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.