God of War: Daughter of War

Once both Kratos and Flurry were ready they moved into the temple that was in front of them, finding that the first area, a decent sized chamber, had a few stone statues that were of monsters they had seen before reaching this point, where to be safe Flurry smashed them with the hammer. She really had no idea if some of the monsters could do what her father was capable of, as in resisting the power of the gorgons' eyes and shattering the shell before they were totally trapped in stone, but she wasn't about to risk more enemies coming at them. There were also some undead legionnaires that dropped down into the passage that was to their right, showing the pair that the gorgons hadn't gotten everyone in the area, though that didn't stop them from lashing out at the undead that were standing in their way. Kratos even tore one in half with his hands, instead of slashing it into pieces with his blades, though Flurry continued to use her weapons and even a bit of magic to take out her foes, before they found that the next part of the path happened to be a stone ladder heading down into the depths of the temple.

With the first round of enemies were dealt with the pair descended down the stone path and found that it brought them to a larger chamber, where they heard a faint voice that was likely Euryale, either trying to intimidate them or whining to herself about something else, but neither warrior cared too much. Their first action as they dropped down into the chamber was to smash the couple of stone statues that were around them, though as they did that a minotaur stepped out and roared at them, showing them that the temple's guardians were coming to fight them. This time around Kratos grabbed onto the larger beast's weapon, yanked it out of it's hands, and them crushed it's head with the large mace, dropping the body to the ground as he turned towards the undead legionnaires that rushed at him. As he slashed his way through them he found that Flurry shocked some of her foes with a bit of lightning magic, stunning them for a moment before taking her targets down with her sickles, and once the area was cleared they moved down another path.

This one allowed them to see that there was another soldier further in the temple, where it looked like he was taking apart a crank so no one could follow after him, causing the two to frown for a moment as he finished his work and headed even deeper into the structure, where they did the same without wasting time.

The crank that was in front of them allowed Kratos to move a lift deeper into the temple, to a small area that had a couple of nymphs and another lift that was the very one that the soldier had damaged, though as Kratos investigated the area Flurry slashed her way through the flying critters with the twinblade, breaking them instantly. In the end the way forward was simple, all Kratos had to do was move the lift they had used to get to this area up slightly, forcing the other one that mirrored it's position, to move with it and when he stopped it stood as a raised platform for them to stand on. From there it was a simple manner for them to jump onto the wall that was in front of them and climb up the inside of the passage, a fact that allowed the pair to reach where the soldier had been working a few moments ago, only to find a legionnaire with a scythe on his back. It was interesting to see the reaper legionnaires again, though to see if they had improved any Flurry pulled out her sickles and attacked the familiar undead, where she found that it's movements were the same as before and it rarely used it's scythe, causing her to slash it apart as her father joined her.

After dealing with the reaper legionnaire the pair found their way to an outside balcony, which seemed to be a stop with nothing for them to do, and by taking a few steps back they were able to find a path to climb up, even though it did allow them to see a few traps that were on the ceiling, meaning there might be more ahead of them. In order to move forward Kratos climbed up another wall and used his blades to carefully make his way across the path that was in front of them, all while Flurry just glided over, using her mastery over her wings to reach the end in no time at all. After that they discovered another crank, this one linked to a moveable wall that had spikes on it, so when they let it go the wall would likely come at them, to which Flurry chuckled as she pulled out the Oath Stone once more, an artifact that both she and her father were glad to have in their arsenal. With it in their hands Kratos made a shadowy copy to hold the crank in position so he and his daughter could walk down the passage the spiked wall was part of, while the lever at the end allowed them to open part of the wall they had walked by and raised the end of the passage for them to get out of the way.

What the pair discovered was a fairly large chamber with one of the stone books on a pedestal, which happened to be the area that a stone soldier was resting in, one that was written by someone who came to realize that they wouldn't be able to reach the Sisters, meaning Euryale must have stopped them at some point, or a lesser gorgon did, only to jump back as a massive gorgon tore through the wall behind the book and narrowly missed them.

"Euryale, we have no quarrel with you." Kratos stated, as just with Theseus he wanted to see if he could persuade the foe that was in front of them to stand down and get out of their way, because there had been enough death recently and part of him really didn't want to add to the pile, save for adding Zeus to it, so he was hoping the second Gorgon Queen would stand down and let them pass.

"Oh, but I have my own vengeance to carry out, for the death of my sister, Medusa." Euryale replied, where they found that she was definitely taller than Medusa was, in fact she was about half as tall as the entire chamber, but she was also obese, as her body was wider and looked more like a slug in some instances, despite the speed she used to smash right through the wall that had been behind the now crushed stone tome.

"But what about your elder sister, Lady Stheno? Surely she will be sad if you die as well?" Flurry asked, because while she knew that the Fates would require them to beat the Gorgon Queen that was in front of them, the middle child in the case of the three gorgon sisters, she agreed with her father, there was no reason for them to spill more blood than what was necessary, but her hands were near her sickles, just in case, "Just let us through and no one has to get hurt."

"Ghost of Sparta, you and your daughter will die here, for the crimes you have committed against my kind." Euryale said, her tone revealing that she didn't seem to care what Flurry had to say on the matter, rather she seemed to think that she had the power to kill both of them, causing the pair to sigh as they shifted their stances, showing her that they were ready to fight and that there would be no more talking.

Euryale rushed at them and focused her gaze on Kratos, who seemed to be her main target, though she didn't seem to realize that he was wearing the Golden Fleece as he shifted his stance so the armlet could tank the blow, where it's power stalled the Gorgon Queen's gaze for a time. As that happened Flurry jumped onto the gorgon's tail and started to slice into it with her sickles, intending on working her way up to the neck so she could slash open the main vein and kill their foe as quickly as possible, before Euryale was pushed back by the Golden Fleece's power. Following that failure Euryale tried to use her gaze on Flurry after getting her off her tail, only to find that her target disappeared, as if she had never been there in the first place, before discovering that she was wrong as Flurry sliced open part of her side with the twinblade, letting a bit of frost invade her massive body. As she did that, however, both she and her father noticed that their foe, like most of the monsters they encountered in the past, wore nothing over her chest, though it did nothing to the pair as they hacked at her sides and her chest when she got close to either of them.

Eventually Euryale decided to flee from them and rushed over to one of the larger pillars that were around the chamber, where they placed a bit of a game as she tried to fill the area with a modified version of her gaze, focusing it on the ground to freeze everything that was below her in stone. Kratos found that the Golden Fleece dealt with that and kept him safe as his daughter got above the massive gorgon and stabbed her in the back with a downward thrust of the Blade of Artemis, a fact that caused the beast to howl in pain as she quickly stopped her attack. That allowed her father to get close to them and latch onto Euryale's chest with the Blades of Chaos, where he forcefully yanked the gorgon off the pillar so her face would hit the floor, dazing her so he and Flurry could slash into her body before she regained her senses. To aid them in dealing with the large gorgon Flurry slashed up the pillars that she decided to climb up and moved out of the way as her father grabbed onto the falling segments and smashed Euryale with them, dealing a decent amount of damage to her in the process.

After smashing her with the second one, and finding that the Gorgon Queen was dazed, Kratos leapt into the air while he called the Blade of Artemis into his right hand, allowing him to sever Euryale's head from her body before she was able to react, something he grabbed before it hit the ground.

"Another gorgon head... now we have two of them." Flurry remarked, though at the same time Euryale's body collapsed nearby, now lifeless since it was missing her head, but she knew this wouldn't go over well when Stheno realized that both of her sisters had fallen to them, meaning it was only a matter of time until she showed up looking for revenge.

"Yes, and fortunately it is about the same size as Medusa's." Kratos commented, as while Euryale was a big creature her head was actually about the same as her sister's, like she was supposed to be more of a monster and less like a human, before he and his daughter found that more enemies were coming at them.

Flurry discovered that their foes were just more satyr warriors, where her father turned them all to stone with Euryale's Head and then smashed them by bringing the Blades of Chaos down on them, breaking all of the statues that were left in his wake in no time at all. This allowed them to realize that both heads worked as intended, as both held the power to just turn enemies to stone, in record time no less, which meant Stheno's gaze had to be far stronger since she was the elder sister of the trio, but both warriors hoped that they wouldn't run into her anytime soon. Flurry honestly wasn't sure what Stheno would do if she encountered them, as she had been around far longer than either of her sisters and that meant she might be smarter than them or might be more like a powerful monster, so they would either be in for a fight or they might have the chance to talk her down. Kratos, on the other hand, preferred that the third and final Gorgon Queen would stay away from them, as he knew there was a good chance that, while Stheno might be stronger than her sisters, he and Flurry would be able to take her down without her doing any serious damage to them.

After thinking about that for a moment they found that a new door had opened and they entered the passage that was on the other side of it, where the pair found themselves in another large chamber that looked like it was one large puzzle of sorts, full of water, pillars, and statues that held the time gems. Kratos nodded to Flurry and she flew around the chamber for a time, finding that she was able to without something trying to stop her, which made sense since most people didn't account for there to be a trial taker who had wings, where she found that there were a number of pillars that looked like they had to be moved first. It reminded her of the first one that was right outside the passage that had brought them to this area, where her father rotated the crank for a time and they discovered the pillar moved, until it revealed that part of it was hollow and had a metallic grapple point for someone to use to get through the area. With the first one in position it was easy for Kratos to see that for him to move forward he had to pull some levers, all to open some gates, and utilize the statues of the Fates to slow time, though since Flurry had a nearly identical stone he just had to link his with hers to slow time.

Flurry remained near the ceiling of the area, just to watch over her father, and found that there were levers underwater that allowed her father to raise some of the gates that were either in his way or those he had passed by, though he made sure to get out of the water every now and then to raise the pillars into position. After raising the four main pillars into position, those that were around the outer area of the chamber, she found that her father fought a barbarian and a few undead legionnaires appeared to stop her father from raising the last one into position, causing her to land without even a moment's delay. Her father wasted no time in turning the barbarian to stone with Euryale's Head, allowing him to smash his target to bits as Flurry slashed through the undead that dared to join the attack, before she found that were was one more barbarian and crushed him with his former King's hammer, which brought a small smile, or maybe a smirk, to her father's face for a moment. There was a third one that came at them on his own, but he lasted all of a few seconds as the pair tore him down without wasting time, though once he was dead Kratos moved the crank he had discovered and the last pillar, which was missing part of it's upper section, moved into place.

With the Oath Stone he was able to lock the pillar in place before he climbed up to an area that allowed him to grapple from one point to another, utilizing the five structures he had raised before this point to reach what appeared to be the exit, or at least a passage to yet another room, only to discover that it ended in a large lift.

As Kratos pulled the lever, to get the platform moving, they found a number of hounds appear to attack them, which were nothing compared to the might that he and Flurry had, hence why they slashed and smashed the small enemies with ease as the lift moved towards an upper walkway. What was interesting about this was that they had to press their hands on the ceiling and then use their strength to force the lift down to a safer area, which Kratos did as his daughter dealt with a couple of hounds that dropped out of a hole in the ceiling to attack them. After doing that a few times they were able to jump through the now open doorway and found that it closed once both of them were on the other side, allowing both warriors to walk down a new tunnel as a few harpies came down from a hole in the ceiling to attack them. This time Flurry used her bow and took them down with a few well placed arrows, all while her father carefully walked across a section of the floor that was broken, leaving just the beams behind, something he bypassed with ease and she replicated his moves as she caught up with him.

The area it brought them to appeared to be the inside of a mountain, where one of the stone minotaurs was waiting for intruders to reach this point of the trials, though it lasted only a few seconds as Kratos and Flurry used the heads of the Gorgon Queens they had taken down and turned it into a statue, before smashing it to bits.

"You two are as skilled as the stories claim... I am impressed." a feminine voice said, something that caused both warriors to turn back to face the path they had used to reach this point, where they found a lady standing behind them who wore a tan vest that had sleeves that reached her wrists, while it had a flowing robe bottom that prevented the pair from seeing her feet, though in addition to that she was wearing a hooded cloak over her upper body and her face was mostly covered by a green serpentine mask.

"Lady Stheno?" Flurry asked, as she knew that it was good manners to address someone like the eldest Gorgon Queen, a figure who had been alive for so long and was likely far stronger than her sisters, with respect, all while hoping that she wasn't here to avenge her sisters, otherwise the entire area would break around them.

"In the flesh." the figure replied, confirming that she was, in fact, the last of the Gorgon Queens, though Flurry had heard that she was far more massive than even Euryale, as she was supposed to be massive in comparison, but as she thought about that Stheno turned and waved her hand, causing some stones to move into the gap that was between them and the next part of the path, even though they could have simply grappled over to it, "Or rather, in my chosen mortal form... you would not believe how hard it is to talk to people with my true form, especially since I tower over everyone and most mortals are intimidated when they see what I really look like."

"It is certainly... interesting." Kratos said, though at the same time he and Flurry followed the Gorgon Queen for a moment as she reached the path they needed to take to move forward, where they found some skeletons guarding the way, not that such a thing mattered to the figure in front of them as she turned all of the bone warriors to stone, allowing him and Flurry to crush them with ease, "Why are you here?"

"Medusa and Euryale, I want their heads." Stheno answered, though as she turned to face them the pair found that she raised her right hand and withdrew two medallions that had the icon of a gorgon on their front surface, with green gems as the eyes, showing them that she wasn't here to fight, rather Flurry was sure that she was saddened by the deaths of her sisters, "I'm not going to fight you for them... my kind has lost too much since Ares went insane, and now the same has happened to Zeus, whose legions are slaughtering all who dare to oppose him, or so he claims... Medusa's clan has been totally eradicated, and Euryale's was falling apart, even before her death. And that's not counting all of the other monsters he's targeted, erasing whole groups and even what little settlements they have... so you can see why I would rather not leave my race without a leader, especially in the troubling times we're in. As such I'm willing to offer you these medallions that possess the same power that a gorgon wields, which we call the 'Gorgons' Eyes', in exchange for the heads of my sisters."

"Zeus is a blight on both men and monsters... he needs to be stopped, before something terrible happens." Flurry stated, a fact that was becoming more true as time went by, though at the same time both she and her father decided to hand over the heads, because the medallions seemed easier to carry around and use, where she could tell that Stheno was glad to have her sisters back with her, even in their current state.

"You are different from the other gorgon, as you are more peaceful than the others. Is Albis one of yours?" Kratos asked, though as they walked up a circular set of stairs, which were heading upwards, he reflected on the peaceful comment, as he meant it more in the sense that Stheno hadn't outright attacked them, rather she came to talk, something that easily reminded him of the gorgon who had befriended them a long time ago.

"Albis? Is that her name? Interesting." Stheno remarked, where she thought about what was going on as Flurry pulled a lever and lowered the seal that was on the ceiling above them, which lowered the rest of the stairs into position so they could walk up into a familiar area, the one that allowed the pair to meet the Barbarian King, "I know not where she came from, as she isn't a naturally born gorgon... in fact, she reminds me of Medusa, a mortal transformed into her new form by a god, but I could not tell you who she had been before the transformation. When this is over, and everything has had a chance to calm down, I would like to speak with her."

Kratos nodded his head in agreement, as it was possible that the eldest of the Gorgon Queens might be able to help them figure out more about Albis, or even help her out in some way, before discovering that he could use the Golden Fleece to repel the fireball trap and blast open a new path for him and Flurry to use. After that discovery Flurry wished Stheno well as she joined her father in crossing the gap, which happened to contain a short cave passage that lead outside, giving the pair a view of the Steeds of Time, plus some undead legionnaires that they used the medallions on. Such a thing allowed them to discover that the new tool did the same as the gorgon heads, as in the pair could turn enemies to stone and crush all of the new statues with ease, even though there were more undead legionnaires beyond the first group. Both Kratos and Flurry lashed out at the enemies in front of them, either knocking them off the cliff and sending them to their doom or slashing them apart with their weapons, before using some grapple points to reach another part of the temple they had thought they had finished upon entering the bog.

That allowed them to discover an area that was on the same level as the area that the other large statue was in, this one bearing a fierce look on her face, while the figure's mouth was full of fangs, causing Kratos and Flurry to brace themselves for whatever the Fates had in store for them this time around.