"He won't last much longer." Thea could see the old man had only a breath left. She had no good way to handle this for the moment.
"Let me in, let me in!" With his body shrunken, the magical rope's binding effect vanished too. This wasn't some immortal-binding rope that adjusted with the target—the old man slipped free and began crawling shakily toward the doorway.
Harley Quinn cheerfully raised her bat to smack him through, but Lyla quickly stopped her with a look. This man was extremely difficult to prosecute. What charge would they use? Environmental damage? Existing laws couldn't touch him. Execution or imprisonment both seemed inappropriate.
Thea thought a layer deeper. This guy had been infected too deeply by the Rot. Though Miss Abby had withdrawn the power, Anton Arcane's human soul was thoroughly corrupted. The moment he died, he'd report straight to the Rot. Killing him would actually be doing him a favor.
Though the Rot had changed ownership, the avatar inside had no real mind. It was hard to say Anton wouldn't turn the tables somehow.
This made her hesitate to decide.
Unable to decide but unwilling to let him have his way, Thea summoned another magical rope to bind the old man completely to a tree. Worried he'd suddenly die, she gave him two nutrient injections, planning to wait until they'd discussed a final solution.
With the Rot's complete withdrawal, the three hunters—who'd relied on their "tankiness" to hold off the heroes—lost their reinforcements and were quickly beaten into puddles of gore. The male heroes made their way inside.
How to handle this old man stumped Superman and Batman too. Finally, at Thea's suggestion, they threw Anton Arcane into the Parliament of Trees to let the Green deal with him properly.
With that, the incident was finally resolved. Everyone went their separate ways. Thea sent Beast Boy back to San Francisco too, though the kid—having gotten friendly with Thea—actually wanted to transfer to California, claiming he needed a change of scenery.
"You've got your eye on Animal Man's daughter?" Thea quickly saw through him.
"Heh, boss lady sees right through me!" Beast Boy grinned sheepishly.
It wasn't a big deal. Thea thought for a moment and picked up the phone to arrange his transfer. How far he got would be up to him.
Afterward, she rushed to Louisiana where Swamp Thing and Miss Abby planned to live in seclusion.
"Dr. Holland, are you certain about this?" Thea asked.
Swamp Thing had been inspired by Abby's soul-splitting. If she could split her soul, so could he. A man and woman together made more sense than a monster and a woman. Honestly, he was tired of being Swamp Thing. If he could be free without affecting the bigger picture, that would be perfect.
"I'm completely certain."
Thea had always felt she owed him a favor. Letting him escape from trouble to live with his beloved seemed like repaying that old debt.
More soul-splitting. After considerable effort, she created a Swamp Thing avatar.
In the fading sunset, watching Swamp Thing slowly walk into the forest, the couple turned to thank Thea. She felt a real sense of accomplishment. She'd changed their destined tragic fate into happiness. In the process, she sensed a thread of causality—a hint of karma.
Without Swamp Thing's help awakening her bloodline back then, there would be no Thea today helping him split his soul. Hard to say who helped whom. While they'd found happiness and fulfillment, the young Miss Queen's life had to go on.
The Rot had devastated the global economy. These days, a single gunshot on Wall Street could set the world economy back a month, let alone this civilization-ending disaster.
Economic problems were actually minor. Earth's resources were finite—they used a little, lost a little. With this level of overexploitation, the next disaster might be even larger.
From multiple angles, beginning preliminary interstellar travel and resource harvesting had become urgent.
Thea called in her secretary and began reviewing materials Luthor had previously collected.
Though Lex Luthor was now imprisoned, many of his experimental records and notes remained. This man called a ninth-level intellect by Brainiac truly had extraordinary vision. Without spacecraft or the ability to survive in space, relying only on satellite surveys, digital modeling, and environmental analysis, he'd roughly mapped the entire solar system's resource distribution and created detailed plans.
Having inherited all of Luthor's high-tech enterprises and his secretary, Thea could naturally build on this foundation.
After two days studying various materials, Thea had confirmed her next target: Mars.
This celestial body—twice the diameter of the Moon, half that of Earth—had a surface covered in dunes with no stable liquid water. Essentially a desertified planet.
Yet humanity hadn't randomly named it Mars. Countless hematite deposits rose and fell across the dunes. Various rare metals were all vital resources needed for the Pacific Rim program.
This could become a resource collection point and forward base for humanity's space travel.
What were resources? Even three-year-olds in modern society knew resources meant money. With benefits involved, convincing nations to participate wouldn't be too difficult. The hard part was preliminary surveys.
Was there life on Mars? This scientific debate had raged for twenty years. Thea didn't dare tell them Mars not only had life, but extremely formidable life.
The strongest among them could wrestle Superman.
Speaking of which, Earth humans were truly blessed. Just fifty-five million kilometers away lived a group of Martians whose abilities would fill four hundred characters—Martians who didn't even need to sunbathe for terrifying powers. Yet somehow they'd all died, leaving only one seedling who came to Earth, and that seedling was the most loving and gentle of them all.
If they hadn't died out, Thea figured Earth would've regressed to a slave society eight hundred years ago.
She needed to scout Mars first before convincing nations later. Thea could go alone, but she remembered there was a native guide—best to bring him along.
In the DEO director's office, the Martian Manhunter disguised as an ordinary human had just taken a sip of water when Thea walked right through the wall.
"Your psychic mastery seems even higher? Alright, what is it?" Martian Manhunter didn't know about New Gods—he just judged from his own perspective that Thea had an air of mystery now.
"Haha, Uncle J'onn, here's the situation..." Thea explained her plan from start to finish, specifically emphasizing the enormous boost to human civilization.
Martian Manhunter's expression wasn't great. He asked hesitantly, "Could we pick a different planet?"
Thea considered. "Pluto could work, but it's too far from Earth and public opinion would be hard to rally. Mars doesn't have that problem—people online have been calling for Mars development for years."
Thea knew developing Mars was like grave-robbing. Even after several centuries, Martian Manhunter's wife and daughter had been burned to ash—their remains likely still buried deep in the planet.
Thea didn't want to force him, but Mars's resources were genuinely vital. Until humanity found alternatives, steel would remain the most important resource. For future interstellar trade, aliens wouldn't recognize dollars or euros. For Earth just entering interstellar civilization, material exchange was mainstream.