Watching these people begin studying with enthusiasm, Thea split off an avatar for on-site instruction while her main body contemplated how to increase the force's destructive power.
She returned to Himon's forge, requesting several Parademon corpses to study.
Highfather's requirement was extremely simple—just achieve area destruction of these cannon fodder, and that would be the greatest merit.
He didn't expect Thea's trained soldiers to eliminate Steppenwolf or Granny Goodness with a thousand fireballs—that was completely unrealistic. As her battle with Makkari demonstrated, New Gods' magic resistance was frighteningly high, not enemies that could be defeated through sheer numbers.
Besides, no one was stupid. If they couldn't win, they could run! Among the New Gods, the slow ones had probably died off in billions of years of warfare.
The Parademon corpses didn't yield anything useful. She then obtained from Metron a detailed report on Parademons—complete records from creation to death maintained by the God of Knowledge.
"At your age, you're truly young, yet you possess scientific research talent? How do you balance development across so many directions?" Metron asked about her purpose, somewhat surprised. He handed her a thick stack of materials recording all data from Parademons' birth to death.
"Haha, we have people researching various fields back home, so I've dabbled in miscellaneous things." Thea deflected Metron while seriously reviewing the documents.
Darkseid conquered countless planets, and after battles had numerous prisoners captured by his evil legions. Selecting the elite among them for biotechnological modification—these were Parademons. Though their forms looked similar, their essences differed, ruling out the possibility of Highfather's side researching something that could wipe out billions of his troops in one go.
Thea naturally couldn't research such an absolute kill technique either. However, with Kryptonian genetic manipulation knowledge as foundation, few in the biological sciences could surpass her—truly not many. She quickly discovered several minor issues and consulted the human computer, Metron.
The God of Knowledge was more about understanding and recording knowledge, which wasn't the same as scientific research.
His difference from Thea was more like scholar versus scientist. Countless knowledge weighed on him, leaving him with virtually no creativity. Inventions by others he could immediately understand, but if others hadn't invented something, he remained completely unaware.
For Thea's questions, he could answer immediately. Having obtained her answers, she returned to the base in high spirits.
Her preliminary assessment hadn't been wrong—these cannon fodder stretching as far as the eye could see, their greatest enemy was magic. "Sweep away a large area" wasn't an exaggeration.
Using magic appropriately would be far more efficient than Makkari stabbing with spears or Orion smashing with hammers.
But there was a key point—her magic squad must demonstrate value in the next battle to secure her own authority. Unfortunately, magic wasn't as easy to speed-learn as physical attacks.
What to do? Thea directly approached it from Parademon body structure, taking a biological angle to compile a simpler "beginner's guide" textbook. After learning this curriculum, they wouldn't know anything else—just how to fight Parademons.
However, an hour later, she felt rather discouraged. She thought what she was teaching now was already very accessible, yet students still crowded the avatar with endless questions.
Thea believed these people weren't stupid. Her beginner's guide textbook was refined enough. The key point was magic's entry threshold was too high—this ability, only one tier below divine power, was very, very difficult for most people.
She'd made another trip to the smith for corpses, another to Metron for reports, running back and forth for half an hour. Then dissecting and researching for over an hour, compiling new curriculum for an hour—over two hours. Of twenty-five thousand fanatical students, fewer than three hundred could learn the fireball spell following her outline.
These three hundred were already the most talented batch. To have everyone learn several entry-level spells, Thea estimated at least half a year. To integrate them into legion-level combat power would take at least two years at the current pace.
With that much time, Darkseid would reach Earth—what magic training then?
Thea propped her chin studying the textbook, reviewing it twice without deleting a single letter. It was simplified to the extreme—simplify further and they might as well practice with spears and hammers.
After thorough consideration, her eyes suddenly lit up. Since the textbook couldn't be simplified further, she could work on the students' end—simplifying the caster's steps would definitely improve learning efficiency.
Accomplishing this wasn't difficult. The best method was establishing a Magic Network!
Thea had consciously been steering her divine position toward magic anyway. Neither Highfather's nor Darkseid's side had a Goddess of Magic. Establishing the Magic Network early would benefit everyone and herself.
She'd do it immediately. Currently, she didn't need to establish a network covering the entire multiverse—just blanketing this base would suffice.
After consulting Highfather, she retrieved from the material vault a star core that had once birthed consciousness to use as the source. Using the most complex methods, she input massive amounts of spells. Later users only needed to connect to this network—without understanding the specific operational principles—to use mental power to copy spells to their side.
Spell principles, operational methods, operational trajectories, supporting magic arrays—all simplified. Users accepting Thea's Magic Network only needed to contribute mental power daily to cast spells, far simpler than their previous racking their brains.
The stronger their mental power, the deeper their Magic Network access, the more powerful spells they could release. Simultaneously, this mental power fed back to the Magic Network for maintenance and expansion.
Thea busied herself for two hours. An extremely crude Magic Network was constructed. Everyone in the base immediately connected. Many spells were still cast clumsily, but compared to their previous struggling progress, this was dozens of times better. Though several people felt there might be hidden risks, they were drowned out by the enthusiastic crowd.
"The results are excellent. Goddess Thea's achievement deserves recognition." Highfather appeared beside Thea. Watching those below already able to cast fireballs and ice cones, his heart surged with excitement.
Possessing the divine position of compassion, Highfather didn't want his children constantly using spears and clubs to blood-brawl with Darkseid's biological weapons. The enemy's soldiers were endless—Darkseid's strategy was trading cannon fodder for his elites. When his side lost one, it took hundreds of years to recover. Trading blows this way, he was obviously at a disadvantage.
"Thank you for your praise. Currently, this Magic Network is very primitive. If it expands to the entire world in the future, we must absolutely add restrictions preventing Darkseid's legions from using it."
Highfather coughed twice. "Magic should be just and impartial, not play favorites. That's the power of the entire world. We're different from the evil Apokolips. Goddess Thea, this viewpoint is incorrect."
"Yes, yes, Your Majesty speaks with great wisdom." Thea immediately humbly admitted her error—her vision was too shallow, the leader was brilliant. Of course, these words were just talk. Seeing Highfather's cheerful expression, she knew he was saying one thing and meaning another. Not discriminate between them and Darkseid? Who are you kidding! Most likely the big boss had divine positions like justice and had to say this.
If Thea took his words seriously, all her years in the business world would've been wasted!
After leaving instructions to take whatever materials she needed from stores and have Himon forge whatever she required, Highfather flew away with calm composure.