magical ability. Kratos locates the "Tree of Life", the source of the Ambrosia located on a small island, and confronts Cereyon. After being almost burned alive, Kratos drowns his foe and successfully retrieves the Ambrosia, but as he leaves, he and his Spartan troops are ambushed by Alrik's horde of barbarians. When Hades observes the Spartans defeating the Barbarians, the god attempts to have the Spartans dragged to the Underworld. Alrik uses the head of Danaus to summon rocs to attack Kratos as he flies away on a similar bird with the stolen Ambrosia. Kratos pursues Alrik on a captured roc, knowing that although his men will be taken to the Underworld, they will be honored in Sparta for their sacrifices. Alrik and Kratos battle, during which, the waterskin containing the Ambrosia is punctured, spraying both men. Alrik critically wounds the Spartan, who is subsequently healed thanks to the Ambrosia. Kratos gains control of Danaus' head and uses its power against Alrik, who is torn apart by rocs. Having also been covered with the Ambrosia, Alrik is revived only to be killed once again until the Ambrosia is spent. Kratos then escapes and returns to Sparta with the Ambrosia, saving his daughter, and giving the King of Sparta the rest of the elixir, who then officially awards Kratos the rank of captain in the Spartan Army. Bitter at having lost the wager, Hades resurrects Alrik, who becomes King after his father dies and swears vengeance against Kratos. In the present, Kratos overcomes several obstacles in his quest to find the Ambrosia, including defeating a giant spider, ignoring Athena's pleas to stop his quest, and overcoming the reanimated corpses of Captain Nikos and his men—a final attempt by Hades to stop the Spartan. On returning to the island, Kratos discovers that the island is actually one of the Chaos Giants, the fifty-headed and one hundred armed Gyges. An outraged Gyges explains that Kratos had thwarted the Giant's plan to use the elixir to resurrect his brothers Briareus and Cottus, and then reclaim the world. In his fiery battle with Cereyon, Kratos inadvertently burned off Gyges' one hundred arms, and then stole the Ambrosia. Without arms and now unable to reach the Ambrosia, Gyges was forced to wait for Kratos' return. During the battle, Kratos reveals that he seeks to destroy the elixir to prevent the worshipers of the slain god Ares