(Reluctantly, Kratos lowered his head. Mithra's hands hovered over his swollen eye, cosmic energy pulsing gently as the bruising began to fade.)
(Beside them, Asura exhaled a shaky breath, still bound to the forge table but grinning faintly despite his exhaustion.)
Asura (muttering): "Heh. Even the Ghost of Sparta needs a healer sometimes."
(Kratos shot him a glare—but didn't pull away.)
(Silence fell, broken only by the hiss of cooling metal. Kratos staggered back, blood trickling down his cheek, his left eye swollen completely shut. Atreus stepped toward him, worry etched across his face.)
(...Mithra heals Kratos, Asura makes his quip…)
The Final Forging
Brok scooped up the still-glowing shards, glancing around nervously.
Brok: "Now we—"
(He froze, ducking slightly as if waiting for another monster to burst through the walls. Sindri mirrored him, clutching his tongs like a weapon. Even Mithra and Atreus stiffened, holding their breath in the tense silence.)
Brok (grumbling, after a beat): "…we're talkin'. Sheesh."
(The forge settled back into focus. Brok and Sindri exchanged a shrug, then got back to work hammering cosmic fire into shape.)
Asura lay panting as Brok and Sindri finished hammering the new cosmic arms into place. Runes etched themselves along the newly forged limbs, pulsing like living stars.
Kratos knelt beside the forge. Sindri pressed cosmic fragments into the Leviathan Axe and began hammering new plates of gleaming runic armor across Kratos' chest and shoulders.
Sindri: "There. Strong enough to tank a star. Probably."
Kratos (testing his new armor): "Good."
Asura flexed his new arms, cosmic veins pulsing with power.
Asura (grinning): "About time. Let's go break a god."
Kratos (nodding): "Together."
A New Resolve
The forge glowed dim as the fires died down. Outside, a pale dawn broke over Midgard's mountains. Kratos flexed his fingers around the haft of the Leviathan Axe. New runes glowed faintly along the blade. His chest and shoulders gleamed beneath fresh plates of cosmic-infused armor.
Beside him, Asura rolled his shoulders, his newly forged arms pulsing with light like rivers of starlight flowing beneath his skin.
Asura (grinning): "Feels… powerful."
Kratos: "Do not waste it."
Asura: "Don't worry. I plan to waste Eon instead."
Kratos almost smiled.
The Final Portal
Atreus approached carrying a cosmic fragment shimmering like molten glass.
Atreus: "Sindri says this one's different. It's… like a key."
Mithra (nodding): "It's linked to Eon. It will open a path straight to him—but it'll be unstable."
Kratos: "We have no choice."
Asura: "Then let's tear open the sky."
Ever since touching the cosmic fragments, both Mithra and Atreus had felt new power coursing through their veins—a force vast and untamed, impossible to fully command, yet enough to shape the stars for a moment.
Atreus and Mithra joined hands, channeling cosmic energy into the fragment. Sparks of frost and fiery light intertwined as a blinding rift split open in the air—a swirling storm of stars and darkness.
Through it, they glimpsed a shifting world of spiraling galaxies and enormous machines twisting around cosmic pillars.
Atreus (staring in awe): "…Is that… Eon's realm?"
Mithra (grimly): "Yes. The Celestial Nexus."
Kratos (low): "Then we end this."
Asura (growling): "For good."
A Quiet Farewell
Before stepping through, Mithra touched Asura's new arm, tracing the glowing runes.
Mithra (softly): "No matter how far you fall… you always rise again, Father."
Asura looked away, a rare vulnerability in his eyes.
Asura (roughly): "Always,For you…Just… stay safe."
Meanwhile, Atreus tugged on Kratos' arm.
Atreus: "Try not to get stabbed again, okay?"
Kratos gave a weary huff.
Kratos: "No promises."
Atreus: "Figures."
Entering the Celestial Nexus
They stepped through the portal into a realm of impossible scale:
Stars burned like lanterns in an endless cathedral of black marble.
Rivers of pure light snaked across the floor.
Colossal gears and crystalline prisms rotated slowly around a central throne of shimmering energy.
Upon that throne sat Eon.
He appeared calm, almost serene. His armor seemed grown from living galaxies, a cape flowing with nebulae. His eyes shone like black holes rimmed with golden light.
Eon (voice echoing): "So… you survived. Fascinating."
Kratos advanced, the axe blazing with frost.
Kratos: "We have come to kill you."
Eon tilted his head, lips curling in a faint smile.
Eon: "Did you think you could change fate with muscle and rage? You stand in the seat of the cosmos. I am infinite. I am the law that binds existence."
Asura (snarling): "You talk too much."