God of War: Daughter of War

Flurry found that the heat died down as they entered the cold and freezing domain of the Mounts of Aroania, a harsh place that remained this cold no matter what happened, though as they walked across the wooden bridge, which would burn up in due time, she felt something else. This new source was unlike nearly everything else she had felt over the years, save for the death wraiths they had fought inside Heraklion earlier, meaning that one of Thanatos' higher ranking followers were nearby and that he was definitely hunting them down, to the best of his ability anyway. A few seconds later she spotted the figure that seemed to be the source of energy that she was feeling, a female figure that was tall and slim, whose skin was a pale gray, and who wore a worn out looking black skirt that touched the ground, even though it's holes near the top showed off the sides of her hips and even part of her buttocks. She was also wearing a dark hood that had been pulled back, letting them see her dark hair, plus she had a pair of large black feathered raven wings growing out of her back, though she wore nothing over her chest and exposed her large breasts to the world, something she didn't seem bothered by.

This had to be Erinys, the Daughter of Death, and right now she seemed to be interrogating a Spartan, who she slammed into a rock before tearing his heart out, likely because he refused to give her what she wanted, and then walked off into the depths of the mountains to track down someone else to interrogate and, eventually, kill.

"Okay, Thanatos is definitely looking for us if he's sending his daughter out." Flurry remarked, though this wasn't good news for them, as Erinys was a fierce individual and fighting her might be more dangerous than when they fought Ares, though she was hopeful that they could get through the mountains without drawing her attention to them.

"Agreed. We will deal with her if she gets in our way... and I hope she does. No one attacks my people and gets away with killing them." Kratos stated, as he was annoyed that one of his followers had been slain by Thanatos' daughter, even though it made him wonder how many more of them might be dead, since there were more Spartans stationed throughout the rest of the mountains, as this was a proving ground for Spartan youth and they watched it as secure as possible.

Flurry nodded as they found a few new enemies to deal with, as there were some green mites that popped out of the stone and tried to attack her and her father, these ones looking more like poison carriers than fire carriers, though they were far too easy for the pair to take down, as a single slash ended their lives in seconds. Unfortunately the main path into this part of the mountains was blocked, thanks to flames and fallen timbers, so they just climbed up a wall on their left and made their way over to a side path the adult Spartans had used in the past, with her father cutting down a few more mites in the process. From there they had to break some scaffolding down to continue onward, but it was easy to do and neither warrior was stopped by the short delay, even though it meant breaking a decaying statue in the process, one from Ares' era, so the pair were fine with breaking it as they moved forward. The pair then jumped over to another area that happened to have a cyclops and a few mites waiting for enemies to reach this location, where Kratos and Flurry eliminated the mites with ease and turned on the cyclops, hacking into it's arms and legs as they brought it down to it's knees, which was followed by them taking it's head clean off.

Another cyclops showed up as they cleared out the rest of the mites, though instead of wasting too much time on it Flurry just split it in half with Artemis' blade, barely giving it a chance to do anything to her or her father, but once that was done they found a short cliff wall and climbed up it, entering a short passage that was blocked by iced over rubble, which Kratos smashed his way through so they could reach the fallen Spartan.

"My Lord, I knew that you and your daughter would return." the wounded Spartan said, where he coughed up some of his blood as he talked, even though they were impressed with the fact that he had survived for so long, despite the damage he had suffered by Erinys' hand, but he waved Flurry off as he approached, knowing that she'd try to do everything in her power to save him, showing them that he was beyond saving, "The servants of Death know nothing... those who have fallen failed to gain anything from us. Elysium awaits me..."

"Though I do not know your name, nor the names or your comrades, I will make sure you aren't forgotten... none of you have failed me." Kratos replied, because he understood what most Spartan warriors desired, being remembered in some manner, just like the tale of Atreus, a Spartan warrior who secured victory for them at one point in the past, before Flurry came into his life anyway, and such a thing allowed the fallen warrior to pass on with a smile on his face.

Flurry knew her father wasn't too pleased with his discovery, that Erinys was actively killing their people while hunting for both of them, though since she had flown off, since none of the lifts in the area had been moved recently, that meant they could focus on cutting through the mountains to reach their city. She also found that the way forward was blocked by a bit of scaffolding, so her father punched at the material in question and shattered some wooden beams with ease, though as it fell, revealing the cliff face they had to climb up, a number of frost harpies came out to attack them. Flurry wasted no time in loosing a number of arrows into the air and took them down, while the lone one that tried to get away was simply shocked into oblivion, as she flew a bolt of lightning at it, causing her father to nod his head, as he approved of her skills, before making his way up the cliff wall. As she followed after him, since she wasn't going to open her wings with how cold it was, as she might freeze them off in this area, Flurry noted that the frost harpies did have blue feathered wings, as if ice had formed on them, plus their legs and talons were covered in ice, confirming they had bonded with the cold.

At the top of the cliff Kratos and Flurry found a rope line to cross, though as Kratos did that Flurry found that a massive bird flew by without actually stopping, where she noted that it was a massive raven with armor plating, meaning Erinys was still in the area, but for some reason hadn't noticed them yet.

Flurry wasn't going to question the Daughter of Death's inability to sense her, despite everyone else sensing that she had some connection to her father's aspect, hence why she focused on joining her father as they entered another portion of the mountains, tearing through some frost harpies and undead archers in the process. From there they entered a short passage and found some scaffolding that served as a grapple point to access another portion of this area, where Flurry did her best to keep track of Erinys while they moved, because they didn't want her to swoop down on them while they were distracted by other enemies. She also found that parts of the area were definitely broken, as the bridge that served as the grapple point had been intact before Erinys' arrival, so she was literally breaking whatever she wanted while she searched for them and was killing whoever got in her way, annoying the pair greatly as they surveyed her destruction. In the next cavern the pair found a large quadrupedal beast with large horns, powerful looking teeth, and armored looking ice on it's back, a dredge according to Kratos, a powerful beast that had to be taken seriously, causing them to shift their stance as it rushed at them.

The dredge had good defenses, maybe due to the ice being enchanted in some manner, as it seemed to withstand their attacks for a time, only for the ice to burst off it's back and revealed that they were actually smaller versions of the large creature, but instead of running they attacked the pair and Flurry took them down with a sad look on her face, while her father beheaded it with Artemis' blade.

Flurry said nothing as she continued down the cavern's path, where she found more archers waiting on the other side of a wooden walkway and raised her bow, allowing her father to push one of the cargo cubes over to their position, due to the fact that it would allow them to reach another rope line. As he moved it Flurry loosed a number of arrows from where she was standing, taking down all of the archers and even a few frost harpies that were flying around the area, because they looked like they were going to come in at some point in time, so she was eliminating them now. Kratos waited for her to be done with her bow before he used the rope line to reach another climbable wall, only to discover one of the gear slots they had seen on Atlantis, something Kratos had never see in this area before, meaning he either didn't know this place as well as he thought or someone had changed things recently. Fortunately there happened to be another tunnel nearby that had one of the metallic statues they had seen in the volcano, complete with a gear for them to use, where Flurry simply let out a whistle as she vanished into thin air, only to appear behind the metallic foe as she cut it down with ease.

Thanks to her doing that Kratos was able to take the gear and move it back down to the area that the lock was in, where he turned it and opened a door to the next portion of the mountain, which involved heading into a short water filled area that allowed them to get around the massive gap that was in front of them.

Such a thing brought them to an area with more of the dredge's offspring, where they, too, attacked Kratos and Flurry as soon as they laid eyes on the pair, where both warriors said nothing as they utilized their skills to bring them down, even though Kratos knew his daughter was displeased by this fact. Despite her upbringing, and the lessons he imparted over the years, Flurry had grown up with an appreciation of life that was unheard of for a Spartan warrior, and having to kill all these young creatures had likely upset her, though without some way to calm them down this was the only path available to them. Fortunately he found something to take her mind off of the lesser dredges, as there were more frost harpies that were coming towards them and she wasted no time in loosing arrows and lightning bolts into the air, tearing through her targets while he focused on quickly getting rid of the young creatures. After taking out the rest of their enemies Flurry put her bow away as she joined her father in heading down the path in front of them and walking across another walkway that linked two sections of the mountain together, before heading up another path that brought them to a long bridge, though this one was more damaged than the others.

What they discovered was that Erinys had landed recently and had slain another group of Spartans, eliminating more of the guards that were supposed to be watching over the area, though as she finished off another soldier she paused for a moment and turned to face them.

"Ghost of Sparta... the God Slayer..." Erinys said, sounding like she was either trying to be creepy or she was dragging her words a little to make her seem different than everyone else in the world, though that was when the figure noticed Flurry standing there, something that caused her to stop for a few seconds, "You... why do you reek of Death?!"

"Still trying to figure that out, Erinys. I am Flurry Heart, daughter of the new God of War, Kratos." Flurry replied, though as she said that she started rotating her sickles, letting the edges hit each other once more as her father watched the pair for a moment, as he was unsure of what was going to happen next, because there was no telling if Erinys was going to attack or if his daughter was going to beat her to the punch.

"You... you're the reason that father's been getting weaker as time went by! I'm going to take great pleasure in rending the life from your body." Erinys stated, something that interested the pair, as they weren't expecting to hear that Thanatos was actually getting weaker, almost as if he was sick or something, though at the same time she shifted her stance, resting one hand on the ground as she opened her wings, showing that she was ready for battle.

In the next moment Flurry and Erinys rushed at each other, clashing in the middle of the space that was between them not a few seconds later, where Kratos found himself being propelled over to the other side of the bridge, showing him that his daughter wanted him out of the way for this fight. As the two clashed Erinys found something interesting, the sickles were able to counter her clawed hands with ease, almost as if they were made from a material that matched or surpassed her claws, and likely the metallic plating in her monster form as she thought about it. In response to that she flapped her wings and pulled back for a moment, causing Flurry to raise an eyebrow as her foe created three dark spheres of energy that had a twisted yellow color in their cores, attacks that Erinys hurled at her with the intent of killing her before she could do anything else. Flurry, on the other hand, shifted her stance as she swung both of her sickles, slashing through the orbs before they had a chance to do anything to her or the surrounding area, surprising the Daughter of Death for a few seconds as all of the energy dissipated. She clearly wasn't expecting that to happen, in fact she was likely expecting it to do something to her, though Flurry took the opportunity that was being presented to her and rushed through the air, cutting into Erinys' side with one of her sickles, only to find that the figure had moved out of the way, hence the light cut that was on her right side, which she healed in seconds.

Erinys frowned for a moment as she unleashed more power on her foe, where Kratos found that she created far more of her dark orbs and even called forth what appeared to be death harpies into the battle, or maybe they were ravens, but it mattered little to Flurry as she combined her sickles into the sickle staff. Such a thing caught Erinys off guard as Flurry cut and slashed her way through the hazards that were coming at her, demonstrating the skill and power that she possessed without wasting any movements at all, allowing her foe to see that she was a Spartan at heart, just like her father. Not only did her powers seem to have no effect on her foe, as Flurry slashed through them with ease, it was clear that her melee attacks were worthless as well, where Erinys realized that the new God of War's daughter was far more skilled than what all of the stories claimed, as if the gods themselves had no idea of her true skills. In the next moment Flurry vanished like she was a ghost, only for Erinys to discover that her foe had appeared behind her, as if she had been fighting a shadow or phantom the entire time, which was when Flurry swung her sickle staff and slashed Erinys' wings off, causing her to growl in pain as she fell forward.

As that happened Erinys realized something important, Flurry wasn't a foe she could even begin to take lightly, not with the power that was coursing through her body, though she paused for a moment as her back shook and sprouted a new pair of raven wings, as her regeneration was far stronger than most assumed when they looked at her.

"You will regret this, young one, for Sparta will burn!" Erinys stated, because she knew that the two Spartans cared far too much about their home and that taking one's treasured place away usually shattered them, especially if someone both of them cared about died, though at the same time her body, arms, and legs started to distort as she shifted into her bestial form.

Erinys paused for a moment as she heard a whistle that sent a shiver down her spine, which was insane since she was the Daughter of Death, a being everyone should be scared of, and found that it came from Flurry as she spun her sickle staff for a few seconds before swinging it to her right side, creating a curved scythe blade at it's tip. In the next moment Flurry appeared behind her and Erinys threw herself off the bridge as she narrowly missed the scythe's head, which could have split her in half if she hadn't been paying attention to what her foe was doing, where she sped up the process and quickly finished transforming into her raven form. Flurry stood there for a moment, staring at her foe as she flew through the air, before shifting her stance as she opened her wings and burst into the air without delay, where Erinys found her coming after her and raised her talons to stop Flurry in her tracks, something she avoided with ease as she swung her scythe into her opponent's chest. From what she could see Erinys kept pulling back when her weapon got close to her, no doubt due to some sort of fear she was feeling, and she even tried to used large gusts of wind to try and take her down, only to find that such a thing didn't matter to Flurry as she moved through each attack and continued her advance.

In the next instant Erinys, the Daughter of Death, started to feel afraid, scared of the very thing her father embodied, what she had been immune to for a long time, causing her to let out a shriek as she loosed a burst of energy from her mouth and sent it straight down at Flurry. Instead of dodging out of the way of this beam attack, and dooming her father to take it without being able to defend himself against her power, Flurry rotated her scythe in front of her, creating a spinning space that collided with the incoming attack, where Erinys found that she was still coming. Her final attack was doing next to nothing against her foe, a warrior that would no doubt terrify the gods if she was allowed to continue living, and yet her mind saw no way for her to win this battle, as annoying as it sounded, despite the power she possessed as Thanatos' great and terrible daughter. Flurry, on the other hand, finished tearing through the attack, burst into the space in front of her foe, and swung her scythe before Erinys had a chance to move, slashing through the armor plating while leaving behind a diagonal gash going from her right shoulder and stopping at her left hip, all while knocking Erinys out of the air.

Erinys ended up crashing into the ground near Sparta, some distance from the city to be exact, where she screeched in pain as she forced herself back into her mortal form so she could heal, as it was easier in her smaller frame, even though she was surprised to see her blood on her chest, only to pause in fear as she heard the whistle again as Flurry appeared out of thin air near her position.

"Stand down, Erinys. I don't want to kill you." Flurry said, as there was no need for her or her father to take down another godly creature, not when she was sure that there was a chance for her to stop this before her hands were forced to take down another foe who wouldn't listen to reason, all while Erinys seemed unable to heal herself, though she knew that the figure was secretly healing herself while she listened to her words.

"Yeah? Well I want to kill you!" Erinys stated, where she rushed at Flurry before she even had a chance to say something else, no doubt an offer of some kind to get them into her father's realm, though before she could do anything her target vanished and appeared behind her not a few seconds later.

"A shame... goodbye, Erinys." Flurry replied, which was why Erinys found a number of slashes appearing on her body, just like the first one she made with the scythe a few moments ago, before her foe collapsed on the ground, where Flurry let out a sigh as the body of Thanatos' daughter evaporated into dark energy, the energy of Death, leaving behind a twisted cage of some kind that she picked up.

The artifact twisted and contorted before turning into a small sphere of energy that matched what she had seen Erinys use before her demise, which entered her chest, as if the energy recognized her as it's new master, causing her to realize that she had a new magical power to add to her arsenal. With that done she dismissed the scythe before returning both of her sickles to her belt, allowing her to spread her wings for a moment before taking off, where she headed out and found her father where she had left him, on the bridge that Erinys had partly damaged before their arrival. Instead of continuing along the path like normal, and filling her father in on what had happened, she picked him up and carried him back to the path that would bring them right to one of Sparta's main gates, though this time she was able to refrain from straining her body. Kratos said nothing during the short flight, as he could tell that Flurry wasn't too happy with having to kill Erinys, as it would likely make their quest harder in some manner once Thanatos realized his daughter was dead, but he was glad to see Sparta again, since it would allow them to rest up before the final stretch of their quest, and found that Flurry stopped near the gate closest to the path they were following.

Sure enough the Spartans near the gate were happy to see them and opened the gate without delay, allowing him and his daughter to walk inside their city, where both the people and the soldiers praised them and bowed their heads in respect, especially when they reached the brothel, where some ladies were waiting for her father.

"Flurry... are you sure you want to be alone?" Kratos asked, because he knew that time was of the essence and was slightly curious as to why his daughter wanted a small break before they secured the key to the Death Gate, especially since there was no telling what Thanatos might do to Deimos.

"I'll be fine. I just need a few moments... go and have some fun before the final leg of our journey." Flurry replied, as this was mostly to help her father unwind a little before they headed for Ares' old temple, plus there was something she could do to pass the time, so it wasn't like she was going to be alone for too long.

Kratos nodded and disappeared into the building, where Flurry spread her wings and took to the air for a few seconds, as she landed in an area near the path that would eventually bring them to the temple that the key was located in, where she leaned back and withdrew an item from her pouch, which had the color she was looking for.

"Pandora, can you hear me?" Flurry asked, as Hephaestus' new statue was amazing, allowing her and her father to speak with the Smith God's daughter, who greatly enjoyed her tales of what had happened in the past, giving her someone else to talk to that wasn't one of the gods or their followers.

Of course. a voice replied, a young feminine one that she had heard a few times so far, as Flurry had used the statue's power only a few times so far since she took Hephaestus' warnings of the crystal's color to heart, but she was happy to hear it again as she got comfortable, Are we going to pick up the story from where you left off last time?

Flurry chuckled for a moment as she resumed the tale she had started to tell Pandora the last time she did this, heading back to when she and her father were dealing with the Furies, since she had started at the very beginning for her friend, which only made her interested in what might happen in the near future.