27 – Kratos and Pandora Journey (2)

AT A LOCATION WITHIN EGYPTIAN TERRITORY

Ra, the Sun God, recognized as the most powerful Egyptian God, has been battling the forces of Chaos for millennia. But his actual situation was special. He has been fighting daily for 41 years, with no time to rest, after a spacial rift opened in the center of the Egyptian territory.

When the rift opened, no God felt it, so it allowed Chaos creatures to wrecked havoc around the Egyptian Realm, but they're later suppressed by Ra and the other Gods.

But the Chaos creatures managed to kill all Oracles, and the Gods who had powers to see the future were unable to do so after the attack.

The Gods then came up with a plan to stop the attack. And Ra, being the most powerful God in the realm was tasked with protecting the rift. And so he did for 41 years, with no rest.

The Sun God launched an attack on the Chaos creature that was about to enter through the only rift that gives access to the Egyptian realm.

After killing the creature, another one came next. Ra shot another sunbeam and killed the creature.

Just as he was about to take a breath, he felt two deities enter the Egyptian realm, '' Hmmm...?''

He used his powers and quickly noticed Kratos and Pandora, '' And who might these be...?''

Ra knew about the Greek and the Nordic kingdoms, so he had a basis for who it was, "From the looks of it, they are Greeks. But what are they doing here?''

The Sun God suddenly attacked the rift and killed a creature that was trying to sneak in.

As Ra could not leave his post, he called another deity to check the intentions of the outsiders. ''Thoth!''

After a few seconds an old man appeared in front of Ra, '' Did you call me?''

''Two outsider Gods have just passed through the realm's barrier. Can you verify who they are and what their intentions are?''

Thoth nodded, ''Let me see what they look like... Ah, I know who the man is, but I don't know the woman.''

Ra asked, ''Who is the man?''

'' The famous Ghost of Sparta, who helped the other Greek Gods to end Zeus' tyranny. As far as I know, he left the Greek realm decades ago.''

'' I wonder what he is doing here?'' Ra asked curiously.

Thoth tried to think of a solid reason, but nothing came to his mind, '' Maybe he's just passing through? I can keep an eye on him if you want.''

Ra nodded and added, "Don't let Seth know about this. He loves a mess, even more so with another god.''

Thoth nodded and disappeared from Ra's sight. The Sun God sighed, '' Hopefully it's nothing bad!'' Then he continued at his post, defending the realm against Chaos' attack.

-----

WITH KRATOS;

Kratos passed through several villages, and some mortals seemed to recognize him, some even bowed to him.

Pandora noticed this, '' Have you ever traveled to this realm?

Kratos was also confused, '' No...''

The God of War noticed that, although they looked at him in fear, the mortals did not run away, ''What could have happened?''

Kratos and Pandora were in the middle of a journey, when suddenly, an old man appeared in front of them, '' Good afternoon!''

Instantly, Pandora and Kratos took off their weapons, as they recognized the man as a God.

'' OW ow, calm down. I come in peace... please put down your weapons.''

Kratos looked at the man and noticed no malice. He then started to lower The Blade of Chaos. Pandora did the same when she noticed his actions.

'' What do you want?'' Kratos grumbled.

The old man still had his hands up, '' Excuse me for intruding, but it is not normal to see a deity from another realm passing through ours. Can you tell us your intentions?''

Kratos still had his guard up, '' We are passing through, going north.''

As he was the God of Wisdom of the Egyptian Realm, Tooth was genuinely intrigued, "May I ask why?''

Kratos stayed quiet. Pandora, who looked up to Kratos, was following his lead.

'' Fair. I will show you an easier way to get to the Norse Realm. Follow me.'' Thoth then began to walk.

Kratos and Pandora stood still. The girl then asked, "Shall we follow him?''

Kratos looked again at the old man and saw no malice, '' Let's follow him for now. If something happens, we'll fight!''

Pandora nodded, and the pair began to follow Thoth, who was trying to have a conversation.

''Forgive my frankness, but I am really curious about what the famous Ghost of Sparta is doing here.''

At the mention of his nickname, Kratos stopped walking. Thoth noticed this and stopped as well.

''How do you know that name?'' Kratos said with his hands on the Blade of Chaos.

Thoth said calmly, '' It seems that the Greek Realm does not send spies to the other Realms... we have a network of information about everything that happened in the other realms.''

''That's how I know about your family, about how the other gods rebelled against Zeus and how you, the God of War, helped them.''

Kratos kept walking, but his hands were still on his weapon, '' ... Can you tell me something about the North?''

Thoth, realizing that this was a chance to get on Kratos' good side began to talk without stopping. He explained to Kratos about Yggdrasil and its branches, which contained worlds. Odin and the giants. Everything he knew, he was talking about.

And so four weeks passed, in which the trio hardly rested.

It was nighttime when Thoth said, '' Let's rest here today.''

Kratos and Pandora looked at him suspiciously. Tooth said quickly, ''It's just that we're close to the barrier. Let's talk some more... what do you think?''

In respect for the information Thoth had given him, Kratos sat down on the ground. Pandora saw that Kratos was going to stay there and took some kind of cloth from her backpack and lay down on it.

Thoth sighed in relief and also sat down, '' I would think that after so much time together, you would trust me more.''

Kratos looked Thoth in the eyes, '' To gain my trust is a long road.''

''But you trusted the Greek gods when they went against Zeus.''

'' The situation was different. Zeus had lost his mind, and I wanted revenge.''

After that, the two remained silent. Thoth then asked, '' Can you ask me a question?''

Kratos was quiet but nodded.

'' In your realm, there were Goddesses who could see the future, right?''

'' The Sisters of Fate... and yes, they existed.''

Thoth nodded, '' So, there's something our informants couldn't figure out... what happened to them?''

Kratos hesitated, remembering the circumstances behind the Sisters' deaths. 'Should I tell ...?'

After a moment, Kratos decided to tell. He talked about the vision they had, that they tried to change the future only for one of them to suffer a backlash.

He talked about how the other two sisters decided to follow the first one in death but left some of their powers behind, and about how their bodies were shattered by some creatures after they died.

After Kratos finished talking, he noticed that Thoth was surprised and shocked, so he asked the Egyptian God, "What happened?''

This time it was Thoth who hesitated. The Egyptian God thought for a while and then sighed, "41 years ago, a Chaos rift opened in our Realm. Our oracles lost their powers or were killed by some creature... but they all left a morbid message.''

This caught Kratos' attention, ' It seems that all the oracles from all the realms had a vision.'

The God of War asked, '' And what would this vision be?''

'' Destruction. The Oracles died before they could speak about the visions, but they wrote about what they saw on paper.'' Thoth seemed angry when it came to what happened to the Oracles.

Kratos said nothing and silently took a book from Pandora's bag. It was a description of the vision of the Sister of Fate.

The God of War passed the book to Thoth, who took it with perplexity, '' What is this...?''

''Read it.'' Kratos said this and stood still.

Thoth didn't understand anything and started to read. The more he read, the more shocked he became, ''The visions are the same!''

As soon as he finished reading, Thoth sighed, ''This is bigger than I expected... can I take this to Ra, our leader?''

Kratos agreed, "This is just a transcript of the message. It can stay with you.''

Thoth thanked him and disappeared from the scene, heading towards Ra.

Kratos took advantage of Thoth's departure and decided to get some rest. Just as he was about to do so, he heard a, '' Finally!''

Pandora and Kratos reacted immediately, with weapons at hand. Both the Greek Gods noted the man who talked. It was a God, it had a horse head and Kratos noted that it had powers similar to his, ' A God of War, perhaps?'

'' I thought the old man wouldn't go away, but he finally did it!'' The God finally realized something, '' Oh, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Seth, the God of War in this realm! It's a pleasure to meet you...?''

It was clear that he asked for Kratos and Pandora's names, but both stayed quiet.

Seth didn't seem bothered by it, '' Heh, it really doesn't matter, it was just courtesy. Now, I can see that you are really strong!'' He pointed at Kratos, '' How about a spar?''

Kratos finally talked, '' I just passing by, I don't want to kill anyone.''

While Kratos didn't want to sound arrogant, those words had triggered Seth, '' So you think you can kill me? Ha, we will see about that.''

After saying that Seth attacked Kratos. Pandora wanted to intervene but Kratos shook his head at her.

You see, while Kratos was training Pandora, he was also training himself. He had lost a lot of things to his Rage, so he wanted to control it. But one of the aspects of the God of War is the more rage he has, the more powerful he can be.

Kratos was trying a lot of things, and one of them was holding back in combat. Kratos lost control sometimes when he was training Pandora but he always managed to hold himself at the end, before delivering the final blow.

And now, against a 'real' enemy, Kratos was also holding back by a lot, to see if he could control his rage. 'Let's see how long I can hold it this time!'