Chapter 17: The Wings of The Valkyrie
Kratos hit the ground like a small boulder dropped to the earth. Fragments of stone and stand shot out from where he crashed into the cobbled brick of one of the city's market squares. Righting himself back on his feet, all he saw were large stains of blood upon stone, and the occasional limb littering the once bustling streets.
His ring glowed, and the spear was in his hand. He had to get to Freya and help her. When Nut had attacked him with her surprising speed, he foolishly let the blades slip from his hands. It was a careless mistake, one he should have been above, but it happened all the same. There was no time to go back out to where Fenrir and Maahes dueled to retrieve them. The buildings would still shudder on occasion as the two behemoths continued their battle outside the limits of the city.
Rounding a corner, three chaos beasts came into view. One was a large lizard with a spotted back and long, whip-like tail. Another was a crocodile with bladed edges running down its hide. Both of the reptiles were probably 30 or so feet long. The final monster was a scorpion, and was marginally larger than the other two. The strange thing was though, they were carrying corpses. The lizard and crocodile had a corpse each in their toothed jaws, while the large scorpion had two bodies in each claw. As Kratos' eyes looked past them down the street, he saw similar occurrences of the various beasts carrying the dead. They appeared to be bringing the corpses into the Nile river at the foot of the large hill, and consuming their dead prey there in its waters.
Kratos' mind raced for a moment, perplexed why mindless beasts of death would wait to consume flesh, let alone bring the bodies to the river first. He instinctively reached to his back for the blades, but upon his fingers clenching nothing but air, remembered his foolishness of dropping the blades in the sand. The spear launched from his hand, impaling the lizard directly between the eyes. The blow stunned the lizard for a moment, but it quickly brushed off the attack and charged, corpse still limply hanging in its teeth.
As the lizard bore down on him, some unknown movement to his right drew the spartan's attention. There at the corner of a nearby market stall sitting on the ground..were the blades of chaos, crossed, waiting for his hands. The god blinked in shock and hesitation, unsure how his swords magically appeared a mile from where he had dropped them. It didn't matter in this moment however, they were here, and he had need of them.
Kratos ran to the blades, sliding just as the lizard leapt after him with its massive, curved claws spread ready to rip the god's body to shreds. A heartbeat later, one of the feet was without toes, and another beat after that, the lizard's throat was gashed open. Kratos spun the blades once more on their chain, this time cleaving the lizard's head clean off its neck. Helping Freya would have to wait, he still heard the panicked screams of mortals trying to flee. Freya was queen of the nine realms and the valkyrie, she could handle an Egyptian goddess. Even one that had managed to gain such a swift advantage over him.
Kratos had felt it lately, since they left home. He felt his mind being pulled in several different directions, even during battle. It had happened during his fight with Set, and again with Mahees and Nut. It was a sensation he had never experienced before. Normally during any battle, whether it was when he was a mortal spartan, Greek god of war fighting atop Olympus, even in Midgard when fighting with Thor or Baldur, his mind and body had acted as one. Lately though, he could feel a divide. His mind and physical form were not in perfect balance, in unison, as they always had been. Something was off. But he'd have to ponder that later, there was death that needed to be dealt first.
Nut was fast, but Freya had successfully managed to impale her upper thigh with the cursed kirs blade. The force of her attack, the surprise, and the pain, was enough to free Kratos from the Egyptian's strong grasp. They were fairly high off the ground, but her partner had survived worse. Freya had charged the goddess at full speed, and now the two were hurtling through the sky woven together in a blur of wings and limbs as they crashed atop the roof of a building. Freya ripped the dagger from Nut's leg as they were moments from contact with the stone roof. Her wings spread wide for her to land gracefully on her feet, while the Egyptian was sent crashing and tumbling off this roof to a lower one next door.
"I will rip your wing's from your damned back, foreigner," the Egyptian goddess hissed as she hobbled to stand, a hand gripping her bleeding thigh.
Freya's wings fluttered once as she dropped to the roof, ten paces from the wounded Ma'at. "Better opponents than you have tried. This is quite the difference face you're making from when we first met a few days ago. You were a sobbing mess being held up by your husband then. Now look at you, you just appear a venomous, hateful demon practically."
With surprising speed Nut flapped her winged arms once and had closed the distance between the two. Freya managed to get her sword up in time to stop the bladed edge of her foe's wings from slashing her neck. The sheer force of the charge was enough to knock her back into the air, clear off the roof. Nut did not let up, returned to flight now, she streaked at Freya from multiple angles in rapid succession. The Vanir goddess blocked from each side as the Egyptian continued her aerial assault.
The Egyptian was fast on the wing, very fast. Freya had two advantages: first, her wings weren't connected to her arms, so she had freer range of motion then her attacker, and secondly, Nut was afraid of the dagger. Whatever the source of its dark magic was, Nut surely knew more of its origins than she did, and after seeing what it had done to the infamous Ghost of Sparta, the Egyptian clearly wished to not take any more wounds from it.
As their aerial battle continued, and noticing a pattern of Nut prioritizing attacking from the right Freya began to not just dodge, but parry and attempt counter attacks. But just as soon as Freya had begun to notice a pattern, Nut changed, shifting to left bound attacks. When Freya had managed to solve the timing for these, the Egyptian goddess changed tactics again, swooping up at the last moment and attacking from above. Then at diagonals, and then again from below.
She'll need to do more than this if she wants to beat me, she must know that.
Reaching back with her right hand, she unsheathed Mardoll from its sheath against her shoulder. Wielding a blade in each hand now, Freya went on the offensive. She rolled off one of Nut's attacks, dodging above with tucked wings, and spun. Mardoll found its mark, slashing across her lower back and eliciting a groan of pain from the golden winged goddess. Freya's wings flared out now wide, slowing her, and letting her turn back around in a heartbeat and attack from the rear. Nut continued to dodge and deflect with her wings, but Freya was able to land another two slashes, albeit shallow, on her foe's leg and shoulder.
The sky goddess turned now, ceasing her flighted direction away from the city and facing Freya head on. Her arms stretched out straight to her sides, her golden wings began to glow. Before Freya could react, a concussive blast erupted forth from them. The blast appeared as a sphere of golden aura releasing from Nut's body, growing and going forth in all directions. With it, was a burst of powerful wind as if a tornado had just assaulted her. It was strong, but caused no immediate pain. It was enough to knock Freya's stability in the sky off balance, and sent her flying back from the power. With a grimace she strained her wings to try and catch her weight before she careened to the earth blow. Her wings successfully found their metaphorical footing as they spread wide and with a stroke she was able to right herself.
So that was what she was hiding, hopefully she doesn't have too many other surprises.
Being here in Egypt, Freya's magic was useless. She could use her bow, but without spells, her regular arrows would fail to do much to any powerful foes like Nut or the other gods conspiring here. This left her with pure physical attacks with her two swords, and her wings. This is why she was eager to wield the cursed dagger. It would give her another powerful tool for combat in these foreign lands against their unknown foes. The kris blade had proven valuable too, as the stab wound in Ma'at's thigh was still bleeding quite heavily. Two or three more significant wounds with it, and the Egyptian goddess would surely be on the decline.
"I was told the gods of Egypt were old, wise, above the petty squabbles that plagued so many other pantheons. Does this seem just to you? Slaughtering mortals by the hundreds and thousands, killing your own, torturing and transforming them into monsters to fight on your behalf? I do not claim to be a symbol of justice, but it appears to me your definition is lacking, as is your morality!" Freya shouted as her wings flapped to return her to Nut's altitude.
The Egyptian scoffed, "Please, don't lecture me on justice and preserving innocence. You ally yourself with the Ghost of Sparta, a man who has filled entire seas with the blood of his own kind as well as innocent mortals. You high and mighty northerners are always so quick to judge when you cannot free yourselves of your own piles of putrid shit."
Freya smirked, "You're lucky I am your opponent and not him, now. I promise to swiftly part your head from your shoulders. Give you a good warrior's death. Kratos has a tendency to rip the wings from flighted enemies. Trust me, I did you a mercy."
This appeared to break Nut's steely, confident gaze. Her brow ticked up, her smile turned to a tight frown. "A mercy is it?"
With that, the Egyptian dove straight for Freya, eyes glaring full of anger and arms tucked in for maximum speed. Freya parried the bladed wing with ease, albeit with a substantial effort of strength, and the two goddesses continued their dance across the sky. This attack was different though. Despite Freya blocking the bladed edge, the wing still came with a powerful force of wind even after the blow was stopped. It sent Freya back twenty or so steps, her wings back up and ready to brace for more.
Their duel continued, Freya using the kris to her favor, and Nut pressing her home advantage in the sky. The wind became quite a difficult force for Freya to navigate while airborne. Nut managed to land two slashes across Freya's arm and one deeper one in her side, but Freya managed to land a cut in turn with the cursed dagger from the Egyptian's shoulder to rib. The two continued flying across the city, a flurry of wings, steel, and grunts as they carried out their winged dance. Twice more Nut had let out the concussive energy burst from her wings. Freya was able to fly out of range quick enough for the first, but was a second too late with the latter and was again sent flying back. She regained herself a few seconds before fully crashing into another roof below, instead sliding along it with her feet, wings outstretched to slow her down.
Freya's chest was heaving, sweat dampened her skin. This was the hardest she'd had to push herself in a fight in a long time, probably since fighting Kratos after regaining her wings back before Ragnarok. If it weren't for the surprise attack she landed to Nut's thigh at the start, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to win this battle. The reputation proceeding the Egyptian pantheon of being older and stronger than most was certainly being lived up to.
Looking up, she saw the sky goddess diving swiftly for her for another attack. Freya grabbed a crate near her and launched it at her oncoming attacker with force. Nut spun to avoid the attack, but with her speed it skewed her descent's trajectory just enough to cause a miss. As she made a shallow swoop by Freya to avoid crashing and circle back for another attack, the Vanir made a bold move and threw Mardoll with precise accuracy. The blade lodged itself through Nut's side, piercing below the shoulder blade and emerging from her breast. This took the wind from beneath the Egyptian goddess' wings and caused her to crash into the sand and rock below.
"I offer you this chance at mercy. Cease your fighting, answer our questions, and I'll allow you a clean death," Freya uttered as she jumped to the ground, her feet thudding to the sand. They were on the outskirts of the city, on the opposite side from Fenrir and Maahes' battle. The thundering of the two beasts had quieted now, Freya wondered if they had succeeded in killing the colossal lion. Her attention turned back to her opponent.
Nut was gripping her thigh, a sorrowful grimace of intense pain on her face as she slowly righted herself to her feet. A hand clenched the blade of the sword burst through her chest, and she pushed it back out with an heavy groan. Her hair was disheveled, and the cool, calm, and confident facade from before was gone now. The Egyptian goddess' eyes burned with hatred and vitriol. "You northern bitch. I'll cut each of your limbs from you-"
She was cut off as pillars of rock jutted from the ground at angles toward her. They enclosed themselves around her arms, slamming shut with enough force to spur a shriek of pain from the fallen goddess' lips and trapped her. That cry was cut short however, as a dark outline pounced on her from the left. Bast's jaws clamped down on the trapped sky goddess' throat as she leapt onto her former closest friend. With a slight jerk of her head her fanged teeth successfully ripped the betrayer's neck apart and, unbeknownst to Freya, the panther goddess followed through with her earlier threat.
Freya's wings waved twice and she closed the gap and was standing at the scene. Nut's body stood imprisoned by the stone trapping her limbs, blood pouring from her neck splatting over her robes and the sand beneath her as life drained from her body. Her tanned skin tone faded to a paler white than Kratos', as her body grew limp, and she swiftly succumbed to death's embrace.
"Apologies for the intrusion, Lady Freya," Bast growled, spitting Nut's trachea and flap of skin from her mouth. "We wished to see her suffer."
Geb joined them now, as he moved to stand over his dead wife's rapidly decaying body. Tears dotted his enraged eyes as he glared down at the withering form of the dying goddess. Through gritted teeth he snarled, "Join our son in death."
Freya stepped to Geb's side, reaching down to retrieve Mardoll from the ground beside where Nut's body had been, now returned to the sand. "No need for apologies. Thank you for the aid. We aren't done yet, however."
The three rushed back into the village, only to find that most of the chaos beasts had been slain. Kratos had gone on quite a spree in the city. In the distance, Fenrir's massive form could be seen bouncing around the shore of the Nile river, snapping up and crushing the remaining chaos beasts in his jaws.
Kratos turned to gaze at the arriving trio, blood coating a majority of his body. 'Is it done?"
Freya nodded, joining her partner's side. "I take it Fenrir succeeded in killing the war god." Her eyes darted to the side to see a small shudder from Bast. Geb's arm reached out around her friend's shoulders. The two would share their grief together.
"So it would appear. I feel this is far from the end, however," Kratos stated as they looked out at the bloodied, gutted corpse of Giza. Corpses littered the street reaching down to the water's edge, and the river was running red with the blood of hundreds.