77Ok after much procrastination again, i managed to update this story. This here's the epilogue folks, we've reached the end..or have we? well anyway enjoy the story!
Epilogue
Mark's POV
Five years passed since we beat Malgreed…five years huh? Hard to believe it was just yesterday me and my buds were playing Soul Calibur 4 and I lost as Siegfried. Thinking about that time now, had I not lived it, it would've sounded like I was crazy.
Five years passed, and my friends and I finally completed our training from Elder E, now we were collectively known as the Five Sages. We changed a lot, we grew stronger, faster, our elemental control improved greatly, but nothing like Master E could ever do. I was glad the training was over, because now I could go and begin my new life with Talim and her village, oh, I bet you're all wondering how that happened.
Well to be honest, after we beat Malgreed we returned to the temple for some rest after what happened, and for a few of us, a chance to enjoy being with the ones we love. Then we began to train more with Elder E, it took five years but soon we were finally masters and graduated his training, having nothing left to offer us.
"I guess this is where we must part…" I said as I turned to my friends, whom I had long since thought of as family.
"Yeah, but hey, we'll keep in touch, right?" Zach asked a she patted my back.
"Heh, yes, I hope you have a good life with Ivy," I said reassuringly.
"Oh I will, believe me," Zach grinned. The two of them hit it off after Malgreed's defeat, strangely Ivy took a liking to Zach for some reason, he planned on moving in with her after he finished training with us.
"Knowing you Zach, you would," Joseph said as he hefted Brionac on his shoulder. Joseph and Cassandra's relationship went well, it kinda reminded me of Othello a bit, well Joseph was now the most muscular of us and he and Cassandra together…well, it was obviously why. On another note, Sophitia was happy to have a brother in law and for her sister to finally have a man of her own.
"Joseph, you should show some more respect to your fellow peer, even if he can be a bit…never mind," Sosuke said as he came to us. Sosuke and Seong Mi-na kind of had a thing going on from what we knew, though Yun Seong had been jealous of what was going on and tried to take Mina form Sosuke. The young lightning adept let them be, apparent that what he would have would be a little crush, though considering what he told us, he said "it would be for the best," however, there was the fact that Taki, the ninja woman who was friends with Cassandra and Sophitia, had taken an interest in him.
"Say, where IS Talim?" I asked Sosuke. Talim and I kind of got off great once Malatos was gone, and our relationship went to the next level (I think you can guess what that meant) so after five years of being away from the village, we were going back. The guys did make some cracks about what to get for our wedding and if they were invited…well…they weren't wrong, see, I planned on proposing to Talim once we got back to her village and I met her folks, somehow Xianghua got wind and told everyone else, but they agreed to keep Talim out of it until I proposed.
"So when are you going to pop the question to Talim?" Joseph asked me again.
"I'll tell her when I'm ready, god man, give me a break," I explained to him.
"Ok ok, geez…" the lightning/ earth/ water sage looked at the Temple. "Hard to believe it's been five years since we first came here, we were only kids, now we're full grown, ready to take on the world," he smiled softly as he said this.
"Don't forget about what Malgreed…well Malatos, had told us when we fought him. Our future is what we really need to protect, and considering when we know, we can reshape the world with our actions here," I explained. I knew more than the others about what Malatos's words meant, since I technically was part of him at the time. I only told Elder E and Talim about it, but due to my slight inability to not keep secrets, a few of the others got wind of it too.
I only gave them bits of it, I didn't want to ruin their lives by telling them what I was told by Malgreed, E and Talim were enough, that would be all. Anyway, speaking of the wind priestess, she just so happened to come up towards us. Looking at her now, it was hard to believe that the former child priestess was now a beautiful young woman who could use Wind more efficiently.
"Again, you are so lucky to have her," Joseph smirked and nudged me. I smirked at him, he was right though, I was lucky to have her. That first night after the battle…I'll never forget it. It was after all, the first time me and Talim…well…'did it', mainly it was a spur of the moment, but it was all worth it after everything we went through.
Now it was graduation day, after five years, we managed to fully master our abilities, and more.
"My students…I could never be more proud of you, you showed me not only perseverance, but loyalty and honor, as well as self-control." E said as he looked at each of us. "You showed me you had courage, reliance, honor, loyalty, spirituality. At first, you didn't have any control over your powers…and most of you wanted to hurt each other…" E looked at us, I couldn't help but grin a bit at the many attempts of me trying to burn Joseph when he made some remarks about me.
"But despite your differences, and many problems, you all performed admirably, and when you fought Malatos and Malgreed, you proved to me you knew at you were doing, to that, I hereby congratulate all of you on passing my training, as of now, you are all officially 'Sages'" he said. He soon presented each of us a medal and a set of robes like his in different colors.
"the Sage of Fire…" he said, handing a red medal and a red hooded robe to me.
"The Sage of Water" he handed a blue medal and robe to Zach.
"The Sage of Earth…" he handed a yellow one set to Joseph, who smiled.
"The Sage of Wind…" he handed a green version to Talim, who bowed politely.
"And lastly…the Sage of Lightning…" he handed a white one to Sosuke, who nodded and bowed.
"Congratulations my students…you've all graduated" Elder E smiled happily, as to a father to his son. The rest of us looked at each other and we all high-fived one another happily.
After that day we all split away, Joseph and Cassandra and Sophitia to Greece, Frankie to Britain, Zach and Ivy back to her manor, and Sosuke to god knows where. As for myself, I went with Talim to her village, surprisingly they accepted me rather well, apparently word reached of what we did when the Broken Destiny sword was remade and we were celebrities for our actions in destroying it.
Anyway, meeting the family was interesting to say the least, they wanted to know a lot about me, our relationship, and about the others who were with us on our journey. I told them all that I knew, with Talim helping out of course to fill in the gaps I left out. They were surprised Talim could find somebody, especially someone who can use Wind like her. Actually they even gave us their blessings for when we got married, even though it was embarrassing to say the least, the thought of it reminded me of my proposal I wanted to make to Talim.
I kept hiding the proposal ring…mainly since I had no idea on how to propose to her. Around a few weeks went by until I decided to swallow my fears and propose, though I did it romantically. Firstly I chose a good spot to propose, which was the large windmill that Talim would regularly go to that showed the whole village.
Then I waited until it was the right time, around sunset to be precise, and made my way to the windmill, where I found her there, sitting by the edge of the wooden scaffolding, watching the view of her home with a smile. I went and hugged her from behind, hey I couldn't resist hugging her like that. Talim let out a yelp, but when she saw it was me she smiled and hugged back happily.
"It's beautiful up here, wouldn't you say?"she asked as I sat next to her.
"Yes…but not as beautiful as you," I smiled from how cheesy that saying was, but hey, this was my moment with her.
"Mark…about the proposal my parents suggested…" Talim began to say.
"I know…to be honest…I wanted to say something…" I said, taking a deep breath, "Talim, when we first met those years ago I was touched by your kindness and your willingness to help me return home, after what we all went through, I thought only of myself because of my history, but you didn't mind who I was and accepted me…I wanted to repay you somehow…then…I found a way…" I gulped and started pulling out the small black box in my pocket and held out the object inside it, a ring that I had managed to get after almost months gathering up my savings for it.
"I…I want you Talim" I panted a bit more and gulped, the words forming onto my lips and my courage finally showing itself, "W-Will you marry me?" I blurted out.
I waited for Talim to say something, well I did get a giggle from her and looked up, only to meet her lips against mine for a few minutes before we broke apart.
"I've waited five years for you to say that…of course I will," she said and nuzzled against me. For once, I was happy and embraced her, happy that she said yes.
The wedding occurred in a few weeks time, allowing my friends to stop by and visit for the wedding, I was more surprised by the gifts they got, though they do pale in comparison to the gadgets we had in our time, well, it's the thought that counts, right? Anyway the wedding itself was amazing, plus Talim in that dress was…breath taking to say the least.
I won't bore you all you details but we enjoyed the wedding a lot, simple as that.
Years passed for the group of adventurers, they eventually bore children who took after them, with Elder E helping the children understand their strange powers they wielded. The men and women who participated with Broken Destiny's destruction, now called 'The Warriors of the Soul Blades' or for six of them 'The Six Sages of the Elements', had gone around the world, changing lives, and history, with their actions.
Many feared and hated them, others were amazed and saw them as heroes, but for the Sage of fire, he knew what was to befall the Earth, and that's what they were trying to prevent form happening, by any means necessary.
"You do realize of course that no matter what they do, they cannot stop his plans for that world, right?" a figure asked as it sat across a table with Elder E on the other end.
"I know, but at least they can change some events and try to help their world out," E said to the figure.
"still…should you have told them the truth? Unlike the fire sage, who knows what is to happen?" the figure shifted its left leg over it's right as it said this.
"Come now, they deserved this break, let them live out their lives some more before they are to face the inevitable," E stated to the figure.
The figure sighed, "Very well…but once they're ready we'll need your support for the war, Malgreed and the Broken Destiny may be gone, but we've only slowed down the flow of conflict, but now that they know of Falias's existence, you'll have to tell them the truth sometime…" the figure stated.
"I know this!" E roared, "Just leave those kids be," he stated.
"Very well…" the figure sighed, "I hope you know what you're doing…" the figure got up and left the hermit alone in the room. E sighed and wiped his forehead with his sleeve, the figure was right though, sooner or later they'll have to make a choice.
'I only hope it's the right one…' he thought.
"So that explains it…" Thanatos said as he leaned against a stone wall with Cerebus resting next to him.
"Yes, our host is probably one of few who can stop that monster's plan for this world," it said as it shifted heads to make itself more comfortable.
"I still don't understand why until now that this kid was supposed to be here with the others if he's the one they need," Thanatos looked at the large starry sky above him.
"Just be glad he accepted both of us," Cerebus mumbled.
"Yeah…what do you think will happen when the kid kicks the bucket?" Thanatos asked Cerebus.
"Beats me…but all I know is that we're going to need to be prepared for the coming war, destroying Broken Destiny managed to stall them, but they'll get back on their feet soon, plus Malgreed was a possible traitor, he wanted Broken Destiny to use against his master's plans, but we put a stop to it and destroyed the sword" Cerebus explained.
"But I guess that's not their objective then, huh?" Thanatos asked the wolf demon.
"Nope, I can sense the others…the other dark beasts like myself…" Cerebus looked at the stars in the sky when he said this.
"Wait, there are others like you?" Thanatos asked.
"Yep, soon…soon I will see them again…either out there or in the World of Darkness…" Cerebus said.
"Let's pray they're nice like you," Thanatos mumbled as he fell asleep.
Cerebus shook his head, "You wouldn't understand beasts like us…all humans think of us are monsters…" he looked at the sky again, "I only hope that they don't end up screwing up the boy's plans…otherwise Earth's doomed…even though it's still going to be doomed either way," Cerebus muttered before sleep took over as well.
The End?
And as much as i hate cliffhangers, this story is done. But what exactly is this war that everyone's afraid of? Well if you've been paying attention, then you should seen the signs that something big's gonna happen. But there's gonna be a possible spiritual sequel to this story in the later future. Well its basically my Ratchet/Ben 10 fanfic i got planned to possibly publish here, when idk, but i got my DOA fic as well as my Golden Sun story working on as well, so yeah. I don't know if i'll put my ratchet/ben 10 story up, but it will be up in due time.
Anyway, this is godofmadness43 and here is the final chap of my Soul Calibur story, hope you all enjoyed it, see you guys later!