Kratos' fury knows no limitations. Even after seven games and eight years, the Ghost of Sparta's appetite for godly kings, queens, and creatures is as ravenous as the day he signed his pact with Ares. God of War: Ascension may have satisfied his bloodlust for now, but a return to his current timeline in God of IV is inevitable. When that day comes, everyone with a heavenly title would do well to lock their palace doors.

So who should be next on Kratos' chopping block? We have a few ideas; and in this updated feature we turned to Norse and Egyptian lore for even more inspiration...

Norse mythology is teeming with warmongers and trouble starters; many could give Kratos a run for his orbs and players an exciting change of pace. From lords of thunder to defenders of Asgard, there are a tons of worthy candidates to toss in Kratos' path. For example...

The Contender: Magni is the son of Thor and a famous giantess named Jarnsaxa (and, by extension, the grandson of Odin). That's a lot of familial pressure for any kid, let alone one with royal Norse blood. Fortunately, Magni is also the juvenile god of strength and brute force, and he's the only one of Thor's offspring with the muscles to wield his father's legendary Mjolnir hammer. And you know what would look great in Kratos' inventory? Yup, the Mjolnir hammer.

The Fight: The showdown takes place in mountains of Jötunheimr, land of giants, where Kratos ascends its highest peaks while dodging falling debris and hammer blows form Magni up above.

The Finisher: Kratos rips Mjolnir from Magni's broken hands, winds up with the twirl of the DualShock analog stick, and smacks Magni off the mountain peak.

The Contender: Odin cares not for paltry introductions. He is the King of Gods. The All-Father. The rightful lord of Asgard. Odin is the God of war, death, wisdom, poetry, and everything in between. In short: Odin is a top dog, and he has zero patience for those who stir up trouble in his realm. Considering Kratos already took down Greece's top bigwigs, it makes sense that he should cross paths with one of the best the Norse pantheon has to offer.

The Fight: Drawn to the ghostly halls of Valhalla, Kratos meets Odin in all his shape-shifting, spear-chucking, beard-whipping glory. Between up-close scuffles, Odin retreats to the rafters to summon enemies from Kratos' past who have been lurking within Valhalla in anticipation of the Spartan's arrival.

The Finisher: Kratos snaps off a golden shield from Valhalla's roof and uses it to shove Odin inch-by-inch into the hall's mighty oven.

The Contender: Heimdall is the bouncer of Asgard, home of the gods. He watches over the Bitfrost, a rainbow road that connects Earth (Midgar) to Asgard. Armed with a universe-rattling horn called Gjallarhorn, he's made a name for himself by keeping Asgard safe from off-world invaders and remaining diligent in the face of great (and mostly giant) odds. Heimdall's resilience and loyalty to his godly bosses would make him an ideal challenge for Kratos, and his horn could be useful as an AoE weapon.

The Fight: Kratos stumbles across the Bitfrost as the legendary bridge cracks and warps with every blow of Heimdall's mighty horn.

The Finisher: Kratos first spears Heimdall with a jagged fragment of the Bitfrost. Before the god can get back on his feet, Kratos recovers Gjallarhorn, takes a deep breath, and incinerates the god with one long note.

The Contender(s): One is the goddess of fertility. The other is the Goddess of passion. Together, a Gefion and Sjöfn tag team could wreak havoc on Kratos' mental health, while possibly straining God of War's M-rating to its limit with sexy time QTEs. True, both goddesses are more into hippy things like love and prosperity, but Kratos' has a knack for turning peace-loving deities into revenge-driven harpies.

The Fight: Kratos is lured into Sjöfn's Pleasure Dome where hordes of brainwashed, love-sick warriors are eager to rip off a piece of the Ghost of Sparta. Gefion observes from high above, swooping in with her trademark plough to smash Kratos aside and clear the arena for wave after wave of fighters.

The Finisher: Kratos wrestles control of Gefion's plough, dismantles the pillars of the Pleasure Dome, and watches from afar as Goddesses are buried in its rubble.

The Contender: Hel gets an automatic invitation to the God of War party. After all, she is the ruler and founder of Hel, the Norse realm of the dead, and nary a Kratos journey goes by without the Spartan getting sent "down below". We see this encounter as an opportunity for Kratos to get his mitts on some dark magic and/or nab Hel's ability to command the souls of dead warriors.

The Fight: Kratos ascends one of Hel's (the land, not the lady) demonic mansions floor by floor, hacking away at Hel (the lady, not the land) from various heights and avoiding the wreckage as the hell-house falls down around him.

The Finisher: Kratos tears a razor sharp roof ornament from its foundation and plunges it deep into Hel's bosom.

Egypt's legends are fertile grounds for tales of war, murder, revenge, and devastation. You'd be hard-pressed to find any god, goddess, or monster who hasn't gotten their hands dirty--and if there's one thing Kratos likes in his victims, it's a sordid past.

With over a hundred Egyptian deities to choose from, here's who we'd like to fight first...

The Contender(s): If Kratos were to play in Egypt's sandbox, odds are he'd take at least one stroll through Duat, Egypt's version of hell. This in mind, Osiris and Nehebkau would be the perfect hosts for his netherworld tour--one being the God of Egypt's underworld, and the other a Duat squatting, two-headed serpent. With Osiris pulling the strings from afar and Nehebkau stalking Kratos from the shadows, this confrontation would make for a tense, cat-and-mouse encounter.

The Fight: Kratos sprints through a maze-like string of catacombs towards Osiris's throne room, fending off attacks from Nehebkau at every turn.

The Finisher: Kratos uses Nehebkau's defeated body as a lasso, snags Osiris by his goatee, and flings him into Duat's burning ring of fire.

The Contender: Seth (aka Set) was heralded as the God of the desert, storms, and violence; and we know at least two of those things fall right within Kratos's wheelhouse. Revered for his strength and feared for his temper, Seth was cast out by Horus after screwing over his godly cohorts--especially Osiris, whom he buried alive and chucked down the Nile. By all accounts, Seth was a nasty, chaotic, vengeful god, and that fits Kratos's target demographic nicely.

The Fight: Kratos and Seth trade blows in the eye of a desert storm. Buried ruins emerge as the storm intensifies, altering their arena with every passing second.

The Finisher: Swept up by the storm, Kratos smashes Seth's snout and pile drives the stunned god into the ruins below.

The Contender: Horus is one of the oldest, most experienced, and most respected of the Egyptian gods. Much of his elevated status is a result of being the son of Isis, who bore Horus from the resurrected naughty bits of Osiris (long story); while the rest of his fame stems from his long list of victories in battle and contests. In short, he's a rock star of the Egyptian gods and we'd love to see how well he'd play against Greece's pale headliner.

The Fight: Horus sits atop his throne as Kratos maneuvers his deadly gauntlet below, occasionally stepping in to disrupt the warrior's progress.

The Finisher: Kratos bests the last of Horus' tests and is duly rewarded with a mighty feast/orgy inside Horus' temple. Who said these things always have to end up bloody?

The Contender: What happens when the Egyptian God of plague and war runs up against his Greek equivalent? We'd sure like to find out. Reshef has been associated with disease and arrows; two things that can be deadly to warriors like Kratos if wielded by one of Reshef's status. True, Reshef is documented as being more of a valiant defender than a killer, but his connections to combat and carnage make him a thematic fit for Kratos.

The Fight: Kratos and Reshef trade shots across the raging Nile Delta, and after a harried scramble across the raging waters, Kratos washes ashore at Het-Rehsp to land the final blow.

The Finisher: Kratos drags Egypt's battered “God of War” to the shores of the nile, dunks Reshef below its surface, and holds him under until the air bubbles stop.

The Contender(s): Hit the showers, Poseidon, there's a new sea god in town. As the restless lord of the abyss, Yam was a force to be reckoned with. He was a god with lofty ambitions, who often left his underwater temple to challenge any man, god, or monster that crossed his path. Some of Kratos's most cinematic battles have been fought near water, so who better to carry on that tradition than Egypt's own boss of the sea?

The Fight: Think Moby Dick, except with Kratos as the rage-filled Ahab and Yam's pet Leviathan as the bloodthirsty whale (yeah, we didn't read the book). The fight begins aboard a ship, but moves underwater when Leviathan yanks Kratos below and pulls him kicking and punching into Yam's stronghold.

The Finisher: Hacking off the Leviathan's limb, Kratos frees himself in enough time to wrench a tooth from the monster's jaw and stab it through Yam's throat.

At last we come to the Greeks. What can we say? We're a sucker for the classics. True, Kratos has already reduced the Greek pantheon by a considerable amount, but there's still more Greek higher-ups that we'd like to see face those Blades of Chaos....

The Contender: The daughter of Chaos and Goddess of the Night, Nyx is known as the mother of dark spirits and “that shady chick” who (allegedly) slept with Cerberus to create the hellhounds. Yeah, let that sink in for a moment. Since Kratos is destined to slaughter a handful of her offspring in later adventures (i.e. Thanatos and The Fates), it's only fair that Nyx gets a chance to dole out some motherly vengeance ... even if it's a tad preemptive.

The Fight: Nyx is often depicted atop her chariot, but Helios already cribbed that style in God of War III. Instead, we see Nyx going the winged-goddess route and weaving in and out of the shadows as Kratos deals with her hellhounds. Freezing Nyx in place with the Life Cycle would be key to victory, with the prize being “Nyx's Shroud”, which would grant Kratos the power to summon his own hellhound in battle.

The Finisher: De-winged and beaten to a pulp, Kratos whips the hellhounds into a frenzy and sets them loose to feed on their creator.

The Contender: Dionysus--God of booze, sex, and rock-and-roll--has so far been shafted from a full God of War appearance, and to us that's a major party foul. This is the deity who's notorious for switching moods on a dime; offering free drinks one moment and drowning villagers the next. It's this unpredictable madness that makes Dionysus more than an immortal frat boy, and a serious threat to Kratos.

The Fight: It begins with Kratos crashing Dioynsus's orgy where he must launch ecstasy-addled followers at the god to knock him from his golden perch. With Dionysus dethroned, Kratos would lay into him via QTE, ending each combo by smashing his smug face with the nearest goblet. And then, who knows? A drinking game would be cool.

The Finisher: Kratos severs Dionysus's arms, dunks his head into a vat of wine, and holds him underwater until the bubbles stop.

The Contender: Before Poseidon got his feet wet, it was Pontos (son and wife of Gaia) who ruled the seas. We also loved God of War III's opening battle with Poseidon, so digging up his predecessor is a smart way to re-imagine one of the series's most memorable encounters.

The Fight: It starts with Pontus decimating Kratos ship and using its debris to knock Kratos from his floating platform. Between dodging the missiles and fending off sea nymphs, players would need to freeze the debris in mid-air with the Life Cycle and use the suspended flotsam and jetsam as a make-shift bridge to Pontus.

The Finisher: Kratos plunges into Pontus's throat, hooks his chains to a swirling crate of dynamite, and hucks it at Pontus's heart.

The Contender: Serving as a ruler of the winds, Aeolus isn't the highest ranking god around, but his ability to move unseen would make him an exciting challenge. Putting this deity down could reward players with a weapon imbued with the powers of wind or an item allowing Kratos to slip by ancient traps unseen.

The Fight: Lifted skyward on the back of a Phoenix, Kratos would need to scan the skies for Aeolus, lock him in place with the Life Cycle when he materializes, and take his shot as the Titan hovers defenseless. The lofty battle would end with a free-fall beatdown.

The Finisher: Kratos grates Aeolus against the side of a mountain and is blown to safety once the god's body reverts to its natural form.

The Contender: Hekate is revered in Wiccan circles as the Goddess of magic, ghosts, necromancy, and pretty much everything that goes bump in the night. As the witch of all witches, she would pose a supernatural challenge to Kratos, and perhaps award players with “Hekate's Crown”, allowing them to raise fallen enemies to do their bidding.

The Fight: A God of War game isn't complete without a trip through hades, and seeing as Hekate has a ton of underworld connections, it's about time she got her hands dirty. Hekate's fight would play out as something of a horde mode, pitting Kratos against waves of undead while Hekate controls the horde from the middle. As a twist, Hekate could remap Kratos controls, forcing players to wrestle with a possessed Spartan.

The Finisher: Ripping out Hekate's tongue to silence the witch for good, Kratos strings her up with the entrails of the undead and pulls her apart with one final tug.

The Contender: Agrius and Oreius were the sons of Polyphonte, who was tricked by her daughter Aphrodite to fall in love with a bear and--well--you know where this goes. While giving birth to illegitimate man-bear twins--envisioned by South Park above (minus the pig)--sounds like the plot of an awesome sitcom, it's also a perfect set up for a dual-boss encounter.

The Fight: The fight would take place on the Bear Twins themselves as they rampage through a forest. Kratos, of course, would be hopping between the two, hacking off weak points. With Agrius down, the battle would transition into a QTE sequence as Oreius carries Kratos to the edge of a cliff.

The Finisher: Kratos slashes Oreius's ankles with Agrius's severed claw and kicks him off the cliff where the man-bear is impaled by a mighty redwood.

The Contender: Porphyrion was king of the giants until he took an Eros to the knee. But since death is but a speed-bump in God of War, we see no reason why Sony can't resurrect the former big boy for one more showdown. After all, he is the freaking King of the Giants, and in our book that means VIP access to any fight.

The Fight: One giant. One Spartan. One ring. This mano-a-mano match would take place in a coliseum where Kratos would have to find a way of stunning Porphyrion in battle, after which he'd use his chains to grasp surrounding columns and bring them crashing down on the giant's helpless body.

The Finisher: Kratos QTE's a path to Porphyrion's heart, zaps it with Life Cycle magic, and steps back as Porphyrion freezes in place.

The Contender: Hera's 100-eyed pet had a low-res part in God of War: Betrayal, but he was cut from God of War III after the developers decided he didn't fit the plot. We call shenanigans. A 100-eyed monster fits any plot, anywhere, anytime--no excuses.

The Fight: We see Argus chasing Kratos through an ancient city, forcing players to run, leap, and swing for safety while popping the beast's eyes with pointy objects along the way. To finish the fight, Kratos would need to rebuild a tower with Life Cycle magic, scurry up its topmost turret, and stand his ground in a face-to-face showdown with the former giant.

The Finisher: Kratos binds Argus to the tower with his chains, dislodges a nearby statue, and drives it through Argus's remaining eye.

The Contender: As the Titan of memory and remembrance, we envision Mnemosyne putting Kratos through an epic mind-trip populated by his inner-most demons, nightmares, and past foes. Considering the fate of Kratos's wife and child, Mnemosyne would have a lot of material to work with.

The Fight: Unshackled by game logic, developers could cast Kratos in his own episode of “This is Your Life”, re-introducing enemies and bosses from his past and--dare we say?--future. Mnemosyne would control the nightmare from afar, swooping in for a final showdown only after Kratos has bested her tests.

The Finisher: Kratos smashes a hole into Mnemosyne's noggin and lays waste to the gooey brain matter inside.

The Contender: Remember Helios? Greek personification of the sun? The dude who had his head bashed in by Kratos right before it was ripped off and used as a handy flashlight? Yeah him. Well, Helios has a sister, Selene--Titan of the moon--and since God of War likes to keep it in the family, we'd like to see her shortly. Plus, if tradition serves, her head would make a handy telescope.

The Fight: As cool as a Selene-O-scope may be, we don't see Kratos killing this relatively peaceful Titan. Instead, we envision Selene testing Kratos' skill against waves of underlings while she hangs peacefully above, lit behind by a dreamy moonscape. Too artsy? Maybe, but in the ultra-violent world of Kratos, a little breather from the blood and guts might be a nice change of pace.

The Finisher: Kratos yanks Selene from the sky, and coerces her into handing over whatever magical MacGuffin he needs to continue.

That should keep Kratos busy. At least until God of War V.

With hundreds of qualified candidates to choose from, we couldn't possibly cover every potential match-up. Let us know who we missed and who you'd like to see pit against the Ghost of Sparta in the comments below. Reversely, if you are one of the gods listed in this feature and wish to reign bloody vengeance upon its author, we ask that you submit your request through the proper channels.

Craving more God of War? Read our God of War: Ascension review, and find other video game eye candy in The most visually striking games of this generation. .