The Phantom Stranger, The Question, and Pandora—they were the Trinity of Sin. The first two were elusive as dragons, often wandering Hell, Heaven, and outer dimensions. Finding them was impossible.
Pandora, believed to have released the Seven Deadly Sins, was her only choice now.
Pandora was a pitiful woman, whether in mythology or in reality.
Originally an innocent tribal girl, she'd opened a metal box out of curiosity and been nailed to the pillar of shame with the crime of releasing the Seven Deadly Sins.
Ridiculous! Emotions humans originally possessed were forcibly pinned on a girl's head, just because she opened a box of unknown purpose at that particular time.
Old, dim-eyed, lacking both wisdom and willingness to listen, hot-tempered, stubborn, and unreasonable—the Wizard Shazam, self-proclaimed guardian of humanity, condemned the girl to life imprisonment on trumped-up charges, sentencing her to remain in the world forever, "atoning" for her evil deeds.
The wizard wouldn't admit he also couldn't figure out what that box was. Styling himself humanity's guardian yet unable to offer constructive opinions, he pushed all blame onto an ignorant girl. Calling it atonement, he then shut the door and went to sleep.
This was just one trivial matter among countless "good deeds" the muddled old Shazam had done in his life. Thea now needed to find this girl who'd wandered the mortal world for thousands of years, then enter the Rock of Eternity, take his divine power, and chop off that old dog's head.
Justice needed to be served, but not by randomly finding a scapegoat. The more "good people" like Shazam there were, the more chaotic the world became.
"Gideon, search all databases for a woman. Purple coat, I don't know her appearance. The only clue is she's always appeared in remote places. She should have been born around 8000 BC. She should be visible in many human wars. Search ancient texts based on these conditions, then perform modern facial recognition to filter targets."
Thea set the search parameters and propped her long legs on the desk, waiting for results.
"2620 BC, Memphis, ancient Egypt. Mm, too ancient to verify."
"44 AD, Druid forest of Antrim, a woman in purple clothing appeared. Mm, this message should be real."
"113 AD, Jerusalem, alchemist master Burns took a female apprentice."
"1328 AD, Mount Song... 1416 AD, Osaka..."
"Poor woman. Just an ordinary person with no talent whatsoever, yet cursed with eternal life."
Thea looked at the search results, sighing repeatedly. Vandal Savage was like this, Ra's al Ghul was like this, and this poor woman was the same. They had long lifespans, determination and willpower, but lacked that spark of talent to turn decay into magic.
This woman called Pandora in ancient texts had begun her lonely journey, traveling the world. Initially she'd still sought extraordinary power, humbly asking for instruction from masters whose ages couldn't match even one of her digits. Unfortunately, she had absolutely no talent. Besides training some martial skills, she had no other strengths.
Some results were confirmed, most discarded. Gideon's search scope rapidly narrowed. Two hours later, it finally determined the target's current address: "In Aleppo? What a fine place blessed with outstanding people..."
Thea put on her coat and teleported directly over.
Back when major powers used this place as a chessboard for their competing interests, war was constant and refugees plentiful.
Now the major powers' attention had all been drawn away, leaving only devastation. Whether Queen Consolidated or Wayne Enterprises had provided some assistance to these areas, but it was a drop in the bucket. Hatred between people wasn't easily resolved.
Human evil was magnified to the maximum in such places. Those receiving aid would turn around and kidnap their benefactors. To satisfy a small group's greed, corporations had to pay ransoms to get their employees back. Over time, no one was willing to come help anymore.
The once war-torn land had only superficially restored calm. Various interests still churned beneath the surface.
"Sinful souls!" Thea disliked this place intensely. Without needing judgment, she could tell people died here every day. But the killers weren't necessarily bad people, and those who died weren't necessarily good. Everything was chaotic.
She didn't pay much attention here. Compared to Darkseid's apocalyptic disaster, this place didn't even count as a minor ailment.
She spread out her psychic power, searching the city for the person with the most vigorous life force. She quickly discovered an anomaly in the city's northwest corner and flew directly over.
"Hey, I'm Thea Queen. I need your help with something." Thea descended from the sky, blocking the hurried purple-coated woman.
Her sudden aerial greeting startled the woman, who nimbly backflipped to create distance. The instant she landed, she drew two handguns.
Pretty pathetic, honestly. Living for over ten thousand years and only able to fight with handguns—though the guns seemed to have some magic about them, Thea chose to ignore them.
As the woman backflipped and landed, her hood fell off, revealing a face that wasn't particularly beautiful. Thea figured she rated about seventy points.
Blue hair, eyes full of exhaustion. The only notable feature was three lightning-bolt marks on each cheek, arranged in parallel—from a distance, she looked like Naruto's relative.
Thea raised both hands and waved them gently, indicating she carried no weapons.
"I know you. What do you want?" The woman holstered her guns quickly, asking Thea with an unfriendly expression.
"Uh, I've looked at some of your records. I want to find a way to enter the Rock of Eternity. You don't know what the Rock of Eternity is? It's the place that initially turned you into this immortal state."
The woman shing drew her guns again, pointing them at Thea with a cold voice: "How do you know about this? What's your relationship with them?"
Thea ignored the gun barrels. "'Them'? The old wizard Shazam has accomplices?"
Constantine and other mages she could casually teleport. A handgun was even less concerning. The woman was waiting for her answer when she suddenly found her hands empty—her guns were already in the other's hands.
"Nice guns. Magically enhanced metal. This is Jewish alchemy you learned from Master Burns, right? The barrel's engraved with Sanskrit, and you added silver to the bullets? This is quite the hodgepodge." Thea laughed softly and tossed the handguns back.
"I have no relationship with that old guy. I just need a tiny fragment from your memories. Everything after that has nothing to do with you." Thea spoke sincerely.
The woman was also quite reasonable—or perhaps intimidated by Thea's power. She nodded in agreement.