God of War: Daughter of War

Upon returning to Tyr's Temple the family headed outside and made their way down to the lowest walkway that they had access to, passing by the entrance of the vault that Flurry had cleared out, as to not leave anything for Odin or his allies to find, before reaching another locked door. This one had the same runes that they saw on the panel that had been stored in the secret chamber of the Helheim's version of Tyr's Temple, which was when Flurry produced the key that Brok and Sindri had forged for them and handed it over to their father, as Kratos seemed to enjoy being the one to unlock things. With the key in hand Kratos inserted it into the lock, where it sunk into the material and only pulled back out when the section that was around it came out, revealing a triangular crank he could turn and did so without delay, causing it to fully sink back into the door. Once the lock was smooth, indicating that they couldn't get the key back, Kratos used his hands to open the door and found that it was connected to another passage that lead into the underside of the main temple, though he had no idea how far down this hidden passage would take them.

As they walked into the area Mimir admitted that he had no idea what this place was, other than one of Tyr's tests, while also advising them to be cautious, even though he knew none of them needed such a warning, not after freeing the Valkyries and taking down Sigrun, all while Kratos had Atreus activate a light bridge for them to enter their next destination.

"Look, there's the tree! Wait... we're underneath the Realm Travel Room!" Atreus stated, as the short bridge allowed them to enter an area that appeared to be the underside of the room they had used to travel from one realm to the next, though this side was definitely somewhat darker than the main side the family was used to using, "But... why is the floor on the ceiling?"

"Hm, I wonder..." Flurry said, because there was an idea that came to mind as she noticed what Atreus was talking about, as he was right about the ceiling above them matching the floor of the main chamber, almost like ringed area around where the console was resting had been designed with another purpose in mind, before she noticed something else, "Father, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Yes, the magic that Tyr used to seal the Black Rune. The clue we are looking for is likely resting inside it." Kratos replied, as there was another sphere of energy, like the type produced by those foul masks, resting around something that was of great importance to Tyr, otherwise he wouldn't go through all of this trouble to hide it from Odin, meaning whatever it was had to be their next target.

"Interesting... it's right next to the Jotunheim door." Pandora added, something all of them noticed, as it was like Tyr wanted whoever came here to know something without actually writing it down, and she could tell that Flurry was piecing together everything they were seeing right now into the plan that Tyr had likely created.

Interestingly enough the door in question opened, along with a smaller rectangular door nearby opening as well, allowing them to head out into another hidden sanctum while understanding that the realm door was a replica of the main doors in the main Realm Travel Room, an interesting fact that Flurry added to everything else. They ended up passing by a couple of art pieces that Atreus noticed were of Giant origin, meaning whatever Tyr had done for them had been enough for them to hide so much of their stuff with him, least the items fall into Odin's hands, who would no doubt misuse them. The passage in question eventually brought them to another chamber that looked like it had a platform in the middle of the floor, likely to take them down to a deeper level than the one they were currently on, and there were a pair of troll statues that looked far different than the others they had seen so far. That was due to the fact that these ones seemed to be made of gold, brass, or some other metal that shared similar properties, and Flurry could tell both of them had some writing on them, of what she had no idea since they were hunched over, meaning they had to shift their stance to figure out what sort of message Tyr might have left for visitors.

As they investigated the area Kratos found something else of interest, the area right behind the two statues held the rune for Jotunheim, right below where the upside down door happened to be located, and when he glanced at Flurry she simply nodded, causing him to grip the underside of the structure and lift with all his might, allowing them to see what was under the entire structure.

"Extraordinary... the room seems to have been built on some sort of axle." Mimir remarked, though it was also terrifying to see that Kratos could lift the temple like he did, something that once again caused him to think about the tales he had heard of the Ghost of Sparta, while at the same time it was interesting to see that the temple was chained down by two chains, one on the left and one on the right.

"Yes, and there are chains on either side of it... without those we can flip the temple." Kratos stated, something that stunned Mimir, while Flurry and Pandora were unfazed by this information, and Atreus seemed happy to do such a thing, causing him to set the side of the structure down as he turned his attention to their ally as the statues came to life.

As it turned out the statues didn't attack, rather they put anchors or something on their shoulders, allowing Atreus to read the runes that were resting on their chests, revealing the word 'void', before he noticed that the sandbowl had risen and it had a riddle, with that as the answer, allowing him to carve it into the sand.

"Brother, I don't mean to question your judgement, but... are you sure that flipping the temple, which is connected to all nine of the realms, is the right answer?" Mimir asked, as he wanted to make sure that this was the plan that the family was okay with, since there was a chance that this could ruin the temple and destroy their ability to move between realms, even though they might not need it for a time.

"You mentioned that there would be a path, and the temple, as you just saw, can be flipped." Kratos pointed out, because this was like some of the stranger puzzles that he and Flurry had encountered over their years of dealing with the puzzles that the Greek gods had created to hide some of their artifacts, or protect their various temples.

"Therefore... we flip the temple." Mimir said, where he sighed for a moment as he thought about the situation that they were currently in, where their only path forward was to flip and potentially ruin the temple, before realizing there was no way out of this and braced himself for whatever might happen next, "I will admit, the logic is unassailable..."

"Plus you don't have to worry about the temple, as Tyr designed it to be flipped... the two sides of the floor are perfect mirror images of each other." Flurry stated, as she had noticed that fact while they were exploring the underside portion of the structure, meaning there was nothing for them to worry about, and when she found that Mimir and Atreus were looking at her she made a replica of what she had seen with her magic, demonstrating how the area around the console could move if she was right, "He intended for this to happen and made sure there were measures in place to preserve the temple's function, long before Odin turned his gaze on him... we just have to break those chains and flip things to move on, after killing the guardians no doubt."

Kratos nodded as the lift came to a stop, allowing them to pick between one of two paths, though before that they found another triptych, this one telling the tale of the Giant Bergelmir, the King of the Giants, who survived the flood brought by Ymir's death and together, with his wife, fostered the entirety of the Giant race, and when he died he left on a wave of tears, as he died of old age. It was a good tale for a Giant, since most of the others they had discovered ended with Thor killing them in some manner, though in addition to that they found that there was an area below the area that the console was resting in and it had a number of stone statues, which Tyr, according to Mimir, said that he'd only need an army of statues in his world of peace. With that discovery made Kratos opened the large door to their left, where they found that a new death trap was waiting for them, this one being a series of spinning saws that were out of sequence, but thanks to a visible gear on each one all Kratos had to do was freeze one and then unfreeze it when it lined up with the next one, until all of them were lined up in a perfectly straight line. The passage beyond that involved taking and transferring some of the Winds of Hel to the various traps that lined the hallway, allowing them to move saws out of their way so they could make their way to the chain that was at the end of it, which they were able to do without wasting too much time.

After dealing with the second set of death traps the family approached the left chain, but not before looting a silver chest that happened to be in the chamber, something that was followed by Kratos approaching the chain and prying the halves apart, forcing them off the ledge of the area and weakening the structure as a whole.

Such a thing caused the center of the chamber to rise for a moment and revealed that it was a pillar that spewed out two beams of fire, while at the same time a pair of rifts opened and a number of draugr rushed out to do battle with them, the stronger bulkier versions backed on what Flurry was seeing. As such she and her family focused on making sure to avoid the pair of beams while fighting off the undead warriors that seemed to be the guardians of this area, to stop whoever had destroyed the chain, likely Tyr's way of making sure Odin's people failed to take his final secret. One thing they did to cut down on how many enemies were in the area, so they didn't get overwhelmed, was throw some of their foes right into one of the beams, which did some decent damage to the draugr that were thrown in that manner. In addition to that the family found that an ogre was joining the battle, causing Kratos to rush at it and strike it with the Leviathan Axe, leaving all of the remaining draugr to his children, allowing them to bring down their enemies in no time.

Once all of their enemies were taken care of, and they were sure of that, Kratos regrouped with his children and started to head back down the passages that had brought them to the area the first chain had been resting in, but before they could reach it another pillar rose in the chamber between traps and fired beams at them. In addition to that there were a couple of stronger draugr stepping out of rifts to fight them, though this time around some of the undead were hurled into the saws of the traps, taking them out in a matter of seconds, allowing them to focus on not being overwhelmed. After taking out the next group of enemies Kratos found that he could open part of the nearby wall with some of the Winds of Hel and discovered a golden chest, allowing them to loot it as well before they headed back to the chamber that held the lift that had brought them down here. Upon returning to the chamber that held the platform that brought them down to this part of the temple Kratos and his daughters braced themselves, something Atreus did as well, only to find that nothing new had come out to fight them, allowing them to move towards the other door.

Sure enough they found that there was another death trap on the other side of it, where Kratos and his children found that this direction was different, rectangular boxes slamming into either the ground or the ceiling with spikes on the very bottom, causing Mimir to chuckle as he mentioned that variety was important.

The trick for this one was to freeze the middle portion of the trap, as it came in three segments, and use the area that was now below the frozen trap as a safety zone of sorts before crossing into the chamber that was on the other side, which the family kept in mind for the eventual return trip they would be taking. What they discovered in the chamber was what had to be a magical site of sorts, for the revenants or something, though Kratos looted the nearby stone chest and collected yet another piece of armor that he handed over to Flurry, who stored it inside her bag. The next trap, however, was when they found a use for the nearby sap crystals they had ignored when they entered this chamber, because a portion of the next trap only moved a little and when it did Flurry noticed something that could be destroyed with the crystal and one of the lightning arrows. Such a thing destroyed part of the ground and allowed the portion of the trap to slip into the slot that had been made by Tyr when he designed this place, thus allowing them to use it like a lift to reach an upper level so the family could rush between the other two portions to reach the second chain.

Once more Kratos grabbed onto the two portions of the lock and pried it apart, before shoving the two halves out into the open area, like he had done previously, though this time the rifts that opened produced a pair of Travelers, which was far weirder than the draugr they fought earlier.

The family considered the Travelers to be the unlucky bunch this time around, because after everything they had done to reach this point there was no stopping them as the four of them tore into the pair of enemies and eliminated them in next to no time at all, allowing Flurry to collect their resources before they started to move. Traversing the trap they had broken the floor of was fairly easy, since Kratos could freeze them and allow his children to follow him over to the other side, only to discover that Hel-Walkers were coming out to fight this time around, and when they entered the chamber with the magical circle more of the frozen undead attacked them. Such a thing didn't even slow them down, as Kratos slashed at his foes with the Blades of Chaos and tore through his targets, while at the same time his children dealt with the undead coming towards them, allowing Mimir to watch as they dealt with their foes in no time at all. Following that the family passed through the first death trap of this side of the area, without having to fight more enemies, and returned to where the lift was located, to which Kratos turned the crank and let it take them back up to where he tried to flip the temple earlier.

Since nothing came out to fight them Kratos approached the temple and lifted the segment he had lifted earlier, where his children watched as he heaved it into the air and everything seemed to rotate with far too much ease, coming to a stop the moment a new path was open to them. Mimir was simply amazed by what they had seen, plus with Kratos' strength to even do such a thing in the first place, while at the same time Atreus spotted some familiar golden paint that highlighted a couple of cracks and footholds they could use to climb into the Realm Travel Room. While they climbed Atreus came to realize the importance of everything Tyr had been trying to teach with his obstacles and challenges, that while they may argue, like how Brok and Sindri might do such a thing, where was a sense of unity behind their actions that made them a good team, which he was sure was the end goal of the fallen god. Kratos and his daughters were happy to hear that, because it sounded like all of their lessons, and the various trials of Tyr's that they had cleared, had finally made Atreus wiser than he had been back at the beginning of their quest, and this time it wasn't going to his head, meaning he had grown since their visit to Helheim.

While talking about that they were able to enter the Realm Travel Room, allowing Mimir to confirm that Flurry had been right when she said that the temple was designed to be flipped, before they approached the secret and Atreus stabbed the mask, breaking the seal as Kratos collected a large black stone that he didn't recognize, causing him to lift Mimir so he could see it and possibly identify it.

"Great Audumbla's udders... that's the Unity Stone!" Mimir remarked, his tone revealing that he knew exactly what it was, or at least had heard the stories and was surprised to see that the object in question even existed in the first place, causing him to focus on the others for a time, "I will be honest... I wasn't sure this artifact even existed in the first place. If Tyr had this in his possession, well, it would explain how he was able to visit each of the Nine Realms, in addition to all of the lands that are ruled by gods."

"I get it now... the panel we retrieved from Odin's private study shows Tyr using it in the Realm Between Realms... that has to be where we'll find the next part of the path." Flurry stated, as she had been curious about the edge of the path Brok had told them to never throw themselves off of and now she understood it, this was supposed to bring them to an area that Tyr had left something in, maybe even Jotunheim's Realm Tower.

Kratos nodded, as Flurry proved why she was the smartest of his children, not that Pandora and Atreus were less than her since he loved all three of them, before handing the stone over to Flurry as they found that retrieving the Unity Stone had returned them to the Realm Travel Room, likely a boon from Tyr. With that in mind the family headed back to where Brok and Sindri were working before accessing the nearby Door, allowing them to return to the Realm Between Realms without wasting time, though this time they had a different plan in mind. Kratos wasted no time in tracking down the side section that was their destination and found it a few seconds later, where he stepped out of the way as Flurry walked up to the edge and pulled out the Unity Stone, which was where Atreus watched as she formed a spherical barrier around all four of them. It was a mix of her magic and the power of the Unity Stone, where his sister nodded to the others as they braced for her next movement, even though she lifted them over the edge and dropped them into the abyss, allowing them to see a bit of magic surging around them before they collided with another branch.

Atreus' eyes widened as he noticed what was at the end of the branch, the missing Jotunheim Realm Tower, and while his sister disabled her barrier Mimir chuckled as he said it was smart of Tyr to hide something that existed in all realms by casting it out to the Realm Between Realms.

Interestingly enough there was nothing between them and the tower's door, allowing them to open it and find that the chamber that was on the other side was bare, save for a pedestal that the Unity Stone could be inserted into, which was when Flurry returned it to her father and he inserted it into the slot. As such it was sucked into the pedestal and the family found that the tower was coming back to life, where Mimir realized that Tyr had placed a spell on this place and now they were fulfilling it, they just had to be patient and things would be back to normal. That was followed by the four other doors in the chamber, two to the left and two to the right, opening as seidr undead rushed out to fight them, no doubt a final safety measure by Tyr to make sure Odin's forces failed to take the tower. Based on what Flurry could feel it appeared that the spell they had activated would take them through the realms that were part of the magic, as in the tower would likely reappear and move through all Nine Realms before coming to a stop in Midgard, and whenever it stopped they had to take out whoever happened to invade the tower.

What was surprising about all of this was the fact that there were large groups of seidr undead coming at them, as in more than ten or even twelve foes, as Flurry counted at least thirty of them before they were able to close the doors and move the tower once more, only for it to come to a stop in Alfheim.

Such a thing meant that they needed to fight off more dark elves, in fact one of the leaders or generals rushed right into the tower first, a surprise attack of sorts before the lesser warriors joined him, forcing the family to go on the offensive for a time, utilizing their skills and tactics to take down their enemies. At the same time Kratos and Flurry knew that it was also a good chance to warmup before whatever was waiting at the end of their quest, since there was a chance Baldur might interrupt them again and that meant they would have to fight him again, so this practice session allowed them all to make sure they were prepared for anyway. When the dark elves fell, and the nightmares that had joined them were wiped out as well, the tower started to move once more, the color of the floor sections changing to indicate Helheim as waves of Hel-Walkers rushed out to do battle with them this time around, both the weaker ones and the brutes. Muspelheim was the realm that things got more difficult on, as their enemies were a few ogres and even a powerful troll that had wandered in through one of the doors, but Kratos wasted no time in bringing him down while leaving the ogres to his children, who did the same thing without delay.

After that they discovered that the tower finally came to a halt and Flurry confirmed that the spell was over, allowing them to head outside at last, where it was easy for them to tell that they were back in Midgard, with Jotenheim's Realm Tower back in position.

"Now that the tower has been restored, and we have the Travel Rune, we must be quick: it's only a matter of time until our pursuer realizes what we've done." Flurry said, all while she and her family glanced up at the tower that had been brought back to Midgard, all while noticing that Jormungandr was watching them closely, like he had felt the return of the tower and was interested in who might have done the deed.

Kratos nodded once more as they started to head back to Tyr's Temple once more, as it was time to see if they had all of the pieces necessary to head to Jotunheim and complete their quest, before Baldur tracked them down and interrupted them once more, causing him to brace himself for whatever happened next.