It was quiet, or rather, it would have been if not for the roaring Heavenly Order above.
Everyone was waiting for the first person to move, and nobody wanted to be the person who set off the domino that would escalate into a full-scale war in seconds.
Tang Lingzi and Alucard stood at the forefront of the Grand Heavens Boundary side along with the strongest of their forces, people just a single level below Immortal Blood Asura and the Nox Emperors, watching and waiting.
'This is troublesome…' Tang Lingzi thought.
The problem here was that the other side had Immortal Blood Asura and the Karmic Emperor, both of whom were stronger than anyone they had.
'Our numbers are also less than theirs, so we do not have the freedom to ally against a single enemy.'
There were no tactics in Demigod warfare of this scale.
Demigods were independent creatures, and though they'd work together to plot and scheme and would when it was necessary, in the midst of chaos, they had the same flaw as the Nox.
Rather than get in each other's ways by interfering in each other's battles, they'd rather choose opponents for themselves and leave the rest to others.
At the current moment, most of the Demigods on both sides were doing exactly that.
It was mostly those on the allied side.
After all, most of them were going to have to take at least two opponents by themselves.
Tang Lingzi frowned, and Alucard did the same from beside her.
They had the same thought.
Regardless, they had to fight.
So it was better to take the initiative.
Tang Lingzi acted first.
She shot forward with extreme speed as her fingers extended into claws. Before anyone noticed, she'd grabbed a Nox Lord by the throat and clenched her fist, bursting his neck.
It started from there.
Everyone here was a Divinity. They reacted within the second. Following Tang Lingzi's lead, Alucard raised his arm.
"CHARGE!"
He commanded the forces behind him and slammed into the closest Nox Lord, killing him instantly as well.
The two instant deaths from the enemy side energized the allied forces, and with no thoughts of death in their minds, they charged at the Nox.
A battle of untold proportions broke out.
Perhaps they weren't as numerous as those on the unnamed world, but the force they emitted as they fought far exceeded them.
If this battle was taken to the lower universe, it would have destroyed several worlds in that single instant, creating widespread destruction with massive consequences.
Alucard, Tang Lingzi, and the rest of the strong Demigods moved past the first line of Nox after their initial move and each targeted groups of stronger enemies.
They only struck those at the front for the sake of appearance. Their real targets were those they'd have to expend great amounts of effort to fight.
Those behind them took care of the masses
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Explosions and impacts ran rampant. Destruction was everywhere, and the eruptions of mana combined into a storm that flowed into the sky and made space itself tremble.
B-B-BOOOOOOOOM!
At that moment, the Heavenly Order reacted.
While its effects were mostly contained within the barrier of law, making it so the surrounding Divinities couldn't understand its true terror, it sent a bolt of lightning outside of those bounds for the first time.
The lightning had no specific target. It didn't differentiate between friend and foe.
No, it wasn't even trying to kill anyone, but as it crashed down on the ground below, it sent out a shockwave that tore through both sides, allies and opposition.
Everyone watched it in horror, but looking away from battle for even a single second was equivalent to suicide. Instead of paying attention to its aftereffects, they continued to fight with a new sense of wariness for the entity.
Beyond their perception, the mana storm formed by their collisions was absorbed by the Heavenly Order, increasing its size subtly.
This didn't extend its lifespan, only its power.
Basically, it only increased Damien's suffering!
But it also presented an opportunity for him.
The seconds crawled by extremely slowly.
Within every instance of time, thousands of strikes were traded between each individual combatant, which amounted to a massive amount of energy and damage being expended and dealt.
And the death toll stacked up so rapidly that it was impossible to imagine that these were Divinities dying.
Both sides lost hundreds, and while it looked like the war would come to an end extremely soon, that was just a mirage.
Those battles taking place further away from the barrier of law, where Tang Lingzi and the rest were fighting, would not end so easily.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
As the one who taught Zara how to fight, Tang Lingzi's style was similar to hers.
She dodged and weaved her enemies, and attacked their weaknesses when she got a chance. She was extremely frontal, not letting them escape her grasp, and used her body itself as a weapon.
She had four Nox Lords in front of her.
Their number made it difficult, but she was confident in winning.
'Those two haven't moved yet.'
She had a portion of her awareness separated, watching Immortal Blood Asura and the Karmic Emperor in case they decided to act.
But so far, neither had left their positions in the sky.
Immortal Blood Asura wasn't a complex man. He tried to make himself seem complex, but his thoughts were extremely easy to read.
He was too focused on Damien to even care about the war anymore, so obviously he didn't interfere.
As for the Karmic Emperor…
'...almost.'
He was busy as well.
Unseen threads tangled Immortal Blood Asura in a spider web he couldn't sense. His thoughts and actions, which he always believed his own free will, were almost under the control of the man he vowed to never fall prey to.
The Karmic Emperor's main goal was to control this card which would be the start of many plans he'd made long ago.
With the rest of his energy, he was also attracting more and more Nox to the area.
The forces he'd been hiding for this very moment when Immortal Blood Asura became his, it was time to bring them out.
But no matter how explosive the war was, it didn't hold a candle to what was going on within the barrier of law.
Damien was undergoing a dual tribulation of mind and body.
Funnily enough, his soul was untouched even though it should have been the main character of his Cosmic Rebirth. He'd already reached a level of Divinity with it when he merged with the Void.
Now, his body needed to be brought to the same level, and he as an individual had to define the Divinity he was going to base his entire existence around from this point forth.
It was an extremely involved process.
However…
'It's not enough.'
Damien could never get completely into the rhythm of rebirth.
The energy of the Heavenly Order was barraging his body with greater intensity every second, but the energy usage made it expend its energy far faster than it normally would have.
'The solution…'
'...he said it would come from the outside.'
Damien could only hope support came fast.
And the support he didn't know the identity of…
Well, it was already on its way.
Just as much as he wanted them to arrive as soon as possible, they were moving at their fastest speed to reach his position.
The time for them to come together was approaching.
Once it finally came…
Damien would truly begin Cosmic Rebirth.
Divinity was just a single step away.
