KRATOS STOOD BEFORE the huge mirror above Clotho’s Loom Chamber. Reels of thick threads were arrayed behind him. On each reel were wound threads of fate as large as his brawny forearm. He had brought the reels to this place and saw how the quivering cables ran away from the mirror. He drew the Spear of Destiny and watched intently as it responded when he touched its spear tip against the largest of the cables, a brown one highlighted with tiny stripes the green of forests.

Resolve hardened. Kratos swung the Spear of Destiny and cut through one huge thread after another until all the reels held only the ends of the threads. He stepped forward into the mirror and felt the gut-tearing transition as he returned in time, this trip taking him back innumerable centuries. Prepared for the shift this time, he found himself in the middle of a devastated plain, buildings burning in every direction he looked.

The ground rumbled. Kratos looked up and saw that what he had mistaken to be a large hill covered with grass and a small forest was a Titan. He had never seen Gaia before—not in her actual guise—but this had to be the Titan of the earth.

She towered more than a thousand feet high, her body nothing but dirt and vegetation. Pendulous breasts the size of large war galleons drooped down, attesting to her status as a mother to all. She blinked a dirt-brown eye and bent low. A hand that might have been dipped in mud and then dried reached out to him. Kratos did not flinch.

“Gaia!”

“We have been expecting you, Ghost of Sparta. The gods are much too powerful for us to defeat now.”

“All on Olympus tremble at my name! Zeus is weak, Ares and Athena are dead. And I wield the blade! We can win the Great War, but not in this time.” In the distance rose twisting columns of stark blue energy, the weapons of the gods driving back the Titans in their last futile assault on Olympus. “I have killed the Sisters of Fate and severed the threads of destiny they weaved for you in my time. Together we will kill the petty gods and see Olympus tremble before us.”

Kratos was bathed in coruscating energy. He turned and felt the pull of the time mirror behind him.

“Come with me, Gaia. Return to my time. Victory awaits.”

Storms built all around, blinding him with dirt and rain.

Zeus sat on his throne, hands gripping the arms so hard the stone cracked. Arrayed before his throne were the gods and goddesses of Olympus, all apprehensive at being summoned to the foot of the throne of the King of the Gods.

“We have faced far worse than this one fallen mortal,” Zeus said in a booming, confident voice. “We are the gods! We, whom the mortals worship, we who rule over this land, we will not be swept aside by this petulant fool!”

Zeus saw the uneasiness among the gods. Even his brothers Poseidon and Hades looked apprehensive.

“Brothers, put aside the petty grievances that have splintered us for so long. We will unite, we will stand together, and I will wipe out this plague! Olympus will prevail!”

Zeus shot to his feet and stumbled. An earthquake shook the home of the gods. Statues cracked and parts fell with thunderous crashing. He brushed aside part of the dome of his audience chamber that fell too close to his throne. The gods rushed to the terrace and looked down. Zeus followed, stepping over marble columns that had collapsed in the quake.

He blinked in surprise. The mortal world burned. Everywhere cities were on fire. Devastation far greater than anything he had ever seen stretched to the horizon.

Kratos looked up the sheer pinnacle that held Olympus. From his vantage on Gaia’s shoulder it did not look that tall.

He grabbed a linden tree for support as Gaia began climbing. To either side other Titans began the long climb as the assault on Olympus began.

Kratos held the Blade of Olympus and shook it in Zeus’ direction, for he knew the King of the Gods watched. It would be impossible not to know that the battle would soon be joined.

Scores of Titans lumbered over the battle-scarred landscape and followed Gaia and the others already beginning their assault when Atlas gave the command, his hand smashing down on the ground to cause another earthquake, his four arms wrapped in broken chains.

“Zeus,” Kratos shouted at the top of his lungs, “your son has returned! I bring the destruction of Olympus!”

The End begins …