As Talpa's generals commiserated under Badamon's direction, Talpa had been summoned. He was being challenged. Him! The great Emperor of the Nether Realm and Usurper of Souls! Called unto by the impudent murmurings of someone he knew from ages past. The very man who sundered his form and prevented his anchor to the mortal plane. This monk had defeated him over a thousand years ago, and while the passing eons stole strength from mortals, Talpa's evil, even in absence of his physical body, had only strengthened. He would not let such insult stand from a creature so weak.

"Your wasted centuries will not mourn your passing, monk."

The Talpa's spirit surrounded a lone man clad in the traditional clothing of a Zen pilgrimage. His long white hair and blue koromo garment whipped about violently in the vortex of the hateful entity that sought to smother him. But as his breath began to fail, a determined heave of his staff struck the ground with an ethereal chime, and Emperor Talpa's shadows split and fled from the man's body.

Known simply as "The Ancient" to the Ronin Warriors, his shakujo staff and mysterious comings and goings had been the scant edge needed to cheat victory from the Dynasty's hands on more than one occasion. Sage had even received direct tutelage from him that led to the rescue of two of their own: their powerhouse brawler, Kento, and the young lady who had united their scattered wills, Ms. Koji. The monk knew that the ronin stood no chance of entering Talpa's sky bound domain without his help, and with time of the essence for the unfortunate woman, he saw no better opportunity to goad Talpa into a blunder than here and now.

A scant few moments later, Talpa was reformed, a disquieting hollow helmet and fearsome menpo mask with lashing, slithering tendrils as hair that hinted at something alive within the ghostly armor. The empty eye holes seemed to seethe in absence of any corporeal manifestations, and from all around, a crushing pressure imbued voice into the very air.

"Try as you might, struggle as you may, the destiny of mankind cannot be changed. You would do well to remember that in the hell I will condemn you unto."

Silent as the mountain, the ancient remained poised with his staff at the ready, one free hand in defiant Abhaya mudra; fearlessness.

Emperor Talpa roared as his spirit once again lashed out to cull the impudent human. His silvery blades of hair bound, tightened, and sought to remove the monk's head from his shoulders. Suddenly, a blinding light began spilling forth from the ancient, soon overwhelming the malefic force that bound him. Talpa's incredulous roar echoed as he was sundered by the torrent.

Victorious, the monk remained frozen in his meditative position, unfazed by the coursing energy that now surrounded him as a heaven-piercing beam. He had endured the lonely centuries with grace, knowing his time would eventually come. His faithful friend, White Blaze, was in good company, and there was nothing left for him: He was finally granted rest.

With his silent prayers completed, his form began slipping away like sand through a sieve. Upward his spirit flowed, a link between the no longer impermeable evil that dominated the sky above the city. The five ronin were too late for goodbyes, for thanks, for anything but the path so clearly laid out before them. White Blaze, the massive white Siberian tiger, lowed as he looked to the ancient monk's final act of defiance against the overwhelming evil, and the five understood.

"But I wanna go with you! Lemmy go! Come on, I can fight!"

"No way, little man! Spooky sky-castle is no place for a junior warrior!"

Kento was physically restraining the squirming 9-year-old, but it was Ryo who laid down the commanding presence to cease his hysteria. "We've gotta give this our all, Yuli. The dynasty is going to have to contend with a full, frontal assault."

"They'll have their hands full with us," Cye added, giving his reassuring smile as Kento eased the kid back onto his own two feet. Sage agreed, assuring "They won't be able to spare a single soldier with what we're bringing to their front door."

As Yuli seemed on the verge of one last protest, Rowan rounded out the declaration, "And that's why the safest place for you is here, with White Blaze."

Ryo's hand rested on Yuli's shoulder as he kneeled down to convey his most sincere sentiment: "Mia's counting on us – ALL of us. Got it?"

For the first time, Yuli felt a strange pull at his heart. It wasn't sadness, like how he'd felt looking at mother's dead plants in his abandoned home. This was something fuller, almost exciting. A point of pride, duty, and affection. He wiped the hot tears into his sleeve, stood straight even under the armor-weighted hand of the ronin leader, and nodded. "You can count on me, Ryo! I won't let you down."

White Blaze and Yuli were making haste away from where the five ronin stood, each bearing their own genuine expression of fondness for their young friend and faithful companion. They then turned to the coursing energy with a hitherto unwitnessed determination. There was a thrum from the beam of light, and each could feel it pulsing around them, through them, and within them.

As light engulfed the five, the skyward blade shifted and began plowing through the ancient walls, splintering gates that had stood for eons, spilling ceramic shingle and splitting wooden beams that could dam a river in a single float. The grey-armored foot soldiers of the dynasty were thrown into disarray as this unstoppable ray of light cut through everything in its path.

The five ronin found themselves delivered unto the ruins of the castle's outer keep. Light peeled off their forms as the ancient's bridge dissipated. No longer blinded, and their advantage clear, the charge commenced.