God of War: Daughter of War

After taking care of Gondul, and collecting their rewards for beating her, Kratos and his children returned to the temple by using the nearby Door, allowing them to stop by the temple's shop, where they found both brothers hard at work, despite the fact that Brok had stepped out into Muspelheim after they left the temple. The reason for the stop was because they could use the flame that had dropped from the Valkyrie to create another Chaos Flame that was then used to empower the Blades of Chaos even more, a good thing in Kratos' eyes since it would help them in the future. In addition to that they were able to use the materials that had been won from the various trials to make a few pieces of Muspelheim inspired armor that Flurry added to the armory in her bag, something that surprised the brothers when he noticed what they were doing. She explained how her bag worked, that all of the armor they had collected was placed inside the bag and everyone received the bonuses without having to wear the gear, where she found that Brok didn't seem to care while Sindri was interested, but for the time being they allowed the family to keep moving.

With that done they returned to the main console and Kratos used the Travel Rune that was inside the cipher Sindri had delivered to them after they bested the Valkyrie, allowing him to transfer them to Niflheim within a few moments, and the moment that was done he and his children headed out into the Realm of Mist.

"Ugh... I don't want to say anything bad, but... man does that smell bad." Atreus remarked, as there was a foul smell in the air that all of them could detect, and when they stepped away from the main temple he found that some faint mist seemed to be stuck to the walkway that was below them, "What is this stuff?"

"The mist is cursed." Kratos stated, where he glanced out at the realm and found that the mist, or even fog in places, was twisted in some manner that meant they might be in danger if they delved too deeply into the areas in question, which only made him wonder what sort of challenges this realm might offer them.

"Quite right: the mist is safe to breathe, for a time, but it will kill us if we linger for too long... knowing the dwarves, one or both of them will have some armor to help us." Mimir commented, as he agreed with Flurry, that the remaining Valkyries had to be in the other realms they had access to, those being Niflheim, Alfheim, and even Helheim, so it stood to reason that Sindri might have seen the one in this realm and was trying to help them on their quest.

While they walked the family passed by a stone tablet that Atreus translated for them, where they learned that the mist was due to Ivaldi's tampering with the realm, to the point where his son, Motsognir, renounced this realm and fled to Midgard, to leave his father to his fate. At the same time he knew that the figure who wrote the tablet eventually become the Dwarf King, especially due to some of the information they had passed by on their quest to spread his mother's ashes, and knew he had a stronghold in Midgard, something the family might explore if they had a reason to do so. Once he was done with that his father started to loot the wooden chests that were near them, where Flurry discovered another new resource, mist that just spiraled around like they were actually an echo of some kind, and they got a few of them from the few wooden chests, not to mention more from a stone chest they looted as well. At the end of the path, resting where a Realm Tower would be back in Midgard, the family discovered that Sindri did what his brother had done back in Muspelheim, he had made a shop a fair distance from the temple, and beyond him was what appeared to be a maze of sorts.

Kratos suspected that there was more than just the Valkyrie in this realm and that, much like Muspelheim, they had to clear the maze or some trials associated with the maze before tracking down their true target, where he focused on Sindri as the dwarf finished setting up his smaller workshop.

"You know, I'm surprised you are even here Sindri... figured you would be scared off by the mist." Atreus remarked, which caused him to pause for a moment as he wondered if the curse might see his innocent comment as something bad and glanced at his body, finding that nothing had changed on him, something that caused him to breath a sigh of relief as his family focused on the dwarf.

"You think I can't handle a little bit of cursed mist? Well... you are absolutely right." Sindri admitted, something the family knew since he hated getting his hands dirty and figured that a realm with cursed mist would be a realm he would rather avoid, hence why he had chosen the safest spot in Niflheim to greet them in after realizing they were serious about going out to look for the Valkyrie, "I'm actually trying to build some armor that will lessen the effects of the mist, which should be able to help you in traversing the shifting maze that's beyond this point."

"Are you seeking something, or are you here to help us hunt down the Valkyrie?" Kratos asked, because if Sindri knew that the Valkyrie was here that meant there was a reason for them to explore, but if the dwarf told them that the figure was not here, and had been moved elsewhere, he and his family would follow.

"Oh, she's here alright. Hasn't moved from where she was placed... but the path keeps shifting." Sindri replied, which was good news for them when the family thought about it, since it meant that they wouldn't have to waste time looking for the Valkyrie in another location, where Kratos realized what the dwarf was going to ask of them before he even said a single word, but let him speak anyway, "The materials I need are actually close at hand, in Ivaldi's workshop, though to get there you'll need to cross the mist and get the armor that's resting inside it... if you can bring me some Mist Echoes, which you'll find plenty of in the maze, I can fashion them into an Entry Stone for you to use to get into the workshop."

With that in mind the family headed down the path that was in front of them and entered the starting point of the maze, as noted by a dwarven statue, likely of Ivaldi, who informed them of the fact that the entire place, including enemies and even treasures, would reset whenever they left with the treasures they claimed. Kratos, Flurry, and Pandora glanced at each other for a few seconds as Atreus eventually caught onto what this meant, there seemed to be an endless amount of resources to claim and that they would likely have to use the Mist Echoes for other things in this place. As such their first priority was to track down all of the chests that would grant them Mist Echoes as part of the reward, because Flurry felt that after their first time tackling the realm they should be able to forge the Entry Stone and get the armor. From there it would a simple matter to map out every inch of Ivaldi's maze, to pinpoint where the Valkyrie was resting, and then bring their quest to a close, at least in this realm anyway, hence why she focused on whatever might be waiting for them.

As it turned out the draugr and tatzelwurms that were in the first chamber happened to be stronger than the enemies they had fought back in Muspelheim, where Flurry decided to return to using her sickles, since it appeared that these foes would be stronger and last longer than their previous foes. After a few moments of fighting she had to rethink her thoughts about their current enemies, because while this group of enemies did seem to be tougher, allowing them to last longer, none of them seemed to have the power to back up their tougher hides, meaning the battle was still in the family's favor. Once the first couple of foes were taken out Kratos opened three chests that were in the area, one wooden, one stone, and one of the golden variants, where the rest of the family discovered that the first chest gave them a fair amount of echoes, the second granted them almost three times that amount, and the golden was five times what was in the wooden one. It was nice to see that they already had more than enough for the Entry Stone, Flurry was sure of that, but for the time being Kratos decided to explore the maze a little more and headed down the path to their left, where he bypassed two walls that slammed into each other and got around an area with moving saws.

Such a thing allowed them to enter an area with a number of wulver, these ones looking stronger and faster than the ones the family had fought before this point, where Flurry clashed with them for a few moments and her family found that she was able to hack them apart with ease, which was a testament to her skills. After looting the chests that were in the area Kratos headed back to Sindri's workshop, avoiding the traps once more, and once they emerged from the maze it was just a simple matter to walk up to where he was working and hand over the Mist Echoes. Sure enough he used some of them to make a twisted teal green Entry Stone before handing the rest of their resources back to them, where Kratos, with the Entry Stone in hand, returned to the first chamber of the maze without wasting time. That allowed everyone to confirm what they had been told previously, all of the slain enemies returned in full force, in fact they were joined by a couple of dark elves, and all of the looted chests were now sealed, which meant there was definitely an endless amount of treasure and Mist Echoes for them to acquire.

Once the enemies were taken care of Kratos slipped the Entry Stone into the pedestal that was near the other side of the area and watched as the door beyond it lowered, allowing him and his children access to the central portion of this area of Niflheim, reaching a circular area that had a number of chests, ones made of wood, stone, and even gold, and there were three Realm Tears nearby as well.

"And there's the armor." Pandora commented, as one of the stone chests gave way and Kratos retrieved a set of dwarven armor from it, which seemed older than anything they had seen so far, something that caused her father to nod before he turned back towards the entrance of this area.

With the armor in hand Flurry quickly checked the other chests, finding that the wooden and stone ones could be opened without difficulty, while the golden ones seemed to require the sacrifice of Mist Echoes to open, an interesting thing given what they had seen in Muspelheim, and once everything was looted they returned to Sindri.

"We have the armor. We just need to find the Valkyrie." Kratos said, where he placed the armor on the table and Sindri got to work reshaping it into something they could use, even if they didn't actually wear it like he or his brother wanted, but to him he was happy that it was being put to good use in some manner.

"Well, can't help you there. I really don't like the mist here... but, knowing you guys, you'll find her." Sindri replied, as he had faith in that fact, he knew them well enough to know that they didn't stay away from trouble and, if they were setting their eyes on finding a Valkyrie there was no stopping them from finding their target, before he set a piece of chest armor, sized to fit Kratos, on the table, "Here you go, armor that will help you deal with the cursed mist."

Kratos thanked the dwarf as Flurry stored the armor away, allowing them to find that it gave them the passive buffs like all of the other gear that had been recovered so far, though with that done they descended into the maze without delay, as it was time to track down their real target. This time around they found a group of powerful wulver and a revenant, which told Flurry that the enemies might be what was rotating, as she really wasn't seeing the traps or chests moving right now, making her wonder why this place was thought of as a 'maze', as the ones in Greece had been far better. The best thing about all of this, in Flurry's eyes, happened to be the enemies that were coming at them, as they forced everyone, even her and her father, to pay close attention to everything that was going on around the area and not lower their guard at the worst moment. The traps weren't very deadly, not when they could dodge all of them, though Atreus did follow Flurry in how she moved to avoid getting his new wings or tail damaged in some manner, since he was still getting used to having all of the new additions, causing her to point out a few things he could do to prevent himself from being hurt.

On the other side of the maze, parallel to where they entered it for the first time, the family discovered an area that just so happened to be where their target was located, where Flurry expanded her magic and formed a barrier around the entire area, pushing the mist out of the way so they could fight the boar helm wearing Valkyrie, Hildr according to Mimir.

Once more they discovered that Hildr was like the other Valkyries, she shared many moves that the others knew, which was easy for Kratos and his children to avoid since they had learned how to deal with all of the techniques that were being thrown at them, but it was what made her different that everyone had to be careful of. Like Gondul before her Hildr had an elemental power that she happened to be proficient at using, as she commanded the power of ice itself and used it against the family with deadly accuracy, firstly by trying to freeze the ground around her while attempting to stop any and all of her foes in their tracks. In addition to that she could summon shards of ice and hurl them at the family, similar to how her sister had thrown fireballs at them, where Flurry switched her weapon once more, causing Kratos to realize she had picked the Nemean Cestus, quickly locking them into place as she smashed through an ice wall Hildr created once she realized what was coming her way. This time around she was going to be more focused on defense and assisting the rest of her family, smashing through the ice that was coming at them, while at the same time they found that their foe used the ice to cover her movements so she could grab Atreus.

As that happened, however, Atreus was ready for it and showed them that he had grown after fighting Gondul, because he turned and stabbed Hildr in the chest with his blade, surprising her since she clearly didn't think he had a secondary weapon on him, where he tore his dagger out as she dropped him, allowing him to land near his father and turn around with his bow drawn.

This time around Kratos made sure that Atreus scored some blows against the Valkyrie, since usually he was unable to do much against these foes, and while his son was regaining his full confidence in battle he could see that this time it wasn't going to his head, Atreus was focused on battle and not on his own power. Flurry continued to rush around the area they were in, swinging one of her fist weapons at the ice that was coming at them and shattered them easily, because the ice was nothing compared to the onyx these could smash through, and she found that Hildr dodged her attacks whenever she got close to her. With that in mind they had to move around her for a time and force the Valkyrie to pick who she felt was the greater threat to her existence, where she seemed to switch between focusing on Flurry and Kratos, which would come back to bite her as Flurry vanished, just like she had done in the past. Such a thing allowed her father to punch the surprised Valkyrie in the face, as she wasn't expecting Flurry to do that in the first place, but as Hildr turned to flee Flurry appeared out of thin air and punched her in the chest with the Nemean Cestus, breaking her ribs while sending her right into her father's hands.

That, in turn, allowed Kratos to tear off Hildr's wings as her body crumbled to the ground, which was still a strange way for them to dissolve into a spiritual form, and while the Valkyrie's soul appeared in front of them Flurry returned her weapons to her bag as she claimed the amulet with an icy blue crystal that had been around Hildr's neck.

Freedom... Hildr said, where she seemed surprised by the fact that she had been beaten and her corrupted form had been crushed, while at the same time the family could tell that part of her seemed happy about this fact, which was when she focused on them for real, My sisters... have they been cursed with this fate as well?

"Yes, but we have freed several of them. Only Olrun and Rota remain in this state." Mimir answered, because he knew the names of the other Valkyries, though the reason he didn't mention Sigrun was because they had no idea if she was like all of the others, driven mad thanks to her physical form, and he hoped she had been spared such a fate, "Do not worry, Hildr, as these four can save them as well."

Hildr nodded before wishing them luck and vanishing, allowing them to claim her helm and the Asgardian Steel she had, along with a golden enchantment, a pommel piece to add to Kratos' axe, and a special chest piece that was added to the armor collection, which only caused Flurry to look forward to tracking down the last couple of Valkyries and save them from their cursed fates as well.