CHAPTER 107 — THE PRICE OF CHOOSING
The moment Kratos' foot touched the dim path, the Ninth Realm answered.
Not with violence.
With judgment.
The ground beneath them sank, slowly at first, then with deliberate certainty, drawing Kratos and Atreus downward as the brighter path—the one blazing with rage and power—rose upward and vanished into the void like a temptation withdrawn. The air thickened, pressing against their lungs, their thoughts, their very souls.
The Judges did not move.
They watched.
Atreus felt it immediately. His knees buckled as the fracture in his chest ignited with a deep, pulsing heat. Not pain—recognition. The realm was no longer testing him indirectly. It was speaking to what lay inside him.
"Father…" Atreus whispered. "Something is changing."
Kratos tightened his grip on Atreus' shoulder. "Do not fight it blindly. Endure it. Observe."
The Ninth Judge's voice echoed again, deeper now, layered with countless others.
"You rejected dominion. You rejected certainty. Therefore, you will walk the path of loss."
The obsidian plain dissolved.
Suddenly, they were no longer standing within the Ninth Realm.
They stood in Sparta.
Not the city as it once was—but as it died.
Smoke choked the air. Stone streets cracked beneath rivers of blood long dried into memory. The sky burned red, frozen at the moment of destruction. Soldiers lay motionless, faces locked in fear and betrayal.
Atreus staggered back.
"No… this already happened."
Kratos did not speak.
A younger Kratos stood at the center of the square, blades soaked, chest heaving. The past version turned slowly, eyes hollow, and looked directly at them.
Atreus felt something tear inside him.
"This isn't a vision," he said. "It's… preserved."
The Ninth Judge answered.
"The Ninth Realm does not create illusions. It remembers."
The younger Kratos stepped forward.
"You chose power once," he said coldly. "And the world burned."
The scene shifted violently.
Now they stood amid Midgard, shattered. Towers collapsed. The sky fractured with lightning frozen in mid-strike. Gods lay broken across the land—not slain, but abandoned, their power drained, their purpose erased.
Atreus' breath hitched. "This hasn't happened yet."
Kratos' eyes narrowed. "It will. If the Nine are allowed to continue."
The Ninth Judge spoke again.
"Every restraint you choose delays destruction—but does not prevent it. Every mercy creates weakness. Every bond becomes leverage."
The world twisted again.
They stood on a quiet battlefield.
Atreus froze.
He saw himself.
Older. Taller. Standing alone, bow shattered at his feet. Bodies lay scattered around him—friends, allies, names he had not yet learned.
And standing across from him…
Kratos.
Older. Hardened. Silent.
The future-Kratos raised the Leviathan Axe.
"No," Atreus whispered. "Father… please—"
Kratos roared.
"ENOUGH."
The vision cracked.
Frost exploded outward as Kratos slammed the Leviathan Axe into the ground. The illusion shattered into fragments of memory, scattering into the void. The Judges shifted for the first time—subtle, but undeniable.
Kratos stepped forward, eyes burning—not with rage, but defiance.
"You show me outcomes," he growled. "Not inevitability."
The Ninth Judge loomed closer, its presence bending reality.
"You believe choice absolves consequence."
"No," Kratos said. "I believe choice defines who we are, not who you demand we become."
The realm trembled.
Atreus clutched his chest as the fracture flared brighter than ever before. Crimson light poured through his veins, but this time it did not spread outward violently. It folded inward—stabilizing.
"Father…" Atreus said through clenched teeth. "I can hear them. The trapped ones. They're not screaming anymore."
Kratos turned sharply. "What are they doing?"
Atreus closed his eyes.
"They're… waiting."
The Ninth Judge recoiled slightly.
"Silence, child."
Atreus opened his eyes—and the crimson glow in them did not belong to the Nine.
"You're afraid," Atreus said quietly. "Because this realm doesn't control us. It feeds on what we surrender."
The Judges stirred now, their massive forms shifting uneasily.
Kratos stepped beside his son.
"The Nine did not create balance," he said. "They created a system where sacrifice feeds them endlessly. That ends here."
The Ninth Judge's voice deepened, layered with something colder.
"Then you will pay the final price."
The ground split open.
Chains erupted upward—massive, ancient, forged from the essence of every realm. They wrapped around Kratos' arms, legs, and torso, dragging him downward toward a chasm of pure void.
Atreus screamed. "Father!"
Kratos resisted, muscles straining, frost surging—but the chains were not physical. They bound legacy. Every god he had slain. Every realm he had scarred.
"This is my burden," Kratos said calmly. "Not yours."
"No!" Atreus shouted, threads exploding from his bow, wrapping around the chains. "I won't let them take you!"
The Ninth Judge thundered.
"If he remains, you walk free. If you pull him back, the fracture completes—and you become what they fear."
Atreus froze.
The choice crushed him.
Let his father be consumed… or embrace a power that could destroy everything.
Kratos met his gaze.
"Listen to me," he said firmly. "Whatever you become—choose it yourself. Not for me."
Atreus' hands shook.
Then he tightened his grip.
"I choose us."
The fracture surged—but instead of exploding, it reshaped. Crimson light shifted into deep silver, threaded with gold. The chains screamed—not aloud, but conceptually—as Atreus pulled.
The realm convulsed.
Kratos was ripped free, crashing onto the obsidian ground beside his son.
The Judges staggered.
For the first time since their formation, one of them fractured—a crack splitting its massive form.
The Ninth Judge roared.
"THIS WAS NOT FORESEEN."
Kratos rose slowly, placing himself between Atreus and the Judges.
"Then your foresight is flawed," he said.
The Ninth Realm shook violently.
Deep below, the prison stirred.
Something ancient began to awaken—not a god, not a monster—
A truth the Nine had buried.
Atreus felt it clearly now.
"Father…" he whispered. "We didn't just resist the trial."
Kratos nodded.
"We broke its rule."
The void above them cracked open.
And from the depths of the Ninth Realm, something began to rise.