Skyblade:
Tiamat's Dark Flare attack is actually "tri-elemental". It deals out Fire, Ice, and Bolt (the three basic elements) damage simultaneously. Therefore, you must have your elemental defense configured in a way that allows you to defend against/absorb all three elements. You were able to absorb Dark Flare because you have Ultima (and probably Full-Life ?) junctioned to Elem-Def, and absorb every element.
Don't bother with Heros; Holy Wars have the same effect, only on all three party members. Don't worry about modding cards if you've played the CC group during Disks 2/3. You can win any rare card you Card Mod back from the CC group on the Ragnarok during Disk 4 (though you have to have played them in order for them to show up on the Ragnarok).
