First things first, Tiamat exerted her power, creating a dome that spanned several tens of thousands of kilometers to envelop the prospective battlefield.
It was a domain of her own, which allowed her to use her power better, but it was also an isolation barrier that would make sure others didn't know the results of the ongoing battle.
The dome was made of pure blackness, a representation of Tiamat's Death Laws, so in the sunlight, it looked somewhat odd.
However, since it was almost time for the sun to set, it was fine. The barrier would eventually blend in with the surroundings.
Darius was the one who attacked first.
His Sun and Moon Divine Flame, which was actually just the Sun Flame at the moment, filled the atmosphere and pushed the woman in the dark robes back.
Meanwhile, Tiamat approached the butler, provoking him into following her further away.
It didn't take much for him to respond.
Cairo had been the Count's butler for a very long time now. If anyone knew how the Count liked things done, it was him.
While Count Verex was indeed a sadist that enjoyed watching people suffer, he wasn't someone who allowed loose ends.
If he saw an enemy that would be a variable in his plans, he would make sure they were eliminated as soon as possible.
These two Demigods who provoked him and Caissa were obviously not members of the Gehenna Tribe. One of them even had the skin of an otherworlder.
It was impossible for him to know why they decided to provoke him, but regardless of their reasoning, they were variables that needed to be eliminated.
He would respond to provocation with action. In the end, it was all the same.
But as he approached the woman who called him out, a strange feeling enveloped him.
It was a feeling of familiarity, yet one of equal hostility.
It was a disgusting emotion that he couldn't name.
It almost felt like submission. His eyes narrowed as he stared at her.
She certainly had the appearance of a noble. Compared to some of the other women he'd seen in the Count's circle, she was even more beautiful, and that was putting aside her dominating aura.
It was rare to see people who looked like her, even rarer than seeing someone who had a skin condition and ended up looking like a foreigner from the otherworld.
However, Cairo had never seen her before.
That was only possible in two scenarios.
The first, she was related to the Dark God himself.
Laughable.
It left only the second scenario for him to take as truth.
She merely had the appearance without any of the class.
If so, he had even more reason to kill her.
His body flickered.
He wasn't planning to give her a chance to fight back.
Cairo's hands turned into blades of their own, coated in heavy layers of malakh.
He slashed out, already in Tiamat's blind spot.
Or so he thought.
Tiamat stumbled.
It looked like a lucky move, allowing her to barely dodge the butler's blade.
However, to everyone present, it was obvious this was a planned move.
The butler's eyes narrowed further, and he pressed his attack harder, making sure Tiamat would die before she could show her skill.
She didn't fight back.
She dodged and dodged and dodged, making Cairo infinitely angrier, but she didn't make any moves to even the playing field as she was pushed into a corner.
'Hmm…'
When she was observing Cairo's fighting style, what she saw was something like an assassin.
Tiamat's fighting style was already set. She would always measure her opponent's skill before charging into battle.
Her mind was a weapon among weapons. In the few seconds or minutes she spent on the losing side of the fight, she could come up with a plan that assured she'd be the last one standing.
When she was observing Cairo's fighting style, what she saw was something like an assassin.
He always tried to end things as soon as possible, but his attacks had a hint of boredom, as if he was already thinking about what he was going to do next.
His malakh didn't seem to contain any laws either.
Tiamat was actually more established than Damien in this aspect for now.
As she'd felt a connection with the Sacred Abyss Universe, she had understood a lot about its relative law structure.
Of course, she could only comprehend the Death Laws of this cosmos, but she was able to see how the others functioned in the process.
She didn't see anything from Cairo.
He was incredibly trained and had the skills to beat people above his level without the use of laws, but that didn't change the fact that he couldn't use them.
Was it his own choice, or was it something forced upon him to keep his power in control?
Honestly, Tiamat didn't care.
'For someone like him…'
An open hand, fashioned like a blade, swung down on her arm.
'...just let his own stupidity kill him.'
Tiamat raised her arm and blocked the attack.
Her eyes flashed, connecting with those of her attacker.
Cairo felt Death.
A sensation beyond words that could only be described as absolute terror.
And Tiamat struck.
VOOM!
Black mana flared out of her body.
No, when Tiamat used her power in this world, the surrounding malakh expanded and allowed her to wield it as she pleased.
It looked like she was using her own mana, but she had yet to convert her energy or find out how to store two separate energy forms in her body.
Cairo didn't notice that. If he did, would he have chosen to run?
It didn't matter.
At the end of the day, Tiamat was a Demigod who was on the cusp of Godhood.
And she really, really didn't like Cairo.
His aura had the disgusting smell of whatever she'd been sensing in recent times.
The man in her memories, the man she couldn't decide whether to long for or hate, had a similar scent, and Cairo's was an extremely degraded version of it.
She didn't want to be reminded of that person.
She didn't want to think about the things that would distract her from the task at hand.
But she was distracted regardless.
She really was having a hard time keeping her cool. The longer she stayed in battle, the more that scent made her want to kill.
That was why she decided to attack so early.
And that was why, when she attacked, all hell broke loose.
The blackness of the surrounding domain was all in her grasp.
Instantly, the tides switched between Tiamat and Cairo.
The environment itself rose up, supporting Tiamat and trying constantly to trap Cairo in a prison of its making.
And Tiamat wasn't one to stand back and wait either.
She gathered malakh, instinctually following the correct procedures to create a technique in the Sacred Abyss Universe.
Death gathered in the vicinity, making its presence impossible to ignore.
But even with Death causing such a scene, there was a spark in the darkness that refused to go out.
A spark of flame, like a shining sun illuminating the world.
There were two battles taking place within Tiamat's domain, and among them…
…Darius was definitely putting on more of a show.
