Thea watched nervously as the faith energy in her mental space rapidly depleted, biting her lip as she waited for the result.
Before the eternally unchanging Source Wall, time seemed to lose all meaning. Under different circumstances, she would have leisurely appreciated the magnificent scenery, but right now she wasn't in the mood.
Despite repeatedly telling herself not to panic, watching the faith energy she'd worked so hard to accumulate drain away while the wall remained stubbornly unmoved, Thea started to worry.
The confidence she'd built from knowing the plot was beginning to waver. But the arrow was already loosed—even abandoning it now wouldn't help. She could only grit her teeth and persist.
After an indeterminate amount of time, as the faith energy in the Scales of Order was nearly exhausted, just as Thea was wondering if she should learn from the Buddhist patriarchs and make some grand vows, a tiny point of golden light within the wall caught her attention.
Learning from the particle accelerator explosion at her cutting-edge lab, she didn't dare use her super-vision to look around carelessly. Now relying on her naked eye, she watched as that point of light struggled to break free from the wall.
Even without thinking, she knew her plan was more than halfway successful. Thea no longer cared about the strength of this Source—she just wanted to secure it first.
The Source's movement was slow. Thea stared until her eyes ached, and the thing had only broken free a little bit.
Fortunately, while the speed was slow, the trend was steady. This small cluster of light was working hard to escape the wall's restraints.
"Come on!"
"Push!"
Thea was glad no one could see her now. She clenched her fists like someone encouraging a woman in labor.
She poured all her remaining faith energy into it, but it was still a drop in the bucket. With no other choice, she had to resort to unconventional methods.
Thea connected to all her subordinates, ordering them to drop whatever they were doing and immediately go do good deeds—acts with far-reaching impact.
Though her subordinates were full of confusion upon receiving her orders, seeing how serious she was, none dared treat it as a joke.
"Watch yourself, be more careful next time." In a distant star system, Deathstroke was dealing with a traitor when he received the sudden order. He froze, quickly turning his blade away from the traitor's neck. Afterward, he even gently sent away the terrified man who'd wet himself. Thea had made it clear—if he couldn't do good deeds, at least don't kill anyone for the next few minutes.
The subordinates' frantic good deeds left onlookers baffled.
For instance, Superman and Supergirl were puzzled. Today, Faora seemed possessed, doing good deeds all over the place. Normally, she wouldn't even care if someone died right in front of her. Today, Faora suddenly burst into top speed, handling a fire scene, catching a group of bank robbers, and rescuing four citizens from traffic accidents—all in three minutes.
Or in Gotham, where Poison Ivy controlled underground plants to deliver over a hundred criminals to the police station in two minutes, leaving the now-Commissioner Bruce Wayne utterly astonished.
The rest—Livewire in Star City, Killer Frost in Central City, Papa Midnite in New York, Gorilla Grodd on an alien planet—each did a pile of good deeds.
Though Thea didn't do these things herself, they were all executed under her orders. Tracing back to the source, she would receive a portion of the faith energy. She knew her subordinates' nature well—they could do good deeds briefly, but asking them to violate their nature for a lifetime was impossible. That's why she only issued such orders at this critical moment.
The most experienced was the newly recruited Dr. Sivana. This second Black Adam had lived over fifty years and had more life experience than even Deathstroke.
After briefly questioning Thea, he grasped the essence. Just need to create positive impact, right?
This man was ruthless. He quickly convened a press conference, extensively discussing the plight of underdeveloped nations and donating one-third of his total wealth to road and bridge construction in developing countries.
Modern institutions meant that once spoken, there was no turning back. The crowd erupted, Dr. Sivana's reputation soared, and Thea's faith energy surged significantly.
With everyone's combined efforts, the Source's escape from the wall accelerated. The Source Wall seemed to realize it couldn't stop it and gave up trying to restrain it.
"Haha! Thank you all! You can stop now... but don't reverse course, at least not today..." Thea flew forward to meet the Source breaking free from the wall and notified her subordinates through the ring channel.
Hearing they could stop, Deathstroke immediately pulled out his blade to chase down and kill the traitor. But hearing Thea's second half, he sheathed his sword again and forced what he thought was a gentle smile.
The others were in similar situations. A whole group played superhero for ten minutes, then each went home, leaving Superman, Supergirl, Batman, and Green Arrow standing confused on the streets.
Thea didn't know of their predicament, and even if she did, she had no energy to worry about it now.
The long-awaited moment had finally arrived. That Source destined uniquely for her finally flickered with obscure light, trailing beautiful flames like a meteor as it merged with her.
Her body immediately entered a spiritualized state—or rather, a higher stage of spiritualization: deification! With some heartache, she abandoned her Moon Goddess Chosen status, even sacrificing the domineering Chosen talent of Eternal Night.
All her blood turned golden, her bones white as jade. Now even her severed fingers could be crafted into divine artifacts.
Her entire body was reforged. Her lifespan of several thousand years was stretched to near infinity. The ordinary human concepts of life and death could no longer describe her current body. Even if she truly "died," with the Source's connection to the entire world, she could forever hang on by a thread. Like in games where a character won't drop below one hit point—cultists making major sacrifices could reawaken her.
This was the difference between gods and mortals! This was a fundamental difference in the nature of life.
This was only the physical change. What came next was the main event—her soul had to completely merge with the Source. Years flashed rapidly before her eyes, civilizations rose and fell, countless intelligent beings cried out or wept. Thea was briefly puzzled, then immediately understood this was the Source's perspective, what it had witnessed in the past.
Empathy described her current state perfectly. When the Source grieved, she grieved; when the Source rejoiced, she rejoiced. The two continuously shared their pasts. Through this perspective, Thea witnessed the birth of the universe and many things she couldn't describe with language.
The fog shrouding the world finally lifted a corner for her. Though the corner was tiny, incredibly thin, Thea wanted to sing aloud.
After years of hard work, she finally had some confidence, the power to protect herself, protect her loved ones, protect her family in the future. She had finally ascended to godhood!