(AN: New chapter! Also, I know how this will end. I think I can do at least two more stories once this one is done, or I can combine those two into the biggest one of the Ozian Adventures yet. One other thing I'd like to do is combine the three first Ozian Adventures stories [the ones based on LittleGreenFae's Lord of the Rings/Wicked crossover] into one long one. Should I take that up, or just go right to the next story in this series?)

(For now, see how the climax of our story comes about)

Confrontation

When morning had arisen, both Glinda and Hilde were sore. She had fallen asleep during the night, trying to calm Glinda down, and Glinda had grown so tired from weeping and shaking that she had fallen asleep from weariness. When the sun finally rose, everyone was weary and unwilling to continue, not when Xiba had eaten all their food. However, their quest awaited them and they had no other choice.

The Edge Master, true to his word, showed Glinda how to use a sword. Though she was sleepy, dreary and sorrowful, she followed his instructions to the letter and was an earnest student. Finally, she could be of some real use, not only among the group but if she left them and joined the others on their adventures. Hilde joined as well and Cassandra, eager to be close to the sword of her sister, she joined the training. Now Glinda had three different teachers, all of which made her training go by quite well.

By the time the sun had finally cleared the mountains, they gathered up their things and made their way back up the path towards the top of the mountain. Rather than going straight up, as it had thus far, the path now wrapped around the side of the mountain. Here they would go, where they would be able to see any trail, whether of bodies or of burning buildings, that would lead them to where they needed to go. By now, they themselves didn't know where they were going, only that they were going somewhere.

At mid-day, they came upon another plateau like the one they had rested at yesterday. It cut sharply into the side of the mountain, leaving a smooth wall on the one side and a sheer drop on the other side. The open side, as predicted, gave them a perfect view of the west country for miles around. Here they rested at last, as a cool wind from the upper regions of the mountains cooled their faces from the long hike.

All were silent as they looked out upon the lands below, not speaking a word and their breath quiet among the wind. The land below looked beautiful, belying the overall dull and grayness of this hard, cold, mirthless world. For Glinda, it held a kind of strange magic: both brutal and ugly and, at the same time, overwhelming and beautiful. She wondered once again if she would ever find peace, even as this landscape was peaceful.

"Well," she said, breaking the silence at last. "Here we are, and what exactly are we looking for?"

"What we have seen so far," the Edge Master replied at last.

They looked again down into the valley and the lands below. But all looked at peace: no sign of burning villages could be seen as far as the eye could see. Even on the mountains nearby, there were no signs of destruction.

"Nothing," Cassandra sighed. "We've come the wrong way."

"But there's no way we can go back," Ignacio said. "We have no food, thanks to some of our party."

Xiba chattered away in his language, and Maxi translated: "He says he's hungry still."

"Hungry?" Glinda sighed. "You ate all our food, now we have no means of getting back home, and you're still hungry?"

"Wait..."

"He says he can't help that he's hungry." Maxi translated.

"And you couldn't restrain yourself, even on this very important mission?" Glinda replied.

"Wait..."

"Natsu says that you're not being nice to Xiba," Maxi added as the crazy-haired blond girl chattered away in Xiba's defense.

"Not being nice? And what do you call what he did to...ow!"

Her head leered forward, and an uncomfortable knot began growing on her head. A tiny rock lay at her feet. All eyes turned to see who the one had been who threw the rock at Glinda's head. Standing there, with sword in hand, was the one they had been looking for: days upon days they had marched, searching in vain for him, and he had found them in the end. Behind him cowered a little girl, no taller than Natsu, with blond hair and heavy-lidded eyes that were glowing yellow. Her right arm, pointed, horned and deformed, was cradled in her left arm. But it was the boy Glinda remembered: blond haired, dressed in blue and black, with a single sword in his hand and a confident look on his face.

"You again!" Patroklos shouted, pointing his sword at Glinda. "You malfested never learn!"

"There he is!" shouted Ignacio, drawing his sword and shield in return.

"Wha-who are they?" the girl behind Patroklos whined. "Agh! My head...hurts!"

"Don't worry, Pyrrha!" the boy replied. "I won't let them hurt you. I won't let anyone get between us ever again."

"Patroklos?" Cassandra asked, stepping forward. "It's me, it's your auntie Cassandra."

"Liar!" he shouted, his voice cracking and shaking in fear. "You're that malfestor, the evil sword Soul Calibur come back." He started stammering in fear. "B-But I killed you. You should be dead!"

"What are you talking about?" Cassandra asked.

"N-No!" Patroklos continued muttering. "I-I didn't kill innocent people. They were malfested, all of them."

"I'm so...hungry!" growled the girl behind Patroklos, the one called Pyrrha. Her eyes glowed yellow.

"Listen, my son," the Edge Master walked up, approaching Patroklos. "All is well. You are among friends. Just tell us where the Sword is, that's all we want to know."

"He-He was wrong," the girl muttered, speaking more to herself than to them. "We destroyed the other sword, the evil one, the one that made us hurt, the one that kept us apart. But the other one survived. We thought we destroyed it, but it survived. Then the mean one took it, and we wanted it back. It's ours, it won't leave us alone, it will understand."

"No, my love!" Patroklos murmured. "We don't need Soul Edge. You have me, and you don't need anyone else." He then turned back to the others, a maniacal look in his eyes, even as Glinda had seen in Elphaba's eyes when she had 'lost' her mind after Fiyero's 'death.'

"You're all malfested!" he shouted over-dramatically. "You all deserve to die!"

"He's gone mad!" Ignacio warned the others, leveling his sword. "Defend yourselves!"

Once again, Patroklos attacked them, taunting them as he engaged them one by one. Ignacio was the first one he approached, and the one who fought the longest. He had a shield and Patroklos only had a sword and though he was fast, Ignacio was an iron will, a soul of adamant. Forged in the fires of war and tempered in the New World, he was a force to be reckoned with. Nevertheless, he was weak from a long travel and lack of food. Patroklos, knowing that he could not stand toe to toe with Ignacio, kicked dust up into his eyes. The warrior staggered back, suddenly blinded.

"What's the matter?" Patroklos mocked. "Too weak to stand against a real warrior?"

"Foul play!" Ignacio shouted.

"There are no rules when fighting malfested such as you!" Patroklos shouted back.

To his rescue came Hilde, who fought with just as great valiance and strength. Though she, like Ignacio, was encumbered by heavy armor, hunger and weariness, her lance kept Patroklos at bay and out of reach, since he had no shield and his sword was too short to hit her while keeping himself out of reach of her lance.

"Coward!" he returned.

"You're one to talk, with your underhanded tactics!" she retorted.

"What are you looking at?" Maxi turned back to the others. "Let's go!"

The Easterners took up their weapons and joined the fray. Maxi wielded two short wooden sticks on a chain, and had even shorter reach than Patroklos. Meanwhile, Leixia was taking her time with her sword and her cumbersome dress. Cassandra, meanwhile, kept her shield up to defend Glinda and Leixia while the Edge Master joined the fight against Patroklos. Glinda had only her sword, and knew not how she could defend herself against this arrogant warrior. She had tried once, and only survived by accident, but the staff had gone silent. No matter what words she spoke to it, it did not reveal itself.

What do I do now? she wondered to herself.

"Arahabaki!" shouted Natsu, drawing two small swords from her belt and leaping at lightning speed into the battle. But she was not fast enough. The little girl had jumped her from behind and was now wrestling her to the ground, her tiny left hand holding Natsu by the throat.

"Such power," sighed Pyrrha hungrily. "Such...evil."

Before Glinda's horrified eyes, she saw how the bodies they had seen had been disemboweled. Pyrrha thrust her engorged right arm into Natsu's chest and began tearing her apart. The poor girl's cries chilled them all to the bone, and it seemed so odd that something so innocent and fair could be so vile.

"Méiyǒu!" shouted Leixia. She jumped up, short sword in hand, and charged at the blood-stained Pyrrha, eager to avenge her fallen friend. Pyrrha, eager for another kill, stood up and began approaching her, a hideous glare in her eyes. Suddenly she was upon her and threw her to the ground. Her tongue lapping over her lips, she knelt down, eager to put an end to Leixia as well.

"Shíwù!" Xiba cried as he jumped to Leixia's defense. The little girl had not a weapon, only a shield, and could do nothing more than cower behind it against the fury of Xiba's staff. Energetic beyond belief and well fed, at the expense of the endurance and strength of his comrades, he was quicker and lasted longer than the others.

"Bàgōng!" he shouted out loud. With one swift strike, he had struck Pyrrha on the head with his staff and she crumbled to the ground.

"Pyrrha!" Patroklos cried. His eyes turned in wrath towards Xiba. "Come here, you stupid malfested! I'll make you eat that evil staff of yours!"

"No!" the Edge Master interjected. He now stood between Xiba and Patroklos, his hands holding back the young man's blade. "Don't you see that you were used by the Evil Sword? You have caused the destruction of the Spirit Sword, and allowed the Evil Sword to go unchecked. The darkness will consume us all because of you."

"Lies, all lies!" he returned. "I don't need it, I don't need any of you malfested, all I care about is Pyrrha." He turned back to her and gave a cry. Everyone was shocked as they also saw what he was looking at. There the little girl lay, smaller as though she had shrunk somewhat, but was still the same size. Her right arm looked the same now as her left arm.

"What did you do to her?" Patroklos shouted, turning back to the others.

"We cured her," the Edge Master said. "She's finally free, as it should have been years ago. Now you can go home and find peace."

"No! There's no peace while you malfested continue to exist!" Patroklos returned. "You took her away from me, I'll kill you for it!" He then engaged the Edge Master in fierce battle.

Glinda, meanwhile, was looking in awe at Pyrrha. Strange it seemed to her as to how she could have been cured of whatever evil had corrupted her. For, when she saw the arm and the eyes and heard her voice, she guessed that she had been corrupted by some great evil, and right she was. From behind Cassandra's shield, she had noticed the goings on of the battle. Xiba had hit Pyrrha with his staff, which had knocked her to the ground: after that, she had changed.

But while she was looking about, she turned to Leixia. She was lying on the ground, exhausted from a long march without food and now unable to recover after her fight with Patroklos. Glinda noticed something blue lying on her neck. A strange desire came over her to crawl over there, while the Edge Master and Patroklos were debating, and take the blue thing, or at least to see what it was and thus ease the strange desire to see it. She was within reach and would not have to go far. Already, it seemed that the old man and the arrogant youth were already deeply engaged that they would not notice her if she quietly and quickly reached over to Leixia's fallen form and...

"Revenge is not the way, son," the Edge Master continued. "Can't you see that you have been misled by your own thirst for blood?"

"I was not misled!" Patroklos shouted. "I am no man's puppet!"

"We hold nothing against you," the old man returned. "Just lay down your sword..."

"Surrender, like a wimp, a coward!" the young man retorted. "I am the Holy Warrior, and I will not yield to malfested like yourself!"

"Child, you know I am not corrupted," the Edge Master pleaded. "Please, let go of this futile, selfish quest before Soul Edge destroys us all!"

"There is no Soul Edge!" Patroklos returned. "I destroyed it, and Soul Calibur as well. The world is at peace!" He turned about, arms stretched as though speaking to someone else.

Suddenly, the clouds were growing dark and the light was being cut off. A strong wind blew upon the mountain-side, striking them all where they stood. It was hard to see anything, for the wind was blowing in their faces and cut off all most sight.

"Do it now!"

A voice was suddenly crying. She looked this way and that, and noticed that people were looking for the one who was speaking. Glinda then saw that one of them, only one, was looking at something other than the speaker. He was the one being looked at, for he was the one who was speaking, and speaking at her.

"Take it!" Ignacio said, looking directly at Glinda. "It's the only way."

With a quick nod, she continued on her way towards Leixia's fallen body. Patroklos started moving towards her, an angry look in his eyes. But the others rose to her defense. Her heart warmed, and she suddenly felt strength coursing through her body. It wasn't too much, but she knew it would be enough. On her hands and knees, she crawled over to Leixia's body and reached out at her neck. Her fingers closed around a warm thing of crystal, so similar that she almost felt as though she had seen this before.

"Here!" shouted Ignacio. "Come to me! Take my..."

But his words were suddenly cut out by the roar of thunder. The sky darkened even deeper, red bolts of lightning split the sky. A sudden gust of smoke appeared on the hillside: the wind became filled with the acrid stench of sulfur and fire burst upon the hill. The others cowered away, and Glinda covered her eyes in fear.

As the dust settled, Glinda felt her heart stop and freeze beneath her chest. Of all the dreams and nightmares, the doubts and fears, she had endured for all the time she had been in this world, it was nothing compared to seeing this in the living world, a shade out of the Mirror of Galadriel. But no shade it was, but a living thing. She could feel the heat from the fire that gathered around the black-booted feet, she could smell the stench of sulfur stinging her nostrils, and she could see the figure as she had once known it. Tall, thin and boney and dressed in black, and black was the long sea of raven hair. The figure turned around, and Glinda sobbed in horror as she saw what she had dreaded ever since the vision she had seen in the Void about Denevér Castle. The right arm had been gnarled and deformed, like Pyrrha's, an engorged and misshapen claw of three fingers, each with a deadly talon. But while Pyrrha's had been smaller and weaker, this was larger and more fel than the one that had afflicted the little Greek girl.

A flash of green was seen from beneath the strands of black hair, blowing in the wind, as the dark figure turned its yellow eyes towards them.

(AN: Review review review review! No spoilers in the author's notes, but I want you to review! We're so close to the end, that I want you to review. If you've been saving up your time until now, review!)

(Oh look, I had Xiba be important to the progression of the story. Kali-Yuga, the staff he wields [though he doesn't even know its name], is capable of curing those corrupted by Soul Edge [it certainly worked on Voldo]. So was Leixia, but you will see that in the next chapter. And Ignacio, at the insistence of my brother, who created the character in Soul Calibur V and is the co-creator of his story [which will be posted upon a convenient time], has also got his importance level increased.)

(New chapter coming soon...now REVIEW!)