Of course Thea couldn't say, "We originally came to collect protection fees, but now seeing your ship is excellent and imposing—it has a connection with me—I'm planning to seize it through trickery and cunning, then use it as our base."
She put on a harmless act and chatted with the squirrel-like ambassador for a bit. Realizing they could communicate and that the squirrel wouldn't violate the port's neutral principles, she relaxed. Tens of thousands of aliens passed through daily—some good-tempered, some bad. He had no time for meddling. After cordially explaining neutral zone protocols, he left with his people.
"The guards all seem to be robots? Probably controlled by a master computer..." Faora constantly communicated with Thea through the rings.
"No rush. Let's get our people embedded first. Grodd!" Thea threw a banana, hitting the gawking gorilla on the head.
"Learn their organizational structure. Start controlling from the bottom up. Be careful—no slip-ups. Have Deadman assist you."
"Deathstroke, you take..." Thea assessed Poison Ivy, Papa Midnite, and Livewire. All three would have diminished combat effectiveness in space. Especially Poison Ivy—away from plants and walking through space, she was already sweating after just this short time.
"You take Livewire and the Yellow Lantern Corps to develop connections here. Poison Ivy comes back to Earth with me. Midnite..."
"I'd like to stay and look around. Continue my old trade—run a small bar, gather intel from both sides of the law. Plus there's plenty of magical equipment to scavenge here." Papa Midnite spoke up first. He'd reassembled the self-destructed corpse retrieved from Sludge's body. The not-so-famous voodoo practitioner insisted that alien corpse could respond to his necromancy—very valuable for research.
Thea considered briefly. Not impossible. Her subordinates all had rings now—returning to Earth was easy. Earth's magical community had been set back thirty years by her actions. Keeping Midnite on Earth really had no use.
"Fine. We have plenty of cosmic currency. For purchasing land, facilities—all expenses go through Faora."
Both General Zod before and Sinestro this time were wealthy. Thea had looted all their collections. Even by cosmic standards, she wasn't poor.
She'd gradually consolidate the entire Corps under her control. The process required both intimidation and inducement. Once they occupied this lucrative port and commercial alliance, loyalty and cohesion would naturally follow.
"Investigate their master computer thoroughly. Brainiac's threat still looms—they won't develop true AI, at most pseudo-AI. Later we'll manufacture some robot rebellion. We help solve the problem, then take over completely." Her inner circle knew about Gideon. They all nodded silently.
Everyone split up to act. They weren't toddlers—they didn't need Thea holding their hands.
The Earth contingent shed their initial fear, discovering these aliens weren't such a big deal after all.
Thea wandered around. Calling it a port was misleading—it was actually a planet. Her super-vision swept everywhere. Few residents here. Those moving between cities were all star hunters, bandits, mercenaries of various types. No food production, no mechanical manufacturing. Everything ran on currency.
She looked around. No high-tech R&D facilities as she'd hoped. Slightly disappointed. She left messages for everyone, then returned to Earth with Poison Ivy.
Thea first returned to Metropolis to find Diana. She learned Hercules had undergone another treatment session. His own willpower could now kill the filth consciousness. But they'd stopped treatment slightly early. According to what he told Martian Manhunter, he wanted to overcome his inner demons through his own strength.
"Did your business go smoothly?"
"Too smoothly!" Thea hadn't needed to lift a finger the entire battle. They still hadn't found the Super Virus's corpse. Even using Cloydon's compass yielded nothing. Maybe the compass didn't know what a virus was either.
Three days away from base had yielded substantial gains. Three hundred-plus fighters of wavering loyalty, Mongul and Sludge's corpses, plus plenty of Sinestro's private stash.
The two women chatted casually for a bit, then Thea left Metropolis alone. Finding a secluded, uninhabited mountain cave, she prepared to absorb the divine power essence gifted by Gaia.
The process was familiar now. She was already skilled at the sequence for altering her magical power structure. First, simply suppress her five existing attributes, letting her body's instinct resonate with the divine power essence. If once didn't work, try twice. If twice didn't work, try three times.
Thea was confident in her aptitude. In a sense, as holder of Excalibur, she also represented the will of all living beings. This united strength of countless hearts would subtly help increase her success rate.
Sure enough, after only three attempts, her body merged with the divine power. Thea examined carefully—it was exactly the earth-attribute magical power she urgently needed.
Earth, fire, water, wind, light, and dark—six attributes began forming a small cycle within her body. All remaining Gaia divine power was completely absorbed and converted to magical power.
The internal circulation began perpetually operating. Thanks to the purity and density of Gaia's divine power, her overall magical power level rapidly increased.
Midway, she drew Excalibur and underwent heroic spirit transformation. Her body scattered and reassembled. During this process, she expelled considerable residue from Gaia's divine power. Thea's method was simple and brutal: downgrade divine power to magical power, then decompose and reassemble. Anything unsuitable for her body—good or bad—was discarded.
Two days later, she finally completed this magical power absorption. Carefully sensing the robust yet resilient magical power within, this wasn't an external object like the ring. The power in her body now was her own purest magical power. Perhaps some powerful being could alter reality at a higher level and strip away her power, but those entities were still far away from her.
Thea had done the best she believed possible.
"Seems like more than expected." She casually cast several spells. Casting with all six elements now had no restrictions. Magical power recovery and consumption both decreased by thirty percent. This was the benefit of having all six attributes complete.
Her magical power had now recovered to pre-avatar separation levels. The previous issue of her body being stronger than her magic was resolved. Magic returned to first place on her ability list.
This pleased her greatly. Otherwise, being a mage who constantly threw punches would be genuinely awkward.
Increased magical power only ensured her future path and potential. Current combat effectiveness hadn't fundamentally changed.
She needed more magical or divine power. Setting aside whether she could win fights, the gods' attributes were somewhat one-dimensional—not her best choice.
Black Adam and Shazam—these two had always been her unwavering targets. Both were among the rare individuals with balanced attributes. Obtaining either one's power would give Thea confidence to elevate her strength to the demigod peak.