Author's Notes: The end has come. No more blood need be spilled, but decisions need to be made about how our heroes will live out the rest of their lives. See how some choose to seek redemption.

Disclaimer: Even though I'm not making any money off of this, I still feel obligated to mention that most of what you're reading about doesn't belong to me.

Chapter 12: Soul of Redemption

Tairene walked through the village gate to see Roren lying on the ground beside a smoldering pile of ash. She rushed to his side only to find him awake with a contented smile on his face. Upon seeing her, he sat up and said, "I've done it. I've won."

Confused, Tai looked around. "Where? I see no monster here."

Roren rose to his feet and pointed to the ashen mound. "The demon that caused the destruction that now surrounds us and slaughtered everyone I once knew has been reduced to cinders, felled by my hand." Taking a deep breath, he tried to release some of the anger he'd built up within himself to prepare for this day.

Looking to what remained of the fiend and realizing what this must have meant to her companion, Tai asked a question without turning to him. "So what will you do now?"

"I don't really know. I've tried not to think about it. For seven years I devoted my life to killing this thing and told myself that anything after that didn't matter." Tears began to well in his eyes as he looked deep into the dying embers. "I knew that killing him could never bring my village back, but… that life I had before he came… it was all I ever wanted." He wiped his sleeve across his eyes before continuing. "I guess that such a simple life is impossible at this point. Whether it is or isn't, I'd like to avoid the world I came to know during my journeys and maybe see the better part of it. It would be nice to travel without a quest to serve."

Looking down at the sword he had dropped after delivering the final blow, he picked it up and turned to Tai. "But I guess that will have to wait. It's your turn to use Soul Calibur and, if you'll let me, I'd like to help you on that journey since you were kind enough to help me on mine."

Before Tairene could turn and accept the offer, she saw something on the other side of the ashes. It was Soul Edge, having returned to its natural form after the demise of its wielder. "I don't need it," she replied. "The end of my quest lies here." With those words she stepped forward and knelt beside the dark blade.

Roren watched as she ripped the talisman from her neck and placed it just above the living eye of the sword. "What are you doing?"

Shifting the magical artifact around as if looking for the right spot, Tai answered the question. "When you found out that I was looking for Soul Calibur you asked what made me different from anyone else who got involved in its war with Soul Edge. I said you made an assumption." The amulet now stopped and began to glow. "You assumed I wasn't different."

She pushed down on the gem with the palm of her hand while the light shined brightly beneath it and the sword's eye went wide with fear. Soon the eye dimmed and began to close. Eventually all the living tissue began to melt into the blade, which was starting to look like normal steel. When the process was finished Soul Edge looked like nothing more than an ordinary weapon.

Lifting the talisman off the sword, Tairene breathed a sigh of relief. Before she could move to complete her objective, however, a crack began to form in the gem. The split reached either side of the amulet, but refused to come apart.

Roren blinked incredulously before asking, "What did I just see?"

Tai now held the artifact as gingerly as possible. "I've spent most of my life trying to end the wars around me. When I heard about Soul Edge and Soul Calibur battling throughout the centuries and taking many innocent people to their graves, I had to do whatever I could to put a stop to it."

She took a breath before continuing. "This talisman was made to take power away and give it to something else. I had intended to take the magic from both these blades to ensure they did no more harm, but…" she looked to the crack in the gem. "These swords are much more powerful than I'd imagined. I don't want to risk breaking this and releasing all that energy into the air just so it can go into something else. Soul Calibur will have to remain."

Roren idly rubbed his jaw while he tried to take all this in. "In all honesty I think it's probably for the best. But now the question arises… what do we do with these things? I don't think we want to be carrying the sword that was once Soul Edge around and the dark magic you just removed from it is too dangerous to let fall into anyone's hands."

"I say we bury one and toss the other into the sea," came a deep voice from across the village. They turned to see Dralt standing in the village gate, apparently having been listening for the past minute or so. He began making his way towards them, talking as he went. "If Soul Edge was here then people will come looking for it. I think it best if they did not find it." Roren and Tai agreed and started to carry out the knight's plan.

After placing the once cursed sword as far beneath the ground as they dared to and covering it up, Dralt let out a deep sigh. His uncovered silver mane glistened in the remaining sunlight while he spoke again. "Now there's just one thing left for me to do here." Slowly he lifted his shimmering blade up and stuck it into the loose dirt. "If anyone comes here looking for a legendary weapon, now they'll find one. Good bye, my friends." With that, he turned around and began to walk back to the village gate, stripping off sections of his armor as he went.

Roren looked on in shock at the actions of his longest companion. "What are you doing? Where are you going to go?"

Dralt stopped halfway across the village, working on removing his broken gauntlet. When he finally got it off, he pointed at the blade he left behind. "That sword had kept me alive for far too long as it is, but now that it's taken me far enough to redeem myself for some of my sins, I can have no more of it. It's time I sought my redemption without the use of a blade… I'm through with fighting." After this he sighed a heavy breath and looked through the village gate and off into the distance. "I'm going to find some place where I can live out the end of my life in peace… if there's any out there for me." He spoke no more words as he continued his path out of the village.

Before the warrior in green could begin to chase after him, Tairene put a hand to his shoulder and shook her head. They could not change his decision, nor was it their place to. It was something he had to do on his own for the sake of his soul. A moment passed in silence between the two for the friend they would likely never see again after this day.

Roren broke the silence first. "So, I guess we know what we're going to do with your amulet, but what do we do about Soul Calibur," he asked, indicating the weapon in his hand. "Neither of us needs it anymore, but I don't think we should just leave it here."

Tai looked to the woods, seeming deep in thought. "I think I know what we can do with it."

The next day, Ivy Valentine awoke on the forest floor. The last thing she remembered was being thrown back by the ninja's fiery attack. Slowly rising to her feet she suddenly realized that she felt no pain from the fire. Looking down her form, she saw that, strangely, her body was completely free of burns, despite having been surrounded by flame in her last moment of consciousness. Unable to explain the phenomenon, she brushed herself off and thanked whatever lucky star had saved her from the painful scars.

Her next order of business was to find the weapon she had lost along with her waking mind. Hopefully the woman she'd fought had not disposed of it after the fight. She had worked far too hard to create it and even if its power was given by Soul Edge itself, she still treasured it as her most precious possession.

Ivy scanned the woodland area around her. When she spotted her sword lying on the ground her eyes went wide… for it was not alone. Sticking out of the ground beside her blade was the weapon she hoped would take away all the evils in her life: Soul Calibur.

Ivy slowly stepped forward until she was within arm's reach of the holy weapon. She could not explain why, but the people whom she'd seen on this path had left this for her to take. Offering a silent thanks, the usually cold woman allowed a single tear to form in her eye as she took hold of Soul Calibur and its blinding light consumed her body.

Meanwhile, Mitsurugi had just awakened. Quickly realizing where he was, he jumped to his feet and charged down the path. Turning through the village gate, he saw the mound with the blade used to defeat him sticking out of it. Walking closer, he thought it a grave at first. But as he got closer the shard of Soul Edge that he carried with him began to resonate, albeit very weakly. The sword he sought was within the earth beneath him.

Mitsurugi pushed the large weapon aside and began to dig frantically with his cupped hands. He might not have won in his battle with the knight, but he could still have a victory on this day. He could still have his legend. He could still have his pride if that sword would be his.

Reaching the bottom of the loosened dirt, the samurai finally came upon a hilt. A smile came upon his face as he wrapped his hands around and began to pull it out. That smile faded when he saw that the blade in his hands was nothing more than an ordinary steel sword with nothing remarkable about it whatsoever. Unsure of what was going on, Mitsurugi tossed the weapon aside and continued digging, thinking that someone may have tried to trick him. When he found nothing, his fists balled and his teeth clenched as a fury rose within him.

Drawing the katana from his waist, Mitsurugi stabbed it into the ground, trying to vent the rage of his lost opportunity. During this rampage he did not notice the strange mist beginning to descend around him. The cloud touched upon the discarded sword that had once made up its solid form. Realizing that the blade was now without power, it turned to the furious warrior nearby. By the time the samurai saw what was going on, he had already been completely surrounded by the mist.

It closed in and began to seep into his flesh. He let out an agonized yell as a massive force exploded from his body and raised up the dirt around him to obscure his form. As the dust started to clear, a pair of red eyes beamed through the cloud and a new voice rang out. "Hahahahahaha! The nightmare… will not… die!" The monster's laughter echoed off the mountain.

Roren and Tairene thought long and hard about where they would deposit the power of Soul Edge. They chose a point in the sea where none dared to venture.

Almost two years prior, rumors of a great treasure left by the dread pirate Cervantes de Leon began to circulate across Europe. Many ships filled to the brim with greedy souls charged off in search of the trove. For many months none of those ships returned. When one finally did it reported that there was no treasure. They only thing they found was a massive graveyard of ships. Though it appeared that whatever had killed all those people no longer remained, none were willing to return to that horrid place.

After acquiring a ship, the two warriors set a course for the oceanic crypt. With such a dark legend surrounding the area and a large number of broken ships twisting together it was unlikely that anyone could find something here. As soon as they reached the center of the wreckage, Tairene took hold of the cracked talisman and dropped it over the edge of the boat.

As the amulet fell deeper and deeper into the ocean it glowed with the power kept inside. That glow pushed through the murky depths to light up the darkness. Nearing the bottom, that light revealed a ship broken in half; the lettering on the side reading, "ADRIAN." On the deck was a body against the wall with the spike end of a large mace sticking out of his chest.

The talisman finally stopped in the purple-hued palm of the man and completely lit up his visage. White hair came from under his deep purple captain's hat to form a beard surrounding his face and mouth. His pure white eyes glowed as he looked to the gem within his hand and sensed the familiar energy within. Realizing what it was he held a wicked smile came onto his face while he smashed it against the weapons at his belt.

The two swords began to change as the immense power surged into them. Taking a weapon in each hand he used them to shatter the mace holding him to his ship. Free from his bonds, the dread pirate began to rise to the surface… ready to begin a new reign of terror.

The End…?

Final Author's Note: Well, I don't know about any of you, but I like it. You may have noticed that I pretty well set up for a sequel here. I must, unfortunately, state that I have no intention of writing that story. I just don't have the passion for it. I'll leave it to anyone who wants to branch off from this story (send me a message first so we can clarify all the people who are dead and, thus, can't be used). If there is anything that confused you in this story like what made Xianghua lose faith in herself and what happened to get Cervantes stuck to his boat, then you should read the companion piece to this story, Lost Souls. Even so, leave a review and I'll explain anything that bothers you if I have an answer.

Special Thanks: Speaking of reviews, I'd like to thank everyone who's left one so far. Firestrider, the first, which I really needed, Lord Genesis Shadow kinder than I am to my own work, Meshiloh, my first really good review (but then, I know where you live), AngelEyes87, good notes from another established author here, and Highwayman Myth, this guy stuck around which meant a lot.