The Phoenix Chamber

Pull the lever that is just ahead and jump to the platform that is on your left. Then, just when I gave up questioning the relevance of the outlandish
traps in this game I am given a room that is tricked out with wall to wall,rapid rise, floor spikes.

PUZZLE: Spike Room:

PART I:

• Pull the lever to temporarily lower the spikes
• Run over to the center of the room to the body that is just hanging out at the bar. When he is moved you will obtain the "Hail of Boreas."
• Run back to the doorway and wait for the spikes to shoot up again

PART II:

• Pull the spike lowering lever a second time and run to the left and break the wall to reveal a time freeze statue
• Two attackers will jump down and you can dispense of them quickly if you run back to the doorway and let the spikes take care of them 

PART III:

• Drop the spikes a third time and run to the rotating lever that you got the
  Boreas from
• Rotate it one and only one full rotation
• Press R1+L1 to stop time
• Run to the right and to the far end of the spike field, jump over the two
  spike pits and then out to safety

 The subsequent hallway is winding and leaking with lava. At the end is a long room with a phoenix at the end of it. This phoenix sends out a periodic, room clearing wave of fire that is so beautiful you may want to waste a few lives just to see Kratos get burnt alive. Your mission is to open the gate at the
far end of the room and swing up to it to get out. However, the waves of flames keep Kratos from reaching it unless you can get something to shield
him.

The Phoenix Room Help

How to beat this room:

• On the left side of the entrance hallway is a large statue. Pull it out and push it north through the room. 
• As you work your way north you will be attacked so fight them back a little
  but keep pushing the statue forward
• Don't fight off the bats or the skeletons using your standard attacks.
  Instead, use either Atlas's Earthquake or Cronos's Rage to hold them at bay as you make progress. 
• When you move the statue in front of the raised blocks, it will no longer
  slide back. Consider these blocks checkpoints so you can catch your breath
  and attack more enemies.
• An easy way to fight off the attackers is to park the statue in front of one of the stone steps then lure the beasts all the way back to the entrance hallway. The fire will be dispersed and you will have more room to dodge and fight.
• When you get Kratos and the statue to the center of the room, pull the lever to lower the step that is blocking your way.
• When you get the statue all the way up to the two touch pads, two more skeleton guys will drop to attack you. Kill by luring them back to the entrance of this room.
• If you ever need a refill on health/magic, run back to the hallway to find two chests.

When you get to the end of the room, grapple up to the balcony. Move the urn that is up there to the side and step onto the central trigger. The elevator descends into a lava-filled room.

Drag the Urn to the right and into the small indentation in the floor. Run towards the lever that is in front of the phoenix head and pull it. This lever sends in a crane to pick up the urn and drop it into the lava.

CUT SCENE:
The lava boils, even more than it normally does, and a huge phoenix emerges from it. A geyser erupts sending the bird up to the plaza. That pot was full
of phoenix ashes and when Kratos cracked it into this lava skillet, the Phoenix was "rising from the ashes."

Jump over to the save light and use it if you have to. Then, float off towards the central ring of columns and onto the second ring of stairs. Run
up this spiral to the elevator that lifts Kratos back to the Palace's main lobby.

The phoenix is moaning as it is bathed in a geyser of lava. You can't free it
quite yet so go to the elevator that you came up in and look behind it for a stone relief of an old man (a relief is a sculpture that is extends partially
into 3D space - like Lincoln's head on the Penny). Pacify the old man by placing the Hail of Boreas in his mouth like a giant diamond pacifier.
Continue through the hall and past the chain to find a Gorgon Eye. Then, climb the chain to get to the floor with the giant horn. Blow into it.

CUT SCENE:
The Ricola-esque echoes of the horn frees the Phoenix and in turn, do what birds do best: destroy property value. I have a roost of pigeons in one of my
palm trees and they sh*t all over everything. But, instead of giant lava turds, the phoenix causes his damage by knocking over stone statues and
pillars before roosting on a nearby burning pedestal.

Jump down from the horn and head straight to the two column bases. Climb onto the shorter one and then jump over to the tall one on the left. Leap to the
nearby balcony and then open the door.

PUZZLE: Premature Elevation
The room has one lever and one elevator. If you pull the lever the elevator raises without you. That's fine because there are hand grips on that elevator. Run up to it and use the grips to climb onto the ceiling. While dangling, hack at the two sets of chains to reveal a red chest and then a dragable stone column. Drop down and pull the lever to lower the elevator again. Slide the stone column so that it is straddling the lower-left-hand-side of the elevator and the room. Pull the lever and the column will jam the elevator. Climb up and into the partially elevated elevator and then pull the column back into the lift so that it is free to lift all the way up. Now that Kratos, the column and the elevator are at the top floor, drag the column under the bronze gate and jump on top of it. Jump and slash the chain that is holding the gate up and it will eventually drop.

Inside the next room, rotate the lever to erect the two columns that are back out in the palace courtyard.

Proceed right to a crank and turn it until the gate blocking the door has been moved. Proceed forward and all of a sudden it is shadow boxing between Kratos and a silhouetted man. Please don't be a dark Kratos cliche, please
don't be a dark Kratos cliche...

The shadow figure says "I have come too far to fail." To best him, attack the guy a few times, block, or jump over him. After enough hits, Kratos grabs the figure and they go tumbling out the window.

CUT SCENE:
As he falls, Kratos jams his Blades of Chaos right through the attacker. This would normally be a good thing except that the attacker is the kid that was
dispatched to defend Sparta. So that's innocent victim number two that Kratos has Fragged (his first was his wife in GOW1). It's a good thing they don't have guns yet because Kratos' aim is a bit, how do you say... generous.

Kratos then scolds the kid for abandoning his post. But if anyone should be getting a lecture it should Kratos for his swing-first/questions later form of artial arts. And to the kid's defense, he did go back to Sparta. But Zeus went there too. And because Kratos was out trying to get his mojo back, Zeus had free reign over the city-state. The god of lightning shot down buildings, picked up towers and stomped on porticos. It actually looks like a lot of fun to destroy an ancient city like that (hint, hint Mr. Barlog. A perfect playable add in for GOW2: Game of the Year Edition). After Sparta was left in smoldering ruins, the Spartan kid came here to the Island of Creation to meet the fates and change the past for Sparta's benefit. But, the kid's quest was cut short because of Kratos. He dies and Kratos yells out for Zeus.

Kratos starts a demi-god sized tantrum and a giant leviathan that I can only describe as an unholy lovechild between Cthulhu and the Creature from the Black Lagoon surfaces. He wraps his tentacles around the two columns. 

While this is happening, the face buttons have been remapped as follows:

Walk Kratos over to the monster and let the beast pick him up. I assume that sea monsters have the same hallucinogenic skin that frogs do because Kratos
starts buggin' and passes out.

CUT SCENE:
When he opens his eyes, Kratos is standing in the middle of a wheat field or on the back of an enormous dog. The colors are a bit muddy so I can't tell.
This dog/wheat field overlooks a burning city that I bet is Sparta. Up walks Kratos's wife. <<Her musical theme is the Italian restaurant mandolin>>.
Kratos apologizes for accidentally slashing her to death but, it isn't even his wife, it's Gaia talking through the wife.

Kratos totally pusses out and says "I can not defeat the gods." Gaia begs, and then urges him to command the rest of the titans in a war to kill Zeus. She warns that if he does give up, the gods will torture him for the rest of
his life and then when he dies, they will torture him in hell. <<Cue the Kratos theme: bump-bump-bu-bu-bump>>. She then infuses him with the fires of Sparta. You know if Kratos doesn't reclaim kill Zeus and reclaim his godly powers he still has a lot of options available to him. For one, he would be a natural choice for spokesman for Red Stripe Beer. 

Kratos awakens in the Leviathan's grasp and that acid trip really restored Kratos's desire to kill. Furthermore, the buttons are back to their rightful
attack positions.

PART I

• Attack the left set of tentacles until they inch up and reveal a touchplate that opens the steam vent
• Considering Kratos is never one to leave a corpse to waste, grab the Spartan's body and carry it over to the touch plate
• When the steam vent opens, run over to it and use Kratos's Icarus wings to fly up to the monster's forehead
• Attack it with wild abandon

PART II

• After enough hits, the sea monster will jam its tentacle into the steam
  vent.
• Run up to that tentacle and climb it
• Attack the large knob on that tentacle
• When the knob is destroyed, press circle to chop off the whole arm

PART III

• Repeat the corpse-on-trigger, steam vent float, and forehead attack
  sequence.
• After enough hits he will jamb his right tentacle in the wall
• Run under the tentacle and jump up to grab it. Ceiling climb to the large knob and attack it the same way you attacked the other one

PART IV:

• The beast eats Kratos's Spartan comrade and then swings its remaining tentacles wildly
• Focus your attacks on the creature's left tentacle (on the right side of the screen) and when the tentacles loose their grip, run over to the other set of tentacles and attack them
• When it has lost both sides and is hanging on for dear echinoderm life, pull the central lever and the monster deep throats the rapidly extending bridge

Proceed across the bridge and up over the best's head. Run up to the Phoenix, press the circle key and follow the on-screen cues. Kratos climbs board the bird and I shutter to think what its flaming down feathers would do to Kratos's bare thighs.