The evil sword Soul Edge continued to gorge upon human hatred and threatened to envelop the entire world with its fragments...

Hephaestus, the Olympian god of forge, was not the only god who took notice of the sword's power.
Unlike Hephaestus, who bore misgivings about Soul Edge, another god was genuinely intrigued with the weapon.
To Ares, the god of war, the evil blade's cursed origins and nature were of little concern. He simply wished to possess Soul Edge for himself.
Ultimately, the conflict of the two gods' desires began to unfold in the human world.

Ares looked to a heretical order to help him obtain Soul Edge.
The desert-dwelling cult worshipped him as Palgaea the Executioner.
Receiving Ares' oracle to seek the sword, the grand priest Kunpaetku used the cult's black arts to create a golem.
The grand priest named the golem Astaroth, bestowed it with a giant ax infused with a powerful curse, and sent it on a mission to search for the evil blade.

Kunpaetku secretly desired Soul Edge for himself, for the sword bore a power that even the gods sought after.
But deceiving a god was no easy task.
Little did the grand priest know that Ares' servant, Ker, the agent of death, dwelled within Astaroth.

Contrary to its creator's intentions, Astaroth sought after Soul Edge for the god of war.
When Astaroth eventually found it, the sword was in a weakened state, having lost half of itself in battle.
Deciding that his god would not be pleased with the blade in this condition,
the golem followed the orders of Nightmare (who wielded the sword at the time) and slaughtered countless victims in order to strengthen the unholy weapon.
Astaroth became the subject of bitter hatred for those who managed to survive his innumerable massacres.

Three years later, the blade had recovered its power, and the time was nearing for Astaroth to take Soul Edge from Nightmare's grasp.
However, Astaroth never saw his opportunity.
Of all the souls harboring hatred for Astaroth, one man with an irrepressible desire for vengeance reached Nightmare's stronghold in Ostrheinsburg and destroyed the golem.
Maxi was the man who sought to avenge his comrades who were slain by Astaroth.

Although from a human standpoint Astaroth was a wicked being, he was nevertheless the servant of a god.
Immediately after his servant was destroyed, the infuriated god of war unleashed his punishment.
The ground buckled beneath the Maxi, who was already seriously wounded from the battle, and he disappeared into the earth.
So sudden were these events that the man had hardly a moment to rejoice in his victory.

Soon after the battle, Maxi's friends defeated Nightmare and shattered Soul Edge.
They searched for Maxi for some time, but they eventually lost hope of finding him and left.
For a while thereafter, peace returned to the world.

Four years passed since that time.

Had Astaroth simply been a creation of a mere mortal, it would have been an impossible feat.
Nevertheless, the god of war's divine powers and Ker, the agent of death, along with the soil in Ostrheinsburg made it feasible.
The Ostrheinsburg grounds, sated with the blood of those slain by Nightmare and cursed by their deep-seated hatred of him, acted as the perfect medium for Astaroth's resurrection.

When he was destroyed, Astaroth lost much of the weaknesses he had obtained as a result of being created with the aid of human hands.
Moreover, during his regeneration, his new body absorbed several Soul Edge fragments that were nearby.
This made Astaroth far more powerful and merciless.

Eventually, Astaroth must have remembered his purpose, for he hefted his familiar ax and vanished into the mist.