//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Turning Point // by ZachTheBrony //------------------------------// After the murder of Poseidon, along with numerous other Olympian Gods, Kratos progressed back to Gaia, whom now had a very tight grasp on the top of a tower that was set upon Mt. Olympus, wherein Zeus, the God of the Skies and Thunder, stood with his arms crossed. The vicious warrior who sought the king of the God's death to no end, Kratos, the former God of War, raced up the mother Titan's massive thumb. He jumped off, and landed on the shiny but lifeless marble floor of the tower. His legs took the shock, but he didn't care for a single second. He stood up, and almost casually walked towards Zeus. "What will you do, father? You can no longer hide behind the skirts of Athena," Kratos said threateningly as he walked towards his creator. He stopped walking as Zeus spoke, his arms still crossed. "Athena is dead because of the rage that consumes you, Kratos. What more will you destroy?" the king of the Olympians frowned at his son as he scolded him. "The hands of death could not defeat me." Kratos gritted his teeth as he glared at his father. "The Sisters of Fate could not hold me." he then aggressively leaned forward, and glared daggers at his father. "And you will not see the end of this day. I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" he reached back and pulled out the Blades of Athena as he bellowed this. Zeus raised his voice as his face twisted into a great anger. "Petulant child! I will tolerate your insolence NO MORE!!!" he took into the skies that were shrouded by a thick layer of dark gray clouds, which quickly had lightning crackling around them, thunder crashing as loud as the sound of a tidal wave crashing against the land, or an earthquake destroying a building. Drawing power from an epic twister of clouds and lightning, the God of the Skies landed upon the hands of an oxidized copper green statue which held its hands out in fists. He channeled said power into a lightning bolt in his right hand, and held it above his head as Gaia attempted to swing a powerful, and likely fatal slam from her rocky palm at the God. Zeus immediately hurled the lightning bolt, which was irradiating with immense electrical power, at Kratos, who failed to jumped out of the way. The result was Gaia's hand being separated gorily from her massive forearm, in turn making the Titan yell in agony. Kratos, on the other hand, was sent flying down from Mt. Olympus with the mother of the Titans. After a long fall, Gaia caught hold of a ledge. She cried out and groaned in pain as this hurt her separated wrist. Kratos, luckily, caught hold of a tiny rock that jutted out from Gaia's back. "GAIA!" Kratos called out. "I CAN HOLD ON NO LONGER!" "If I help you, we will both fall. Even now, Zeus gains!" the Titan clenched her teeth and pulled herself -with a lot of pain coming from her severed wrist, mind you- up the rocky wall. Kratos groaned as he was thrown off. He summoned the Blade of Olympus, and drove it into Gaia's back, and slid down her back, creating a cut that didn't bleed as he did so. "THE DESTRUCTION OF ZEUS IS WHY YOU SAVED ME FROM DEATH!" he bellowed angrily. Gaia looked down as she also slid down the rock face, her right hand going down and her left hand, though severed, staying up where it was. "I saved you to serve the Titans..." she boomed. "Do not deny me my revenge!" Kratos grasped the Blade of Olympus tightly as he ordered this, his face crunching-up in his rage. The Titan grunted as she struggled to hold onto the mountain. "Listen carefully, Kratos," she spat with venom. "You were a simple pawn. Nothing more. Zeus is no longer your concern. This is our war, not yours!" she boomed, lashing her right arm back and slamming it further up the great mountain. From the quake-like shake that came from this action, Kratos lost his grip on the Blade of Olympus. As he fell from the Titan, he yelled, "GAIA!!!" And he fell... And fell... And fell... 'I have lived as a warrior...' 'I have died as a God...' 'Having suffered the ultimate sacrifice...' 'I have been denied release.' 'I... I will defeat Olympus. I will have my revenge!' But as Kratos broke free of his thoughts of strong Spartan determination, he was falling through a sky. But... Wait-... Whoa, hold on a second. Back up. Where was the River Styx?! Where were the tortured souls and moaning demons and the scent of death that wreaked the underworld that is Tartarus!!?! Had he been cast under a spell!? The land below, once Kratos looked at it in awe, looked very unrealistic... There was no texture to the grass... Or anything... Just solid color. It hurt his eyes at first glance... But at this time, he had just exited the stratosphere of this strange new land. The two things he caught a glimpse of before he smashed into the ground, were a great mountain in the distance. Now, this mountain didn't look like Mount Olympus in the slightest... And the second thing he noticed, the mountain loomed over a town in a valley next to the it, but it surely wasn't Athens... Kratos only got a three-second glimpse of these things. He looked back, and the ground pretty much welcomed him into his home, yelling a greeting. ... With the dirt. ... And with a loud thump. - - - - Zeus smirked, and chuckled, now standing with his brothers. "Kratos should not be a burden to us anymore, my brothers." he declared with a wicked smile. The Gods of Olympus, I mean, those that were left, cheered in victory. "Olympus will rise again!" Zeus boomed. "Brothers..." he now had the Blade of Olympus. "... Now we remove the final problem that stands between us and our glory..." he stepped toward the edge of the beautiful marble tower, and looked down upon the slowly ascending Titan... Gaia. "My brethren... This is a simple task that we will accomplish." Zeus laughed. "The victory of Olympus is imminent, and it is inevitable!" he declared. Hades was the first to jump down. He took out his vicious claws that could rip the soul from even a Titan, and swung them down at Gaia as she climbed. Helios was the second to take flight downward. His carriage was carried by flaming horses. Gaia's fate was sealed. She didn't react quick enough, and Hades' clawed hooks punctured through her thick, rocky skin, and Hades let gravity do the work, until he landed with a loud crack on a large balcony of stone, beginning to pull back. Gaia yelled in pain as Helios delivered a painful burst of sun energy into her eye, blinding her temporarily. She then felt even more pain as Hades began to rip her soul out. Zeus was the one to deliver the final blow. Flying down towards her head with the Blade of Olympus in hand, Zeus yelled with vigor as he hurled the powerful blade into her skull. Gaia could take no more. The Titan's soul ripped from her body, and the Blade of Olympus was collected by Zeus, who landed beside Hades, with an evil smirk on his face. Gaia let go of the mountain, and lifelessly, her body fell to the raised ocean below, slowly becoming engulfed by the dark waters.