On Today's Episode: The trinity arrives in a strange land far to the north, where a father and son are getting ready to embark on a deeply personal journey. But Maylin and Haruka are quite surprised to see Kratos, especially considering what happened to him the last time they'd seen him. But as Kratos and his son Atreus prepare for this particular quest, they might also have to deal with both a mysterious stranger who's looking to cause trouble, and even another member of the Organization...
For Today's World: Today, we're gonna shout "BOY" a lot as we head into the world of God of War, the first of the Norse games in the series, or as it's known in some circles, "Dad of Boy". In the original Key to Her Heart 'verse, I made numerous reference to Maylin and Haruka occasionally assisting Kratos in his travels, and now it's come full circle. For this first visit, I'll be covering the first hour or so of the game.
Episode 9: Stranger in a Strange Land
After finally chopping down the last of the trees that had been marked for him, Kratos couldn't help but stare at the loose bandages around his wrists, the ones that covered up that shameful reminder of his past.
Hearing footsteps approaching him, Kratos quickly rewrapped those bandages just as his son Atreus came running up.
"I found some more, just like you wanted," Atreus stated.
In response, Kratos just nodded as he effortlessly lifted the birch tree that he'd cut down and hefted it onto his shoulder.
"Get on the boat, boy," Kratos stated, to which Atreus nodded while Kratos lifted the tree towards their boat.
"Did you... still want me to tie it to the boat?" Atreus asked.
Kratos answered without words, by throwing the three into the water right next to their boat, then attaching it with a hook and throwing the other end to Atreus, who tied the rope in question to their boat so they could both get in and sail down the river.
About halfway through their course, though, Atreus couldn't help but wonder about something that unsettled him.
"...what is it?" Kratos wondered.
"Did something in the air change?" Atreus asked. "The forest feels really different now, for some reason..."
"Everything has changed," Kratos answered. "Try not to dwell on it."
Eventually, Kratos and Atreus made it down the river, docking the boat at the edge of the usual path, and began the familiar trek back to their home.
"Whoa, mother nature really took a bat to this place," Nick admitted as the trinity began to explore their surroundings, much like they always did upon entering a new world.
"I don't know, it kind of looks like this is how this place is supposed to be," Haruka answered.
"I don't know why it feels kinda looks familiar, even though I'm pretty sure I've never seen this place before," Maylin admitted.
"I think someone lives up there," Sophia noted, pointing towards the opposite end of the trail they were following. Indeed, there was a large wooden house stationed in the larger clearing.
"I just hope they're friendly," Maylin admitted. "We don't know anything about the locals here, so I'm a little worried that..."
Maylin suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, as something had whizzed by her and impaled itself in the tree next to her, just barely missing her right ear. It turned out to be a large battle-axe with icy-blue runes imprinted on its blade.
"All right, who's the smart-aleck that just tried that?" Nick growled, summoning Reverberating Abyss to his hands. The cause was revealed to be a burly man wearing leather armor who raised his hand to recall the axe to his grip.
"Identify yourself this instant," Kratos proclaimed, his tone of voice indicating that he wasn't really in a talking mood.
"Well, I'm sorry if we're not in any mood to be talking after that little stunt," Nick responded. "Nobody hurts my friends and lives to brag about it!"
Nick quickly charged towards Kratos and swung his keyblade, slightly surprised to see Kratos swing his own Leviathan Axe to block the strike. The younger boy that had been following Kratos stood to the side, unsure if he should take a shot or not.
Kratos charged up his axe, encasing the blade in ice before throwing it towards Nick, who quickly countered with a Fire spell that stopped the axe clean in its tracks.
Noting that it took a couple seconds for the axe to come back to Kratos' hands when he recalled it, Nick took advantage of that lull to close in on Kratos.
It was at that point, while Nick and Kratos were clashing, that Maylin finally recognized who that was. And even if he looked a little older and a lot more muscular than the last time, it was undoubtedly the same guy, as evidenced by the faded red tattoo across his eye and the large scar adorning his abdomen.
Both Nick and Kratos jumped back after clashing once again before resuming their charge towards each other, only for both of them to be interrupted when Maylin cast a Blizzard spell to create a large ice stalactite between them.
"Now, now, is that any way to greet old friends, Kratos?" Maylin chuckled.
Kratos took a step back to observe these newcomers, and much to his own surprise, he realized that he recognized two of them.
"Then again, it does feel like it's been a while, hasn't it?" Maylin quipped.
"Far too long, in my eyes," Kratos answered after sheathing his axe.
"Okay, so, could somebody explain what's going on here?" Nick wondered.
"Gladly," Haruka answered. "Nick, this is Kratos, someone we've met on our own travels. Let's just say that his past is pretty complicated and leave it at that."
"I'm surprised this isn't..." Maylin started, only for Kratos to subtly shake his head. Naturally, Maylin knew that this wasn't Ancient Greece, where they had met Kratos before. But from Kratos' shake of the head, he'd made it clear that this matter wasn't to be discussed, at least not in front of his son. "...well, anyways, what have you been up to lately?"
"My... my mother passed away recently," Atreus responded. "And father and I were just going out to fulfill her last requests to us."
The look was only on Kratos' face for a fraction of a second, but Maylin could tell that this matter was something that Kratos would only talk about on his own terms.
Atreus rushed back towards their house, entering it and kneeling down in front of a wrapped-up body, no doubt that of his mother, before praying.
"Lo, there do I see my Mother. Lo, is there do I see my Father. Lo, there do they call to me," Atreus prayed before looking towards his father. "She's ready."
With that, Kratos walked into the house as well, lifting the body and carrying out to the makeshift pyre they'd made.
"Find your way home," Kratos proclaimed as he used his axe to strike the firewood and set it ablaze. "You are free."
The trinity all stood there in silence, not really knowing what had happened but knowing it wasn't their place to cut in, even when Atreus tried to retrieve a knife from the body only to burn himself in the attempt.
Kratos simply picked up some snow from the ground and used it to soothe the burn, and this was what essentially proved to Maylin and Haruka that a lot had changed about Kratos since the last time they'd seen him.
"This knife was hers," Kratos stated. "Now it is yours. Did she teach you to hunt?"
"Only what she knew," Atreus answered.
"Then show me," Kratos replied. "Now."
"What should we hunt?" Atreus asked.
"You are hunting deer," Kratos responded. "In the direction of deer."
Atreus nodded as he prepared his bow and arrow.
"The four of you will come as well," Kratos proclaimed. "There may be Heartless."
"That is kinda why we're here," Maylin chuckled.
"All right, then, so, are we cool, then?" Nick wondered. "I mean, you did throw an axe at my friend's head."
Much to their surprised, Kratos allowed himself a brief smile. "I have been told that I do that," Kratos stated.
With that in mind, the trinity followed Kratos and Atreus down the winding path away from their home and into the nearby mountain trail.
"So... why are we doing this right now?" Atreus wondered.
"I need to know if you are capable of surviving the journey," Kratos answered.
"And then we leave for the mountain?" Atreus asked.
"Depends on you," Kratos replied.
"I don't like how quiet this place is," Nick admitted as they continued to ascend the trail, Atreus occasionally glancing at tracks that had been made in the snow to determine where their prey was hiding. "I'm worried that Heartless are going to pop up at any second."
"I wouldn't say things like that, Nick," Maylin quipped. "After all, that's when they usually start popping up."
"Um, pardon me, but what exactly are 'Heartless'?" Atreus asked. "I've never heard of them before..."
"Basically, they're monsters that are born from the darkness in people's hearts," Haruka explained. "And pretty much the whole reason we're here. We're not sure how dangerous local wildlife can be, but it's probably not as troublesome as the Heartless."
Atreus stopped to examine more tracks in the show. "No, that's not a deer, either, the tips are too wide for that," Atreus stated. "A mountain goat, maybe?"
"Your mother taught you well," Kratos admitted.
A little further up the trail, after crossing over a large gap thanks to a broken bridge, they finally found the deer that they'd been hunting.
"Hey, there it is!" Atreus gasped.
"Slow down, boy," Kratos reprimanded. "You are hunting deer, not chasing it."
The deer in question walked around the area before eventually noticing that it was being observed. All parties were silent for the moment.
"Hold," Kratos proclaimed.
Still unsure if he should take the shot now or not, Atreus decided to try and catch the deer off-guard, but a loud rumbling from nearby spooked him enough to take the shot and miss, causing the deer to gallop off.
"What was that? Now its guard is up!" Kratos bellowed.
"I-I'm sorry," Atreus stuttered.
"Do not be sorry. Be better," Kratos responded.
"Um, I don't think that one was Atreus' fault," Nick admitted. "You all felt that, right?"
Almost as if on cue, three large Heartless stomped through the passage between the cliffs. This particular Heartless was a large, blue-skinned dinosaur with two short navy blue legs, each of which had two large white claws and a red anklet, a thin and decayed tail, leaving only bone segments and a large navy blue sphere with a wide jagged black mouth, yellow spiral-shaped eyes, and two short arms on it. The beast's head was also skeletal, sporting horns, glowing yellow eyes, and large sharp teeth with a dark blue lower jaw. It also wore a thick black collar with teal edges and red bumps lining it, with a short silver chain ending in a red, pyramidal weight hanging from the collar and its Heartless emblem imprinted on a large hump on its back.
"...yeah, I probably shouldn't have said anything," Nick groaned as he summoned Reverberating Abyss to his hands.
"These things are Living Bones," Haruka explained. "As you can tell, they're huge and pretty powerful, but they're mostly limited to ground combat, so try and pick them off from the air or get some elevation."
"No offense, Atreus, but you definitely aren't ready for these things yet," Maylin stated. "So just hang back and let the professionals deal with these things."
One of the Living Bones started galloping towards them, rapidly snapping its jaws as it did so. Sophia raised Super Yo-Yo to parry the bite, then retaliated by casting Kougaon to blow the Living Bone backwards.
Another Living Bone started stomping forward, creating shockwaves from its feet with every step. Nick jumped over one of the shockwaves and started striking at the Living Bone's face, only for it to whip around and tail whip him back into a nearby tree.
Kratos decided on the direct approach, jumping up to a higher cliff to get some elevation before leaping right back down onto the back of the second Living Bone. Kratos then began yanking it around while it stomped around trying to get him off, only for him to guide it into the remaining Living Bone, damaging it with the shockwaves, before eventually overturning his mount and slamming it into the ground, crushing its head and leaving it easy pickings for Nick to finish off.
Ah, just like the good ol' days, Maylin thought.
Haruka parried another tail whip from the last Living Bone, then slashed at it with an upward strike from Divewing, but just as it flipped back up to charge back at her, an arrow lodged itself in its head courtesy of Atreus, and though it didn't seem to do any damage, it did distract the Living Bone long enough for Sophia to blast it into dust with another Kougaon spell.
"Okay, nice shot there, little dude," Nick chuckled.
"We should keep going," Kratos proclaimed. "The deer might have gotten away."
And so, they continued up the trail, occasionally stopping to dispatch more stubborn Heartless, though they thankfully weren't more Living Bones, mostly just Hook Bats that gave Atreus an excuse to practice his sharpshooting skills.
Eventually, they all found the deer they'd been chasing, though it seemed like they couldn't reach it from their current vantage point.
"Can you hit it from this distance?" Sophia asked.
"Maybe we should get closer," Atreus admitted. "Just in case."
So they started taking a different path.
"Day, father, I went hunting with mother a bunch of times, but you never wanted to take me," Atreus wondered. "Why now? What changed?"
"It was her wish," Kratos answered. "And... it was time."
"You wife must have been quite the woman," Maylin quipped, unsure of how Kratos would take that, considering that this was the second wife he'd lost in his life.
"She was... the best," Kratos sighed wistfully. His tone made Maylin want to know even more than ever what exactly had happened since the last time they'd seen him, but she respected his silent demand to not say anything in front of Atreus.
Was it a sensitive matter?
Did Kratos not want Atreus to know about his past?
Maylin was inclined to believe the latter, especially considering that she'd seen Kratos in "peak Ghost of Sparta", her words, during the end of Kratos' campaign against the Greek gods.
It hadn't been pretty.
It didn't take them much longer to find the deer, and the trinity could see that Atreus was still quite conflicted over what he had to do.
"Wait for my mark," Kratos proclaimed. "Relax. Do not think of it as an animal. It is merely a target. Clear your mind."
Despite his hesitation, Atreus did so, calmly fitting an arrow into his bow and aiming it for the deer, taking a couple more seconds to mentally prepare before he fired the shot, his arrow striking true.
As Kratos and Atreus both moved to finish it off together, Nick couldn't help but feel for Atreus, knowing that what he was doing would probably have been tough for anybody his age.
He just wished there was something he could do to ease that pain, knowing it was one kind of hurt that even the power of the keyblade couldn't soothe.
Before Kratos could prepare the deer to be taken back home, another rumbling shook the area, and a large troll monster broke through a nearby wooden gateway, carrying a large pillar in its hands.
"Atreus, get back!" Kratos shouted as he drew his Leviathan Axe.
"Wait, we're going to fight that?!" Atreus gasped.
"Looks like we don't have much of a choice," Nick quipped as the trinity all summoned their keyblades.
However, as the troll prepared to charge them down, something else flew down from the sky and impaled the troll in the back with its claws, causing the beast to flop over and lay still. Its attacker quickly revealed itself to be a large draconian creature with predominantly light blue and dark blue skin with a light grey belly, a rather thin body with large dark blue feet, and rough jagged-looking segmented wings alternating between light blue and dark blue. The creature's tail was long, wide and flat, sporting a few short spikes on its sides and a pale yellow zig-zagging stripe near its tip, its forehead sported a large horn with yellow highlights that curved upward slightly, it had beady yellow eyes on either side of its head, and its Heartless emblem was on its chest.
"Ooh, that's definitely not pleasant," Maylin quipped.
"Brace yourselves!" Nick exclaimed as the Wavecrest dipped its head down before flying towards them, spinning itself like a drill.
Kratos swung his axe to chop at the Wavecrest, only for it to whirl around and slap him back with its wings. Maylin cast Thunder from above, dropping a barrage of lightning bolts onto its back and stunning it long enough for Atreus to shoot a couple arrows into its flank.
Atreus seemed to be a little more relieved that they were fighting a Heartless and not simply hunting animals, but he figured he still had to be on his guard.
The Wavecrest flew upwards before unleashing a backwards somersault kick with its clawed feet, forcing Nick to jump to the side, though he was able to slash Reverberating Abyss across its side.
Sophia cast Rakunda to lower the Wavecrest's defenses and allow Kratos to land a few solid hits with his axe. After this, the Wavecrest dipped backwards, its mouth opening wide to spew a laser made of water energy.
The group all scattered to avoid the laser, but Atreus was clipped by the edge of the blast and knocked down to his knees. This seemed to set Kratos off, as he rushed towards the Wavecrest as it was recovering from the laser attack and started hacking away at it with his axe, until the Wavecrest eventually kicked him back.
"I'm all right, father!" Atreus exclaimed. "I think we've got it on the ropes!"
Haruka jumped off of Nick's shoulders to get enough elevation to slam Divewing into the Wavecrest's head and knock it off balance, though it quickly recovered and darted forward to slap at Kratos with its wings.
Atreus fired another pair of arrows into the Wavecrest's wings, causing it to dip lower and allowing Nick to run towards it.
Before he could swing Reverberating Abyss, though, time seemed to slow down around him and the teeth of his keyblade began to sparkle.
Nick focused on the Wavecrest as everything went back to normal for him, and he lunged forward incredibly fast to do a thrusting attack followed by a similarly lightning-fast upward strike that rocked the Wavecrest's head back and sent it spinning through the air before it collapsed to the ground, twitching violently.
Atreus, much to the trinity's surprise, ran up to the downed Wavecrest and started stabbing its body furiously with the edges of his bow.
"That's what you get, you freak!" Atreus shouted. "You really think I'm afraid of you?! You're nothing to me! NOTHING!"
"Whoa, calm down, little guy, it's already dead," Maylin quipped, though Atreus didn't listen, still shanking the Wavecrest even as its body disintegrated, a large energy heart escaping into the sky.
"Boy, look at me," Kratos proclaimed.
"We... we did it," Atreus gasped, feeling proud of himself.
"No. You are not ready," Kratos responded.
"W-What? Are you serious? I found the deer, I proved myself," Atreus retorted. "What more do I need to do to satisfy you?! I haven't been sick in a really long time, I know I can do this!"
"I said you are not ready," Kratos growled, his tone indicating he wanted absolutely no argument. Though still in disbelief, Atreus relented so they could all head back down the mountain trail, unaware that they were being watched from the higher cliffs by a member of Organization XIII.
"I told you there was something different about this forest," Atreus stated.
"Did I not tell you to be silent?" Kratos retorted.
"I hate to be a contrarian, Kratos, but he's got a point," Maylin admitted. "I'm not entirely sure what, but there's something very wrong in this place..."
Eventually, the group made it back to Kratos and Atreus' house.
"You lost control," Kratos stated quite simply.
"But that thing was trying to kill us, wasn't it?" Atreus retorted. "And it's not like you don't get angry in a fight, right?"
"Anger can be a weapon if you control it, use it, temper it correctly," Kratos answered. "You clearly are unable to do so yet."
"It's hard to do sometimes," Nick admitted. "Believe me, I've been in situations like that before, and it's not pretty when you let your anger get the better of you."
The rest of the trinity knew that Nick was speaking from experience, given that the memory of Antiform was still fresh in his mind.
"But father, I haven't been sick in a long time," Atreus pleaded. "I'm better now, seriously."
"You get lost in your anger," Kratos proclaimed. "The path ahead is very difficult, and you, Atreus, are clearly not ready."
Atreus looked like he was about to start arguing that point, but a pointed glare from Kratos shut him up quickly.
"Inside, boy," Kratos stated. "I wish to speak with them. Privately."
Atreus reluctantly headed inside the house so Kratos could talk with the trinity, the five of them walking further away from the house so Atreus couldn't possibly eavesdrop.
"I am sorry you had to witness my... sterner side," Kratos admitted. "I am trying my hardest to... be better."
"That's the question I wanted to ask earlier, honestly, but you just said not to say anything in front of Atreus," Maylin asked. "What the heck happened since Greece, Kratos? Haruka and I thought you were dead! We saw you stab yourself with the Blade of Olympus and everything!"
"I... am not entirely sure," Kratos admitted. "I simply discovered that I could not end my life in any traditional manner, so I merely chose to leave Greece behind."
"To be fair, there wasn't much left of it," Haruka quipped.
"Um, could I get a footnote here?" Nick wondered. "You two seem to know Kratos, after all."
"Oh, we go way back," Maylin answered. "Kratos was once a warrior known as the Ghost of Sparta, and basically, he was tricked into killing his wife and daughter by the Greek God of War, Ares. To make an extremely long story short, the Greek gods were kinda a bunch of jackasses, and Haruka and I assisted him in some of his endeavors to take them down."
"It would explain why this land looks nothing like Greece," Haruka stated. "And why you look and seem so different from our last encounter, Kratos."
Despite the haunting memories of his past in Greece, Kratos couldn't help but grin slightly. Maylin and Haruka had indeed joined him on a few of his more notable adventures to take down the Greek pantheon, and they were probably the only two people back then that he could consider anywhere close to 'friends', as they had never judged him for his past, having seen far worse on their own travels.
"When I met Faye... my wife... Atreus' mother... I vowed to not let my past haunt me," Kratos sighed. "And that I would train Atreus. Make him better than I was. But..."
"It's been hard?" Sophia asked. "He seems like such a nice boy, quite unlike the warrior you are."
"And consider that Kratos is probably operating off of Spartan values, and this clearly is not Greece," Maylin quipped.
"Also consider that it sounds like your past is really something you don't want to tell Atreus, right?" Nick noted.
"Unless there is no other option," Kratos responded. "He should not know of my shameful past. It will be better for him that way."
Their conversation finished, they all headed back to the house, where Atreus could be seen sulking about everything he'd just been told.
Before Nick could get a conversation started, there was a rather loud knock at the door.
"What was that?" Atreus wondered.
"I have a bad feeling," Haruka stated, clutching the handle of Divewing tightly.
"Hey, come on out already. It's no use hiding, I know who you are, mister."
"Wait, what's going on?" Atreus asked again. "Do any of you know this guy?"
"And more importantly... I know just what you are!"
"Boy, beneath the floor, now," Kratos stated.
"Hold on, I thought you told me never to go down there," Atreus answered. "Who exactly is this guy?"
"You might want to listen to your dad, Atreus," Nick responded. "I'm not liking the looks of this."
"Come on, just tell me what I want to know already. There's no need for this to get bloody."
Maylin and Haruka hung back to guard Atreus as he scrambled into the space beneath the floorboards, while Nick and Sophia stayed right behind Kratos as he opened the door to reveal a lean-looking man with a bushy brown beard, only wearing pants, and his body covered with strange blue tattoos.
"Hmph. Thought you'd be bigger," the Stranger chuckled. "But yeah, you're definitely the one I'm looking for. Aren't you a long way from home?"
"What do you want, buddy?" Nick taunted.
"Oh, I think mister big, tall and muscle-y here already knows the answer to that one," the Stranger quipped.
"Whatever it is you are seeking, I do not possess it," Kratos proclaimed. "You should move on from this place."
"...huh. And here I thought your kind was supposed to be so enlightened. So much better than us, so much smarter, and yet here you are, hiding out in the woods like a coward," the Stranger laughed.
"Trust me, you don't want this fight," Sophia answered.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure that I do," the Stranger laughed as he lashed out and punched Kratos in the face. Kratos didn't flinch from the blow in the slightest.
"I will only warn you once," Kratos stated. "Leave... my... home."
"You're gonna have to kill me if you want that to happen," the Stranger taunted as he continued to punch Kratos in the face, continuing until Kratos finally raised his hand to intercept the last punch.
"...I warned you," Kratos growled. "You would not listen."
"Oh, finally," the Stranger laughed as he prepared to strike again, only for Kratos to retaliate with a punch of his own that sent the Stranger flying backwards. "...all right, then, my turn."
The Stranger quickly picked himself up and rushed Kratos, actually managing to send him flying into the air with a massive uppercut, the Stranger leaping right after his quarry.
"F-Father?!" Atreus gasped when he heard the sounds of the fight.
"Maylin, Haruka, you two keep Atreus safe!" Nick exclaimed. "Sophia and I are going to help Kratos out!"
"Make sure you sock tattoo boy good, got it?" Maylin quipped.
Nick simply nodded as he and Sophia ran off around the back path of the house towards the larger field where Kratos had landed, the Stranger still raring for a fight.
"...how incredibly disappointing," the Stranger chuckled. "But you still look like you're rarin' for a fight, so why don't you just bring it on, then? I'll take you two on, too. The more the merrier."
"Come on, Kratos, we can take this weirdo," Nick proclaimed, switching his keyblade to Starlight.
"Maylin and Haruka are keeping watch over Atreus," Sophia stated, summoning Super Yo-Yo to her hands. "If you wish to, we can cut loose."
"It might be the only way this guy's gonna leave," Nick quipped.
"OH, what, are you finally gonna take this seriously?!" the Stranger laughed. "Come on, then!"
Kratos made the first move, lunging forward and slashing his axe across the Stranger's chest multiple times, but this didn't seem to do much, if anything.
Nick tried next, slipping closer and knocking the Stranger into the air with an Upper Slash so that Sophia could leapfrog off of his shoulders and blast the Stranger into the ground with Kougaon.
But much to their surprise, the Stranger simply shook it off like he wasn't even trying.
"Oh, this is pointless," the Stranger groaned. "You're boring me."
The Stranger barged forward and tried to hit Sophia with a right hook before she could land on the ground, but Nick raised Starlight to parry the punch before leaning back and clocking the Stranger over the head with a vicious downward strike.
"Hope that hurt, asshole," Nick growled.
"...are you even trying?" the Stranger chuckled as he picked himself up. "Come on already."
"Is this guy for real?!" Nick shouted.
The Stranger rushed towards Nick, only to leap over him and instead go for Kratos, and though Kratos raised his shield in defense, the Stranger simply punched through his guard and sent Kratos flying back towards his house with a rising uppercut. The Stranger jumped after him when Kratos landed in the roof of his house.
"H-Hey, get back here, you nut loaf!" Nick shouted as he and Sophia charged after him.
"This is real simple," the Stranger laughed. "You tell me what I want, and the pain'll stop."
That was when the Stranger looked down and noticed something odd. (Maylin and Haruka had taken cover when they'd seen the Stranger coming.)
"Okay, so why are there two beds here?" the Stranger wondered.
Nick rushed in, jumped onto the roof, and swung Starlight in a home-run swing that knocked the Stranger off of the roof, before slashing in a pattern that allowed Kratos to break free and jump down on top of the Stranger, wherein he started pummeling him in the face with his bare fists.
"LEAVE MY HOME," Kratos snarled, continuing to beat down the Stranger until he managed to break through and knock Kratos back to the ground.
"Oh, struck a nerve, did I?" the Stranger laughed.
As the Stranger advanced, Kratos grabbed a thick tree that had been knocked over during their battle and swung it with all his might to send the Stranger flying away.
"And he's outta here!" Nick laughed.
However, the Stranger simply picked himself back up even as Kratos ran over, grabbed him, and started to push him backwards, breaking through the house and lots of debris on his way.
"Man, this freak is unreal," Nick groaned. "It's like no matter how much we hit him, he either shrugs it off or heals quickly."
"Then maybe we've got to do something to keep up the pressure," Sophia pondered. "Deal damage faster than he can regenerate."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Nick quipped. "Let's hurry over there, then!"
"Who are you hiding, buddy?!" the Stranger growled as he continued to shrug off Kratos' blows. "You're slow, you're old, and you should never have come to Midgard."
"You talk too much," Kratos shot back.
"Tell me about it," Nick stated as he swung Starlight to attack the Stranger, while Sophia did the same from behind, eventually casting Rakunda to lower his defenses and hopefully hinder his regeneration.
"Come on, now, your lame magic tricks don't faze me in the slightest," the Stranger chuckled.
"Then how about you faze this?!" Maylin shouted as she cast a Thunder spell to knock the Stranger back, followed by a triple shot of Fire spells.
"Atreus is safe under the house," Haruka answered. "We figured you might need a little extra help."
"Well, Maylin, do you wanna try Wisdom Form, see if some supreme magic will get him to back off?" Nick offered.
"Ooh, I was hoping you'd make that offer," Maylin giggled as she jumped forward to take Nick's hand so they could merge into Wisdom Form, already aiming Starlight for the Stranger.
Somehow, though, Nick just had a feeling that he didn't have to worry about Antiform at the moment. He wasn't sure why, but he just knew.
"Two or one makes no difference," the Stranger cackled.
"Oh, we'll see about that, tattoo boy!" Wisdom Form Nick taunted as he started gliding around the Stranger, firing flurries of magical bullets to hold him in place and allow Kratos time to recover.
As the Stranger tried to break out of the pattern, Wisdom Form Nick rapidly cast Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga in that order, and even though it still didn't seem to affect the Stranger, his wounds did seem to be healing slower than before.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" the Stranger laughed. "Nothing you can do to me will work!"
The Stranger broke out of the magical barrage and rushed to grab Kratos before throwing him away, actually splitting a gigantic stone.
"Well, that's fine," the Stranger chuckled. "If you won't talk, then maybe whoever you're hiding would be more willing to spill the beans."
All of a sudden, Kratos roared in unyielding rage, his body actually glowing a harsh orange as he called upon the Spartan rage he'd hoped to never have to use again, actually managing to break free of the stone and grab the Stranger's head, pound him with a nearby tree trunk, and then use that tree trunk to battering ram the Stranger directly through the stone.
"Who is it?" the Stranger proclaimed. "Who are you so afraid that I'm going to discover?!"
Haruka slipped in while the Stranger was taunting and sent him spiraling backwards with a Windcutter attack.
"You're all boring me," the Stranger groaned.
"Man, what is the deal with this guy?!" Haruka exclaimed.
"Oh, are you giving up already?" the Stranger laughed. "You know, when Odin sent me here, all I really needed was answers, but then you had to act all proud, all high and mighty. Go ahead, throw whatever you've got at me, I'll just keep coming anyway. Your bodies will give out eventually."
"I would advise against underestimating us, you know," Wisdom Form Nick retorted. "Many a baddie has done that and regretted it."
"Oh, and here's a fun fact for you before I end you," the Stranger quipped. "Everything you've done to me? All the magic, all the cuts, slashes, and bruises? ...I can't feel any of it."
Before Kratos could respond to that, the Stranger punched him into the air.
"You've seen it with your own eyes, haven't you?" the Stranger laughed. "You can't hurt me, none of you can even come close. Nothing in this world can do anything to me. This fight, your struggle, is utterly pointless."
"Oh, we're not done yet!" Sophia exclaimed as she blasted the Stranger back with another Kougaon spell that sent him reeling.
"Oh, look how pathetic you are," the Stranger taunted. "You can't win. And you know it. I may not feel anything, but you feel everything. If you had just given me what I wanted, this wouldn't have had to end the way it is."
And that was when Sophia noticed that the Stranger's wounds were healing much slower now. "...I think it's working!"
"Wait, it is?" Haruka asked.
"He said that nothing in this world can hurt him," Sophia quipped. "And since we are not from this world, it seems like we're actually having an effect on him!"
"Then I think it's time to stop holding back," Wisdom Form Nick proclaimed, calling on the magical prowess of both himself and Maylin to perform one last showstopper of a magical attack.
"Come on, give it your best shot!" the Stranger laughed. "You know how pointless it all is!"
Wisdom Form Nick actually managed to surprise the Stranger by casting Magnera, the upgraded form of Maylin's Magnet spell, to trap the Stranger in place within a spinning orb of energy.
Four magical orbs, colored red, green, yellow and blue, materialized around Wisdom Form Nick before beginning to circle around them.
Kratos, Haruka, and Sophia wisely decided to step away.
"O power that lies at the root of all creation," Wisdom Form Nick chanted. "O memory inscribed in ages past... hear my call and arise before me!"
As the four magical orbs closed in, Wisdom Form Nick formed a Reflect barrier around himself.
"Ancient Catastrophe!" Wisdom Form Nick shouted, the orbs all colliding with the Reflect barrier and exploding outwards as a devastating flash of magic that threw the Stranger back, his wounds actually showing on his body.
His attack spent, Wisdom Form Nick dropped to his knees, splitting back into Nick and Maylin. Clearly, using that attack had left them unable to maintain the form.
"Kratos, there's your best chance!" Maylin gasped. "Finish that guy off already!"
Kratos simply ran forward and grabbed the Stranger in a chokehold.
"...I'd hoped that you, of all people I've faced, would be able to finally make me feel something," the Stranger groaned. "But you're just like all the rest."
With one last thunderous crack, Kratos twisted his hands and snapped the Stranger's neck, hopefully putting him down for good. After tossing the seemingly dead body into the ravine that they'd created during their struggle, Kratos couldn't help but ponder many of the things that the Stranger had said during the battle.
"Who was he?" Kratos wondered. "He knew me, but did he know of my past? How could they have found me after all this time? ...Faye, what should I do? Atreus is not ready to carry your ashes. ...and neither am I. I do not know if I can do this without you, but we cannot stay here."
"Let's just get back to the house for the moment and make sure Atreus is all right," Maylin answered as they trekked back to the half-destroyed house.
On the way there, however, the bag on Kratos' hip which contained Faye's ashes suddenly started glowing before levitating into the air.
"Don't worry, Kratos," Nick quipped as he re-summoned Starlight. "This will only take a second."
Nick held Starlight aloft as light energy began to swirl around the keyblade's teeth before projecting the image of a crown symbol, same as his pendant, underneath him.
Wind began to swirl around Nick until he found himself in the middle of a rusty-orange starry sky. The bag shined brightly before firing a burst of light into the sky that eventually formed into a large keyhole.
Nick jumped back and twirled Starlight around a couple times before firing a beam of light from the keyblade into the keyhole. Reality seemed to shatter around the keyhole for a brief moment before light began to shine from it, and after a loud "CLICK" resounded, Nick found himself back in the mountain trail.
The rest of the trip back to the house was silent until they got to the house itself, where Atreus was just now coming up from underneath the floorboards.
"It's... you're all right," Atreus sighed in relief. "I saw the debris everywhere, and I thought..."
"I am all right," Kratos answered. "Gather your things. We are leaving."
"But I thought I wasn't ready," Atreus cheekily replied.
"You are not, but now we have no choice," Kratos answered. "This is your chance to prove me wrong."
"Are you all going to come with us?" Atreus asked.
"I wish we could, but we've gotta hit the ol' dusty trail ourselves," Haruka answered.
"Yeah, other worlds are calling, and besides, I'm sure this quest you two are going on is pretty personal, and we're not going to intrude on that," Nick stated.
"Then take this with you," Atreus replied as he handed Nick a small trinket shaped like Kratos' personal shield. "Something for your travels."
Like it was second nature at this point, Nick attached the token to his keyblade and swung it upwards, the keyblade transforming mid-swing. This keyblade visually resembled a cross between Kratos' past life and his current one, as the handleguard resembled his old Blades of Chaos, the hilt was a large Omega symbol, the blade resembled Kratos' old Blade of Artemis imprinted with Norse runes, the teeth was the blade of the Leviathan Axe, and the keychain token, which resembled Kratos' shield, was connected to the weapon by a long cloth like the ones Kratos used to hide his old scars. The words Spartan Rage came to Nick as he studied the weapon.
As the trinity watched Kratos and Atreus ascend back up the mountain trail to continue their journey, they decided to rest here for a short time before moving on. After all, that fight with the Stranger had been pretty exhausting.
"Hopefully that weirdo's dead for good this time," Maylin admitted.
"I don't know, something about that man makes me think that he will not be defeated so easily," Sophia answered.
"I mean, come on, unfeeling body or nothing, Kratos snapped his dang neck!" Maylin proclaimed. "I'm pretty sure he's dead and rotting in that ravine!"
"...I hope so," Nick responded.
"...you know, I have a feeling that something in this world is very wrong," Haruka stated.
"How do you figure?" Maylin asked.
"I felt it right as Kratos and Atreus left for their journey," Haruka noted. "Something about them seems to be disturbing the 'flow' of this world..."
"It's probably because they're outsiders, much like yourselves."
A corridor of darkness opened up just ahead, between the many large trees that still remained after the fight with the Stranger, and another figure draped in the black cloak of Organization XIII stepped out of it.
The figure flipped their hood down to reveal a tall woman with a slender, athletic figure and a muscular build. She had tanned skin, sea green eyes, and long scarlet red hair braided at the end, and was wearing a gold headdress on her forehead and navy blue lipstick.
"You wanna explain what that crack meant, lady?" Maylin retorted.
"Oh, it's quite simple, really," Urbosa proclaimed. "After all, he's a god from a faraway land, from a pantheon that he himself destroyed. Simply him being here is upsetting the natural balance of this land, and could very well disrupt many well-laid plans that have been put together for eons."
"And what does that have to do with us?" Nick asked.
"Simple," Urbosa quipped. "You don't belong here, either. Keyblade wielders are supposed to be keeping the balance intact, not cavorting through worlds where they're not welcome just because it's what they want."
"Excuse me, you little twit, do you really think we're supposed to just let the Heartless and your little Nobody brigade do whatever they want?!" Maylin shouted. "Fat chance of that!"
"Well, in the end, you probably won't be a thorn in our side anyway," Urbosa taunted as she raised her hands, electricity flashing between her fingertips before summoning eight separate knives that she held between her fingers to form makeshift claws.
Each knife was shaped like a cross and designed to look like the top half of the Nobody logo, one of the spikes elongated and acting as the blade of the knife, while the other three acted as the grip, with a cyan base that was clearly separated from the bright yellow blade, and the other three spikes were a slightly paler shade of yellow with a cyan tip.
"Because you won't be anything but roast turkey when I'm through with you," Urbosa proclaimed as she sparked with electricity, before disappearing and reappearing a few yards back alongside what appeared to be a clone of herself, and they both rushed forward at (fittingly) lightning speeds, knocking Nick straight into the air.
Urbosa and her clone then jumped into the air and came back down to try and dive-bomb Nick with a stab from Foudre, but Nick did a backflip to recover his poise and swung Spartan Rage upwards to jostle Urbosa off balance.
When Nick landed on the ground, two more clones of Urbosa started bum-rushing him and slashing Foudre at him. Nick spun around with Spartan Rage extended to get them to back off, but more clones just kept coming.
"Oh, enough of this clone bullcrap already!" Maylin shouted as she cast Reflect on Nick as Urbosa and more of her clones continued to barrage Nick with unrelenting attacks.
But now, when they struck the Reflect barrier, it held for about five seconds before shattering, a cascade of flashing lights around Nick rebounding all of the damage Urbosa and her clones had done back into them.
Nick took advantage of this moment to move in close and start hitting Urbosa, landing four clean swings before popping her into the air with a Finishing Leap.
Nick quickly ducked back down and grabbed the clone as it tried to sneak up on him, then jumped into the air, twirled around and threw the clone back into Urbosa before slashing through them horizontally, forcing Urbosa to re-merge with her clone.
"Gotcha now!" Maylin exclaimed as she ran forward just as Urbosa touched the ground to attack, knocking Urbosa around with three wicked swings before knocking her right back into the air with a Magic Hour.
Just then, Urbosa split back into multiple clones that all blitzed towards Nick at once, slashing at him from multiple angles before spinning around him in a ring, and ending when all of them bombarded Nick from above with a dive-bomb followed by a brief surge of lightning.
But just as Urbosa rushed forward to stab Nick in the chest with Foudre, Haruka parried the blow with Divewing before jumping and fiercely slashing downwards, clubbing Urbosa in the head and driving her into the snow-covered ground.
This gave Maylin just enough time to cast Curaga on Nick and heal the injuries he'd taken from that last attack.
"Talk about close shaves," Nick admitted. "Thanks again, Maylin."
"Always happy to be your battle cleric," Maylin giggled.
"Heads up, everyone!" Sophia shouted as Urbosa picked herself back up.
"All right, now I'm mad," Urbosa growled, electricity sparking around her as she spread her hands out, unleashing two gigantic blasts of lightning from her palms and spinning around wildly while lightning bolts randomly dropped all around her.
The trinity ran in the direction that Urbosa was turning to stay one step ahead of the beams, Nick even using his Quick Run, an Advancing Form Ability he'd learned from Wisdom Form where he did a short but swift dash in one direction, to keep up.
Eventually, after a while of this, Urbosa vanished and reappeared with her clones in a ring formation that trapped the trinity inside of it.
"I don't think so!" Sophia exclaimed as she slammed Super Yo-Yo into the ground just as Urbosa and her clones all attacked at once, summoning Pandora to cast a wide-range Makougaon spell that flooded the area around her with light, driving Urbosa back and temporarily obliterating her clones.
Seeing his opportunity, Nick rushed in to start attacking, knocking Urbosa back into the air with an Upper Slash before jumping up to meet her, slashing three times before sending her flying back with an Aerial Finish.
"You're going to wish you never messed with Organization XIII," Urbosa growled. "You seriously wish to keep us from our one true goal?"
"Well, we're not sure your 'goal' is all that noble if you're trying to hijack Kingdom Hearts itself to do it," Maylin taunted.
"With the power of Kingdom Hearts, we can reset everything," Urbosa bellowed. "We can defy what was destined to happen to us, and redo the events that led to our sad fate!"
"But what good do you really think causing chaos and bedlam in the worlds is going to do to fix what has happened to you?!" Sophia shouted.
"Oh, shut up," Urbosa snarled, her body sparking with electricity again. "You people are all the same, aren't you?!"
At that moment, Maylin looked down at the snow that blanketed the Norse lands around them and thought of a rather wicked way to end this fight.
Thankfully, Nick seemed to catch onto what Maylin was planning, since they both got into position.
"Now, you will feel the sting of my lightning," Urbosa proclaimed.
Before Urbosa could charge, though, Nick shot a Blizzard spell at her while Maylin launched a Fire spell alongside it. The Fire spell struck the Blizzard spell before either spell could hit Urbosa, melting the Blizzard spell and drenching Urbosa with water.
"...what was that supposed to do?" Urbosa taunted. "Getting me wet won't stop me!"
As Urbosa raised Foudre to cast a lightning spell again, Haruka and Sophia both cottoned onto what was about to happen.
"HIT THE DECK!" Haruka shouted, the trinity all diving in different directions just as the lightning came down around Urbosa. When she felt her body conducting it, however, Urbosa only had time to curse her own foolishness as the lightning exploded outward, the water she was drenched by conducting the electricity and flash-frying her on the spot.
When the blast cleared, Urbosa collapsed to her knees, wisps of darkness flitting off of her body.
"...this... this can't be how it ends..." Urbosa gasped, glancing at her hands even as the rest of her body began to break apart. "I... I need to... get back to... to the... the princess..."
And with that, Urbosa had spoken her last, her body fading back into darkness and leaving the landscape around them calm once again.
"I think I'm starting to get the pattern here," Nick quipped once the battle was over. "Every member we've fought so far, Rei, Mary, and Urbosa, they all mentioned somebody before they faded away..."
"Enji... Fuyumi... Shoto... I can't... I can't..."
"I... I have to... find Ib... and tell her... tell her that I always wanted to be her..."
"I... I need to... get back to... to the... the princess..."
"I wonder if that has something to do with their 'fates'..." Haruka wondered.
"Yeah, Mary mentioned that, too," Sophia answered. "That does seem to be why they seek the power of Kingdom Hearts. But... were these fates really so bad that they'd want to use what's essentially the heart of all worlds to rewrite reality itself just to undo their fates?"
"When you're desperate, it can make you do crazy things," Nick sighed.
And the girls knew exactly what Nick was referring to, the time he'd stabbed himself with the Dark Keyblade to free his sister Marie's heart from his own body, despite the fact that the act had also completed Lost Jerusalem's Final Keyhole and nearly plunged the world into darkness.
"Either way, it looks like we've defeated three members of the Organization," Haruka noted. "And they're definitely getting tougher with each one we have to fight."
"Hey, we beat a false god, right?" Maylin chuckled. "I'm not scared of these clucks like they think we are!"
As the trinity left Midgard to return to the Gummi Ship, if they had stayed but a minute longer, they would have missed another hooded figure observing events from a higher peak of the mountain.
"...you should be," the figure whispered before disappearing into a corridor of darkness.
To be continued...
Keyblade acquired!
Spartan Rage
Strength: 8
Magic: 1
Length: 135
Ability: Damage Drive (Restores the Drive Gauge every time damage is taken. The amount restored to the Drive Gauge is relative to the damage received.)
Description: A keyblade representing a once vengeful demigod who only wishes to leave his bloody past behind.
On the next episode...
Nick: ...so, is 'medieval-looking castle' a popular gimmick in a lot of these worlds?
Maylin: Maybe they're just noes where technology hasn't advanced as far as others have.
Haruka: I'm sensing darkness and dark intent all over this castle, too. Yeah, I've got a bad feeling about this...
Maylin: It's even got an overconfident dark wizard running the place. That tracks.
Nick: Wait a minute, is that girl... is she a sheep?
Sophia: It appears so.
Maylin: Why is wizard boy keeping her captive here?
Nick: I think that boy with the sword is trying to help her. So let's go and help him, next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse II, "The Sheep Who Did Nothing Wrong"!
Nick, Maylin, Haruka and Sophia: May your hearts be your guiding key!