Destruction is easy; construction is hard. That truth holds everywhere. Building a new talent on an already flawed foundation made things exponentially harder.
Fortunately, she was already a deity, with formidable intelligence. Commerce and language overlapped in places, allowing her to recognize most of the voice power remnants within Cassandra's body.
The demigod's human half was easy to identify.
The divine portion required more thought. Thea's own wild demigod state had subtle differences from these Greek demigods, but she had Diana as a living reference sample. They all shared the same father, so the variations weren't too extreme.
She first separated out the human components and integrated them into the black-haired girl's soul and body. Then, using Diana as a comparison, she identified the corresponding elements from Zeus. She had to admit, Zeus's bloodline was powerful. The black-haired girl, who'd only been moderately pretty among ordinary humans, would become extraordinarily beautiful in the future after absorbing even a trace of Zeus's blood.
Finally came the talent planning. Sensing the girl's congenital deficiency, the fragments of Cassandra's remnant talent automatically moved to compensate. Thea only needed to add new functions to the existing foundation.
She categorized and integrated the various energies into the girl's body. For Thea, this process was also a learning experience.
The entire procedure took an hour. This soul-level grafting surgery was genuinely her first attempt. She broke the pale red light sphere into filaments invisible to the naked eye, weaving them around the black-haired girl's ordinary human soul.
Aside from sharing a name, these two people from completely different timelines were now connected through Thea's intervention. One a prophetess, one unable to speak—the strangeness of fate was undeniable.
Having gained a portion of the Voice Prophetess's abilities, the future Cassandra would go further than in the original timeline.
"How is it?" Lady Shiva asked with concern.
"When have I ever let you down?" Thea patted her chest in assurance.
Lady Shiva glanced at it but said nothing, settling in to wait quietly.
As for Princess Cassandra, now completely devoid of talent, she woke not long after. Having no relationship with her whatsoever, Thea didn't bother with pleasantries. She simply teleported the woman away and arranged for her subordinates to provide minimal care.
With all her abilities gone, she was no longer a demigod. Without hatred clouding her judgment, perhaps finding a place to live out a mortal life would be its own kind of happiness.
After sending Cassandra away, Thea and Lady Shiva began a long wait. Two full days passed. Seeing Lady Shiva's growing anxiety, Thea could only keep her company, dispatching a duplicate to protect her mother in case of emergencies at the campaign.
Two days later, young Cassandra woke. True to her training, she showed no sign of panic, merely looking around curiously.
Thea examined her condition. Excellent—the soul fusion had been completely successful. Her physical attributes had improved tremendously. A conservative estimate put her lifespan at one hundred and fifty years.
After clearing her throat lightly, Thea addressed the black-haired girl. "You've sensed it yourself, haven't you? Voice power is a formidable force. By your logic, it's a weapon. But when you use it to harm enemies, you also pay a price. To prevent abuse, I've placed two locks deep in your soul."
"One will open completely when you reach adulthood. The other limits everyday use. Right now you can speak normally without difficulty, but I recommend you speak sparingly in daily life. When your voice power accumulates and you unleash it all at once in battle, your enemies will be pulverized by the force of your words!"
Thea punctuated this by clenching her fist for emphasis. She'd designed this principle based on Diana's Bracelets of Submission. After all, the black-haired girl wasn't the legitimate user of voice powers—she'd naturally be inferior to the original Cassandra.
If she followed the path of gradual accumulation, the power she could unleash all at once would genuinely be capable of moving mountains and seas.
But considering that unlike Diana, the girl's physical constitution was only slightly above ordinary human levels, sustained accumulation would place enormous strain on her body. The ability Thea had designed allowed normal speech, but required restraint—long speeches and extended lectures were now off the table for the girl.
"Thank... you..." The black-haired girl's speech was still somewhat unclear, but that was because she hadn't spoken in years. With her dedication, a little practice would restore normal articulation.
Thea reached out and lightly tapped the girl's forehead, passing on information. "I'm not skilled in voice powers either, and the backlash is substantial for you. I'll teach you a few methods to reduce the backlash and let you use this power properly."
"Three spell-like abilities: Word of Silence (useful in many scenarios), Word of Shield (a defensive spell), and Word of Pain (an offensive spell)."
"You can use each ability once per day. Got it?"
Thea ruffled the girl's hair. The previous prickly defensiveness had mostly vanished, though she still wasn't accustomed to such affectionate head-patting.
Superpowers! The mental information transfer let her instantly grasp the usage methods. The more the black-haired girl examined them, the more she found this beautiful sister appealing. Thea was now her second-closest person after her mother. As for her father—best not to mention him.
She looked excitedly at her mother. Lady Shiva immediately understood and beckoned. "Come, try it out!"
Their way of communicating was to spar first, talk later. They exchanged six or seven casual moves. When Lady Shiva's whip kick aimed at her daughter, the black-haired girl softly uttered, "Shield."
A transparent air wall, one meter tall and half a meter wide, materialized between them.
Lady Shiva's kick struck the barrier. It couldn't withstand her full force and shattered instantly, but that momentary obstruction had sapped most of the leg's momentum. She had to pull back and switch tactics while the black-haired girl seized the opportunity to regroup and continue fighting.
"Interesting. Will this ability grow stronger in the future?" She was naturally addressing Thea.
"Of course. I've only provided her with application templates—the accumulated wisdom of predecessors. If she can innovate beyond them, the effects will be even more powerful."
Thea wasn't exaggerating. She'd essentially opened a backdoor from New Genesis's magic network and added the black-haired girl to the system. Otherwise, how could she apply it to combat so easily? The original Cassandra had spent over a thousand years only managing battlefield taunts, never daring to use it in actual combat, precisely because the voice power backlash was too severe.
Now, the girl's minor backlash was distributed among the tens of millions of New Gods, diluting the effect to imperceptible levels. But breaking free from the spell's original limitations to make the power truly hers would require her own effort.
Hearing there was still potential for growth, both mother and daughter grew excited.