"Uninvited guest, you are neither supremely good nor supremely evil. State your purpose." Old Shazam's eyes were unfocused as he looked at Thea for a long while, unable to discern her nature.
Heh. Thea smiled. This old guy had been cooped up here too long—he'd never encountered a New God.
After careful observation, she noticed something unusual. "I originally thought you were a mage, but I didn't expect your soul to show no signs of decay. Ordinary people can't withstand ten thousand years of life. How surprising—you actually possess divinity yourself."
Old Shazam remained silent. Thea continued her analysis. "According to records, you should be Canaanite, chosen by the gods and granted divine power to maintain world order. But there's another divine power in you... It doesn't look like something the gods granted. Could you yourself be a deity?"
The homeless-looking old Shazam finally showed some emotion. "I am indeed a Canaanite, as you say, and also... I was once a god. My name is Mamaragan..."
Thea chuckled, indicating she'd never heard of him. You must be some minor deity from some nowhere corner, right? Old Shazam quickly cleared up her confusion.
"I come from what you now call Australia. I was the Lightning God there."
Thea's expression remained blank. Lightning God—how grand and impressive that sounds!
Zeus was also a Lightning God, but could this withered old man compare to Zeus? Zeus was powerful because of his inherent strength, not really because of the lightning domain. Put some weakling in that position—like the lonely old bachelor Charon—and even with the lightning domain, he'd probably fare worse than an ordinary god.
And! An Australian storm deity! This guy should be slightly stronger than that Hawaiian shark god Thea killed years ago, but not by much. Both belonged to that category of deities who could be beaten down by a few dozen city enforcers with sticks.
Divine power allowed old Shazam to cling to life until today. Thea didn't care whether he'd possessed someone or merged—she just wanted that divine power.
"I've come today to claim the gods' divine power. This power should serve the world, not gather dust with you." Her words were blunt, mainly because she had no positive feelings toward this old coot.
Old Shazam's dull yellow eyes looked at her twice before shaking his head. "Leave. You don't meet my criteria—neither supremely good nor supremely evil."
Ha! Thea was amused by the old fool's confusion. Are those two eyes of yours just for decoration? Can't you see I'm here to cause trouble?
This whole "supremely good or supremely evil" nonsense was laughable to the extreme. Where do such people or gods even exist nowadays?
The Highfather, representing justice and mercy, could wipe out billions of lives on a planet with a wave of his hand.
Likewise, Darkseid, representing evil and cruelty, mainly conquered other planets and sometimes even used diplomatic methods. You never heard of this lord getting bored and killing for fun.
Good and evil are relative, not absolute, so supreme good and supreme evil don't exist.
Thea was curious—what did this old coot need such people for?
Old Shazam naturally didn't speak English. If Thea hadn't ascended to godhood, she wouldn't have understood his halting native language. The old man spoke: "Only the supremely good or supremely evil can master Pandora's Box, reseal that breach, and reclaim humanity's original sin."
Thea looked at him sideways. Hey! Looks like this guy was also a paranoid delusional patient. She'd previously thought blaming everything on Pandora and going to sleep was wrong of him—seemed she'd misjudged.
He'd also been quietly working on it. He'd probably tried every method over ten thousand years, and only after numerous failed attempts did he come up with this idea of finding a supremely good or evil successor.
How tragic. That box wasn't even a magical artifact—the original sin and evil demons were all fake. It was a teleportation device, a technological marvel from Earth-3 mimicking the Mother Box! Only people from that timeline could open it. Old Shazam had been completely duped.
Pandora, being a mature woman, could still be saved. But old Shazam looked dirty and disheveled—Thea couldn't care less if he died.
"I don't care about your supreme good or evil. Hand over the gods' divine power."
Thea's cold tone finally made the slow-witted old Shazam realize something was wrong. This fierce attitude—do I owe you something?
"I can only grant it. Mortals have no right to demand it!" Old Shazam stood up. His words sounded impressive, but his hunched back and five-foot-seven frame looked rather weak compared to Thea's five-foot-eleven height.
This Australian deity still couldn't see through Thea's true nature. To strengthen his position, he gripped his lightning staff and struck the ground, shouting: "SHAZAM!"
A brilliantly golden lightning bolt enveloped old Shazam. When his form reappeared, he'd transformed from a homeless man into a middle-aged muscleman wearing red tights and a white cape.
"Nice look, but too bad none of that power is really yours." Thea drew her holy sword and shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, her blade angled toward Shazam's head.
Clang! A crisp sound rang out as the old man gripped his staff with both hands and blocked the sword.
The old guy was completely unprepared for Thea's attack-first-talk-later style. I just finished transforming and still have a whole speech prepared—how could you charge at me already? Young people these days are too impatient!
No matter how dissatisfied he was, Thea's greatsword struck at vital points with every blow, each faster than the last.
Having been a herdsman in his youth and then a shut-in for ten thousand years, with only a few battles relying on divine power to crush enemies, old Shazam had virtually no combat experience.
Facing Thea's holy sword, he could only stupidly block left and right. His flashy tights and grand cape became liabilities, and he got slashed twice like a punching bag.
"What exactly do you want?"
"I want the divine power in your body!"
Faced with this hardliner, old Shazam had no choice. Without divine power, he'd die. His Australian deity power alone couldn't sustain him to this day.
Nothing to discuss—keep fighting.
"Lightning!" The old man spoke in a long-lost language. As his words fell, a golden lightning bolt as thick as a child's arm shot from his staff like a vicious dragon lunging at Thea.
"Country bumpkin, you think you're the only one who can use lightning?" Thea switched her sword to her left hand and summoned an equally impressive spherical lightning bolt to meet the dragon.
As electric light flashed, old Shazam flew backward. His beard bristled, and his entire body visibly swelled another size. He seemed to use all his strength to utter an ancient syllable.
"ROAR—!" A sense of ancient desolation enveloped this land abandoned by Heaven and Hell. After the smoke cleared, a giant beast appeared—resembling a hippopotamus, standing ten feet tall (3 meters) on two legs with enormous tusks. The beast's body was wreathed in golden lightning, proving this was old Shazam himself.