Thea and Professor Stein watched as Ray Palmer dodged two javelins, then swung a flail in a perfect arc — crack! — splitting an enemy's head wide open.
"Professor Stein, don't panic. Look to the flank," Thea said calmly, pointing toward the side of the battlefield. "I need Ray and the others to create an opening before this next unit can engage."
Following her gesture, Firestorm spotted several faintly glowing green figures moving in formation. "Wait… those are—?"
"The lake nymphs of Avalon," Thea explained smoothly. "They can help restore the people's sanity."
Of course, that was complete nonsense. Those poor citizens' personalities had been completely erased by divine power — not even Horus himself could reverse that, let alone her.
The truth was, she'd never intended to "restore" anyone. The plan was simple: have the nymphs charm the brainwashed citizens and recondition them with a shiny new ideology of freedom and democracy.
Professor Stein, a top-tier scientist but a complete novice when it came to magic, nodded earnestly. Thea's confident tone alone was enough to convince him.
As they spoke, more and more of the brainwashed civilians were "liberated" — or rather, freshly brainwashed again — now fighting under Thea's banner.
She didn't even bother implanting full memories this time. Just a simple, catchy set of beliefs: The other side is slavery. Our side is democracy. We've got freedom, opportunity, and better pay — join us!
Sure enough, dozens switched sides immediately, spears and bows in hand, rallying to her army.
The battlefield began to stabilize — Ray charging in the front lines to break enemy formations, the nymphs in the rear seducing and reprogramming anyone within reach.
Elsewhere, the obsidian hawk-headed warriors were locked in brutal combat with the elemental creatures. The hawk warriors were nearly immune to magic; the elementals, however, were endless in number. For now, it was a stalemate.
Horus, gazing across the battlefield with godlike detachment, finally spoke.
"Mortal, you underestimate the power of the divine."
His eagle eye flashed, turning toward the colossal golden pyramid in the distance. A ripple of golden energy struck its peak, and with a deafening boom, the structure — clearly not of human design — began to collapse upon itself.
"Huh?" Thea frowned. "Did he just demolish his own temple? What's that supposed to mean — some kind of misdirection play?"
But she didn't have long to wonder.
A golden light flashed beside her — Ray Palmer had reappeared out of nowhere. Not because he'd suddenly gained speedster powers, but because his Light Return spell had activated. Meaning he'd just taken a fatal hit.
"What did you run into?" Thea demanded. From this distance, she could only see a dark blur across the battlefield — the pyramid had been blocking her line of sight earlier.
Ray was pale, gasping for breath.
"Bugs. Huge bugs — swarms of them! The biggest ones were the size of calves!"
Thea blinked in disbelief. Bugs? Wasn't Horus the falcon god? Weren't his ties with the underworld notoriously bad? How the hell was he summoning Anubis's minions? Hawk-headed warriors made sense — but scarabs? Those were way outside his portfolio.
No time to ponder, though — the swarm had already reached them. Most of her knights were dead or dissolved; even the recently "converted" citizens were being devoured in waves of chittering mandibles.
She quickly ordered the surviving knights to hold the line while evacuating the civilians — gotta keep up the appearance of a righteous army, after all.
Then she raised her hands, eyes blazing. She couldn't afford to lose this fight. Her mana reserves were still full; there was no excuse to lose to a nearly dead boss!
If Horus was willing to destroy his own structures, then fine — no more holding back.
"Haah—!" Thea's body erupted in blinding, searing light. Her power came from within — solar magic coursing through her cells — and burning it was costly. But now, restraint was no longer an option.
She flung that solar energy across the borders of the Avalon projection, flooding the colossal forest beyond.
The enchanted trees began to surge upward under her light, their bark glowing molten-gold. Trees hundreds of meters tall twisted, creaked, and — impossibly — tore their roots free from the ground. Slowly, ponderously, they began to walk.
"Advance!" Thea commanded, and the newly awakened treants stomped into battle.
She also re-summoned a wave of spectral knights to hold off the insect tide, while sending the elementals to intercept the scarabs.
Bit by bit, the chaos evened out again.
Thea gasped for air, drenched in sweat. The sheer magical drain was enormous. She wiped her brow and glanced toward Horus in the distance. "How does he still look fine?"
"He's burning divine essence," said Arthas calmly beside her.
Not comforting at all. Even if Horus was overexerting himself, Thea's side was about to collapse. Each drop of his divine power cost her hundreds of units of mana to counter. After all the summoning, terrain-shaping, and army-building, her "infinite" reserves were nearly dry.
The battlefield raged with no clear victor. The towering treants wrestled the hawk-warriors to a standstill; the elementals were blowing themselves up just to slow the insect tide.
Ray had retreated back to the ship, clearly traumatized by his near-death. Firestorm was still blasting away from above, but his attacks barely dented the endless swarm below.
One last move, Thea thought grimly. If this doesn't work, I'm out. I've done my part for the freedom of 2166. If I lose… I'll retreat and come back after I ascend.
She dismissed all her knights to reclaim what little mana she could, then fused Avalon itself — along with all the nymphs — into a massive summoning array.
She didn't know what would come through, only that it would be powerful.
But even as the ritual took shape, the cost was brutal. Avalon flickered, the treants weakened, the elementals faltered.
Seeing the shift, Ray donned his armor again, flying up to rain energy blasts over the insect swarms. The Waverider unleashed full firepower, giving her precious seconds. Firestorm detonated a massive explosion that cleared a whole layer of the insect horde — but it barely slowed their advance.
"Miss Thea, hurry up! I don't know what you're doing, but we can't hold them much longer!"
For once, Ray's voice carried no trace of humor.
"Almost done!" Thea shouted back — but deep down, she was just as anxious.
She'd poured nearly all her remaining mana into this spell, and yet the summoning circle still roared hungrily for more.
Just what the hell was she calling forth this time?