God of War: Daughter of War

After dealing with the Barbarian King, and putting a close to that chapter in Kratos' past, he and Flurry found that one of the trees Alrik had damaged in his rush through the forest had fallen and provided him with a grapple point, which he used not a moment later as his daughter glided over the gap. The pair then followed the path that was in front of them, noticing the large trees that could hide enemies and a number of hanging corpses that seemed to be those who tried to reach the Fates in the past, all failures since they were hung for their shared crime of trying to change their fate. Some were decayed to the point of being skeletons, held together by some form of magic, while others were fresh, as in they must have come to this place within the last month or so, and the damage to their intact armor told the pair that it would be best to have their weapons at the ready. Danger was definitely waiting for them somewhere inside the bog, if what they had seen so far was any indication, where Kratos held his blades at the ready as Flurry studied the surrounding area for a time, before finding a few warthogs in their way, enemies that fell in a single hit since they weren't as tough as the cyclops.

The end of the path, which they discovered after dealing with the pair of warthogs, brought them to a new temple, a large one that seemed nearly as grand as the one dedicated to the Sisters of Fate, while Flurry found a stone plaque nearby that informed them that this was the Temple of Euryale.

"Euryale... as in Medusa and Stheno's sister?" Flurry inquired, as it was said that there were three sisters of the gorgons, all of which were given the title of 'Queen of the Gorgons', likely to represent three factions that no longer existed, but this told her that they were going to face an enemy from their past, since they killed Medusa during their quest to get Pandora's Box and Flurry still had her head.

"This is troubling information." Kratos said, because he shared his daughter's thoughts, this discovery meant that they were likely going to clash with either Euryale, since this was her temple based on the nearby plaque, Stheno, since she was the elder sister and was likely annoyed by Medusa's death, or both of them in the near future, "Keep your guard up, as there might be more gorgons waiting for us."

Flurry nodded as they jumped over to the area in front of the temple's entrance, finding that there was a large button one of them could stand on that likely activated the trap on the door, as there was a gorgon head on it and that meant it was likely designed to turn anyone who stood on it into a stone statue. From there they found that there were two paths, to the right and left of the main door, though the left one was locked by a key that neither of them had, meaning they would have to head down the right path and see what it might throw at them. After jumping over a couple of fractured bits of the path, made out of stone no less, they found a larger area that had a cave on the other side of it, one that two minotaur chased a soldier out of before he fell to the ground to avoid one of their axes, allowing the pair to drag him back into the cave with a terrified scream. Since told Flurry that either the main temple reset after someone reached a certain point, or there were different starting points that were totally different from the one they had entered through, in fact it seemed like the latter was more reasonable to help weed out those who didn't deserve to be here, and the bog had to be a shared location for all openings.

Interestingly enough there was a body nearby that the crows were pecking at, who happened to have a bronze item that matched the lock on the other door, which Kratos handed to Flurry since it would be safer in her possession, before they found that a pair of short armored individuals, with horned helmets and carrying two battleaxes each, came out to kill the pair. Flurry decided to call these new foes 'beast lords', as their hands and feet looked more like beast claws, plus she saw that one had a horn that was used to call allies to the area they were fighting in, though after that she pulled out her new weapon and focused on one of their new enemies. She found that they were definitely on the same level as the satyrs, as the beast lord swung at her with lethal precision and with the intent to kill her, but her speed was faster as she dodged a couple of attacks and swung the hammer into his chest, the short spikes on the end denting her foe's armor as she easily knocked him into the side of the cliff. Her father, of course, used his own blades to parry the incoming attacks before he lashed out at his foe, cutting into his arms or legs when an opening showed itself to him, though it didn't take him long to sever one of the beast lord's limbs, causing it to stagger before he removed it's head with another attack.

After the first two there were a few more beast lords that pulled themselves up into the area they were in, causing Kratos and Flurry to lash out at them, slashing them apart and scattering bits of them in the process, and one even was crushed with it's own weapons, taken by her father and used against them.

After clearing out the beast lords the pair returned to the front of the temple and made their way over to the locked door, only to find that more foes, the skeletons that had been resting around the structure's door, rose to fight them, though this time around Flurry crushed them into dust with her new weapon. Kratos, despite his dislike of the weapon that Alrik had carried, found that his daughter was right, it was a decent addition to their arsenal, though at the same time he had no desire to use it himself, causing him to turn on some of the other skeletons as he crushed them with his blades. Once all of the enemies were dealt with the pair made their way over to the locked door and inserted it's key, allowing them to open the door and head down a short path that brought them to a raised ruin section that was near the cave they had see the soldier and minotaurs in. As they approached the ruins one of the beast lords came out and blew it's horn, where they found that Flurry's name was right, it summoned a cyclops and latched onto it's shoulders with it's axes, like it was a rider and the beast was it's steed, though Kratos did nothing as his daughter moved forward.

What Flurry did was pull out Medusa's head and turned the cyclops, and it's rider, to stone, before leaping into the air as she brought the hammer down on them, shattering both enemies like they were nothing as she showed off the power of the weapon, only to find that another cyclops and two beast lords showed up. This time around Kratos rushed at them as he drew the Blade of Artemis, slashing through one of the cyclops' legs as it fell to one knee, which was followed by him getting onto the creature's back as he split the rider in half before it could react, allowing him to sever the cyclops' head as Flurry quickly downed the other beast lord with a pair of arrows. Once the enemies were taken care of, and they quickly confirmed that fact, Kratos approached the ruins and found that it moved with their weight, as in when someone was on the rightmost side it moved that way and if someone was on the leftmost it shifted in that direction. It was an odd thing to see, like there was something under it that they couldn't see that was influencing the entire structure, though for the time being Flurry stood on the left side and let her father pull out an oddly shaped stone block that looked like it might fit into another area, but for how he moved it out of the way.

His reasoning for that was due to the gate that was on the other side of where the block had been resting, which he was able to open with ease since it wasn't locked, and once he was inside Flurry followed after him, allowing them to enter the inner part of the ruins, only to find that the inside seemed more intact than the outside.

It included an area that moved into a cavernous area, a decent sized area that had a few wraiths and nymphs for them to fight, though to make sure that they had enough room to move Flurry smashed a stone pillar in the middle of the area to ensure their attacks wouldn't be stopped by hitting it. After clearing out the area the pair discovered that the shattered bit of the ceiling formed a grapple point that would get them to the upper area, before they decided to explore the rest of the other path and found a number of satyr warriors coming at them. Kratos hacked and slashed his way through them while Flurry simply smashed some with the new hammer, but she did stab some of them with the twinblade or even one of her sickles, showing that she could switch things up within seconds, only to discover that this was a dead end, leading to a spiked opening that showed the area they were just in. With that in mind they quickly retraced their steps once more and returned to the grapple point, where Kratos used his blades to get to the upper area as his daughter jump jumped up to where he stopped, which was only temporary as he used two more points to reach another part of the ruins.

Flurry found that the area was overgrown in some instances, roots growing all over the place, and there were a few satyr warriors standing in front of them, where they wasted no time in cutting them down and then jumped across the odd tree stumps that were heading deeper into the area. While they did that she loosed a few arrows into the air and took down a trio of satyrs that looked like they were firebombs, small pouches filled with something that ignited once the fuse reached the bottom, though by eliminating them down she was able to clear the way for her and her father. Kratos, however, just smashed the pillars that the satyrs had been standing on apart with his bare hands, reminding Flurry that her father was strong, even before he became a god, and even now it seemed like somethings never changed as he shattered the main one and formed a way for them to advance again. A trio of undead legionnaires appeared behind them, though Flurry just turned them to stone so her father could smash them to pieces, allowing them to jump on the fragmented pillar and jump up to the upper area, which was another passage through the mountainous area.

This one brought them to a new chamber that had a pressure button in the middle of it, which opened the main gate only a little, only to find that there was a lever near it that lowered another gate, leading to a small area that had a body inside it, while on the other side there was another one with another button. Kratos and Flurry glanced at each other as Kratos picked up the body and carried it over to the other side of the chamber, where he handed it over to his daughter after she moved over a raised section of a gate, allowing her to place it onto the button they had spotted. With that done the pair found that the main gate lowered halfway, just like when the main pressure button was pressed, to which she returned to the central button and used the Oath Stone to create a temporary shadowy version of her that would keep the main gate open for them. After doing that, and Kratos was sure that the area was clear of hazards, the pair walked through the now open gate and moved deeper into the ruins, or rather an outside area that had a large water wheel, another section of the overall ruin, a large body of water, and a soldier being torn apart by some satyrs.

While they stood there, however, Flurry came to a stop as she felt someone observing them, not the Fates, since the three sisters seemed to be content with ignoring her existence, rather it felt like one of the remaining gorgon sisters that were no doubt waiting for them.

"Father, do you feel that?" Flurry asked, as she wanted to make sure that he knew that someone was observing them, and not any of their allies since it didn't feel like anyone they knew, which only made her wonder which powerful being might be watching them at the moment.

"Yes. It must be Stheno." Kratos said, because there was no real information of the eldest gorgon sister, other than that she was far larger than the other two and was far older, possibly making her the first of her kind, meaning there was no way for them to know what sort of powers she had, "Keep your guard up. There is no telling what might happen next."

This time around Flurry didn't bother nodding her head, she knew what to do thanks to years of learning from her father, rather they jumped over to the first of three gears that were in front of them, where Kratos moved the crank, which also moved the gear they were on, as Flurry kept an eye out for additional enemies. A number of satyr warriors jumped out of the foul water that was around them, prompting her to swing the hammer at them and crush their chests as she sent all of her foes flying over the cliff that also happened to be a waterfall for the river. The second one was more like the first, but the third didn't need to be moved at all, rather it served as a platform for both warriors to jump onto before crossing over to the main path that would bring them closer to whatever the goal of the bog was. That was when they found a new foe standing in their way, a mass of volcanic stone that seemed to resemble a minotaur, standing nearly as large as the one from Pandora's Temple, where the stone minotaur stared at them before beating the ground with it's fists.

The pair glanced each other as they pulled out their amulets, causing time to slow down for them as they linked the magic inside both together as Kratos and Flurry rushed at the massive monster, the former blasting at it with a few lightning orbs and slashing at it with the Blades of Chaos. While he did that Flurry flew around the slowed down monster and lashed out at it with the twinblade, allowing the icy power of the weapon to lightly freeze some of the areas she hit, since they were fighting a volcanic looking monster, or maybe the stone was designed to withstand elemental attacks. When time resumed they found that the stone minotaur staggered for a moment, which was understandable given the attacks it had suffered, but that didn't stop the beast from tearing a chunk of stone out of the ground to throw it at them, even though it missed both warriors. With that done Flurry pierced the stone minotaur's left arm and froze it, allowing her father to barrel into it's chest before stabbing both of his blades into what had to be it's heart, allowing him to bring it down as they turned their attention to the next obstacle in their way, a large petrified tree stump.

Since there was nothing else in the area Kratos latched onto the tree with his blades, shattered part of it, and pulled it into place, forming a walkway for him to use to get to another part of the area, since Flurry could have just flown over there on her own, before he moved forward as he kept his blades at the ready. That meant climbing onto a wall that was nearly overgrown with roots and using a vine that crossed the entire area to get to another part of the ruins, though as Kratos did that Flurry stayed back a little as she raised her bow and readied herself. Sure enough she found that some satyrs with bows appeared on the platform that was lined up with the vine and she loosed some arrows before they had a chance to hit her father, taking each one down as she made sure that the area was cleared of enemies. Fortunately her father had a few enemies to deal with as well, the satyr warriors who climbed on the vine as well, where he crushed them with the sides of his legs, before he eventually reached the end of the line and beckoned for Flurry to catch up to him, something she did without delay.

The area Flurry landed in happened to be near the top of the massive water wheel, where they found that they could raise a thin stone door into the ceiling to reveal another statue of one of the Fates, complete with a stone to slow down time, to which Kratos pulled it out before activating his amulet.

Flurry stood there as she felt time slow down, since she had a feeling that she didn't need to use her amulet, and when time resumed she found that her father was on the other side of the area, having bypassed the water wheel completely, to which she opened her wings and followed after him. From there it was a simple matter of using the moving platform in front of the area her father had stopped in to cross over to another one, only to find that the rest of the path happened to contain avoiding beams of gorgon gazes and fighting off some satyr warriors. This proved to be far too easy for them, as all they had to do was kick the satyrs back into the beams and turn them to stone in an instant, then wait for a couple of seconds for the statues to come to them so they could smash the satyrs to dust. At the end of the path Kratos found what looked to be a few beams of wood arranged in a way to block someone from moving forward, only for them to smash it to bits and use a grapple point to reach where the archers had been located earlier, only to find a familiar looking object that was like the one near the oddly moving portion of the ruin.

After moving it out into the lower area the pair found that they could jump down to the moveable ruin and moved the new piece onto the platform as well, forcing it to raise higher than ever before, something that caused Kratos to quickly grip the underside of it before tearing the ruin from it's foundations, sending it right into the water below.

"Whoever designed this place really went above and beyond in making such a convoluted way to make a platform." Flurry commented, though she guessed that this was the purpose of the ruins, to bring down whoever wanted to visit the Fates or make them give up after seeing everything that was resting in front of them.

Kratos had nothing to say on this matter, as whoever designed this place must have gone mad based on what he had seen in Pandora's Temple, though he did cross over the new platform and climbed onto the wall that lead to the area that they had seen the minotaurs and the men in, all while his daughter simply flew over to the opening. From there they moved into the cave and raised their weapons once more, finding another oddly placed grinder and some stone statues, which seemed to be of monsters and men, meaning there had to be a gorgon somewhere in the cave. There was one soldier who was bleeding out, who, in his last moments, informed whoever was listening that 'Jason' had been taken and that he had the 'fleece', though that was all they could get out of him before he perished before their eyes. After that they found the first gorgon of the area, the half dead ones that were missing their stomachs, which Flurry slashed in half with a quick swing of the Blade of Artemis, leaving her father to stab the monster in the head with his own blade, ending her misery as they continued deeper into the cave.

When Kratos found another grinder he also found that Flurry just smashed it with the hammer, utilizing it's great power to break it and allow them to enter the area that Jason had been dragged into, finding a chamber with a cerberus that was in the middle of munching on a soldier, who had a golden piece of armor over his right shoulder, an armlet. The pair stood there for a moment as the beast tore Jason apart, he was already dead by that point, though once it focused on them the pair attacked, Kratos lashing out with his blades as Flurry utilized the twinblade as she spun around the beast, dodging it's paws and mouths. As the beast tried to kill one of them, to add more food to what it had gathered so far, Kratos found an opening and wrapped the chains one of it's heads, allowing him to heat them up so he could sever the head, though that was followed by his daughter smashing the left one with the hammer before freezing it's front paws. In the next moment both of them slashed the beast to death, cutting into it's sides before it could do anything to stop them, though before the pair killed it Kratos shoved his hand into the main mouth and extracted the fleece, letting Flurry kill it while he slipped the armlet over his right arm.

Kratos stared at the new item as one of the walls became active, spewing fireballs every now and then at them, where he got a crazy idea as he raised his right arm and used the Golden Fleece to parry and reflect the attack at where it came from, blasting the wall apart and opening the way for them to retrace their steps to the main temple.

"The Golden Fleece, such a wonderful addition to our arsenal." Flurry remarked, where she watched as her father used it to protect himself from the door's gorgon beam and redirected it into the obstacle, turning it to stone so she could break it with the hammer, allowing them to enter the main temple.

"Yes. I was not expecting to discover such an artifact, but it is a worthy addition to have." Kratos said, as he agreed with his daughter, on what it was and how good it was to have it in their growing collection of tools, before he stared at the temple that was in front of them, as there was no telling what else might be waiting inside it.

Flurry stood beside her father for a moment, as she was ready to face the dangers of Euryale's temple and see what else the Fates could throw at them before they were done with the bog, all while wondering what sort of challenges would be waiting for them in the near future.