As they resumed their journey in Midgard, Zelos sensed something unusual. A faint pull in his mind slipped away, and he realized that the magic he had placed on Baldur had completely disappeared. The sudden loss made Zelos pause for a moment while the others kept walking.
He wondered quietly to himself. 'Does this mean my spells stop working the moment I leave a realm? Or is it only certain kinds of spells that deal with time or ongoing effects? Maybe the difference in time flow between realms interferes with anything meant to last for a long period. This is something I have never encountered before, and I do not like the idea of having a limitation that I cannot predict yet.'
While Zelos remained deep in thought, the walk became silent, only the sound of snow crunching under their feet. Atreus suddenly broke the quiet.
"So what has been going on between you and Freya? Do you think she might become your special someone?" Atreus asked.
The question came so abruptly that it snapped Zelos out of his internal thinking. He had been trying to analyze the weakness in his magic, and the shift in topics caught him off guard.
"Whatever happens in my life is none of your concern," Zelos replied. His tone was calm, but it was clear that he did not expect to be questioned like that.
Even so, Atreus pushed further, as if he had been holding these questions in for a while.
"Well, I mean, she is kind of too old for you, right? She is a goddess. She is even older than Father and Mother. If you do get together, would she not be sad when your life ends while she stays alive? It feels like a very uneven situation."
Zelos listened quietly as Atreus spoke. He let him finish before answering, and during that time he thought about his words.
"I do not really see that as a problem," Zelos said. "There are thousands of stories where gods meddle with mortals, and their ages never stopped them. Besides, I know magic. There is no telling what I can do once I reach a deeper understanding of everything I want to learn. If I want to match her age, or at least slow my own, there might be ways to do it. I still know only a very small portion of magic. I plan to explore everything that exists until I can do things even the wildest imagination would fail to predict."
Atreus became silent, but only for a moment. He then asked a question that made both Kratos and Zelos stop walking at the same time.
"Do you think you will be able to bring back Mom?"
Zelos and Kratos looked at Atreus. The boy's expression carried a mixture of hope and fear, and Zelos understood immediately why Atreus asked it.
"Let me tell you something important," Zelos said slowly. "Souls are far more intelligent and far more powerful than people think. They are capable of making their own choices, and if someone forces them, the result will never be what you want. Look at Brok. His body returned because the missing piece of his soul wanted to return. He was fully unaware that he died, and because of that, his soul naturally accepted the restoration. But look at Draugrs. Their souls do not want to be here. They were forced back, and the result is not something anyone would ever consider living. I do not know if this is causation or correlation, but it is not a coincidence. If Mother wants to come back, she could make it happen in her own way. If she does not want to return, then no matter how strong I become, I will not force her. Even if I had all the power in all the realms, would you really want me to drag her away from a peaceful rest just because you miss her?"
Atreus did not answer. His face lowered, and he walked a little slower. Zelos stayed silent beside him, because halfway through his explanation, he realized he had also been speaking to himself.
Kratos eventually spoke as well.
"Peace and death are not the same," Kratos said. "Some think they must be connected, but they are not. Your mother lived her life. She carried her pain, her grief, and her joys. She found peace in her choices. We should not disturb that peace."
Kratos walked forward again, though his steps were heavier. Zelos watched his back and knew that the man carried far more than he let show.
Kratos had destroyed an entire pantheon, and not every god he killed had deserved their fate.
Faye had been the one who taught Kratos how to change. Losing her was not something Zelos could fully understand, even if he knew the entire story from the perspective of a player.
Zelos had also lost his mother in both of his lives. Yet his grief came from a human lifespan, not centuries of battles, losses, and regrets.
The two kinds of pain could not truly be compared, but they had similarities. What Zelos did understand was that he needed to ensure Kratos and Atreus continued their journey the way Faye intended.
Even though he was now part of their adventure, Zelos knew he needed to let them live it as their own story, while he only nudged certain pieces that would not cause a massive change.
The group continued walking in silence. All three were thinking about the implications of what Zelos had said earlier.
Eventually, they reached the place where their journey had once been halted by a thick wall of black smoke. Atreus and Zelos both looked at Kratos.
Kratos took out the device Freya had given him, the one containing the Light of Alfheim.
"Do you think Freya was right?" Atreus asked quietly.
Zelos answered quickly."A millenia of experience teaches more than anything else. Freya knows what she is talking about."
"Well, here goes nothing," Atreus said.
Kratos raised the device. The light began to activate, its glow spreading outward. It reached toward the Black Breath and began to push against it.
The three stepped forward together as the light pressed further and further, until it grew bright enough to illuminate every corner of the path ahead.
Suddenly the light burst outward, clearing the entire Black Breath at once. The wall of smoke vanished completely, revealing the interior of the mountain at last.
Inside, the path upward waited for them, and Kratos and Atreus believed they were now one step closer to their destination.
Zelos however knew something different awaited them further ahead.