"You're lucid? You recognize me, right?" Diana asked radiantly, delighted.
But Heracles disappointed her. "Her sword's light only temporarily restored part of my sanity. My soul bears too heavy a burden—recovery will be difficult. Once I leave here, I'll still be that crazed beast."
Diana clenched her fists. "Thea and I will cure you. Thea...?" She suddenly realized Thea had only said one word before falling silent, which was highly unusual.
She quickly turned back to see Thea standing there with unfocused eyes, silent, as if she hadn't noticed Heracles regaining his sanity at all.
"Daughter of Zeus, don't disturb her. The primordial beings were products of the giants and Gaia's evil consciousness. She purified the evil consciousness, and Mother Earth Gaia is rewarding her." Heracles hadn't spoken in tens of thousands of years; his language skills were somewhat lacking. Still, Diana understood. Mother Earth Gaia? She was somewhat skeptical. This was Zeus's grandmother-level primordial deity—was she still alive?
If Thea could hear Diana's thoughts now, she'd definitely answer: The traditional Earth Mother no longer exists in that sense.
Equally versed in theology—she could even get a theology doctorate—Thea, as someone experiencing it firsthand, immediately realized she'd encountered Gaia.
The form of manifestation was bizarre, between being and non-being, between existence and non-existence.
At least at Thea's level, she couldn't comprehend the state at all. Calling it Gaia's consciousness wasn't accurate. From Thea's narrow perspective, she could only understand it as being one with Earth, now manifesting as a form of pan-consciousness.
The imagined journey to Earth's core, the little movie showing the primordial beings' birth process, the great revelation of ancient mythology—none of that happened!
The consciousness was ethereal and mechanical, like completing some programmed setting. It returned a large mass of divine power to Thea, then vanished as if it had never been there.
Thea almost wanted to laugh triumphantly! Divine power was precious, and this pure earth-attribute divine power was even more precious. She'd originally planned to obtain some from Heracles, even designing several plans for it. Now she'd struck gold unexpectedly.
This large mass of divine power was extremely pure. It could not only activate Thea's earth attribute and initiate her magic circulation, but distributing it across the six major attributes could even restore her to pre-division levels.
This was far better than carefully extracting from Heracles! Thea was delighted, but she didn't absorb it immediately. The holy sword's earlier commotion on this island was too big; they needed to leave at once.
"Huh? You're awake?" Thea's consciousness returned to reality, also discovering Heracles' state. Diana quietly explained everything.
"Let's return to my place first. I have more equipment there." Thea directly teleported Diana and Heracles back to Metropolis.
Just after leaving the island, Heracles' expression began to distort. His eyes bulged wide, teeth grinding audibly.
"Release part of your consciousness—I'll knock you out!" The suffering Heracles nodded slightly. Thea used her maximum mental impact, releasing a mental storm in his mental world.
The burly warrior didn't even grunt before passing out.
No time to talk with Diana, Thea immediately began examining him. Using the opening Heracles had deliberately left, her mental power extended inside, trying to find the true cause of his madness.
Three minutes in, sweat beaded on Thea's forehead. His mental world was too vast, filled with countless images and figures—praise and insult, love and hate. His mental world also contained projections of legendary divine objects like the golden apple and golden fleece.
Of course, there were also powerful enemies he'd slain. Thea's mental power spotted the nine-headed Hydra, its crimson eyes peering at her from across some unknown timeline through Heracles' mental world.
Thea scoffed. Just a broken snake. She wasn't the novice she once was. She hadn't feared it when it was alive; why fear it after countless years of death?
She searched for a full ten minutes. His mental world was vast as smoke and sea; searching with her current mental strength was laborious.
Heroic Spirit transformation could explosively increase mental power, but the holy sword had just unleashed that earth-shattering strike and needed rest. It couldn't provide her sufficient energy for transformation now.
Using the mental link, she found the Martian Manhunter and stated her request.
"You want me, an alien, to heal Earth's ancient deity?" The Martian Manhunter was somewhat amused, though having lived on Earth for years, he'd heard of Heracles' many exploits. In his heart, if they could cure him, it would definitely be a great general for the side of justice. Without further ado, he said he'd arrive immediately.
But Thea and Diana waited and waited. Four hours passed before they saw the "immediately arriving" Martian Manhunter.
He'd temporarily found a Metropolis mission, then disguised himself all the way before coming.
"Uncle J'onn, you could've just flown here in under three minutes, right? You're too cautious..." Thea was practically acquainted with him now and teased him.
The Martian Manhunter glared at her. "The Azores incident—that was you, wasn't it? What were you doing there?"
Thea boasted about her heroic deeds with some embellishment. Her heart was clear now—even Gaia acknowledged her achievement, proving she'd done well.
The Martian Manhunter naturally found no fault. Realizing human scholars had caused this trouble themselves, he could only sigh.
"So strong..." Seeing Heracles' height and weight, his body of iron muscle lying there, the formless aura made the Martian Manhunter somewhat moved.
The Martian Manhunter, though skilled in telepathy, had strength rivaling Superman's. That he felt pressure showed Heracles' extraordinary nature.
Thea explained everything she'd discovered.
"You think those primordial beings still have images left in his mind?"
"Yes. You call it the mind; we mages call it the mental world; mediums call it the soul world. They're all the same—the inner being of intelligent creatures." Thea first unified their terminology.
Then she continued, "Not necessarily just one. I estimate there are many various kinds—enemies from different periods all polluting his mental world. He could previously suppress all malice with iron will, but after ten thousand years of corruption, his willpower was broken down, and that malice jumped out to pollute his mind."
After listening, the Martian Manhunter thought it over. Some things differed from his worldview, but the general direction was similar. Without dwelling on it, he began carefully examining Heracles.