God of War: Daughter of War

After helping Brok and Sindri with their favors, or at least what they could currently do since it seemed like there might be more for them to do in the future, Flurry and her family returned to the dock outside Tyr's Temple and moved to the top of the bridge, as it was time to return to the Black Breath. It didn't take everyone long to return to the tower passage that had brought them to Sindri in the first place, where they discovered that Freya's magic was still lingering on the skorn poles, a good thing since that meant they didn't have to worry about them. The light bridge, on the other hand, had broken due to the area holding the crystal having shattered after they passed through the area previously, meaning they had to drop down into the small area below them and then climb up some wooden posts again, though it did allow Atreus to read the stone tablet that was down there. Flurry understood that fact thanks to the slot that was next to the tablet, where Kratos slipped the crystal into it and let his son hit it with a light blue arrow, though her brother said it was about the seidr and about how the more they used their power the more they lose themselves.

Flurry knew that such a thing applied to the gods as well, that the more they got used to their positions the more likely it was that they lost themselves in their power, to a degree anyway, something their father thought about as well before they made their way out to Sindri's first work area.

Sindri, naturally, had moved himself along the path they were following, where the family was sure that the brothers had a way to move that they couldn't see, even though Flurry was sure that it was magical in nature, but since they didn't need any work done the family continued to move. While they did so a small wolf pack decided to attack them after leaping down into the area, though Kratos attacked the moment the wolves made their move, allowing him and his children to deal with the pack before they could do anything to even one of them. After that they moved over to the sky mover and found that it was still operational, where Kratos nodded his head as they got on it and he activated the device that made it move back to the area that they and Freya had found it in after discovering the existence of the Black Breath. As they did so Atreus decided to ask if he could carry Faye's ashes again, causing Kratos to remind him of his mother's wishes, more accurately the fact that she wanted Atreus to carry him when they finally reached their destination, the last leg of the trip to be exact.

Any disappointment he had at being told 'no' again, however, was dispelled as they reached the end of the line and quickly walked up to where the Black Breath rested, where Kratos raised the Bifrost for a moment and unleashed it's power at the black smoke, allowing them to see that the darkness was pushed back as he pushed forward.

"This certainly makes our time in Alfheim all the more worthwhile." Pandora commented, watching as their father tore the Black Breath apart with the power of the Bifrost, though she was unsure of what to make of the situation they had left in the realm that the Light had been in, something she and Flurry were still thinking about.

Flurry nodded as their father revealed a path for them to follow, cutting away at the Black Breath like it was nothing due to the power of the Light, proving that Freya had been right about it's abilities, and when he reached the end of the smoke he swung his arm a little and dismissed the dark material, revealing that they were closer to the mountain. With that fact in mind they discovered that part of the path was blocked by rubble, causing Kratos to make sure Atreus was on his back as he jumped over to the rock wall and climbed as Pandora followed after him, leaving Flurry to watch before flying a little to catch up to them. Such a thing allowed them to see that there was more of the Black Breath, where Kratos raised the Bifrost once more and pushed through more of the darkness, breaking it apart until he reached the end once more, this time revealing a large door that had the emblem of the giants on it. This excited Atreus even more than before, which was followed by them opening the door so they could see what the next objective was on their quest to reach the highest peak in the Nine Realms, opening the way to a brand new chamber.

This one had an area for them to stand on, a gap in front of them, and an area on the other side that had the statue of a figure with a deer head, possibly linked to the giants in some manner based on Atreus' guesses, along with two slots that more crystals could be placed inside.

"Best guess, there's a riddle on that sandbowl, and these two slots, combined with their crystals and this lever, will reveal the path forward." Flurry said, gesturing to the various items that were around the area they were in, where she found that her father and Pandora seemed to agree with her idea, though the interesting thing was that it didn't look like there was anything for the sandbowl to awaken this time around.

"How could you possibly guess that with just a glance?" Atreus asked, because he had been looking at everything for a few moments and could barely make the connection his sister had made in the span of a few seconds, which was impossible when he considered everything for a time.

"Atreus, if there is one thing you must definitely take to heart, it is this: Flurry is right nine times out of ten... and even then, expect ten out of ten." Kratos remarked, as that was a truth he had learned over the years of dealing with Flurry and all of her abilities, she was incredibly smart and, even she had all of the information available, she was almost always right on whatever topic they were talking about, calling out things before they even happened.

Atreus looked at them as Pandora nodded her head as well, showing that she agreed with their father, before he used an arrow to light the pillar that was on the right, since it already had a crystal for him to hit, something that caused them to look for the second one. The passage to their left happened to have a pair of draugr waiting in it, though this time around only Kratos and Pandora were all that were required to bring them down, all while Flurry located the second light crystal, it was right above the opening the pair had walked through to deal with the undead. With the two draugr brought down the family quickly retrieved the second crystal so Kratos could insert it into it's slot, though once it was powered up they found that runes appeared on metallic plates near the lever, causing them to realize what was going on. As Kratos pulled the lever back they found that the fragments formed the answer to the riddle that happened to be on the sandbowl, and that answer was 'freedom', though when Atreus traced that rune into the bowl the statue on the other side came to life.

This wasn't the same as what Kratos and Flurry were used to, as the statue remained in it's seat as it beat the ground with it's staff for a few seconds before firing a beam at the rock wall to their right, forming a doorway in no time, where Kratos assumed the giants would want to test people before allowing them passage.

With the statue done with it's task Kratos pushed open the stones and revealed another passage, just as they thought the moment everything started to move, where Atreus spotted holders lining the walls and carefully ignited them with some of his light arrows, since they had small crystals resting in them. One thing they noted was that the path in question was a different size than what everyone was expecting, though based on what Faye had said in the past they already knew that the giants had a variety of sizes that they came in, while Jormungandr was the only truly massive one left. The passage ended up bringing them to a new area to move through, where Atreus focused on using his light blue arrows to ignite the various crystals and let them see more of the area, which almost looked like a dwarven work area of sorts. Kratos, of course, focused on the task at hand as he looted a stone chest off to the side before crossing under a fallen stone pillar to access a bridge of sorts, with a revenant guarding it by the looks of things, which Pandora crushed with her halberd after Atreus stunned it with some of his light arrows.

Of course there were a few nightmares as well, which made sense due to the fact that they were always near revenants, but it mattered little to the family as Kratos cut his way through them and continued deeper into the mountain, allowing them to reach more draugr and some rotating devices that showed runes, meaning there was a runic chest nearby. The draugr were nothing to the family, especially when Atreus struck a light crystal that actually stunned their enemies for a time and opened the way for his father and both of his sisters to bring down the undead like they were nothing special. Kratos made sure to tell Atreus to keep an eye out for those types of crystals, since they could change the flow of battle in an instant if he struck them with his arrows, but also warned him not to rely on such a thing, since it would hinder the progress he was making as a warrior. Atreus wasn't too sure that he should do as his father said on this matter, especially if the stun crystals worked on more than just the draugr, but he didn't say anything to that comment as he loosed a few more light arrows, igniting lights and even restoring a light bridge for them to use.

While they explored the family found the runic chest that the devices were linked to, where the runes required to break the lock were written right on the wall behind it, in blood no less, causing them to quickly track down the devices and turn them until the three runes were displaced, allowing Kratos to loot the chest. With that done they made sure there wasn't anything else left for them to loot, though Flurry did locate another stone chest they had passed by, though once she dealt with the chest they found an area to crouch their way through and did so without delay. The downside to the passage was that they had to pass by a lot of bodies, men by the looks of it, where Kratos knew they were fortunate that these ones hadn't risen as Hel-Walkers, otherwise the passage would have been blocked entirely, at least until Flurry dealt with them using her magic, given what he had seen in the past. The route brought them to the backside of the statue they had seen previously, where Atreus was able to identify it as 'Durapror', one of the four stags of the World Tree who watched the entrance to the realm of the giants while the giants slept, meaning there might be more to this mountain than they originally assumed.

As they progressed beyond the stag the family found some more draugr, again not much of a problem, prompting Atreus to ask if his mother knew the truth of this mountain, where Kratos shook his head and stated that it was unlikely that she knew such a thing, especially due to how complicated her request was slowly becoming. Of course there were a couple of draugr up ahead of them, though once again none of them were bothered by that fact as they cut through them, while at the same time Flurry switched to her bow to take down those that were off in the distance. Such a thing allowed Atreus a chance to study how she used her ranged weapon, one that she was incredibly skilled in as he watched her, though when they reached a wall Flurry stood back as her family climbed up it, even passing by some runes that Atreus claimed were a name, 'Hraezlyr', meaning 'terror'. That information caused Flurry to wonder if that might be the name of the guardian of the mountain, someone or something chosen to keep the path of the giants safe from those who might seek to do harm to the missing race, or abuse their ruins in some manner.

When they were able to walk again Atreus found something that looked like a lantern of some kind, made of animal hide, string, and a place for a candle to rest, while Kratos smashed open another wooden chest for it's contents before all four of them approached the end of the passage, a large wooden gate, even though he did have to stop Atreus from goofing off while they passed through the raised gate, as Pandora opened it.

Such a thing revealed that they were in the heart of the mountain, in what appeared to be a work area that reminded both Kratos and Flurry of the passage between Olympus and the Underworld, and it sure looked like that was the case here, due to the scaffolding that seemed to be a lift in the center of everything. The pair glanced at each other and already knew what to do, find a lift and the activator that would allow them to reach whatever was at the peak, and fortunately it looked like the large wooden wheels in the floor in front of them had to be the activator. Such a thing meant that this was a mine, no doubt installed by the dwarves at some point in time, though while it was hard to say what this place had been used for they knew that the main thing was to find the lift, allowing them to see that the area was in decent shape despite having no owners for quite some time. The interesting thing in Flurry's eyes was more of the odd crystals that almost looked like crystalized sap, something they might be able to interact with in the future, though before they could do anything Atreus approached the wheel and touched it like he was going to operate it.

That, in turn, caused the claw that was hanging nearby to rush into the air while the main rope ended up getting trapped under some rubble that fell near the wheel, all while Atreus stared at the scene before rubbing the back of his head as his father glared at him.

"That was careless." Kratos commented, though he did his best to hold his anger in check, as this would delay them and made it harder for them to reach the summit of the mountain, but what really irritated him was the fact that his son just acted without thinking at times, something that they really needed to work on before it did some real damage, "I hope you had no plans to ask Flurry to carry us to the summit, as we have more work to do now."

"Oh come on! She's got those powerful wings! Surely she can carry us to the summit in no time." Atreus remarked, though part of him had considered such a thing when he glanced at the passage in front of them, because he didn't see much of a reason to be apologetic over altering things like this, which was why he glanced at his sister for a few seconds.

"Atreus, we have no idea how long the passage truly is, and you're asking me to make the journey multiple times to make sure all of us get up there?" Flurry inquired, though while she was sure she could do that, in fact she had boosted her own power to ensure she didn't strain herself like she had when she carried her father up to Pandora's Temple, she didn't want her brother to assume that she could just eliminate every obstacle in their path, otherwise she would have finished this entire venture on her own terms a long time ago, "Please, think of my poor wings, which will be heavily strained after such an ordeal... which will drastically reduce my abilities in battle and might hinder our progress even more if our foes get a lucky hit on me. You don't want such a thing, do you?"

"I... no, I don't." Atreus admitted, where he lowered his head a little, as he hadn't considered what his sister had said when he make his remark, in fact he hadn't considered her opinion on the matter at all and just assumed she'd help him out, a fact that was followed by their father turning as new enemies invaded the area.

Interestingly enough the enemies were just more draugr and they moved by a couple of stun crystals, allowing Atreus to stun them so the others could cut them down, though after doing so Flurry found that some ranged ones appeared as well and she eliminated them with a few well placed arrows. While they did that Atreus even commented on the fact that while the machines were dwarven in nature, it was clear that everything else had been done by the giants, which he found to be interesting and exciting at the same time, which only made Flurry wonder if he had some sort of problem with his personality, switching from not wanting to explore the area to wanting to do such a thing in seconds. After dealing with all of the undead the family found that the path they came from seemed to head down into an area that Brok was working in, something that annoyed Kratos a little as he approached the dwarf, who told them that while he did have a way around the Black Breath he couldn't use it for them. As Kratos let out an annoyed growl, and dismissed his anger, Flurry noticed something odd about the dwarf, something that she could only likely see because of her nature as the Goddess of Death and the fact that she had noticed the soul in Andvari's ring earlier.

His soul was fractured, as in there was a fourth of it missing based on what she could see, and when she blinked for a few seconds the image she was seeing seemed to fade, while doing it again as Flurry focused on that power seemed to bring it back, causing Brok to raise an eyebrow as she shook her head, figuring she could ask Sindri later on.

Following the path leading deeper into the mountain the family discovered an area that had both a wooden chest and a stone chest for them to loot, before coming to a stop near what appeared to be one of the traps that Brok mentioned, as his people had built many after moving into this area. The passage was two spiked walls pushed up against each other, all while there was a smaller side passage off to it's right, so Kratos had Atreus head into the small passage as he struck the sipping device that was above it, opening the passage so he and his daughters could move forward. Of course they had to time their rush through the passage, which wasn't hard for all three of them after everything they had been through, and when they caught up to Atreus a moment later Pandora used her chakrams to hit a moveable spike wall out of the way so they could enter another portion of the mines. There were a few more draugr for them to worry about, but this time Flurry stayed out of the way as Pandora assaulted the couple of undead that were nearby as their brother dealt with the rest of the ranged enemies, allowing Flurry and their father to look around for a bit.

While they did that Flurry found a critter looking at her, a small lizard-like creature that had two arms and seemed to crawl on it's belly, while still having a tail to help it move, though as she walked up to it the lizard just spat out a few small bags, pouches of materials that were pristine and without saliva on them, before it dived into the ground.

She wasn't sure what that was about, but assumed that it sensed her true nature and presented her with a gift to ensure it survived their encounter, even though she hadn't been planning on killing it, causing her to sigh as she collected the items and added them to her bag, figuring that she could check them later. There was also the corpse of a large creature in the area, one that reminded them of Brok's beast, though instead of stopping the family continued to move through the area, where Kratos started to move the cart that was in the area as Pandora smashed the lock holding it in place. From there he was able to move it into position so they could climb up to the area that was above them, allowing Flurry to break a pair of locks and lower a bridge for them to use, leading to Pandora finding an area for someone to crawl walk through so they could reach the chamber they had been in previously. Such a thing meant they could push the cart into the main portion of the mines, while Flurry discovered that the bridge only brought her over to a stone chest, which she looted, before the four of them returned to the cart and let Kratos push it out into the main chamber.

Such a thing allowed Flurry to jump up to the upper level of the main area, pass by a golden chest that she looted before tossing the green gem inside to her father so he could empower Atreus a little, before she approached the boulder that was keeping the rope stuck and swung Earthshaker at it, shattering the rock in an instant, only for a troll to awaken and emerge from the ground.

"Of course. I'm not even surprised." Flurry commented, where she switched to her bow and remained on the upper area as her father and her siblings faced the troll, because this would allow Atreus to learn more about battle without her just taking it away from him like she did with the Soul Eater and the various Ancients.

Kratos and Pandora handled the melee battle, demanding the troll's attention while Atreus focused on tracking where his sister was aiming with her own bow, causing him to realize something about it, the weapon was enchanted by magic so it never ran out of arrows, which was just unfair. Fortunately their attacks opened holes in the troll's defenses, allowing the melee warriors to strike at it repeatedly while avoiding it's blows, just like they had done the last time they clashed with one of these creatures, and their experience in fighting trolls allowed them to deal devastating damage to it. Kratos, just like before, ended the fight by knocking it to the ground and then used it's weapon to crush it's head from above, turning it into a pile of resources that Pandora and Flurry collected once they were sure that the battle was over, since there was no telling if more foes would show up. In that instant, as everyone returned to the wheel, Flurry smiled as she found an interesting reward for their battle, one of the Frozen Flames, meaning they could empower the Leviathan Axe further the next time they found one of the dwarven brothers, as she checked on Brok after finding it and found that he had moved on for some reason.

With that done Kratos pushed the cart down the rest of the track as Pandora tended to the wheel, allowing the clamps to come down and grab hold of the makeshift platform, where Flurry took hold of the device so her father, brother, and sister could climb onto the cart, as the moment she let go it started to move up, but thanks to her wings she landed on it before it got too far.

"So, do you think that this will get up to the top?" Atreus asked, though he had to admit that this was better than what he had thought it would be, just watching the rest of the mountain go by while they had a chance to rest, though as he said that he paused as he glanced at the passage they were moving through, "Though to be honest, I'm starting to feel like something dreadful is getting close to us."

"We are not at the peak, but we are closer than before." Kratos said, as the lift came to a stop after a minute of travel, so it meant they were either near the peak of one portion of the mountain or just the portion of the mine they were in, where he and his children stepped out to continue their journey.

Atreus, of course, found another lantern and discovered that this one had a candle inside it, something that caused him to use the edge of his knife to light a flame so the object could be lifted into the air, even though he made sure to quickly write a message on it. That message, as it turned out, was to ask that someone watch over his mother's soul, where they stood near each other for a few moments to watch it fly off into the rest of the mine before they got moving as well, since there was no telling what else the mountain would throw at them. This time around they discovered more dwarven traps, devices along the path that spewed fire at anything that dared to use this path, though none of them were bothered by that fact as Atreus got on his father's back so the trio could jump through the hazards with ease. There was even one that raised a stone chest up, where Flurry flew around it and lowered the trap so her family could move forward, allowing the chest to be looted in the process, before they found another mining lift that seemed to be their ticket to the peak, where Kratos and Pandora pushed two heavy stones off the lift to get them moving.

Flurry wasn't too surprised when her brother started talking about what they might be able to see when they finally found the peak, though when draugr leapt down onto the lift she simply swatted them off the ledge with her magic, since all four of them weren't interested in fighting them again, and that allowed the lift to move towards the peak in silence.

Atreus seemed to take offense to that, even though she was saving them energy for whatever might be ahead of them, but as he opened his mouth to lash out at her the rock wall behind him shattered as a beam of lightning tore through it in a second, causing Kratos to pull Atreus back. In that moment they discovered the source of the attack, it was a massive dragon that looked somewhat terrifying, causing Flurry to realize that this had to be Hraezlyr, who actually chomped down on the lift and pulled it close so it could stab it's left claws into the material, stopping them instantly. Flurry smiled for a moment as she switched weapons again, as she had never fought a dragon before, causing her to pull out the Blade of Olympus once more, still in it's sealed state since it's pull power might be overkill, before lashing out at the claws, cutting into Hraezlyr's scales with ease. Such a thing caused the beast to roar in pain as it wrecked part of the lift and then blasted a hole in the side of the large passage they were moving through, allowing the dragon to escape before she could fight it, only for it to hook it's tail onto their lift as it yanked them into the passage it was moving through, wrecking the lift in the process.

"Hraezlyr has retreated, for now. I suggest we rest a little, before dealing with the dragon." Kratos remarked, because he knew that to fight a beast like that, who was likely waiting for them at the end of the passage it had created, they would have to be prepared for anything and everything, so a few minutes of recovery would only benefit them.

Flurry smiled as she faced the path that was in front of them, because she was looking forward to clashing with Hraezlyr and seeing whatever the peak of the mountain had in store for her and her family, they just had to be patient before they reached the end of their quest and upheld Faye's last wishes.