The Ronins knocked Nether soldiers down quickly, finding that even though they didn't have their armor's power they were still able to successfully keep the Nether soldiers at bay.

However, as the boys fought off Zetsumei's army they didn't notice that Riska had gotten up and climbed over the rubble. She didn't go back into her armor as she slowly walked over to the Ronins hunched over; her dagger was in her right hand hanging at her side. Her long black hair blocked her face including her eyes.

It wasn't until her foot crunched over some gravel that Cye looked over to her as he knocked down another Nether soldier.

"Riska?" He asked gently reaching out for her. Riska slowly looked up and Cye took a step back as he gazed into her pure black eyes.

Without hesitation Riska suddenly leaped at Cye and tackled him to the ground. The Ronins let out a unified yell as they realized what was happening. They tried to move in as Cye and Riska wrestled on the ground.

When Rowen got close his leg was met by Riska's dagger as she stabbed it into his thigh. He let out a yell as he fell back the hilt of the dagger stuck out of his armor.

Riska managed to then get the upper hand from Cye and grabbed his bad wrist. He grit his teeth as she held it then his eyes widened and he let out a gasp as Riska suddenly bent his hand in the wrong direction, he swore he could hear the rest of his bones in his wrist pop as they broke.

When Riska released him Cye fell to the ground and curled up cradling his wrist close to his chest. His vision became like a tunnel as the edge of unconsciousness.

Riska flipped out of the way as Kento swung his tetsubo at her. She then flipped over to Rowen and ripped her dagger back out of his leg causing him to let out another yell. He grabbed his leg to try to compress it as he looked at Riska who finally landed gracefully about ten feet away from him.

"Riska, please. This isn't who you are, please; I know you're in there." He begged he blocked a swing from a Nether soldier.

Sage ran over to Rowen and took out the soldier for him then looked down at his friend. "Rowen! Shoot her with your bow and arrow, you have the shot!"

The Nether soldiers seemed to be thinning out, or simply waiting to see what Riska was going to do.

Riska looked between the Ronin's as if she was deciding who to attack next. Rowen was frozen, he couldn't do it, and he wouldn't do it.

"I can't Sage, I won't risk killing her." Rowen replied desperately.

"I think that that might be the only way at this point. She's not in there Rowen, there's nothing human left in her." Sage said as he raised his sword, then with a cry he ran at Riska.

Rowen watched as his friend reached Riska and swung his sword. No one saw when she jumped in the air then landed easily on the edge of Sage's sword. Sage couldn't move fast enough to avoid her as she suddenly jumped and kicked his head to the side.

Sage fell to the ground dropping his sword as he went.

"Sage!" Rowen yelled. Sage replied with a moan then grunted as Riska kicked him in the gut.

It was Kento's turn to attack Riska before she could finish his friend off. Kento separated his tetsubo and whipped the end towards his former Ronin ally.

He was surprised though when Riska dodged the blades then grabbed his weapon at the base. Time froze for a moment then she suddenly jerked the weapon towards her causing Kento to come flying in her direction, taking out a row of Nether soldiers as he went.

When he came close she waited until she was able to elbow Kento in the middle of his back. Kento gasped as he fell on top of Sage who grunted at the impact.

"You're heavy." Sage said before he and Kento had to both untangle and quickly roll out of the way as Riska came at them with her dagger once more.

Rowen was slowly working his onto one knee; he let his leg that Riska stabbed hold the least amount weight underneath him. He reached over his back to grab an arrow and notched it. He took a deep breath as he aimed for Riska, following her as she dodged another swing from

Sage's sword then flipped over Kento's head causing his two friends to hit each other instead by accident. Rowen watched as the tip of the arrow shook from his hands being unable to stay steady.

"C'mon Rowen, c'mon, she's going to kill you all if you let her." He muttered to himself feeling as fear filled his chest.

Kento slowly got up and saw that Sage wasn't doing the same. The last hit combined from the likeliness that he had a concussion from Riska kicking his head had knocked him out cold. Riska began to move towards Sage to finish him off.

Kento quickly looked around then grabbed a rock and threw it at Riska, it hit her leg. She looked down then back up at Kento; her solid black eyes gave him a shiver.

"Hey, Riska, come finish your fight with me. Or are you too afraid you can't beat me." Kento called as he stood up; as he did he grabbed his tetsubo and put it back together as a solid staff again. He then lowered himself into a defensive stance.

Riska took one more look at Sage before she changed her direction to walk towards Kento. Her hair swung in front of her face the wind that suddenly came from the dome that Ryo and Zetsumei were fighting in burst apart.

Ryo and Zetsumei landed on opposite sides of the courtyard. The Ronins were to Ryo's left while Zetsumei saw them to his right. Ryo was panting trying to catch his breath; blood had dripped down the corner of his mouth. Zetsumei still stood tall but blood was dripping from his left hand from a wound unseen under his armor.

Zetsumei let out a laugh as he spotted Riska facing Kento as the other Ronins laid or knelt scattered around the ground.

"Look at your friends, Wildfire. They will be dead soon as well as you, and by the hands of one of your own. This is glorious!" Zetsumei laughed.

Ryo looked at his friends with horror, it was his fault. It felt like when he first donned the Inferno armor, he knew it was his fault that they had no power to have a fair fight against Riska.

Kento looked to Ryo trying to urge him on and not worry about him and the others. Because he was distracted for just that second he didn't notice until it was too late as Riska suddenly jumped into the air and came flying down towards him prepared to stab her dagger into his neck.

Ryo let out a yell for his friend knowing he couldn't reach him in time while Kento felt his life flash before his eyes. Everything came into focus as he thought of growing up with all his siblings, to first getting his armor, to meeting his friends. He couldn't take his eyes off Riska though as he watched her get closer, he still tried to bring his tetsubo up in an attempt to block her.

Kento was surprised when Riska suddenly stopped with her dagger's blade only a hair from his neck, her arm was extended leaving a gap between them. It took him a moment to realize that Rowen had managed to get between him and Riska, he was crouched with his hand holding the shaft one of his arrows up in front of her.

Riska let out a breath as she looked down at her chest to see that Rowen had stabbed her near her heart. The blood began to soak her shirt as she dropped her dagger, it bounced harmlessly off Kento as it went down. As the dagger clanged against the ground the black in her eyes slowly began to dissipate. Rowen watched as they returned to their original bright green and Kento saw what looked like black mist leave Riska's body and float up into the air disappearing.

Zetsumei began to laugh wickedly, "This is even better than I could have planned. Who would have guessed that Strata would end up killing his own lover?"

Ryo looked at Zetsumei with a glare, "it's time for you game to end." With a running start Ryo leaped into the air and pulled his Fervor swords together connecting them by the hilts. Then with a wide swing his yelled, "Rage of Inferno!"

Zetsumei growled as he lifted his sickle in an attempt to block Ryo's attack.

Meanwhile, Riska slowly began to sink down to the ground. Rowen released his hold on the arrow and caught her in his arms to gently lower her until he held her in his lap.

Riska coughed up blood and looked around her as if she was confused then focused on Rowen; she slowly reached up to touch his face as if she was checking if he was real. Rowen placed his hand over Riska's.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Riska." He repeated in a whisper.

Kento looked down at the girl who was just trying to kill him only moments before. He was at a loss of words, he shook with anger. She had almost killed him but Rowen had moved so quickly and gotten in front of him before he could process what was going on. Now it was his friend that had the blood of their guardian on his hands.

Kento let out a cry letting his fury out. This was all Zetsumei's fault, he was the one who caused Mia and Riska to attack them and for Yulie to lay dying with disease.

Kento's eyes became blurry as tears came to them, he raised his weapon to block more Nether soldiers that were coming into the courtyard and tried to get to Riska and Rowen.

"I'm so sorry." Rowen continued to whisper barely acknowledging the oncoming Nether soldiers.

Riska tried to swallow in order to get her voice back, but it hurt. She knew that one of her lungs had collapsed and blood and fluid were beginning to fill her chest cavity.

"No… you did… what you had to." Riska finally got out, "thank you." She closed her eyes.

Rowen quickly began to shake her shoulder, "no, Riska wake up."

Riska responded by opening her eyes a crack once more to look at Rowen.

"You can't leave us, you can't leave me… I won't let you." Rowen told her as he watched her lips turn blue.

He reached over and grabbed the shaft of the arrow; he had to get it out of her. Without overthinking it he quickly jerked the arrow out. This caused Riska to let out a scream and almost lift out of Rowen's arms. She collapsed back into them a moment later coughing up more blood.

Sage woke up with a start and looked around him. Nether soldiers were edging towards him and he saw that Kento was fighting off another group that was trying to get to Rowen who… had Riska in his arms? What did he miss? Slowly he got up picking up his sword as he did, as the Nether soldiers came near he began to fight them off again the best he could.

Cye rolled out of the way as a Nether soldier tried to spear him where he lay.

"C'mon Torrent, get up." Cye said giving himself a mental pep talk. With a wince and biting his lip he picked himself up from the ground then picked up his man catcher with his good hand.

Nether soldiers approached Cye to try to overwhelm him, it was starting to work. He tried to balance his man catcher in his hand as he spun around and swung his weapon at the nearest Nether soldier. He was successful in knocking it down but another quickly took its place.

Before Cye could try to back up to get some space to attack again he was joined by Sage. Together they fought side by side as Nether soldier after Nether soldier came after them.

"How is she?" Kento called over his shoulder as he knocked another Nether soldier down.

"Not good." Rowen replied sadly. He gently moved hair out of Riska's face; she was watching him closely as if trying to memorize his face.

"You can't quit living, Riska!" Kento said as he swung his tetsubo. "You have to keep going."

Riska glanced in Kento's direction before looking back at Rowen.

Across the courtyard parts of the ground were on fire still from Ryo's attack in the Inferno armor. He watched as Zetsumei struggled to get back up.

"Foolish Ronins, I will not be defeated as easily as my father. I will take you all down with me before I die." He claimed.

"You can try." Ryo yelled as he sent another wave of power towards the emperor.

Zetsumei let out a yell while he sent out his own wave of black electric power.

As their attack met in the middle a struggle of strength began between the two.

The Ronins were finally able to beat back enough Nether soldiers that their enemy began to retreat. When they were sure that it was clear enough Sage and Cye ran to where Kento, Rowen, and Riska were.

Sage joined Rowen's side looking down at the girl in his arms; she returned his look her eyes softened.

"I forgive you Riska." Sage said.

"I do too." Cye added as he stood next to Kento.

"We all do." Kento added last.

Riska let out a small smile before coughing up a little more blood gasping for air as she did. The Ronins looked away ashamed that they couldn't help her. Looking up they saw the struggle between Ryo and Zetsumei.

"This is it guys. If Ryo can't beat Zetsumei, we've lost." Cye whispered.

Sage and Kento nodded in silent agreement.

"It was good to fight alongside of you all again." Rowen whispered as he held Riska close.

"Rowen." He jumped and looked down at Riska who had spoken.

"Save your breath, Riska. Please, I don't want you to make your injury worse." He begged knowing full well that it couldn't get much worse; he just wanted some comfort for her.

"Rowen, help me up. Please." Riska whispered her voice sounded as if it was being dragged against sandpaper. "Help me up so that I can send Zetsumei and his followers… to the Void. I'm the only one left with enough power to help... Ryo."

"No," Rowen said quickly, "you'll die if you do that."

"I'm going to… die… anyway." Riska told Rowen forcing him to face the truth.

Rowen slowly nodded and looked up at Sage who understood. Slowly they both lifted Riska up until Rowen was able to get a good hold on Riska in his arms. He held her close as her legs could no longer hold her up on their own.

"Are you sure?" He asked gently.

"Yes." Riska said.

The Ronins watched as Riska's virtue finally showed itself on her forehead. A light purple light lit up the kanji symbol for 'hope.'

"Life." Rowen whispered as his virtue appeared.

The others virtues appeared as well, giving Riska strength.

"Trust."

"Wisdom."

"Justice."

Across the courtyard Ryo's virtue of 'righteousness' lit up as well.

"What is this?" Zetsumei demanded as he held onto his power against Ryo's. He looked at Riska, "what are you trying to do, sister? You cannot destroy me!"

"No, but I can send you where you belong." Riska murmured as she raised her hand. Her whole body lit up to a glow of purple as she called upon an ancient spell to open the portal to the Void.

The black hole opened behind Zetsumei, panic filled the emperor's eyes as he tried to hold on.

"It's time for you go." Ryo called then with one more push of energy his attack pushed Zetsumei's attack out of the way and pushed him into the black Void.

Zetsumei let out a yell as he disappeared until he was silenced by the darkness.

It was silent for a moment before a gust of wind came from the black hole.

Riska held her hand up steady as Rowen held her. The other Ronins gripped what they could to keep hold as Nether soldiers, spirits, the fallen warlords, and all else that Zetsumei had brought into the world was sucked into the black hole that led to the Void.

They watched as Morpheus was the last to enter the hole, watching in horror as the black hole sucked him in without him being able to do anything about it.

Then just as quickly as the Void was there, it was gone. Riska dropped her hand and sunk in Rowen's arms, no longer having any energy left.

Rowen sunk slowly to his knees looking at her. Her eyes were closed and she didn't seem to be breathing. He wanted to let out a cry or shed a tear but nothing came as he looked at her.

"She saved us all." Kento whispered.

Ryo shed the armor of Inferno and joined his friends. Along with the rest of the Ronins they surrounded Rowen and Riska bowing their heads.

Across the city Yulie let out a gasp as he felt the heavy weight of his sickness leave his body. He took in a deep breath feeling relieved that the air felt cool and clean, it was amazing. As he pulled himself up into a sitting position he looked out the nearby windows and saw that the black clouds in the sky were fading and the blue sky of the late afternoon took its place.

"What's going on, Yulie?" Mia asked, she sat on the ground next to White Blaze. Her hand rested in the tiger's fur as a security blanket. Her eyes were surrounded by a red rash from a burn; it looked like a mask to Yulie. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." Yulie answered happily, "I'm ok, the disease, it's gone. And the sky… they won Mia. The Ronin Warriors won."

Mia smiled, "I knew they could do it."