But when the agents pulled back his hood, they all froze in shock.
His entire body emitted a faint glow. Where his face should have been, there was only a mask. He had no brain, no hair—nothing a normal person should have. Just a mask floating eerily where a face ought to be, with empty space behind it.
After A.R.G.U.S. personnel conducted a preliminary examination, an even more startling truth emerged: he appeared to be wearing human clothes—suit, tie, gloves—but they were all just decorations. He had no body beneath them.
Apart from identifying himself as Johnny Sorrow and claiming he'd come to this A.R.G.U.S. facility to surrender under orders from someone called the King of Tears, he refused to reveal any other information.
When Amanda asked him to remove his mask, he responded with utter seriousness: "Anyone who sees my face will die."
Given such a significant public threat, Amanda had no choice but to imprison him. He'd been locked up here ever since.
After observing him for some time, Thea determined he wasn't lying—anyone who saw his face really would die. The aura emanating from this guy unmistakably marked him as a chosen one of a deity, though this King of Tears didn't seem to be an Earth god.
She wasn't particularly surprised by this. Gods were rare in one sense, yet fairly common in another. Earth alone had plenty of deities, so naturally other planets would too. H'ronmeer, whom she'd killed before, had been a Martian god. The Kryptonians Faora and the others constantly mentioned Rao, who was likewise a Kryptonian deity.
So encountering an unfamiliar god now wasn't exactly shocking.
This King of Tears differed from Earth's specialized gods—deities who governed specific domains—and resembled more of a conceptual god.
The major concepts like time, space, life, and death—the kind that would make even Highfather and Darkseid's heads spin—were beyond his grasp. He couldn't comprehend anything else either, so this deity had taken a creative approach: he'd written his own rule. That rule was "those who see me shall die."
To Thea, this seemed like self-deception. His rule had too many limitations—it only took effect when someone actually "saw him."
According to this law, the air that saw him should vanish, stars that saw him should explode. But he couldn't withstand such tremendous backlash, so he could only hide himself away somewhere.
This chosen one completely embodied his deity's doctrine. He normally wore a mask, and when the need arose, he'd remove it—boom, world goes quiet!
This attack method worked on exactly the same principle as Diana's practice of wearing guardian bracelets to accumulate power, or the artificial Word of Power talent Thea had created for little Cassandra. All required gradual buildup over time.
Seeing Amanda looking at her with such hopeful eyes—practically desperate for Thea to take this ticking time bomb away and dump it on some planet at the edge of the universe—Thea was forced to disappoint her.
She shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, I genuinely don't know this guy's background. I can only confirm that this god isn't from Earth."
"This guy is semi-corporeal. Current methods probably can't kill him. As for the King of Tears behind him..."
Thea frowned, racking her brain for memories. She recalled the King of Tears had descended to Earth once before, but was quickly defeated by the Spectre and reduced to a single tear.
How did she compare to the Spectre? The Spectre had that annoying tendency to fluctuate between strong and weak, but overall was still incredibly powerful—after all, he was God's Spirit of Vengeance. Ganthet, one of the Guardians of Oa, had once arrogantly claimed the Spectre was inferior to him, only to be smashed into the ground calling for mercy two seconds later.
Thea was definitely stronger than Ganthet now, but she didn't believe she could defeat God's Spirit of Vengeance either.
Among all the beings she'd encountered, the strongest were the three: Trigon, Highfather, and Zeus (now rerolling as a baby). The only others stronger than her were a scant few like Hades and Metron, though they weren't much more powerful.
Highfather was probably on par with Zeus. Trigon was stronger than both of them. And conventional wisdom held that Trigon was inferior to the Spectre...
Following this chain of reasoning, Thea figured the Spectre wouldn't find beating her much harder than beating Ganthet—she'd maybe last two moves longer at most.
The conclusion was rather unpleasant. In the eyes of those truly powerful beings, she probably wasn't much different from Amanda and the others.
The Spectre wasn't an appropriate benchmark. It was actually hard to judge whether the King of Tears or Thea was stronger. After considering it, Thea decided to err on the side of caution.
"This King of Tears is probably very strong—possibly stronger than me. My recommendation is to keep him imprisoned here."
Amanda was speechless. You're leaving someone this dangerous with me? Have you no shame?
Thea's skin was exceptionally thick. Faced with Amanda's resentful gaze, she chose to ignore it completely.
Without another word, she pulled her mother toward the exit. General Lane, seeing even this superhero preparing to flee, didn't dare linger. He hurriedly followed their group.
Just as everyone was about to board the aircraft, Thea reconsidered and taught Amanda a method after all.
"That guy has already transcended the normal definition of life and death. Current methods can't kill him, but you can restrain him."
Amanda immediately listened carefully.
"He has this law about dying if you see his face. Your method for dealing with him isn't actually difficult—set up several mirrors. As long as you can use the mirrors to reflect his face back at him the moment he removes his mask, then he'll..."
"He'll die?" Amanda was extremely concerned about this bomb that could go off at any moment and asked urgently.
"Uh, I don't think he'll die. But according to our terminology, it would be banishment at most—banishing him from the material world. As for what other dimension he'd end up in afterward, I have no idea."
Thea wasn't lying. This Johnny Sorrow had been active for quite a long time—he was a major enemy of the Justice Society, a villain who kept getting defeated but never gave up.
He'd already sacrificed his physical form to the King of Tears. It was somewhat like a lich's phylactery—he was immune to any external harm. Unless you killed the King of Tears, there was currently no way to truly destroy this semi-corporeal being.
After also giving Amanda a teleportation gem as a precaution, the group finally left Belle Reve Prison in grand procession. As for Lobo Rob, he was sent directly to the Alien Management Committee. With Faora being one of the leadership members, she couldn't constantly intervene personally. Now with Firestorm and Lobo, the Committee's muscle finally looked somewhat respectable.
In the dead of night, Thea returned once more to the underground levels of Belle Reve Prison.
During the day with so many eyes around, doing anything was inconvenient. She'd returned naturally to deal with this hidden threat.
Since he was willing to walk into this trap, then let him stay here.
She wasn't sure how effective the Annihilation Eye would be against something without a physical form, so she chose a more reliable method.
The technique many heroes used against great demon lords: seal him!
Modern magic's research into sealing could be said to have reached its peak. Thea, who'd synthesized the strengths of ancient and modern methods, was one of the best in this field.
She drew the magic circle, created the nodes, and finally even connected the formation to New Genesis's magic network, using the network to power the seal.
To prevent him from suddenly unleashing his ultimate move—after all, the power of laws definitely exceeded magical power—Thea set up two layers of sealing. Even if one was breached, the other would immediately replace it.