
Kratos then goes to the Jails of Sparta where he chases a dissenter loyal to Ares who tries to kill Kratos by releasing the Piraeus Lion. While on his way to the Temple of Ares he witnesses a group of Spartans, led by the Last Spartan, tearing down a statue of Ares to replace it with one of Kratos. He fights and kills Erinys, and arrives in Sparta where he is praised by the people. While traveling through the Aronia Pass, Kratos meets Erinys, Thanatos' daughter. In his journey to Sparta, he also meets the Grave Digger again, who warns him not to alienate the Gods. He also encounters and frees the trapped Titan Thera, which causes a flood that destroys Atlantis. Before dying, Callisto thanks Kratos and beseeches him to seek out his brother Deimos. When Callisto is suddenly transformed into a hideous beast, Kratos is forced to battle her. Kratos only hears very weak and faint noises, but she manages to tell him that his brother is alive and tormented in Death's Domain, but that he first needs to go to Ares' temple in Sparta. Kratos eventually locates his ailing mother, Callisto, who attempts to reveal to him the identity of his father. After a series of confrontations, Kratos kills Scylla. Despite Poseidon's best efforts to prevent Kratos from reaching his city, including sending the monster Scylla, Kratos reaches Atlantis.

Still haunted by visions of his mortal past, Kratos decides - against the advice of the Goddess Athena - to explore his past and travels to the Temple of Poseidon, located within the city of Atlantis. Years later, Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, has defeated and killed Ares and taken his place as the new God of War on Mount Olympus. Taken to the Domain of Death, Deimos is imprisoned and tortured by the God of Death, Thanatos. Athena stops Ares and tells him they only came for the Marked Warrior, not to take the boy's life. Ares prepares to kill the young Kratos for attacking him. Kratos attempts to stop Ares but is swept aside and scarred across his right eye by the violent Olympian. Ares sieges a village of Sparta and interrupts the childhood training of Kratos and Deimos, with Athena on hand to watch over him, and kidnaps Deimos.

The Olympian Gods Zeus and Ares believed this warrior to be Deimos, brother of Kratos, due to his strange birthmarks. The Oracle foretold that the demise of Olympus would come not from the Titans but by a Marked Warrior, a mortal.
