Tower of Heaven

Giants believed in the honor of single combat. Their battle may have looked chaotic from an eagle's perspective, but if one went down to the ground, one would realize that there was a strange sense of order to the war.

Each giant chose one opponent from the enemy side. They performed a greeting ritual and then began to fight. This happened on a scale of tens of thousands of troops, so it naturally caused quite a scene.

Those who were not chosen for battle stood back and waited. When one battle ended, the winner would move further into enemy lines and challenge once more. It was the most brutal and direct form of war to exist. The actual combat was the same.

The giants had their own elements, sure, but they were giants at the end of the day. They fought with their fists, and when they used weapons, they preferred heavy weapons or blunt weapons over anything else.

Flares of fire and ice cut through the battlefield, shattering the ground and melting the frozen ocean. Almost at an equal rate, the two sides cut through the enemy armies and moved into each other's territory.

As their powerful physical bodies were forced to stand the test of their equal opposites, the differences in how Horus and Tyrion raised their Giants started to show themselves.

See, Horus came from a more ancient society that used qi naturally without questioning its processes. The techniques and methods he knew had equally esoteric natures. They were primordial, but they were not any weaker than a modern technique.

Meanwhile, Tyrion, who chose to join the Den of Mysteries, was obviously someone who valued the in-depth study of all things. Artemia may have forgotten the information, but the identity of the Sage he followed was common knowledge that could be easily found on the Tower Forums.

Exon Ilenor was a man who obtained the title of Sage through his research on qi. He thought that everything in the world could be discovered through the understanding of qi, and he used any means possible to prove his theory correct.

He was known throughout the Tower for an incident that took place roughly 3000 years ago, when he kidnapped an entire species, its every member from Ascenders to mortals across the Tower and its worlds. Nobody understood how he was able to take them all at the same time, but when they were next seen, they were already corpses.
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And, Exon Ilenor was releasing new research. This research proved that the old methods of qi circulation were broken, and it provided a solution for every issue. The state of cultivation as a whole improved significantly, to the point where young geniuses could reach the World Core Realm when they were under one hundred years old.

It used to be absurd if one could reach that same stage in one thousand years. The evolution of qi cultivation was a great thing for society as a whole, but it was brought forth by mass slaughter.

This was in line with the kind of reputation Den of Mysteries had. Tyrion didn't have to be as extreme of a person as his Master, but he came from a school of practice that valued qi more than most others. It was clear what method he used to forge his Giant Race.

He tried to give them knowledge just as Atlas did for the Neurics, but the Giants did not absorb it the same way. He had to change his strategy and have them feel the improvements for themselves. Their natural talent would guide them the rest of the way.

Like this, he forcefully corrected the qi channels within a single Giant and circulated his energy according to the perfected paths. He experienced an immediate improvement, spread the news to the other members of his clan, and started to notice the presence of a God.

The giants that were continuously guided through this method, their instincts started to resemble what Tyrion had been trying to teach them from the beginning. His precise calculations were mirrored within them as naturally learned gifts, creating the powerful ice giants that were fighting now.

They had also dominated their continent. It was rare for there to be other races that could stand up to giants. It took several humans to fight even one of them until they reached a very high level, and Tyrion got lucky that there were never any dragons present in his generated setting.

When the ice giants used their fists, their power was exerted very precisely and their qi was used as efficiently as possible. Cold energy spread into the world with their every attack, however, they didn't truly manifest ice unless they saw the opportunity to end their opponent.

Their efficiency and the depth of their ice were their strong points. It was quite funny just how directly they opposed the giants Horus created.

Right, unlike the methodical approach that Tyrion took, Horus was more spontaneous. His methods matched better with the Giant Race, so they responded well to his every word.

While Tyrion remained a God that remained disconnected and did not interact much with his followers, only quietly helping them from the side, Horus became very involved in the society of his followers, even more than Atlas.

He became a God that had a physical presence in their minds rather than one they viewed as an entity to be worshiped, and that allowed him to do things Tyrion couldn't replicate.

His giants were able to naturally connect to fire through his teachings, and their fire wasn't simple either. After all, Horus' specific vein of the Dao focused on the energy of the sun and the flames it produced. When they mimicked him, they would have to be talentless to create ordinary flames.

The changes to the qi channels that Tyrion made directly happened naturally for Horus' giants as well. Of course, it wasn't the exact same. Since the change happened as a byproduct of the giants' improvement, the end result was also different.

Rather than focusing on efficiency, the fire giants focused on power output. They wanted to make the strongest flames that destroyed the enemy as fast as possible. Sure, they would waste their qi and run out of energy faster, but that was a risk they were willing to take.

In their minds, all they needed to do was destroy the enemy before they depleted themselves. If that didn't work, they could just use their bodies as they always had and they'd find their way to victory.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The fists of these two races slammed against each other. Efficiently used qi combatted flaring qi. Strong and bold flames clashed against reserved and methodical ice.

They fought and destroyed the environment. With every attack by a fire giant, along with the natural shattering of the ground, huge chunks of the frozen ocean were destroyed, bringing down massive shelves that crashed into the ground and exploded.

With every attack from an ice giant, the dry and cracked ground around the fire giants was frozen solid and turned brittle. When the fire giants moved with their heavy steps, they shattered the space beneath them and fell into deep pits where they were no more than prey.

There were so many differences between the two races. They could be seen in every interaction between them.

However, because they were so different, they were also exactly the same. Their countless differences canceled each other out, leaving no room for either side to take a definite advantage.

So, despite the many complicated aspects that went into this war, it all only came down to one thing.

Was Horus' fire hotter, or was Tyion's ice colder?