We started on our journey. I had already sent a letter to Kilik, Cassandra, and Sigfried, telling them to meet us in Grandall. It wasn't accessible by land, so we hired someone to take us across the sea. I didn't really catch his name. He wore a hooded cloak over him, and carried a large longsword. He also had a dark aura surrounding him. But that didn't matter, he was getting us there. Most pirates did anyway. That was until we were stopped by a Grandall warship. A sailor aboard shouted over to us. "Halt! What is your business in Grandall?" He shouted.
The captain's raspy voice shouted back. "I have passengers that requested I bring them to Grandall. It matters not to me what their business is!"
"I see." The sailor shouted. "Then we'll need to check your ship. Prepare to be boarded."
The seach didn't take long. We didn't harbor any stowaways. "Everything checks out." The sailor said. "Please continue on your present course."
The ship docked, and we disembarked. "This is where I leave you. Good luck on your journey." The captain said.
"Thank you." I replied, handing him his payment. As I left, I noticed a masked crewman with two black, wavelike blades staring at me. His aura was neutral, so I assumed he wasn't a threat. I continued on my way.
We made home base at a nearby inn, I left myself there, to wait for Kilik and the others. The rest searched for information on Soul Edge. I waited outside, in plain sight. It was a bustling city, and we weren't enemies of Grandall. Yet. I pondered how I would manage to destroy the emperor's Soul Edge. It wasn't exactly on display for everyone to see. But as I pondered this, I spotted the crewman, watching me. His ship had left. What does he want? I waited for him to make his move.
And waited. And waited. And waited. I thought he didn't try anything because of the crowd. So he didn't want witnesses it seemed. I abandoned my post, and went into a back alley. Chances are the others wouldn't be here for a couple more weeks anyway. Sure enough, someone was following. As soon as I got to a dead end, I drew my sword, and turned. It was the captain of the ship that brought me here! He drew his sword, which looked familiar. "Female Soul Edge." I said. "Cervantes? What's the matter, Kilik didn't whip you hard enough?"
"So, I've been found out." Cervantes pulled down his hood, and threw off his cloak. "You're easy to track, but Grandall has a strict 'No Killing' policy in their cities. But seeing as we're alone, they won't know a thing."
I watched him draw Nirvana, and get into his stance. "Before we start, what are you doing here?"
I brandished Soul Calibur. There was a look of surprise and fear from Cervantes' face. "Destroying those like you."
I charged, attemping to decaptate my adversary. He jumped high into the air, and I followed. As he came down, both blade at the ready, I went up in the same manner. We clashed in midair, and held there for a few seconds. As gravity took hold of us, we continued to excange blows. We fought all the way to the ground, and landed with a pair of thuds.
Nonetheless, we continued our exchange. He refrained from using his pistol, as he didn't want to draw attention. This puzzled me as I fought him, because something like that wouldn't matter to him. Were there powerful souls in the city? Or had he been weakened somehow? We locked our swords, and pushed off against each other. I backflipped, landing in a shaolin kung fu stance. He skidded to a halt, and got ready to do his charge for which he was famous.
He was the first to continue the battle, flying at me like a whirlwind of blades. I reacted seconds before he hit me, doing a double frontflip over him, making him run into a pile of trashcans. On a sidenote, I often wonder if he gets dizzy doing that. He got up, throwing a trashcan off of himself, and staggering through the pile of garbage. "Dang, I thought you stank before, but now…" I mockingly waved a hand in front of my face, as if trying to get a smell to go away. That ticked him off.
He was about ready to charge me again, when the masked sailor appeared out of nowhere, and started attacking Cervantes. I've seen how humans move with those type of wave blades, and I tell you, this guy wasn't human. My theory was proven true, after the sailor was stabbed in the gut, but there was no gut to stab. Cervantes pushed him off, and said, "Hardly a fair fight! We'll meet again!" At which point, he jumped onto a roof, and ran off.
The masked sailor turned to me, as I pointed my blade at him. "Who are you?"
The sailor took off his mask, and revealed a skull. "This is one of my puppets. I sent it here to make sure no harm comes to you." The voice was Zasalamel's. "It will watch over you from the shadows, because everything falls apart if you are dead."
I sheathed Soul Calibur. "You could've said something. What do I call it?"
"If you must name it, it's called 'Revenant'. It is there when I am not."
"Catchy. Well, I guess I'll see you when I see you. But try not to creep me out so much with this thing."
"I will try not to in the future."
I didn't respond to this. I simply walked back to the inn, and I heard Revenant jump into the air, I assume to do it's bodyguard work.
The rest of the day was nearly uneventful. Everyone returned to the inn, and I told them about Revenant. I didn't want to tell them about Cervantes, being that his power inspired fear in us in the past, but I felt obligated. After they heard that he was still "alive", I don't know if I should use that term, Yun-Seoung and Talim became upset. "Dang. That bastard just doesn't know when to quit!"
"Why is he interested in targeting us individually?" Talim said. "He's been so arrogant, he'd be more likely to go after all of us at once."
"I don't know, Talim. But keep on your guard. Before we do anything too drastic, we should wait for the others to arrive. If only just to be safe."
After everyone was in agreement, we went on to discuss rumors of the emperor's sword. We found little information, but we did get confirmation that it was part of Soul Edge. The most persistent description from those who saw it was a large blade as big as a man, with an eye on each side. The sword was said to suck a man's essence away from him. I was convinced that we were dealing with someone who had a lot of pieces of Soul Edge that formed into one sword.
I began to lay out the plans for our next move. As Sun Tzu says, to know your enemy is to defeat him before you meet him on the field of battle. Therfore, I informed everyone to ask about people that are major players in the Grandall Army. "I also want to know about this guy who thinks he can take on the Devil." I said. "I wanna know what he's really capable of. If he's just a braggart, it should be no problem, but if not, he could hinder any plans to destroy the emperor's Soul Edge.
"Yun-seoung, stay with Talim. Talim, you stay with Yun-seoung. If Carvantes comes back, he could endanger both of you alone, but neither of you together. Master, with respect, you should stay at the inn tommorow. I'll gather information."
My master nodded. "But what if Cervantes comes back for you?"
"Zasalamel said that Revenant watches over me from the shadows. He's been true to his word thus far, so I don't think he's lying."
"Very well." My master said.
"Everyone, we've got a big day tommorow. Let's get some sleep." With that, everyone went off to bed.