A guy wrapped in a head covering with a bare upper body, wearing a cloth strip below, and adorned with various ancient ornaments was sitting cross-legged in mid-air within Khalid's mental world. Meanwhile, unfortunate Khalid lay face-down on the ground.
Mystical words streamed from the turbaned man's mouth as the surrounding mental world—which should have been high-rise buildings—was being transformed into desert oases and pyramids.
Thea knew at a glance this must be Nabu. The other party also noticed her.
His strength was decent, but he wasn't a deity. He was merely a powerful mage who'd lost his body. In life, he might have been at the peak of demigod-level power, but now he didn't possess even a third of his strength.
However, Thea didn't immediately attack. She was a hero of justice, after all—she had to establish moral high ground with some verbal sparring first.
"You're just a fragment of Nabu's consciousness. Why are you forcibly seizing this human's body?" Thea could tell this wasn't simple body-snatching. Mainly because Nabu was already dead, his main consciousness gone. This guy was at most residual consciousness, using residual magic power to conduct a mental-level transformation ritual.
Transforming the body to adapt to Nabu's magic power—after the ritual, this person should be considered Khalid who'd received Nabu's remnants.
"This is Nabu's final wish. This world needs his power. Once I complete the transformation, this human will gain unimaginable magical power." The other party was quite mild-tempered. Or perhaps he realized he couldn't beat Thea, so he revealed his purpose without hiding anything.
Seeing communication was possible, Thea didn't want to get violent. It was just that this fellow's ritual was too domineering—he hadn't even asked the person's opinion, just forcibly proceeding. Willing or not, you had to accept!
"Does this Khalid know your intentions? Is he willing to fight for this world? Have you considered this question?"
Seeing Nabu's spirit looking utterly confused, Thea knew he hadn't considered it.
Perhaps in these ancient people's eyes, this wasn't even questionable? Dedicating yourself to the world, dying for humanity—probably all taken for granted. Some extremists initially claimed to be descendants of celestial beings, then eventually believed it themselves. All came from this mindset.
Modern people's broad knowledge was certainly good, but those willing to dedicate themselves and take responsibility were too few.
Reverence was even less—people respected leaders because of their paychecks. Once the interest relationship ended, what was a leader? Nothing!
Lack of reverence was one reason why belief in gods had reached a dead end.
This Nabu was taking things for granted, using methods for dealing with ancient people to transform modern people, forcibly remaking Khalid's mental world. Thea felt that once the transformation finished, this guy wouldn't be far from corruption...
"I know you're not a bad person and don't want to do bad things. But if you continue, are you certain it won't backfire? Let me talk properly with Khalid, have him cooperate with you and accept your power. How about that?"
After speaking, Thea used her divination arts to pull glimpses from several possible futures. Ten total images, each showing Khalid wearing Nabu's helmet, but the results weren't optimistic.
In four of the ten futures, he ultimately walked the villain's path. Perhaps due to non-recognition during transformation, perhaps later evil corruption—they'd all fallen. Power meant for salvation had been taken to another extreme.
"Very well, I shall follow your command, honored Goddess."
Nabu's spiritual power withdrew. Thea pulled up the unconscious Khalid. This guy was truly unlucky—one-quarter transformed! She had no good solution for this irreversible process, only wake him first.
She lightly touched Khalid's forehead, reconnecting the severed parts of his consciousness and body.
"Ahh!—" Suddenly returning to his own body, Khalid felt dizzy and disoriented, falling from the sofa with a thud.
Hawkgirl rushed to help him up. After a long while, gasping heavily, Khalid finally saw his worried lover clearly.
Every muscle was trembling. With great effort, he sat back on the sofa.
"Mr. Khalid, I have no stake in your world. As a mediator, I spoke with the Nabu inside you. He's not a bad person, just crude and forceful in his methods."
"He thinks highly of you, believes you're qualified to receive Nabu's magic power. With that power, you could help this world." Thea spoke blandly, though Khalid's expression showed he wasn't listening.
"I don't know you, stranger, and I won't accept anything from Nabu. That thing wants to devour me—you know that! It wants to eat me!" Emotionally agitated, Khalid shouted at Thea.
Thea was speechless. This Nabu really couldn't handle things properly. Coming on with hard selling turned a good thing into a bad thing. Now their relationship was hostile.
But having someone spit at her wasn't her style. Not indulging his tantrum at all, she silently cast an immobilization spell, freezing Khalid mid-wave as he tried to argue with her.
This idiot—someone was mediating, and he wanted to beat up the mediator.
Talking nicely didn't work—they had to do it the hard way!
Suddenly losing sensation, his whole body rigid, Khalid didn't know what happened. He tried to move his limbs, but no matter how hard his brain commanded, how much his nerves and muscles strained, his muscles felt dead, completely unresponsive.
He couldn't even move his head. Wanting to call his lover for help, he saw Hawkgirl looking at Thea with concern, not noticing anything was wrong with him.
Help me! Help me! No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shout those words. Hawkgirl's expression remained unchanged, as if time had frozen. Khalid moved his gaze upward to the wall clock, staring at the second hand without blinking. His eyes grew sore, but the second hand showed no sign of movement. What was happening? Was time...?
Thea clapped lightly. "Mr. Khalid, no wonder Nabu chose you. You have the qualifications to become a mage. Your observation, reasoning, and analytical abilities are all excellent."
Still unable to speak, Khalid finally noticed there was one other moving object in the room. He automatically filtered out Thea's praise, his eyes revealing a trace of fear toward the unknown.
With a snap of her fingers, he regained mobility. Rubbing his somewhat stiff limbs, looking at Hawkgirl and old Robert still frozen in place, even an idiot would know where the problem lay.
"You... what do you want?" His voice was hoarse. He was confused—wasn't she brought back by Hawkgirl? Shouldn't she be a friend?
Thea was even more helpless than him. This guy was too guarded. What did he have that she'd covet!