Chapter 22: The Rage of Sparta
Kratos rolled to the left to dodge Khonsu's low sweeping attack. The moon god's four dark wings spread wide behind his back, giving him incredible speed and maneuverability. With ease the raven god turned and pursued Kratos, bringing the scythe down and connecting with the spartan's thigh. Kratos growled in pain, the cursed scythe shallowly digging just below the skin and leaving another cut a few inches long on his left leg. Not letting it stop him, the chaos blades flew loose and tore through one of Khonsu's wings.
Falling back for a moment, his wings already began healing as he smirked. "I told you it's pointless, Ghost. With the moon behind me at full strength, and with the book's power coursing through me, even your primordial blades do nothing to me." He predicted Freya's attack next, dipping his shoulder and letting her narrowly soar past him. Khonsu went to strike her from behind with his scythe, but a flying axe knocked his blow aside.
Kratos wasn't sure how long they had been fighting the winged god like this. An hour? Two? Time seemed to be slowed to a crawl, yet rapidly surging all at the same time. Any wound they inflicted on their enemy was healed almost immediately. Thoth's prediction about their foes fearing the blades of chaos may have been accurate at the time, but now that the book Khonsu prattled on about was apparently open, with the night sky and full power of the moon charging him, nothing scared the Egyptian.
Wiping his mouth of blood with his right wrist, the spartan's left hand flexed to summon the leviathan axe back to it. While their attacks had done nothing to the moon god, their opponent had managed to land several upon them. Kratos had sustained three cuts now with the cursed scythe, one to his thigh, one to his back, and another to his unprotected shoulder. Freya had one on her knee and another along her left arm. All the cuts burned with the same cursed, dark magic Set's blade was shrouded in, but they fought through the pain. The spartan hadn't been pushed like this in a fight probably since Thor, maybe Sigrun before him. With them though, he was making headway in the battle with each blow he struck. With Khonsu, they were still at the start practically.
The earth had shaken powerfully nearly half an hour ago, and a couple moments prior there was an orange glow distantly in the sky back towards the ruined city. Kratos and Freya had left Atreus and the other Egyptian gods to deal with the colossal serpent demon and his chaos beasts, hopefully his son was safe from harm. Khonsu seemed unconcerned by whatever the loud, earth rattling events transpiring back in Memphis had been. Whether it was his ally or enemy that had perished did not matter to him. The moon god was at the height of his power currently, and arrogantly disinterested in anything else.
Kratos charged forward once more flinging the axe, then the spear, forcing the moon god to back step and dodge. When he was in the perfect positioning Kratos had planned, he flexed his right hand to summon the axe back to him while throwing a blade with his left. Flying back to his outstretched hand, the spartan began charging its magical icy fire without a misstep in his sprint forward. With both hands he wielded his lost wife's weapon, and unleashed a powerful beam directly at Khonsu. His opponent didn't have time to dodge, instead falling to the ground and shielding his body from the blast by crossing all four wings in front of him.
Freya took the momentary opening to dive back in for another attack. Despite their best efforts, Khonsu still foresaw the attack, rolling his wings and body in such a way to clear Kratos' beam and the valkyrie's strike. A scaled hand took firm hold of one of her wings as he dodged, and he brought the scythe down upon it. Kratos couldn't see where the wound had been inflicted, just the unfortunate amount of blood that spurted from his partner's flesh. Khonsu chuckled to himself as he took his scythe and spun it, bringing it back down on Freya's head. Once more, the draupnir spear flew and pierced the moon god's arm, forcing his attack to miss its target..this time.
"I've had more than enough of this damned thing," the raven god groaned as he ripped it from his wrist and with impressive force snapped it in two with his taloned hands. The broken pieces of Kratos' weapon fell to the sand, the magic connecting it to the ring seemingly shattered as well.
Gazing at Freya's limp body sprawled motionless on the sands, Kratos felt his blood begin to surge. An all too recognizable feeling began to ripple through him. His fists shook, his muscles tensed, his body burned. It felt as if a fire were lit in his bones, searing its way through every cell of his very being from skull to toes. The blades in his hands reacted in turn, flames whipped up along the steel, their bloodlust calling out to him.
"Ahhhh yes, show me this infamous rage, Ghost. Show me the power of your hatred and that thirst for vengeance that sends lesser gods fleeing for their lives from the terrifying Ghost of Sparta. Do you hate me? I wonder how much the fire within you would be stoked if I kill your woman!" Khonsu devilishly roared as he spun and plunged the scythe's blade down for Freya's limp body. The moon shaped weapon once more did not complete its path, however, as a flame engulfed blade flew through the air and wrapped around the weapon's thin handle. The second blade slashed down a moment later, cleaving Khonsu's hands from his forearms and letting Kratos whirl the cursed weapon into the distance.
Charging now, Kratos rushed with a speed and fury he had yet to unleash since coming to these lands of sands. He was on Khonsu in moments, blades abandoned as his fists began a barrage of blows to the raven god's chest. Khonsu tried to flee, but with a strong fist the enraged spartan ripped a darkly feathered wing free from his enemy's back, and with another, slammed his foe back down into the sand. The fists continued to pummel into the new flesh and feather body Khonsu bore, as Kratos' eyes glowed a striking golden hue and his tattoos across his face and chest a pale, burning red. Shaking with the force of each punch, the earth itself began to give to Kratos' strength as sand shifted beneath his feet as punch after punch rocked the Egyptian god's body.
"You were correct before," Kratos rumbled between punches, "I am not a god of war. I am not a god of life or love. All I can do is kill. Death is the only thing I can offer..and so I give it to you!"
A vengeful roar of outrage burst from Krato's throat as he continued to pummel the raven god with every ounce of strength he had. With jerks of his wrist, the chains for his blade's red glow intensified and both weapons flew back to their homes in his palms. Raising them high above his head, he looked upon the bloodied, deformed body of his foe, and brought both blades of chaos down, stabbing through the feathered chest, pinning him to the sands. As his chest heaved, catching his breath, he realized his unrelenting assault had caused more sand to kick up in a cloud all around them.
Kratos was pulled back to the moment as a dark laugh sounded from below him, and a moment later a searing pain pierced through him. Looking down, he saw the curved edge of Set's cursed blade stabbed into him, just beside the scar left from the blade of Olympus. The spartan's eyes looked down further, seeing a fully healed Khonsu gazing back up at him with delighted, malicious glee. The moon god had managed to grab the kris blade from beside Freya's unconscious hand and use it with great accuracy in such close quarters.
Stumbling back, Kratos hand gripped the blade's hilt as he gasped for breath. The blinding rage that had been powering him, possessing him, had shrunken and sputtered out. He fell to his knees, looking from the bloodied sword in his abdomen, to the unconscious Freya, to the pleased Egyptian regaining his footing. Khonsu tried to lift the Leviathan axe, but its icy bite stung at his fingers and forced him to let it be. Shrugging it off, the raven god extended his hand and with a burst of dark flame the scythe returned to his palm. He came to stand beside Kratos, who was zapped of all of his strength and energy, the fires of rage snuffed out of him.
Kratos couldn't take his eyes off Freya. As the moon god stood beside him, prepared to deal the final blow to the infamous Ghost of Sparta's nape, a feeling of fear began to creep up his spine. Not for his own life, but for Freya's.
"You are not the god you once were, it would seem, Ghost. Perhaps in your younger years you would have had a more even field in this battle, but no matter, the better god won. You should have stayed in your hut up in the snow. Your woman and you would be alive to see my plan come to its grand crescendo. You rely too much on your rage and your pathetic tools. It's a wonder you're even considered a god. Your name does not inspire love or worship, and soon it will be lost to the unyielding sands of time's flow. Gods of rage and hatred never do well in the world. You're a prime example of that. Goodbye, Ghost."
Khonsu brought the scythe down, but with one last shred of defiant determination, Kratos' shield unfurled on his wrist and deflected the would-be death blow. The Spartan bellowed in pain as his other hand ripped the blade from his stomach and plunged it up into the arrogant Egyptian's side. The raven god doubled back in agony and shock now, but only for a few moments. He yanked it from his torso and cast it to the sand beside his feet. A moment later, the scythe came down on the shield directly, cleaving it straight through. Kratos was able to jerk his wrist to avoid losing his hand as well, but was still left with a deep gash along his forearm.
"YOU FUCKING RATS!" Khonsu howled, "I will burn every last one of you wastes of shit and send you to Osiris myself, and then when every last god is dead…I will have created a better world without gods! NO ONE WILL MISS YOU KRATOS! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU ARE NOT BELOVED, YOU WILL BE LOST AND FORGOTTEN TO HISTORY!"
The scythe was raised to strike once more, and Kratos was out of energy and tricks. He remained on his knees, looking a dozen or so feet from him at Freya as she slowly began to stir. Her eyes looked through her bloodied hair and connected with his. Their gaze locked for a moment..and the sand, Khonsu, the darkened sky above them, all melted away. Kratos felt something deep within him. It was not pain from the wound, nor rage, envy, fear, bloodthirst, it was…remorse. So many things he wished he had told her, so many things he should have told her, but now….
Khonsu maniacally chuckled as he began to bring the scythe down, but was yet again disrupted. This time it was not by another weapon, but by a shining, blindingly bright light springing forth from across the sky back towards Memphis. It was behind Kratos, but the light was so bright he could see it momentarily illuminating Freya's face amongst the dark of the forever night. Even bloodied and fiercely clinging to life, she was still the most beautiful sight in this world to him.
"No…this..how..It can't be…" Was all Khonsu murmured, his eyes shone wide with anxiousness and terror. A few breaths later, the sky was instantly light blue with a few clouds dotting its glowing expanse. A fiery, yellow sun shone down upon the earth, replacing the pale red moon that had been there but a heartbeat before. The sky had returned to its normal, bright appearance. Any trace of Khonsu's dark deeds following the murder of Ra seemingly erased.
"How…" The furious, fear-stricken Egyptian seethed.