The Goddess of War & Death: Nika

It had taken Nika weeks of looking but she'd yet to locate a salutation to breaking the oath to Ares and being free to exact her revenge on him for ruining her life. She'd been helping people when they needed her and had killed several of the God of War's monsters while even having a few one night stands with other women to relieve her stress. She'd been fortunate enough to save her mother's necklace and ring that night at the temple to remind her of her old life and kept it close at all times.

Currently, Nika had a place to rest and was thinking about where her next path would take her. But she'd been experiencing visions lately, visions of her parents and the life that she could have had, but she knew that they weren't real and was trying to fight them off. She tried to reach for her mother's necklace when it suddenly disappeared, making her stand up as she got out her blades and began to look around.

Suddenly a human-like shade appeared. "Your mind is troubled and yet your skills are still without equal." He complimented the Devil of Sparta.

"You got business with me, shadowy man?" Nika asked as she pointed her right blade at him.

"I do. But this is not the way to discuss it."

"Well I don't see any other way outta this if you can just teleport from place to place." Nika said with annoyance as she put her blades away, knowing she couldn't harm him in that form.

"You have no reason to trust me, Lady Death, I only ask that you try." The shade man said, trying to get the anti heroine to trust him. As Nika saw a vision of her parents again, she closed her eyes and shook her head to fight the illusion as she knew it wasn't real.

"You fight the illusions, Nika, that is admirable but it won't be enough. I can help you get rid of them." The shade man said as he presented the necklace and ring to the white haired warrior and handed them to her. "These belong to you, Devil of Sparta, use them to help you still your mind as you keep fighting the illusions."

Nika did as the shade man said and used the items to help still her mind and in a few minutes, the house turned into its real abandoned form as the vision stopped. "Looks like your advice worked. I'm seein' only you now."

"Good. You'll need this skill for the path ahead."

"What kind of path, shade man?" Nika asked in her usual non trusting tone of voice.

"The path of freedom you've been seeking, Nika. Freedom from the Furies who ruthlessly hunt you in the name of Ares. And ultimately, freedom from the bond he passed on to you from your father, Dragon." He explained.

"Then tell me what to do so I can break the damn oath and kill that bastard." Nika said eagerly, having possibly found a way to break the oath and finally kill the God of War.

Suddenly they heard a sound. "The Furies are near. They cannot know I speak with you! I will draw them away. The truth waits for you in Delhi, Nika! Seek the Oracle!" He told her before teleporting away.

Nika moved through the abandoned homes while opening treasure chests along the way. She moved through the destroyed town until black magic barriers blocked her path as two Elephantaurs burst from the ground along with several feral canines. Nika used her twin chain blades to slice through the big elephant creatures while dodging their attacks and using them to kill the canines until she stunned one of them and drove her blade through its head and slicing through its brain, killing it and doing the same thing to the second one, making the barriers dissolve.

Nika continued to get through the obstacles in her way and got to the upper level until she got to the fire of Ares and put her blades into it to give the blades its power. When she did, several numbers of Satyrs appeared. The Devil of Sparta easily dealt with all of them, using her blades' new fire power until they were all dead and the doors opened. She continued on while battling more Satyrs and even a General Satyr, using its own weapon to kill it. When they were all dead, Lady Death climbed to the second upper level and dealt with the Satyrs before using the machine to get to the third upper level.

After dealing with Satyrs there and solving the machine puzzles, Nika came to a door that was blocked by a cave in, awent the long way around, opening many chests and killing many enemies, even a Gorgon until she got to the Ice of Poseidon and put her blades into it to increase their abilities. When that happened, more Satyrs appeared but not as many as at the fires of Ares forge and were quickly killed by her blades' newest ice ability, making the doors open.

The Devil of Sparta went through the doors and jumped on the back of a giant mechanical Python, which she freed from its shackle, making it move like it was flying through the air until its mouth bit down on a lever of an electric tower, powering the first part of three electric currents. Nika climbed up to the top and once she did, a Chimera climbed up and attacked the Devil of Sparta. Lady Death dodged the creatures attacks, especially its viper tail and its acid spitting ability while using the fire of Ares to slice through it, before cutting off its tail, making it roar in pain before she jumped on it as it stood on its back feet and stabbed it in the right side multiple times, weakening it so Nika could tear off one of its horns and stab it in the head with it to finish it off.

The Devil of Sparta operates the mechanism to start the machine on the tower, making the temple on the other side move closer before going back again. She then went inside the red and black skinned Python and slid down the ice inside before taking care of several enemies and making the barrier that came with them open. She went through the Python while finding some chests along the way until she got to its belly and the lightning of Zeus forge, which she put her blades into to give them its power. After that, more Satyrs appeared but Nika quickly killed them all with her blades' newest lightning ability, making the doors open.

Nika continued to make her way through the second and third Python, climbing and even swinging from the two of them with her blades while finding more chests and killing more Hatchling Manticores along the way until she finally got to the second Python's head and freed it from it's shackle, making it move to its place on the tower. Nika avoided a collision with the third Python while using her blades to fight off a fully grown Manticore until she swung on the back of the final Python as the second one did the same thing as the first one did. She then made her way to the final Python's head while killing more enemies until she climbed up on the snake and set its head free with one of her blades, making it move to its place at the tower. Nika moved through many obstacles by swinging, sliding and climbing while continuing to kill more creatures until the Python got to its place on the tower, fully powering it up.

Lady Death climbed up to the top of the tower again while opening more chests until she got to the top.

When she did, she saw a man with a walking stick walking to the temple. "Hey old man, where the hell are you going?" She asked.

"To the temple. My offering will please her this time, I know it." He answered before tripping on his feet and making him drop his gifts. But before he could pick them up, the full grown Manticore appeared again and attacked the man, killing him with its bite before disposing of the body to focus on the Anti-heroine. Nika dodged its attacks while using her blades to slice it and kill its hatchlings until she used her blades and strength to get it to the ground and tear off one of its wings before cutting off its scorpion tail and stabbing the creature in the head, killing it. Nika then used her right blade to operate the machine and all three mechanical snakes pushed the levers around while going up, creating a path directly to the Temple of Delphi.

The Devil of Sparta went inside the temple and kicked the doors open before entering. When she did, gold spikes blocked her way as a Cerberus climbed up and roared at her. "Down boy, unless you wanna be put down!" Nika told the three headed beast, making it angry as it attacked with two canines. Nika dodged its attacks and sliced through it repeatedly until it used it Underworld teleporting and soul shield abilities to avoid the Devil of Sparta. When it stopped teleporting, she stunned the beast and used her blades' chains to cut off its first and third heads and stabbing the middle one with her blades, killing it and making the spikes go down.

After Nika opened the chests in the area and got the stares pulled out with her blades, she used the Gorgon Beam to turn the room to stone and break the doors that had chests and opened them. She then used the same thing to get through the middle doors and entered the room to see slaves working, which made her disgusted as she despised slavery.

"Hurry before the master approaches." The lead slave told his friends but their master was already behind him.

"We have given you everything you need for success and yet you still fail us! The statues should be finished by now!" The false prophet said with anger in his voice.

"It is a massive task you have set for us, Master. My brothers they, they need food and rest." The slave leader pleaded with his master, trying to reason with him about letting him and his brothers have food and rest.

But this only got the false prophet even more angry as he drove his staff into the mistreated slave's face, killing him. "You are not allowed to speak! And who will be next?" He asked, making the others work even harder so they wouldn't meet the same cruel fate. "You there! You are now in charge. Let's hope that your work is more pleasing to us than your brother here. We can no longer stand the sight of you. You make us sick."

"Yes, master." He softly said as he carried his dead brother's corpse away.

The slave owner began to leave back the way he came while talking about his slaves. "Worthless lot. Every last one of them!"

"It's him who makes me sick! Before I talk to the Oracle, I'm gonna make his ass suffer like he's makin' them suffer! Just you wait till I get my hands on you, asshole!" Nika thought to herself, vowing to kill that cruel bastard and make him suffer before he dies.

Nika explored other parts of the temple while solving puzzles and killing enemies that tried to attack her, even learning the Oracle's name, Aletheia and empowering her blades with the Soul of Hades, which she used to kill the Satyrs guarding it. After getting through the obstacles in her way, Nika made it to the Oracle Chamber, where she came face to face with the false prophet.

"Place your items for Aletheia. We will decide if they are worthy of our will." Castor said, pretending to be civil.

"Shut the fuck up, asswipe! The only thing I'm giving you is a very agonizing death!" Nika said with anger as she approached the cruel bastard.

"You are a very bold, female warrior. Stupid but bold, but that is not the way to speak to me. Leave now before you die!" Castor threatened.

"Oh you're wrong, you ugly bastard! I'm not the one who's dying here...you are!" Nika countered as she got out her blades and prepared to fight with the cruel prophet.

"Slaves, kill her!" He ordered.

The slaves got up and prepared to do their master's bidding but Nika spoke to them. "Listen, guys, I know you hate working for this fucking freak, so why not leave and save yourselves while you can?" She said gently, making the mistreated slaves eagerly do just that.

Castor sighed with disappointment. "We need to find a better slave trader." He said before he took off his cover to reveal his conjoined twin brother Pollux and used the Amulet of Uroborus to reverse their ages to their prime before getting his weapons to fight the Devil of Sparta.

"We will not tolerate your impudence! You will not see her!" Pollux said.

"Oh you're dead wrong about that, ugly!" Nika countered before the evil twins began to teleport away as Nika quickly followed. The conjoined twins used the Amulet to decay the floor while they went but Nika jumped on the ledges, swung on two collided pillars and used her blades to follow them, easily keeping up with them as she got across the three parts of the bridge and almost to the Oracle's throne.

"You may be a great warrior, but you have no place in our temple! You will never see the Oracle!" Castor yelled.

"Shut the fuck up and fight me, assholes!" Nika yelled, tired of having to chase this conjoined coward.

"My...quite the pouty mouth, isn't she?" Pollux said mockingly.

"Yes she is, and that only means she'll die slowly." Castor answered before beginning their battle. Castor was highly aggressive, attacking from a distance and with short range combos. Which Nika avoided or blocked before slicing him using the maximum range of her Chaos Blades. When the Devil of Sparta made him angry enough, he made a barrier around him and started destroying the floor by decaying it but Nika ran to the part of the floor that he didn't decay to save himself and counterattacked.

The battle's tempo increased, with Castor trying to hit Lady Death with much more combos, teleportation and powerful blows from the air, which she avoided and blocked. What is more, Castor produced green circles made to slow Nika down but she jumped out of them until he stopped, making the fight easier for the Devil of Sparta because she was destroying columns and throwing them at the evil conjoined twins. Castor also destroyed a few of them, unwittingly giving Nika more things to throw at him. When Nika made Castor angry again, he rebuilt the columns and started firing at her with decay blasts, which she avoided while destroying the column he was standing on until there weren't any more of them. But as the columns got destroyed, Castor's attacks got stronger and begin to decay the floor, which she ran away from until Castor tried to use more combo attacks, which she blocked and dodged before counterattacking again with her own attacks, making him angry again and forcing him to run towards the Oracle and destroy the floor with a big decay blast, which Nika avoided by running to the other side.

"Stop toying with this woman! Kill her, Castor!" Pollux told his brother, which the Devil of Sparta blocked and counterattacked with a kick before grabbing him and punching him repeatedly before Pollux grabbed her arm and tried to decay her but she got free and kicked him away hard before Pollux took control and got them both up. "I grow tired of my brother's incompetence!"

"I'm sick of both you freaks, you ugly shitbag!" Nika yelled, tired of these two twin freaks.

Pollux used distance attacks, which Nika avoided to get closer and attack again with her maximum range attacks. When the ugly twin began to use combo attacks, Nika jumped away before attacking again. Castor woke up and started destroying the ground, making Lady Death approach the center of the arena before blocking his blasts. When the floor and columns returned, he summoned a slowing barrier, which Nika destroyed by throwing rocks at him, followed by using every attack she could against the twins.

"You may be strong, woman, but Castor is unstoppable! You have sealed the Oracle's fate! You will never know the truth!" Pollux yelled as he used the Amulet to decay the Oracle's throne, making the already weak woman fall to her death.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Nika yelled as she rushed to the evil twins in a fit of rage and grabbing them before crashing into the floor and falling, with the Devil of Sparta ripping the twins apart agonizingly, separating them and making Pollux scream in pain before they landed, with Castor dead and Pollux still alive.

"I am merely an innocent." Pollux lied as he pleaded for his life but Nika had enough and squished his head under her right boot.

"Lyin' piece of shit." Nika said before walking towards the dead body of Castor and ripped the Amulet off his neck. "This little Amulet's mine now." She said before she saw Aletheia, still breathing but barely. She quickly used her new Amulet to heal the bridge, getting up to the left part of it and opening up a treasure chest before healing the large part of the bridge before running across and running up to the dying Oracle. "Don't worry, Aletheia, I'll heal you."

But the dying woman gently put her hand on the Devil of Sparta's to stop her. "The relic you carry has no effect on me."

"I'm sorry, Aletheia. I really am. But at least I made those asswipes pay for everything they did to you and your temple." Nika said gently, regretting not being able to help the woman but grateful to get her some revenge on the bastard twins who usurped her and her temple.

"It's alright, Nika. I knew this day would come." Aletheia gently said before she noticed Lady Death looking at the ground and seeing her dead mother and father and shook her head as she tried to fight it. "Your mind is clouded but you fight to clear it. You seek the truth?"

"Yeah."

"So be it. But remember that the truth always comes with a price. Come closer to me." Aletheia told her, making her kneel down and take the Oracle's hand as she showed her the truth that it was her father who started the oath by offering his life to Ares if he destroyed his enemies for him, which he did before having him take the three tasks to prove himself: killing enemies, innocent people, and finally his own family but he failed the final test when Nika killed him so the God of War passed it on to her instead. What's more is that it was the Furies who bonded the oath to Nika and that the shade Orkos was one of them. "The Furies cloud your mind because you run from your father's oath to Ares. They will stop at nothing should you resist."

"So Shade man was tellin' the truth after all." Nika said, now knowing who the Shade was now.

"The intentions of Orkos are pure."

"Orkos? He's a damn Fury too."

"And he will play his part in time." She said before she groaned, beginning to succumb to her weakened state and her fatal wounds as Nika gently took her hand. "My time grows short. To be free from the madness that infects you, you must defeat those who hold your bond to the God of War."

"How can I do that when they put these damn visions in my head?" Nika asked.

"Across the sea, the Lantern of Delos holds the Eyes of Truth. Find the Eyes and they will show you the path to freedom, Nika." Aletheia said with her dying breath, much to the Devil of Sparta's sadness before digging a grave for the Oracle and buried her properly.

Nika then went through the cave before jumping over an abyss and going left before jumping down onto a bridge. After crossing it and finding the treasure chests, she went under the bridge and went inside the door of Poseidon. Suddenly the gates went up and a Satyr tried to attack her but she quickly killed it using her new Amulet and slicing through it with her right blade. After that, she continued further until she found an end of the aqueduct and used her Amulet to rebuild it, allowing her entrance into the nearby tunnel, where the Devil of Sparta was attacked by a Witch and two Satyrs, which she quickly killed by using her Amulet and blades. Nika ran further and rebuilt to the end of the tunnel and ran further to the destroyed aqueduct edge, which she rebuilt with her Amulet before going forward and getting back into Cistern again. The Devil of Sparta ran to the end of the bridge and opened the chests before jumping into a bull's head before jumping down and battling a Satyr General and several canines, killing the half goat creature with its own weapon and the hounds with her blades.

Lady Death then ran through a corridor and opened all the treasure chests inside before going out the other entrance where a Cyclops appeared, along with several Parasites, which she used to hit the one eyed monster before slicing it open with her right blade. She then used her Amulet to heal the bridge and crossed it before sidestepping through the edge, leading her back to the water wheel she saw before beginning her journey to the temple. She jumped down and healed the decayed part of it a little before stopping and using one of her blades to pull the lever before fully decaying the part again to stop the lever. After she jumped on the wheel, she fully healed it, making the lever go back where it was before she healed the aqueduct she came in on, making the water flow into the wheel to make it move. Nika jumped on the green spot and waited until she entered the Grotto.

When the Devil of Sparta entered, she jumped down, dived under she'd swam through the underwater cave, following the red gleam until she got to another area where she fought with two ice Talos, using her Amulet to kill one and avoiding the other's attacks until she killed the second one as well. Nika used her Amulet to break the chains holding up the obstacle in her path before she dived into the water and swam through the hole in the right wall before swimming through the underwater again.

When Nika emerged from the water, she squeezed through a wide path, coming across the harbor and a ship that was prepared to sail the sea. After opening the treasure chests, she boarded the ship and saw Orkos in shade form. "Hey Orkos, you got some explaining to do."

"Indeed, Devil of Sparta." The Fury said as he turned into his human form.

"Why the fuck would you betray your own damn kind after all these years?" Nika demanded.

"Because of you, Lady Death, and your father. It was his oath that finally made me doubt them. I see you don't understand why Ares needed your father Dragon, and why he needs you since you killed him."

"It was because of his damn sibling rivalry with Athena, that's why!" Nika yelled, thinking that was the case for her life being ruined.

"It's more than that, Nika. The God of War has been plotting for years. I was brought forth by the joining of Ares and the Fury queen Alecto. In rage and insanity, Ares sought to create the perfect warrior, but I was a disappointment to him. It was my mother who spared me and gave me the task of keeping the oaths. Although the burden was great, I was determined to be of use to those who said they loved me. But it was your father, Nika. It was his bond that finally made me question the actions of my family. I sought to talk with Aletheia and she showed me the plot of Ares to overthrow Zeus. But he needed the perfect warrior. He needed your father Dragon. He molded him to take down the walls of Olympus. And to make sure he was loyal only to him, Ares and my mother devised the three blood tasks: spill the blood of enemies, innocent people... and finally...his own family. That horrible night, your father was supposed to kill you and your mother and while he succeeded in killing your mother, he failed when you killed him but in the process, you completed the task for him, passing on the blood oath to you. But Ares knew he needed to wait for far longer than he planned to because you needed to grow and become what you are today." Orkos explained with sadness in his voice, regretting his part in making an innocent little girl into a killer.

"Don't sweat it, Fury man, I know you regret makin' me what I am now but I'm not. While I do regret killin' my dad, I also knew it was either him or me that would have died and I sure as hell wasn't going to let him get away with killin' my mom like that, even if he was tricked by Ares. It was the monster that asshole Ares made that killed her, not dad." Nika said as she patted Orkos on the shoulder. "We're already saillin for Delos so you go and do what you want. I'm gonna go get some wine and get some well deserved sleep. Wake me up when we get there, will ya?" She asked before going below deck to drink wine and sleep as the ship began its journey to Delos.