Chapter 4:

With Taki now joining the group of heroic warriors sans Mitsurugi's protest, the warriors themselves continued their travels, eventually reaching Athens. Cassandra, who had been feeling home sick ever since her journey, sprinted towards the city limits.

"Wait up for us!" Mi-Na called out.

The other warriors caught up with Cassandra as they arrived in Athens.

"I'm finally home." Cassandra said.

"We can see that." Maxi responded

"Now, I need to find my sister." Cassandra said.

"Your sister?" Mi-Na asked.

"Yes, she has to be here somewhere, I just know it." Cassandra replied in a concerned tone.

Cassandra had been away from Athens ever since her journey to not only destroy Soul Edge but to save her sister, Sophitia from its macabre influence. She could never forget the day that her life changed when she saw how afflicted Sophitia was.

***Flashback***

Sophitia stood right in front of the demonic sword, Soul Edge. Her will was weakening as the sword itself spoke to her.

"Wield me and your children shall live!" The demonic sword demanded.

Hesitant, Sophitia was about to grab the sword itself when a voice called out to her.

"Sophitia, no!" It was Cassandra.

"Put the sword down!" Cassandra pleaded.

"I...I can't" said Sophitia.

"I won't let you become a servant of that damn sword!" Cassandra yelled as she charged at her sister.

Just as she was about to strike, a ring like blade flew across the sky, stopping Cassandra in her tracks. She looked to her left and saw a rather strange looking woman wearing her brown hair in two pigtails, her clothes slightly tattered, revealing almost her entire body holding the ring blade.

"Nah uh uh, we don't want to ruin this moment now do we?" The strange woman said with a creepy smile.

Just then, Sophitia had became influenced by Soul Edge's evil aura and started to attack Cassandra, sending her on the ground. Cassandra had now found herself ambushed as not only her sister, grasping Soul Edge firmly but the strange woman also joined in, leaving Cassandra no choice but to flee rather than get killed.

***End of Flashback***

Cassandra sighed. She surveyed the area in hopes of looking for sister. There was not a trace of her in sight.

"Dammit, she has to be here, somewhere." Cassandra said as she gritted her teeth.

"Don't worry, Cassandra, we shall find your sister." said Talim.

"I hope so." said Cassandra.

The warriors aided Cassandra in her search for Sophitia, eventually stopping at a harbor.

"We've looked everywhere and still nothing." said Cassandra.

"It's hopeless!" she added.

Just as the warriors were about to leave, a ghastly looking ship pulled up to the harbor.

"What the hell?" said Maxi as he looked at the ghost ship arriving their way.

The rest of the warriors also looked at the arriving ghost ship as it slowly appeared into view. Once the ship came to a complete stop, there appeared a beautiful woman with glowing blonde hair with three feathers clipped onto it wrapped in a low ponytail, wearing a white transparent dress with cleavage showing, a blue sash wrapped around the dress, and white sandals carrying a sword and shield. Cassandra knew who this person was.

"Sophitia!" Cassandra called out.

As Cassandra raced towards the ship, a bullet flew out of nowhere as it ricocheted near Cassandra's feet, startling her. The warriors were alerted by this and were cautious as to what imposing danger awaited them.

"Where did that bullet come from?" Yun-Seong asked.

"Don't know but I have a bad feeling we may find out." Kilik replied.

Cassandra looked frantically at her sister, who displayed a blank look on her face. It was like staring into a dead person's eyes.

"Sophitia, it's me, Cassandra" Cassandra called out again.

Sophitia's blank expression remained but another bullet flew in her direction, hitting her shield, causing her to back away.

"That's it, I've had enough of this!" Mitsurugi gritted.

The samurai hastily charged in, and as he did, another bullet flew in his direction, slightly grazing him.

"Do you really want to kill yourself?" a grizzled yet horrifying voice called out.

"Who is that?" Mi-Na asked.

"It...can't be." said Taki.

Out from the mist of the ghost ship with bold engraving as "The Adrian", emerged a purple-skinned man with a full white beard and pupilless eyes, wearing a long black sleeveless trench coat, black baggy pants, a pirate captain's hat with a purple eye in the front, and brown boots as he carried a short sword in his right hand and a pistol sword in his left hand as he grinned evilly at the warriors.

"Cervantes!" Taki yelled.

Cassandra, Mitsurugi and the rest of the warriors were just as shocked to see the once demised Cervantes now brought back to life.

"Surprised to see me? Well, neither am I?" said Cervantes with a smirk.

"And this time, I didn't come alone." Cervantes added as several undead pirates emerged alongside their captain and Sophitia.

"Men, attack!" ordered Cervantes

The pirates leapt from the ship and onto the harbor engaging the warriors in battle.

"Great, that's just what we needed, more adversaries." said Yun-Seong.

"Just keep fighting!" Kilik responded to Yun-Seong.

The ensuing battle seemed to favor the warriors but once Cervantes and Sophitia got involved, the momentum started to shift in the opposite direction. Coldly and devoid of emotion, Sophitia stalked her way towards Cassandra. She pointed her sword in her direction, signaling other crew mates not to attack her.

"Back away, she is mine." said Sophitia.

Cassandra was paralyzed with fear. She had never seen Sophitia like this before and it scared her.

"Die, Cassandra." said Sophitia.

As Sophitia charged to strike down her sister, Taki intervened, using her Rekki-Maru to block Sophitia's attack.

"You will not stop me from devouring her soul." Sophitia said.

Taki struggled to stop Sophitia but she had gotten stronger with each attempt Taki made of blocking her attack.

"Fine, then you will die with her as well." Sophitia added.

Sophitia spun around and knocked Taki down with her shield. With Taki phased and on the ground, Sophitia resumed making her way to Cassandra.

"What's the matter, Cassandra? Don't you wish to embrace me?" Sophitia asked.

Cassandra engaged Sophitia in combat, doing what little she could to overcome her sister's negative influence but each time, she was knocked away like an inferior opponent that she had presented herself to be.

"Come on, Cassandra, is that the best you could do?" Sophitia inquired.

As Cassandra tried to her best to overcome her fear of possibly killing her own sister or worse, being killed herself. The rest of the warriors found themselves fighting against a rather faster, more violent Cervantes.

"What's the matter, can't any of you keep up?" Cervantes gloated as he levitated from the ground.

Kilik, Maxi and Mitsurugi stood up to confront the dreaded pirate as he laughed at the three of them.

"Surely, you don't think you can withstand another round of punishment from me?" Cervantes smirked.

Cervantes saw just how badly damaged Kilik and Maxi were and how Mitsurugi was protecting his exposed shoulder from potentially getting shot at. Like a bird of prey, looking for its victim to swoop up and devour, Cervantes aimed his pistol sword directly at Kilik's left knee as he was trying to balance himself on his Kali Yuga.

"Farewell, worthless peon!" Cervantes declared as he pulled a trigger and shot a bullet from his pistol sword.

As the bullet traveled at an accelerated speed, Mitsurugi, with all his might, pushed Kilik out of the way as the bullet struck Mitsurugi in the armor of his leg.

"Damn you, pathetic samurai!" bellowed Cervantes.

Mitsurugi yelped in pain. Kilik saw this and was about to help his fallen ally but was stopped by an flying bullet hitting the ground. He looked up and saw Cervantes ready to aim another bullet at him.

"This time, I swear you die!" declared the pirate.

As the bullet left the chamber of the pistol sword aiming to take out Kilik, a blinding blur of green and purple intercepted the bullet.

"What was that?" Maxi asked.

"I don't know." Kilik responded.

The green and purple blur turned out to be another warrior. A mysterious looking warrior with his entire face and head concealed by a frightening Japanese mask wearing green armor and purple hakama pants similar to a samurai, a flag strapped to his back carrying a katana, wakizashi, and sashimono with a dark aura. His stance was like that of a ninja and a kabuki actor.

"We meet again, foul soul of the seas!" the mysterious warrior replied.

"You again!" Cervantes gritted.

"Yes, it is I, Yoshimitsu!" The mysterious warrior declared.

"I shall send you back to depths you have crawled from." Yoshimitsu added.

"Not if I bring you with me myself." Cervantes replied.

Cervantes used his Geo De Ray attack, spiraling violently towards Yoshimitsu. The samurai like ninja teleported as he avoided the attack.

"Where the hell did he go?" Maxi asked.

"Good question." Yoshimitsu replied.

The warriors all looked up and saw Yoshimitsu, standing on top of a building.

"Get down here and fight me!" yelled Cervantes.

"Why hasn't thou done so before I made my heroic arrival?" Yoshimitsu answered.

Cervantes, in his frustrated state, shot at Yoshimitsu but the samurai like ninja teleported before the bullets could even hit him.

"Where are you now, coward?" Cervantes bellowed.

"Perhaps, thou should look towards his opposite direction." Yoshimitsu replied.

Cervantes turned around and saw the same bullets he shot out of his pistol sword aiming for him, grazing him in his exposed chest.

"Damn you, Yoshimitsu, damn you to hell!" Cervantes bellowed as he called back for his men and Sophitia. The crew headed back to The Adrian.

"We shall settle our dispute once and for all when the blood moon ritual commences in Ostrheinsburg!" Cervantes yelled.

"Ostrheinsburg? Blood Moon Ritual?" Kilik thought to himself.

As The Adrian sailed off into the hazy mist, Kilik was left wondering what Cervantes meant about a blood moon ritual and Ostrheinsburg. As he did, he saw Maxi helping up the other warriors while Yoshimitsu knelt over Mitsurugi.

"Now, stead fast thy honorable warrior." Yoshimitsu said.

"Perhaps, I should hold him down." Taki added.

"Good idea." Yoshimitsu replied.

Yoshimitsu, with his bare hands, managed to get the lodged bullet out of Mitsurugi's leg armor.

"There we are." Yoshimitsu said as Mitsurugi winced in pain.

Finally, Yoshimitsu began to wrapping a cloth around Mitsurugi's leg, followed by performing a mystic healing chant that would ease the pain. Meanwhile, as Maxi managed to get the warriors back on their feet, he looked over to Kilik, who was still analyzing the connections of Soul Edge, Ostrheinsburg, and a blood moon ritual that Cervantes had mentioned.

"Ostrheinsburg? Blood Moon Ritual? Does this have something to do with Soul Edge?" Kilik thought.

Then it finally dawned on Kilik what was to come.

"...No, not Xianghua." Kilik had came to the realization that his abandonment of Xianghua had lead to her and other wielders of Soul Calibur to be captured and set up to be sacrificed for Soul Edge's lust for ultimate supremacy to vanquish Soul Calibur

"Hey, Kilik, what are you standing around for? Cassandra looks like she needs help!" said Maxi.

Kilik's concentration and analyzing was interrupted by Maxi's observation as he saw Cassandra, strickened with fears, tears running down her cheeks as she was scratched by Sophitia's sword.

"Cassandra, you're hurt." Kilik replied.

Kilik, with the aide of Talim and Yoshimitsu, managed to heal Cassandra's physical wounds but not her mental. She had came face to face with Sophitia, however, it was not the same Sophitia she had remembered. Cassandra wept some more as Talim hugged her. As Yoshimitsu was about to leave, Kilik and Taki stopped him.

"Yoshimitsu." Kilik called out to him.

"We appreciate your help and ask of you will join our brigand to stop Soul Edge from devouring Soul Calibur." Kilik added.

Taki nodded, approving of the ideal of having Yoshimitsu joined their cause.

"For me to join such a valor cause of rightousness? Thou hast made thy decision to quarrel alongside new allies and to vanquish the macabre that stand within the path of light." Yoshimitsu declared.

"In other words, you're joining us?" Mitsurugi asked.

"Correct, strong ally." Yoshimitsu replied.

A sigh of relief came over the warriors. Their resolve unwavering and ever strengthening, they now set out on their journey once again, this time to prevent a blood moon ritual from extinguishing Soul Calibur forever.

"Xianghua, I will save you." Kilik said to himself as the warriors and their new ally march forth