God of War: Daughter of War

After spending a few moments mourning the loss of Hephaestus, who remained himself until the very end and hadn't been infected by one of the Evils that were plaguing the other Olympians, Kratos and Flurry returned to Aphrodite's chamber with the goddess in question. She was, of course, saddened by the loss of her husband, while at the same time enraged that Zeus had cursed him to the point where the Smith God would allow them to ease his suffering like that, but she had hope that they would find their way to Pandora and save her before it was too late. After returning to her portion of Olympus the pair found that Hecate had made sure her crow was still waiting, meaning they were going to teleport her to safety as well, which caused the Goddess of Love to hug both of them, starting with Flurry and then give one to Kratos, before walking through the magical portal that sealed itself behind her. With that done the pair checked around the chamber, just to see if there was anything left that Aphrodite might have forgotten about, but upon finding nothing they moved through the open door and continued towards the fragmented walkway that had brought them to this area.

There were, of course, undead legionnaires waiting for them, though Kratos utilized the power of the Nemesis Whip as he slashed his way through them with ease, showing him and Flurry that his newest weapon, and possibly the last of this entire adventure, was on par with a number of their other weapons. At the same time Flurry decided to try out the other weapons that had been handed to them, because if Hephaestus wanted them to hand over the halberd and chakrams to Pandora she wanted to make sure they were up to the task of dealing with their enemies, even if they were hoping to keep her out of the fighting. Aphrodite's weapons were definitely sharper than she recalled, confirming that the Smith God had managed to sharpen and restore them to their proper glory, as Flurry was able to slash through a number of undead with ease, and if she threw one chakram at an enemy it would cut into her target and return to her hand. The halberd, on the other hand, was finely balanced and seemed perfect in her eyes, as it wasn't too light and it wasn't too heavy, it felt like a normal weapon, but with the power that their current arsenal possessed, making her wonder why Hephaestus would make such a thing for his own daughter, who hadn't seen the light of battle even once.

After testing the weapons out the pair found that Hephaestus had been right, the Nemesis Whip was capable of powering the electricity devices that had been installed near Aphrodite's chamber, allowing them to access another section of broken walkways with ease, bringing the father and daughter to a new door, one that happened to have a short hallway that brought them to a workshop.

"This must be where the ideas for the Labyrinth were created." Flurry commented, which reminded her of what they found in the Statue of Apollo, a work area that detailed the construction and features of the large statue, or like how there was a large area in Pandora's Temple that held all of the scrolls and plans for that area, and she was able to confirm that as she looked at some of the tables and found all sorts of information on the Labyrinth.

Kratos looked around for a time and found that Flurry found another treasure to claim, an important looking scroll that had to detail something about the Labryinth, reminding him Aphrodite had handed over one of her garters and even allowed her to take Hephaestus' ring, the latter having shrunk in size for her to do so. That was nine items she had claimed during the course of their assault on Olympus, as she was apparently counting Helios' Shield, which she took back when they saved the god in question from Atlas, and as he thought about it he soon realized that there would be a tenth, Hera's chalice, the very item she had been drinking from earlier. This time around the items she was claiming were more than souvenirs, rather all of them seemed to serve as reminders, a way to remember the past without actually talking about it, causing him to nod as he focused on the workshop and found a locked grated gate barring the way forward. Of course he wasn't surprised by this at all, because Zeus liked to lock up important people and it made sense that he'd do the same to whoever designed the entirety of the massive Labyrinth, complete with paintings that seemed to have portals inside them.

As he looked around, however, one of the journals that were around the chamber held a message from Daedalus, who must have built the Labyrinth for Zeus, and it revealed a sad truth, that Zeus had promised to return Icarus to his father, a promise that had been betrayed once the structure was completed. They knew the King of the Gods enough to know that if he had someone build something like the Labyrinth, even if it took years to do, that person would either be imprisoned in the area that they had put together or died there and forced someone else to finish the work. With that in mind both he and Flurry knew to expect such a thing when they returned to the Labyrinth, though for the time being they focused on just looking around the workshop so they could find a way out and continue with their quest to save Pandora, and once she was safe they could focus on Zeus. While Kratos focused on the oddly placed ballista that was in the workshop, it was the only thing that didn't look like it belonged at all, Flurry checked out all of the other tomes and scrolls that were around them, finding more and more information on the Labyrinth and what Daedalus might have put inside it, causing her to just stuff all of it inside her bag, something she would have to sort at some point.

In order to open the locked gate in front of them all they had to do was pull a lever to raise a platform, below the ballista, and fire a bolt right at the blockage, lowering a set of steps into place and revealing a hole that had a pipe heading down to another level, another walkway that caused them to slide down it without delay, only to find that it brought them to the start of the gardens they had seen previously.

"So this is what we'll have to go through next." Flurry commented, as they had seen the mad garden maze from above and knew that it would take some time to get through it, though as she and her father stepped out into the open they found an interesting sight, Hera was on the ground near the entrance, looking like she was either drunk or in pain thanks to all of the death and destruction that was ongoing.

"Yes, and there might be one more god that wants to die." Kratos said, though at the same time he didn't think there was any reason to bring an end to Hera's life, because while it was true that she had tried to frame them, and even insulted many of their friends, killing another god or goddess, when they were so close to Zeus, seemed like a rash thing to do, as it only gave their target time to flee.

Flurry nodded her head, agreeing with her father, before they approached the fallen goddess, passing by a large stone statue that seemed important as she noticed a green gemstone in one of it's eyes, though as they drew closer to her both warriors realized that something was wrong as Hera glanced up at them.

"You! I told him to kill you two!" Hera remarked, where she took a brief moment to drink from her chalice, or failed to as it looked like it was actually empty, causing her to toss it down the walkway to her right, before they found that her body was in the process of being corrupted by the Evils, her right arm and leg were covered in sleek dark eerie scales, both her hand and feet bared claws like Hermes when he reached this point, and the scales were starting to cover the middle of her body, "Just like I told Zeus to kill you when you were born, Kratos... especially like when I told him that he should have just struck you down, Death, when you were first discovered... but he wouldn't have it, if you could believe it. My stupid fool of a husband took pity on both of you, when he shouldn't have... and now look at what you have wrought... EVERYTHING IS DYING!"

"I know... honestly, it's sad." Flurry said, as she knew what Hera meant, there was too much death happening right now, be it people or the plants and animals that helped maintain Greece, and it would only stop when Zeus was dead, since that would bring an end to the conflict for a time.

"Please, you don't care about anything other that your father's revenge... not that it matters, since this place will defeat your simple minds." Hera stated, showing the pair that part of her seemed to think that this place would overcome them in no time, where she chuckled as she drunkenly wandered off into the maze that had been built into the garden, leaving the pair to do whatever they wanted.

Flurry wasted no time in collecting the chalice, where she saw a green gemstone on the side of it's surface, meaning that it might provide some aid to them while she and her father made their way through this place, though for the time being she slipped it into her bag with the rest of the items. Following that she and her father started to check out the rest of the maze that was in front of them, finding more undead legionnaires appearing to do battle with them, along with a couple of animated statues, where she lashed out at the statues by dodging their attacks and slashed into their backs, severing the magic that fueled their bodies. Her father, on the other hand, took the massive hammer that his statue foe had, swung it at the undead that were around him and crushed them with ease, before swinging it down on the original wielder of the weapon and crushed it into a heap of rubble. As that happened both warriors noticed the odd designs on the ground, one looked like it might be a set of stairs that was flattened into the ground, with a few steps actually sticking out at the end of the steps, causing her to look around in wonder for a time.

As they entered a hallway passage, however, they found a satyr warrior that carried a glaive as it's weapon, a pole weapon with a curved blade at the head, causing Flurry to realize that she didn't have such a weapon and grabbed onto the satyr's for a time, causing it to struggle against her before she ripped it out of her foe's grasp and then stabbed it in the heart, killing it instantly.

Kratos chuckled a little as his daughter continued to move down the passage, attacking the foes that were in her way, as she really did love collecting new toys and when she found a new weapon she usually collected it, either to use it or just to make sure she had one of every weapon, but he let her have her fun. While Flurry did that Kratos noticed the serpent like design on the back of the glaive's head, along with the sickle at the bottom end, also baring a design like it's head, so when he caught up with Flurry he had a potential name for it, the 'Serpent Glaive', which she approved of. The end of the curved passage brought them back to the maze, though without enemies they found their way to a pressure plate that reminded them of the one by the Judges in the Underworld, where Flurry found that it spoke about the 'Stone of Hyperion' that let it's wielder see the 'true path of the gods'. With that in mind Kratos stood on the plate as Flurry flew off and stopped right in front of the large statue's eyes, finding that one was identical to the gem on Hera's chalice, and when she pulled that item out she found that she could tap into the sight of the statue, shifting her gaze and turning the mad maze into one that made a lot more sense.

In fact, thanks to her magic, she could gift her father the sight as well, without removing the smaller stone from the silver chalice, allowing them to lower a nearby gate, jump over it, and then walk up the stairs that had been pressed into the ground when they walked by them earlier, as now they were an actual path. After reaching that point they found that they could only use the power for a short period of time, as the pressure plate raised up and the statue's eye closed, which told them that to move forward constantly they would have to find more locations like that to access the eye. With that in mind Kratos approached the gate that was in front of them and raised it without delay, allowing them to access a ladder that brought them to another portion of the lower maze, causing both warriors to jump down and continue on their way, only to glide over a short gap in the process. In the following moments they found a metallic bowl that looked like it was linked to a pressure device, meaning this one had to be filled with something, which came from the short flowing waterfall as the pair pulled over a moveable stair fragment and turned it so it could pour some water into the bowl, causing it to lower as a walkway further ahead moved into place, plus another gate opened.

As they walked into the area on the other side of the gate, however, they found that Hera was stumbling from one area to another, and it looked like her Evils were consuming her body, as now her left side matched the right, as her left arm and leg were now covered in scales while her hand and foot bared familiar looking claws.

"You two... how dare you challenge the Olympians?! How dare you do this to me!" Hera stated, showing them that she was now directly blaming them for everything that was happening to her, and specifically her this time around, where they just watched as the goddess fell to her knees and her tiara fell off, breaking in half in the process, and when she reached for the pieces Hera stopped as she laid eyes on her hands again, how animalistic she looked now, "I hate you two so much... if it wasn't for either of you two, this sort of thing would have never have happened to me. Look at me... I'm a monster!"

Hera paused for a moment as her body shuddered, where the pair watched as she, like Hermes, grew a reptilian tail that caused her to look at it in fear and disgust, showing them that, even now, she refused to accept people like Flurry or even the Twins, who were born with bodies that were more animal than human.

"No, Hera, you are like Flurry, Artemis, and Apollo, and now you feel what you made them feel." Kratos said, because now people and other gods would treat her in the same manner that she and Zeus treated those who weren't born human, a fact that they could see dawning in Hera's eyes as she focused on her hands, her legs, and her scaly body, causing him to turn for a moment, "Come, Flurry, let us continue on our quest. The Labyrinth awaits."

In response to that Hera, likely driven by her Evils, rushed at them and readied her claws, as they were her only weapon at the moment, where Kratos dodged her attacks and then kicked her in the chest, knocking her back into one of the walls for a couple of seconds, earning a hiss from her. The look of hate in Hera's eyes told them everything they needed to know right now, she must have dipped into her hatred for them and her Evils must have taken over, even though her body was still not fully corrupted, since the pair figured that her head was the last thing that needed to be changed. Flurry decided to take over the 'fight' with Hera, slashing into the corrupted body with her new weapon, letting the glaive cut through her scaly body as she tried to get closer to them, before using the sickle base to latch into her chest and hurl her into the wall behind her. As Hera hissed at her again, however, Flurry brought an end to the corrupted goddess by stabbing her right in the heart with the reforged Blade of Olympus, causing blue crackling lines to appear all over her body, branching out from where she was stabbed, causing Flurry to brace herself for a moment as she siphoned some of Hera's power.

Sure enough Hera's body released a surge of energy that killed all plant life that was in the garden, leaving bramble and dead plants behind, though Flurry weaved her magic into the area and stopped the decay from spreading, which had to be due to any of the other gods and goddesses like Hera taking over to keep Greece alive, all while the dark mass left her like all those they had killed before this point.

"This is getting worse... if Hera was that corrupted, can you imagine how Zeus will look when we finally find him?" Flurry inquired, as the Evils were seizing control of the other gods and drawing forth more power from them, just as Fear said as it took over Hermes, and if that was the case this meant that the more dark power it drew from all of the gods the more it was able to take over Zeus and his own power.

"We will be ready for him when the time comes." Kratos replied, though he agreed with Flurry, this was getting bad, and he suspected that Zeus would be the only to fully transform when they finally reached him, as his own fear was far stronger than what every other god and goddess had felt, and every bit of darkness linked together meant that he'd likely take on a whole new form, which didn't worry him since he and Flurry would be ready for that fight.

Flurry nodded as she pulled out an onyx shield and placed it on the nearby pressure plate that allowed them to alter their sight once more, this time allowing a channel of water to pour some down into the area they had just walked through, all while her father used Apollo's bow to clear away some bramble. Such a thing allowed them to access an area where they found another bowl for water, so Flurry moved the moveable section of stairs over to a wall that the flowing water was near and poured some of it into the bowl like they had done earlier. That allowed another section of walkway to move into place, connecting to the one that had moved after the first bowl had been filled, allowing them to see that the water was redirected to another part of the maze, back to where they first discovered that Hera had discarded the stone that let one see the 'path of the gods'. Flurry stared at the rest of the maze and figured out what needed to be done next, all she had to do was place another onyx shield into the bowl at the beginning and watched as it moved another section on the right side into position, linking it up to the path that was linked to the set of stairs they had walked up earlier.

With that done the pair made their way over to the stairs, walked up the steps, and then made their way around the odd winding path, though as they reached the end, near a fractured walkway, Flurry called forth her magic and snatched all of the onyx shields she had left behind, allowing her to return them to her collection. Kratos also paused for a moment as she undid the magical sight, which was followed by her ripping out the Eye of Hyperion, the larger stone in the statue's eye, with her magic and stuffing it in her bag as well, though at this point he wasn't even going to question her bag, since it was one of the more useful items his daughter possessed. Once she was done with collecting her stuff he found that the best way across was to annoy more harpies, allowing him to cross the gap with ease, while Flurry just flew over to him as soon as he was standing on solid ground again, since it allowed her to keep an eye out for danger. The moment both of them were ready to go Kratos turned the crank that was in front of them and Flurry watched as the door at the stop of the stairs started to open, causing four rows of brass cubes to lower into the ground, allowing them to enter another section of the cavern.

As they walked down the passage the pair discovered a few scorpions, larger than the normal ones, that tried to hit them with either their claws or their tails, causing them to simply cut their way through them before reaching a platform with a metallic gear attached to it, a moveable lift they realized, and Kratos started moving it without delay.

It didn't take them very long to reach another portion of the cavern, a dark one that caused Flurry to pull out the lantern that Helios gave both of them, giving light to the area so she and her father could safely traverse the area, and while she kept the light up her father dealt with the couple of scorpions that attacked them. There really wasn't too much for them to worry about, as in no gaps for them to jump over and no real dangers for either of them to worry about, before both warriors reached the end and found a familiar sight, the heart of the Labyrinth, surrounded by the partly finished outer shell they had started earlier. In fact the path they had been following brought them to another cube that they would have to free so it could be moved into place, where Flurry found a note from Daedalus, detailing how if one side lost control of the Chain of Balance, in terms of Olympus or the Underworld, the Labyrinth would rise or fall accordingly. As they glided over to the top of the cube, however, both warriors found that Pandora was standing at the edge of her cage, hope in her eyes as she noticed them arrive at last, while off in a cube to their right they found an old man, likely Daedalus, hanging in the air by some chains, Zeus' punishment no doubt.

As they touched down, however, a pair of armored cyclops appeared to attack them, though instead of wasting time the pair utilized their Gorgons' Eyes and turned them to stone, allowing both warriors to smash them to pieces, only for a few more to show up and attack them. While Kratos slashed at his foes, shocking one with the Nemesis Whip and smashing one's stomach in with the Nemean Cestus, Flurry switched to Earthshaker and delivered an uppercut that smashed the skull of her foe, before they found a number of other cyclops that came to do battle with them. Neither warrior gave their foes much of a chance as both tore through their enemies, crushing the larger enemies as they dodged attacks and hit all of them in their vitals, before stopping as the last one fell at last, allowing them to get ready for any other foes that might come to attack them. Once they found that there were no more enemies to fight Flurry found a rock wall near the passage that brought them to the caverns and they jumped over to it, where the Lantern of Helios revealed a hidden path that had to lead to another part of the area, hence why she and her father followed it without delay.

That, in turn, brought them to an area that could be filled with water, all Kratos had to do was pull a lever and a metallic plug moved into place, allowing the water to rise so they could access another path, since they didn't have the key item for the other, and used a lift at the end of it to reach another dark area.

Once more Kratos hacked and slashed his way through the scorpions as Flurry used the lantern to light their way, though this time they had to be a little more careful as they found that the path was just planks and that some of them were in the middle of decaying due to age. To reach the upper area both warriors had to jump over a small gap and climb up the rope wall that was on the other side, where a pair of undead gorgons and some harpies attacked them, where Kratos did the best thing he could think of, he let the gorgons use their sight on them before reflecting it with the Golden Fleece as his daughter ducked. Sure enough all of the harpies that were caught in the sight were turned to stone and shattered as the statues hit the ground, while the gorgons just remained still as the pair smashed them apart with a single blow, just like they had done in the past. At the end of the path Kratos lifted a stone door out of their way and they tore through the scorpions that came out to attack them, only for both warriors to jump a gap and open another stone door, only to find that the path brought them to a ledge that overlooked the rest of the Labyrinth.

Both warriors stood there for a moment, knowing that this would likely be the last break before the end of their mission, and knew that the end of Zeus was closer than ever before, they just had to complete the Labyrinth and save Pandora before worrying about the King of the Gods and the end of their quest, causing them to look forward to what the very near future held in store for them.