They moved at the same time.
To call their motions themselves attacks was wrong, because with the speed and power imbued in them, even a regular mortal would be able to dodge.
However, the intent behind them was to kill, nothing more and nothing less.
The Soul Emperor raised his withered arm and placed his finger on Tiamat's forehead, while Tiamat did the same for him.
And the attacks they prepared were unleashed directly onto the Divinity of their opponent.
Tiamat frowned as she felt it.
The Soul Emperor also used those ten steps to judge what the root of her Divinity was, the truth behind True Death.
The conclusion he came to was far more complex than hers.
Tiamat was born in that kind of place.
A place devoid of anything, where only she existed.
She walked a lonely road from that point. Everything she ever cherished was taken away from her by death, and at some point, even her psyche was consumed by the concept.
She turned into an agent of death by the time she was matured, and she remained that way until she reached Divinity.
Her entire journey was crazed.
The number of Nox that died to her was uncountable. It was likely a similar number to what Damien killed when he destroyed the Demon Abyss.
But unlike him, who used the power of the corrupted foreign material to instantly cut their lives off, she took each and every one directly.
She was dangerous. Just as much as death chose her, she chose it.
The True Death she finally established after walking such a path was, contrary to what most believed, a somewhat immature move from her.
It was innocent.
Because while the side of her that wished for her enemies to be erased in totality, to lose any presence in this world and be forgotten, silently receiving the worst of punishments by their lonesome…
…she wanted those she cared for to experience only bliss when they entered its embrace.
There was nothing wrong with this. Her attachments couldn't be considered a weakness unless she deemed them to be.
Therefore, there was nothing to pick apart about her reasoning for forming a Divinity like True Death. It was not only ruthless and noble, it perfectly encapsulated her being.
The Soul Emperor had to take the opposite route from Tiamat to attack her. Rather than facing the "individuality" within the Divinity, he had to attack the concept of True Death itself.
And as someone who controlled souls, this was the perfect method for him.
Tiamat's Divinity denied Samsara. It put Death above Life and disallowed their harmony.
While the universe functioned with the Wheel of Samsara governing its dead, that didn't mean other beliefs were discredited.
Whether it be the afterlife, nonexistence, or the complete absence of death, the universe allowed one to hold the beliefs they did, and when their souls were reincarnated, their egos would be given sufficient reward or punishment based on their beliefs.
Damien wished for nonexistence, so that was what he received.
But to call it True Death when it was just one of the many facets of death was wrong. This was the basis of the Soul Emperor's attacks.
The souls he carried were proof. They were souls he stole from the Wheel of Samsara, thus proving its existence as the ultimate authority.
This truth struck Tiamat's Divinity in that metaphysical plane, and it became her job to fight it.
Meanwhile, Tiamat's attack was already said.
She targeted the very core of the Soul Emperor's belief.
The fact that he was someone the creators cared for, the fact that his loyalty was valid, or that it was even his own.
The "truth" that he was instilled with such loyalty and it wasn't naturally bred would utterly collapse his sense of self, which, in turn, would do the same to his Divinity.
However, unlike the Soul Emperor, she didn't have definitive proof of her claim.
It was a gamble.
The Soul Emperor's attack was surefire. Once Tiamat lost out, it had a 100% chance of piercing her Divinity, even if the cut was shallow.
On the other hand, Tiamat's attack was riskier and had the potential to miss, but she succeeded, she'd directly cripple him in that moment.
Two different paths and two different strategies clashed, and as the two remained standing silently on the Ancient Battlefield without a hint of movement, they partook in the most direct and deep battle they could possibly have.
At some point, Iris appeared above them with a frown on her face.
'Seriously…even if the main enemy is gone, is it normal to leave yourself so unguarded?'
She complained, but it wasn't an unworthy complaint. Even though she'd finished taking care of the rest of the Nox Lords remaining, leaving only the Soul Emperor and Saint Emperor alive, the war wasn't necessarily over.
There were still traitors hidden in the ranks, people with the same goal as the Soul Emperor to keep their allegiance with the Grand Heavens Boundary side for the sake of survival.
People like that were the reason their universe was so fractured in the current era.
During the last war, the Ancient Battlefield didn't open, so those people had a chance to fester over thousands of years.
Now that they were stuck here until the last two Emperors met their ends, it was the perfect time for a culling, so their universe would never be put in such a situation again.
At least, not in the short term.
It was hard to avoid bad seeds even in the greatest of crops, but if a precedent was set, the opportunities for them to grow became far more constrained.
Nevertheless, that process was left to Alucard and Tang Lingzi, who became the de facto leaders of their side after the last battle and the deaths of most of the universe's strongest.
Iris wanted to go to Damien first, but…
'From the look in his eye at that time, this isn't a battle that anyone should interfere with.'
She set up a defensive barrier around the two currently entrapped in Sacred Combat and waited.
She could picture it.
Right now, Damien was probably meeting that terrifying man.
He who had lived more than anyone else, he whose motives remained unknown for millions upon millions upon millions of years…
That man was someone whose entire being symbolized the unknown, and for that reason, just thinking about fighting him made one feel an implicit sense of fear.
Iris was definitely worried, but there was nothing she could do.
This was a battle of fate.
Just as Damien and the Saint King were fated to clash in the past, Damien had reached his fate with the Saint Emperor now.
Nobody knew how it would turn out.
Nobody knew anything about either of their combat power.
And nobody could tell why they were so focused on each other's existence.
Those facts were known only to them.
Only to the two men who were now facing each other somewhere on the Ancient Battlefield.
No, they were not on the current battlefield.
Their meeting place was outside the bounds of this plane, in an area that had already vanished as the circle closed.
Only here could they fight without witnesses, speak without ears listening in on them, and experience this encounter to its full potential.
Only here would they be able to sever the twisted fate between them.
And so, they met.
It was time to begin the battle that would make or break the universe's destructive fate.
