Aboard Freya's flower boat, magic pulled the rowing vessel, slowly carrying Kratos towards his home.
Along the way, thunder and lightning clashed, and the sky was stained a vivid crimson, like the end of the world.
Gale-force winds, flashes of lightning, and the sharp cries of ravens.
As the boat passed through the tunnel, a figure appeared before Kratos: Athena in her spectral form.
‘Athena... Get out of my head!’ Kratos took a deep breath and suddenly opened his eyes.
With Kratos's roar, as the boat cleared the tunnel, the spectral Athena also vanished.
This scene left Zhang Yi somewhat taken aback. Had the spectral Athena come to the Norse lands, or was it merely Kratos's hallucination?
Guided by the magic of Freya's flower boat, Kratos followed the stream until he finally returned to his doorstep.
On the journey home, the path was filled with frost Undead soldiers.
Putting away the Leviathan Axe, Zhang Yi controlled Kratos, punching these Undead soldiers repeatedly.
Because the axe's ice-element attacks, instead of dealing damage to these small mobs, triggered a deflect mechanism. Coupled with Zhang Yi's previous skill point allocation mostly favoring the axe, fighting now felt a bit strenuous.
After a round of punches, seeing the accumulated energy bar, Zhang Yi immediately activated Spartan Rage, finally entering 'slaughter mode' and fighting his way to the house door.
Pausing at the door for a second or two, Kratos took a deep breath before pushing the door open.
A large hole gaped in the ceiling, a remnant of Kratos's previous battle with Baldur.
Coming to the center of the room, Kratos pulled back the furs spread on the floor.
Beneath it was a basement, previously used to hide Atreus, but Kratos's target was not the basement.
Reaching in, Kratos retrieved a package from the compartment between the basement and the floor, then slowly placed it on the ground.
Next, Kratos looked down at his bandaged hand, which symbolized his past.
Having made up his mind, Kratos took a deep breath and slowly opened the package.
A pair of Blades of Chaos lay quietly there.
“It really is the Blades of Chaos!”
Gazing at the familiar Blades of Chaos, Zhang Yi felt goosebumps erupt all over his body.
Now, he felt only one thing: excitement.
He had thought that Kratos, having come to the Norse lands, would no longer have these Blades of Chaos.
But he never expected them to be hidden here.
It wasn't just Zhang Yi; all players who reached this point, provided they had played the original trilogy, were incredibly excited.
Everyone understood what these powerful Blades of Chaos meant to Kratos; they represented his dark, painful past.
Having come to the Norse lands, Kratos clearly wished to forget everything from his past and start a new life. Yet now, Kratos once again confronted that dark past.
Deafening thunder boomed in the sky, and a flash of lightning streaked across the blood-red heavens.
The intense flash of lightning created a moment of daylight, and then, as the light faded, the spectral Athena once again appeared at the doorway.
But this time, Athena was not silent as she had been on the boat; she actually spoke.
‘You cannot hide, Spartan!’
‘No matter how much distance you put between yourself and your past, you cannot change any of it.’
‘You can pretend to be a different man... a husband... or even a father?’
Accompanying Athena's words, Kratos showed no rage, no madness; he simply untied the bandages from his arm and re-wrapped the chains of the Blades of Chaos around his arm.
As the chains attached to Kratos's arms, the curse-like flames ignited once more.
Kratos, with the chains now wrapped, slowly rose and walked impassively towards the outside, passing Athena.
‘There is a truth you can never escape, never change: you will always be... a monster!’ Athena said, looking at Kratos as he approached.
‘I know... but I am no longer your monster.’
Hearing Kratos's words, Zhang Yi's heart swelled with excitement and profound emotion.
If players hadn't experienced the Greek trilogy of God of War before.
Then for most players, these would simply be weapons with special attributes.
For example, the previous axe had an ice attribute, and these Blades of Chaos had a fire attribute.
It would just be the game adding a more unique weapon gameplay experience for players.
Just like the Cestus, bow, and Claws of Hades in the original trilogy, they all served a similar function.
There would be nothing particularly special about them.
But for Zhang Yi and other players who had experienced the previous content.
The Blades of Chaos definitely didn't simply represent a new weapon.
What defined Kratos?
His bald head, tattoos, violent temper?
But there was also another symbol: this weapon.
Although it was just a weapon, it symbolized Kratos's past life.
In this moment, the simple appearance of the Blades of Chaos instantly brought Kratos's entire character to life – it was truly brilliant!
This represented Kratos truly beginning to confront his past.
He had served the Olympian gods for ten years, hoping they could help him shed his sins.
Even after becoming the God of War, helping his Spartan kin was also Kratos's way of escaping his past.
And during the final battle against Zeus, Kratos fell into a hallucination.
His daughter and his wife appeared in the illusion, but Kratos ultimately shattered the false illusion and successfully killed Zeus.
This was his first time confronting his past self.
Yet, after killing Zeus, he gained a new past he wished not to remember.
That was, regardless of the truth, he had indeed killed his father and those Olympian gods connected to him.
Even if, from the players' perspective, these gods brought it upon themselves.
The truth of the matter would not change.
However, that was the Kratos of the past.
The Kratos of old constantly sought to avoid his past, using bandages to cover the permanent scars left on his arms by the chains, and facing Atreus's many questions during their journey.
He was always concealing his past; his entire life was a tragedy caused by the gods, so if he could choose, he would even prefer not to be a god.
Thus, Atreus had always believed his father was merely a slightly stronger human.
It was this difference in perception that prevented Atreus from wielding his divine power, causing him to fall into a coma.
But now he no longer evaded; he chose to confront his past.
Instead, for Atreus, he unearths the Blades of Chaos once more, confronting his past.
This was character development for the plot and for Kratos as a character.
For players who had already experienced the Greek mythology trilogy, the significance of this weapon was clearly not so simple.
Especially Kratos's line, ‘I am no longer your monster,’ was truly shocking, and it also reminded Zhang Yi of another classic character from Nebula Games: Ethan.
One a mortal, one a God of War; in terms of combat power, Kratos and Ethan were obviously worlds apart.
Yet, the current Kratos and Ethan shared a commonality.
They were both 'monsters,' 'monsters' named fathers.
Pushing open the door, countless Undead soldiers erupted from the ground outside. The next moment, the Blades of Chaos wrapped around his arms ignited with hellish, cursed flames.
Familiar controls, familiar moves.
Zhang Yi was beaming with excitement.
With wide-range AOE attacks, the Undead mobs that previously required multiple punches to defeat were now taken down directly with a single combo.
Gripping the Blades of Chaos, Kratos headed in the direction of Helheim.
In his hands, these perpetually burning Blades of Chaos had been stained with the blood of innocent mortals, the blood of monsters, the blood of Greek heroes, and likewise, the blood of his kin and the gods.
The Kratos of old wielded these Blades for revenge, but now he would use this weapon, which represented his dark past, to rescue his son.
(End of Chapter)
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