Chapter 877: The Beginning of Slaying Gods!

Unlike most games that came before, God of War began to segment its experience into three distinct tiers: Easy, Human, and God.

This was an inevitability, for after all... the adversaries in God of War were true deities, and by no means minor spirits, but the renowned Twelve Olympians themselves.

Past games, excluding Dark Souls which none of them had yet conquered, rarely featured battles that transcended the peak of the mortal realm, and even if they did... someone like Chonglou would deliberately suppress his might to the limits of human capability to fight Jingtian.

Yet in God of War, under the system’s faithful recreation, the difficulty was unarguably heightened to an absolute extreme; without layered mitigations, enemies of this caliber would likely remain an insurmountable lifelong barrier for many players.

Furthermore, though both drew from mythos, the core elements of God of War and Dark Souls differed; combined with the fact that Dark Souls permitted stranded players to summon friendly masters online for aid with a reward mechanism, or even engage in multiplayer cooperation, whereas God of War possessed no such features, a difficulty selection was inevitable for the system's version of God of War.

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At this moment, the Elven Queen Kellynbar was munching on potato chips while watching several players immerse themselves in the game.

Even a few Saints spent a long time deliberating: "How about... the second difficulty level..."

They were truly traumatized by Dark Souls, and hastily chose the Human difficulty to enter the game.

Following the opening prologue, the story shifted to three weeks prior to that initial scene.

Bearing countless doubts wrapped in an overarching sense of epic grandeur, the players stepped into the world.

Upon the vast, pitch-black expanse of the sea, gale-force winds howled and monstrous waves surged, as though some horrific fiend was churning the waters from the deepest abysses of the ocean.

Astride a colossal vessel already crashed against the shore, monsters hailing from the Underworld swarmed everywhere.

Though close to the coast, the waters beneath the cliffs remained unfathomably deep, when suddenly, a monstrous head of unimaginable proportions reared up right before their eyes!

It was a gargantuan serpentine head, resembling both snake and dragon, and more terrifying still was that within those deep depths, an untold number of massive coils writhed together—it was a creature existing solely in legend, the Hydra!

Which meant from the very start, the weakest foe the players had to confront was a creature of mythic proportions!

"What on earth is that—!?"

"Is this man supposed to fight such a massive monstrous snake!?" Queen Kellynbar watched with a look of sheer wonder, still munching on her chips.

Setting aside the question of flight, for a mere mortal to battle such a horrific sea monster amidst a tempestuous storm seemed nothing short of an absolute death sentence.

Moreover, its true form had not even fully emerged from the ocean.

The few Saints currently playing found their experience perilously fraught not even a minute into the highest God difficulty, for that incredibly hard armor of scales left their weapons completely unable to find purchase.

The Blades of Chaos, forged in the foulest depths of Hades' underworld.

The twin blades Kratos wielded at this time were precisely these weapons, and even when held by the Saints, they could feel the pervasive, terrifying power thrumming within.

Yet such a pair of weapons was clearly incapable of inflicting significant harm upon the maritime serpent before them.

Even after exhausting all their efforts, they succeeded only in repelling a single one of its heads.

"My goodness... how can a boss this massive appear right at the start!" Queen Kellynbar exclaimed in surprise from behind, "Can this even be beaten..."

At this stage, Kratos naturally could not defeat it, but one must not forget that his identity now was still that of a warrior serving the gods, risking his life for them, meaning that standing behind him were the Twelve Olympians!

Having repelled one of the Hydra's heads, he finally reached the depths of this massive leviathan of a ship, where a piercing, blue, ocean-like divine light flared, and a colossal divine countenance appeared before everyone.

Almost everyone shuddered involuntarily!

Even if it was merely a phantom projection, one could feel the vastly immense divine power possessed by the deity behind the image across the void, the very god worshipped by all mortals who lived by the sea—Poseidon, God of the Sea!

"Lord Poseidon," Kratos maintained the requisite respect.

That azure face resembled the sky-high ocean waters, within which an boundless expanse of the deep seemed visible.

"Kratos, before you reach Athens, there is one more task you must complete."

"This sea monster, the Hydra, has threatened my waters for too long. You possess great skill, but you still require assistance. You need... the power of a god!"

"Accept this divine power."

In the next instant, the entire world turned illusory, as if heaven and earth had transformed into a vast ocean, and amidst the rushing torrent of boundless divine might, bolts of terrifying divine lightning cascaded from the heavens, yet slithered like dragons and serpents around Kratos's body, leaving him bathed in divine thunder like a god of storms himself.

It followed ancient laws, transforming into the wrath of a deity to reduce everything in its vicinity to ashes—this was the magic bestowed by Poseidon: Poseidon's Rage!

"This magic...!?" Not only did Kellynbar stare wide-eyed at this spell, but even Saint Leyton and the others were left utterly dumbfounded as they played.

Unlike Dark Souls where one began with absolutely nothing, playing God of War now made them feel as though they could directly go forth and destroy heaven and earth!

"Magic..." The World Mage Hermadon practically danced with joy, a fanatic fervor gleaming in his eyes, "I feel the power of magic... this is true magic—! Is this the magic wielded by a 'God'?!"

"Let this old man familiarize himself with this divine-tier magic! I feel..." Hermadon controlled Kratos, an unprecedented look of dominance washing over his face.

Indeed, where they previously had to dodge and weave with utmost caution just to fight a small head of the Hydra, they could now confront unavoidable attacks head-on by unleashing Poseidon's Rage!

Yes, a mere human, clashing directly with a creature of mythic proportions!

"This old man feels... I am invincible!" he laughed uproariously, "This game... is exhilarating! Utterly exhilarating!"

As he gradually grew accustomed to utilizing Poseidon's Rage, the massive sea serpent snapped down with vicious savagery, and almost simultaneously, thunder manifested like coiled dragons as terrifying divine power exploded outward in the form of holy lightning, akin to divine wrath!

The Hydra's massive head, unable to break through this divine force, was blasted back several yards, its razor-sharp fangs nearly shattered entirely!

"Hahaha—!" A burst of wild laughter erupted; if he could learn such magic in reality, wouldn't he...

Behind him, the Elven Queen Kellynbar lost her color from watching; this was simply too powerful!

Hermadon and the other Saints laughed wildly as they played: "With such divine power, who else in this world can stop me!"

"There is no difficulty to this game at all; I'll switch to God difficulty in a moment!"

"Exactly, exactly! To think I adjusted it to Human difficulty first... with this kind of divine power, fighting these little monsters is child's play, a breeze to pass!"

Just then, amidst the tempestuous storm, a supreme divine silhouette gradually materialized before their eyes.

"Kratos, your next task is to kill Ares, the God of War."

"Alright, that couldn't be sim..."

"...Huh?" The surroundings fell instantly silent.

Poseidon, God of the Sea... Ares, God of War... why did these names sound somewhat similar...?

"You said to kill whom?!"

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Let us update the next chapter tonight

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