Freya's flower boat, pulled by magic, gently carried Kratos towards his home.
Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, the sky a bloody red as if the world was ending.
Gale-force winds, lightning, and the sharp cries of crows.
As the boat passed through a tunnel, Kratos saw a figure before him: Athena, in her spectral form.
"Athena... get out of my head!" Kratos took a deep breath and his eyes snapped open.
With Kratos's roar, the spectral Athena vanished as the boat exited the tunnel.
This scene left Zack momentarily stunned. Did the spectral Athena also come to the Norse lands, or was this just Kratos's hallucination?
Guided by the magic of Freya's flower boat, Kratos followed the stream all the way back to his doorstep.
The journey home was filled with frost-covered undead warriors.
Putting away the Leviathan Axe, Zack controlled Kratos, punching the undead warriors one by one.
Because the axe's ice attribute attacks did no damage to these weaker enemies, they triggered a deflect mechanic. Furthermore, Zack had mostly invested his points into the axe earlier, so fighting them now was a little challenging.
After a flurry of punches, seeing the energy bar filled, Zack unleashed Spartan Rage, and then entered a killing frenzy, carving a path to his doorstep.
Pausing for a second or two at the door, Kratos took a deep breath before pushing it open.
The ceiling had a large hole in it, a remnant of Kratos's earlier fight with Baldur.
Moving to the center of the house, Kratos peeled back the furs laid on the floor.
Beneath them was a basement, where Atreus had been hidden before. But Kratos wasn't aiming for the basement.
Reaching into the gap between the basement and the floor, Kratos pulled out a package and slowly set it on the ground.
Next, Kratos looked down at his bandaged hand, a symbol of his past.
With his resolve set, Kratos took a deep breath and slowly opened the package.
A pair of chained blades rested there quietly.
"It's the Blades of Chaos!"
Seeing the familiar Blades of Chaos, Zack felt goosebumps rise all over him.
He only felt one thing now: excitement.
He had thought that Kratos, now in the Norse lands, would no longer have these chained blades.
But he never expected they would be hidden here.
Not just Zack, but any player who had experienced the previous three games felt immense excitement.
Everyone knew what the Chaos Blades meant to Kratos. These powerful weapons represented Kratos's dark and painful past.
Having come to the Norse lands, Kratos clearly wanted to forget everything and start a new life. But now, Kratos was facing his dark past once again.
A deafening thunderclap erupted in the sky. A bolt of lightning streaked across the bloody sky.
The lightning's intense glare created a momentary daylight. Then, as the light faded, the spectral figure of Athena appeared again at the doorstep.
This time, Athena didn't remain silent as she had on the boat, but spoke.
"You have nowhere to run, Spartan!"
"No matter how far you distance yourself from your past, you cannot change any of it."
"You can pretend to be a different person... a husband... or perhaps a father?"
As Athena spoke, Kratos didn't rage or go mad. He simply and silently unwrapped the bandages on his arms and re-wrapped the chains of the Chaos Blades around his arms.
As the chains attached to Kratos's arms, the flame that felt like a curse reignited.
With the chains secured, Kratos slowly stood up, his face expressionless, and walked towards the outside, passing Athena.
"There is a truth that you can never escape, and can never change. You will always be... a monster!" Athena said, watching Kratos approach.
"I know... but I am no longer your monster."
Hearing Kratos's words, Zack was filled with excitement and deep emotion.
If players hadn't played the Greek trilogy of "God of War" before,
then for most players, this would have just been a weapon with special attributes.
For example, the axe was ice-based, and these chained blades were fire-based.
It was simply adding a more unique weapon mechanic for the player.
Just like the gauntlets, bow, and grappling hook in the trilogy, they all served a similar purpose.
There was nothing particularly special about them.
But for Zack and other players who had experienced the previous content,
the Chaos Blades were far more than just a new weapon.
What is Kratos's icon?
A bald head, tattoos, a short temper?
But there's also this weapon.
Even though it's just a weapon, it symbolizes Kratos's past life.
At this moment, the appearance of these simple Chaos Blades perfectly captured Kratos's entire character. It was brilliant!
This signifies that Kratos is truly beginning to face his past.
For ten years, he had served the Olympian gods, hoping they would help him absolve his sins.
Even after becoming the God of War, helping his people, the Spartans, was Kratos's way of avoiding his past.
And in the final battle against Zeus, Kratos fell into a vision.
His daughter and wife appeared in the illusion, but in the end, Kratos broke the false illusion and successfully killed Zeus.
This was the first time he truly faced his past.
But even after killing Zeus, he had a new past he didn't want to recall.
That is, no matter the truth, he had indeed killed his father and those Olympian gods he was related to.
Although, from the players' perspective, these gods had brought their fates upon themselves.
But the truth remains the truth.
However, that was the Kratos of the past.
The old Kratos had constantly tried to avoid his past, covering his arms scarred by the chains' burning touch with bandages. When Atreus asked many times during their journey,
he always concealed the truth. His life was a tragedy caused by the gods, so if he could choose, he would have preferred not to be a god.
Because of this, Atreus always thought his father was just a slightly stronger human.
It was this difference in understanding that prevented Atreus from unleashing his divine power and caused him to fall unconscious.
But now he no longer ran. He chose to face his past.
He dug out the Blades of Chaos again for Atreus, and faced his past.
This is character development, shaping Kratos's character.
For players who have experienced the Greek mythological trilogy, the meaning of this weapon is clearly not that simple.
Especially Kratos's line, "I am no longer your monster," was incredibly impactful, and it also reminded Zack of a classic character from Nebula Games: Ethan.
One is a mortal, the other a God of War. In terms of combat power, Kratos and Ethan are worlds apart.
But Kratos and Ethan now share a common trait.
They are both "monsters." A "monster" called father.
Pushing open the door, countless undead warriors erupted from the ground outside. In the next moment, the Blades of Chaos wrapped around his arms ignited with hellish cursed flames.
Familiar actions, familiar moves.
Zack was filled with excitement.
With wide-ranging AOE attacks, the small undead monsters that previously required him to punch them to death were now dispatched with a single combo.
Wielding the chained blades, Kratos headed towards Helheim.
The chained blades in his hand, burning with an eternal flame, had been stained with the blood of innocent mortals, the blood of monsters, the blood of Greek heroes, and also the blood of his relatives and gods.
In the past, Kratos wielded these chained blades for revenge. Now, he would use this weapon, which represented his dark past, to rescue his son.
(End of Chapter)
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