Their footsteps echoed through the empty carved stone tunnel they had found themselves in after jumping through a portal in search of answers. Kratos found it downright disturbing just how often he was forced into seaking answers to questions that shouldn't even exist in the first place. With the secrets Laufey hid from him, he could understand, even he didn't tell her about what he had done in Greece before arriving in Scandinavia. But, now that he is being forced to deal with beings who are supposedly from beyond the World Tree, he came to despise this need for answers.

Atreus meanwhile, was busy inspecting the various etchings he found in the walls of the tunnel. Kratos never got to view the world the same way Atreus did. Yes, he was forced to grow quick due to the way they lived, but unlike the brutal lifestyle of Spartans, Atreus wasn't being trained since he could walk to become a soldier. Kratos only trained him in the art of survival, something Atreus has proven himself to have a good grasp on, but still needs work at times. The boy was scarred, he'd seen many disturbing things during both this journey and their last one, but he was still a child. He saw the world different than Kratos.

While their footsteps continued to echo through the tunnel, Atreus looked over to his father and asked "Father?.. Have you seen any Draugrs recently?"

Kratos was silent a moment. He thought about it before answering his son's question without moving his head or eyes "No. I have not. Why do you ask?"

Atreus shrugged "Well.. I've been thinking. If these monsters are from beyond the World Tree, and we don't know what they want from us, what if they have somehow taken control of the Draugrs and other creatures that are from the World Tree?"

The Ghost of Sparta continued walking in silence. The only noises that could be heard from him came from his footsteps and the various clanging sounds his equipment made as his body moved. After a moment, he finally spoke up "It's best we not dwell on those thoughts. No matter where they are from, these creatures are foreign and their motives are mysterious.. We can not spend time contemplating those things."

Atreus nodded a little "Yeah... I guess."

Silence returned to them as they continued walking forwards deeper and deeper into the mountain, they had no clue what they'd find in this tunnel. But what they didn't expect was when the sound of something moving far ahead of them could be heard. Reacting instinctually, Kratos quickly pulled out his axe and took an aggressive stance. They stood there a moment and saw nothing, so Kratos eased up and put his axe back where it belonged. He sighed a little and motioned for Atreus to follow him once more. Continuing forwards once more, they'd eventually encounter a set of stone stairs that lead upwards a few steps before turning to the left and presumably doing the same thing again for another few steps to conserve space within mountain. Before Kratos could begin to scale these steps, Atreus noticed something and said "I think that thing we heard was a rat."

Kratos looked over to his son "How so?"

Atreus pointed to what looked like some sort of nest "Rats make nests sometimes. Usually in dark places. This place is pretty dark, so they made a nest here."

It was true. If Kratos did not have the Bifrost to illuminate their surroundings they'd be in almost pitch black darkness this deep within the mountain's tunnels. Ultimately though, Kratos just nodded a little and continued forwards with Atreus following him. While they walked Atreus spoke up "Mimir, why is it the mountain has all of these tunnels and chambers in it?"

The head cracked a bit of a grin "We already know that Dwarves are mischievous little things, and Giants have a knack for misdirection, so when you give them a space to hoard and collect their valuables they'll try their damndest to use those skills to the best of their abilities. So these tunnels and chambers are an amalgamation of Dwarven traps and Giant illusion magic."

Atreus looked over to Mimir and took on a confused expression "Giants had illusion magic?"

"Aye, they did! The reason we haven't seen much of it over the course of our little adventures is probably because when the Giants left their magic disappeared too.. Either that or the death of those who created the spells canceled them out permanently."

The boy held up his hands a little and looked at them "Does that mean... I can do illusion magic? Could mother perform illusion magic?"

Kratos was quick to speak up "Your mother wasn't one for misdirection or illusions. She much more prefered practical things over what didn't exist."

Mimir then said "That's the thing about the Giant's illusions, they're often so well crafted they're practically real. For all you know, a lot of the things Fey made could've been illusions."

Kratos stayed silent while Mimir addressed Atreus's question "But little brother, I'm not quite sure what you inherited from your Giant blood. It could be possible that you inherited illusion magic, or maybe the powers of your father's side of your godly hood is more dominant than your mother's. After all, the traits of the God of War probably fought to be more dominant than a Giant's traits."

When the head mentioned that title, Kratos's hands tightened into fists and Mimir grimmenced a little. Once he finished speaking, and after a few seconds of silence, he said "Sorry."

Although Kratos didn't unclench his fists, he just seemed less offended which was reassuring to Mimir. After another moment of silence Atreus spoke up once more "So... How would I find out what my powers and abilities are?"

The head answered with "Not sure. But we've already seen a power or two of yours, like your ability to catch up on the languages of any creature you meet."

Atreus thought about it for a moment... He was able to know what Brok's animal said, and he was able to quickly call for help from Jörmungandr while fighting Freya and Baldur "Huh... Cool!"

"Aye, a God without powers is like an ox with no horns."

Upon finishing that little chat, Kratos and Atreus would reach the end of both sets of stairs and find themselves staring down a wall. Kratos grimminced a little "It's a dead end.. We'll have to find another way around."

He then turned around to leave, but as he did Atreus suddenly thought about something "...Illusion magic..."

After another moment of thinking, Atreus pulled out an arrow and aimed it right at the middle of the wall. He took in a breath, hoping he was right, and yelled out "Ljósta!"

He let the arrow fly and it flew straight through the wall causing it to dissolve into tiny flakes before they too dissolved into nothing like ashes. Kratos had noticed what his son was doing, so once he saw the wall dissolve into nothing he made a little sound akin to "hm" before placing his hand on the boy's shoulder for just a moment as he walked past. Atreus cracked a bit of a grin and he slid his bow over his body while following his father forwards. The corridor they found themselves walking down slowly got narrower and narrower as they approached an exit. They passed through the exit and found themselves in an octagon shaped room that was around the same size as the secret chambers Kratos and Atreus had found the imprisoned Valkyries in. Kratos inspected the chamber before saying "Head, is this another one of Odin's secret chambers?"

Mimir glanced around at what he could see himself before answering "Not sure... Could've been possible that when the Giants were still in Midgard Odin somehow convinced them to create him a chamber but before they left they used illusionary magic to hide it from him."

Atreus felt a little uneasy as he stood within the dark chamber that was large enough that the light of the Bifrost couldn't illuminate it all "But... Where is the Valkyrie? I thought every one of Odin's chambers had one imprisoned inside of it.."

"It... Could be possible that because of the illusion Odin had to hold her somewhere else..."

Kratos clenched his fists "This room is useless to us. Come, we must go."

They turned around and was about to leave, but before they could the floor in front of the exit suddenly burst into flames as a strange echoing voice rang around the room "Leaving so soon all might God of War? I thought you were a being of rage, not intelligence."

The voice was course, rough, and gravily. Like sharp, hot, lava rocks could speak. Kratos turned to face the chamber as he took an aggressive stance "Who are you!? Show yourself!"

Two eyes that looked like spheres of fire opened up in the darkness at the back of the chamber, they stared at Kratos as the voice spoke up once more "Kratos... Who I am doesn't matter, what does is who you are trying to find."

Whatever owned those eyes began to walk forwards as Kratos and Atreus pulled out their weapons. While they did that, Atreus asked "Are you one of those monsters in the mine?!"

"Yes, I am. I lead those lesser Demons into this very mountain after our general alerted us to your arrival. Once again, what you seek to find will bring nothing good to anyone."

Kratos clenched the pommel of the Leviathan Axe tightly in his hand as he said through gritted teeth "We will find whoever you are trying to hide from us! Regardless of what consequences it will bring!"

Finally, the creature, or Demon, that the eyes belonged to came into the light of the Bifrost and revealed itself to have grey skin, but from its forearms to the tips of its fingers was black as though they had been burned in a fire, strange armor like yet organic plates were placed over its chest, a mouth of sharp teeth with no lips could be seen, its over all body looked like it was bone, and horns came out of the Demon's knees. It stood just a few inches taller than Kratos, but nowhere near as close to the height of the tanned Demons and definitely nowhere near the height of the red Demons. Those eyes of fire glared into Kratos's as it said "By all means.. Find his chamber, scale the insides of this mountain in search of an exit that doesn't exist, you will only fail. But that doesn't matter... Because I, Xongran, was only ordered to kill the three of you!"

Xongran spread his legs out into a wide stance as he raised his hands into the air. He stared up at the stone ceiling of the chamber as unseen cracks in the black areas of his body began to glow like veins of lava before fire burst into being on his arms and legs. Xongran would then begin to bring his hands down in front of his chest, the palms of the hands only inches apart, and a yellow energy began to build up in between them. Kratos quickly moved his son behind him and brought out his shield before Xongran shoved his hands out, palms facing Kratos, and the yellow energy blasted forwards like a blade. It struck Kratos's shield and he was pushed back a little before he retracted his shield "Atreus, quickly, get out of his reach!"

The boy was quick to sprint away from Xongran and Kratos. If the Demon's body wasn't on fire, the light of the Bifrost wouldn't reach where he was now. Once Atreus was out of reach Kratos began to circle Xongran and the Demon did the very same. The Demon moved his fingers randomly, clenching, curling, extending, and rubbing against each other as he grinned at the Ghost of Sparta "We've watched you since we set our sights on this reality... You are an odd one... A mortal turned God out of sheer rage... We knew we'd have to be stronger, so we bred our soldiers to be stronger, tougher, quicker... Sadly it seems they didn't grow in intelligence seeing as how you are standing before me."

Kratos wasn't one for talking during combat, so all he did was growl a little at the Demon before charging and attempting to hit him with the axe only for Xongran to quickly slid out of the way by using blasts of fire as some sort of propulsion. Once off to the side he blasted Kratos with fire that forced him away from the Demon. Luckily Atreus fired a few arrows Xongran's way, distracting him enough to let Kratos step forwards and bring the axe down across the Demon's chest. He let out a shrill roar of pain as the apparently completely bone chest plates had a deep cut forced into them. Xongran quickly brought his hands back up into the air and created a ring of fire around him, forcing Kratos away. The Ghost of Sparta attempted to throw the Leviathan Axe at Xongran through the fire but it had to be some sort of magic as when it made contact with the fire the direction of the axe's flight was forced upwards and away from Xongran entirely.

Kratos recalled the axe to his hand as Xongran used his his flames to levitate himself up into the air over the circle of fire. He let out another shrill roar before making a hand motion like he was tearing something in half. As he did the ground in front of Kratos began to crack and split apart, red energy arched off of the crack as it appeared. Once large enough, several of those thin Demons climbed out of the crack and began to attack. Four took to the back of the room to throw balls of fire at him while three charged towards Kratos attempting to swipe their claws at him. He was able to block a few of the attacks but couldn't get them all due to how fast these Demons moved. He was able to find a window of attack and brought his axe down on the head of one of the Demons causing it to go limp instantly but a ball of fire from one of the ones in the back struck his shoulder and he was forced to defend once again. Luckily for him Atreus saw all of this and began to fire arrows at the Demons.

One of them was hit in the shoulder by Atreus's arrows while the rest scurried away to better hiding spots. The one that was hit growled at the boy and charged forwards, but Atreus just threw his bow behind him and charged towards it, his knife drawn. Atreus quickly ducked under the Demon's attempt to claw at him before stabbing his abdomen with his knife. The Demon let out a yelp of pain before Atreus ran behind him, dragging his knife across the Demon's side as he did. Once behind him he quickly jumped up and got onto the Demon's shoulders and begin stabbing him anywhere his knife could pierce, which resulted in various stabs to the back of the Demon's head as well as some on his neck. Eventually Atreus was able to find the sweet spot and actually pierced the brain of the creature causing it to die instantly and to fall over just as quickly. Before the body hit the ground Atreus got off and rolled towards his bow, as he stood up he picked his weapon up and grabbed an arrow to fire at one of the few Demons that remained.

Meanwhile, Kratos kicked one of the Demons so hard in its chest that every organ in its chest burst out its backside and it fell to the ground groaning out in pain as it slowly died. While that happened one of the Demons jumped up onto Kratos's back and attempted to claw at his eyes, but all this accomplished was Kratos jumping up and crushing the Demon onto the ground with his back. He was quick to stand back up as the last Demon that had attempted to attack Kratos in close combat stood there, clearly uneasy. Kratos simply pulled out his axe and brought it down through the Demon's head, while pulling it out Atreus killed the last of the Demons that had scurried away and Xongran's ring of fire dissipated. He charged forwards towards Kratos at such a speed that the Ghost of Sparta simply had to bring out his shield and block the attacks and swipes that Xongran sent his way.

After a few moments of just blocking Kratos was able to finally thrust his shield forwards as a counter attack before attacking Xongran himself. His axe swings were quick and heavy, only a few hit, and those that did left deep gashes in the Demon's body that bled. Once again, Xongran had to create a ring of fire around him once again to keep himself safe. Yet again, Xongran lifted himself off of the ground before raising his hands skyward as he yelled "RISE!"

Then, the bodies of the once dead Demons began to shudder and stand up. Kratos grit his teeth as he backed away from one of the corpses. Atreus looked over to his father, worry in his face "Father?"

He looked around and saw that everyone of the Demons were rising from the dead. They had no other option at this moment "Boy, call for help."

Immediately, Atreus knew what his father meant. He backed up a few steps, jumped up into the air, pulled back an arrow on his bow string, and yelled out "Ulfr hlaup!"

He let the arrow fly, lightning magic coursing through it, and when it struck the ground several large wolves made up of lightning all burst into being. They all let out howls before charging towards the resurrected Demons. While the chamber went into almost complete chaos as the wolves chased after every Demon in sight, Kratos put his axe away before pulling out the Blades of Chaos, he held them in his hands tightly, waiting for the moment to strike. That moment presented itself when one of the wolves bit down on a Demon's head and began to drag it across the ground, this distracted all other Demons as they realized the danger they were in, and it let Kratos throw one of the blades through the air and right at Xongran. It struck him in his chest and gave Kratos the leverage he could use to yank Xongran right out of his ring of fire and back into range for further battle.

Xongran tumbled across the ground once he connected with it, and as he stood up Kratos was quick to swing both of the blades through the air to bring them down across his face. They both hit and left deep cuts across his pale bone like skin, but all he did was let out a growl before getting up to his feet where he'd proceed to blast fire at Kratos, but he simply rolled out of the way before charging forwards and giving Xongran a swift kick to his side. The Demon would be knocked to the ground but was quick to get up before having his face met with more attacks from the Blades of Chaos. After several swings that left Xongran without the ability to attack, Kratos threw one of the blades at Xongran and it pierced his shoulder, using this Kratos pulled the Demon towards him before kicking him away once more. This kick pulled him right off of the blade and sent him tumbling across the floor. But before he could get up, one of the few remaining wolves charged towards him and took his arm into its mouth and started to pull.

The Demon stood his ground and prevented the wolf from tearing his arm off or dragging him around, but this gave Kratos the ability to charge forwards and uppercut Xongran directly in his face. The force of the punch pulled Xongran out of the wolf's mouth and sent him up into the air, as Xongran flew the rune magic that made the wolves finally dissipated and they all disappeared. The Demon would hit the ground and groan as he felt blood trickle down from his forehead, but then Kratos would suddenly charge forwards and knee Xongran in his face once more. This time the Demon was sent flying into a wall and just as quickly as those two melee attacks came, the Leviathan Axe struck Xongran in his chest and froze him to the wall, that ice even covered his hands to prevent him from creating any fires. Kratos stomped towards the Demon, his fists clenched, once close enough he pulled back one of those fists and was about to punch Xongran when Atreus said "Father no!"

Kratos looked over to his son as he continued "What if he's the only one who can lead us to the cave?"

Xongran suddenly choked out some laboured laughter "The boy is right o' great God of War! I'm the one creature that can get you to what you seek.."

This sealed it for Kratos. He returned his attention to the Demon before punching a hole in the wall next to his head, to the point there was a bit of a scrap mark from where Kratos's knuckles brushed against Xongran's head "Demon... You will take us there, and maybe you will get to live."

Xongran glanced from Kratos's stoic face to the muscular arm that was only inches away from his face "It- It's a deal, release me and take me to the spot where the pentagram is etched in ash, I can open a portal for you there."

Kratos took his fist out of the wall before gripping ahold of the Leviathan Axe and pulling it out of Xongran's chest. He fell but before he hit the ground Kratos grabbed his shoulder and started to drag him towards the back of the chamber, the light of the Bifrost illuminating their way as he did. Eventually Kratos came across a strange shape on the ground, a circle with a strange looking star in it with various other runes all around inside of both those symbols. Xongran then held his hand out and the cracks in that hand's arm started to glow and so too did the ashy burn marks that made up the shape. Steam rose off of the lines before suddenly a glowing green portal burst into being over the "pentagram" shape. Kratos let go of Xongran and the Demon fell to his hands and knees while Kratos motioned for Atreus to follow him towards the portal. But the Ghost of Sparta was forced to stop walking when Xongran began to stand and cough "Our little deal is through God of War! Once you step through that portal, I will be free to alert my master of your location and you will die!"

Kratos looked over to the Demon as he finally got up to his feet "Very well."

Xongran grinned and turned around to leave, but before he could walk more than three steps, Kratos threw the Leviathan Axe right into the back of the Demon's head. As soon as it hit, Kratos recalled the axe and Xongran fell to the ground. He put the axe back into place before returning his attention to the portal "Come boy, our answers lie ahead."

Mimir could see the body of Xongran laying on the ground, and that prompted him to say "You know... What if that bugger's tricking us? For all we know he could be dropping us right off the side of the mountain, into the fires of Muspelheim, or even into the void of the World Tree!"

Kratos stared at the portal and Atreus looked over to his father for an answer. After a silent moment the Ghost of Sparta finally spoke "We will take our chances."

With that, the two stepped through the portal and left the chamber within the mountain.