Chapter 1 – Beginning of a Journey
Walking in the wilderness, a young man by the name of Leonsritt is traveling down the road, on a journey, with his only weapon, the steel paddle. Figuring that he has a shard of Soul Edge in his arm, he travels to find two people: Siegfried, wielder of the Sacred Sword, and Isabella Valentine, an alchemist widely known. Walking towards Greece, the next location, he wonders about the shard and the influence it may have on him. Leonsritt finally arrives in Greece. Walking in the streets, he always wondered how it would be to travel to different places. As he walks, he hears a commotion about a tournament. Nearing a crowd of people he listens to one of the spokespersons.
"Come one, come all! All who want to test their might can come and sign up to this tournament!"
(A tournament, huh? I guess I can sign up, and see how my sword skills are...)
"You there! Are you looking to sign up to this tournament?"
"Sure!"
Leonsritt had signed up to the tournament, and had prepared to test his skills. The tournament spokesperson escorted him to the preparation room. Walking in there, he had seen intimidating-looking fighters, some with flashy armor and others without armor as if they look like they can take anything. Thinking of fighting all these guys had made Leonsritt get fired up.
"Leonsritt, please proceed to the platform."
The spokesperson had led Leonsritt to the platform. As he waited, his first opponent had appeared in front of him. A semi-built man known as Gallant, armored and wielding a Zweihander, was his opponent. Leonsritt was ready to face this man.
"You're goin' down, kid."
"Underestimating me, eh?"
Leonsritt firmly grasps his sword.
"COME ON!!!"
And the audience goes wild as both contestants started their assault. Leonsritt and Gallant's blades clash as they try to cut each other down. Leonsritt avoids each and every attack Gallant tries to land. Gallant backs off as Leonsritt stabs his sword on the ground.
"Alright, Gallant. Let's make things more interesting."
"... You're insane. Raise your sword."
"Are you afraid to fight me?"
"Ugh..."
Gallant refuses to keep fighting as he sees Leonsritt in a fighting stance without his sword.
"So what's it gonna be, Gallant?"
"GRAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
Angered, Gallant charged at Leonsritt with his Zweihander, and Leonsritt lands a punch towards his jaw, sending Gallant flying across the stage, and the audience in shock. With Gallant knocked out cold, Leonsritt had won the round.
"Never underestimate your opponent..."
Walking away victorious, he moved on to the second round. The day moved on and he ranked up on the tournament. Leonsritt had made it to the finals in no time. The losing contestants had left the tournament one by one. He felt great bout being victorious, but now that same uneasiness had overcome him. And once again his arm was in great pain. He saw that same ominous glow emanating from his arm. Grasping his arm, he had felt blood lust, like he needed it. Like he wanted to kill. But that feeling had gone away. Gasping for air, he rested from the painful experience.
"What's going on with me... This isn't good at all..."
Worried about the situation, Leonsritt had rested for a bit, and walked to the quarters the tournament holders had provided for the finalists. Visited by fans, Leonsritt had been telling people stories (the stories are mostly lies) as the people looked at him in awe. Leonsritt's pain had calmed down now, and as the people had left him to rest, he was visited by a young woman.
"Hello..."
This young woman seemed very familiar to Leonsritt.
"Hello, Cassandra."
"How did you know my name?"
"Yeah, I hear a lot of fan boys talk about you."
Leonsritt had knowledge of this as he knows Cassandra pretty well. The baker's daughter of a famous bakery shop in Greece, Leonsritt had always wanted to meet her in person.
"Well, yeah, they do tend to look at me from the windows."
"Wow, well I can see why."
"Well here's some bread for you to enjoy."
"You know what? Stay here. We'll enjoy some bread together."
Thinking about it, Cassandra happily accepted Leonsritt's invitation, as she sat next to him. Enjoying the bread with Cassandra, Leonsritt told her about his journey, though keeping out a few details.
"I see. You were stranded here."
"Yeah, so I ended up coming to Greece, and entered this tournament."
"Ah, now that you mention it, I had gotten a message from Princess Hildegard von Wolfkrone."
"The Princess of Wolfkrone Kingdom?"
"Yes, you know her too?"
"Where I come from, we hear stories from around the world."
"Really?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"You know it's getting late."
"You're right. Gotta get some rest!"
Saying their goodbyes, Leonsritt had finally gotten a good night rest, thanks to Cassandra and her bread. The next morning he had woken up and trained with his steel paddle for the finals. Cassandra had gotten his attention when she greeted him with a warm good morning, yet she went on the run after her fan boy club started chasing her around. Leonsritt had chuckled a bit. Cassandra had ran towards Leonsritt and hid behind him. The fan boys had stopped in front of Leonsritt as he pointed his blade towards them.
"Gentlemen... seriously... grow up..."
"Shut up! Get out of the way!"
"Do I have to take care of ALL of you?"
Preparing himself in his stance, the fan boys had backed off and left as Cassandra felt relieved. Leonsritt had lowered his blade and turned to Cassandra.
"Thanks!"
"Hey, anything for a pretty girl."
"What?"
"I said, 'anything for a friend'."
"I'm sure you said something else."
"No, I didn't."
Cassandra had left, waving goodbye and wished him good luck as she headed back to her bakery. Leonsritt had kept training for the upcoming match. The hours went by, and soon Leonsritt had been called to the stage for the finals. The crowd cheered wildly as Leonsritt raised his sword and swung it back down. The referee had stepped in to the stage and started his announcement.
"Leonsritt, the finalist will now face the champion, the final opponent."
Leonsritt waited and saw a figure approaching. He noticed the opponent had carried a short sword and a small shield. Leonsritt had been surprised when he saw who his opponent really was...
"Cassandra?!"
"Yeah , it's just you and me. So, you ready?"
"Huh, never expected to be you being my final opponent..."
Leonsritt, looking at his steel paddle, he looked at Cassandra. He pointed his blade at her, swung it at ready, and confident, he smiled at her.
"LET'S ROCK!!!"
And their blades clashed. Every swing was reflected by each hit their blades took. Dodging every attack, both Leonsritt and Cassandra backed off and stared at each other, trying to read each other's movements. Cassandra had quickly lunged at Leonsritt, as he swung his blade towards her. Leaving himself open Leonsritt felt something soft hit him, yet with great force, he was knocked down. Questioning himself, he stood up. Cassandra giggled as he looked at her in confusion.
"Did you just hit me... with your butt?"
Cassandra had burst out in laughter. She had charged at him once more, but this time, Leonsritt had set his sword aside, and using his own skill of martial arts, he fought her barehanded as both had been taking hits from each other. Leonsritt had attacked Cassandra using his palms. As Cassandra had fallen on her knees, Leonsritt had picked up his blade and walked towards her. Cassandra, thinking she was about to be executed, saw his blade rise in the air. She closed her eyes, as she waited for the worst to happen. But she opened her eyes, seeing Leonsritt stretching his hand at her. She held his hand and helped her up as the referee ran towards him.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you mean?"
"Since you're the winner, the loser has to be executed."
"YOU want ME to execute HER in front of EVERYONE?!"
"Those are the rules of this tournament."
Leonsritt had burst out in laughter as the referee had looked at him.
"I don't play by your so-called 'rules'."
As Leonsritt had told him that, the referee left as he walked towards a weakened Cassandra. Leonsritt picked her up and carried her out of the stage. The audience had booed, but Leonsritt didn't care. Cassandra looked at Leonsritt, as he walked to her bakery. He walked in there and Cassandra's father had seen her resting on Leonsritt's arms. Her father had led him to Cassandra's room, and Leonsritt placed her on her bed.
"Sorry if I went a little rough on you."
"Don't worry about it. I haven't had a good fight in ages."
"Well, yeah, sorry though."
"It's okay. Besides, this is why I entered the tournament."
"Hmm. Does it also have to do with the letter that Princess Hilde sent you?"
"Yeah."
"I was thinking of asking you if you wanted to travel with me, seeing how Hilde requests your help."
"Sure, if you don't mind."
"Just take a rest for today."
As he turned around and started walking towards the exit, Cassandra had stopped him.
"You... don't have anywhere to sleep tonight... do you?"
"No... but I can deal."
Leonsritt smiled at her, and headed towards the door but Cassandra stopped him once again.
"If you want you can rest here."
"Really?"
"Sure."
"You don't mind?"
"Nope."
"You sure?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay, thanks!"
Leonsritt had sat down and talked to Cassandra about how he helped the village he arrived at before reaching Greece. Though he didn't mention anything about the Soul Edge shard in his arm, he had let Cassandra rest. Suddenly, he felt the stabbing pain in his arm. Leonsritt let out a piercing roar, as Cassandra woke up in surprise as she saw Leonsritt on the ground. She had gotten up to help and noticed his arm showed a menacing purple glow. Cassandra had noticed Leonsritt was whispering something.
"Kill... I must kill... Ugh..."
"Leonsritt! Leonsritt!"
"Cassandra... your soul... is mi-- get... away!!!"
Leonsritt had fought this murderous intent. Cassandra had seen Leonsritt's face as if she was seeing a demon possessing him. She noticed fangs on him, as well as his eyes had turned gray. Leonsritt kept struggling against the force of the Soul Edge shard. He felt it finally calming down, as he started losing consciousness he noticed Cassandra holding him. Cassandra had tried getting Leonsritt to wake up again, but she failed...
Leonsritt had woken up in a bed. Looking around, he noticed Cassandra had been sitting next to the bed. She woke up to see Leonsritt okay.
"What happened...?"
"You... have a Soul Edge shard... in you... don't you?"
"..."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because... If I told you... you probably would have gotten against me..."
"Now that I know that... You and I are leaving to Wolfkrone Kingdom right now."
"Okay... but please, don't be angry at me..."
Leonsritt felt pretty bad after not telling Cassandra about the shard in his arm. But she walked up to him and held his hand. Leonsritt had felt a little weird about this, but he didn't mind. Cassandra seemed concerned about this yet she agreed to help Leonsritt to find a way to remove that shard. Cassandra readied herself as did Leonsritt himself prepared his equipment. Walking out of the bakery, Leonsritt and Cassandra had started walking out of Greece. Leonsritt had been looking at his arm and now noticed a purple marking. Cassandra had seen it and looked at Leonsritt.
"If you're angry at me, I'm sorry..."
"I'm not mad, you know. It's just..."
"What...?"
"The shard... how'd you get it...?"
"I... I don't know...?"
Leonsritt now wondered how he ended up with the shard... Yet, now he travels with Cassandra as a companion, with her goal of helping him with the removal of the shard. Now outside of Greece, Leonsritt and Cassandra now head to Wolfkrone Kingdom, but with the shard in him, he thinks to himself of what danger he could be to himself and Cassandra.
"Are you alright, Leonsritt?"
"Y-yeah. I am..."
"But I'm still concerned."
"I'll deal..."
"But the shard--"
"Don't worry... I'll be fine!"
"Okay..."
"Besides... since we're on a journey, you never know, I'll probably learn to keep its power at bay..."
"Yeah... you're right."
"Well, let's go. We've gotta head to Wolfkrone Kingdom!"
"Yeah!"
And so Leonsritt and Cassandra head toward the next location: Wolfkrone Kingdom.
Author's Notes: I don't own SoulCalibur or any of its characters at all. Seriously, I wish, but no. But whatever, I want to own it but you know how much money I need?! Think of the paperwork I gotta fill! Luckily I don't.