At the horizon, wild winds howled and arcs of light flickered.
A furious violet-red dragon bore down on the summit of Spear Body Tower with the force of ten thousand thunderbolts.
As the lightning descended, heaven and earth seemed to overturn, as though the entire dome of the sky were collapsing.
Tomoe Gozen, who bore the brunt of it, seemed to be standing at the bottom of a ten-thousand-foot sea. The bricks beneath her feet crumbled to dust, capillaries burst under the unbearable pressure into clouds of blood mist, and the crimson aura blazing around her gradually flickered like a candle in the wind. Even the war bow she had been so proud of shattered inch by inch.
To be fair, among Heroic Spirits, Tomoe Gozen's abilities were indeed quite impressive.
But compared with Ushi-Gozen, the strongest mysterious assassin of the Heian period and an incarnation of King Bull-Head, she fell far short.
And the gulf in strength was not something courage could bridge.
Even so, Tomoe Gozen did not move. Bracing herself on her Naginata, she tried to straighten her bent back and make one final stand.
"Trying to stop a chariot with a mantis's arms? Know your place and turn to dust!"
The cold voice abruptly rose. The famed blade Onikiri swung forward through the air, and the violet-red furious dragon roared as it descended upon the tower's summit with unstoppable pressure.
Just as the savage thunder was about to obliterate the tottering figure on the tower's upper floor, a pair of fair, slender hands thrust into the fierce lightning and swept downward in a cross.
"Rip!"
With the sound of cloth tearing, the furious dragon formed from heaven's radiant might was violently ripped in half by those suddenly appearing hands, like shredded chicken laid out on a