Eclipso was the Spectre's predecessor—also God's Spirit of Wrath, later sealed within the Heart of Darkness.
This was one of the extremely rare objects that could allow an ordinary person to access God's power. Using it was simple and convenient too. Find the Heart of Darkness, and after that the process was fully automatic. As for whether the person afterward was still themselves or had become Eclipso... that she didn't know.
Beyond this explanation, Thea truly couldn't imagine how an ordinary person, ignorant of the plot, could reach a level higher and further than her own.
She laughed self-deprecatingly. How ironic. Here she was on the side of justice, studying the Great Beast's Shadow to fight her Dark counterpart—who had obtained a sliver of God's power and stood on the side of evil.
Dark Thea came quickly and left just as fast. She glanced at Old Robert, who was frantically shooting arrows, then stepped through a portal of light and vanished.
That kind of cross-dimensional teleportation looked familiar. Spectre had transported her the same way before.
Old Robert clutched Rebellious Thea's body, tears streaming down his face, before passing out.
Thea had no way to intervene now. All of this had already happened—she was merely an observer. She vaguely understood something, though she still needed to verify it.
"Old Robert is a good man." A pale blue, nearly transparent figure appeared beside her. Thea sensed a trace of Hope's power within it, but far more was a completely unfamiliar force.
The pale blue figure revealed a gentle smile. "Nice to meet you. I'm Thea Queen."
Thea's expression turned strange. Shaking hands with another version of her own soul—and now that other version could see her!
"I was too willful before, too immature. I let Old Robert down... Oh, some voice in my head is telling me that you're also Thea Queen. How is that possible? Is it just the same name?" The pale blue figure seemed quite chatty. Despite having just died, she wasn't overly sad. She struck up a curious conversation with Thea.
"We share more than a name. My father is Robert. My mother is Moira. My brother is Oliver. The difference between us lies in just a tiny bit of chance at the very beginning."
Seeing that Soul Thea didn't believe her, she lightly touched the other's spirit form and transmitted a portion of her memories.
With some editing, she showed Soul Thea everything: "accidentally" learning her true parentage, then joining the company, training in martial arts, and so on.
"Oh my God! I never knew I had that orientation! You're actually together with Wonder Woman!!"
Soul Thea was slapping her shoulder excitedly. Her focus was clearly... unconventional. She'd watched the earlier struggles with only mild interest; it wasn't until Themyscira that she got excited. Thea was speechless. This silly gossip-lover is definitely not me!
But seeing her laugh so happily, Thea found herself smiling too. Two women who looked seventy to eighty percent alike, laughing together like a pair of fools.
"That's really interesting! Your life is truly wonderful! I admire you." Soul Thea looked at her warmly, eyes shimmering with hope.
"Too bad I'm already dead. Thea Queen from another timeline—carry on with that wonderful life. Carry on with your convictions. Keep moving forward."
Soul Thea spoke quietly. Behind her, several more figures emerged: grim-faced Malcolm, Oliver still in his playboy phase, concerned-looking Moira... the deceased relatives from this world all silently watched her.
"You're our daughter too. Our sister. Our road has reached its end, but your future is still wide open. Carry our hopes with you. Live a wonderful life for us." The spirits' expressions varied, but the care in their eyes was unmistakable.
In spirit form herself, Thea didn't know how to respond. Her usually quick mind seemed to freeze. If she'd had a physical body right now, she feared she might cry.
Collecting herself, she faced them with firm resolution and nodded. "I will. I'll definitely reach the highest peak. Though you're not the people I knew, I'll carry your wishes forward."
Each spirit came to embrace her before fading into nothingness.
"Look after Old Robert for me, please." Soul Thea held her tightly, whispering in her ear before completely dissipating into the void.
Am I sad? Not really. Thea could clearly distinguish—investing too much emotion here would be unfair to the family in her own timeline.
In some ways, the living could never compete with the dead.
But to just smile it off? She truly couldn't manage that.
Looking at Old Robert, unconscious beside Rebellious Thea's body, she spoke—perhaps to the empty air, perhaps to herself. "I'll take care of him. Rest easy."
The dreamlike world began restoring its original colors. Thea's consciousness returned to her body. She found herself still reclining in the same position, with that wisp of Shadow hovering eternally before her, as always.
A new power had appeared within her body. Despite its different nature, Thea immediately recognized this familiar force—it was a Source!
A newborn Source that she would need to nurture slowly.
Unlike Diana, whose divine power came primarily from the blessings of the Greek gods, with only the portion she was born with as Zeus's daughter being truly hers. Her nurturing process would be slow and time-consuming.
Thea herself was already a deity. Her divine power had been refined several times over and belonged entirely to her.
Though her Trade and Wealth divine power didn't perfectly match the new Source, the fact that it had found her meant there must be some connection.
Thea patiently communed with it, attempting to channel divine power into the Source to accelerate the nurturing process.
The conversion rate wasn't high, suggesting a connection to her original domain, but not a strong one. Optimistically, it would still take about a month to fully integrate.
She'd initially thought this new Source would be something related to her original domain—perhaps Deception or Language. But Thea quickly discovered it wasn't. This new Source was grander, reaching deeper into the laws of existence. And by conventional understanding... it wasn't particularly virtuous.
She didn't linger in the sub-dimension. Returning to Earth-2, she focused entirely on decoding the new Source.
It took an entire day. The Source had grown less than five percent, but she could now identify the domain. When the result emerged, even she was stunned. Her talent tree seemed to be... veering off course. The name of this Source was... Soul!
Soul and Wealth/Trade had minimal connection, honestly. But if she stretched the interpretation, she could draw some tenuous link. Thea concluded that this was the universe's gift, delivered through Soul Thea, for observing the Great Beast's Shadow.
Soul definitely wasn't a "light" domain, but it wasn't evil either. It fit perfectly with her path of neutrality. The depth that Soul represented meant this single Source was equivalent to two or three ordinary ones. Once fully absorbed, crushing Steppenwolf would be no problem at all. Perhaps she'd become the third strongest being below Highfather and Darkseid.
The only issue was that nurturing the new Source would take time, followed by integration and familiarization. A three-day battle was now impossible. Postponing it by a month was inevitable.