The queen rode in like a Valkyrie descending from the heavens — fierce, resplendent, unstoppable. Mounted atop a white warhorse, long sword flashing, she carved her way through the Germans as if the battlefield were empty.
Thea could see what ordinary mortals could not — the glow of magic. The brilliance radiating from the queen nearly blinded her; just a quick glance told her the woman was stacked with seven or eight enchanted items. Bonus attack, bonus defense… even a battle aura. The Amazons around her were fighting at a visibly higher level.
This was what it looked like when a level-1 newbie got kitted out by a max-level Zeus in full epic gear. Thea watched as the queen shredded German soldiers like she was stomping tutorial-zone mobs. In that moment, she fully understood Zeus' "concern." All that talk about a magic-blocking barrier protecting the Amazons from the outside world? Lies. Protecting his mistress — that was the truth.
And with this divine gear? Forget mortals — even if one of the gods descended in person, stepping onto Themyscira would still earn them a royal beatdown and a swollen head courtesy of Hippolyta.
Thea, of course, wasn't about to just spectate. She summoned her divine power and activated her chosen-one's innate gift.
"Eternal Night!"
The unique power of the Goddess of the Hunt swept across ten miles of battlefield. The sunny sky dimmed, replaced by a cool silver moonlight. Every woman within the field surged with newfound strength. Every man felt their bodies dragged down and smothered by invisible pressure.
Hiding off to the side with Steve Trevor, Diana saw her sisters fighting with everything they had. With Thea's night-veil dramatically boosting her power, she felt an endless well of strength rising within her. Gritting her teeth, she drew her short sword and charged — her first true battle.
Steve originally meant to help, but Thea's world-altering spell annihilated his understanding of reality. He couldn't tell he was being magically suppressed — he only felt his throat sand-dry, legs trembling violently, and no matter how he tried, he couldn't take a single step.
Even the queen's warhorse and the Amazons' mares received Thea's buffs. Several foot soldiers moved so fast they left afterimages. Antiope vaulted off her horse, spinning midair, blades and spear flashing. When she hit the ground, seven Germans were already dead at her feet.
Not far away, the towering Amazon warrior and her elk companion heard the fighting and sprinted over. This was Thea's first time seeing the elk in battle. As it galloped, its body swelled until it grew to the size of a full-grown elephant, antlers sharpening into gleaming blades. With unstoppable momentum, it smashed into the German ranks, sending four or five men flying like rag dolls.
Steve finally gathered his courage and managed to take down one German soldier — just one — before he glanced up and saw the elk annihilating soldiers like some anti-Darwin fever dream. His mind gave up. He collapsed on the spot.
"Niobe! He's not the enemy!"
The towering Amazon, slower than her elk, spotted Steve raising his gun and instantly prepared to spear him. Thea hurriedly intervened — she wasn't about to let the timeline derail that catastrophically.
Niobe gave Steve a glare that could peel paint. The poor man froze completely. Satisfied, she roared and leapt into the fray. Her javelin shot forward like a streak of light; unlike most Amazons, she'd spent half a year training within Thea's Eternal Night barrier and mastered her enhanced strength. The javelin pinned two German soldiers to the ground before either could scream.
But the brightest star on the battlefield was Diana. Half a year with Thea had stripped away her innocence; her conviction and skill were both stronger than in the original timeline. When she saw one of the queen's guards fall from a gunshot, fury drowned out her fear. She charged forward: whirlwind strikes, shield bashes, relentless momentum — she tore through the battlefield like a storm.
The German soldiers were utterly crushed. They were already inferior to the Amazons under normal circumstances — now, with the queen's aura and Thea's gender-biased buff, they moved like eighty-year-old grandpas while every Amazon darted like lightning. Corpses piled up, and under the crushing pressure, several soldiers finally shouted for surrender.
"Mother…"
Hearing the pleas, Diana's sense of justice surged back. She ran to Hippolyta for guidance.
In the original timeline, the Amazons had suffered heavy casualties, Antiope had died, and both Diana and the queen were too heartbroken and enraged to consider mercy — the Germans were slaughtered to the last man. But now? Antiope was unscratched. Only one Amazon was seriously injured, two lightly — no lives lost. Hippolyta hesitated.
"Bind them all," the queen ordered at last. Then she pointed at Steve Trevor in the distance. "And bring that one as well. I want to know why they came to Themyscira."
Diana obeyed immediately. After seeing Steve's shaky-legged meltdown, her respect for this so-called "man" plummeted. For an Amazon raised on battle arts, his fragile display was embarrassing. She grabbed him like a chick and dragged him before the queen.
Thea almost burst out laughing. With such a disastrous first impression, those two would never end up together. Excellent. She strolled over beside the queen, ready for the show.
"What are you doing here?"
"I can't say…"
"What's your name?"
"I… can't say that either…"
Hippolyta asked five or six questions. Steve either clammed up or repeated that he "couldn't say." His passive resistance nearly made the queen laugh from sheer exasperation. She turned to the captured Germans instead — but those were just foot soldiers. They only knew they were ordered to pursue Steve. The only one who knew the reason was their captain… whom Thea had accidentally killed before the battle even started.
The queen gave up on the interrogation. She led the captives and her warriors back toward the central quarters.
As a chosen of the gods, Thea was invited to attend Steve's private hearing.
This was her first time seeing the Lasso of Truth. To be honest, its divine energy wasn't that strong — by raw power alone, it was one of the weaker divine artifacts. But for reasons unknown, the artisan who forged it had embedded a trace of cosmic law into it. That tiny fragment skyrocketed its grade; rules woven into matter were nearly impossible to counter in the mortal world.
Thea couldn't think of a way to break it. Steve, a mere mortal, had even less hope.
Under the lasso, he spilled everything — every detail he knew, from beginning to end.