God of War: Daughter of War

With the Flame of Olympus stolen from it's resting place, and Zeus having retreated for the time being, Kratos decided to approach the Box that had been contained within the terrifying flames and pushed it open, only to find that it was empty, as in there was nothing inside it.

"Zeus was protecting nothing... what did he think was inside the Box?" Kratos asked, where he glanced at Flurry for a few seconds as she observed the empty container, because she was usually the one who made heads and tails of the things he didn't know about, or could figure them out quicker than he could.

"Hope. The very power you drew on to kill Ares." Pandora replied, speaking before Flurry could, though at the same time she walked up to Kratos and rested her right hand on one of his for a moment, where she focused her mind for a second and the pair found blue energy dancing around his hand, causing her to smile as the pair looked at it, "Father told me about Athena putting Hope inside the Box to counter the Evils that were trapped inside it, and that everyone originally believed that you drew on the Evils to finally kill Ares... but, after seeing how some of the Olympians were behaving, the last time I saw him he told me that you actually absorbed the power of Hope, not the Evils."

"I see, so he assumed that Hope was still in the Box and sealed it away... even Fear is afraid of Death." Flurry said, as now it all made sense, the pieces snapping into place as she realized things, though in the end it confirmed one thing for her and her father, Zeus had to die, and so did the Evil that was inside him, waiting to take over and assert dominance over the rest of a chaotic Greece, "Pandora, this will be your last chance to back out, as once the battle starts Zeus will treat you like an enemy... are you sure you want to fight him?"

"Yes... for father, and for everyone else that he has wronged. I can't back down." Pandora stated, showing them that she was determined to stand with them and face what might as well be the ultimate evil, though as she did that Kratos found that the power of Hope seemed to jump to Pandora, as if resonating more with her than him, not that he minded since he and Flurry had other means to kill a god.

Kratos nodded as her, Flurry, and Pandora walked over to the open door that was on this level, finding that Zeus hadn't gone too far, he was literally standing on the balcony that he started on when the father and daughter first attacked him with Gaia, and his focus seemed to be on all of the chaos, not on Kratos gliding down with Pandora holding onto his right arm until they reached their destination.

"Such chaos... I will have a lot of work to do once I'll killed all of you." Zeus commented, speaking only when he heard the group land nearby, showing them that his focus was on what he would have to do once he emerged as the victor of their battle, even though it was far too earlier for him to think about what the future held for him.

"Face us, father. It is time that we ended this." Kratos stated, where he drew the Blades of Chaos as Pandora stood at the ready with her halberd, and while Flurry had chosen her sickles, her signature weapon, he knew that she could draw on a number of weapons that they had claimed during their many adventures, especially the Blade of Olympus, a weapon that Zeus feared above all others.

"Yes, my son, it is time for all of you to die." Zeus said, though as he said that they found something interesting, the area off in the distance shifted as Gaia, in all her glory, emerged from the chaos and came to a stop when she was on top of a peak that allowed her to focus on Olympus, and she wasn't the only one as Flurry found Cronos and the other titans who had been ignored by the gods appearing all around the various peaks, "What is this?!"

"Don't worry, Zeus, we won't get in the way of your battle... we're here to make sure you don't flee." Gaia remarked, as all of them heard Zeus since he had raised his voice when he noticed that most of the titans were still alive, save for the ones that fell to Poseidon, as he was the only one who killed a titan before his demise, before she glanced at her allies, "Spartans! Show him no mercy!"

Zeus growled as he summoned a few lightning bolts and sent them straight at Kratos, intending on taking his son out first, where Kratos shifted his stance and used the Golden Fleece to parry the attacks, sending them racing back towards the one who cast them without wasting even a second. As Zeus dodged out of the way, however, he failed to account for Flurry and her magic, as she formed a few points for the redirected bolts to bounce off of before hitting Zeus in the back, causing him to stumble forward as he realized that she had done such a thing. Instead of focusing on her the King of the Gods turned and rushed at Pandora, who dodged out of the way and lashed out with her halberd, though while her movements were the easiest to read, as she didn't have the experience that Kratos and Flurry had, she intended on using that to her advantage as Kratos punched his father in the jaw before cutting into him with the Blades of Chaos. Zeus had only a few seconds to think about what was going on as Kratos extended his chains and hurled him into the air, where Flurry kicked him in the chest, latched onto him with her sickles, and then spun around, allowing the King of the Gods to see that they had eerie chains linked to them, as she hurled him into the side of Olympus.

In the following moments a surge of lightning erupted from where Zeus landed and tore the section of the structure apart, showing them that he wasn't playing around as he called forth a volley of lightning bolts before sending all of them racing towards Flurry, who grinned as her magic flared to life. The sky ignited as her magic formed a barrier in front of her that the lightning bolts slammed into and seemed to be struggling against, instead of detonating on impact like someone might think as they watched the fight, though that was intentional on Flurry's part as a smaller part of her magic quickly wrapped around Zeus' attack. In that instant she forced all of them into a single mass before sending the attack back into the side of Olympus, causing a blast to tear through more of the structure, something she followed up with her own lightning bolt, one that the King of the Gods avoided as it tore through the rest of the mountain, breaking apart before it could even go too far into the distance. In the next moment Zeus rushed down at Kratos with a punch ready for him, unaware of the fact that Kratos was ready for him, swinging one of the Nemean Cestus and parrying the incoming attack before it could hit him, allowing him to deliver a powerful uppercut into his father's chest as he knocked him into the air.

Pandora leapt off of Kratos' back as that happened and brought the halberd's head down into Zeus' back, allowing her to turn her body and hurl the King of the Gods into a pillar, breaking it and dropping it on his head, though it wasn't too long before he pushed himself out of the rubble and faced them.

"I must say, Kratos, that you have honed your skills well to this point. The same is true for your daughter... and I am loathe to admit it, but Pandora's skills are good for being purely self taught." Zeus remarked, where he stretched for a moment as lightning crackled all over his body, though this gaze Flurry a chance to see the start of the dark eerie scales, as there was just one on his right arm, like Fear was taking it's time for some reason, "Very well, it would seem that I must take all of you seriously."

Flurry discovered that there was no difference between Zeus' next attacks and what he used before this point, it was just more lightning, speed enhanced attacks, and trying to blast them with a vortex of lightning energy, just like before as she and her father, at the very least, noticed. Zeus, however, found that he had to avoid attacks since all of them attacked him without giving him too much room to do anything, especially since he knew Flurry was a deadly shot with her bow, a fact he couldn't forget about after seeing how damaged Hermes was after his failure in Argos, and in addition to that Kratos had two bows he could use, one of fire and one of wind. That wasn't the end of it as he barely avoided one of the circular weapons that Pandora was carrying, one even nicked the side of his face a little, before discovering the other weapons that the main pair had in their amazing arsenal, as it was vast and imposing. Kratos, for example, lashed out at him with the crystalline Spear of Destiny, crushed the ground and hit him with shockwaves from the Nemean Cestus, was able to shock him with a pair of blades called the 'Nemesis Whip', and cut into his sides with his main weapon, the cursed blades Ares gave him so long ago.

When it came to Flurry, however, her arsenal was far deadlier, due to her sickles, the glaive she stole from one of the few satyrs who protected Olympus, an impressive warhammer called 'Earthshaker', her bow, and even the Blade of Olympus, a weapon that he jumped away from when he spotted her pulling it out. Flurry found that him jumping away from her to be an interesting turn of events and planned accordingly, as in she would launch an attack on Zeus and switch to using the Blade during part of her assault, causing him to move away from her and land right in her father's hands, allowing Kratos and Pandora to lay into him whenever that happened. While one would think that the scare tactic would fail after a couple of attempts, like he would assume she was trying to fake him out so the others could hurt him, but every time she used the tactic they found that it worked like a charm, especially one time where her rather picked Zeus up in what seemed to be a crippling hug as he lifted him and hurled him into another pillar. This was just further confirmation that Zeus, and likely Fear as Flurry thought about it, was deathly afraid of the Blade of Olympus, no matter how she used the Blade while they were fighting, meaning he was treating her like the threat she was and it was working against him.

Eventually none of the pillars remained as Zeus crashed into the last one, where Kratos let go of the Blades of Chaos as he approached the fragmented structure and laid into his father with his fists with all of his rage, eventually crushing the stone that was below him before he, Flurry, and Pandora slammed Zeus into the center of the balcony's floor.

"Tell us, father, is this all the power you can muster?" Kratos asked, because if that was the case he had to admit that he was disappointed in his father, as Zeus was supposed to be one of the strongest gods, but right now he had to think that only one of them could have bothered to participate in this battle, before he focused on his other question, "Or did Fear, the Evil that infected you and the other gods that have fallen today, abandon you when you needed it most?"

"Don't be absurd, I am..." Zeus started to say, though in that moment his body shuddered as they found a new wave of dark eerie scales appearing on his arm, all while a familiar set of eyes took over his own, something that was followed by Fear forcing Zeus to stand as he faced them as he held his hands out, "I am fully in control. Kratos, Flurry, I must thank you two for spreading so much fear and dealing with the other Evils, leaving me as the last one standing... now I and the fragments of the other Evils can be one!"

Flurry, Kratos, and Pandora found that a number of dark eerie wisps of energy started to emerge from all over Olympus, where they rushed through the air and merged with Zeus' body, allowing them to realize that while the other Evils had been ruined by the Blade of Olympus, when they were infecting the other gods, there was still enough fragments of them for Fear to do this. Once all of the Evils were in one body, possibly for the first time since the Great War that had created all of them, a burst of dark eerie energy consumed Zeus as it surged into the air and caused a number of dark lightning to flash all around the air, showing them that the Evil was definitely stronger than those that came before it. After a couple of moments the trio watched as the energy broke apart and revealed Zeus once more, only this time he was more like Hera had been in the garden, his arms and legs were covered in scales, his hands and feet were claws, he now had a snake tail, his body was covered in scales, and his head was more like a snake's. In addition to that they found that he had the crown like a cobra, or like one of the gorgons they had fought in the past, while Zeus' attire was a deep red now, different from what he had before Fear overtook his body, making him look like a dark god now.

While this was a bad thing, since Fear now had complete and total control over Zeus and his abilities, Flurry knew this was also a good thing, because if they killed both figures with the Blade of Olympus they could save Greece from the terror that the figure would inflict upon the chaotic land.

"Forged into the Prime Primordial Evil: Korthek, Emperor of Evil and Lord of Fear." the dark god finished, showing them that Fear had decided to give himself a new name now that he was fully in control of Zeus' body, before they found that he had crimson red eyes now, while his scales were a dark gray color with a jade green underbelly, though as the group took in this information the figure chuckled, "And, more importantly, God of the New World!"

"You? A god? Don't make us laugh, as you will never be accepted by the people." Pandora replied, because despite the vast amount of destruction that had occurred recently, with the deaths of a number of gods, she knew that there were pockets of people still struggling to survive in the chaotic world that was expanding all around them.

"Oh you poor naive girl, it does not matter if they accept me or not... especially when all other gods, including you three, will be dead by that point." Korthek stated, where he took a step towards the edge of the balcony and the group found that he was able to walk just fine, meaning that couldn't be used against him, before he came to a stop as he glanced out at Gaia and the rest of the titans that were still watching this battle unfold, "I know you can't taste it, Spartans, but the land is full of fear... which will eventually lead to the survivors becoming angry with each other, and anger will lead them to a burning hatred for their fellow man, while hatred will cause suffering... and then more fear in those who have yet to begin the process."

"A vicious cycle for you to feast on, until all of Greece is dead." Kratos said, though all of them could feel their anger slowly growing as they listened to Korthek talk about his dark plans for the lands of Greece, because the dark being was going to use them as a food source for some unknown reason, which he was likely going to tell them.

"No, once they reach the greatest amount of suffering they will be encased in dark crystals, doomed to produce more dark energy for me to feast on," Korthek replied, telling the trio that his plan was much larger than they had assumed, where Kratos realized that this reminded him of the Furies and their oath stone prison, only now the 'Prime Primordial Evil' just wanted an unlimited supply of evil energy to feast on, "and, once I've dominated those that remain in Greece, I'll move on to the next land and do the same thing... until all of reality, this world and the others, are forever shrouded in my darkness and are forced to serve my every whim."

Flurry let out a sigh as she released her full power, letting it wash over her before revealing her simple attire, the dark gray shirt and brown trousers, complete with a black shroud that had a hood attached to it, a hood that was lowered right now, though as Korthek turned towards her he noticed how her eyes turned red and her wings seemed to disappear, all while she let out an eerie whistle as she spun her sickles against each other. Kratos noticed the sudden shift in the air as their foe focused on Flurry, because out of the three of them Korthek knew that she was absolutely the most dangerous out of his foes, as she was Death itself, possibly the strongest goddess in all of Greece, and she had the Blade of Olympus, the only weapon that could permanently kill him. With that in mind he raised his right hand to the darkness and they watched as he called forth his own weapon, a greatsword that was as slightly longer than the reforged weapon Flurry could use, a dark gray blade with a tarnished gold guard that resembled the wings of a raven, where the guard had a purple crystal in the center of it, and a sleek handle. It was a weapon of evil, all three of them could practically feel the dark energy that was radiating from the blade, though for the moment Flurry kept her sickles at the ready as she combined them into her sickle staff, spinning it around as she waited to see what the dark being had in store for them.

Korthek raised the blade for a moment and swung at Flurry, where they found that he released a magical wave of dark purple energy that rushed through the air, causing her to swing one of the heads of her weapon at the attack as it pushed her into the air, though she was able to shift her stance and send it down into Olympus, cleaving through the mountain as the wave disappeared.

Flurry, in response to that, returned her sickles to their original form, slipped them onto her belt, and drew the Blade of Olympus, as she had determined that Korthek's weapon was one of fear, hatred, and all of the other evils, while hers had been a symbol of hope, or something like that, to the people of Greece, those that knew of it anyway. In the next instant she and Korthek rushed at each other, weapons clashing as their energies caused the sky above them to ripple, showing Kratos, Pandora, and the observing titans that hope was definitely the only thing that could stand before the evils that had take over Zeus' body. While she forced her foe into a stalemate, to see which power was the greatest, Flurry raised her left hand for a few seconds and granted both her father and Pandora a bit of power, allowing them to lift themselves into the air and either join the battle or form another plan of attack while she distracted their foe. Kratos and Pandora rushed through the air and struck Korthek, Kratos having switched to the Blade of Artemis to do such a thing, and together the trio pushed the figure into Olympus, tearing through more of the walls and structures that remained to remind people of Zeus' rule.

Sure enough the structure was torn apart as Korthek emerged from it, using his dark power to annihilate everything that was in the area around him, not that the trio cared since it would have been torn down anyway since most of Zeus' allies had been corrupted and slain during Kratos and Flurry's quest to stop Zeus. Flurry rushed at him as Kratos found that her full speed and power weren't anything to be ignored, as she was able to get up to the dark god with ease, where Korthek had to growl as he found that his strength, even boosted by Zeus' and the power of the other Evils, was being pushed back little by little with each passing moment. Kratos found that this might be one battle he wasn't needed in, as Flurry swung her right hand, which held the Blade of Olympus, and sent her foe flying down into the burning ruins of Olympus, though while she rapidly caught up with him the structures around her broke, but it was hard to tell what caused the breakage to happen as he watched them. The two bounced around the burning and ruined domain of the gods, the collision of their weapons just causing more stuff around them to break, though what was humorous was when one of the golden statues fell, which he and Pandora found to be one of Zeus', and that both combatants swung at each other while it was in the middle of them, a fact that shattered the statue as Flurry hurled her foe into the air.

Following that Flurry flashed into the space behind Korthek and swung her blade again, hitting him in the back and sending him straight down into Olympus, something that caused him to rush back up at her and swing his blade, something she was able to avoid before noticing the dark energy he was gathering. Korthek turned and launched a wave of dark energy right at her, taking advantage of the fact that they were positioned close to each other, though Kratos didn't have to worry as his daughter readied her own weapon and held it in front of her for a moment. Such a thing allowed her to stop the incoming attack before it could do anything to her, and in the next instant she swung her weapon and dispersed the energy wave like it was nothing, though while Korthek was pushed back in shock Flurry readied her own attack, a surge of eerie blue energy that wrapped around her weapon. In the next instant she stomped a hoof against the air, like it was a floor, and the bit of energy she had gathered so far transformed into a mass of energy that took the form of an energy wave as she swung at her foe, almost like she was copying her foe's attack and making it better at the same time.

Korthek held his blade at the ready as he struggled against the wave of energy that crashed into him, finding that it had the power to push him backwards while he fought against it, before it detonated on top of him and rocked the air with the explosion it produced, leaving a diagonal slash on his chest that went from his left shoulder to his right side, which was bleeding as the smoke cleared.

"I was right... you are a danger to my existence." Korthek stated, where it was hard to tell if it was Zeus or the Evil talking, as Flurry and the others could have sworn that they heard the King of the Gods for a few seconds, though in the following moment he rushed through the air as Flurry did the same, where Kratos noticed that his daughter was keeping the Prime Primordial Evil away from him and Pandora.

Such a thing meant that while Flurry might be able to beat their foe, and kill him, she was trying to make sure she could end the Evils that were inside him at the same time, something that caused Pandora to realize something as she landed on Gaia's head, put her halberd on her back, and raised her hands to the sky.

"Pandora? What are you doing?" Kratos asked, because he assumed that they would keep fighting the dark god before one of them figured out how to bring him down and destroy the evils entirely, so he was interested in what the girl was doing while Korthek was focused on trying to kill Flurry.

"Korthek thinks he can drown the world in fear... but even in the deepest pits of suffering, people still have hope... and the world the dark god wants to create will also harbor a glorious hope." Pandora replied, reminding Kratos of what he felt all those years ago, when he could have fallen into despair at Zeus not fulfilling his end of the bargain, to erase the painful nightmares he had been living with, he found the hope to move on in the form of Flurry, "Despite the state of the world, due to the deaths of a number of gods, I can feel the hope of the people... hope that things will return to normal, and for a number of other things. I think Hecate and the others can help me gather the hope of Greece into an attack that can wipe out the Evils in an instant, provided Korthek doesn't interrupt us."

Kratos nodded, as Pandora was basically telling him that they needed to keep Korthek busy, though as he started to move he felt a familiar spirit float by and come to a stop near Pandora, where he suspected that it might be Calliope, but before anyone could say anything the specter rushed down into the Underworld. Whether or not it was his late daughter wasn't something he could focus on as he utilized the power that Flurry had gifted him and rushed through the air, swinging his right fist with the Nemean Cestus as it collided with the side of Korthek's face, knocking him into the side of Olympus, all while Flurry created a bolt of lightning to blast their foe in the face. Such a thing allowed them to push the dark god away from where Pandora was standing, where Flurry smiled for a few seconds before turning on Korthek as she and her father struck him again, tearing through the mountain and the structure while doing their best to make sure he had no idea what they were planning. Korthek was annoyed with both of his foes and struck out at them with his power, where Flurry used a bit of her magic to turn it into the ground and opened the way for her father to lay into him with the Nemesis Whip, using it's power to stun their opponent, which was what Hephaestus had created it for.

While they did that Pandora focused her mind and felt that the people of Greece, those that remained anyway, joined the gods in focusing on their hope, where she found small glowing blue orbs floating through the air and gathering above her head, forming a sphere of energy that was growing with each passing moment. While it was true that the flood had killed the vast majority of the land, and those who called it home, Pandora knew that all of Sparta remained, plus the people who worshiped Artemis and Apollo, and she was sure that the gods who saw Zeus' insanity had prepared their own safe spots for their own followers. Those pockets of people, and those who managed to survive the destruction on their own, were being made aware of the ongoing battle and Hecate was using her power to call on all of their hopes, directing them to her so she could weave them into a sphere of energy. In addition to that she found that more was coming from not only the titans, as they realized she was doing something big, but also from the Underworld, where she suspected that Calliope might have done something to enlist the aid of the other spirits that were down in Hades' realm.

After a few moments they found that Korthek stopped and stared at the sphere that was forming, though he couldn't do anything about it as Flurry and Kratos tore into him with their weapons, forcing him to focus on them and not the danger that would be coming his way soon.

Once she was sure that the sphere was ready, and it was roughly twice as tall as Pandora was, she pushed herself up into the air for a moment, mostly to make sure she was positioned above their opponent, before hurling the sphere down at Korthek, who felt the energy coming at him and turned towards it. Kratos, sensing an opening, stabbed his back with the Nemesis Whips and then swung the dark god up into the air, allowing him to punch him a few more with the Nemean Cestus, knocking him higher and higher as he did so. All that opened the way for Flurry to rush by him as she stabbed the dark god right in his heart with the Blade of Olympus, this time calling on it's full power thanks to the blue flames dancing around the blade, though as anger appeared on Korthek's face, like he was angry she'd do such a thing, Flurry applied a little more of her power and blasted him into the massive sphere. Kratos watched as Flurry pushed him into the core of the sphere, making sure he couldn't escape from what was about to happen, and once she was sure of that she used her magic and formed a shimmering sphere above the hope sphere, allowing her to shrink hers down and slowly shrink the one Pandora made.

With the power of hope crushing him, however, Kratos, Pandora, and the titans watched as Korthek was undone, his dark power annihilated by the greatest power in all of Greece, and once she was sure that no trace of him remained she sent the smaller orb into the air and released it, where the power of hope surged all over Greece and dispersed the dark clouds that were above them.

"It is done. Zeus, and the Evils that were sealed away, are gone." Kratos said, where he and Pandora floated around Flurry for a few moments before they landed on the ruined landscape that had once been Olympus, allowing the power that she had granted them to dispel at long last, all while she took a deep breath and returned to her base form as she allowed the Blade of Olympus to return to normal before stashing it away.

"Now what?" Pandora asked, as she honestly never believed that she, in particular, would make it this far, due to the fact that she thought her story would have ended in a self sacrifice that didn't need to happen at all, so now that her whole life was ahead of her she honestly had no idea what to do next.

"We rejoin our allies, rest up, and then worry about what comes next." Flurry replied, where her father nodded his head in agreement, though at the same time he held a hand out to Pandora, as there was no reason for her to stay behind after everything that had happened, who smiled and took it without delay, all while the titans celebrated their victory over Zeus and the Prime Primordial Evil that had taken over his body.

While Flurry really had no idea what the future might hold for them, just like Pandora, she knew that she, her father, and all of their allies would be able to tackle whatever might happen in the near future, which only made her eager to see what the coming days held for them and the rest of Greece.