As Zelos severed the magical connection between the realms and locked them away from the true Jotunheim, chaos immediately erupted.
Kratos instantly took out his Leviathan Axe, gripping the frozen handle tight. He swiftly brought the blade up to block an incoming, devastating kick from one of the three sudden attackers.
Kratos was genuinely surprised when he saw his magical axe completely blocked by a mere boot. It was an incredibly thick, iron-plated shoe that absorbed the freezing impact without breaking. Kratos then saw the attacker grin maliciously.
Before Kratos could counterattack, Baldur lunged forward and punched Kratos with incredible speed.
However, the blow was abruptly stopped by a shimmering magical barrier that Zelos erected just in time.
Simultaneously, a sharp arrow was sent flying directly towards Kratos's head, which was also blocked by the sturdy magical shield. Atreus did not hesitate. He quickly fired off an arrow imbued with the fire element.
The arrow struck the ground near the attackers, causing a massive explosion of flames and embers, forcing Baldur and the god with the thick iron boots to jump back and dodge the blast.
"Well, well, well. It seems that the All Father is right. We just needed to wait for the exact right moment, and we would arrive at Jotunheim," Baldur commented with a nasty snicker. He grinned towards his two companions, who also wore maniacal, bloodthirsty smiles on their faces.
"Hahahaha, nothing beats taking advantage of the hard work of others. Say, bald man, thank you for your effort. You can die gracefully knowing that you have done a great service for the All Father," said the one who was holding the bow.
He kept his weapon pointed at Kratos and Zelos, completely ignoring Atreus, as if seeing the young boy as an insignificant being not worthy of his attention.
"Enough. We have a mission from the All Father," the one with the thick boots then said. His voice contained a deep, brewing anger within it, strongly resembling Kratos's own dark demeanor when he was back in Greece.
"What a bore," Baldur commented, rolling his eyes. He then turned his attention back towards Kratos and his sons with a wide grin.
Baldur firmly believed that they had already won the war. There was a specific spell that his father, Odin, had created that would always connect them back to the realm of Asgard, allowing them to instantly send in their vast armies of Einherjar once they breached the realm.
Now that they were supposedly in Jotunheim, Baldur raised his hand and tried to connect the realm with Asgard.
But as the Bifrost magic sparked brightly in his palm, it suddenly died down into nothingness. This absolute failure made Baldur extremely confused, and the same confusion washed over his two other companions.
"Baldur, stop messing around, you dumbass. The All Father wants to massacre the Jotunns as early as possible," the one with the bow and arrow said impatiently.
The other god with the thick boots grunted in firm approval. Baldur just continued to try sparking the magic without any success, and he was getting more and more frustrated by the second.
"Stop wasting your time. You might think this is Jotunheim, but we are actually in a place that I have conjured myself.
It is a completely separate pocket realm that I made with illusions from what I have seen from the glance I had of the real Jotunheim. No one will be able to leave here unless I will it so.
This isolated space will be your grave, Baldur, along with your two henchmen," Zelos said mockingly.
He looked at Baldur as well as his two companions, deliberately trying to sow discord among them, as he could easily tell that the three gods did not have the best working relationship.
"Hehehehe, the only correct thing you have said in your miserable life so far is that these two are my henchmen," Baldur said with a wicked laugh.
However, he was immediately punched hard in the shoulder by the one with the thick boots and was shot point-blank by the other with an arrow.
Both of these friendly fire attacks did not hurt Baldur in the slightest, clearly showcasing his absolute invulnerability to all threats.
"Hehehe, I will truly enjoy taking that arrogant tongue of yours, brat," the one with the arrow said, aiming at Zelos.
Before he could lose the string, he was violently attacked by Zelos. The young sorcerer unleashed his Zoltraak spell, a piercing beam of concentrated magic.
It directly hit the one with the arrow right in his torso, exploding with tremendous force. But strangely, the powerful magic did not penetrate his skin, brilliantly showcasing this archer god's own incredible durability.
As Kratos and Zelos continued to closely observe their would-be opponents, Atreus suddenly got a clear idea of who the three attackers actually were.
One of them was obviously Baldur, the very same god that Zelos and his father had tried to kill earlier, but were unsuccessful.
The other two were being recognized by Atreus, and the more he intently stared at their specific appearances and weapons.
"Vidar and Vali, the Twin Gods of Vengeance," Atreus subconsciously said out loud.
Hearing his name, the one with the arrow smiled brightly towards Atreus, clearly proud of his infamous reputation. The one with the thicker boots, Vidar, did not seem to mind being recognized either.
"Ahh, it seems one of them actually has a brain in his head. Well, I guess that is great. Someone must solve the complex mysteries of the Jotunns that they used when they locked away Jotunheim," Vali, the one with the arrow, said smoothly.
Atreus looked at Vali and Vidar with a little bit of desperate hope.
"We are both half Jotunn. Why must you hunt us down like this?" Atreus then said, as if trying to appeal to the Jotunn side of their bloodline.
"Big deal, so is Thor, and you know exactly what that fat cunt has done against the Jotunns. Oh, and to the two of you who had not recognized us, I am Vali. I do not want you misnaming the ones that killed you when you finally go to the afterlife. It is the only glory that you will ever earn in your miserable lives," the archer said, formally identifying himself as Vali.
This specific introduction greatly surprised Zelos.
'Huh? Did Vali not get born long after Baldur died? In the stories, he was aged by Odin into adulthood in a single day, specifically to kill the blind god Hodur.
Plus, the lore I know did not even have information about Vali being active right now. Even the ancient scrolls that we had read in the conscripts during our travel mentioned nothing. I also cannot remember Mother mentioning his name even once.' Zelos's mind worked frantically.
This was the very first time he had encountered this kind of experience, being completely blind and lacking crucial mythological information.
"How did you know them, Atreus?" Zelos then asked Atreus, who was slightly surprised by the sudden question from his usually all-knowing brother.
"Oh, during the last days of Mother, I had spent a lot more time with her, and she started telling me stories like the ones that she had told us when we were little. Mother started describing twin gods that had fiercely fought against the Jotunn.
They believed that the Jotunn maliciously killed their mother, Grid, who was also a giantess, just like Thor's mother.
I heard from Mother that the two went on a brutal rampage, ensuring that literal rivers of blood were made with the bodies of the Jotunn that they had slaughtered.
Mother said that they are the prime example of how Odin's cruel manipulation could take deep root in the hearts of those that are his targets, where even something so profoundly untrue was made into an absolute fact in their minds." Atreus then said, recounting the tragic tale.
He turned towards Zelos, who was now looking at the two gods. Both Vidar and Vali now had incredibly angry and hateful looks plastered on their faces after hearing the boy's words.
"Those Jotunns killed our mother because she did not want to fight for their pointless war, and that is the absolute truth," both Vali and the thick-booted god, now fully identified as Vidar, said simultaneously. Their voices echoed with raw fury.
Baldur snickered loudly on their side, clearly enjoying the drama, as this chaotic rage was exactly what Baldur wanted to see.
Zelos could see their anger boiling more and more with every passing second. Kratos saw the same thing, and the brothers' blind, manipulated rage instantly reminded him of his own tragic, manipulated past under the rule of the Greek Pantheon.