Chapter 20

By the light of the moon, Nightmare made his way to the armor shop mentioned earlier, and, perhaps to actually draw the guards' attention, kicked in another door. Perhaps the past two guards' souls had been so great that he wanted more.

Sure enough, Nightmare's armor was suspended on the wall in all its one-armed glory. Nightmare quickly stripped out of his current armor, but halfway through, a woman's voice rang out in the darkness.

"Stop, thief!"

He turned to see a silhouette of a woman, holding a buckler and a short sword; the blade was halfway behind the shield in a defensive position.

With no armor except his leggings and half of one gauntlet, Nightmare was at a clear disadvantage. Also, Soul Calibur was lying on the floor.

"You think I'm a common thief?" Nightmare bent down to pick up the blade, but stopped short when another woman (also equipped with a sword and buckler) kicked the sword to the farthest wall. This would prove to be an interesting battle; these two seemed to be skilled warriors.

"What should we do with him, sis?"

"Kill him where he stands. If he steals Rothion's wares, we'll go out of business." This one had a sharper, stronger voice.

In their conversation, they failed to notice Nightmare moving closer and closer to the sword by the wall. However, just before coming within reach of the sword, he was struck by moonlight flowing in through the window. This caught their eye and they both rushed toward me.

Nightmare dove for Soul Calibur, grabbing it with his right hand, recently covered in thorns, and rolled over just in time to block a sword with his remaining left gauntlet.

One of the women had stepped into the moonlight, making it easier to block. Nightmare seized his visibility advantage and landed a double-legged kick to her stomach before rising to the ground to face the other. It seems Inferno had adopted some of my underhanded techniques.

"Cassandra!" the other woman shouted as she watched her sister gasp and cough. This evoked a fiery rage in her soul as she turned toward me, her sword outstretched.

"Who are you?"

"You know damn well who I am, Sophitia Alexandra… I am Nightmare!" I was unaware of ever meeting this woman before in my life. Perhaps she and Nightmare had fought once before.

Sophitia gasped in shock. "But… I destroyed Soul Edge years ago! How can this be?"

Unfortunately, this was the distraction he had been waiting for. Nightmare swung Soul Edge in a diagonal slash, but Sophitia dodged and bashed his head with her buckler before driving her sword into his stomach.

I pleaded in my mind for Sophitia to end my life, to finally rid me of this unbreakable curse. I struggled with all my power to break through Inferno's hold, and finally broke my way to the surface, in partial control of my body.

"Please, Sophitia, please kill me! I can't control it!" These were all I could muster before once again being forced back into Nightmare's mind, no more than a single voice echoing around with no way of getting out. Unable to do any more, I could only regard Sophitia's torn expression through Nightmare's eyes… before he knocked her weapon to the ground with a kick to her hand.

Although Sophitia was trained to be a ruthless warrior, my message did more harm than good, as her caring soul made it that much harder to fight knowing there was an innocent person held captive by the evil sword's power. She didn't have that problem the last time she fought me.

Wait… How did I know about that battle? Could it be that Inferno was fusing with my mind once again?

This could be my last chance to stop Nightmare's endless massacre. I had to break through and keep my body long enough for one of the two sisters to strike a fatal blow.