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Soul Edge
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Soul Calibur 2
Here I sit, forming men in my image, a race to resemble me:
To suffer, to weep, to enjoy, to be glad-and never to heed you,
like me.
-Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Prometheus
It was seven years earlier that Sophitia, Cassandra's missing older sister, returned with the mysterious Asian woman.
Upon her return, Sophitia explained that Hephaestus, the ancient Olympian god of the forge and fire, had given her a divine oracle to seek out Soul Edge and destroy it.
Nobody believed her sister's fantastic story except Cassandra. She knew that Sophitia was not the sort of person who lied. She also witnessed the Asian woman extract a fragment of the evil sword from Sophitia's body, while treating wounds she received when one of Soul Edge's blades was shattered.
Therefore, it was no surprise to Cassandra when Sophitia disappeared again shortly before her marriage. She was certain that her sister had left to contend with Soul Edge.
As if to answer the concern of her family, Cassandra's sister returned after a few years, her face glowing with contentment as she spoke of cleansing the lands contaminated by the evil of Soul Edge. Soon after, she married a blacksmith, had two children, and led a happy family life.
One day, after running some errands for the bakery where she worked, Cassandra visited Sophitia's home. As she looked into the sleeping faces of her sister's young children, she jokingly spoke to them. "Pyrrha, Patroklos, listen to me carefully. If you don't hold on tight to your mother, she might go running off again to carry out god's duties."
Cassandra's sister smiled and laughed, then assured Cassandra that she no longer heard oracles from god.
It was then that Cassandra's brother-in-law returned home after a day's work. The children jumped out of their beds and ran to greet their father, who carried in his hand a mysterious metal fragment. Fascinated with the metal scrap, the children grabbed it from their father's hand and tugged it away from each other greedily. The way they fought over the piece of metal seemed unnatural-almost as if the children were trying to take back something that belonged to them.
Cassandra recognized the metal. It was a fragment of Soul Edge.
Knowing exactly what her children's reactions meant, Sophitia collapsed, shrieking.
Cassandra grabbed the metal away from the hands of the children quickly and shouted, "Dear Sister! What could be so terrible about this thing? What could this possibly do? Get a hold of yourself! And you call yourself the divine warrior who answered the voice of god?"
Filled with anger, Cassandra rushed out of the house and ran to the Hephaestus Shrine. "Why are you doing this to my sister? How can you claim to be an almighty god? Answer me!" she screamed at the shrine, her voice reverberating throughout the desolate holy ground. Cassandra collapsed on the floor, worn out from shouting. It was then that she saw the weapon. It was the holy sword blessed by the god of forge; Sophitia and her husband offered it to Hephaestus after their marriage. Even after all this time, the sword had not lost its gleam despite being exposed to the elements for four years.
Cassandra held the fragment of Soul Edge up to the blessed sword. The fragment resonated and gave off a faint wailing sound-almost as if it was frightened of the holy object.
She realized then that Soul Edge was still alive. But she could not allow her sister to carry the burden, with a family who depended on her. Cassandra decided that she would put an end to the evil sword herself.
Cassandra did not trust Hephaestus, but the power to defeat the evil was right before her.
As night gave way to dawn, nothing disturbed the temple's tranquility. Cassandra was nowhere to be seen. However, something was amiss-the holy weapon was missing from the temple.
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Cassandra is Sophitia's younger sister.
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Soul Calibur 3
Courage is better than keenest steel,
when bold men bare their brands;
-"Poetic Edda: Fafnismal"
Determined to destroy Soul Edge on behalf of her sister, Cassandra left her home. Unfortunately, she did not have any clues with which to find the evil sword. She therefore made use of the fact that the fragment of the cursed sword that she possessed reacted to evil energy in order to conduct a thorough search as she traveled from land to land.
At first, she had been operating more out of sheer determination than on actual clues, but in a land to the east of Greece, on the other side of the Danube River, she encountered a powerful evil energy greater than any she had felt before. What dwelled in this land surrounded by steep mountains and deep ravines? As she struggled to walk along unfamiliar mountain paths, Cassandra saw a city before her steeped in evil energy. A sinister presence swirled throughout the city, and the residents had lost their minds.
"What's going on?" The fragment she held reacted strongly to this place. Soul Edge was somehow involved in this bizarre phenomenon. Cassandra recoiled from the sight before her at first, but she couldn't abandon these people infected by the evil power. She made up her mind to free the city, and began to investigate the cause.
"My sister was able to do it... I can, too!" she said to herself. The center of the evil energy turned out to be a castle rising from the mountains. Things had been going smoothly up until she located it, but then something unexpected occurred--cracks appeared in the sword and shield she had taken from the temple of Hephaestus.
"What?!" Cassandra felt deeply apprehensive. The people possessed by evil chased her relentlessly. They displayed a fanatical obsession with the fragment of the cursed sword, and showed no signs of giving up. Without a weapon with which to resist, however, there was nothing she could do. She had no choice but to flee the city.
Cassandra managed to escape from the city, but felt completely helpless. She was not a warrior--she was inexperienced in the use of weapons. Although she remembered having used them a bit roughly, Cassandra couldn't believe that this sword and shield made from holy ore could be damaged.
"Is it too much for me?! Is my sister the only one that can do it?" These thoughts joined the uneasiness already in her heart, and her resolve began to waver.
As she gazed at her damaged sword and shield, the image of her sister and her young niece and nephew flashed through the back of her mind. Her sister smiled happily, leading her children by the hand...
"No...I can't give up." Cassandra shook her head and forced her hesitation aside. "I have to do it for my family!"
When Cassandra raised her head, her eyes shone once again with determination. Perhaps even holy weapons could break when exposed to such powerful evil energy, she mused.
"Humph, I guess the power of the gods isn't all that special after all." Convincing herself, she returned to Greece. There would be other weapons left in the temple, and she could also consult with her blacksmith brother-in-law, Rothion. Unexpected news was waiting for her upon her return home, however.
"Sophitia's gone again?!" During Cassandra's absence, Sophitia had once again set out on a journey of her own. Rothion informed Cassandra that Sophitia believed it was her duty to destroy Soul Edge, and that she had set out of her own will.
"Damn you, Hephaestus! This is all your fault!" Cassandra cursed out loud, though she didn't consider her sister having regained her previous strong will to be completely bad news.
"Please help her." said Rothion as he handed her a new sword and shield. If she destroyed the evil sword, that would surely save the city infected by evil as well. She had to help her sister. She would stand by her and support her.
With the early dawn's soft light shining upon her back, Cassandra set out with a pure purpose in her heart.
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Soul Calibur IV
Cassandra set out once again for the town she had visited before in Eastern Europe, hoping to find more clues that would lead her to Soul Edge, but as she hurried through the night, a man appeared before her. His eyes were stained red. She was reminded of the story she had heard about a swordsman who had led the mad townsfolk.
"You have a piece of Soul Edge, don't you? I can feel it," the man said, and in an instant he was upon her. After a hard fight, she was able to finally land a blow on her assailant, but he only sneered at Cassandra and vanished. "So, woman. You can ward off evil, though not as strong as the Holy Stone. Interesting. I'll let you live for now."
"You're going to run?! You coward!"
A laugh echoed around her. "I already have what I came for." Panicked, Cassandra searched her tunic but the fragment of the cursed sword was gone.
Unerved at first, Cassandra pushed those unhelpful feelings down and headed for the town where she discovered some townslfolk still retained their sanity. In fact, they had been healed by a shining blue crystal. Could it be the Holy Stone the swordsman had mentioned? She set out to learn more, and then a rumour caught her attention. A man carrying a mass of crystal as tall as himself was on his way to Ostrheinsburg. If the crystal he bore had the power to smite evil, then that could only mean some evil presence lurked in the ruined castle there. Was it Soul Edge?! Cassandra decided to follow the man to Ostrheinsburg and find out.
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