"She's not using some secret technique to boost her combat power, is she?" Hera's question was more practical. She had to be concerned. Her side had no one capable of opposing the Firstborn. If Thea and Diana left, she could only swallow her pride as God Queen, seal the mountain, and turtle up defensively. For someone as image-conscious as Hera, that would be worse than death.
Facing Hera and Antiope, Diana maintained appropriate respect. She answered readily, "This is her true combat power. She hasn't even deployed many of her techniques yet."
Mentioning her beloved filled Diana's heart with joy. She wasn't exaggerating. Seeing Thea match the Firstborn in close combat—his specialty—she was confident her love would win.
After all, close combat wasn't Thea's strength. She was using her weakness against his strength primarily to gather intelligence.
Facts proved Diana's assessment was spot-on. Thea was indeed collecting data.
The Firstborn showed little divine power, relying mainly on physical strength to contend with Thea's mix of divine power, magic, and mental energy. His strength was undeniable. A powerful body brought comprehensive enhancement—tremendous strength, incredible speed, practically infinite stamina.
However, his weakness was equally obvious: his power depended entirely on his body. Weaker opponents would only feel crushing despair—they simply couldn't kill him. But against an equal, a subtle flaw emerged: the Firstborn lacked a decisive finishing move.
Her confidence soaring, Thea began pressing her advantage aggressively. Her surging self-assurance elevated her mental power to new heights.
The Firstborn possessed a quality of growing stronger through battle, frantically extracting his body's full potential in fierce combat. As his injuries accumulated, his physical attacks became increasingly ferocious.
The holy sword and massive blade clashed repeatedly. The holy sword, forged from the faith of countless beings, still shone brilliantly, while the Firstborn's sword began showing signs of strain.
So what if it was a black dragon's spine? Who cared if it was buried in the earth's core for six thousand years? Thea still hacked it into a serrated mess.
Their battle range expanded continuously. Initially, the Firstborn tried avoiding his own troops, but as battle fever took over and his mind heated up, he simply couldn't spare the attention.
Many spectral creatures and beasts caught in the shockwaves either shattered from the massive sword's crushing force or disintegrated into ash under the holy sword's radiance, as if they'd never existed.
Cassandra could only order the army to retreat, but that was easier said than done. An army of nearly a hundred thousand couldn't evade quickly enough.
With wicked intent, Thea deliberately dragged the Firstborn through his own forces. The spectral creatures suffered terribly.
Everywhere they passed was left in utter devastation.
The battle continued for an hour. The Firstborn remained vigorous, but Thea was growing tired. Mixing multiple power sources consumed considerable mental energy.
Having fully assessed the Firstborn's capabilities, she began fighting with everything she had.
Spotting an opening, she channeled massive mental power along with divine power and magic into the holy sword, bringing it down on the dodging Firstborn.
Not understanding why his opponent suddenly surged with power, the Firstborn chose cautious defense, shifting his massive blade to block the strike.
What happened next left him dumbfounded. Thea never intended to wound him—she meant to destroy his sword.
The Firstborn blocked empty air. Without his strength reinforcing it, the massive blade could only rely on its material properties to withstand the onslaught.
"CLANG!" A sharp crack rang out. The blade shattered at the one-third mark under the holy sword's assault. Was she trying to destroy his weapon? The Firstborn felt heartbroken, convinced he understood Thea's malicious intent.
But this was all misdirection. Against someone who won through brute force, you had to use dirty tricks.
Exploiting his mental vulnerability over his weapon's loss, as they crossed paths, Thea finally deployed her wealth-based divine power. She removed her hood, revealing her stunning features. "Look into my eyes!" Her mesmerizing gaze infused with massive compassion struck directly at the Firstborn's spiritual world.
Anger wasn't fully mastered yet, and besides, his rage was already maxed out—no need to add fuel to that fire. Fear was also impractical; hatred strongly counteracted fear.
Thea ultimately chose compassion, with its strongest inclusiveness. I magnanimously pity you!
This bizarre attack method struck precisely at the Firstborn's vulnerability. Raised in the wilderness with no deity to teach him divine power usage, lacking guidance, he knew only to endlessly temper his body. He had no experience defending against emotional attacks. Despite the hatred filling his chest, Thea's deceptive divine power still pried open a crack, flooding his heart with compassion.
He hated the world, but wasn't that also self-protection born from lacking love and affection from family?
Compassion flooded in like a torrent. The direct consequence was his vicious eyes calming, the killing intent shrouding his body visibly receding.
Unlike mortals, the Firstborn was still a deity—Zeus and Hera's first son. He knew he was being manipulated and struggled desperately to suppress this inner peace, trying to reclaim himself. After two attempts with little effect, his hatred, however great, couldn't match the compassion contained within all intelligent life across the universe.
Left with no choice, he could only force himself to continue pursuing Thea. His combat instinct told him that killing this woman would restore his true self.
Using compassion to brainwash a deity was equally taxing for Thea. Compassion flowed through her body as a conduit into the Firstborn's heart. She had to maintain constant vigilance to avoid being affected herself.
Her advantage over the Firstborn was her far superior mental power. Though compassion was somewhat indiscriminate between friend and foe, as its controller, she held some advantage. Trading a thousand enemy casualties for eight hundred of her own—she was one of the eight hundred, but still had better odds.
The seed had been planted in his mind. Now it was just continuously absorbing emotion, relaying it through herself into his heart. Thea stopped engaging the Firstborn directly, using blink teleportation to stall for time.
No matter how powerful, a deity was still an individual. Fighting the accumulated emotions of universal consciousness alone in one's spiritual world? Such beings might exist, but the Firstborn definitely wasn't one of them.
Their chase gradually slowed to a halt. They were both exhausted. Sweat drenched Thea's forehead, beads of perspiration rolling down her smooth chin to the ground.
The Firstborn was in worse shape. He barely stood upright, leaning on his longsword, drenched in sweat. His spiritual world was collapsing faster, manifested externally by half his face showing peaceful serenity while the other half displayed tension and resentment.
Thea hadn't expected his resistance to be this strong. Using her strength against his weakness, she still struggled this much. But seeing victory within reach, she unilaterally increased the emotional output, determined to "convert" him right here on the battlefield.