The terrifying speed of the heavenly lightning released through the Blessed Folding Fan was so fast that even Uesugi Tetsu, its caster, had no time to react and dodge.
Of course, he had never intended to dodge from the beginning.
From the moment this idea was born, Uesugi Tetsu had planned to unleash the lightning when Kuzuha Chihaya closed in to deliver her final blow.
He would let the raging heavenly thunder engulf them both.
Staring at Kuzuha Chihaya, who was close enough to touch and whose pupils had shrunk to pinpoints, Uesugi Tetsu smiled faintly and spoke as though answering her doubts.
"Big Sis, I have extremely strong resistance to lightning..."
Before he could finish, his voice was drowned out by the crimson-violet pillar of lightning pouring into the arena.
Rumble!
The roaring thunder dragon illuminated every spectator's pupils. The weaker among them could not help but tremble, while the Onmyoji who had previously concluded that Uesugi Tetsu's Onmyōjutsu was nothing special fell silent.
The crimson-violet lightning pillar persisted inside the arena for several seconds. The scattered lightning slurry even spread to the edge of the field, and only slowly dissipated after turning part of the sand and dust within the arena into a transparent layer of crystal.
When the lightning faded, the two charred figures stood where they were before slowly collapsing together onto the hard crystal layer.
At the edge of the field, some spectators froze.
"Th-this... who won?"
"They both fell and lost the ability to fight. Isn't that a draw?"
"No, that's wrong!" the local dojo master cried out. "Look, Kuzuha Chihaya's fingers moved!"
Everyone looked closely and found that it was indeed so.
The fingers of Kuzuha Chihaya's hand, which had not released her naginata even after taking the heavenly thunder head-on, twitched faintly.