God of War: Daughter of War

It took Kratos and Flurry a few minutes to return to the gateway they had spotted at the start of the Underworld, though upon reaching it they were able to use it to warp to another part of Mount Olympus, an outer area that was far higher than what the now flooded world, though there was more to climb before they reached Zeus. They also found a stone path down below where the other gateway was located, made of stone bricks and designed for wagons to be moved in and out of a town, which meant they had to be close to Olympia, a keep that was built onto the side of the mountain. While the pair took a moment to stare up at the peak of Mount Olympus, and their final destination, they heard a familiar sound as Helios flew through the air on his chariot, totally ignoring them or maybe didn't even notice their presence as he continued the fight against whichever titan he was fighting. Flurry sighed as she saw him go by, because based on what they had seen so far it was entirely possible that the God of the Sun would turn out to be like Poseidon and Hades, doom driven to protect Zeus and that they would be forced to kill him as well, which would blot out the sun and cause despair to reign.

As they walked around the bend that was in front of them, however, the pair had time to see a large ornate door before an earthen hand grabbed onto part of the path, where Gaia forced herself to climb higher and higher, even if it meant that she was currently blocking their path.

"Kratos, Flurry, you still live? The blood of Cronos runs strong in both of you." Gaia remarked, which was funny since most people knew that the pair weren't actually related, since Flurry was adopted, but either of them felt like correcting her since there was far more for them to do and enemies for them to focus on, though it was easy for both warriors to see that her wounded left arm was giving her trouble, "Quickly, you must help me! I must return to our battle... Olympus must fall to the titans!"

"You are in luck, Gaia, as we have something that can aid you." Kratos replied, where he pulled out his time amulet for a couple of seconds and awakened it's power, causing Gaia to pause as she and Flurry watched as the wounded arm started to mend before their very eyes, quickly returning to it's original form in no time, and when he was done he deactivated it and returned it to where it was kept, "There, now you can resume your ascent."

"I must confess, Spartan, as while I'm grateful for the aid, I am also confused. I let you fall into the Underworld... why do you aid me now?" Gaia questioned, because that was a betrayal, something she knew Kratos wouldn't stand for, and with him standing before her, and not cutting her arm off, it really confused her, making her wonder what had happened in the depths of Hades' realm in the time they had been gone.

"Because we have a job to do: kill Zeus. You and the other titans are doing a good job distracting and scattering the rest of his allies, so having you in good condition benefits all of us." Flurry replied, as she understood what her father was doing and agreed with his actions, because the more Gaia and the titans were able to do the more they could move around the rest of the mountain without Zeus tracking them down before they were ready to deal with him, "Besides, both sides of this arrangement had the same thing intended for the other, so I think we're square and can move forward as equals that share a single goal."

"The titans are pawns of Death... I never considered that as a possibility. Very well, we shall continue to focus on the gods and our climb, while you two focus on Zeus," Gaia said, where she chuckled for a moment as she thought about it, since Flurry was far smarter than she and the others gave her credit for, something that made her wonder what else the figure had planned as she shifted her stance for a moment and continued her ascent.

The pair waited for her to get out of the way before they approached the ornate door that Gaia's hand had been in the way of, which happened to have a number of brass warrior statues whose eyes lit up as the warriors approached it, only for Flurry to find an inscription on it, that they had to destroy their enemies to pass. Their enemies, as it turned out, were more undead legionnaires, these ones more armored than before, meaning they must have reached the point where the stronger foes came out to fight them on Zeus' orders, though at the same time neither of them were intimidated by their golden armor. The reason for that was due to the fact that they had far too much experience in dealing with enemies, as Kratos dodged attacks before slipping the blades through some of the cracks and tore through their insides before they had a chance to stop him, allowing him to tear them in half. Flurry continued to use Earthshaker, finding some satisfaction from crushing the chests of her opponents, where she assumed that the onyx that went into the weapon had given it it's new strength, though she wasn't going to complain as it crushed an undead's head like it was nothing.

In addition to that they utilized their Gorgons' Eyes and turned the rest of the group of enemies into statues, opening the way for the pair to smash them without delay, though the moment that all of the undead were dealt with the door opened and allowed them to enter a passage cutting through the center of the mountain, or one level of it anyway.

Kratos and Flurry found that there were plenty of harpies inside the area they had entered, where Kratos found a way to use them to his advantage, as he could throw a rock at one and agitated it, though by grabbing onto it's legs the creature struggled against his grasp as it moved across a gap. When he reached the other side Flurry watched as her father swung his blades and severed both of the harpy's wings before it could react, along with another slash to remove it's head, but all she did was jump over the gap, as she didn't need such tricks to do such a thing. Her father could even chain them, going from one to another to reach whatever his target destination might be, and as she caught up with him they found that the path brought them out into the city of Olympia, where the ground shook as one of the titans, the molten one called Perses if Flurry was right, pulled himself up and defended himself from Helios' constant onslaught of fireballs. Such a thing meant that the others were doing as the pair wanted, keeping the other gods contained until they were done with Zeus, causing both warriors to jump down into the part of Olympia that was in front of them and readied themselves for battle.

Like they expected there were more undead legionnaires coming at them with the intent to kill them, though Kratos took a moment to switch to the Claws of Hades as he slashed at his foes, finding that his earlier thoughts were correct, they were good at tearing through his opponents. Flurry spun around and crushed her opponents with her new hammer, using the head to crush their chests and finding an opening to tap it against the ground to use the earth to pierce some of the other nearby undead, spikes of stone tearing through them with ease. As the first wave of enemies fell an armored centaur and a few more legionnaires came out to attack the pair, where the warriors nodded to each other as Flurry let her father take the hammer and switched to her sickles, throwing them through the air as they severed the heads of the two warriors, all in a few seconds. Kratos, at the exact same time, grabbed the hammer and slammed it's head into the ground, causing a surge of earth spikes to erupt from the stone and pierce his target from below, piercing the centaur's house body while a look of shock appeared on it's face, where that moment of distraction allowed him to remove it's head with ease.

"Hephaestus did well in remaking this weapon. It is a worthy addition to our growing arsenal." Kratos said, where he held his hand out and let Flurry take the hammer again, because it seemed like the Smith God intended for her to be the one to carry Earthshaker, despite the fact that Kratos knew that his daughter would allow him to use it from time to time, before turning his attention to Helios as the god rode his chariot through the air.

"I'm actually surprised he hasn't realized we're here... or maybe he's hoping we'll ignore him, considering that we've killed four gods now." Flurry remarked, because at this point the rest of the gods had to be concerned about their existence, due to the fact that nearly every god they've encountered has been slain, save for Hephaestus and those that were their friends, so there was the chance, however slim, that the smarter ones might ignore them in an attempt to save themselves.

Kratos had no idea which option was correct, it was hard to tell with the Olympians these days, though at the same time the ongoing battle between Helios and Perses destroyed part of the building that was on the left of the opening that he and his daughter had jumped out of, where the remaining civilians ran for their lives. The pair found a ballista at the end of the area and discovered that it was pointing right in the direction of the warring figures, meaning if they tampered with it there was a chance that Helios would be caught and crushed by Perses, though they decided not to mess with it. That was when a new foe, a chimera, charged at them, a large beast that had three large horns, one on the right side of it's head and another on the left with the third in the middle of it's forehead, while it had a fanged goat head facing them, a lion's head buried on it's chest, and a serpent tail that hissed at them. This was the first time they had fought such a creature in a long time, in fact the pair was certain that the last time they fought a chimera was back during their efforts to deal with the Furies, though both of the warriors were ready for the creature as they rushed at it, Kratos parrying the first attack with the Golden Fleece while Flurry switched to the twinblade and stabbed the creature in the back.

As she severed it's tail, and her father stabbed both heads to make sure it wouldn't move again, Perses actually caught his foe as Helios foolishly came to a stop near him and gloated about the 'power of the sun', allowing the titan to crush both him and his chariot, the latter not being the true one since nothing happened to the sun, before hurling Helios into another part of Olympia.

Both warriors stood there for a moment, waiting for something to happen to the sun since they figured that the titan had thrown a corpse away, but since nothing went dark they figured that Helios was still alive, not that Perses cared as he made his way towards Olympus' summit once more. Such a thing meant Kratos had to use some harpies to cross the gap that was in front of them, while Flurry just flew over to where he landed once she was sure that no enemies were aiming at him, and, as they expected, more undead legionnaires came out to fight them. Some of them even tried to climb over the ledge, in an attempt to catch them off guard no doubt, though Flurry crushed those with Earthshaker and allowed her father to clear out the rest of the enemies before they started to explore the rest of the part of Olympia that they were in. That meant opening a grated door and entering a hallway, where there were more undead legionnaires blocking part of the way forward, but all of them fell as Flurry slammed the hammer's head into the ground and used the earth spikes to tear through all of them in an instant, and once she was sure they were dead she dismissed the spikes.

After dealing with those enemies the pair were able to find another way out of the structure and crossed a bridge to reach another section of the city, which involved climbing up a ladder and using the side of another building before climbing up to the area that a wounded and bleeding Helios was laying in, only to find that undead with spears and onyx shields just dropped down to form a shield over the god.

"Stand down soldiers, they mean me no harm." Helios said, where the shield legionnaires glanced at each other before doing as their god commanded, forming lines near him as the pair walked over to where he was resting, finding that there was a lot of blood around him, before he glanced up at the rest of the area, "Those monsters, however, likely want to kill me."

As it turned out there were a pair of cyclops that dropped down into the area that they were standing in, where the ranks of shield legionnaires charged at one of them and stabbed at it with their spears, causing Kratos and Flurry to attack the other one before it could use it's club, an uprooted tree without the leaves, on Helios. While one of them stabbed it in the side of it's leg, however, both warriors found that there were more undead legionnaires coming towards where they were fighting, clashing with Helios' group and allowing them to realize that someone wanted Helios dead. With that in mind the pair also struck the undead down as well, where Kratos jumped onto the cyclops' back and forced him to attack the group of undead that were advancing on their location, crushing them with a couple of swings as Flurry turned towards the other one, as it had felled the shield legionnaires. Helios stared at her for a moment as she swung Earthshaker down onto it's head and flinched as he heard the sound of the skull cracking in the process, and when it fell backwards on the ground she swung it down into it's chest, crushing it with terrifying ease, ending the monster's life in a matter of seconds.

Helios got a sickening reminder of who was in front of him as Kratos finished off the enemy undead before removing the eye of his cyclops and then slashed open it's neck as he dropped it to the ground, all while Flurry quickly collected all of the onyx shields for some reason, before the pair approached him and Kratos carefully helped him into a sitting position as his daughter checked his body out.

"Provided you stay away from the titans, and don't let Zeus see you, you should be fine." Flurry said, as while a couple of Helios' wounds could be serious she knew that, as a god, he would be able to mend his wounds after a few moments of peace, though in that moment she noticed something very odd, the god was shaking in fear, "Helios? Is something wrong?"

"N... No. I'm just shaken from Perses catching me." Helios replied, where it was easy for Flurry to tell that he was lying to them, there was something seriously wrong that he didn't want them to know about, though in that moment he held his hand out and created a brass container that looked similar to the lantern that the pair had raised during their quest to take down the Furies, which could open and reveal a glorious light, "Here, take this as thanks for the aid. I call it the 'Lantern of Helios', which will reveal hidden paths and items to aid you in your quest, and you might be able to stun foes with the light inside it."

Flurry took it for a moment and found that it was roughly the same size as the Oath Stone, so it wouldn't get in their way as they continued on their quest, before Helios let out a pained gasp as both warriors stood at the ready, where dark eerie scales appeared on his right hand and arm, while his right eye became slitted, like a snake's.

"What's wrong, Spartan? Shocked to see me?" Helios inquired, though since his voice was totally different now, sounding far darker than before while stretching the s sounds, they realized that this was the Evil that had infected him sometime after Pandora's Box was opened, but this was on a level beyond what they were expecting, "I must thank you for freeing all of us, back when you fought Ares... and for eliminating the others, those that took over Poseidon and Hades, because my power is growing as more gods tremble before your might."

"You are not the Evil that infected Helios... Fear, that is what you are." Kratos stated, which didn't make sense, due to the fact that Fear was the one that had taken hold of Zeus, before he realized that Fear must have been the strongest of all the Evils that had been stored inside Pandora's Box, meaning it must have fragmented itself and infected the other Evils, which meant that every god they felled, and with every Evil they destroyed, Fear would grow stronger.

"Yes, as Deceit isn't strong enough to manifest... but Helios' fear is strong, and, when combined with the fear that all of the remaining gods are feeling and what the slain ones felt, my power is greater than ever before." Fear said, where the pair watched as he summoned a few fireballs as he faced them, meaning Helios must have gone into shock and the Evil inside his Evil had taken over, before the magic disappeared as Helios' left hand gripped his arm, surprising the Evil as he and the pair realized what this meant.

"Kratos, Flurry, you must kill me before Fear can fully take over my body." Helios stated, where he seemed to be using his power to stop the Evil that was inside him from making him it's slave, because if Fear had the power of the sun it would be bad for everyone, before he glanced at the pair for a moment as he realized what they might be thinking about, especially after what happened when the last two gods died, "Don't worry about the sun, I managed to store most of my power inside the true chariot... but Greece will be shrouded in darkness for a time."

Flurry let out a sad sigh as she thrust her right hand forward and impaled Helios on the Blade of Olympus, though as she absorbed some of his power, like what happened with Poseidon and Hades, they found an eerie shadowy mass emerge from his body and shrieked at them before speeding off towards the peak of Olympus. Helios, however, told them not to be sorry, as this would help cripple Fear's plans and remove him from the board as a pawn of the Evils they were facing, though the only thing he regretted was not being able to repay them for saving him all those years ago. Kratos, keeping his face stern, told the dying god that the new tool he had granted him and Flurry was enough, as it would help them on their quest to bring down Zeus, and Fear for that matter, causing a smile to appear on Helios' face as the life faded from his body. As his body went still they watched as it dissolved like all of the other gods they had slain so far, though that was followed by a sea of dark storm clouds washing over the sky, completely preventing the sun's light from reaching the rest of Greece, and it wasn't long before it started to rain as well.

Kratos rested a hand on his daughter's shoulder for a moment, his expression telling her that they would fix this once they were done with Zeus, to which Flurry nodded as she put the Blade of Olympus away and pulled out the Lantern of Helios, where she found that she could focus the light into either a beam or direct it all around her. When she did the former for a time, however, she and her father discovered that part of the rock wall that Helios had landed near glowed and the area that the beam touched became transparent, before fading away to reveal a hidden ornate stone door. Such a thing told both of them that this would allow them to reveal certain things that only Helios knew the existence of, and likely Zeus as the pair thought about it, before Kratos stepped forward and pushed the door open, revealing a passage leading into the mountain. With this discovery the pair walked into the passage before Flurry closed it behind them, as while she wasn't expecting their enemies to realize where they had gone she wasn't about to take chances, before focusing on the path in front of them as they continued deeper into the mountain.

A few undead legionnaires were on the other side, but Kratos slew them with ease before they came to a stop at the edge at what appeared to be another path that was linked to the Chain of Balance, which told them that they had to be getting closer to their target destination, and before they moved another magical message appeared nearby.

"Kratos, Flurry, we just saw the sky get consumed by a sea of storm clouds. What happened?" Hecate asked, though at the same time they could see Athena in the background, clearly worried about what was going on with the battle between them and Zeus, especially since Greece was being altered by their battle.

"Helios tried to leave the battle, after Perses caught him and crushed his second chariot, but a fragment of Fear, which had infected the Evil that had possessed him, manifested itself and took over." Kratos stated, something that caused both of the goddesses they gave updates to to pause for a moment, confirming that no one knew this would happen when they opened Pandora's Box, before he focused on what the pair wanted to know before he and Flurry worried about the rest of the path they were following, "Fear has infected all of the other Evils, so it is resting deep inside all of the gods that have been possessed by the Evils and, according to what we were told, it is feeding on their fear, growing stronger than what it was in the past."

"That's impossible. The Evils shouldn't be able to manifest at all." Athena said, because the situation was getting worse as time went by, and Greece was suffering with each god that fell to the pair, something that made her wonder just how bad things were going to get by the time the pair tracked down Zeus, before she realized something, "Wait a minute... if Fear is feeding on fear, then there's only one thing that would power it up this much, in such a short period of time."

"The fear of death... and of Death itself." Flurry remarked, as she knew that, despite how friendly she was with those that were her friends, she could inspire terror and fear in even the hearts of the gods and goddesses that ruled over Greece, a fact that also included her father asking not to practice her whistle during their time in Olympus.

"We will fix this. Zeus and Fear will die by our hands." Kratos said, because that was the truth, he and Flurry would find the way to their targets and kill both of them, hopefully restoring peace to Greece so that everything could start to be fixed by those that were still alive.

Hecate and Athena said nothing as they nodded their heads, as they trusted the pair, before closing the connection, which was when Kratos and Flurry focused on the path in front of them for a time as they wondered what might happen once they reached the end of it, and how much more needed to be done before they finally tracked down Zeus.