"Your madness! How it shines like a beacon!" - Nightmare (SCV)
After its destruction by Soul Calibur, Soul Edge was shattered, its fragments scattered across the world. However, minions still loyal to the cursed sword managed to track down the shards, and reassembled as much of the sword as they could. Five years later, Soul Edge regained consciousness and possessed a new host, which it had prepared as an experiment to see if it could maintain its preferred form while taking a new host. Unlike the Azure Knight who had swept through Europe as a genocidal monster, this "new Nightmare" preferred subterfuge and diplomacy. He assumed the name "Dumas", and became part of the inner circle of Emperor Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire, impressing the Emperor with not only his combat skills but his knowledge of alchemy and sorcery. Convincing the Emperor that the Holy Roman Empire should reclaim the territories it had lost to the Ottoman Empire, Dumas was named the Graf, or Count, of the Kingdom of Hungary. Cementing his position with a string of unilateral victories, he sent his servants to regain the missing Soul Edge fragments while organizing purges against innocents he deemed "malfested" in order to harvest souls to bolster his strength.
10 сен 2024
