Chapter 100: The last hope

Heishiro, in pain, let himself fall on his knees as soon as he left the ruined cathedral.

- You're alive! – exclaimed Taki, who hurried to help him.

- Yes, but that doesn't matter now. – said Heishiro, resigned. – Soul Edge has won.

- What are you saying?

- Soul Calibur has been destroyed. – answered Heishiro.

Taki bent down to look at Heishiro's eyes.

- You did what you could, Mitsurugi. – she whispered.

- I always thought I was the best… - admitted the samurai. – …but I didn't manage to do this.

- You're the best for me, Heishiro.

The ninja moved her face closer to Heishiro's, but then Heishiro saw something behind her that made him react.

- What is she doing here? – he yelled when he saw Setsuka.

- Who is she? Do you know her?

- He knows me very well, darling. – replied the woman approaching them. – I'm the one who's going to kill him.

At that moment, Setsuka unsheathed her sword, unsettling both Taki and Talim, who was watching everything from a short distance.

- What is she talking about? Is she mad? – shouted the ninja, trying to keep Setsuka away from Heishiro.

No! – suddenly exclaimed the samurai, who seemed to be very quiet. – Let her do what she has to do.

- What? Do you want her to kill you? What's all this nonsense? Don't we have enough with all this? – yelled Taki, who was losing composure, something unusual in her.

- I killed her father. – confessed Heishiro. – I deserve this. If you don't want to see it, go. But don't get involved.

Taki didn't know what to do, but Setsuka was determined. She approached Heishiro and put her sword's blade on his neck. Heishiro closed his eyes, prepared to die.

Setsuka looked at him with hatred and pressed the sword stronger, so Heishiro started to bleed. For some reason, Setsuka's arm was shaking. She finally had her father's murderer at her disposal and, however, her hand was shaking.

The woman raised her eyes and looked around. Taki was struggling to hold her tears back, while Talim was already crying in silence.

Setsuka closed her eyes, raised her sword and, when everybody was thinking that she would slice Heishiro's neck, she threw the weapon to the floor.

Heishiro opened his eyes in surprise when he heard the sword hitting the ground. He looked at Setsuka, confused.

- My father's life for your brother's. – she claimed. – We're at peace.

Taki sighed in relief, although that wouldn't last very long. Suddenly, the cathedral's remains started to move. First, Cervantes crawled out of them. Then, Rock appeared, holding his axe and looking really sad. Finally, Nightmare came out vigorously, holding Soul Edge.

Taki, Heishiro, Setsuka and Talim looked at them, feeling both frightened and amazed. Rock approached them, while Cervantes knelt before Nightmare.

The dark knight laughed loudly, making everyone else shudder, even Cervantes.

- I'd never felt so alive. – roared Nightmare. – But there's still something missing. I need to…KILL!

Nightmare quickly looked around and saw Talim, who was disarmed and away from the other people. He raised Soul Edge and ran towards her.

Setsuka was the first to realize Nightmare's intentions, and she decided to do something. She hurried to pick up the sword she had just thrown and jumped on Soul Edge's wielder.

- You'll not lay a finger on her! – she yelled just before sticking her sword through Nightmare's armor.

Nightmare stopped and looked at her in surprise, while she looked at him with hatred, waiting for him to collapse. Obviously, he didn't. Nightmare laughed again, took Setsuka's sword out of his body and threw it away. Before Setsuka could even wonder what had happened, Nightmare killed her with just one Soul Edge's blow.

- No! – yelled Talim, horrified.

Setsuka's wrecked body fell to the ground. Soul Edge and Nightmare seemed even stronger after having killed her.

Then, suddenly, all of them were surprised by a light which started to shine. Heishiro was the first to notice its source.

- You, little girl!

Everybody looked at Talim. At her feet, Setsuka's sword was shining brightly.

- The sword! It's there!

Nightmare recognized, horrified, Soul Calibur's shine.

- It's not possible! – he roared.

He didn't waste a second and headed to the girl and the sword to destroy them before she could react, but this time he didn't reach her either. Rock was faster and jumped on Nightmare, moving him away from Talim. Heishiro took advantage of it and approached the girl and the sword, finding strength out of weakness. He was about to pick up Setsuka's sword when his own weapon started to shine too, surprising him.

Cervantes hurried to pull out his gun and point it at the samurai, but before he could pull the trigger, two daggers were quickly thrown towards him: one of them cut off the hand which was holding the gun and the other one stuck on one of his eyes. Taki, who had thrown the daggers, approached him and knocked him down with a kick.

Meanwhile, Rock struggled with Nightmare and Heishiro talked to Talim.

- Listen to me, little girl. I need you to do something very important. – Heishiro was speaking very quickly, while a confused Talim tried to understand him. – I don't know how or why, but I think that swords acquire Soul Calibur's powers when they are close to you.

The samurai grabbed Setsuka's sword, which was still shining, while he talked.

- Do you see the sword the man in the armor is wielding? It's called Soul Edge. If we don't destroy it now, it will be a disaster for everyone. And I think that the only person who can do it…is you.

- H-How…?

- As soon as you can, you must stick this sword on Soul Edge's eye, do you understand? – he said, handing Setsuka's sword to her.

- Yes, but…I…I've never… - she whined, grabbing the weapon not very convinced.

- It's no time to back out, girl. The world's fate is in your hands.

Right after saying that, Heishiro unsheathed his own katana and hurried to help Rock in his fight against Nightmare. As he had supposed, as soon as he moved away from Talim the katana's shine faded out.

Nightmare then realized that Talim was his main threat, so he got ready to kill her. Rock, with his body very damaged but not being able to die, tried to hold him back. However, the dark knight, knowing he couldn't kill Rock, decided to finally unable him. First, he cut off the arm with which he was holding his axe. Once Rock was defenceless, Nightmare sliced his two legs with just one blow, and left him completely maimed on the ground.

After getting rid of Rock, Nightmare saw Heishiro jumping on him, but the dark night didn't even take the trouble to try to kill him. He just hit the samurai strongly with his arm, stunning him, and headed towards Talim to kill her.

The girl, scared and holding Setsuka's sword with both hands, barely managed to walk backwards slowly, trying to move away from that bloodthirsty monster.

However, Nightmare reached her soon, and before she could react, he hit her hands, making her drop the weapon. Then, Nightmare tread on the sword, breaking it and turning its shine off.

Nightmare was now face to face with Talim, wielding Soul Edge, while she was defenceless.

- Yield to my power! – he yelled, and then he moved the sword facing the petrified girl.

Then, before he could kill Talim, something happened. Taki hurried and got the dagger which had cut off Cervantes' hand. Then, she threw it at Soul Edge. Showing her great accuracy again, the dagger stuck just on Soul Edge's eye.

That confused Nightmare, who didn't react, believing that the dagger was harmless for him. And it was…until Talim grabbed its handle.

The dagger started to shine very brightly, and soon Soul Edge and Nightmare were shining too.

- What? NO! – roared Nightmare, understanding what was happening.

Taki and Heishiro, who was still a little stunned on the floor, smiled when they saw that light.

However, the light became so strong that they couldn't see anything, but Nightmare's shriek was clarifying. When the light faded out, Soul Edge, Nightmare and the dagger had disappeared, and Talim was gripping nothing.

Heishiro stood up stumbling. He, Taki and Talim looked at each other. The samurai and the ninja smiled, unbelieving that they had won. The priestess still hadn't understood what had happened.

However, among all that happiness, somebody was leaving the world. Rock, who at this stage was just a trunk with a head and an arm, started to vanish. Although he disappeared with a last joy. Fortune had wanted him to fall looking at Cervantes, who at that very moment was disappearing too. So, Rock died watching his parents' murderer die. However, he didn't want his last thought to be a revengeful one. His last thought was a pure one, a thought of love. And this last thought had a name: Bangoo…

Close to him, a limping Heishiro and Taki approached each other and hugged, which served as a way to both celebrate their victory and prove the affection they felt for each other.

...

Not far from there, the main group walked away from the ruined Lost Cathedral. Kilik, Xianghua, Sophitia, Mi-na (who had already recovered consciousness), Yunsung, Raphael, Ivy, Alan…until the last one felt something strange in his feet, or rather, he stopped feeling something. Soon it was in his knees, and not much later in his chest. He was disappearing.

- Guys! – he exclaimed when he realized what was happening.

Everyone else turned around to look at him and, astonished, they saw a floating head which, before disappearing, said: "We won."

The rest of the group, having not assimilated yet what had happened, looked at each other. The first to talk was Sophitia, addressing Raphael.

- Your eyes… They don't glare any more…

- That means… - whispered Kilik.

- Soul Edge has been destroyed. – said the French man, smiling.

Those words made everyone else smile too. That was worthy of merit, considering that almost all of them had recently lost someone.

Xianghua ran to Kilik's arms, and Yunsung looked at Mi-na, as if he expected her to do something similar. However, instead of that, she kissed his lips.

Meanwhile, Raphael and Sophitia comforted Ivy, who was the saddest person at that moment, because she knew that Rock had just died.

When the expressions of affection finished, Yunsung talked.

- Listen, I suggest that we stay in here for a while. Maybe Heishiro and Taki are following us.

- That's a good idea. – said Xianghua. – I hope everything has gone well and we see the two of them again.

So the group stopped there to rest and, indeed, about an hour later, Heishiro, Taki and Talim reached them.

And, finally, they could all go back home…