Fighting.
It used to be a thing of joy for Damien.
Tip-toeing on the tightrope of death, knowing his life could slip out of his control at any moment, that feeling used to excite him more than anything else.
When he grew out of his insanity, he still kept his love for battle, but its meaning changed. Instead of a joy, it became a necessity.
He fought with purpose, so that he could accomplish whatever he needed to accomplish at that time. He also fought for survival, purely trying to live as countless threats tried to make sure he didn't.
These motivations dulled his joy, because he no longer had the leeway to have such lighthearted thoughts.
Such was the burden of adulthood. He was no longer a youth who could do whatever he wanted with his life. He didn't have something like a support system that could cover his mistakes for him.
So Damien lost the joy of fighting. He instead found joy in growing stronger, in exploring the unknown, and in the people around him.
Right now, he found that the long-lost feeling was returning.
It was different, though.
The joy he felt fighting the Saint Emperor wasn't a matter of life and death. The fact that his life was on the line didn't truly bother him or even gain prevalence as a thought in his mind. It was just granted considering his position.
This joy didn't come from the fight itself, but from everything else involved with it.
In a sense, this fight was less physical and more ethereal.
Damien and the Saint Emperor were those kinds of people. They had almost the exact same Divinity, and their power level was equally matched too.
The Saint Emperor had more skill, but Damien's raw power and the purity of his laws allowed him to match the man on equal footing.
There was no real way for them to settle their conflict if they kept fighting like this.
But they did so anyway.
They could've solved this with Sacred Combat. If they chose that method, Damien would've automatically won.
After all, Damien's Divinity was what the Saint Emperor's Divinity tried to imitate. Purely in terms of conceptual league, Damien overpowered his enemy in every aspect.
So why didn't he try to initiate Sacred Combat? Why did neither he nor the Saint Emperor even consider it?
That reason was the joy in their fight.
As they compared their beliefs and ideals, as they clashed with the parts of themselves that were parallel and those that made them diverge, they felt something they'd never felt before.
True combat against an equal in every way.
They didn't want to end this so easily and lost that feeling. The only way for this fight to end was for one of them to run out of steam first.
Whether that be Divine Energy, stamina, or something else was still unknown at this point, but it didn't matter.
Days went by as they fought. Those days became weeks, and weeks became months.
They didn't stall for a single second or even dream of stopping. 24 hours of every day were spent in battle, and time soon became an inconsequential thing for them.
It was fun.
For the first few months, they focused on Elemental Law. Damien's proficiency was good, and he was far more versatile, able to use every element available.
Meanwhile, the Saint Emperor sacrificed his versatility and focused on raising his skill with the five most foundational elements.
Which of their methods was better?
With versatility, Damien could respond to any situation well. He didn't have as much power, but the power he did possess was enough when the elements were used in conjunction with each other and perfectly fused according to the concept of duality.
The Saint Emperor couldn't combine his elements. He lacked the binding force of the Void that stabilized them and rid them of their independence.
However, he was far better at controlling them. He could use fire in ways that resembled water or earth, and he could manipulate air as if it had the properties of fire or wood.
It was a mystical thing to accomplish without any support, and Damien learned a great deal from it.
He still believed his method superior, especially since his final aim was to control every aspect of existence, but the Saint Emperor's control allowed him to refine his own and perfect elemental fusion in ways he'd never believed possible.
Next came a time spent on Samsara.
This one was completely Damien's victory. As someone who'd experienced the Wheel of Samsara personally, he reached a level of comprehension of this law that couldn't be matched by anyone.
The Saint Emperor was faced with surprise as he was thoroughly surpassed by someone who'd lived for less than a fraction of the time he had.
But it also made sense. The Samsara he'd comprehended came from the lives and deaths of those who existed and ceased existing during his lifetime. He's watched them for eons and come to the perspective he held, but as someone who never experienced life nor death, he couldn't quite reach a standard of perfection.
They only spent a month on this aspect of the fight before the Saint Emperor changed their method to Spacetime.
And surprisingly, while it was Damien's main specialty, they spent over a year on this fight.
They flashed through the desolate earth, moving in and out of the spatial layers. They moved back and forth through time, treating its rivers as nothing more than a means of transportation.
Damien was grinning the whole time.
The Saint Emperor also focused on Spacetime more than most.
He couldn't just use space in the ways Damien could, he expanded on the concept to a new level.
He could use the concept of distance to create entire galaxies in a mere few meters' worth of space and use them as attacks. The explosions were capable of exuding as much force as a true exploding galaxy, a mystical phenomenon that even Demigods couldn't survive easily.
Naturally, Damien was different. He also showcased the height of his laws, severing Spacetime and shifting its place in reality as he pleased.
The Saint Emperor's explosive force was surely powerful, but as Damien altered the layers of space and time to displace its coordinates, it couldn't even reach him, which made it irrelevant.
He was learning.
Every time they exchanged attacks, he learned more.
The elements of Existence Law that remained tethered yet separated slowly started to come together, closing the distance between each other.
At the end of the process, he'd reach his goal, far earlier than he ever expected to.
And though both of them had the ability to, as years passed, neither replenished their mana.
It was a matter of honor, or maybe it was just a risk they took to maintain the enjoyment of their fight.
After all, they were almost there.
Once they compared Creation and Destruction, the time would come to choose a final winner.
Damien gritted his teeth.
He was feeling more complex with the passing of time, but he decided to push it down so he could focus.
Why was the Saint Emperor doing this?
Yes, Damien was supposedly everything to him, but still…
The Saint Emperor was someone who wanted to become the main character of his own story. He manipulated the universe so he could create a setting for that story, and he manipulated its people to form a plot that could entertain him.
The last step was here. The second he killed Damien and came out on top, he would take his position as the main character and rule existence as its sovereign.
So…
Why was he doing this?
Why was he teaching Damien?
It was impossible to understand.
The only way to get that answer was to win.
Damien's eyes hardened.
'It's been fun, but…'
He sighed to himself.
'...from now on, I'll be serious.'
