires and even a couple of harpies, entered the arena to do battle with them for a time, to which Kratos stepped forward first as he released what appeared to be three black and yellow specters into the air. The Army of Hades, as Flurry was going to call it, flew around the area and attacked anyone that the user wasn't currently fighting, so while her father fought one of the undead she watched as the specters focused on some of the other legionnaires, and even the harpies from time to time. She found that the same was true for her when she tried out Hades' gift, the specters flew around and focused on those that weren't her current foe, meaning it was another way for them to clear out an area that was filled with enemies in no time at all. This pleased the God of the Underworld, as if Hades was glad to see that they were able to utilize his power to bring down their enemies, and the moment the last foe fell he repeated the phrase all of the others had said, as in 'go with the gods', before his projection vanished and opened the way for them to retrace their steps to the temple's rings.

After swimming through the tunnel that brought them to Hades' section of the temple Kratos and Flurry quickly stopped by the second skull door and Kratos inserted the head into it, causing the door to lower while the water itself was drained as well, revealing a crank in the a chamber that was inside Zeus' statue and a familiar crystal above it.

"Of course. We have to connect the two crystals to move forward." Flurry commented, as now the first crystal she and her father had found earlier made much more sense, it was the key to bringing them one step closer to Pandora's Box, before she spotted another crank that was linked to the ring that was around them, causing her to nod, "We just have to move the second ring's main door so it lines up with the first ring and the chamber that the other crystal is resting in."

Kratos nodded his head as he opened the door that was near the crank, allowing them to see into the rings they had beat so far, though in addition to that they had to use the crank that was inside the statue to move it so it's door was facing the rest of the doors, and while Kratos did that Flurry made her way to the outermost ring to do the same. In the span of a couple of moments they had the various doors lined up perfectly, going from where the half crystals were resting and ended where the statue's crystal rested, to which the pair regrouped before heading back to where the first crystal was resting. Neither of them were surprised to find more legionnaires blocking the way forward, but Kratos slashed his way through them with the Blade of Artemis and Flurry followed after him without delay, allowing them to reach the chamber in question and Kratos moved the crystal into position once more. This time something interesting happened when the beam connected the pair of crystals together, the entirety of Pandora's Temple started to shake, where rocks and certain parts of the ceiling came down, a fact that caused both of them to dodge the falling rubble, since being squashed was something they wanted to avoid, only to witness something else.

Zeus' statue rose out of where it was resting, heading higher and higher into the air, something that no one, not even the first challenger of the temple, had seen before this point, meaning they were about to go further than anyone else had, though they had to dodge a number of rocks before the shaking stopped.

"Okay... I'm honestly not sure how the gods will reset this change to the temple, if we fall in the near future, but it's nice to be the first ones to do this." Flurry commented, though at the same time she and her father walked over to the base of the statue, finding what appeared to be a lift where the second crystal had been located a few moments ago, meaning there had to be another portion to the temple that no one had seen before this point.

"The upper reaches of the temple will likely be far harder than anything we've tackled so far. Keep your guard up and we won't fall to the traps or monsters." Kratos stated, where he stopped on the lift and pulled the lever once Flurry was on it, to which it moved them up towards the highest point of the statue, though he had to agree with his daughter, their ability to reach this point, that no one else had reached, was a grand achievement that Zeus would have to acknowledge in the off chance that they were brought down in the near future.

When the lift came to a stop the pair found that the statue was resting near the start of a new path, which seemed to be a cliff area, though as they walked out onto the hands Kratos found that Zeus' hands moved down and linked up with the start of the path, allowing them to step down and found a satyr with a sickle staff waiting off on the side. Flurry smiled for a moment as she combined her sickles into a staff as well, surprising the monster for a moment, before rushing at her foe and swinging it, showing the monster that her speed was greater than it was suspecting as she sliced into it's lower legs with ease. Kratos, on the other hand, found a few more appear out of the shadows and drew his blades on them, lashing out at a pair of new satyrs so his daughter could focus on her opponent, though he also found that using Hades' power on them was a good idea, as the specters barrelled into one, allowing him to focus on his main foe for a time, without having to worry about being attacked from behind. He even found a moment where he could grab his foe's weapon and used it to pierce the satyr's chest, before utilizing his blades to take it's head clean off, which was when he found that the specters finished tearing down their target and disappeared, all while Flurry cleaved her opponent in half.

After that they spotted something blocking the path leading to the cliffs, a harpy with jet black wings and blood red eyes, a sign Kratos remembered from when he first made his oath to Ares, though Flurry, upon recognizing it as well, loosed a bit of lightning that shocked the monster into oblivion, killing it in seconds.

"Ares knows that someone is seeking Pandora's Box, hence why he sent one of his minions to check the temple out while he's busy wrecking Athens." Kratos said, though this wasn't good news for them, because while Flurry killing the harpy was a good thing, keeping the information of their progress here out of the God of War's hands, the action would tell him that someone had reached this point, meaning they were running out of time, "He likely suspects that I'm the only one who could have made it this far, given all the training and battles I've been in over the years, but I doubt he even knows of your existence, Flurry... only because some of the other gods seemed surprised when they first saw you.

"Still, he'll know someone's reached this level in no time... we had better get moving, least he turn his full attention on the temple, and us for that matter." Flurry stated, as she understood why her father might be worried about this discovery, a fact that she now shared as she considered what the harpy meant, though at the same time she returned her sickles back to their separate form and started to cross the stone bridge in front of them.

Kratos was glad that Flurry understood the situation they were in, even though he did not fault her for killing the harpy the instant she noticed it, though they stopped in front of a stone tome that informed them that Pathos, in his grief, designed what he called the 'Cliffs of Madness', a maze that he claimed had no way out, and, interestingly enough, he didn't sign it as a loyal servant of the gods. It was easy for the pair to understood why he had done such a thing as they moved forward, Pathos had lost both his sons and who knew how many workers to this task, all without a single word from whoever was watching over him or the gods themselves, so him viewing them as uncaring made sense given his loss. They were unable to spend too much time thinking about Pathos as Kratos slashed at a couple of legionnaires and Flurry moved beyond the group so she could use her bow and lightning to eliminate a number of archers that were positioned along the cliff path she and her father had to walk to get closer to Pandora's Box. In addition to those enemies they also found some harpies were getting ready to join the battle, where Kratos shocked them out of the air with his own lightning, allowing Flurry to continue progressing as he caught up with her, though this time Flurry found a rope line that they could actually move across without getting attacked for once.

After taking out a few more legionnaires the pair reached a lift that took them to a new level of the cliffs, after Kratos took a moment to spin the crank, where they found two paths they could take, a ladder and a cave, though they quickly picked the latter and entered a cavern that had legionnaires and satyrs for them to take care of. The first thing the pair did was utilize the power of Medusa's Gaze on their enemies, with Flurry jumping into the air to avoid being caught in it, and once her father was done they smashed the statues that were left behind, eliminating a number of enemies in seconds. Those who survived that attack were subjected to being torn apart by Kratos or being slashed by Flurry, though at the same time there turned out to be more for them to fight, which made sense given their proximity to Pandora's Box, since Flurry was sure it was much closer than before. Kratos did notice that the satyrs who actually got close to them found his daughter standing in their path, slashing at them with her sickles while avoiding their attacks, almost as if she was teaching them a lesson on how to fight with their weapons, but at the very least she took down everything that came her way.

From the cavern the pair found their way out to another lift and it's crank, allowing them to access an upper level, though before heading right into the cave in front of them Kratos and Flurry found a heavy rock that could be lowered down to where another tunnel rested, one that had the minotaur's head above it, hence why they slaughtered the legionnaires that were in the way before entering it.

There were more satyrs to deal with, though Kratos decided to turn them to stone and have Flurry smash them, only for him to find that they had to cross a wooden bridge that was partly destroyed and had a crank that allowed both halves to be spun towards each other, and had archers on the other side. As he moved the bridge into position his daughter used her bow to take down the ranged enemies that were in their way, and when he was ready they used the Oath Stone to keep the halves locked in place for a time, so when they were on the other side Kratos released the power and allowed his shadow form to disappear from the crank's position. After that they discovered a path that lead outside, where they found some more minotaur that were slaughtered in seconds, due to utilizing Medusa's Gaze again, before stopping at what had to be the key to getting out of this portion of Pathos' challenges, two statue heads of the other goddesses that seemed to be linked to a stone platforms that needed to be extended. Flurry discovered that the deities represented here were Hera, Zeus' wife, and Aphrodite, though both statues were missing necklaces, based on the indent that was resting in the area below the neck, meaning they knew what needed to be found this time around.

In the following moment Flurry had the idea to spread her wings and return to the one path they had skipped earlier, an unintentional decision on their part since they had no idea what was up here, and found that it lead to a small chamber of sorts with a number of spike holes in the ground. With that in mind she simply skipped over to a lever, pulled it to bring down a gate behind her while opening a door for a moveable stone in front of her, before jumping onto the stone once it was out in the open and propelled herself up onto the upper level, allowing Flurry to find a necklace with a red gemstone resting on an altar. Such a thing caused her to smile as she picked up the necklace that was connected to Aphrodite, due to the fact that the bust liked to the Goddess of Love had red gemstone eyes, though with it in hand she headed outside and returned to where she had left her father. When she reached her destination she discovered that her had left a trail of destruction, stone fragments from monsters turned into statues that stopped at a rope line, heading diagonally into one more cave and caused her to follow after him, just in case he needed backup.

What she found was that her father had slain even more monsters, a few minotaurs and legionnaires based on the couple of scattered weapons she spotted, and found him putting stone pillars, in different shapes, into a wall that was in front of him, only for the wall to sink into the ground so he could claim Hera's green necklace.

"Very impressive." Flurry remarked, though she had to admit that this was a good idea on her father's part, that she had flown off on her own, without saying anything, so he focused his attention on finding the other necklace, figuring that was the reason she had flown off, to find the first one.

"It was simple: I just had to rotate the stones and push them into the wall." Kratos said, though at the same time both he and his daughter started to retrace their steps back to the pair of busts they had seen earlier, as it was time to head even higher and see what else Pathos had built during his insanity.

The path back required climbing up a nearby wall, and hitting the enemy climbers with some arrows, before they found an area that allowed them to drop down into the area that the rope line was resting in, allowing them to return to the busts and attach their necklaces to their respective owners. Such a thing caused the busts to spin, like gears, before moving the four stone platforms that were in the area out of where they had been resting before this point, allowing the pair to jump from one to another until they reached the main path, signified by the stone pillars at the start of it. Of course there were more legionnaires and minotaurs getting ready to block the path, causing Kratos and Flurry to engage them without delay once more, where Flurry blasted her foes with Poseidon's Wrath this time around, just to mix things up a little, though she made sure to do it away from her father. After dealing with them the pair found a ruined bridge that had ropes for Kratos to use to swing across the gap, while Flurry just flew across, before reaching another lift with a crank, allowing them to move up towards the uppermost reaches of the Cliffs of Madness.

When it came to a stop they found a tunnel that had a number of coffins lining the walls, though at the end of it the pair discovered a new structure that was either a citadel or a tomb, where they decided on the latter after seeing the amount of coffins that lined the path that brought them here.

From what Flurry could tell there were three buttons that needed to be pressed, as there was one near them that just so happened to open one of three doors on the main surface of the tomb, meaning they would have to track down the other two before they could reach Pandora's Box, as it was closer than ever before. With that in mind they carefully crossed the gap that was in front of them, avoiding spinning saws that moved from one side of the area to the other, only to find that were were no enemies outside the tomb and there happened to be a statue of an unknown woman on the left side of the structure. Flurry suspected that it had to be Pathos' wife, it was the only thing that made sense since she didn't recognize her as one of the goddesses of Greece, though for the time being her father pulled it out of where it was resting before he moved to the other side of the structure and opened a gate for them to enter another portion of the area. On the other side of the door the pair found more of the scythe legionnaires, a foe they hadn't seen for quite a while, though Flurry just moved by them and Kratos found that all of their heads were severed from their body, reminding him of what she was really capable of, but he said nothing as they continued to push forward.

Interestingly enough the path brought them to the top of the tomb, instead of a new chamber, where Kratos noticed some cyclops coming to destroy them, along with some cerberi, though the combination of Poseidon's Wrath and the Blade of Artemis allowed him and his daughter to decimate the monsters with ease, scattering arms and heads in the span of just a few moments.

With those foes dead Kratos found a ladder to climb and discovered that it brought him to a device that allowed the user to move a large stone slab around, or use it to smash through a weakened portion of the ground to reveal another area to explore, causing him and Flurry to head down there without delay. In that moment Flurry had an idea, they could use the stone on the upper button that was near where her father had found the statue and she was sure that the statue could be moved into the under area, and then they could utilize the Oath Stone to keep the final one pressed until they were safely on the other side. Kratos, upon hearing it, agreed with his daughter, it was a good plan that seemed to be what Pathos' had intended, hence why he moved the stone slab over to the area above the statue's button and lowered it into place, all while Flurry glided down to the statue and quickly moved it over to the new hole, making sure to cut down two cyclops in the process by using Artemis' blade. Once she was done with those foes she made sure to move the statue down into the lower chamber, which was just the small cavern with a button and nothing else, before moving up to where the first one was located and activated the Oath Stone on top of it, creating a shadowy clone on it as the three doors opened up.

Kratos was pleased with this discovery and moved into the chamber on the other side of the doors, with Flurry following after him a few seconds later, though as the doors closed behind them the pair discovered that both Pathos and his wife were dead in the chamber and there was a skull door blocking the way. Flurry let her father do what was necessary, as in remove the wife's head while offering his prayers and everything for desecrating her body, though while he did that she focused on all of the blueprints that were around them, as if this place had been built long before the temple had been, based on what she was reading right now. Interestingly enough she found a piece of parchment that had a diagram of the girl that reminded her of the small statue that Hephaestus had sent them as a gift a long time ago, where she carefully pulled it off the wall and stashed it inside her pouch, along with a few copies of what went into creating the temple, as this was interesting and she was sure some of the gods would want to see his notes. Once she was done her father slipped the wife's head into the last skull door and it split in half, revealing a passage that lead even deeper into the final structure of Pandora's Temple, or, as they soon discovered, a short tunnel that lead outside and brought them to a carved area that lead right to the entrance of another structure.

After passing through the main entrance the pair found a circular staircase heading down into the mountain, stopping at a large chamber that had moving floor sections, large stone grinders on either side of the area, and a passage on the other side that would no doubt bring them to the resting place of Pandora's Box. Sure enough Kratos and Flurry found that there were more enemies for them to defeat, harpies and archer legionnaires, the latter positioned in places where they wouldn't be bothered by the moving floor, though in addition to that they discovered that the raised sections weren't safe, since they had flame launchers in the walls. With that in mind the pair remained on the moving floor, making sure to stay away from the grinders as they tore into the enemies that were around them, Kratos utilizing the power of the Army of Hades, letting a number of specters slam into some of the monsters that happened to be in the chamber, while Flurry moved around and used her arrows to take out the archers. Other than those two enemies the pair didn't see anything that would cause them to pause, and once their enemies were wiped out they quickly moved over to the other side of the chamber, discovering a circular art piece in the still floor that seemed to represent Zeus battling humanity, the latter represented by the attire of a soldier of Sparta.

Instead of focusing on that, even though it greatly interested Flurry, the pair walked up the stairs and opened the door to the final chamber of the entirety of the Pandora's Temple, discovering three statues that, from left to right, represented Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon, though the object in the center was their goal, for when Kratos pulled out a lever he revealed a large brass or golden chest that had tormented soul designs on the lid and had red flames inside it.

"Pandora's Box..." Flurry said, where she walked around the object as it was lowered onto the floor, it's container having served it's purpose, before the floor itself started to descend, no doubt returning to the entrance of the temple, giving her and her father a chance to study the box.

"This holds the power to kill a god... a major Olympian, to be exact." Kratos added, as he knew that Flurry had the power to apparently do the same thing, if what happened to Persephone was any indication of her unusual skills, so he wanted her to understand that he was talking about the gods that were higher than the fallen Queen of the Underworld, ones that could give the Big Three a challenge, "With this we can kill Ares... finally, he will pay for what he did all those years ago."

Flurry nodded as she thought about that, as her father had told her about the deeds the God of War had forced him to do, about all of the people he had murdered under Ares' command, the atrocities he had committed against the rest of Greece, hence why people feared his existence, and how, in his blind rage, he had murdered his late wife and daughter. She knew that he had told her after their thinking about their discussion with Persephone, no doubt wanting to clear the air after he realized that she wouldn't hold everything against him, but she also knew that this was important for her father, because it would allow him to end a painful chapter of his life. While the lift continued it's descent she felt the power that was resting inside the Box, a great and terrifying evil that was balanced by a glorious light, hope to be exact, and this allowed her to see why Zeus had gone through great pains to keep the container secure, until it was needed anyway. After that she found that the lift stopped right outside the rings of the temple, all while the circular stone door heading into the rings closed while the main door opened, where Kratos pushed the Box off the lift and started to make his way towards the main entrance, as it was time to head back to Athens and bring this quest to an end.

As Flurry stepped out, however, both she and her father were surprised to find a large stone pillar, shaped like a spike, fly through the now open main door and impale Kratos on the stone door behind him, piercing his heart with lethal precision, spilling his blood all over his chest, hands, and even the floor as Flurry rushed to his aid.

"Father! No, this can't be happening." Flurry frantically said, as this was not how this ended, that Ares, the only one outside of the Olympians that knew they were close to their ultimate goal, would actually cheat them out of their victory by using such a cowardly attack to deal with his would be foe, hence why she looked over her father as she raced to find a way to save her dying father.

Kratos found that the damage extended to more than his heart, all of the organs around it had been damaged as well, as when he tried to say something he ended up coughing up blood in the process, where all he could do was raise his hand towards his panicking daughter, unable to say anything to actually calm her down. As he felt his life fading from his body, and the hands of Hades waiting to pull him, body and soul, into the Underworld for his final judgement, he spotted a few harpies flying into the temple, identical ones to the one Flurry had killed on the bridge earlier, before latching onto the Box with their talons. Flurry paid them no mind, focusing on him and him alone as the Box was carried out of the temple, as it hardly mattered to her after seeing what had happened to him, and yet, at the same time, he could see the fires of rage starting to burn in his daughter, something he had hoped to never see, not after everything his rage had done to turn his life upside down. It was the last thing he saw as the last of his life left his body, causing Flurry to fall to her knees in shock as he was dragged into the Underworld at long last, though as soon as the gate to the Underworld was gone Flurry's rage ignited, spreading like a wildfire in her veins, as dark energy pulsed around her body and smashed through the ceiling of the chamber as it pierced the heavens themselves.

Ares had taken everything from her father, including his life, and now he had taken the center of her world from her, to which Flurry turned her sights on Athens as her rage took hold of her, and there wasn't anything the gods could do to stop her from getting her revenge on the vile God of War.