Diana went back to work at her foundation, while Thea returned to Star City alone, carrying the jaguar cub and the staff.
After handing the cub over to a specialist, she began to study the functions of the artifact.
It didn't take long to figure out the affinities: Earth and Water. The earth spike Thea used against Orm earlier was powered by the staff's magic. Borrowing the staff's power, Thea could form a pseudo-cycle of Light, Dark, Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind within her body. It wasn't stable yet, but the shape was there.
With the Earth magic in the staff, Thea could now cast some high-end Earth spells. Next time she faced Cheetah, perhaps a single earth prison spell or a large-scale fissure would settle the fight.
It took her hours to realize the staff's full potential.
The Dead King's Staff amplified Earth and Water spells the best—roughly tripling their effectiveness. For Wind, Light, and Dark, the boost was weaker, a little over double. Fire was the worst, barely benefiting with less than a 50% boost.
The staff contained two very ancient spells.
The first was a sea-beast control spell. The definition of "Sea Beast" initially confused Thea. After researching for a while, she realized the staff referred to those super-large ancient marine creatures. Searching her memory, Thea could only recall one such beast.
Hidden in the abyss of the Atlantean capital was an ancient creature that fit the criteria—a hybrid of a crab and an octopus.
For tens of thousands of years, Atlanteans had kept to themselves and left it alone. It wasn't until Arthur Curry returned that things changed. His outstanding telepathy allowed him to control all marine life. Although controlling such an ancient behemoth was a stretch, he could manage it slightly. It was precisely because of this transcendent ability that the Atlantean Council broke their ten-thousand-year-old iron law and allowed him, a half-blood, to inherit the throne.
If Thea ran to Atlantis waving the staff and claiming she could control their greatest biological weapon, the Council would definitely fight her to the death. This move was good, but it would wreck the relationship completely. Besides, a deep-sea behemoth's strength would drop significantly on land. Thea secretly noted this spell, planning to improve it later and integrate it into her existing knowledge system.
The second function was introduced even more vaguely. Thea could only understand it as a mix of imprisonment and sealing. Ignoring the target's size, it would imprison them within a small crystal. Were there limits to the target's power level? How long did the imprisonment last? There was absolutely no information.
Maybe the Dead King who forged the staff knew, but that guy hadn't left a user manual inside. Helpless, Thea ran to Poison Ivy's greenhouse in Metropolis and tested it on a pile of plants for hours. Completely ineffective. Was the plant's level too low? Or did the imprisonment spell have other requirements for the target? Too many options; Thea couldn't guess for a while.
During the experiment, Thea discovered a "feature" that wasn't really a spell. Unlike the wands used by modern wizards, this staff was itself a weapon. When swung, it carried formidable momentum—death if it hit, injury if it grazed. Several of Poison Ivy's man-eating plants being smashed to death fully illustrated this point.
"...Boss, do you have a vendetta against my plants?" Poison Ivy drooped her eyelids, speaking helplessly.
As their contact increased, Thea had revealed her true colors. Discovering that Thea was two years younger than herself, Ivy was no longer as fearful as she was initially and could crack a joke occasionally.
"Uh, just a little experiment. By the way, have you found the things I asked you to collect?"
Seeing that she had smashed a corner of Ivy's greenhouse, Thea was a bit speechless too. This new weapon was more like a warhammer than a staff. She had reinforced her body many times; otherwise, an ordinary Earthling really couldn't handle this ancient Atlantean artifact.
Talking about business, Poison Ivy became slightly more serious. "Billy Batson. I've approached this kid. I've collected quite a bit of his hair and blood. As per your request, I recorded every conversation with him. I've input the raw voice files into the main computer."
"Boss, what's the use of this kid? You won't let me mess with his head. That kid is too childish. Just chatting with him is really boring," Poison Ivy said, half confused, half angling for praise.
"Just a contingency plan," Thea said lightly.
Billy Batson. The future superhero, Shazam.
She said it was a contingency, but this was actually her true goal. Shazam and Black Adam were the only two mortals in the world abundant with divine power. But this divine power wasn't cultivated by themselves; it was gifted by ritual. Shazam gaining power that could rival Superman in an instant was the thing Thea had envied most for years.
But just absorbing their divine power wasn't enough. Thea needed to spend a lot of time artificially degrading the gifted divine power into her own magic. Only when her own magic reached the peak could she transform it into divine power—divine power that belonged uniquely to her.
The old Wizard Shazam. Born nine thousand years ago, originally a shepherd boy, he received the blessings of the gods and became the first Shazam. In that era of magic scarcity, after the gods retreated, he believed he was the True God.
Unfortunately, he had power but no vision. He considered himself the Guardian of the World, yet he did countless foolish things. Pandora was one case, Black Adam another, and Billy Batson was the same.
He chose Billy Batson as his heir. As long as Billy shouted the word "Shazam," he could gain the power of Superman. His criteria for selecting an heir were extremely vague: The Purest Good!
How could there be a person of "Purest Good" among humans?
This was just a beautiful goal, an unattainable moral standard. The old Shazam, born a shepherd boy, decided this standard on the spot.
Although it was a melodramatic standard, it was a standard nonetheless. So how did old Shazam select heirs? He cast a wide net all over the world.
Found one? Looked inappropriate? Wipe their memory, release! Find another, loop again.
A.R.G.U.S. alone had found thousands of people with lost memories. These were all "good deeds" done by old Shazam—all candidates for his "Purest Good."
With such an unreliable selection process, in the end, whether he got annoyed or for some other reason, Billy Batson entered his field of vision. The old man decided immediately: This kid is the "Purest Good"!
The old man simply felt that Billy Batson, whose parents were murdered when he was 15, didn't go down the path of revenge against society, so he insisted this kid was "Purest Good."
Billy Batson's childhood experience of losing his parents was indeed worthy of sympathy. But just because he didn't go astray, the old man concluded he was purely good?
With 6 billion people in the world, Thea felt she could find ten million candidates like that.