Over the next few days, Yuri did not make anymore appearances nor did he send any of his minions to attack so over those few days. Miya and Ashiyu made sure that the Ronin's as well as Anubis trained since it had been a while since they had last had to fight the Dynasty plus they knew that they needed to get stronger if they hoped to beat Yuri and the Dynasty. They knew that Yuri was stronger than the Ronin's thought he was and that he would be a challenge for all of them to defeat, even working together.
Miya knew that Yuri was just waiting for the most opportune moment to attack. He was good at waiting until his target was least expecting it. That's what made him such a threat to them. She wanted to be sure that they were all ready for anything that Yuri would have to throw at them. She didn't want any one of them to be struck down unexpectedly because one of them let their guard down. She knew that the Ronin's were getting restless from having to train for three days straight but she didn't feel like they were ready to face Yuri and she had even told them that.
"Come on, why do we have to bother with this stupid training? Why can't we just go take care of Yuri and the Dynasty right now?" asked Kento.
Suddenly, Miya came out of nowhere and used her staff to knock Kento's legs out from under him and making him fall to the ground.
"You can't because you're not ready yet. You have to always keep your guard up, you have to be ready for anything, you have to be able to move with more speed, you need to expect the expected, and you need to have patience. When I feel that you are ready, when I say that you are ready, only then will you be ready." said Miya.
"Yeah, well, you don't need to be so rough about it." said Kento as he started to get up but was preventing from doing so as Miya's staff drove him back down and kept him from getting up.
"I'm only doing this to make sure that all of you are ready. One wrong move could cost you everything. You can't just beat Yuri with luck. You will have to actually outsmart him, you'll have to be faster than him, you'll need to see his attack coming before it does." said Miya before jumping back as Cye tried to attack her than Ryo come after her. "You'll have to be much faster than that. Yuri can see your attacks coming before you even make them. If you can't even beat me than you'll never beat Yuri. You need to work together as a whole if you hope to win." she said before also knocking Ryo down as well. "Ashiyu and I are as strong as Yuri but we can't defeat Yuri and the Dynasty alone. We need your help, and we need to be ready soon before it's too late."
With that, Miya turned and walked away into the woods. She needed some time alone to think. She knew that the Ronin Warriors were strong already but she also knew that they weren't ready to face Yuri yet and she wanted to make sure they were, so they didn't make the same mistake that she did. She and Ashiyu had once had another friend who fought with them but he had been killed by Yuri because of a mistake that she had made. His name had been Raiden. He had joined her and Ashiyu to fight the Dynasty, but only ended up losing his life. He and Miya had even started to fall in love with one another and had even thought of marrying after they had defeated the Dynasty but now that would not be happening.
Miya had been blaming herself since Raiden's death, despite how much Ashiyu assured her that it was not her fault and telling her that Raiden wouldn't blame her either, but she believed otherwise. She had let down her guard for a moment but a moment was enough. Yuri attacked while her guard was down but the attack never hit her. Raiden had put himself in the way of the attack to protect her. He had died in her arms moments later. Ever since Miya had blamed herself for his death and would not forgive herself for what had happened. She had even trained herself harder so that she wouldn't make that same mistake again.
"Stay low, Soft, dark, and dreamless, Far beneath my nightmares and loneliness, I hate me, for breathing without you, I don't want to feel anymore for you;
"Grieving for you, I'm not grieving for you, Nothing real love can't undo, And though I may have lost my way, All paths lead straight to you;
"I long to be like you, Lie cold in the ground like you." Miya sang, thinking of Raiden as she did so.
Just then, there was a rustling in the trees. Miya was on full alert, holding her staff ready just in case it was Yuri or one of his minions. But it was only Ryo who walked through the trees.
"Ryo, what're you doing out here?" asked Miya, relaxing her grip on her staff.
"I came to check on you, make sure you were okay. You seemed kind of upset back there so I followed you than I heard you singing. That was beautiful. You have a nice voice." said Ryo.
"Thank you. I was singing about someone that I knew a long time ago, someone that I haven't seen in years." said Miya.
"Why? What happened?" asked Ryo.
"He's dead. He was killed by Yuri. He, Ashiyu and I were fighting Yuri and the Dynasty years ago. It seemed like we were fairing, but then I let my guard down and Raiden was the one that paid the price for it with his life. He died because he wanted to protect me. And ever since, I've been blaming myself for his death." said Miya.
"You made a mistake. And he died because he chose to. He wanted you to live so that you could accomplish what you couldn't then. He obviously cared about you a lot if he was willing to give his life for you." said Ryo.
"We were supposed to get married." said Miya as she stared down at the ground.
"He must have loved you dearly to make such a big sacrifice." said Ryo.
"That doesn't mean that I will forgive myself for making such a stupid mistake. I should never have let my guard down. And I don't want anyone to make my mistakes." said Miya.
"Well, there's always an easy solution to that little problem. Get the Ronin Warriors to surrender." said Ryo.
Surprised by what she heard Ryo say, she turned to look at him but when she looked at him, it wasn't Ryo standing there.
"Kane; I should've known that it was you." said Miya, holding her staff ready.
"Yes, well I figured that you would least suspect it was me if I were to disguise myself as the leader of the Ronin Warriors. Yuri sent me to give you a message. If you surrender now, he promises to have mercy on you and your friends." said Kane.
"Hmm, I highly doubt that. And we will never surrender to the Dynasty. The Ronin Warriors are going to destroy the Dynasty." said Miya.
"I'm afraid my brothers and I think differently." said Kane.
An attack came out of nowhere and Miya barely had time to dodge it but she managed to move out of the way in time. Unfortunately, the Amulet of Life also came out from under her shirt and before she could hide it again, Kane saw it.
"The Amulet of Life; Yuri has been searching long for that. With that, he'll be able to rule both worlds without anyone to question his power. Give it to me, and I may just get him to let you live." said Kane as two more men landed on either side of him.
"Never, I shall never let you or anyone else have this amulet. Like I would really give this to Yuri so he can destroy everything. I'd rather die first." said Miya.
"That can be arranged." said Kane. He looked to the man on his right. "Show her my brother Ryozo."
"My pleasure." said Ryozo, moving forward.
Just then, a white blur came out of nowhere, knocking Ryozo to the ground. It was Ryo's white tiger, Whiteblaze.
"Whiteblaze, come on!" said Miya as she ran for it with Whiteblaze running along with her, the two of them running deeper into the woods.
Once they were a good distance away and hidden, Miya stopped and knelt in front of Whiteblaze as she took off the amulet.
"Whiteblaze, I need you to do something for me. I need you to take the Amulet of Life back to my father. He'll understand. Right now, I just need to get it somewhere safe and right now, it's not safe with me. I know you wanna help and right now, the best thing you can do is get this to my father. Can you do that for me?" said Miya.
Whiteblaze roared in response and Miya took that as a yes. She handed the amulet to Whiteblaze, who took it in his mouth than ran back toward where Ashiyu, the Ronin's and Anubis were. She knew what she had to do. She had to keep Kane and his brothers distracted so Whiteblaze had time to get back to the others.
"Look brothers, she's making it easy for us." said Kane.
"I'll take care of her. Darkness Destruction!"
"Light of the Heavens!" shouted Miya, raising her staff and deflecting the attack than sending one of her own.
"Miya's been gone quite a while. I wonder if there was something that upset her for her to been gone for so long." said Ryo.
"I wonder if it was something we might of done." said Cye.
"No, it's nothing like that. She was upset but it was nothing you guys did. It was a memory, a memory that she's tried so hard to forget." said Ashiyu.
"What memory are you talking about?" asked Anubis.
"I can't tell you. She made me swear not to tell anyone." said Ashiyu.
"She is my daughter. I think that entitles me to know what kinds of things are troubling and upsetting my daughter." said Anubis.
"Miya...was in love once. His name was Raiden. We met him not long after her village was destroyed. He had family members killed by the Dynasty as well. He even joined us in our fight against the Dynasty. The two of them grew close over the time we spend fighting the Dynasty over the years, eventually falling in love. They were due to be married after we defeated the Dynasty.
"It was in one fight that Miya made a mistake which to this day she still deeply regrets. In a fight against Yuri, she let her guard down for a split second. Yuri attacked. Miya saw it coming at the last second but it wasn't enough time to save Raiden. He threw himself in front of the attack. He died several minutes later in Miya's arms. She still blames herself for his death." said Ashiyu.
"That's awful. No wonder she's been pushing us so hard. And I wanted to complain." said Kento, feeling bad now.
Just then, they all heard a roar behind them and turned to see Whiteblaze come out of the woods alone.
"Whiteblaze, where's Miya?" asked Ryo.
Whiteblaze walked over to Anubis, staring up at him for a minute before lowering his head to lie something on the ground at Anubis' feet. Anubis then bent down and picked it up.
"What is it Anubis?" asked Ryo.
"It's the amulet. Miya must have sent this back with Whiteblaze so she could get it as far from her as possible so that she knew it was safe." said Anubis.
"Why? Why would she do that?" asked Sage.
"She would only do that if she was in trouble." said Ashiyu, her tone full of worry.
"Alright, Rowen, you, Cye and Kento, you two stay here with Mia and Yulie. Anubis, Ashiyu, Sage and I will go find Miya. Whiteblaze, you'll have to lead us to her since you know where she is." said Ryo.
Whiteblaze roared in response, which said to them that it meant a yes.
The white tiger took off into the woods and the four of them followed him. They silently prayed that they would find Miya before anything bad happened to her.
Suddenly, there was an explosion not far off into the distance, making all five of them stop as they saw it and even felt the ground shake.
"Miya!" exclaimed Ashiyu.
"We should hurry." said Anubis as he hurried after Whiteblaze, who was still running toward where he had left Miya.
Ashiyu, Ryo, Rowen and Sage followed after the white tiger as well. They were concerned for Miya's well-being and safety as well. As they drew closer to the explosion, they could see several figures fighting and one of them they could see was Miya, and she wasn't fairing so well but she was still able to hold her own and stand her ground. She was tired though and she looked like she was a little hurt.
"We have to help her." said Ashiyu.
"You heard the lady guys, Miya needs us. Let's armor up." said Ryo. "Armor of Wildfire! Dao Jin!"
"Armor of Halo! Dao Chi!"
"To Arms!" shouted Anubis, transforming into his old Armor of Cruelty.
"We will have the pleasure of taking your head to Lord Yuri." said Kane as he headed at Miya, ready to strike her down.
Kane's weapon was deflected by Ryo and Sage's swords, just barely inches away from Miya's head and the two of them deflected Kane back away Miya.
"Oh look brothers, her friends have shown up to save her." said Ryozo.
"Sage, get Miya out of here. The rest of us can handle these guys." said Ryo.
"You got it." said Sage, putting his sword on his back, turning around and helping Miya up, and then heading out of there as quick as he could.
"You shouldn't have come for me." said Miya.
"We couldn't just leave you out here alone. We had to come save you." said Sage.
"You don't understand Sage." said Miya.
As soon as she said that, a blast came out of nowhere and knocked them to the ground. They ended up separated by some distance between them. Sage was on his feet in the blink of an eye with his sword out and ready, making his way over to where Miya sat. It was clear that she was tired and possibly hurt. She could not stand on her own right now, not having the energy to do so after her fight with Kane and his brothers. Sage took her by the hand and helped her up.
"I think we have company." said Sage, holding his sword ready in front of them. He was determined to protect Miya no matter what.
"Darkness Destruction!"
"Thunderbolt Cut!" yelled Sage.
The Thunderbolt Cut was meant to block the attack, but the attack cut right through Sage's Thunderbolt Cut and headed right at them. Sage used his body to shield Miya as the attack hit them. They hit the ground hard, Sage taking more of the shock of the attack and them hitting the ground than Miya. Before they could recover, another attack came at them.
"Black Lightning Slash!"
Another attack came out of nowhere and blocked the first. Then several figures walked out of the shadows and stood in front of Sage and Miya, as though they were their protectors. Both of them recognized them almost immediately.
"Cale. Dais. Sekmet." said Miya, a bit surprised to see the three former Warlords. "What're you guys doing here?"
"We're here to help of course." said Cale.
"Lady Kayura has been watching you guys and sent us to lend a hand." said Sekmet.
"That's Kayura for you." said Miya with a smile.
A voice cut through the darkness, disrupting them before anyone could say another word.
"It doesn't matter how many you have to help you, that amulet will soon belong to the Dynasty, along with each and every one of your heads. No one will be able to stop Lord Yuri and the Dynasty from ruling both worlds." said Kane.
Silence followed, which meant that Kane was no longer there and the danger was gone.