The original shield was re-melted and large amounts of adamantine added. Finally, Thea stabilized a considerable amount of compassion into the shield. Though it couldn't reach Medusa's level of turning people to stone with a glance, when enemies looked at Diana's shield, they'd be hit by a similar wave of compassion. Aside from those few with iron-strong willpower, everyone else's attacks would naturally weaken somewhat.
The new shield, rich with compassion, had an overall bronze color with silver trimming. Ancient Greek inscriptions were engraved on it, translating to "Protection" in English. Additionally, the shield's edges were thickened.
In Thea's view, shields were for defense. Throwing them at people was completely unnecessary! Overly thin shield edges didn't facilitate defense at all. Instead of wasting time showing off by throwing shields, just jump over and slash with the sword—wouldn't that be beautiful?
As for weapons, they had to continue using the previous twin swords. Hades' treasury held plenty of weapons, but their quality was roughly similar to the twin swords—not worth replacing.
Diana's equipment was completely renewed. Feeling her lover's deep affection, she didn't idle away the following days.
Artemis's Silver Moon Bow was returned to the Amazon tribe. Only the arrow capable of traversing time—Zeus's arrow—was kept. Hera didn't know why Thea had worked so hard helping her. To express gratitude for this "selfless" assistance, she proactively used her God-Empress authority to erase the imprints of Zeus and the Moon Goddess from the arrow. From now on, this arrow belonged to Thea herself.
Diana had already collected plenty of rare materials, and now with Hades' stores, she would craft a divine artifact bow for her lover.
Using the section of black dragon spine severed from the eldest son's greatsword as the bow body, she mixed in a handful of fine sand blessed by Hades' own mother—who was of course also Poseidon and Zeus's mother, Diana's grandmother—the Titaness Rhea, goddess of time.
Black dragon spine mixed with Sands of Time gave the bow body eternal, indestructible properties. The bowstring used a tail from the Hydra, also possessing regenerative properties.
In the bow's final forging stage, Thea infused it with wealth divine power. Only then was this divine artifact complete.
Thea Queen's Wealth Bow—that was the new bow's name.
When striking enemy artifacts, it had a chance to trigger forced trading agreements. Thea lacked time-related divine offices or positions, so most of the Sands of Time's functions were useless. But combined with wealth itself, the Sands of Time added a depreciation effect to forced buying and selling. Buying an opponent's artifact for a single copper coin was impossible, but exchanging it for equivalent goods worth thirty to forty percent? Completely doable!
Originally she wanted to call it the Get Rich Quick Bow. Diana strongly objected, so it became the Wealth Bow...
The ideal scenario: Thea shoots a few arrows, and the opponent becomes completely stripped bare!
Both their equipment significantly upgraded, they finally had time to examine various miscellaneous items. Some enhanced physical attributes—they ate those directly. Some conferred various effects when worn—they each selected favorites to wear.
Many things remained that even Diana's erudition and Thea's wealth divine eye couldn't identify their purpose. Like the staff in Thea's hand.
Diana frowned studying it for ages before giving up helplessly. Thea could only consult archaeology doctor Sivana. This old man's knowledge was truly extensive. After checking numerous references, he finally confirmed its origins.
Getting the answer left Thea somewhat speechless. Hades' hobbies were too broad. Not just Greek pantheon items—Egyptian, Norse, Mesopotamian—anything he thought good, he'd collected.
Complete identification would require enormous time. The young miss was too lazy to bother. Items she couldn't identify herself that didn't seem dangerous, she dumped wholesale on the bald Doctor Sivana, who forgot his own name when seeing ancient treasures.
Over the following days, Thea used the excuse of mutual supervision to get cozy with Diana for two more days. Leaving the warrior maiden to familiarize herself with new equipment and continue comprehending the Source, Thea returned to handle her own pile of trivial matters.
By facilitating the agreement between the human world and Atlantis, Moira's popular support climbed even higher.
Numerous commentators published articles one after another, believing America would emerge from its trough under President Queen's leadership, revitalize the economy. More ordinary citizens were filled with anticipation for the new government protected by superheroes.
Now at the election's final moment, even if God descended, the other party's candidate couldn't match Moira. Of course, this meant the God from the Bible.
But this didn't prevent desperate people from doing foolish things. From this Underworld battle, Thea became increasingly convinced that history was shaped by ordinary people—somewhat biased, but not entirely wrong! The ferryman Charon was a vivid example. The two cold male gods who'd been tricked probably still hadn't figured out the true situation!
To prevent anyone from attempting harm against Moira, the young miss returned to America and began close personal protection of her mother.
"Well, long time no see. You're getting more beautiful by the day." Greeting her with a smile was Amanda Waller, who'd made a special trip today to curry favor.
The nature of A.R.G.U.S. determined their dependence on government. Without government funding and support, they could accomplish nothing.
Fortunately, her relationship with the Queen siblings over the years, though full of minor friction, had at least never completely broken down. Now aligned in the same camp, she immediately came to show goodwill.
You don't turn away someone who shows up smiling. Thea wouldn't make things difficult, especially since their relationship, while fluctuating, was overall harmonious.
"Any major A.R.G.U.S. operations recently?" she asked casually.
Mentioning this made Amanda somewhat troubled. "More and more superheroes, but criminals are getting increasingly rampant too. Really miss the old days when we only dealt with explosives and bullets."
Thea had no solution for this problem and could only offer perfunctory comfort.
They only chatted superficially. After all, Amanda answered to the President, not the President's daughter.
Thea was quickly surrounded by numerous military bigwigs. The military had been beaten senseless by the Atlanteans. Their current position: humanity still has untapped potential. Current military equipment upgrades aren't fast enough—we think they could be faster!
Fending them off, she sent all these people away. Thea didn't want to continue upgrading weapons and equipment. The current tech tree had already climbed fast enough with unstable foundations—no need to open new research projects.
The military felt inferior to Atlantis, but how many years had they researched to achieve today's results? Tens of thousands of years. Catching up in a few years? Completely impossible.
Current Earth military power was sufficient for future self-defense. Forcibly developing tech equipment would only cause massive government deficits, harmful to civilian life improvement.
Whether from Moira's perspective or her own wealth divine position, vigorously developing civilian products and revitalizing the economy was the correct path forward.