BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Bursts of dust and rock flew into the air every few seconds. Black sludge was flung through the air, infecting more and more of the environment with every move.
When Caissa changed her form, her entire attack method changed. She became more disorganized and instinctual, but at the same time, the power she could output was no joke.
It was a trade-off she didn't usually like to make, but in a situation like this, it was necessary. She didn't have time, nor did she have an advantage to exploit.
Still, no matter how disorganized she was, she could still destroy a great amount of things without much effort.
The environment was currently under Tiamat's control, but the domain she put up wasn't being actively controlled by her.
She was able to read the feedback from it to help Darius when she needed to, and she could use it to her advantage to fight Cairo, but in general, the majority of the domain was self-governed based on the rules Tiamat set beforehand.
Caissa was abusing this fact to try and turn Tiamat's darkness into her own.
In the end, darkness and death didn't have much in common, so it was difficult if she was using her original power.
However, when the power in question was driven by emotion, it was far easier to convert a death domain into one of darkness.
Caissa's every attack was aimed at Darius.
He was forced to dodge using his instincts alone because of the speed at which they struck.
Darius was still a spatial practitioner even if it wasn't his forte. If anything, he did have the ability to teleport.
With that, he could avoid Caissa's attacks quite well, and despite their power, because her control had weakened, he didn't have to worry about old attacks chasing him or homing in on his position.
He could dodge as he pleased, using the 16 Swords of Heaven to cut paths through the sludge for him to traverse.
The problem was that the sludge didn't leave once it fell to the ground. Instead, it coagulated and created a coating on Tiamat's domain, claiming space for itself to thrive.
'If this continues, she'll trap me.'
Darius frowned.
He did the right thing switching to spatial attacks when Caissa transformed, but he didn't have enough firepower this way.
He was forced to continue teleporting around, wasting his energy reserves. Since he couldn't use malakh like Tiamat and Damien, he was truly limited in what he could do once he ran out.
The Sun and Moon Divine Flame was able to burn as long as energy was present, making it the best method to fight in an alternate cosmos.
'If only I had more control…'
Darius put in a lot of work, but he didn't have nearly enough time.
With just a few more decades of experience and practice, he would definitely be able to fight against Caissa on even footing and even overpower her in direct confrontation using the Sun Flame, but the current Darius was not so capable.
BOOM!
Another wave of sludge struck down near him. It stretched out, trying to reach him, but as he teleported away, it was forced to give up and connect to its peers.
This was routine at this point and had been happening for several minutes.
And that was exactly the problem.
Darius was waiting for his opportunity to come, but in the process, he'd left a huge opening for Caissa.
The amount of sludge on the ground now was definitely enough to cover a whole football field. When it came together and acted as a living being independent of the main body…
'Holy shit.'
Darius' eyes widened.
Caissa was relatively far away, but her massive figure still stood out in the blackness. It was intimidating enough on its own, but before Darius' eyes, another massive sludge being rose from the ground and extended its tentacles.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The attacks that only came from one side now came from two. Darius could still teleport, but it became easy for Caissa to read his direction when she could see him from multiple angles.
BANG!
Darius was thrown back as a heap of sludge landed only a few inches away from him as he came out of the spatial layers.
'Damn!'
Darius glanced back. His trajectory was going to throw him into a new sludge monster that was rising from the ground.
He planted his foot in the ground and let his Sun Flames loose.
The soles of his feet burned, and as the flames came in contact with the ground, their force propelled him into the air, narrowly allowing him to avoid the inevitable collision.
'At least I'm getting better at this dodging thing…'
Darius joked with himself to ease his mind, but he really was in a tough position.
Time was ticking. It had already been eight minutes, which meant there were only two remaining before he could make his move.
Whether he could survive for two more minutes or not at the rate Caissa was growing was definitely a question, though.
Even Tiamat had to ask herself if she needed to support him.
Unlike Darius, who was really fighting a life-or-death battle, Tiamat was having a pretty easy time.
The butler, Cairo, was definitely a powerful person, but it was clear that he had rarely fought people with equal or higher strength than his.
At the end of the day, he was just a servant of a more powerful being. He did not journey for strength or try to increase his power to be the best. He only worked to be of service to his Lord.
His Lord was not someone who liked people stronger than him, so Cairo always limited his growth willingly.
And when he had to fight, it was usually because there were weaklings his Lord wanted gone.
Those who would actually aid Cairo's growth were all taken care of by others.
Therefore, when he fought Tiamat, he did so like he was facing someone weaker.
That was his mistake.
Tiamat wasn't weaker than him at all. In fact, she was a few notches stronger.
When she unveiled the true strength of her Death Laws, empowered by the malakh that seemed to willingly respond to her every command, he was left on the losing end of every collision.
He was thrown back and injured several times. He suffered from tens of internal injuries, as well as many that ruined the pristine appearance he worked so hard to maintain.
Tiamat didn't care about Cairo's feelings at all. She could tell he was getting angrier as they kept fighting, but that anger only made him more careless.
It was pathetic.
Tiamat entered this fight at the height of emotion. She felt an inherent disgust that made her want to end Cairo in the worst way possible.
However, she didn't feel that anymore.
Cairo wasn't worthy of such emotion.
As they fought, Tiamat lost all respect she may have had for him. She couldn't help but look down on him, because he was nothing more than a dog.
He was pathetic in every way.
It was a shame that someone like him could elicit such emotion from her.
But since Tiamat realized this, she was able to rein in those emotions and fight with a level head.
That version of Tiamat wasn't something Cairo could handle.
And as his death approached closer and closer, Tiamat stopped putting so much attention into her own battle.
Even if she stopped attacking now, Cairo would die to his injuries if he couldn't escape her domain.
More importantly, Darius' battle had to end soon.
It had to be remembered that they were not fighting for themselves right now.
Almost an hour had passed since they left the Gehenna Tribe.
And if Tiamat's gut feeling was correct…
…things were not looking good for them at all.
