answers to reviewers questions or statements:
Triton0501: I have an arc for her, though it will be a bit different given that since Kratos is a woman, and thus had a different upbringing compared to her male counterpart given she's a woman in Spartan society with different expectations thrusted upon her. And because of that, her interactions with Atreus will be different compared to what we saw in the game. May not seem it, but I have put a bit of thought into this decision.
Jason Chandler: Yes Atreus will appear later on.
Jestalnaker94000: Yes this Kratos is as powerful as her counterpart, though she's a bit more vindictive and viscous in comparison. Petros won't be so much afraid as pissed off at the sight of her.
badiullahmeri10: If they don't like the story than they don't have to read it, no one is forcing them to.
Guest: We'll see glimpses of what kind of God Petros was, he wasn't great but he wasn't horrible either. He was just there, in the background.
Nomad98: Petros won't be Atreus's father, though he will have a impact on the boy when we get to those events. By GOW 4 Kratos has mostly calmed down, but it wont exactly be a 'love at first sight' kind of deal. Petros and Mimir? How about Petros, Mimir, Brok and Sindri all together in the same room?
Guest: Well there's still room for more women, it's just given that this game will largely take place in the Nordic era of God of War, and it's notably absent 'topless women' and Goddesses, the harem is for the time being rather limited.
Kryn Womble: Petros will get a weapon of his own later in the story, around the time the events of GOW 4 begin.
War Sage: It's been implied that other Gods had survived the events of GOW III, like Aphrodite though it's very possible she died when Gaia fell upon Olympus, Demeter, Hestia, Artemis, Apollo and Dionysus. Actually there's a comic that seems to be telling of how Kratos made it to Midgard with him currently being in Egypt where he's already encountering their gods. And in the Chains of Olympus game, it briefly showed a entity from Persian mythology when facing the Persian King.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or God of War characters seen, mentioned or used.
Falling from Mount Olympus was always unsettling, in Petros's opinion.
Realistically, the mountain itself wasn't very high in the literal physical sense, but metaphysically speaking, it was tens of thousands of feet high and depending on if you were mortal or not, could take days to reach the bottom. Petros had only ever fallen from it's height once, he was helping Hephaestus test a new set of armor being made for Poseidon, and the fall was... unnerving. It only took Petros thirty seconds to reach the bottom of the mountain, and leave a great big hole in the ground when he struck it but not it felt as if Petros was falling for an eternity.
All of the sounds, smells and sight of Mount Olympus under siege faded and blurred away until Petros had no choice but to close his eyes. His entire torso hurt like hell, and it felt as if his very body was being burned to a crisp only to just as quickly heal. Than it became cold, unbearably cold, far colder than the very depths of the sea and Petros didn't feel so much as falling as... well he couldn't quite describe the feeling he felt, weightlessness didn't sound right, but it didn't sound wrong either.
He briefly risked opening his eyes to see what it was that was happening and instead of finding himself falling down into the chaos that was Greece he was... well he had no idea where 'here' was. He still felt the sensation of falling even though it wasn't falling, that odd sensation of being pulled towards some unknown force, but he couldn't see anything around him, everything was... void, for the lack of a better term.
Than just as suddenly as he found himself in some sort of barren void, Petros found himself falling through a thick blanket of clouds that felt like snow with how cold they were and than down towards a coastline he didn't recognize, the air, like the clouds, colder than anywhere in Greece.
'Oh this is gonna hurt' Petros thought with a groan before he closed his eyes and prepared to meet the rocky terrain.
"ᚹᚺᚨᛏ ᛁᚾ ᛏᚺᛖ ᚾᚨᛗᛖ ᛟᚠ-"
'Did the ground just talk-' Petros thought before he felt himself slam into something that felt like not solid ground, but an actual living being...
Who was now probably dead, dying or pissed at him for landing on them.
Regardless of whoever they were, they did little to stem Petros's momentum and both ended up tumbling down a hill that seemed to be made up of every damned jagged rock on Earth before coming to a stop in some sort of dark colored sand that felt more like rocks than actual sand. With a pained hiss, Petros tried to move but found his body screaming in pain and refusing to budge more than a inch if that, leaving him lying there on his back, staring up at a blue sky with a few wisps of dark clouds overhead. The Grecian could also hear the sounds of crashing waves, sea bird calls and the unmistakable smell of salt water.
Not exactly a tropical paradise... but better than the hell Kratos had the intention of kicking him into.
"ᛋᛟᚾ ᛟᚠ ᚨ ᚹᚺᛟᚱᛖ! ᚠᚢᚲᚴᛁᚾᚷ ᛈᛁᛚᛖ ᛟᚠ ᛏᚱᛟᛚᛚ ᛖᛪᚲᚱᛖᛗᛖᚾᛏ!"
It also seemed that whoever Petros had hit in his decent sounded alright... pissed but alright... and female.
'Oh joy... another pissed off woman' Petros thought with a sigh as he laid there, helpless to do anything as he saw out of the corner of his vision a figure standing back up, brushing sand off themselves and still cursing up a storm in their native language that would've left the likes of Ares cringing in dread.
The woman continued on for another moment or so before she stopped and slowly approached Petros, stopping just beyond his field of vision and said something in her unknown language. Petros could only assume it was a demand of some sort asking who the hell he was, why he was here and why he used them as a cushion.
"Just... give me a second..." Petros groaned as he did his best to focus all of his body's remaining energy on healing his wounds.
The large gaping gash in his torso on top of said wound throbbing in pain was now being irritated by the sand in it and the metal from his armor was digging into several areas around his body, mainly where he slammed into the rocks on his way down. A part of him wondered if this was how flies felt whenever they were caught in a spider's web, weak, defenseless, helpless...
If so... he found a newfound respect for the spiders he held dominion over, for being just enough to end the flies suffering.
'That can't be right but I can't find it in me to give a good damn' Petros thought before he realized the woman he used as a cushion was now crouched over him, looking into his helmeted face with a mixture of uncertainty, concern and annoyance all wonderfully wrapped into a odd expression on her face.
This woman, she was unbelievably attractive, far beyond that of any mortal Petros has ever met and even quite a few Immortals. Dark hair that reached her shoulders and had several beads weaved into it's braids. Her clothing from what he could see seemed to be a dress of some sort made of animal skins, fashioned much differently than that of the various hordes of barbarians that have tried to invade Greece in the past. Her arms, carrying the same type of muscle tone as Athena had, were covered with faded tattoos, written in a language that Petros has never seen before while the hilt of a sword was visible over her shoulder, hinting at a warrior's prowess.
Or she just happens to carry swords around as some sort of fashion sense.
"Uh, hello?" Petros said after a few seconds had passed of the two staring at one another.
The woman blinked at this, and looked at Petros with curiosity as well as confusion before saying a few words in her language.
'Great, she can't understand me, and I doubt I'll be able to understand her anytime soon' Petros thought with a mental sigh 'Oh this is juts gonna be fantastic'
"ᚹᚺᛟ ᚨᚱᛖ ᚤᛟᚢ?" the woman said, her voice surprisingly gentle, caring in a way, like a mother or even a close lover. It was the kind of voice that Petros could listen to for days and never tire of hearing it.
When Petros didn't immediately reply to the woman, she spoke again, this time in a much slower tone, as if the Olympian might understand her if she spoke slowly "ᚹᚺᛖᚱᛖ ᛞᛁᛞ ᚤᛟᚢ ᚲᛟᛗᛖ ᚠᚱᛟᛗ?"
When Petros replied to the woman's question, at least he thought it sounded like a question, with a clueless shrug, the woman bit her lip in thought. The spider god's eyes couldn't help but flicker to the woman's lips and for a very brief moment, he wondered what they tasted like, what they would feel like, either against his own lips, or on his c-
With a violent shake of his head, Petros tried to keep his mind focused on more important matters, like trying to figure out where in the name of Tartarus he was. It was very obvious he was far from the Greece and the Mediterranean, perhaps farther than Thrace, beyond the northern shores of the Black Sea even. How he got here was another question he needed answering, far as Petros knew, he was supposed to be dead given he took a fucking giant sword to the chest made to kill Gods and Titans before Kratos kicked him off of Mount Olympus and into the chaos below.
'Somehow I doubt this is the afterlife for Gods' Petros thought before he waved his hand towards the woman and began to slowly push himself up until he was propped on his elbows and facing the direction of the sea.
Unsurprisingly didn't recognize it, the waters were far darker and far colder looking than the Mediterranean or Aegean seas. He glanced to his left and saw that the beach stretched on for quite a few kilometers until it came to a halt at a massive wall of ice that stretched out into the water for a few hundred feet. With a hum, Petros glanced to his right and saw that the beach stretched on for twice as long until reaching the base of a sheer cliff that overlooked the sea.
'Well... at least I landed somewhere pleasant, scenery wise' Petros thought as he pushed himself up into a sitting position with a pained groan as the last of his wounds began to close.
"ᚨᚱᛖ ᚤᛟᚢ ᛟᚴᚨᚤ?" the woman asked, having back away slightly to give Petros some room to slowly climb back to his feet.
"You have a nice place here, is it yours?" Petros asked as he brushed some sand off his legs and arms before reaching up to readjust some of the straps of his armor "Or are you from the sea? Sky maybe? Or do you not have a place to call yours? You just kinda wander around?"
The goddess made no reply as Petros continued to look around, aside from the distant glacier, cliffs and rocky hill he fell down earlier, there wasn't much else to take in aside from the sea itself.
And it was cold, so very cold.
"Shit, I feel like I've stepped into a bucket of ice" Petros groaned as he felt himself shiver as a strong breeze blew by.
The unknown Goddess showed no signs of being bothered by the cold, causing Petros to scowl slightly at her in exasperation.
"Could you pretend to be a little cold?" Petros said as he gestured to her attire and pointed towards the nearby ice "Seeing you dressed in so little and being unbothered by all this cold is making me feel self-conscious"
Especially since the metal of his armor was starting to chill.
"ᚤᛟᚢᚱ ᚲᛟᛚᛞ..." The Goddess said when she noticed that Petros was beginning to shiver a little and held up her hands "ᛞᛟ ᚾᛟᛏ ᛒᛖ ᚨᚠᚱᚨᛁᛞ, ᛁ'ᛗ ᚷᛟᛁᚾᚷ ᛏᛟ ᛗᚨᚴᛖ ᚨ ᚠᛚᚨᛗᛖ ᛏᛟ ᚺᛖᛚᛈ ᚴᛖᛖᛈ ᚤᛟᚢ ᚹᚨ-"
Petros cut the woman off by reaching out and lightly gripping the woman's wrist and gave her a guarded expression. Even though he couldn't understand a lick of what this woman was saying, he could sense the magic she was beginning to gather about herself. It felt strange, and very alien, but there was no mistaken the tell-tell feeling of mystical energy in the air.
"Uh, can you please refrain from any magic until I know for a fact what your saying and what your doing?" Petros asked in as gentle tone as possible whilst ignoring the guarded glare on the Goddess's face "Sorry, but I'm not exactly at my best right now and I just got out of a rather once sided fight with a crazed bitch. Rather into get into another. N-Not that your a bitch or anything, it's just well... I... I'm just gonna stop"
With that, Petros released the woman's hand and took a few steps back and let out a tired sigh.
"ᛟᚾ ᛋᛖᚲᛟᚾᛞ ᛏᚺᛟᚢᚷᚺᛏ, ᚤᛟᚢ ᚲᚨᚾ ᚠᚱᛖᛖᛉᛖ" the Goddess said with a scowl of annoyance.
"Thank you?" Petros said with puzzlement as he stared at the woman for a moment before he reached up and pinched the ridge of his nose "Kratos, I really, really, really hope your dead. Okay, it's fine. I can figure this out... I just need to..."
Petros looked around for a stick or something sharp enough that he could use it to draw in the ground. While it was clear that language was going to be a rather difficult hurdle for the two to overcome, if it could be that is, at the very least they could use pictures to communicate. Petros just hoped to Chaos that the Goddess didn't take his drawings the wrong way, it'd be just his luck in trying to explain to the woman via picture that he was a God that he unintentionally declared war upon her or something.
After stumbling around for a few seconds, Petros found a small rock with a sharp edge and immediately began to cut a image of little people into the damp sand. The goddess watched him with confusion, probably wondering why the hell he was drawing in the sand like a child, before Petros drew a larger image of a person over the smaller people. He made sure to show the smaller ones either bowing or kneeling and holding their arms up as if in prayer before he pointed towards himself.
"Me" Petros explained to the woman in a slow voice before he pointed to the image of the larger human "This is me. I am a God..."
Petros waited a moment to see if the Goddess understood him and was relived to see her nod as she pointed towards the image than himself. With a nod, Petros than drew another image, this time two circles a fair distance from one another before drawing a small image of a woman in one circle than the image of himself in the other. Once that was done, Petros pointed towards the woman than the image of the woman in the circle.
"This, is you" Petros said before he pointed towards the circle with one hand and gestured to their surroundings with the other "This circle, your land. Your land!"
Again the goddess seemed to somewhat understand what he was implying and nodded, or she had no idea what he was doing and was just nodding to imply she did. Petros than pointed to himself and than to the circle with the man in it.
"Me, my land. My land is far from here" Petros made a gesture of their being a great distance between the two, which again caused the unknown goddess to nod though her eyes spoke volumes of her actual thoughts.
She had no idea what he was trying to explain to her.
"You have no idea what I'm even saying... do you?" Petros said with a sigh of defeat.
...
So far, today had not being going as Freya envisioned it to be.
The former Vanir and one time Queen Asgard had left the sanctuary of her woods in search of a rare plant that she required for a potion she needed replenishment of. Unfortunately the plant she needed was a rare flower that grew along the Southern coasts of Midgard, miles from her home and away from the protection of her home's protective barriers and magics. Knowing she did not have long until Odin's many accursed Ravens spotted her outside of her protective sanctuary, Freya quickly departed for the Southern coasts to gather the plants she needed before the sun had even rose in the sky.
Once she had reached the coast, she quickly located and gathered what she needed and prepared to return home when something unexpected happen... a strangely dressed God appeared out of nowhere and crashed into her, sending both of them tumbling down a rocky hill until hey both landed on the dark sandy beach below. For a brief moment, Freya thought it was one of Odin's servants, come to either harm her or do worse, but once she regained her bearings, and put a few meters between herself and the stranger, she quickly saw that he wasn't a Aesir... or even a Vanir.
He was a God, there was no mistaking that, but he was clad in a strange set of armor that was unlike any design she's ever seen within the Nine Realms. And when he spoke, it was a language that she's never heard before, further identifying distant roots beyond Midgard. He made a series of gestures to himself and the and the land around them before he eventually ended up finding a stone and begin to make a series of drawings and gestured himself, and herself, to the drawings and the land around them. She thought she understood what he was implying, that he was a God that was worshipped and from a land far from here, but again his foreign tongue made it difficult to fully understand.
'For all I know, he is saying that he's come to make this land his and he wants me to be his queen' Freya thought as she stared at the unknown God for a moment 'And with how fate loves to torment me so, this entire encounter is his people's way of some sort of proposal'
Still, it did do her long broken pride and vanity a bit of some good to see that she was still desired.
"Δεν έχεις ιδέα τι λέω, έτσι;" the strangely dressed God said with a dejected sigh.
Freya had no idea what he said, or even asked for that matter. For all she knew he was asking to help him sacrifice a hundred mortals for a laugh. The deity quirked his head at Freya for a moment before he tossed the rock he had in his hands over his shoulder and fell to the ground with a frustrated groan. It would've been almost funny if she wasn't still a bit angry at his crashing into her-
"My flowers!" Freya suddenly said, her eyes widen in realization.
The strange God watched as she quickly ran towards the small basket she was holding earlier and looked to see if her plants had been destroyed or not. Thankfully, they were undamaged apart from a few torn petals here and there.
Μάζευες λουλούδια;" the unknown God said with an inquisitive tone before he eyed Freya up and down "Είσαι κάποιο είδος θεότητας συγκομιδής;"
"I-..." Freya snapped with annoyance before she stopped and took a deep calming breath "I'm sorry, but I can't understand what you are saying to me. At all"
The God quirked his head at her for a moment and seemed to stare into her very being with an unknown expression from under his damaged helm before he spoke again.
"Δεν θα τα χρησιμοποιήσεις για να με αποπλανήσεις, έτσι; Είμαι κολακευμένος και τα σχετικά, πραγματικά, αλλά μου αρέσει να καταλαβαίνω τον πιθανό συνεργάτη μου πρώτα πριν συνουσιαστούμε" he said
Freya stared at the God for a moment before she reached up and pinched the ridge of her nose "Why in all the Nine Realms did it have to be me?"
She considered leaving the strange being here and returning to her home, but the thought of leaving a God that was clearly lost and had no idea where he was, let alone even understood what was being said to him, didn't sit right with her. It seemed cruel, and the God ran the risk of attracting the attention of Odin and his accursed spies. If and when her former husband realized this man was a God, a God he has no control or knowledge of, he'll very likely try to have him killed out of fear he's some sort of vanguard to invasion, or to try and pluck every bit of knowledge that's in his head for his own use.
'And I'll be damned if I let that monster corrupt and pervert the magic and knowledge of another Pantheon just because he feels he can' Freya thought before she approach the God and held her hand out for him to take "If your willing to accept my aide, I can try and help you return home. Wherever that lies"
The armored God stared at Freya's hand for a moment before slowly reaching out to take and shake it. With a nod, Freya released her grip on the other God's hand and turned to pick up her basket.
"Come, we must go before Odin's, the God King of this realm, notices your presence. Believe me, he will not be your friend in your endeavor" Freya said, even though she knew the God wouldn't be able to understand her.
At the very least, she hoped he's notice the sense of urgency in her tone and follow without too much commotion.
"Κοίτα, αν μπορούσες να μου δείξεις την κατεύθυνση οποιωνδήποτε Θεών που θα μπορούσαν να με βοηθήσουν, θα-" the strange God began to follow after Freya before he suddenly stopped and the former God Queen sensed an odd feeling come over him.
It was as if a part off him had suddenly been snuffed out, lessening his very being.
Before she could comprehend what she felt, the strange God suddenly fell to his knees and would've fallen face first into the ground had Freya not caught him and gently help his body to the ground at a more merciful pace.
"What's happening to you...?" Freya said with confusion evident on her face and in her tone as she tried to see what it was that could've done this.
It didn't feel like he lost his domain, a rather grim and unfortunate horror she's seen many times during the days the Aesir and Vanir, when the war had reached it's apex of slaughter and tragedy. But there was something different about the God, something missing for the lack of a better term. She carefully casted a small spell to search through the God's very being to see if she could uncover the possible ailment, whether it was some sort of curse he's had casted upon himself or something worse...
'The only possible explanation would- no... it couldn't be' Freya thought as she narrowed her eyes as her spell delved deep into the God's being before finding something... or rather, not finding something.
The base of the God's very being, the seat of his and his Pantheon's power, was gone!
'And not just gone, but destroyed' Freya thought with a troubled frown as she ended the spell and leaned back from the deity and studied him with a puzzled look.
His wounds and damaged armor now made much more sense, he, and likely many of his other fellow Gods, were in some sort of terrible battle or war. Likely within the heart of their Pantheon's seat of power, and it appears that they just lost. She's heard of such things happening once before, long before the Vanir and Aesir split, when they once shared a realm and stood as a single Pantheon. Under the tyrannical rule or Borr, the Gods had waged open war against all Realms before being defeated by a army consisting of Jötnar, Light and Dark Elves, Dwarves and the Svartálfar. The destruction of the Gods stronghold led to the 'lessening' of a number of Gods and Goddesses power and the eventual split between the Aesir and Vanir.
Perhaps a similar event was or rather had unfolded in the lands of this strange little God.
'Though there's no way of knowing until I we can find a way to understand one another' Freya thought with a frown.
She had considered using her Seiðr magic to try and read the God's mind, to delve into his memories, but such a thing was far more perilous than one would assume. Reading the minds of mortals and animals was one thing, but another God? Attempting such a breech, even for one as powerful and as skilled as Freya could lead to disastrous consequences, she'd run the risk of destroying both her mind and this strange God's, a fate she was far from eager to experience.
"To think all I thought I'd be doing today is gathering herbs and plants" Freya said with a shake of her head as she looked up towards the sky and the tops of nearby trees for any of Odin's accursed Ravens.
She had no doubt that he'll soon be aware of her absence from her home, and while she liked to believe he won't attempt anything out of fear of retaliation from the Vanir 'when' they finally learn of her situation, she wasn't going to hold her breath. In the end, fear drove her former love to lengths that she never thought any being would be willing to go to, be it for power or knowledge.
"I really hope your not a seeker of knowledge" Freya said as she stared down at the passed out God "I don't think I can stand to be around anymore in my lifetime"
To her complete and utter lack of surprise, the God stayed silent.
...
And done.
Next chapter, Cultural exchanges and cultural misunderstandings... also magical Boars and giant Turtle houses.