Chapter 5: Restless Night

After hours of walking, the two had sat down to rest their tired legs. Or at least Cassandra, did. Siegfried leaned against a tree and folded his arms across his chest. He wasn't tired, sore or anything similar to the two. She hated on how he wore heavy armor and carried around a large sword and didn't even get tired, or at least start feeling sore from carrying all of that weight. "You have five minutes to rest." He warned as he leaned against a nearby tree.

"How does your sword stay on your back? There's nothing holding it." Cassandra questioned as she sat down against a tree.

"There's a pair of runes inside my breastplate. The one placed at the back is for holding my sword." He answered.

"And the other?"

"Know how my armor changes when I transform?"

"Oh..." She picked up a small stick and started to run it across the dirt. "You're really the quiet type, aren't you?" She blurted out. "We've been walking all day and you really haven't said a thing."

"There's nothing to say to you. Besides, not all of us have loud mouths."

"Are you trying to insinuate something?" Her eyes narrowed on him.

He looked at her, and then looked away, "Take the comment however you want. I could careless." He closed his eyes, hearing Soul Edge speak to him across worlds. Taunting him in his failure to contain it like he had planned.

"You okay?" She asked trying to sound unconcerned with his well-being.

"It's nothing." He mumbled. "Come on, let's go."

"It hasn't been five minutes yet." She complained.

"I don't care. The sun is setting and we still need to find a place to camp for the night."

"This is as good as any other spot to camp." He hated it when she had a point. He looked at her, and then started to walk away. She quickly bounced up to her feet and started to follow him.

"Fine, then I'm going to get firewood. There's no point in following." He explained.

"I don't trust you. You might try to run off or attack someone passing by."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm wearing heavy steel boots. It'd be easy to track me. Might I add that if I were to run off, I'd wait until you were sleeping. And if I were to attack anyone, it'd be you if you don't shut it." Siegfried snapped at her as he saw a tree on the grassy ground. It was dry, which made it a very good candidate for firewood. 'Damn, swords aren't meant for cutting up wood.' He complained mentally.

-------------

Cassandra yawned and stretched her arms by the campfire and laid down, attempting to go to sleep. She closed her eyes, trying to drift off into dreamland, but a strange noisy kept her awake. It wasn't the crackling of the fire, but the scratching of a quill pen as it glided over paper swiftly. Sitting up, she glanced at her companion who seemed to have some sort of journal in one hand and a quill pen in the other. On the ground beside him was an ink bottle, most likely he had it stashed away in his belt pouch.

"What are you doing?" Her curiosity got the better of her.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"A simple answer would've sufficed. You have an attitude, you know that?"

He stopped what he was doing and looked at her, "Just with blondes who tackle me in the middle of the street while it's raining and point their sword at my throat."

"You're mad about that?" And she thought she held a grudge over simple matters.

"Not really. If anything, I'm annoyed about a certain woman who forced me to take her along."

"I didn't force you." She felt insulted by his acquisition.

He let out a sigh, "If I refused to take you, you would've followed me anyways. Am I correct?"

She pondered a bit, "Well yeah, but you act like I'm following you because I have nothing better to do. I'm here to make sure you don't try and take Soul Edge for yourself. I remember what happened last time you got a hold of that sword."

"Damn, and here I thought it was because of my good looks." He said sarcastically.

"Ew, come on. You're not even my type!" She acted disgusted. He put his journal, quill pen and ink bottle away. "Seriously, that hideous scar on your face, the way your arm looks when you turn into that demon, and then there's your attitude, which might I add, pisses me off."

Silence crept over the camp for about five minutes, nothing was heard, not even the wind. "Nightmare, why did you first go after Soul Edge?" She asked breaking the silence and stepping on uncharted terrain. He took his cloak and threw it across his body like a blanket as he closed his eyes. "I simply asked you a question."

"And I simply chose not to answer it." He snapped at her, "Now get to sleep."

"Fine, be a prick. See if I care, asshole." She snarled.

-------------

"Siegfried. Siegfried, where are you? There you are." Soul Edge appeared before him. Siegfried flipped Faust over his shoulder and into a stance as he focused on the evil entity before him. "Drawing your sword? You're too weak to fight against me. You tried to fight against my power, unable to seal me for eternity. Your powers have weakened and a timeless body has been granted to you. Forever despair in the remembrance of the onslaught you brought onto mankind. But not only can I remove it all, I can make your deepest desires possible. Your father will no longer be dead, the horrid memories will no longer haunt you, and most of all, your humanity will be restored."

"Silence! I will not listen to your lies anymore. It ends now." Siegfried charged the sword as Inferno appeared and grabbed the blade in his hands. With both hands, the young blond knight swung Faust against Soul Edge. The large double-edged zweihander cried in pain as Soul Edge dug into it and cracked the blade through and through.

"You won't be needing this useless piece of scrap metal." Soul Edge's voice entered his mind as Inferno shattered the Faust by causing some of Soul Edge's power to radiate around the sword.

"I will destroy you!" Siegfried roared as he dropped the broken sword and transformed into Nightmare. With fire in his eyes, he thrust his claw forward, piercing Inferno's armor and exploding violently through the chest.

Inferno looked down at his chest and dropped Soul Edge. "Siegfried? I knew you were a murderer. Without second thought, you killed me just like you killed your father. You murderer." Cassandra's voice came from the flaming skeleton's mouth and echoed like she was shouting in a deep cavern. "Murderer, murderer, murderer."

"Nooooooo!" He shouted out in anger and disbelief, closing his eyes, "I'm not a murderer! Back then, it was an accident. How was I to know the man under that helmet was my father? If I had known, I wouldn't have killed him. I never…"

"You're a murderer." The creature then turned into the person its voice was imitating before pulling itself off of his claw.

"Shut up! The only murderer here is you!" He opened his eyes and looked at the young maiden.

"That is where you are wrong. If my words don't get to you, perhaps you would like to see the murderer's face instead?" Cassandra asked as she took on his appearance, except she looked like he did in his human form. "This is the face of the true murderer. The demon who killed hundreds. Men, women, children, the list goes on. Whole cities fell to blade."

"I…I was possessed. Soul Edge is the one at fault here. I couldn't stop it."

"Soul Edge isn't the one at fault. Soul Edge felt your desires and unleashed them. You went from a worthless brigand who stole from unsuspecting travelers to a mighty warrior feared by all." The false image smirked. Siegfried looked at his claw as the false image continued its taunt, "So fulfill your desires once more and come and claim me. If not to restore your body and mind, then to fulfill your desires."

He shook his head and let out a small laugh of disbelief, "Back then, I was young and gullible. Fell into the wrong crowd and learned all of the things that I shouldn't have. Started to believe that one should look out only for themselves, and the only way to live a happy life was to get rich quick no matter who got hurt. And when I accidentally slew my father during one of the Schwarzwinds' weekly raids, I was willing to believe anything, no matter how absurd it was. Including my own mind games and your promises."

Siegfried slightly shook his head in pity, "It's ironic on how your evil actions made me see my evil actions for what they truly were. I took valuables, you took souls, both led to power. Both of us didn't care who got hurt." He chuckled a bit at the mere thought of how much things changed for him, "But not anymore. I once swore that I'll make sure no one bears the curse you bring. Here me now demon, for I got a new vow. Now that I'm in your home world, I'll find a way to destroy you! My life may already be damned, but I won't damn others by allowing you to exist any longer!"

"Oh foolish knight, you are indeed the conman. You and I both know that there is no way for you to get rid of me. You are a demon, I can bend your will to my own. I will unleash your demon's true nature and slaughter the very woman you travel with. "

"I may be a demon, but I'm no longer your puppet. So you can't control me. You hear me?" Siegfried growled as his eyes turned red as his voice started to get louder and louder, "You can't control ME!" With an open hand, he thrust his claw toward the image. The image suddenly shattered as everything around him disappeared. He found himself in a forest, sitting down by the campfire with his brown cloak on his legs. His right arm was that of a claw, raised into the air like his was reaching for the sky. With a sigh of relief, he looked at the sleeping beauty across the campfire, shivering as a gust of cold wind blew over them.

With his human hand, he grabbed the cloak as he stood up and walked over to his sleeping companion and watched her shake a bit more. He noticed that she had a small smile on her lips, even though she was cold, she was happy. How he wished he could dream such sweet dreams. It amazed him how much he took sleep for granted, and now that he longs for it, it has become more precious him than all of the gold on Earth. A rustling in the bushes about thirty yards into the dark was heard with the sound of several footsteps. All coming from that same direction. The footsteps were slow and some sounded like their feet were being dragged.

He let out a small sigh of sleepless exhaustion, "Time to see who's out there." He said to himself as he threw the cloak around his shoulders and fastened its ties. He the walked over to Faust that stood against a tree and grabbed the blade and flipped it so the blade was resting on his shoulder while his claw was on his hilt.

A voice spoke into his mind, but strangely, it wasn't Soul Edge. It was someone else, but who? "Nightmare, I'm to inform you of a threat heading your way. These creatures, they can't be killed by normal means. You must rely on your demonic powers to vanquish them."

"Who are you?" He was a bit suspicious.

"You'll find out soon enough." The voice said, its tone hinted that something was up.

"For some reason, that wasn't very encouraging." Step be step, he neared the bushes, adrenaline pumping through his blood and sweat dripping from his forehead as he neared. Then, out of no where, a pale white figure leapt out at him! Quickly he batted the humanoid figure away with Faust as he turned to face it. The moonlight shining through the thin canopy revealed to him a zombie with grossly decaying skin. The smell coming off of the fowl creature almost made him puke, for it brought back memories of those he slaughtered. To his right, several other zombies appeared, some with weapons, other without. More and more came from different directions.

A zombie lunged at him, but it was extremely slow so he easily moved out of the way and brought Faust onto it, splitting the undead in two waist high. He turned around with Faust and split three more in half. A zombie jumped onto his back and attempted to bite through his armor, obviously it was trying to get to his skin. "Dammit, I thought zombies only ate flesh in the horror stories I've heard." He grabbed the zombie by its neck and slammed it onto the ground, breaking its legs in several places. There he noticed four zombies crawling at his feet and grabbing onto his legs, he instantly recognized them as the ones he recently split in halves. Grabbing Faust with his human hand, he grabbed a hold of the nearest zombie on his leg and threw it violently into a small band of zombies approaching. Within seconds, he flung the other three off, two into other zombies and one into a tree.

He started to back up a bit, "How do I stop them? They keep on coming back!" His eyes caught sight of the first good news he's seen ever since he started this quest, the upper half of the zombie he threw against a tree was laying down motionless with the skull caved in. "So that's how I stop them." With renewed vigor, he leaped into the fray of zombies with Faust swinging through the air and his claw grabbing the first skull possible.

------------------

Cassandra slowly opened her eyes and stretched out her stiff muscles. She then sat up and looked around, "Nightmare?" She wondered where her companion had gone. "Don't tell me he ran off." She groaned, "I knew I shouldn't have trusted him." A strange moaning entered her ears, slowly it grew closer and closer until it came into the fire's light. She was staring face to face with a real zombie! Almost instantly she grabbed her shield and flipped her to her feet and drew her Omega Sword. Out of nowhere, a loud whizzing sound roared through the air as three of the zombie's heads flew off. With a loud thud, Faust stuck into the tree behind them.

"Remove their heads, it's the only way to kill them!" Nightmare came dashing toward her with a zombie in his claw. He swung the zombie around by the head and into another, ripping the zombies head off and breaking the other's body in several places.

"What's going on?" Cassandra asked as she shifted a lunging zombie to the side with her shield before decapitating it.

"Don't know and don't care. I'm more concerned with getting out of here alive." Nightmare punched another zombie with his human fist and quickly spun around to kick other one. As soon as the two had hit the ground, he grabbed Faust and ripped it out of the tree and split another zombie in half from the skull to the crotch. He then looked at Cassandra who decapitated another zombie to see a strange pair of eyes. There were three of them, each set belonging to a strange black transparent figure. He charged the first set of yellow eyes and punched as hard as he could, plowing through it like he was punching through and hit the dirt.

Cassandra quickly turned around to see the strange creature, "Nightmare, what are those things?" She asked as he got up and swung through it with Faust but still did no damage.

"How in the hell do I know? All I know is that our weapons are useless." He said. Replaying mysterious voice's words replayed in his mind. "Rely on my demon powers? Heh, you better be right." He spoke to himself in a whisper. He swung Faust as flames ignited around the blade and struck the closest yellow eyed creature, watching as nothing happen. The creature quickly countered with its claw and slashed Nightmare in the breastplate, adding to the many gashes it already contained. He let out a low growl as he thrust his claw into the creature with lightning flowing from it. The creature howled in pain as the bolts of electricity entered its body.

"Cassandra, lightning is their weakness." He told her as the creature vanished into thin air.

"That helps. I'm not Zeus, so tell me a weakness of theirs I can exploit!" She yelled out to him as she ducked a zombie's sword and countered with her own blade.

Another one of the yellowed eyed ghosts charged Siegfried with a loud screech. He raised Faust high into the air as electricity started to flow from his claw and into his blade, the blade started to give off a faint blue light from the electrical current flowing through it. When it reached within striking range, he brought the sword down onto the creature which caused it to disintegrate into black vapor. "I'll slaughter you all!" He shouted out as the last black set of yellow eyes turned toward him, meeting him in a threatening glare, both were refusing to back down from the battle of the stares.

"Stop!" A voice yelled out. A mysterious man in gray jumped out of the branches from up above. He wore a dark blue silicon breastplate and boots. The fire's light shimmered off of his long platinum hair as he adjusted his black jacket. The half skirt that dangled from his belt in the back moved with each step as the man drew closer and closer toward Siegfried. The zombies and yellowed eye ghosts all watched intensely as the man moved through the battlefield, waiting on the man to speak out orders like a platoon of soldiers waiting for their commander.

"Who are you?" Siegfried asked as Cassandra ripped her Omega Sword from a zombie's throat and ran over to his side.

"The name is Conner, Conner Sekai. Future ruler of Liut and master of Kyptress and its shadows."

"Wait a minute, that voice! So, you're the one who told me how to kill them."

"Yes, I was. I wanted to meet you in person before my troops killed you. Fascinating isn't it? A massive army of zombies and shadowstalkers under my very command. The man walked around Siegfried, examining his demon form carefully. Then he noticed Cassandra, "I didn't realize that you would be bringing Sophitia on your journey."

"How do you know my sister?" Cassandra asked as she gripped her sword tighter.

"Oh, so you brought the younger Alexandra sister. They do somewhat look alike, but I guess if I were in your shoes, I'd bring the younger one also. Her feisty attitude and luscious body is too much for any man to resist."

Siegfried stabbed Faust into the ground to interrupt the mysterious man before him, "Quit drooling over yourself and explain how you know us and why you're here."

The young man looked at the Azure Knight as a smirk crept onto his lips, "Gladly. Soul Edge and Soul Calibur aren't the only two weapons capable of opening the bridge linking our two planets. I've been watching you for about three years now. As for why I'm here, I want your help."

"And why in the hell would I want to do a thing like that?" Siegfried cocked an eyebrow.

"Imagine having unlimited power at your disposal. Being able to do the impossible and much, much more." Conner touched Siegfried's armor, causing his wounded body underneath and the gashes in the armor to close as if they were never there. "This is only an example of the power I am searching for, and when found, is willing to share it with you. With it, your body will be restored and your mind will be free. Your life will be your own once more. I only ask for your help in finding Soul Edge. I can't locate that demonic weapon for I'm not connected to it. But with my technology, we can use Soul Edge's telepathic messages against it and track it down."

Siegfried looked at him, thinking about the man's tempting offer but he already knew what his answer was. The man said Soul Edge and power, two words he believed that could never go hand and hand and be used to not create chaos. "I refuse."

"I don't think you understand. This is an offer you can't refuse. So accept it, or you and your little girlfriend will die." The last of his threat made Cassandra mentally vomit, for being mentioned in the same sentence as him was horrible enough, but to be called his girlfriend? Down right ludicrous…

"As I said before, I refuse."

"Then perish." The man snapped his fingers as more zombies raised from the ground. The last shadowstalker charged Siegfried with its yellow eyes glowing brightly. Quickly he vanquished it with a slash of his sword fused with the lightning from his body.

"Um, Nightmare. Exactly how powerful are you in that form?"

"Not sure, but the real question is, how fast can you run?" He turned around and started to dash away with Cassandra already ahead of him. She was a bit faster because she wore no armor, but she managed to keep her speed near his so he didn't fall behind just in case she ran into anymore of those shadowstalkers. Their feet raced through the night, step by step, heart beat by heart beat, suddenly they saw the end of the forest and a large graveyard. This wasn't any other graveyard, this was a city. A strange city at that. The buildings were made out of stone, a large pillar of aluminum marked its limits and long strips of concrete paved the streets. But everything seemed destroyed, few of the buildings remained tall and untouched while many others were in ruins and or collapsed. The roads were cracked through and through, street lamps were snapped in half and metallic horseless carriages were ripped apart. Some were even caught on fire!

"We should be able to find shelter there!" Cassandra pointed out as a zombie dove out of the street with its sword poised for a fatal stab. Siegfried quickly batted the zombie out of the air with his sword and into a tree. Within the blind of an eye, Faust was latched onto his back as he followed Cassandra to the city. Cautiously they moved through the city, ducking behind the horseless carriages, darkened allies and finally into the emptiness of a ruined building. The eerie silence sent chills down both of their spines, for they knew their enemy was somewhere nearby, they just didn't know where. "Nightmare, where are you?" She asking, feeling around the dark room inside a building.

"Cassandra, would you quit touching everything?" He complained as his eyes finally adjusted to the little lighting the moon gave through the windows and saw Cassandra's form walking along side the wall with her hand brushing over it to give her guidance on where she was. He walked over to a desk and sat Faust against it before sitting on it himself.. "Hmm, if we camp in here for the night, we should be safe." He analyzed the situation, "There's not many ways inside so we could easily defend it. But if we get over whelmed, there's no escape." He rubbed his chin with his armored hand, "We could look for a safer spot. Preferably someplace high and one entrance and exit. As Nightmare, I should be able to easily defend it myself."

Cassandra sat on the desk beside him, "I think they're gone."

"Yes, they could be." He looked at her as he took his hand off of his chin, "Or they could be waiting to ambush us." When he laid his hand down against the top of the desk, he accidentally pressed a hidden switch. Suddenly the floor below them started to descend into the ground."

"What's going on?" Cassandra asked as the light coming down the hole was blocked by a sliding door.

"Don't know, but don't let down your guard." Siegfried advised.

When they finally came to a stop, they found themselves in a large room with six entrances. Suddenly, men wearing black uniforms and blue silicon armored breastplates with numbers on their right pauldron stormed through the six opening, the half in the back ranks were armed with rifles while those in the front ranks had some sort of melee weapon ranging from a simple sword to a long glaive. Siegfried quickly grabbed Faust that was leaning against the desk and moved it in front of him.

A man in green silicon armor approached them from the squadron of men. "Looks like we have ourselves some guests."