"You said you wouldn't stop me!" A faint voice whispered in her ear. Thea let out a surprised "huh?" and listened more carefully, genuinely taken aback—it was Darkseid's soul.
The man had coveted the Godhood of Death for years. He'd never managed to touch either the Death or Soul godhoods, but he'd brute-forced his way into discovering a few tricks through sheer obsessive research. This was a prime example.
He'd pulled off a bait-and-switch: turned the main body into the clone and the clone into the main body.
The Darkseid who wielded five Divine Positions, the Omega Effect, and the Anti-Life Equation was truly dead. But his clone still lived, and through some transitional mechanism, the clone had now become the main body.
Thea clicked her tongue in reluctant admiration. Darkseid's gambit was genuinely clever. Seemed like everyone kept an ace or two up their sleeve these days.
"Fine. Go." She eased her suppression just enough, and Darkseid's soul fled the lifeless body.
A streak of dark energy burst free and swept up the Divine Position of Evil—the highest-ranked of the five, the one most attuned to him. Even with the original body dead, the Divine Position of Evil still accepted him.
He tried to take the other four as well, but Darkseid had never been a god of profound psychic mastery. In soul form, he lacked the mental strength to interface with them. The Divine Position of Power wouldn't even acknowledge him. Darkness hesitated for a moment. Slaughter and Tyranny stirred with faint interest, but ultimately declined.
When it came down to it, every position except Evil had been seized by force. At their core, they'd never truly accepted him.
Thea cleared her throat—the meaning unmistakable: leave now, or don't blame me for what happens next.
With no other choice, he transformed into a streak of black light and vanished over the horizon.
The soul departed, and the last vestiges of life force finally drained away.
The power of the Divine Positions, the Omega Effect, and the Anti-Life Equation—all unshackled—thrashed against Thea's suppression like wild horses.
The multiverse itself trembled from a death of this magnitude.
Thea sealed off external observation, thought for a moment, then activated a summoning spell and forcibly pulled five people to her side.
Superman. Batman. Deathstroke. Orion. And Mister Miracle, Scott Free.
She carved out a small pocket around the immediate area, then froze the entire multiverse's timeline.
Orion—Highfather's adopted son—and Scott—Darkseid's adopted son—had absolutely no idea what had happened. They'd last crossed paths on Earth-2 and naturally gravitated toward each other now.
Superman and Batman knew part of the story and could guess the rest—half-informed, at best.
Deathstroke knew everything. He'd even made preparations in advance. Fully in the loop.
Orion, Scott, Batman, and Deathstroke all recognized Apokolips on sight. Only Superman was clueless—though Batman whispered a few words to him. Poor Clark had been helping Kryptonians build houses one second ago and had no idea why he'd been summoned.
"You five, something monumental has happened in the multiverse. Darkseid is dead." She didn't really need to announce it—the corpse was right there, and everyone recognized it.
Deathstroke said nothing. He had every reason to be confident; with Thea pulling strings behind the scenes, securing a Divine Position was practically guaranteed.
Batman also knew a fair amount. The two uninformed bystanders—Orion felt not a shred of grief over his biological father's death. He was delighted. Highfather's great enemy was finally gone. Scott felt sheer relief—no more spending his life looking over his shoulder.
Only Superman asked, "We're certainly glad about that, but why did you bring us here?"
"Although Darkseid is dead, his Divine Positions need successors. You five are the candidates I've selected. This isn't a gift or a reward—it's a burden. I hope you can shoulder this responsibility with courage." Her tone was entirely serious.
Deathstroke maintained his silence. Being too eager now would look suspicious. Better to play ignorant—whether anyone actually believed it was beside the point.
"Those are all negative forces, aren't they?" Superman asked.
"How should I put this—from a human perspective, sure, they seem negative. But that definition looks rather absurd from a broader perspective. I'm the Goddess of Death. According to folk legend, I should be the embodiment of evil. But how many times have any of you tallied up the worlds I've saved? Exactly. A Divine Position has no direct bearing on what you choose to do with it. If you're set on evil, a 'Divine Position of Justice' won't help."
An awkward silence fell.
"Your Majesty, I fear I can't control the darkness within me. Please leave me out of the candidate pool." Orion thought it over and spoke with gravity.
A god of violence by nature, evil encoded in his bloodline—even with Highfather's guidance and the serene environment of New Genesis to temper him, he had to spend enormous effort keeping himself from losing his way in the dark.
Darkseid's Divine Positions would undoubtedly be far more corrosive. He wanted no part of it.
"Do you remember Highfather's final words to you? Orion, your mission has only just begun. Think about what your father hoped for you, what he taught you. Defeating evil doesn't always require force—sometimes a more flexible approach works. If conflict could be eliminated, Highfather would be pleased too."
In truth, Thea didn't entirely buy into these ideas herself. She'd just flipped through Highfather's "collected sayings" out of boredom during her time on New Genesis. The old man had actually envisioned resolving the conflict between the two worlds through dialogue and diplomacy. The original exchange of sons had been one such attempt.
Now she invoked Highfather's name, and Orion didn't know what to say. After a long pause, something seemed to click. "You mean to say...?"
Thea nodded, confirming his guess. "It's too early to discuss the details. There's a great deal of groundwork to be done first. We can talk more afterward."
She turned to Scott—Highfather's biological son, Darkseid's adopted son. "The opportunity is yours as well. If you choose, along with Orion—"
Scott cut her off before she could finish. "No need. I'm not cut out for this. All I want is to live a quiet life, so you can leave me out of whatever plans, preparations, or grand designs you've got."
"All right, I respect your decision." Thea's offer to Scott was mostly out of consideration for Diana, a courtesy to Highfather—he had provided quiet assistance while Diana stabilized the situation, and without it, the Valkyrie wouldn't have consolidated New Genesis so quickly.
Orion was really the ideal candidate. As the rightful second son, with Kalibak now dead, he was Apokolips's sole heir.
But as she'd said, there was still much work to do. She turned to Superman, Batman, and Deathstroke. "What about you three?"
"I'm willing to shoulder my share." Deathstroke offered his support immediately.
The decision now rested with Superman and Batman.
"If we accept one of these Divine Positions, what impact would it have on the future of the universe?" Batman was clearly intrigued. He understood Thea's reasoning—Superman just hadn't seen the deeper implications yet.