God of War: Daughter of War

After assisting the dwarf brothers in obtaining the items they required, and getting some items to help them deal with the rest of their journey, Kratos and his children returned to the boat and headed out for the statues of the oarsmen that would allow them to reach the area that the chisel was resting in. Flurry, of course, remained in the air while her family used the boat, even though she did have to dive down and slowly follow behind them when they entered a cavern passage, since she had no way of knowing where they were going with all of the rocks in the way. Such a thing gave Mimir the chance to tell them the tale of the Giant known as Thamur, the greatest stonemason in the world, who wished to impart his wisdom to his son, Hrimthur, but they had a fight that ended in the father bonking his son on the head. Of course such a thing caused the son to flee, but when Thamur chased after his son he eventually ended up in Midgard in the middle of the night, meeting Thor, the one person he didn't want to encounter while he was alone and so far from home.

The end of the tale became known to them as they reached the end of the passage and entered an open area where Flurry could take to the sky once more, where she and her family found a massive Giant collapsed on the ground, fallen right on top of a village, struck dead by Thor no doubt, and they noticed that this area was covered in snow.

"This place used to worship Njord, a Vanir god... Thor always took credit for dropping Thamur on the village, but honestly I think he just got incredibly lucky." Mimir commented, because Thor wasn't known for thinking, rather he was known for his drinking and his ability to destroy nearly everything he touched, often at the command of his father, Odin himself, so it was easy to assume taking credit for the deed was Odin's idea and plan the entire time.

As they docked, and Flurry landed, they discovered a new enemy at long last, bipedal wolf creatures that Mimir identified as wulver, who were almost like werewolves, though Flurry discovered that the first one didn't last more than a few seconds, as she swung her sickles and was able to cut through it's hide with ease, before putting it down. Of course there wasn't just one of them, as another wulver tore through some rubble as it jumped down into the area that was near the dock her father had used after reaching their destination, where her father slashed at it with his axe while Atreus loosed a few arrows at their current foe. Flurry noted that their claws were definitely sharp looking, meaning getting cut by them was a bad time, and that wasn't even thinking about the possibility of potentially being turned if they got infected, which she would have to ask Mimir about later, when they had time to speak on many subjects. For now, however, they focused on the task that was in front of them, tracking down the chisel and then learning where the Travel Rune for Jotunheim was being stored, since she was sure that Jormungandr had told Mimir during their conversation.

What they discovered was that Thamur's right hand was resting in front of them, frozen in a wall of frost and ice, but the family also found that he had been wearing a massive ring on one finger, and Kratos had his son hit it with an arrow, only to find that it forced the ring down to the ground for him to move. Such a thing allowed him to position the crystal to the left and right of where it started, a fact that was followed by Atreus hitting it with two lightning arrows, making sure to use only one for each direction, which blasted the ice walls down so they could see what was on the other side. The fact that this particular crystal was large enough to hold multiple charges for them to use was a good thing, instead of being used up after a single arrow struck it, where the right side had some more materials for them to add to the collection and one of the symbols they had been collecting. As they focused on the left side, however, Kratos found another one of the odd crystalline locks that he and his children had been seeing across Midgard, where Mimir told them that he would help them unlock those as well in the future, causing them to nod as they headed into the passage that had been revealed after the left ice wall had been blasted apart.

That brought them to an inside portion of a keep or even a stronghold, it was hard to tell with how destroyed everything was thanks to Thamur's massive body, and since the figure had been a Frost Giant his dying breath froze everyone that had been in the area. With that in mind the family found that none of the frozen figures that were around the area they were walking through happened to wake up, though to be on the safe said Pandora quickly smashed those that looked a lot like the still draugr they had seen in the past, eliminating potential enemies before they were attacked. There was yet another stone chest along the way, this one had armor inside it that they added to their collection, though this time Flurry had an idea as she took the armor and disappeared, leaving her bag behind, something that caught Atreus by surprise, as this was the first time he had seen such a thing. A few moments later she reappeared, with her bag on her belt, and told them that she had made a change to the room that held the enchantment runes, she made it so the armor they found on their adventure would be stared in it as well, thus allowing them to get the benefits from the rest of their collection, just like with the runes.

Kratos smiled and told her that this was a good idea, since it would help them in the future, before they climbed up one of the golden chains so they could reach the area that was above them, giving them a good view of their target, a chisel that was sticking out of Thamur's head with the tip trapped under the ice that was below them, and his massive hammer, only Flurry was sure the latter would fall in the very near future.

There were, of course, more wulver in the area and the family greeted them in kind, letting the aggressive wolf people be the first one make the move against them, while Kratos and the others defended themselves by hacking, slashing, or just loosing a few arrows at their enemies. Flurry found that these enemies weren't much to worry about, even though she did have her guard up, something she and her father had learned over the years and Pandora replicated with ease, mostly due to the fact that she knew that if she lowered her guard it was possible that her foes would hurt her. With that in mind Flurry focused on dodging attacks and slashing at those that came at her, while at the same time opening holes for Atreus to hit with some of his arrows, showing her brother that, while he could be annoying at times, she was willing to trust him during a fight. In addition to all of that there was an Ancient in the area as well, one made of ancient ice by the looks of it, though she removed it from the battlefield with a rapid series of slashes from her sickles, cutting the creature down and collecting it's materials as the rest of her family cleaned up the remaining wulver.

While Flurry found that there was another rune to add to the collection, thanks to the Ancient, her family noticed that a runic chest was nearby and quickly tracked down the runes powering the seals, this time rotating the devices to deal with the lock, and once that was done, and Pandora looted a stone chest, Kratos looted the chest before they stopped right above the clear ice that showed their destination, the chisel's glowing end.

"How are we going to get down there?" Atreus asked, as he didn't see anything that would allow them to get down to the area that the chisel was resting in, no passages or entrances, causing him to glance at his family for a moment as each of them looked at the tool they were here to claim, "Flurry, could you break through the ice?"

"Maybe, but I can't silence my magic... if I use magic, Baldur or the sons of Thor would be on us in no time." Flurry stated, to which she glanced at the reforged blade for a moment, because it's power, even in the sealed state, would allow her to break through the ice, though while Atreus looked at the chisel again, however, her father glanced at her before looking at something else, where she did the same and her eyes widened as she nodded.

"I agree with Flurry: we do not want to alert our foes, even if they are not nearby. Do not fear, I have a plan." Kratos said, as there was one other thing in the area that they could use to get to the chisel, without using magic or Flurry's blade, one that had been resting here for the last hundred years or so, so if it fell no one would question why it had happened since it would have been logical.

"You do? Now this I've got to see." Mimir commented, because he knew that ice created from a Giant's dying breath was an incredibly hard substance and even suspected that Thor, equipped with Mjolnir, wouldn't be able to break through the ice, but with this family he really had no idea what might happen next.

A trio of strong draugr burst out of some rubble and attacked the family after Mimir said that, though once more he found that the family was stronger than he originally assumed as Kratos punched one in the face and used it's weapon to kill it in seconds, Pandora used her chakrams to kill hers with ease, and Flurry removed the head of her foe with her sickle, before they and Atreus moved up the nearby rubble, only to discover another of Sindri's shops.

"Wow, um, that was... something, that fight." Sindri commented, which didn't come as a surprise to the family, rather once they knew about the existence of his shop they knew that he wasn't far behind and that meant that he must have watched them fight the wulver and Ancient, and he even produced an apple that he gently tossed at Kratos, who cut it in half with the edge of his axe, "Well... that's a waste of a perfectly good apple."

"Let me guess, you were using your magic to keep hidden?" Pandora remarked, because so far there was nothing that could be used as cover, so Sindri must have used some sort of spell or ability to keep himself hidden from the enemies she and her family had fought, while at the same time she knew why her father cut the apple down, as in Greece throwing an apple at someone meant the thrower wanted to propose to someone, so this was rejection in their ancient customs.

"Oh, That. Well... it's a little trick that my people can pull off, a special way of not being seen." Sindri replied, where he took a moment to walk behind the pillar fragment that was behind him, sized roughly to his height no less, though when he never emerged from the other side and Atreus found that he wasn't back there, while Flurry turned her head a little and tracked where the dwarf was standing, "To be more exact it's more like I can step into the Realm Between Realms, while your minds don't understand what they're seeing, so you end up seeing nothing at all. That's how we avoid having to actually use the weapons we create... unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work on dragons, as you discovered earlier."

"Nice. You know, your brother was asking if you were getting enough to eat... guess we can tell him that you are." Atreus said, as during the explanation Sindri had allowed them to see one of his arms as he gave Atreus an apple, the normal way since he suspected one of the others might cut it down as well, something that the boy bit into since he didn't want to waste it like his father had done.

As Sindri opened his mouth to question that, and ask if there was mead on Brok's breath, he noticed that the axe seemed a tad different than before and realized that his brother had touched it again, causing Kratos to hand it over as the dwarf took it to his workshop for a time, sharpening the head while improving the overall power of the weapon. Once they were done letting the Leviathan Axe be worked on, and Sindri was pleased with it's power, he returned it to Kratos, who focused on the next obstacle they had to make their way through, part of Thamur's braided beard, which had three segments with some of the crystals linked to them. With that information in mind Kratos had his son focus up as he used the axe to spin each device that was around all three crystals, where when each crystal was struck they damaged the area that the braid was resting on, so once the third was struck the ice wall collapsed and allowed the braid to fall, and some ice got close to Sindri's place, based on his remark about his shop being right there. After that Kratos jumped over the small gap that was in front of them and his children followed after him, all while Atreus started to guess what the plan was, since his father and sisters hadn't said anything, mostly to test him and see if he could figure it out for himself.

While Atreus guessed, in failure, Kratos smashed a wooden chest open so Flurry could loot it, before he opened a large ornate door and revealed a large chamber that happened to have a Traveler in it, where he and his daughters repeated what they had done to the last one as Atreus loosed arrows at the openings they created. Since the Traveler didn't have any additional moves to show them, and moved just like the last one they fought, it wasn't long before Flurry removed his shield and weapon, adding both items to her bag while her father tore their foe's upper body from his lower body, letting her take the fragments of his armor as well. While they cleared out the area, as a few draugr showed up as well, Kratos just pulled a section of the wall out of the way and opened a path for everyone to use, while at the same time Mimir talked about this place, or what it had been like before Thor dropped Thamur on this place. Flurry had to agree that this was a tragedy, losing all of those lives because they didn't worship Odin, as she was sure of that fact as well, though as they left the area she tracked down a wooden chest and a golden chest, allowing her to add their contents to her collection, and a new power for her father.

Following that they continued along the path that would bring them to the massive hammer, where Kratos made sure his son was on his back before jumping across a larger gap, and when he moved out of the way Pandora did the same, while Flurry remained in the air, keeping an eye out for Baldur or the sons of Thor, before landing near the others when they found the next part of the path.

Such a thing brought them to an area where they could use a large strap, which had another large crystal on it, to blast the ice that had formed on the handle of the massive hammer, twice in fact since there was a lot of it, though once the second blast struck the ice things started to happen. While the ice shattered the base of the hammer's handle shifted, falling back towards another portion of the structure and coming to a stop, though at the same time one of the straps holding onto the head of the tool snapped off completely while the second strained under the pressure, but it didn't break. No one was pleased by this discovery, since it meant they would have to do a little more work before leaving this area, but Flurry found that no one seemed to be coming and that meant they should be safe for the time being, causing them to continue along the path again. One thing they discovered was that the crystal strap moved closer to the ice wall that was in the way and Atreus used an arrow to access another blast, clearing the way for them to move forward and loot a stone chest, before Kratos climbed up the strap with Atreus on his back and Pandora following him.

Flurry did have them pause for a moment as she heard the sound of thunder, which could be Magni and Modi, but for the time being no one was coming at the hammer and she nodded her head so the others could continue towards the peak of the area, or the next area for them to explore. While they did so Atreus was able to determine that melting the ice wasn't what his father was working towards, and using the crystals to blast it open was also impossible since there were none in the area above the chisel, so those options were out. When he thought about it Atreus realized that smashing the ice was really all that remained, something that caused him to realize why his father was so focused on the hammer and also let him understand the plan they were working towards. With that discovery he did what he could to help his father and his sisters out, using an arrow now and then to remove some of the decorations that were in their way, where Kratos told all of them that the plan involved cutting the hammer free and riding it down, so they would figure out what to do next after this step was finally complete.

When they reached the area that the strap was in Kratos grabbed it and pushed it in a way that bent the chain that was holding the strap in place, breaking it in no time and causing the hammer to shift once more, though this time it just came to a stop on the side of the peak it had been falling towards.

With that in mind he, Atreus, and Pandora jumped over to a doorway as Flurry landed behind them, where they entered a short passage that had a stone chest for them to loot, before they reached a circular chamber that had a fractured floor, along with a sandbowl that only Atreus could get to. When he reached the sandbowl they learned that it's riddle was about the seasons, which made sense due to the four devices that were near Atreus and had icons on them that represented the four seasons, and that time was retrograde, as in going backwards. As such Flurry solved it easily, as her father just had to make the devices go 'winter, fall, summer, spring', and once that was done her brother uttered the word and stabbed the sand once more, where they watched as time magic danced around the fractured floor and restored it. When he did it a second time they discovered that this was also a lift, so Atreus focused on stabbing the sand and powering the spell while Kratos and his daughters dealt with the draugr that sprung out of the walls to attack them, the weaker ones to be exact, since there were no strong ones this time around.

Mimir commented that this was as the trio guessed, temporal magic, as Kratos and his daughters had experience with this sort of power, and mentioned that this happened to be one of Njord's favorites before they stopped using it, though there wasn't too much for him to do as the family dealt with the undead and allowed the lift to reach the peak with ease, where they had to climb around some rubble to reach the hammer's head.

"Now, everyone push at the same time." Kratos stated, where Flurry and Pandora realized what he was doing, he wanted to let Atreus help them so he didn't feel left out, instead of one or more of them just shoving it over with far too much ease, causing the sisters to nod as Atreus also joined in.

With three of them being full fledged gods it made it far too easy for them to push the hammer, even though they did do a bit of struggling to make Atreus feel better, though once it was pushed away, and started to fall towards the ice, Kratos grabbed onto his son as he jumped towards the hammer. When it was clear that they were going to ride it down Flurry did the same thing and made sure Pandora was with them, where she quickly found that her brother thought that this was far too exciting, making her worry about him again, before the hammer collided with the ground. The force of that shock just shattered everything that was around the point of impact, breaking ice and ground like they were nothing, and caused the family to fall towards a chasm that was now opening before their eyes, where Flurry turned her wings in as she reached out with her magic. She made sure that her family was close to her as she surrounded them with a barrier, which came in handy when they hit the ground, unharmed since her spell was meant to protect them, and it even stopped the hammer's face from smashing them into the fractured ground.

She waited for a few moments, making sure that the area around them would be fine if she dismissed her barrier, and as soon as she was sure of things she pulled it down, finding that everything was perfectly fine, meaning they wouldn't fall to their deaths or anything.

"THAT was your plan? You're cracked, you know that, right?" Mimir remarked, as he couldn't believe that, with the power and intelligence that the family had, the plan involved dropping the hammer and THEN ride it down to the ground, instead of simply waiting for everything to settle down before descending.

"Enough. The chisel is within reach. Let us claim it while we can." Kratos said, as that was what they had come for, so they could complete part of the unexpected path that their journey had taken, and he could see that all three of his children were in agreement, especially since there was no way their enemies wouldn't investigate what had just happened.

Flurry glanced at the path that was ahead of them and knew that they were nearly at the chisel, they just had to get out of the area they were in, figure a new way to it, and deal with any foes that got in their way, all while hoping to avoid Baldur or the sons of Thor while they did so, causing her to look forward to whatever might happen next.