"Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold..."

The story begins with Captain Cervantes, one of the most dreadful pirates of the era. After he acquired the evil twin swords "Soul Edge", Cervantes and his mighty ship the "Adrian" struck fear into the Atlantic Ocean. Once fully possessed by the demon swords, he slew his entire crew and the residence of his port base in Spain. After the bloodshed, Cervantes rested himself at the remains of what was once known as the "Black Tail Inn". Temporarily satisfied with its twisted desire to consume souls, the evil swords rested and prepared to create the "Child of the Evil Swords"...

During the next twenty years, the rumors of the evil swords spread throughout the world. Some claim it was the ultimate weapon. Others refer to it as the "Sword of Heroes." …A phantom sword with immeasurable power of the spirits…the key to eternal youth…treasure without equal…a panacea to cure all illness… There are even those who consider it the "Sword of Salvation." Some, selected by destiny and history, sought Soul Edge for personal reasons. Although no one could ever be certain of the sword's whereabouts or true identity, various rumors and folklore spread across the world. In reality, Soul Edge was comprised of twin blades that fed on human souls. Fortunately, few reached Soul Edge; those that did cursed their fate as the evil swords devoured their souls

However there was one who fought the cursed fate... Sophitia, the sacred fighter of Hephaestus the God of Blacksmiths. During the grueling battle with Cervantes, she succeeded in destroying one of the twin swords in the latter half of the 16th century. But in doing so, she was wounded as the pieces of the shattered sword rained upon her body. Cervantes, with wrath as if a part of him had been destroyed, was about to end her life when Taki the "Underground Hunter" challenged him.

Due to his loss of control from the destruction of one of the blades, the intense battle between Taki and Cervantes ended with the victory of the "Underground Hunter". She completed her mission by gathering a piece of the destroyed Soul Edge and left with the injured Sophitia.

Siegfried, the "Innocent Darkside," visited the port town seeking the sword of legend for his vengeance, only to find the corpse of a pirate captain. Attracted by a sword clutched in the dead pirate’s hand, Siegfried walked toward it take possession of the blade, but suddenly the corpse rose up enveloped in hell fire. It seemed as if an evil spirit had materialized on earth consuming Cervantes' body.

With a flash, mortal combat began. The Zweihander "Faust", roared in the hands of the boy, who seemed too little to bear such a heavy blade, and slashed through the air controlled by the madness in the youth's eyes. When the battle ended, all that remained was the burnt corpse and the boy grasping the now broken Zweihander. His green eyes reflected the Soul Edge bathed in hell fire...

The youth’s warped spirit extended a hand to Soul Edge, as if being guided by the evil spirit which longed for a new host to maintain its power and control... That night, some people at the Spanish seashore saw a mysterious but beautiful scene of a white column of light piercing the clouds and spreading through the sky. How could they have known, it was the birth of the Evil Seed, which would cause disasters throughout the world?

Thus started the next chapter in history...

Tragically, shattering the sword produced the opposite effect of what was intended. The balance of power between the swords was destroyed, and the evil of the blades spiraled out of control. The remaining sword possessed the body of a man who took the evil blade into his hands and embarked on a killing spree throughout Europe. Macabre accounts of merciless killings spread fear throughout the entire continent. Yet the massacres ceased after three years. Four more years passed, and the horrors became a distant memory and people felt safe once again. …No one knew. Four years before, a spirit sword named Soul Calibur appeared from the East, as if to answer the call of the raging Soul Edge. No one witnessed the final battle to the death where Soul Edge was shattered. No one knew that the spirit sword was left behind in the vortex of evil to stop the demon sword's powers. Most people were oblivious to the fact that the peace that followed was the result of this battle, and the spirit sword's existence remained a mystery. Unfortunately, the peace was merely a façade; the evil blade began spreading its influence, quietly yet surely, throughout the world once again. People unwittingly transported the sword to every corner of the world in the form of metal shards. These pieces of Soul Edge still embodied evil powers. With Soul Calibur lost in the void, it was only a matter of time before the evil sword's dark powers infected the entire world. The following tales of swords and souls are of those who pursued Soul Edge for their own convictions and reasons...

Characters involved in Yoshimitsu's story

Nightmare ; Voldo ; Taki

NIGHTMARE Country of Origin: Germany...? Weapon: Soul Edge Weapon name: Soul Edge fighting style: Memories of Soul Edge...? age: Unknown birth date: Unknown family: Unknown birth place: Unknown height: 5 feet 6 inches weight: 209 lbs blood type: Unknown

No one knew where the rumor came from.

At one time, Nightmare committed countless cold-blooded murders while under the control of Soul Edge. All who knew of him feared his crimson gaze and his strange, one-eyed, giant blade.

Originally, he was the leader of a group of brigands known as the Black Wind, whose stronghold was located in the Black Forest near the Roman Empire. It was news of his father's death that drove him from his marauding lifestyle, resolving to find his father's killer.

Hearing word of a sword known as Soul Edge, he became convinced that he could slay his father's murderer if he found this ultimate weapon. He searched through the battlegrounds in every region he traveled. Eventually, he came across a sword in a Spanish harbor that emitted a strange aura beside the corpse of its owner, who appeared to be a pirate. The dead body returned to life, covered in flames, as if to protect the sword. Upon defeating the apparition, he reached for the hilt of the mysterious blade.

It was then that he heard the voice of Soul Edge, the sword that feeds on souls. It told him that if he used the souls absorbed by the sword, he would be able to resurrect his father. Accepting his new goal, the man's body began to surge with the evil energy of the sword. The energy became a beautiful pillar of light that pierced the evening sky and dissipated into the atmosphere.

From that moment on, the man became Nightmare, the evil knight who would strike fear into every corner of Europe.

Having determined that the power Soul Edge had at that moment was insufficient to revive his father, Nightmare attacked village after village to nourish the blade. Not satisfied, he sought out those with strong souls to feed the evil sword.

The killings ended three years later, when Nightmare came across three sacrifices for his blade. One of them wielded a spirit sword called Soul Calibur, which possessed an aura that was the polar opposite of the evil power emitted by Soul Edge. The battle between the swordsmen took place in a vortex of hellfire and evil energy summoned by Soul Edge. After a raging battle, the evil sword shattered, and both Nightmare and Soul Edge fell into the collapsing void.

With Soul Edge severely weakened, Nightmare regained some of his humanity. Along with lucidity came the horrifying memories of the sins he committed, as well as the fear and anger of those who were slaughtered by him. Moreover, he realized that he had been the one who murdered his father.

Expelled from the void into an unfamiliar place, Nightmare disappeared into the night-the evil sword still in his grip. But Soul Edge was weaker now, and splinters of itself were left in Nightmare's footsteps. He knew Soul Edge must never fall into the hands of another man. He set off to go as far away as possible from human settlements.

Yet each morning, he awakened to the sight of people slain by him during the night. While he slept, Soul Edge took over his mind and flesh, and he was burdened by this new guilt. Nevertheless, he did not choose to take his own life and end things easily. He knew that if he died, the sword would only find a new host to continue its evil ways. The only solution was to find a place where the evil could be imprisoned forever. Initially, the balance of power between him and the sword were equal. But as time wore on, his control over his body became irregular, and the sword held sway over him for slightly longer periods of time.

The number of those who fell victim to the blade continued to grow. The sword healed itself gradually by feeding off the victims' souls. After four years, the sword had nearly recovered to full strength. The fragments of itself lost during its escape...The evil energy dispersed as the Evil Seed…Soul Edge's shattered companion blade…the other Soul Edge...

With dominant control over its host body, Soul Edge, once again in the form of "Nightmare," began to pursue the fragments of itself that it had lost. It was on a quest to restore itself completely! But at the same time, he continued to fight the evil sword's plans with the little sanity left within him.

Nightmare's Arena: Ostrheinsburg Castle

This large castle stands deep with the woods of Mittelbirge in Germany. Constructed by Sir Stefan, famous as an independent knight, this castle consisted of a quadruple fortress and has been proud of its impregnability. However Sir Stefan had been killed in a war a few years ago, after the lord's death the remaining soldiers were executed, and the crying women and children were killed or taken away as prisoners. After thorough plundering the once proud castle is nothing more than a ruin of death that none dare visit.

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VOLDO Country of Origin: Italy Weapon: Katar Weapon name: Shame & Blame fighting style: own style age: 46 birth date: August 25 family: Parents and four brothers, all killed in wars birth place: Palermo, Italy height: 6 feet weight: 185 lbs blood type: A

Somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, there was a small island said to hold the treasures of a wealthy Italian merchant of death named Vercci. His riches were stored in a chasm known to thieves who schemed to plunder it as the Money Pit. Rumors circulated amongst them about the numerous traps that awaited foolish intruders and of the eerie guardian who watched over Vercci's fortune deep within the pit.

Although Vercci was renowned for saying, "There is nothing that I do not possess," there was one thing he desired more than anything...Soul Edge. Vercci tried everything within his powers to locate the coveted weapon- going as far as leading a fleet of his ships on an expedition- but ultimately failed. During his absence, Vercci lost most of his fortune to a war that broke out in Italy. His possessions were the only things that mattered to Vercci. He took whatever treasures remained on his fleet of ships and hid it in a pit that he had dug with the help of his loyal followers on a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. Vercci rigged the chasm with countless traps in order to ward off treasure-seeking intruders. And for over twenty years, the Money Pit ensnared thieves who attempted to steal his treasure, just as Vercci expected.

There was a man who stood watch over the treasure- a guardian feared by all who dared to enter the pit. He was Vercci's loyal vassal. The man served Vercci on his expedition, helped dig the pit, and after his master's death, defended the vault faithfully. After years of solitude in darkness, the man lost his sight and sanity. He even forgot his name, which was Voldo. All of this must have been trivial for him, for his only desire was to serve his master's will by protecting the treasure.

But he had forgotten something. Something was missing.

In the silence broken only by the death throes of foolhardy intruders, Voldo slowly began to piece together what he had forgotten- Soul Edge, the treasure amongst treasures. Voldo ventured abroad in an attempt to fulfill his master's last wish. He followed numerous leads, and he returned periodically to the pit to ensure the safety of the treasure and the working condition of the traps. The guardian focused solely on performing his duties.

One day, after Voldo chased an intruder away, he heard his long-lost master's voice. Obeying his master's orders, Voldo followed Soul Edge's aura emanating from the female intruder's sword (That was Taki. :) She was looking for a note left by Vercci about Soul Edge). And after a long journey, he finally succeeded in bringing back a single-handed sword that emitted a strange aura (Hey, it was Yoshi's sword! How could he steal it from Yoshi? Heh heh... read "SC Yoshi Bio"!).

Upon his return, Voldo found his master's pit flooded with seawater. Voldo sat quietly, barely moving, on his master's throne in the small chamber behind the statue of Vercci, which overlooked the treasure vault now covered by water. Voldo believed he had found Soul Edge. He had obtained the one thing Vercci desired. Yet he did not hear the voice of his deceased master…

Four years passed, but it was as if time stood still inside the Money Pit. The guardian's duty of defending the Money Pit never changed. Voldo felt as though he would spend eternity in the silence of the pit, waiting to hear his master's voice once again.

But fate brought Voldo back to the present. When he defeated an intruder one day, Voldo found several metal shards that possessed the same aura as Soul Edge. And although each piece was merely a fragment, they seemed to radiate the same amount of power as Soul Edge itself.

Voldo finally understood why he did not hear his deceased master's voice. The sword he brought back was not Soul Edge. The guardian did not know whether or not the metal pieces were truly from Soul Edge, but he knew that the truth would be revealed if he searched for the weapon once more. Voldo collected the fragments, placed them on the throne carefully, and then ventured outside. His mission was to bring Soul Edge- the weapon his master desired to the very end of his life -back to the Money Pit.

Voldo's Arena: Money Pit

The Money Pit once proud of its impregnable status faced a humbling conquering at the hands of an act of god. A terrible storm flooded most of the treasure stockyards and even the highest of stockyards could not escape. The highest among the stockyards bore the marble statue of the dead master Vercci, this was the final stand of the Money Pit and the place Voldo placed the coffin of the dead master and slowly gathered the remaining treasure into.

[ Money Pit ]

TAKI Country of Origin: Japan Weapon: Ninjatou Weapon name: Rekki-maru & Mekki-maru fighting style: Musou-baton-ryu age: 25 birth date: Unknown family: Parents and brothers all taken by diseases. Master Toki birth place: Japan height: 5 feet 7 inches weight: 117 lbs blood type: A

The battle was beyond imagination. A conflict against a powerful dark energy that made the ghosts she had conquered in the past seem like child's play. Her armor, which she had been improving for years, could not bear the pulse of evil and cracked and her sealing spells proved useless. At last her beloved and proud Rekki-maru cracked as the mad pirate shrieked in death.

Carrying the wounded girl that managed to destroy one of the evil blades Taki left the Spanish harbor, and as she left she felt an immense explosion of evil energy behind her, the release of the Evil Seed. Taki removed the shards of the evil sword from Sophitia's wounded body and cured her. After she returned Sophitia to her family she left for her homeland with the shards of the Soul Edge. During her travels she was reminded of the events that unfolded before her departure…

  …It all began before Rekki-maru began to resonate with the curse of Soul Edge. Toki, the chief of the clan and Taki's foster father, suddenly summoned all the ninjas of the clan and addressed them, "Hachibei who once lead this great clan with me has stolen the spiritual ninja-to Mekki-maru and ran away with his daughter Chie. The are now nuke-nin (Ed. Nuke-nin are ninja that leave their clan without permission, usually ninja can not leave the clan until they die because the secrets of their clan and lord. Thus the clan is responsible for the nuke-nin and must execute them as soon as possible. This was one of the tragedies of the ninja, as a nuke-nin if the ninja wanted to live they must kill their friends, kith and kin that now sought their lives.)! I order find them and return Mekki-maru dead or alive!"

Seeing the pure fury in his eyes Taki began to grow suspicious in Toki for the first time.

No one could find Hachibei; his skill in hiding was easily the finest in the clan. Only Taki with her unusual sixth sense and massive intelligence network could even begin to track him down. Eventually after following a trace of Chie, her childhood friend, Taki was able to locate Hachibei.

Hachibei and Chie ran a small stall on a vacant road. A man of extraordinary strength lived with them at the time. Taki avoided trouble and contacted Hachibei while the man was out. Hachibei was surprised to find Taki in front of him at first but eventually his face filled with relief. He showed Taki Mekki-maru and began talking through his heavy coughs.

  "Toki is possessed by madness and has lost his senses. This Mekki-maru controls him now."

The ninja-to she took from Hachibei seems quiet and dull even though Hachibei claimed it had extraordinary spiritual powers.

  "Toki is not the Toki we knew, if he comes in contact with this blade again… I am in my final days. I beg you Taki never let Toki have this blade! Never!"

Hachibei was ill and he knew Toki would find him soon. With these new facts Taki's suspicions in Toki grew, she left and decided to let Hachibei and Chie go free. She hid Mekki-maru and returned to her clan to confirm her suspicions.

  "A Chinese man, Chie's lover, has taken Mekki-maru. Hachibei and Chie have already been killed."

On hearing her report Toki grinned and ordered the clan to pursue the Chinese man. Toki was not the Toki Taki had known, his eyes were full of evil and Taki could see the madness behind them. Her suspicions were confirmed. At the same time Mekki-maru suddenly changed, she knew the evil blade was resonating with an unexpected power and she believed the source to be an evil sword in a foreign country. Taki crossed the sea for the first time…

Taki returned homeland with a shard of the Soul Edge. She tried to drive the shard into her beloved but broken ninja-to "Rekki-maru", but they were resistant to one another and refused to be joined. Meanwhile, Taki was attacked repeatedly by assassins who seemed to be sent by Toki, her master ninja. It was an easy task for Taki to drive them away, but she found that their purpose was to steal the mysterious spiritual ninja-to "Mekki-maru", which Hachibei had entrusted to Taki.

  "In Mekki-maru there is sealed a fearful power. Never let Toki have the ninja-to. You are only one that I could entrust..."

Reminded of Hachibei's words, Taki tried to fuse the shard of Soul Edge with Mekki-maru. The two were immediately united and began to shed a dark aura. An aura so dark even common people could sense it. Sensing the blade's potential Taki closed it in its sheath and sealed it with magic cards. However even this was not enough power to suppress the power of Mekki-maru. And the instant she ran out of power she was captured by Geki, Toki's right hand man and his highest-ranking ninja. Exhausted from battling Mekki-maru Taki could not resist the strength of Geki as he took Mekki-maru from her hands.

  "Respectable Taki, I'm sorry to say this ninja-to belongs to Master Toki. You must have thought you deceived us well, but everything was planned from the beginning. Now it is time for you to rest."

  "No Geki don't release it!"

Acareless Geki watch in horror as his right arm was blown to bits as the blade shed a dark shock wave upon its release from the sheath. His shriek of pain split the bamboo forest; Taki seized the moment, grabbed Mekki-maru and ran past Geki's assistants Gaki and Doki.

  "Humans should never have this power… especially Toki…"

At the same time, the rumor of the berserker bearing the new evil sword reached Japan. Taki realized that the evil sword must be the remaining Soul Edge, because her Rekki-maru still resonated like before. Taki planned to have the two evil swords, Soul Edge and Mekki-maru, battle each other to offset their evil powers.

Thus Taki became a nuke-nin like Hachibei. The assassins under Toki's direct control were powerful and fearful ninja and among them Geki, having lost his right arm, wished to taste her blood most of all. Driving their attacks back with her various skills, the Dream Shadow of Demon Sealer continued her quest west.

And now the powerful ghost Gel-o-fury gained enough power from the Evil Seed to break Taki's seals in the bamboo forest. Its direction was mostly likely the Hoko-ji Temple in Kyoto. The great temple of madness constructed by warped ideals would be the final battleground with the ghost. Taki chose to share her fate with Mekki-maru for a while. Often while chasing the Soul Edge, Taki would look at Mekki-maru and think "what terrible powers… but, isn't there any way to control it?"

Toki, however, would not give up so easily. He sent other clan members after her in order to retrieve the powerful blade.

Pursued by her former clan members, Taki decided to destroy Mekki-Maru by pitting it against Soul Edge. She hoped that the two powerful weapons would obliterate one another. Unfortunately, by the time she found Soul Edge, its wielder Nightmare had already been defeated by a group of warriors. How would she destroy Mekki-Maru without Soul Edge? Taki tried to devise another plan, but her secret desire to master the sword grew stronger by the day. The decision was made. She grasped the fundamental skills needed to handle Mekki-Maru during her journey; she just needed to build her mental strength enough to overcome the evil influences of the sword.

Around the time she mastered the ability to use the sword for short periods of time, several Fu-Ma ninjas appeared before her. Unlike previous encounters, these Ninjas did not attack on sight. Instead, they attempted to capture her. Unfortunately for the ninjas, they were no match for Taki; they all fell before her Mekki-Maru. "…I know they were sent by Master Toki… but why would they travel so far to these strange lands to seek me?" Searching through the strewn remains of the ninjas, Taki came across a metal fragment. Although weak, the aura emanating from the metal was unmistakably that of Soul Edge. The sword was not destroyed; it still existed in pieces.

Taki then realized why the ninjas had tried to capture her. Master Toki was trying to gather information about Soul Edge in order to find all of the fragments. Undoubtedly, pieces of the sword, just like the one she held in her hand, were already in Master Toki's possession. Knowing the effects that Soul Edge had on those who wielded it, Taki knew she could not let it get into the hands of Master Toki.

Even without the sword, the head of the Fu-Ma clan was already powerful. She was afraid to think about what would happen if Toki acquired the evil blade and received its madness. He could transform into a monster with unfathomable strength. Taki headed for Japan. She could not allow this impending disaster to occur in her homeland.

On her way back to Japan, she sensed the presence of the evil sword. The metal she possessed began to resonate ever so slightly with the aura of evil.

After she hastily sealed the fragment, she thought about what she should do next. Should she go after the fragments that her former master had, or exorcise the evil sword itself? Either way, time was running out.

Taki's Arena: Hoko-ji Temple

Hoko-ji Temple was constructed in Kyoto (capitol at the time) in the 17th year of Tensho (1589) under the proposal of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. The temple's was officially created to pray for the peace and stability of the nation but it had an hidden agenda of "katana-gari" (Ed. Katana-gari was the sword hunting policy to take swords away from people other than nobles. Until then there was no set border between samurai (soldiers), sho-nin (merchants) and no-min (farmers). Thus people like Mitsurugi, who were once a peasants, could take up the sword. Once the policy went into effect farmers could not bear katana and thus the caste system became more apparent.) to prevent the constant rioting of farmers.

In a secret underground hall there is standing Buddha statue 24 meters tall set within the center of a huge fusui-ban (Ed. Fusui-ban is an octagonal disk used for fortune telling based on fusui, a type of Chinese secret magic (or logic depending on the translation). Fusui literally means "winds and waters", and it core purpose it to read the stream of "ki" in nature and control them.) which Yin-Yang masters would consult in their advice to Hideyoshi and his strategies for conquering the country.

However in construction of the great hall Hideyoshi cut down a several thousand-year-old cedar tree on Yakushima Island and used the weapons collected from the katana-gari for iron for the huge Buddha statue. In ancient times the Japanese word "ki" meaning wood and another word "ki" meaning spirit were on and the same. People believe wood and trees had holy spirits and the word "kodama" literally means "spirit of a tree" and now "echo". Thus by killing a great life to make the hall and using the statue forged from iron that had tasted the blood of men it was only natural that this place would bear the seeds of disaster as it shed its dark pulse.

In fact Hideyoshi drove the Yin-Yang masters out of temple in the 2nd year of the Bunroku when their fortune telling effected the Toyotomi Clan. It is also well known that the kanji carved on the great bell of the temple became the direct cause of the fall of the Toyotomi Clan. (Ed. The bell's creation was sponsored by the son of Hideyoshi (deceased by this time) and his mother Yodo-gimi under recommendation of Ieyasu Tokugawa (eventually the first shogun of the Edo Era, at the time he was a subject of Toyotomi, though he was equal in power to the lord). The eight kanji carved on the bell meant, "may the nation be in peace so lords and subjects may enjoy wealth". However the order of the kanji could also be translated as "cut Ieyasu in two piece, Toyotomi becomes the emperor and prospers forever". Though the Toyotomi Clan did not intend this, Ieyasu saw this as a curse of magic that wished the fall of the Tokugawa clan and challenged the Toyotomi Clan formally. Thus began the Winter Campaign of the Osaka-jo Castle, followed by the Summer Campaign and ending with the fall of the Toyotomi Clan.)

Taki came to this temple to have a decisive battle with the ghost Gel-o-fury, which had broken the seals of the bamboo forest with its newfound power from the Evil Seed. Outside the temple Toki's assassins awaited the outcome, how could Taki hope to survive this situation?

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