"Regret? Fear? Terror? You're not invincible, are you? You've always known that, so you've worked hard to seem invincible..." Thea, in an unprecedented move, put on a yellow power ring and amplified her own fear a hundredfold, pouring it into the Dark Lord's heart.
Her whispers were soft and delicate, like wind blowing into Darkseid's mind.
Yes, he wasn't invincible. He'd always known that.
"Who do you fear? Even now, you can't catch up to that person's shadow, can you? Perhaps he's the true cosmic emperor, and you're just a pitiful creature. What was his name again?..." Thea's voice became even gentler, but Darkseid heard every word clearly.
You couldn't possibly know. You're so young, how could you possibly know him! Darkseid tried to encourage himself, still struggling against the fear.
"Such a fearsome New God. He's the strongest of all New Gods. No matter how hard you try your whole life, so what? Seeing his shadow, you have to flee in panic, don't you? You really have a wonderful father..." The devil's whisper finally reached the most critical point.
"Don't mention him! I order you to stop! Ahhh!" The Dark Lord's psychological defenses crumbled. He spat out a mouthful of black blood containing countless fragments of divine power essence.
Thea naturally wasn't polite. With a wave of her hand, she collected a portion. The rest all fell into the sea. Even as an avatar, his divine power nature was identical to his true body. She'd take it back to study exactly what the Omega Effect was.
Since he wasn't stopping her, she wouldn't continue her trash talk. Speaking Yuga Khan's name in the New Continent? She wasn't that suicidal.
"Rise!" Eight dark golden chains flew out from the soul sea. These were all Hades' treasures, originally used to bind their father, the second-generation God King Cronus. Now Thea had rolled them all over here. Whether they fit or not, click, click—Darkseid was locked down tight from the neck down.
At the same time, three more sirens were born in the soul sea. Their power was far inferior to the first Siren, only able to add some background noise.
Only then did Thea have leisure to survey this sea suspended in the sky. Though she'd created it, because Darkseid had been stirring inside, she couldn't take it back now.
Looking at the battlefield now, most of the dead—except New Genesis warriors who returned to the Source—their souls flowed into the soul sea. The three newly reborn sirens were quite interesting: one had been a Green Lantern in life, and the other two were actually formed from the combined souls of Apokoliptian parademons.
The parademons came from planets Darkseid had conquered. As resistance leaders or important officials, they were ultimately captured and transformed. Their own soul strength was considerable, but cruel mechanical transformation had left their souls muddled. Now, freed from their physical constraints, they'd finally recovered a trace of their nature.
The two sirens formed from parademon souls let out soundless shrieks. They wanted to grab Darkseid and take a bite, but his lingering aura kept them from daring.
Thea had no such problem. The enemy was already restrained—if not now, when?
Soul flames ignited in both hands, which she pressed into Darkseid's blinded eye sockets.
On the other side, the warrior goddess was even more ruthless. Gripping her lightning spear, she aimed for Darkseid's abdominal wound and thrust in, as if piercing rock. Diana roared, pouring her accumulated divine power into the spear and stirring it around inside the Dark Lord's belly.
"Ahhh! You deserve death!" Darkseid burned with rage. Being wounded by two insects was utterly humiliating in his eyes. His entire body swelled two sizes. The absorption nanomachines burst one after another, followed by the dark golden chains snapping in sequence.
"You're loud! Let's see if you can back it up!" Thea was frantically busy, launching seven or eight balls of soul fire that blazed across Darkseid's giant body. Within the gray-white flames, even the Dark Lord's black face showed a pale tinge when viewed from a distance.
Diana's record was slightly less impressive, but she'd still used her spear to punch two holes, her golden divine power constantly rampaging inside Darkseid's body.
After half a minute more of ganging up on him, Darkseid's divine power was completely disrupted, leaving him only able to take the punishment passively.
"BOOM!" A massive boom rang out as a Boom Tube opened. Darkseid was finally preparing to retreat.
No way the Goddess of Wealth was letting him escape empty-handed. She'd used at least a third of Hades' treasury to create these traps. Darkseid! You've got to leave me something!
Seeing this scene from afar, the other gods were overjoyed. Superman and his team saw victory at hand, while Steppenwolf and DeSaad thought, "Thank the heavens, boss, you're finally retreating!"
No question about it—time to run!
Though they'd decided to flee, they couldn't just bolt. They needed strategy and method.
The two brothers-in-misfortune both saw Darkseid's predicament. Their boss looked pretty bad, huh? Exchanging glances, they understood each other's meaning. The war's outcome was certain, but they had to rescue their boss's avatar!
Both gods acted simultaneously, driving back the four heroes and shouting things like "You shall not harm my lord!" and "Steppenwolf of Apokolips is here!" as they charged toward Thea.
Of course, this was mostly for show. Using colleagues as shields, using partners as meat barriers—this was Apokolips' trademark. They didn't think their boss Darkseid had any admirable qualities. Remember, the boss was just an avatar while they were their true bodies. If they died here, it would take centuries to revive.
They shouted loudly, but once they entered the soul sea, they immediately acted dizzy, disoriented, and cramped up. Even Thea was startled. My ultimate move isn't that powerful, is it? You're elite New Gods—and the moment you touched the soul sea, you went limp? Your acting skills are a bit over the top.
"Your Majesty, hold on a bit longer!" Steppenwolf dog-paddled, waving his axe like an oar.
On the other side, DeSaad displayed true mage curiosity, sneakily scooping up a small bucket of water from the soul sea to study later.
Thea had no time to pay attention to their antics. She ignored them and continued her fierce assault on Darkseid.
But when the Dark Lord was determined to leave, she truly had no good way to stop him with all her cards played.
Leaving harsh words and promising revenge next time—that was street thug behavior. Darkseid had class. Even with his eyes blinded, his hollow sockets still "looked" coldly at Thea's position before he turned and left without a word.
With their boss departing silently, Steppenwolf and DeSaad had even less courage. The two gods fled like lightning into the portal behind him.