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Soul Edge
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Soul Calibur V
Ivy had rushed to Ostrheinsburg in order to destroy Soul Edge; instead she faced her father, Cervantes.
She prevailed, ruthlessly dispatching her father in their final, fateful duel. But before she could move on to her true quarry, the sky tore apart.
Soul Edge, its physical form shattered, disappeared into the rift above.
Others called this victory, but Ivy knew better.
Having spent a lifetime studying the cursed sword's cycle of destruction and rebirth, Ivy was convinced that Soul Edge was merely biding its time in another dimension, awaiting the day it could be born again in our world. The sword itself may be beyond her reach, she reasoned, but what if she could rob it of its refuge? What if she could destroy the world beyond the rift?
For over a decade Ivy researched the sword's home, a place she came to call "Astral Chaos." Her body, with the blood of the cursed sword flowing in its veins, seemed to have forgotten to age.
It was Soul Edge that had thrust this destiny upon her, and Ivy would not rest until the cursed sword was purged from all existence.
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Soul Calibur
Ivy was raised with love in the house of the English nobles, the Valentines. However, her father Count Valentine died a madman, driven to insanity through an obsession with alchemy.
The House of Valentine was brought down by the Count's insanity. Soon after her family's fall, Ivy learned from her mother on her deathbed that she was an adopted child. Ivy, however, had no interest in her "true parents."
Ivy eventually learned about her father's search for the mystical sword Soul Edge and began to follow in his foosteps in its quest.
As Ivy learned more about Soul Edge, she discovered its true nature and swore to destroy the demonic blade. She succeeded in creating a weapon for this purpose through ancient sorcery.
To this day, she is still oblivious about her true lineage...
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Though neither seems to care, Ivy is Cervantes' daughter.
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Soul Calibur 2
She is the one who hides her secrets.
-Max Ernst, La Femme 100 Tetes
Count Valentine, a practitioner of alchemy, was driven insane by his pursuit for Soul Edge-also known as the "Key to Eternal Youth." By the time of his death, his efforts to search for Soul Edge drained his family's fortunes and left one of London's most distinguished families in ruins.
As if to pursue her husband into death, the Countess fell ill and passed away soon after Count Valentine's death. This left Ivy as the sole surviving member of the Valentine family.
In reality, Ivy was not a true Valentine by birth. The Count and Countess found her abandoned in front of their mansion when she was an infant, and she was taken into the family as an adopted child. Ivy discovered this secret only after reading a will left behind by the Countess in her death. But this did not matter to her, for the Valentines were the only parents she knew.
Obeying the last wishes of her adoptive father, Ivy continued the search for Soul Edge and studied alchemy. During this investigation, she uncovered the true nature of the sword-it was an evil blade that feasted on souls. In order to avenge the death her father, who was driven insane by the allure of Soul Edge, Ivy vowed to use all of her knowledge to destroy it. She invoked strange powers through occult rituals to summon a mysterious individual who gave life to the whip-like, mechanical sword she dubbed "Ivy Blade."
The sword, which had a will of its own, accompanied and protected Ivy on her journey to vanquish Soul Edge.
When she crossed paths with Nightmare-the one who breathed life into her sword-she agreed to assist him in the "summoning of souls." Little did she know that it was all part of the evil sword's plans.
Ivy realized it was Nightmare who possessed Soul Edge. She came to this revelation only after he was defeated and the evil blade was shattered. That meant that the beloved blade she had forged to destroy Soul Edge had life thanks to the power of the evil blade. She also learned the secrets of her true lineage.
Ivy's birth father…he once wielded Soul Edge and was manipulated by its wicked powers!
Shaken by the horrifying truth, Ivy returned home and locked herself away in a dark laboratory. She tried countless times to destroy Ivy Blade, which was now a symbol of her self-hatred and regret. She could not, however, bring herself to actually break the sword. "I am the same as this sword… Yes, the blood of the evil blade flows through me. The same blood…"
Ivy Blade waited for its master's orders silently.
After months of soul searching, Ivy emerged with renewed resolve. Her goal was no longer to destroy the evil sword, but to completely wipe it out of existence. As a vow to her commitment, she renamed her sword "Valentine." And when she acquired information about fragments of Soul Edge being scattered throughout the world, she immediately departed on her new journey.
Ivy intended to destroy every fragment of Soul Edge, anyone who carried its tainted bloodline, and anyone contaminated by its evil. Nothing would stop her from destroying the root of the evil, even if it meant killing the innocent-there would be no exceptions. The only thing that mattered was obliterating the evil sword's existence completely. "…Call me a monster, a demon if you must. I'll be happy to be called those names if it is the price I must pay to eliminate the existence of the evil blade!!"
This was the beginning of her long, arduous journey. A journey where she would ultimately have to destroy herself and all that was related to her.
Ivy's adoptive family name "Valentine" became a symbol of her will to live as a "human" even though the cursed blood of the demonic blade ran strong within her.
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Soul Calibur 3
No coward souls is mine
-Emily Bronte
Ivy set out on her journey determined to remove all traces of Soul Edge from the world forever. There is no hope for those seduced by the cursed sword. No cure besides death. Her resolution had resulted in much spilled blood--she had sometimes struck down the innocent, but nothing swayed her determination.
Over the course of her journey, her blade began to change. Seeing it become more unstable than it had ever been, she decided to return to the Valentine mansion to investigate the cause. Once she returned to her alchemical lab, she would have access to her research equipment.
On the way back, she stopped at a certain academic city in England and bought texts and books of the secret arts, both ancient and new, gathered from around the world. After returning to the Valentine mansion and looking over them, she found one particular volume that captured her interest.
It was clearly much older than the others. It contained detailed descriptions regarding the nature and origin of the cursed sword. As far as she knew, this book contained the most detailed information ever written about the cursed sword.
Feeling her excitement grow as she deciphered the ancient text, she soon found an account of the spirit sword, Soul Calibur--a sword that restrained the power of the evil sword and lent its power to fight against it. The story was hard to believe, but the precise nature of the text did not feel like fiction.
After a month of work, she had managed to decipher every detail of the spirit sword's description, and was convinced it was real. Ivy closed her eyes and sank into deep contemplation, numerous thoughts flashing through her mind. She opened her eyes at the sound of the door opening. Slightly startled, she looked at the entrance to see a tall, dark skinned man in a white robe.
"Who are you?"
Unfazed by the sudden intruder, Ivy questioned him with a firm tone.
"Did you read the book?"
The man replied with a question, his voice quiet and cold. In the silence that followed, the two of them found the answer to their respective questions.
Ivy grabbed the book and, taking her distance, drew her weapon. From seemingly nowhere, the white-robed man had produced a gigantic scythe.
Fierce combat began at once. The man swung precise strikes with his scythe, while Ivy unleashed a storm of fury with her freely-transforming sword. Sparks flew as their blows collided and each deadly strike was deflected.
"Dammit..." Ivy clenched her teeth. She had to expend more mental effort than usual to make her sword obey her will. A moment of hesitation left a slight opening in her defense, and she stumbled from the force of a heavy blow.
She managed to regain her distance, but the book was no longer in her hand. The man with the scythe slowly picked it up.
"This is a mistake from my past. The world no longer needs this..." As he spoke, crimson flames engulfed the book in his hand. Ignoring Ivy's gasp, he dropped the burning book onto the floor and turned to leave. The flames spread with an unusual fervor, separating Ivy and the man.
"Stop!"
The man responded to her voice.
"If you wish to learn everything about the cursed sword and the spirit sword, then follow the knight you know well..." With those words, the man disappeared behind the curtain of flames.
The wall of flames surrounded Ivy. She did not fear a fire of this size, but she could not risk her alchemy lab becoming engulfed in flames. After a moment's thought, she gave up on the pursuit.
Looking out into the darkness, Ivy pondered. She had lost the book, but the information concerning the spirit sword was etched into her memory--a spirit sword possessing power equivalent to and the opposite of the cursed sword. With such power, she might be able to destroy the cursed weapon once and for all. The abnormality in her sword might also have some connection to the spirit sword.
She cursed the man for the way he had treated her, but strangely, she felt that the words he had spoken were true. Ivy made up her mind. She was going to find the truth. If Soul Calibur did in fact exist, she would obtain it for herself!
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Soul Calibur IV
Ivy continued to search for a way to destroy the cursed sword, and arrived at a great empire to the East where she learned of the spirit sword. However, this presented a new problem. The blood of the cursed sword that coursed through Ivy's veins would prevent her from ever wielding the spirit sword. Even if she could find it, she would not be able to use it to destroy the cursed sword.
Ivy interrupted her journey and returned to her family mnsion, where she once again delved into her alchemic research. But jsut as she began to close in on success, her experiements were cut short by a sudden attack. Cervantes, her own cursed, inhuman father, had come to rob his own flesh and blood, to take his daughter's soul.
Ivy lost that deadly fight, and the man nearly consumed her soul entirely, but Ivy had one last chance. She had been searching for the means to fabricate a being that could wield the spirit sword. Iby used the artificial soul that would have animated that being to save her own life instead, but the research had been incomplete. Death would come to her, sooner or later.
Ivy took up the snake sword that was her other half. She had lost much of the soul that connected her to the weapon, but it still responded to her. Yes, she could fight with it. And the new soul she had created, even though mixed with Ivy's own cursed soul, remained pure. Perhaps she could wield the spirit sword now?
Ivy would fullfill her oath and destroy Soul Edge. Resolutely, she set out on her last journey.
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