Two treasured swords, forged by the same god of fire and sharing the same origin, collided yet again—no one knew how many times it had happened before. In the past, Thea would have been knocked flying. Now, she merely retreated half a step. The shockwave from the clash of blades swept across several miles.
"Your strength has increased this much?"
As the person who understood her best, Diana knew her capabilities extremely well. They had sparred countless times in every conceivable way—she had the greatest authority to judge.
"It has. This is the level of strength my body should have had all along."
The benefits of Heroic Spirit transformation were not limited to training mental power. The decomposition and reconstruction process filtered out all the residual impurities in her body. The various divine powers Thea had absorbed before came from different gods—even from different pantheons. Even though they had long been degraded into magic power, the impurities within that energy were still frighteningly numerous.
This reconstruction was equivalent to reforging her body from scratch. No traces of Ares, no remnants of Horus—every bit of power now belonged purely to her.
Light. Smooth. Effortless.
All of these could describe her current physical state. Even in terms of appearance alone, she was no longer inferior to Diana. Objectively speaking, she was now a completely new demigod.
The effect of this reconstruction was absurdly good. And Heroic Spirit transformation was merely one of the Holy Sword's countless abilities—an unremarkable one at that. From this alone, its extraordinariness was obvious.
A new body required adaptation, and her combat style needed adjustment as well. It was like how Batman knew Wing Chun but almost never used it—the technique simply didn't suit his build.
Thea now faced the same issue. Many techniques that once felt light and natural now felt awkward. The problem wasn't the techniques themselves—it was that she was no longer suited to them.
Diana did not hold back just because Thea's movements were rough. Shield in her left hand, sword in her right—unlike Thea, she didn't train in countless styles. One set of combat techniques, one sword-and-shield system, refined to near perfection.
Despite her familiarity with Thea's martial arts, Thea was still driven into disarray. Under immense pressure, the techniques she had mastered began rapidly fusing together. "No form defeating form" was impossible—but the essence of various styles was reshaped and applied seamlessly. Courtly swordsmanship, Eastern blade arts—any technique that fit was a good technique.
"You're in the way!"
Realizing that Thea's raw strength was no longer much weaker than her own, Diana discarded her shield and attacked with both hands on the sword, launching a storm of strikes.
The facts proved that Diana's overall combat ability still surpassed Thea's. Strength, endurance, reaction speed—every stat edged her out.
The Eldest Miss accepted this calmly. After all, even though her magic power had dropped by nearly thirty percent, her core was still that of a mage. If a mage could overpower a pure warrior like Diana in a direct physical clash, that would be abnormal.
In the past, she would have activated every skill and fought desperately for victory. But after fusing her two clones and shedding mental distractions, her mindset was tranquil. Losing wasn't a big deal. Winning would have felt strange.
Move by move, she steadied her thoughts and met Diana's attacks head-on, occasionally landing counterstrikes. Both fought with complete seriousness.
Diana hadn't enjoyed such a purely martial contest in a long time. Previously, sparring with Thea always involved magic layered onto combat—fear shocks and tricks mixed in—never the path of a pure warrior. It had always left her feeling constrained.
There were few on Earth who could truly fight her. Faora barely counted—they only knew each other through Thea, and occasional sparring was fine, but there wasn't enough rapport for frequent bouts.
As for Superman, Diana would have loved to test herself against him. Unfortunately, Clark was perpetually busy—what little free time he had was monopolized by Lois Lane. Sparring was simply impossible.
Leaving the island for a century had left this warrior demigoddess thoroughly starved for battle. Seeing Thea's close-combat strength advance by leaps and bounds, Diana might have been just as happy as Thea herself.
The two unleashed their power without restraint.
One sword strike carved a trench; one punch raised a wall of compressed wind.
On the desolate planet, mountains were blasted apart by the residual shockwaves. The atmosphere itself thundered in response. Within a hundred-mile radius, the land looked as though it had been ravaged by a typhoon—and at the eye of the storm stood two beautiful women.
The fight dragged on for a long time. Even demigod bodies began to feel fatigue.
Catching the instant Thea turned midair, Diana leapt and hurled a punch straight at her. Thea sensed this might be the final exchange. She twisted her waist, bent her arm, and drew out a faint trace of Willpower from her spiritual world.
I can do this. I will.
A faint golden glow wrapped around her jade-white arm. It flickered once—then vanished, as though it had never existed.
Boom!
A deafening sonic blast erupted at the point of impact. An invisible shockwave exploded outward in all directions.
Diana landed heavily, her feet carving a deep furrow in the weathered ground as she slid back more than ten meters. Thea tumbled through the air, flipping seven or eight times before finally stabilizing herself.
"What a strange power…"
Having fought Thea countless times, Diana was familiar with every type of power she possessed. This was neither magic nor emotional energy. It resembled divine power—but not quite.
"Let's go. We'll talk about it properly once we're back."
Thea changed clothes again—the previous set had been shredded. At their current combat intensity, ordinary clothing didn't last more than a few moves. This also highlighted the value of Diana's armor—not just its defense, but its excellent coverage.
A teleportation gate opened, returning them to Diana's apartment. Both were filthy and exhausted. After quick showers, neither had the strength for an all-day sparring session.
They ordered enough takeout for ten people. Amid the deliveryman's stunned expression, the Eldest Miss accepted the mountain of food. Like on Themyscira, the two sat on the floor, eating and talking.
"Willpower? That sounds like something from religious texts, doesn't it?"
Diana stuffed half a slice of pizza into her mouth, speaking indistinctly.
At the same time, Thea gnawed on a chicken leg with zero elegance. The food itself was meaningless to them—if they truly wanted energy, even meals for a hundred people wouldn't suffice. This was simply indulgence.
"Willpower is just the name I gave it. The actual mechanism is like this…"
Thea explained the ability in detail, hoping Diana could offer some insight. While she wasn't on the level of Batman or Luthor, Diana was still blessed with Athena's wisdom—her intelligence was formidable, even if she preferred solving problems with her fists.