Faced with this horrific scene, Diana covered half her face while Thea twitched, struggling to hold back laughter. She was afraid she might burst out laughing.
Birds of a feather flock together—Diana had been enjoying the spectacle for quite a while before remembering she should help Kara up.
Without realizing she was also smiling, Diana shot her lover an exasperated look. Together, they pulled the miserable-looking Supergirl from the large, person-shaped crater.
"Well, at least she didn't punch straight through the floor into the basement. Hehe..." Thea said, barely containing herself. She quickly looked up at the sky to divert her attention.
"Stop it." Diana swatted her lightly. Fortunately, Supergirl was too dejected to notice their antics.
After this little incident, the training continued. Thea explained the techniques Lady Shiva had once taught her, including how to control the calf muscles and apply pressure with the feet. When framed as a kind of leg technique with combat applications, Kara—a natural-born warrior—understood immediately.
After some practice, going from slow walking to fast walking, she looked reasonably competent.
The graduation ceremony went smoothly. Though Kara dressed fashionably, her thick-rimmed glasses obscured most of it. Overall, she'd gone from very dorky to just somewhat dorky.
As for finding a job afterward, Thea didn't get involved. Kara knew she had connections but didn't ask for help. The spirited young woman joined the job-hunting masses with full enthusiasm.
The two women flew through the air, watching the bustling crowds below. Ordinary people didn't know about Darkseid, but they had plenty of troubles of their own. Everyone's got their struggles—life is tough.
"I'm heading back to New Genesis first. I've thought of a way that might avoid massive casualties," Thea said with determination.
Diana said nothing, simply embracing her lover to show her support.
These past few days, Thea had been contemplating one thing: if the battle took place on Earth, the destructive power of the superheroes and divine beings would be catastrophic. Never mind anything else—just Steppenwolf, that blockhead, constantly smashing things with his axe. Most planets couldn't withstand that kind of abuse.
If the global economy was destroyed, all her years of effort would go down the drain.
Keeping the enemy beyond the gates sounds easy, but fighting on an alien world would be ideal. Unfortunately, Darkseid wouldn't negotiate politely. He had no diplomacy, no need for probing—his battle strategy was simply to throw his entire army forward in a direct assault.
Once the fighting started on Earth, avoiding damage would be nearly impossible.
This dilemma had troubled her for days. After much deliberation, Thea finally decided to establish a higher-dimensional plane above Earth.
New Genesis and Apokolips existed above numerous parallel timelines. Thea's plan was to construct a continent just slightly above Earth-One's dimensional plane. When Darkseid's forces arrived, they'd be intercepted by this plane. The superheroes, human military, and New Genesis forces could engage the enemy there—perfect.
As for why not build it higher—first, there was the matter of ability. Creating dimensional planes was far more difficult than opening sub-spaces.
Second, she could only bite off what she could chew. Protecting Earth-One would be fortunate enough; other timelines would have to fend for themselves.
If her plane's dimension was too high, above all parallel timelines, then Darkseid invading any reality would encounter her. Constant battles, big and small—she'd go insane.
Call her selfish, call her prioritizing the few over the many—whatever. She was doing it anyway.
The plan was set, but how to build it? Easier said than done.
After continuous thought and planning, she finally produced a detailed strategy.
First, obtain a golden apple from Hera and trace it back to its origins, transforming it into a seed.
Plant this seed in the African grasslands, anchor a ten-thousand-times time acceleration spell on it, and artificially create a pseudo-World Tree to support the new plane.
Then return to New Genesis, gather all the mages of the Magic Legion, draw a massive magic circle connecting everyone's magical power, and cast an unprecedented legendary-level Wish spell.
Regarding her commandeering the New Gods for private projects, Highfather pretended not to notice. He even observed with interest.
Immense, indescribable magical power coalesced into a magical cloud covering all of New Genesis. Through the spell's power, a trace of creation force was born from the magic. Using the collective will stored in her Scales of Order as a guide, Thea began the extremely difficult task of constructing the new plane.
Oxygen was essential. All rules had to perfectly match Earth's standards. The plane had to be sturdy. And finally, the area had to be vast enough.
With over a million mages working for ten days, they created a continent resembling North America. She named it the New Continent.
The new plane was barren, without a trace of life. Thea was somewhat disappointed. She'd hoped to glimpse the mysteries of creation, but magic ultimately had its limitations. No matter how much magical power was accumulated, it couldn't trigger a qualitative change.
The result wasn't perfect, but regardless, she now had a battlefield.
To make the battlefield suitable for human survival, she had more work to do.
She connected it to the Green, the Red, and the Rot to maintain a natural cycle. Then she had a long discussion with Moira—they needed to mobilize the military and scientists to develop and build this place.
Moira set aside an entire day to hear Thea's detailed explanation of the plan dubbed "New Continent." This was a major undertaking, so she brought in several absolutely top-level government and military officials to discuss it together.
The public explanation obviously couldn't be "an evil overlord is coming to invade, so we're preparing a battlefield in advance to avoid destroying Earth's environment." Behind closed doors, they worked out an excuse about a holographic simulation game. No need for monster hunting or leveling up—just plant trees, build forests, and establish a few outposts.
Building power plants, signal towers, installing weapon launchers—all such matters were handed to the military.
The Pentagon welcomed this enthusiastically. When the leaders saw this entirely new continent, Superman's father-in-law General Lane was somewhat dumbfounded. This place was huge.
"It's so barren here. Is there really going to be an alien invasion?" The old general surveyed the area—nothing but rocks and dirt as far as the eye could see, not a trace of life. He asked half-skeptically.
"Of course. And it won't be just one or two—it'll be a massive army led by the most evil being. The footage I showed you earlier was from another parallel timeline they conquered. If we don't prepare in advance, our outcome won't be any better..."
"When I left that timeline, Earth's population of seven billion had been reduced to less than eighty million. Human civilization regressed at least a hundred years. Landscapes were devastated, natural disasters were constant—I don't even know what deeper environmental impacts there might be."
To explain parallel timelines to these old politicians, she had to go to great lengths, using illustrations and facts to lay out the reasoning. She scared the high-level officials pale.