A Darker Day
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As the story goes, the king of kings was once betrayed by a friend. It wasn’t until later that he discovered the true identity of his betrayer—someone so dangerous that only a handful of knights had managed to slay him in battle.
This man’s name was Kratos, son of the God of War himself. In the past, he had been the champion of Olympus, but in the end, he lost all faith and left his home in the sky to become a murderer on Earth.
He spent the rest of his days wandering the world in search of new ways to kill until at last, he met a young man named Atreus. He was a prince of the gods who came to this land as a pilgrim seeking answers about his own father.
The young boy was very weak and frail, and his family couldn’t care less. They thought of him only as a burden, but when he found out what they’d done to him, he vowed to kill everyone responsible and make their lives a living hell.
At first, Atreus was terrified of his uncle Kratos, but over time they became friends. Kratos helped train Atreus in the ways of combat and how to control his powers. But after a while, they both realized that if they ever fought each other again, it would be nothing short of total and utter bloodlust.
In the meantime, the two traveled the countryside searching for Kratos’ long-lost family. When they finally found them, they were horrified to discover that they had turned into beasts and slaughtered their own family.
In their rage, Kratos and Atreus killed the entire lot of them—including Atreus’s own family. The prince had a choice to make: should he go back to killing innocent people or follow his sworn oath to protect and serve?
He chose to protect and serve. Together with Kratos, they began their quest to defeat all the monsters in the world. But one day, as they were crossing the ocean, their ship was attacked by a giant Kraken.
Kratos was too strong for the creature, so instead, he decided to fight Atreus, the one person who could possibly stand a chance against it. But when they defeated the Kraken and went back to the city, everyone thought Kratos was dead. In his absence, the city was being ravaged by monsters.
Atreus was forced to kill the remaining citizens in order to protect them. That’s why they became known as the “Darkness Clan,” as they carried their dark, shadowed souls wherever they went.
***
Kratos’ Revenge
In the future, after Kratos’ reign over Olympus ended and he descended into madness, a new king rose from the ashes. This time, he was called Zeus, King of Kings himself. He used his godly powers to summon an army of giants and send them marching toward the Earth.
But he didn’t count on one thing: the fact that Kratos would rise up like a phoenix from the ashes once again to protect the people of this land.
With Kratos by his side, Zeus faced off against the titans head-on. But it wasn’t long before he was killed in the battle. It seemed that this king was just as weak and vulnerable as the rest of us mere mortals, after all.
However, when the final titan died, its body disappeared—only to reappear a few months later. And in its hand, it held the very weapon that had been forged with Zeus’s own blood. It was a powerful magic sword called The Blades of Chaos, a weapon so terrible and evil that even Kratos could not control it.
The only one who could wield this weapon and use its power was none other than Atreus, Zeus’ own son. So when Zeus learned this, he sent the boy off on a journey to find the last remaining heir of the Chaos Clan, but unfortunately, Atreus never came back. He was presumed dead by everyone in the land.
But then a miracle occurred. Atreus’ ghost appeared before Kratos in a vision, warning him of an evil prophecy foretold by the gods themselves. They told Kratos that if he didn’t follow his path and become the God of War again, all of Olympus would fall into utter chaos.
If only he would return, the gods said, there was a chance they might help him save his kingdom from certain destruction. But at the same time, the god of the sky reminded Kratos that if he did not obey, the world would end and mankind would cease to exist.
At this point, Kratos could choose either to return to his duties as a warrior for the gods or to protect the land from evil. As he weighed this dilemma, a voice echoed through the heavens above Olympus. It was Atreus himself, the son who he’d thought was long dead.
“What will you do?” the boy asked, his voice echoing like a bell through the skies.
“I will save the world,” Kratos replied without hesitation.
Kratos had returned to his life as a god-slaying war hero once before. It took years of training, but he eventually found his way back to Olympus—only to find that everything he knew about himself had changed.
For one thing, Kratos no longer had an eye patch. Instead, his eye had healed completely and was as bright as any other. And although the rest of his body was still covered in scars, his wounds were far from fatal. But perhaps most surprising of all was the fact that his hair was white as snow and falling out of his head like cotton candy.
But when Kratos reached the top of Mount Olympus, he realized that his friends and family were nowhere to be seen. Zeus himself had abandoned his throne to rule as a human, leaving all of Olympus in turmoil.
When Kratos learned what happened, he realized that the world would have fallen into complete chaos if he hadn’t returned. And now that he had made his choice, Kratos would go on to fight monsters and evil wherever he could.
***
Atreus’ Return
It was nearly a hundred years later. Kratos had already saved the world several times over, and now he was living in solitude on the edge of the world, where he raised a family with Atreus, a son he had fathered after meeting the Oracle on top of the mountains of Greece.
As Atreus grew up, Kratos began training him in the ways of war, so that one day, when Kratos was gone, Atreus could continue the family’s legacy. However, just like his father, Atreus wasn’t very strong.
So for years, they spent their time traveling across the land, hunting monsters until at last, Atreus learned enough about combat to take care of himself. But one day, Atreus found a mysterious golden ring and fell unconscious in the forest.
When he woke up again, he discovered that the ring had changed his appearance and given him magical powers. But more importantly, it allowed him to transform into a powerful beast known as The Bear.
Now, the Bear would help protect Atreus from monsters and other creatures as he traveled through the land. In fact, Atreus became so adept with this new weapon that he even earned the title of “The Hero of Asgard” from Thor himself. He fought many monsters and demons throughout the lands and even helped defeat a mighty titan on the battlefield of Mount Olympus itself.
And while these battles gave Atreus more power, he also realized that there were some things about himself he still couldn’t control. One night, as the hero slept soundly, he was visited by an apparition. It was none other than his own father—Atreus’ grandfather, Zeus.
“Father?” asked the boy in disbelief, as the god approached and touched his shoulder with a single finger. “How are you here? Are we really talking now?”
“I have returned,” the elder deity replied. “The gods of Olympus have all forsaken me. I cannot even sit upon my throne because they have abandoned me.”
Kratos watched this conversation with interest, wondering why his friend had chosen to abandon his home and his people. He thought perhaps his father knew something the others hadn’t. But before he could ask for answers, another figure appeared next to his old friend.
It was Atreus’ wife, Deidre. She was pregnant and looked worried. Then her son, who Atreus had not seen for years, appeared and embraced his mother’s stomach.
“Father?” Atreus gasped as he finally recognized his grandson. “What happened?”
Zeus smiled down at Atreus and said, “The world needed saving again.”
“I know, but—”
But Zeus had already left to go help with the war in the mortal realms. And when Kratos tried to follow him, he found his way blocked by a massive, armored monster that stood in front of Zeus’ throne.
It was the Titan Cronos, a mighty warrior who had once enslaved the Olympians and ruled over his children with an iron fist. And even though it seemed the god had defeated the mighty beast, its body remained standing as an obstacle for anyone wishing to reach their home on Mount Olympus.
When Zeus told Kratos about what had happened, he offered the god a chance to join him in fighting against the titans, but Kratos turned him down. He was already busy training his son, who he believed would be the strongest mortal alive one day.
So instead, Kratos chose to travel back through the worlds of the dead—the realms of the gods—and try to find another way around the great monster. But just like before, when he reached the place where the Titans were born, he encountered the Titan Cronos, but this time the hero didn’t have any magic rings to transform into a bear. He couldn’t escape from his enemies.
And so Kratos prepared himself to die, accepting that he had failed to save Olympus. Then at the last second, Atreus appeared and transformed himself into the Bear and helped the hero fight off his enemy.
As they did, Zeus appeared beside them and revealed to everyone that Kratos wasn’t a hero after all. He was only pretending to be one and hadn’t actually done anything. The gods began arguing, which left the hero with no choice but to kill them. This, too, seemed like a fitting end to his story—that Kratos, like his father before him, would sacrifice himself to save the world.
The End