"Your Majesty, fellow Legion Commanders, I can establish a new profession allowing souls to train normally and join legion deployments during major battles."
Hmm? Several legion commanders instantly grew interested. Their combat strength was stretched too thin—any additional power was welcome.
Lightray, the three-meter-tall (about 10 feet), masculine commander of the Archer Legion, asked, "Is it a caster class? Can our subordinates transfer into it too?"
"I'm calling it Soul Walker. It's not purely a caster class—theoretically, souls of any profession can retrain. I'll prepare detailed training methods shortly."
"Good. Let's see the results!" The Highfather gave the order directly.
Thea selected a soul with the best overall qualities from the Reincarnation Pool. In life, he'd been a cavalryman in Ugha's legion—brave and skilled in battle, killed while serving as rear guard.
Upon hearing he could continue fighting for the Highfather as a soul, he agreed without hesitation. Thea wasted no words and completed the transformation using her divine power.
The transformation finished quickly. The ghost seemed momentarily confused but could already condense a spirit weapon using soul power. He demonstrated his martial arts on the spot. His living skills remained completely intact. This ghost had never known any spells, but the Soul Walker's primary function wasn't combat anyway—it was support and healing. His soul's unique properties would help allies share damage.
Physical attack immunity and elevated resistances across the board—the only drawback was that dying in soul form meant true death, with no chance of reincarnation.
The Highfather pondered. Losing all chance of reincarnation displeased him, but he also knew nothing in this world was perfect. Getting half a life after death was already something to be grateful for.
Though fighting alongside a bunch of souls might damage their righteous image, under the legion commanders' insistence, the Highfather approved the proposal.
Thea could use her divine power to create one or two, but she wasn't about to produce a hundred thousand. Nobody made such an unreasonable request either.
She returned to her quarters and compiled a general Soul Walker cultivation manual. How far anyone progressed would depend on the individual.
With nothing else to do, the souls began training frantically upon receiving the manual.
Soul Walker did lean toward caster classes. Of the Magic Legion's hundred-thousand-plus souls, thirty thousand successfully transferred. The Cavalry and Archer Legions also converted ten to twenty thousand deceased veterans each.
Regardless of how much help they'd provide, at least the souls had something to do.
Thea busied herself integrating legion combat strength. As for the souls' daily work and employment issues—let the Highfather worry about those. She'd done all she could.
Mister Miracle (Scott Free) and Big Barda, the lovebird couple, stayed on New Genesis for barely fifteen days before bidding farewell to the Highfather.
According to Scott, they were deeply in love and didn't want to be disturbed. Thea suspected the kid had been imprisoned by Darkseid for centuries and had developed social anxiety—a fear of strangers.
The Highfather was somewhat disappointed in his biological son but ultimately let them go.
Once everything was on track, Thea left a clone to answer various magical questions, dumped the remaining work on her adjutant, and returned to Earth—ostensibly to recuperate.
The spiritual trauma wasn't as severe as when she'd brainwashed Firstborn; after all, the world's will had absorbed more than half the damage. As the aggressor, she'd only suffered some backlash. A couple days' rest and she was healed.
She spent most of her time studying applications of her new Divine Positions.
Arts, that weak Divine Position—throughout history, few deities had developed any powerful abilities from it. She shelved it for now.
All her energy went into Soul. She'd learned extensive soul knowledge from Metron, and she had to admit—this Divine Position was incredibly powerful.
Soul was a key element of creation. Only when combined with a body could life be born. Body alone didn't work; soul alone couldn't persist.
Unfortunately, such a powerful Divine Position resided at the deepest level of cosmic rules. With her current realm, fully comprehending it was a pipe dream. And without the Death Divine Position as support, something always felt missing.
"Death, ah!" Thea couldn't help but sigh. Death was even stronger! So strong that she'd encountered several death gods, yet from her perspective, they'd all gone astray.
Whether Hades, Thanatos, or Mars's H'ronmeer—all claimed to master death. But verified against her Soul Divine Position's source, they were all wrong.
Either biased or misinterpreted, what they grasped was death, but they couldn't represent Death.
Metron had once mentioned that Darkseid had captured a New God—the Black Racer. Anyone touched by him, mortal or divine, would die.
Initially, Thea thought he was the Black Flash, but she later discovered they were two different beings. After obtaining the Soul Divine Position, her perception grew clearer—this guy wasn't a death god at all; he was a soul-reaping god! By Old God classification, he should be a subordinate deity under Thea.
"All things must die"—that was the Black Racer's view of death. Sounded impressive, but it was hollow and insubstantial.
Thea knew full well that for this universe, plenty of things were eternal and indestructible. She didn't believe the Black Racer would dare shout "All things must die" at the Presence or the Great Evil Beast.
Being captured by Darkseid also proved his view of death wasn't as strong as advertised.
None of the various deities' understandings of death satisfied her. Yet examining existing Divine Positions, Thea was actually the one closest to the Death Divine Position.
Her future looked bright. Once she obtained both Death and Soul, combined with her Trade and Wealth Positions, she'd have the confidence to contend with the Highfather and Darkseid.
If she could also acquire the Magic and Emotion Divine Positions, perhaps battling the Spectre wouldn't be impossible.
Unfortunately... she was currently stuck in the middle, neither here nor there. She'd gone from "one-shot kill" in the big shots' eyes to "can survive two moves." That was her current status.
Against major powers, she still fell short. Against ordinary people and gods, she was overwhelmingly strong.
Necromancy spells targeting souls had become incredibly potent. Before the new Soul Goddess, "resistance" simply didn't exist as a concept.
Thea understood clearly: any being with a soul, facing her necromancy now, would die on contact. Personal willpower, resistance, equipment—all could be ignored.
New Gods and Old Gods might struggle briefly using their divine power, but anyone below deity level would be instant-killed.
Granny Goodness's Female Furies, those pseudo-gods—every single one fell within this instant-death range.
Just as she worked hard to commune with souls and understand them, a brilliant glow rose from the distant sky, illuminating everything for thousands of miles (thousands of kilometers). Even from Metropolis, she could see it.
"This is... Diana finally ascended!" Identifying the direction, Thea teleported to Themyscira in delight.
Golden light blazed magnificently. "Accumulated over time, erupted in an instant"—that perfectly described Diana. Thea watched her beloved from afar.
A mass of dense golden light surrounded the Valkyrie. The air occasionally carried sounds resembling victory cheers.