Chapter 2
Kratos entered the House of War, seeing nothing but pitch black inside, and was engulfed in the darkness as the door closed and sealed behind him.
"You are now entering my dominion." said Polemos' voice. "Here, these will help you feel more at home."
Kratos felt a cold, tingling sensation throughout his body, and when the sensation ended, he realized all his previous tools and weapons, earned through the blood of Olympians, Titans, Fates, Furies, humans and immortals alike, had returned to him. All manner of blade variations, all special weapons, he now possessed, and looked forward to calling upon them when the time came.
Then, almost as quickly as the first sensation appeared, Kratos felt a burning-hot, flesh peeling sensation all throughout his body. Growling through the pain, he managed to stay off his knees, but could feel that all his secondary weapons, all his blade variations, had left him; all that was left were the fully-loaded Blades of Chaos, the Golden Fleece, the Boots of Hermes, the Wings of Icarus, and the Head of Helios.
"Your weapons are within the world, and can be summoned at certain times." explained Polemos. "If you succeed in defeating adversaries, certain champions have powerful weapons of their own you can claim as your spoils, add them to your collection. You will see; in the meantime, come forward."
Polemos' voice disappeared, and Kratos defiantly stood where he was. Pulling out the Head of Helios, he tried to shine light within the darkness, to see where the path led; it didn't work. Kratos tried over and over again, and still no effect.
"The Head of Helios will do you no good in this section of my home." said Polemos. "Your only way to begin your journey is to come forward."
Listening, and thinking he pinpointed Polemos' voice, Kratos charged forward, intent on smashing Polemos into a wall, the Boots of Hermes leaving a blaze behind them. No wall, but Kratos found he had progressed forward, despite that he could not see even the faintest glimmer of light anywhere.
"That's it Kratos, come and get me!" taunted Polemos, his voice sounding as if it were several feet away from Kratos' face. "Show me what the mighty Olympian God of War is made of!"
"Oh I'll show you, and you'll get more than you bargain for you coward!" replied Kratos, rushing forward at a running start, before charging again, with no result.
"Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, the greatest Spartan general ever to serve Kings Leonidas and Pleistarchus." laughed Polemos. "Completely helpless, in the dark, like an unworthy sickling tossed to the bones beneath Mount Taygetus, still festering inside the womb! Come, and strike me if you can, oh mighty Kratos!"
Kratos' rage, now having built to a full boil, screamed a mighty scream, and charged with the might of 1000 bull elephants, towards the sound of Polemos' voice.
For the third time, Kratos missed Polemos, yet his charge had not been in vain.
Kratos crashed through what felt like a solid stone wall, and found himself in a hallway made of solid stone, with light ahead at the end of the hallway. Kratos walked towards the light, feeling slightly colder as he approached, and smelled the scent of earth, and a hint of decay. When he exited the hallway, he now could see exactly where he was.
The Talaporia Fields; a barren, rocky, wide hilltop above Sparta to the East, where students of the Agoge are sent to fend for themselves, tested against the elements of the earth and of the mind, with the only two ways out being victory or death. Kratos was sent in one of the harshest winters with his fellow Agoge pupils, surviving by killing or foraging for anything that could be eaten, including dead pupils. It was one of many horrific trials of the Agoge that molded Kratos into the perfect war god he was today.
Kratos looked below to admire his beloved Sparta, but was enraged by what he saw.
The city burned, besieged by drakons, Cyclopes, harpies, and fiery rocks falling from the sky. Gritting his teeth in rage, he grabbed the Blades of Chaos, and started to make his way down the mountain, ready to assist his brave Spartan soldiers in battle. He could hear their prayers, and he would answer them with a vengeance.
Charging down the mountain, Kratos felt a combination of burning and shocking pain, and was thrown backward. He tried again to get past, but the same result happened, and the Boots of Hermes were no help in assisting him in breaking through. After his final attempt, Kratos could hear a familiar female voice, cackling at him.
"Foolish Spartan!" said the voice. "You can't help them, and you never will! You must first defeat Polemos, and Sparta will be restored! But you'll likely die at the hands of another war god or goddess before getting close."
Kratos turned around in disbelief, realizing that the voice he heard did indeed belong to whom he suspected.
"Athena?!" said Kratos, blades at the ready. "How did you get here?!"
"The same way you did." replied Athena. "How do you think I became so powerful? Polemos is to thank; for years, we thought we wielded him, when it was he who was actually wielding us!"
"You are wasting my time!" spat Kratos. "Tell me where he is!"
"He's everywhere Kratos!" laughed Athena. "Has your immortality made you so dense that you cannot see that? You won't face his true form until you eliminate your adversaries, starting here, in the Sepulcher of Reclamation, the first of two Sepulchers you must pass through before entering the world and facing the rest!"
"Very well." said Kratos. "I will do what I must, kill who I must! How many adversaries do I slay before reaching Polemos?"
"All of them." said Athena. "Every last one, throughout the entire world. The world is far bigger than what we have come to be familiar with, and we are a mere scratch above the cosmic surface."
"Enough!" said Kratos. "Spare me your philosophies! How do I conquer this part of the realm, so I may move on?"
"Simple." replied Athena. "Before you can be the God of War, with undisputed power, you must be undisputed in your own realm first! Your adversaries and contenders shall face you here, in Greece. Destroy them on, and you advance; fall, and you are forever a slave!"
"So be it!" said Kratos, brandishing the Blades of Chaos. "I am KRATOS! God of War, Destroyer of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta, Slayer of Gods, Killer of Ares, Destroyer of Worlds! I am absolute, and any who dare challenge me, show yourself!"
"I already have." said Athena.
Before Kratos had time to react to her statement, she lunged at him with both swords drawn, and all he could do was roll out of the way, with both blades nicking his right bicep. Once back on his feet, Kratos was ready, and managed to clash the Blades of Chaos against Athena's twin blades the second time around, a flash of sparks emitting from their connection, each deity trying to muscle the other one into submission, pushing against each other's blades.
"You killed me brother!" said Athena. "But in that death, I became better, stronger, worthy of the world! But then, you robbed me of Hope, giving it to mankind! They were to bow before me!"
Kratos' push was the one that prevailed, releasing them from the sword lock, and again they continued to clash and slash blades. Summoning strength from the Blades of Chaos, Kratos executed a Cyclone of Fury in Athena's direction, the blades tearing through the air. Every hit connected with Athena, however due to her semi-omnipotent state, they passed right through her body, as if she were a wisp of smoke. Athena laughed at Kratos, grasping both blades and flinging him with her strength to the other side of her, Kratos grunting harshly as his front hit the ground.
"You have no chance against me, Ghost of Sparta!" said Athena. "I'm far more powerful than any god or goddess in the history of Olympus ever was!"
Kratos shook off the surprise attack, and jumped back up. Clearly, he would have to think of a non-conventional way to dispatch Athena.
Athena sailed towards him in a "drill-bit" maneuver, her body spinning with both blades aimed at Kratos. Using the Blades of Olympus, he did managed to grasp the blades using the Olympian Ascension, launching himself, Athena and her blades into the air, and jumping back down at an angle to avoid Athena. Athena sailed back down to the ground, and began to strike at him with her blades. At a distance, Kratos parried them with the Blades of Chaos, using the chains to keep the distance between them.
"Listen to yourself Athena!" said Kratos. "You're sounding like Zeus, just as corrupt and devious! You are not the Athena I came to know and serve!"
"No, I'm not!" said Athena, gaining ground towards Kratos. "I'm better, more powerful! You unlocked my true potential, and then robbed me of the means to use it! I was to rule mankind, save them from the destruction you caused; all would bow before me!"
Soon enough, Athena had closed the distance between them, forcing her and Kratos back to a melee blade battle.
"And what of me Athena?!" said Kratos, again bladelocked with her, looking her straight in her pupil-less eyes. "Where did I fit in to your great plan of resurrection?!"
The expression on Athena's face was one of surprise, and it was clear she wasn't prepared to be asked this question.
"I….I would have rewarded you." said Athena. "I planned to give you your life back….your wife, your daughter."
At this statement, all the rage, emotion, strength, and sheer brutality swelled up inside of Kratos, and came bursting forth. Raising the Blades of Chaos high above his head, Kratos swung them, and hit Athena hard in the side of the face with the ends of the blades, knocking her to the ground.
"YOU LIIIIIIIIIIE!" bellowed Kratos. "If you were to be the savior of mankind, there has to be a destructor, and that was going to be ME! Killing me would have been your greatest triumph, and men would worship you for ages!"
Staggering as she got up, Athena held her blades in a defensive stance, and for the first time in her life as a goddess, she felt a sensation few immortals ever felt, which Kratos could feel emanating from her.
Fear.
"NOW I WILL END YOU!" Kratos cried out.
His body surging with energy, he became possessed by the Rage of Sparta, and gripped the Blades of Chaos tightly in his hands; the one on the right transformed into a Claw of Hades, and the one on the left transformed into the Nemesis Whip. It was as if Kratos' raw power and feeling summoned them.
Charging forward, Kratos began to slash in a berserker mode, with a force that took all of Athena's energy to keep up with. The Nemesis Whip grasped Athena by the midsection, clawing her in midair with a Righteous Ascension, and the Claw of Hades pummeled her with a Hades Curse.
Athena screamed out in pain as the supernatural blades tore into her, feeling as though she were being flayed with red-hot sword blades. Although there was no blood, and the blades seemed only to grasp her misty form and nothing solid, it was as if she were corporeal as a human, the way she felt the pain.
On Kratos' next launch, the blades both harpooned her, one in each shoulder, shaking her of her twin swords, and then slammed her to the ground. Kratos followed up with an up-close charge, hacking away at Athena's divine being with both blades, like a woodcutter with a hatchet. Athena continued to cry out, desperately trying to strike and block with her hands, but she was no match for Kratos' brutality.
Finally, Kratos drove both blades right into where Athena's heart would be, and lifted her off the ground. The Nemesis Whip blade held her in place, and Kratos commanded the Claw of Hades to perform a soul rip. On regular enemies, it would have ripped the soul straight from their body, but it was different for Athena. The Claw dug right into Athena, grasping as sharply as it could, and just as the Nemesis Whip retracted, so did the Claw of Hades; it looked as though it had taken Athena in her entirety, absorbing her into the power of the blades. However, just as the apparent "soul" of Athena had been absorbed, a very bloody, very human Athena, fell from the blade to the ground.
The Rage of Sparta, as well as the Nemesis Whip and Claw of Hades, disappated after the absorption, and Kratos looked down upon Athena in disbelief. Athena lay there, covered in blood and slices throughout her armor and her body, half-panting, half-moaning in pain, crawling on her hands and knees to escape.
"L-look what yo-uu've DONE Kra-tos!" Athena sputtered out, coughing up blood after doing so. "I'm, I'm m.., I'm mm..I'm MORTAL!"
Kratos understood now, the Claw of Hades had worked backwards in her case; instead of ripping a soul from a living body, it acted as if it ripped a living body from a soul, or in Athena's case, a mortal form from a divine essence. Kratos could feel a newfound surge of energy since the absorption, and found that his scratches and bruises from the fighting, had healed. He'd absorbed Athena's divinity, and now, he went over to Athena to finish what he started.
Trying to crawl away faster, but to no avail, Athena's breathing and pained moaning became more prominent, and performed what passed for screaming from a weakened mortal body, when Kratos came closer. Using his left hand, he grabbed Athena by the back of her hair, and placed his foot on her lower back.
"Your tyranny will never come to fruition!" said Kratos. "You should have stuck to wisdom. Now, you die a mere mortal!"
Kratos was about to use his blade, when all of the sudden, the ground shook, and another voice echoed throughout the realm. It was the voice of an adult female, which echoed and reverberated.
"KRATOOOOSSSSS!" the eerie voice cried out. "YOU BETRAAAAAYED ME!"
Kratos paused, distantly recognizing the voice, but he could not remember who it belonged to; he did not recognize it to belong to any of the Olympian goddesses, it certainly was not Lysandras, nor any woman that stuck out in Kratos' mind, mortal or immortal. The voice was eerily familiar, and seemed to pierce under Kratos' skin like cold mercury.
"Who are you?!" demanded Kratos. "Polemos, is this one of your tricks?! Tell me your name woman!"
"YOU WERE MINE KRATOS!" replied the voice. "AND NOW YOU SHALL PAYYYYYY!"
Kratos looked down at Athena, who seemed equally as shocked as he was, although she seemed to have an even better indication of who the voice belonged to.
"She….she…" started Athena, unable to say much more. "Her voice…..the sound of my shame!"
"Then be shamed no more." Said Kratos, gripping the blade in his right hand. "Leave this world, the same way you entered!"
Holding her tight by her hair, Kratos drove back his right arm, and plunged one of the Blades of Chaos, upside down, into the back of Athena's skull, which came out through the middle of her face. Letting go of her hair, he thrust his blade upward, splitting Athena's skull in half, blood and brain matter flying from both sides at the slice. Athena's lifeless body slumped to the ground, a pool of blood forming underneath the remains of her head.
Turning his back on Athena's body, Kratos continued towards the road leading to Sparta. Using the Blades of Chaos, he swiped in the road's direction, expecting to see that the field binding him to this location had been removed, only to find his blade bounce back at him.
"You're a long way from being finished, Ghost of Sparta!" said an unfamiliar man's voice from behind him. "Now it's my turn!"