Robert Vardeman - God of War

“Your mortal fights well. Look. See that?” Zeus beckoned her to his side. Together they watched as Kratos picked his way through a succession of fiendishly inventive death traps. “He does have talent,” Zeus mused. “It’s a pity about the madness, isn’t it? Those awful visions-it’s astonishing he’s borne them for so long.”

“He hopes for release, Father. We talked about this before, do you recall? You yourself have decreed that if he succeeds, his sins will be forgiven. And forgiveness will banish the nightmares, will it not?”

Zeus waved a hand vaguely, now caught up in watching Kratos slice through another company of undead, Gorgons, and Minotaurs, first with the huge Hades-forged blades and then with the sword given him by Artemis.

“This is the most diversion I’ve had in eons.”

“Father, Kratos’s nightmares. Will they-”

“Look, look there, Daughter.” Zeus pointed into the scrying pool again, and Athena knew she would get no answer for Kratos.

For her Kratos, as she now thought of him. She became as engrossed in the unfolding battle as was her father, and Athena fell silent.

KRATOS STEPPED THROUGH A DOORWAY that slammed shut behind him. He had grown used to such imprisoning behavior in the Temple of Pandora. The Architect was cunning in his design, but now Kratos felt rising anger. Cheated! He had come full circle and was again in the ring corridor circling the central core. All his effort had been for naught. Raging, he slammed his fist hard against the inner wall, then stepped back as a panel slid away, allowing him entry into another annular corridor. But this one showed a more extreme curve, telling him he was now nearer the center. His anger faded as Kratos realized he was closer to completing his quest. There was no other explanation. He stepped through the door, which closed immediately behind him.

Other than the more extreme curvature, this corridor might have been the twin to the outer ring. He began hunting for different ways inward to locate Pandora’s Box. He was close. He felt it. Then he felt something more: The floor vibrated.

Turning, he saw that a huge roller stretching from one side of the corridor to the other had begun to spin, sluggishly at first and then with increasing speed. He quickly judged that the weight-the stark power-of the roller exceeded his ability to stop it.

Kratos ran in the direction away from the roller, following the curving corridor. Ladders on either wall beckoned, but a quick glance at them convinced him they were traps. Their rungs would allow a man to climb only so high before they gave way and dropped him to the floor in front of the roller to be crushed.

He realized the ring around which he ran had to provide an escape. The Architect’s stone-graven promise outside the temple would not be a lie-why bother? Kratos ran past stairs cut into the wall, leading upward. He jumped onto the bottom step as the roller rushed by, scraping skin from his arm. He looked up the steps but did not ascend. Rather, he waited, counting slowly. It was a full minute before the roller ground past again.

Jumping back into the corridor and following the roller gave him no way out. If he flagged for even a step, the roller would continue on its inexorable path and eventually lap him to crush him from behind. Kratos ran up the stone steps to the top of the ring wall. In the center was a large pool of water, but his attention focused on a different course of escape. On the far side of the corridor stretched a walkway disappearing into the heart of the temple.

Reaching it would be difficult, because he judged that the ladder from the corridor floor up to the walkway was as treacherous a trap as the other wooden ladders. The roller whirred past. A smile curled his lips. Kratos braced himself, waited for the roller to come by again, and jumped atop it.

The spinning stone beneath his sandals forced him to adjust his gait to match its speed as it rolled about the annular corridor. As it traversed the full circumference of the ring, Kratos edged to the far side of the roller, and when the walkway came even he jumped. His powerful legs propelled him forward, and still he missed. Frantically reaching out, he caught the edge of the ladder-he had been correct in his earlier judgment. A trap. The ladder collapsed under his weight.

Reaching back, he caught at the hilt of a blade of Chaos and cast it outward so that its curved tip embedded in solid stone. He fell a few feet, dangling from the chain fused to his wrist. Kicking, he got his feet against the wall, leaned back, and began to walk up it. Then he saw the roller returning, faster now than before. With a mighty jerk, Kratos pulled himself up to the walkway just as the roller flashed past. He had escaped being crushed by a fraction of a second.

He ran along the walkway, taking the turn that went into a tunnel and up a long flight of steps. A puff of air warned Kratos he was going outside the temple. He slowed, then stopped, wondering if he had somehow missed the proper way through the temple, away from the concentric rings behind him. Then all chance of retreat vanished. From higher on the steps came an ear-splitting roar. Outlined against pale light stood a cursed legionnaire, its sword whistling through the air. To run from it was anathema to Kratos.

He charged up the steps, the Blades of Chaos weaving a terrible curtain of death in front of him. His blades crashed into the long sword carried by the undead legionnaire and rebounded. Kratos dodged to the side to prevent a lowered shoulder spike from puncturing his chest as the legionnaire turned.

It vented hideous screams as it renewed its attack. Kratos fought furiously, slowly pushing the creature into the daylight. A broad open area interrupted only by a huge box towering high over his head lay behind the cursed warrior. Kratos’s heart almost skipped a beat. Could this be Pandora’s Box? Redoubling his efforts, he forced the creature back, but the legionnaire was a doughty opponent, clever and quick and deadly-as Kratos found out when the legionnaire cut at his leg, caught a greave, and knocked him to the ground.

The blow embedded the jagged sword edge in the bronze greave, but it also gave Kratos the chance to kick, twist, and stomp down hard against the blade. He dislodged it from a fierce grip. Sword still stuck in his greave, Kratos spun about and got to his feet in time to use his blades against a furious onslaught of bony fists and armored elbows. The spike at either elbow could have disemboweled him, but a quick turn allowed it to slash past, leaving only a bloody gouge in his belly.

The legionnaire tried to unbalance Kratos to regain the sword still caught in his leg armor but never got the chance. Kratos abandoned his sword hilts in favor of using his fists to pummel the creature, driving it to its knees. This was all the opening he needed. Avoiding the shoulder spike, Kratos got behind the cursed legionnaire and gripped its chin and helmeted head. A powerful heave broke the undead’s neck.

Kratos reached down and pried loose the creature’s blade from where it had caught in his greave. He tossed it aside, but the heavy body armor looked better than the cobbled-together set he had worn and discarded in Athens. Kratos scraped away dried blood and scabs from his bare flesh, lingering only on the red tattoo that showed his rank as a Spartan leader. Darkness threatened him again. Kratos refused to permit the memories to flood back, though he had little control-only willpower now kept him from deep depression and frightening nightmares. He donned the fallen undead’s sturdy bronze-plate armor and found that it came closer to fitting his powerful body than most that had not been specifically forged for him. Only then did he turn to examine the huge box, towering twice his height.