"Ah... it's good to be home!" Returning to their own world, ordinary heroes felt nothing, but Thea's reaction was the strongest. It was as if a massive weight had been lifted off her. She felt light enough to float.
She told the Justice League to head home and rest. Every one of them was battered. Meanwhile, she still had work to do, separating the two worlds.
Death divine power flowed back into her body, and the feeling of fullness was euphoric. Emotion wasn't bad per se, but that erratic, fluctuating sense of dissonance had never sat well with her.
Before this, her realm had exceeded her combat power. Now, having mastered the Pseudo-Phoenix Force and observed the power of Chaos up close, that gap was closed. Her combat power might even edge slightly ahead of her realm.
No golden flash above her head, no system-wide announcement, but she estimated she'd reached multiverse-peak level.
The Pseudo-Phoenix Force entered her body. Thea considered for a moment, then blended it with her eyes. The original Eyes of Erasure had relied on divine power for fuel, but divine power wasn't truly suited to drive that ability. The Pseudo-Phoenix Force, however, was a perfect fit.
Death and Emotion merged together, finally elevating the eyes' power to maximum. If Darkseid wielded Omega Beams, representing the power of ending, then hers could be called Alpha Beams. Death preceded life. Alpha was the first ray.
Her ethereal, luminous gaze pierced into the far distance, through mountains, over rivers, across realms, galaxies, and the boundaries of the universe itself. She found the convergence point of the two worlds.
Two invisible rays, faintly tinged with emerald light, shot from her eyes.
They struck the convergence point. At the same instant, a flash of red blazed in the Marvel universe: the authentic Phoenix Force. Two powers, similar yet distinct, collided at the junction.
No earth-shaking explosion. No cataclysmic upheaval. Ordinary people felt nothing. But through the mutual cancellation of these two transcendent forces, the worlds began to drift apart.
A figure emerged, clad in tattered dark-green robes, a giant who had long since surpassed the very concept of height. The Spectre. He stood in the void, pulling the DC universe toward himself.
On the other side, the Marvel universe produced its own galaxy-spanning giant: Eternity, foremost among the five great cosmic entities. He, too, pushed his own world along.
An invisible ripple swept across every sentient being in both universes. The higher one's plane of existence, the deeper the sensation. Through their combined effort, the two worlds finally separated, returning to their own orbits.
Thea was spent. She dropped to the ground where she stood. Apart from the Phoenix Force, which was still running at full arrogant power, the remaining three of them were equally exhausted. Who on earth knew how Krona had fused the two worlds without anyone noticing?
Krona's corpse was simple enough to deal with. Dismembered and scattered across Hell, the Underworld, and Heaven. If he came back from that, hell had truly frozen over.
She checked the Endless Family rankings. Encouraging results. Having comprehended the Pseudo-Phoenix Force, she'd climbed to ninth place. One step closer to her second sister, Death.
Was the world crisis over? Thea would say: absolutely not. The crisis was far from over.
The Marvel universe had returned to normal, but the trouble on their side was only beginning.
This trip to the Marvel universe had deepened her understanding of the Emotion godhood several times over. Beyond the return of her Death divine power, there was another signal, one that felt like impending doom.
Even without her precognitive advantage, through the Emotion and Death godhoods alone, she could feel it. The universe she inhabited was very close to dying. Without intervention, the countdown to oblivion would be measured in days.
Since their inception, the seven Lantern Corps had been burning through emotional energy without restraint. That was the catastrophe. The entire Emotional Spectrum was on the verge of depletion. If it wasn't recharged in time, a Big Bang would happen in an instant.
Less than three days. She ran the numbers carefully.
Her gaze pierced through space itself. Thea saw Kyle Rayner, still on the Blue Lantern homeworld Odym, chatting with Saint Walker without a care in the world. That walking cheat code needed to step up.
But she couldn't just tell him outright. Kyle Rayner needed to approach this with reverence and a willingness to sacrifice, carrying the seven Entities through the Source Wall.
If he were an alien, he might be easier to persuade. But Earth humans were way too shrewd. If Thea laid it all out, he'd immediately ask: if it's that dangerous, why aren't you doing it yourself? Greater power, greater responsibility, and all that.
So the truth had to be revealed in part, and it couldn't come from her.
Better if she had nothing to do with it. The further removed, the better.
Fortunately, all seven Entities were in her possession. A little sleight of hand and no one would be the wiser.
Thea embedded a message inside each Entity's spiritual core, explaining that the universe was on the verge of annihilation due to Emotional Spectrum depletion. Then she transmitted all seven Entities back to Odym.
Between the fighting and pushing two worlds apart, she was genuinely exhausted. Using her severe injuries as an excuse, she told Diana not to worry, then retreated to the Underworld for seclusion.
Meanwhile, on Odym, Kyle Rayner was deep in conversation with Saint Walker. The two genuinely clicked. Their ideals, dreams, and personal values were a perfect match.
So perfect that Kyle's actual girlfriend, Soranik, was starting to give Saint Walker some odd looks.
Seven beams of light cut across the sky and descended onto Odym. Thea had crafted seven rings specifically to store the Entities, complete with a brief account of recent events. To maintain her cover, the tone of the embedded messages was deliberately casual.
As the host, Saint Walker intercepted several of the rings.
"Her Divine Majesty was wounded retrieving the Entities..." Saint Walker received Thea's message and said, voice tinged with sorrow.
Kyle wasn't sure how to respond. Saint Walker's faith was deeply sincere; he genuinely treated Thea as a divine figure. Kyle, as an Earth human, had trouble accepting that framing.
Still, he knew Thea had taken a group to the Marvel universe to fight Krona. She'd kept the seven Entities out of the battle under the pretext of guarding this universe, fearing that their participation would accelerate the Emotional Spectrum's decline. The Lanterns had essentially won this one by sitting it out. They were in no position to criticize from the sidelines.
As a member of the Green Lantern Corps, it was only right that he take the Green Entity back. Seeing that Saint Walker showed no objection, he reached for the ring containing Ion.
A brief message flooded his mind. The Emotional Spectrum reservoir was nearing depletion. The universe was on the brink of annihilation.
Thea was extremely shrewd. She knew most people trusted answers they'd discovered on their own far more than information someone else handed them. She was certainly that way herself.
The messages embedded in the Entities simply laid out the problem and the stakes. As for the solution, she hadn't written a single word.