A Temple Between Worlds
The stars spun like broken pinwheels overhead, glimmering in a velvet sky torn open by cracks of cosmic light. Floating stone platforms drifted through the void—ruins of ancient shrines carved with runes from pantheons long forgotten.
This was no world.
This was a crossroads.
Here, in an impossible temple suspended between realities, two warriors arrived from opposite ends of existence.
Arrival of the Ghost
Kratos stepped through a shimmering tear in reality, his boots striking cold marble. Frost shimmered faintly along the edge of the Leviathan Axe strapped across his broad back. His eyes—dark, heavy with memory—swept across crumbling pillars that fell away into nothingness.
The air felt wrong.
Older than gods.
A familiar voice echoed in his thoughts.
Atreus:"Be careful. This place… feels older than any god."
Kratos exhaled slowly, the sound low and controlled.
"I know."
The Roar of Wrath
From the far end of the temple, the void ignited.
Flames erupted like a newborn sun as a figure burst into the chamber in a flash of crimson light. The stone beneath his feet shattered as he landed, cracks racing outward in violent webs.
Asura stood amid the destruction, his body radiating raw fury. Mantra veins glowed like molten fire beneath his skin. Six phantom arms shimmered behind him, fists clenched, trembling with barely contained wrath.
He threw his head back and roared.
"SHOW YOURSELVES, GODS!"
His voice thundered through the ruins, shaking the floating platforms themselves.
First Glance
Kratos turned slowly.
Across the mist-slick marble stood a warrior wreathed in flame—rage made flesh. Power rolled off him in waves, heavy and unrestrained. But beneath it, Kratos sensed something else.
Grief.
Loss.
A familiar weight.
His hand hovered near the Leviathan Axe—but he did not draw it.
Not yet.
"I don't know who you are," Kratos said, his voice calm and steady."But if you've come looking for a fight… you'll find I don't fall easily."
Asura's burning eyes locked onto him. He took a step forward. The floor cracked beneath his heel.
"Fight?" Asura snarled. "You reek of godhood. And this place—this place stinks of divine traps. You expect me to trust you?"
Kratos did not flinch.
"I've been a god," he said. "Once."
A pause.
"And I've killed enough of them to know I never want to be one again."
A Shared Silence
Asura's fury flared—then faltered.
"You've… killed gods?" he asked, fists trembling.
"Many," Kratos replied quietly.
Silence fell between them.
Starlight pulsed faintly overhead. Somewhere deep within the void, the temple groaned, as though reality itself shifted uneasily.
Asura studied him now—not as an enemy, but as something else. He saw the weight in Kratos's shoulders. The scars carved by regret.
"…Then maybe," Asura muttered, "we're not so different."
"I did not come here for war," Kratos said."But I will end it if it finds me."
"Hmph," Asura scoffed. "We'll see."
The Eye Above
The air suddenly grew colder.
Runes flared along the broken pillars—Greek, Hindu, Norse, Buddhist, and symbols unknown to any living tongue. One by one, shrines from dead pantheons ignited in a spiraling pattern.
Above them, light gathered.
A massive eye formed in the sky—woven from golden energy and crackling cosmic threads. It stared downward.
Not at one of them.
At both.
"What in hell is that?" Asura growled.
Kratos's grip tightened.
"We're being watched."
The eye flared brighter. Glyphs bloomed into the air, unreadable and alien, before disintegrating into ash.
"So," Asura snarled, "we were dragged here. Like pieces on a board."
"Someone wants us to fight," Kratos said grimly."Or break."
"Or both."
The marble floor between them split open. A chasm of chaotic energy yawned wide as a voice echoed from the depths—divine, hollow, layered.
"Rage. Memory. Judgment."
"Let the cycle begin again."
The eye snapped shut.
Silence returned.
And in that stillness, both warriors understood the truth.
They were not enemies.
They were bait.
End of Chapter One