Chapter 3111: Chronicles of Mercury (61)

Greed, with his arrogance, led Professor X into the abyss.

When Professor X saw his captured mother, it was hard to say she was completely intact, she was barely recognizable as human.

But what Professor X saw was not just superficial, the moment he saw that unidentified substance, his eyes lit up, and he quickly took his mother away from Shiller's High Tower and returned to his own Psychic_Battlefield.

Arrogance followed Greed to his room, slowly climbed onto the desk, straightened his upper body, and said, "Inspection completed, can we now talk about the price?"

"Don't rush," Greed picked up his medical record and said, "I have given you a lot of ideas, let's deduct the planning fees first..."

"To hell with you," Arrogance said. "Apart from giving me some strategies for dealing with Mount Olympus, what else have you done?"

"What do you mean 'some strategies'? I gave you a complete plan, including how to let the eldest son kill Hera's son Ares, making her lose faith in Zeus and lean towards us. Then arranging for the children to conduct one investigation after another, linking many Magic Side forces together..."

"Cut the chatter," Arrogance said impatiently. "Do the calculations quickly. I need to get back soon if that body is still to be saved."

"Hard to say, considering every aspect of the Three-Phased Goddess has to be utilized fully."

Inside a Fake Mercury made up of Green Lantern Energy, Bruce recalled the conversation he and Shiller had in the hospital before Shiller left Mercury for Earth.

Back then, Shiller had visited Brand, Lilith had been nearly scared to death by Brand, then taken away by Clark. It was during this period that Shiller called Bruce, and they finalized the following plan.

Facing Hecate head-on was not difficult; the challenge was how to make her appear. The series of incidents on Mercury clearly showed the cunning Magic Goddess was pushing from behind. She differed from the other villains they encountered because she knew how to hide herself and wouldn't make careless moves.

Moreover, since the Justice League Dark hadn't been established, Shiller's magic power in this Cosmic Justice League was relatively weak, making it hard to find Hecate's hiding place through clues. Even if they found it, they might not be able to enter and could potentially risk prematurely revealing their plans and cause her to hide again.

Therefore, the key part of the plan was how to force Hecate to show herself.

When Diana came to his house to deliver vegetables, Shiller felt something was off about her.

Normally, Shiller might not have noticed, but at that time, he was allowing Circe's curse to erode his body, making him increasingly weak, which enhanced his Empathy and psychic analysis abilities. He almost sensed the problem the moment he met Diana.

Of course, even without psychic analysis, Diana's appearance was peculiar. Shiller knew Wonder Woman to be a person who cares about efficiency.

Her much longer-than-average diplomatic career had taught her to judge the situation, always appearing only when needed most, and not to bother others without reason. Her coming over that time was somewhat abrupt, as if she was just making small talk without any real need to visit Shiller.

So even if Shiller hadn't noticed anything unusual at that time, after experiencing the chaos on Mercury, he would've guessed that something was probably wrong with Diana.

The pressing question was, did Diana know something was wrong herself?

That was doubtful, because although her behavior was unusual, if she had been aware and feeling guilty, her first problem to solve would have been the Mind Reader, Lilith. And Lilith should have been able to detect her malicious thoughts, thus informing Clark.

But that hadn't happened. Diana hadn't taken any action against Lilith, nor had Lilith seemed to read any malice in her. Jenna, who mingled openly with the Justice League members, hadn't sensed anything wrong with Diana either.

This meant that Diana might have been controlled, but she was unaware of it herself. This meant she wouldn't naturally have any malice or guilt, making it impossible for a mind reader to catch her flaws.

So, relying on Diana to lure out that aspect of Hecate's mother was not very probable.

Because Diana didn't know she was being controlled, if the Justice League suspected her, she definitely would not admit to it. Bruce also lacked decisive evidence to convince other Justice League members to act against her, hence they could not pressure the Magic Goddess behind her.

To persuade the other members of the Justice League to act against Diana was indeed difficult, even photographs and videos might not be effective; they had to catch her in the act. However, convincing the members to detain Diana along with the others was simple.

Oliver, Clark, and even Hal were reasonable people. As long as they were aware that the mother had the ability to control others discreetly and that there might be a mole within the Justice League, they could be persuaded to detain everyone together until the true conclusion could be reached, preventing anyone from leaving.

Once Diana was detained, that chess piece was effectively out of play. Normally, this would mean that the behind-the-scenes manipulator couldn't move Mercury anymore, but isn't it said that all conspiracies crumble because of greed? With Diana's route blocked, she realized she still had another path—Shiller.

At the time, Shiller noticed something was off with Diana, but he wasn't powerful enough to directly detect Hecate behind her. He simply followed the principle of casting a wide net to catch more fish, detaining Diana a little longer and discussing Circe's curse with her, allowing physical contact—which probably gave the behind-the-scenes manipulator enough time and conditions to shift the target to Shiller.

Hecate fell for it, took the opportunity during the physical contact to plant a seed on Shiller, and after completing Diana's incubation, she immediately began nurturing Shiller.

As for why she decisively used the chance of nurturing on Shiller, there was nothing special. Hecate's target was Mercury, and the accessible targets to Mercury that Diana could contact were limited. Shiller seemed like a normal person, likely weak-willed. After completing his incubation, there might be a chance to capture another, the more the safer.

However, Hecate unexpectedly met a tough nut to crack. She created many illusions to destroy his spirit and will, but Shiller stubbornly dragged it out until Diana's move was foiled, and Hecate could only rely on him from then on.

Everyone knows what happened afterward. Diana was restrained, unable to cause various incidents to split the Justice League, preventing Hecate from defeating them one by one.

But Hecate was reluctant to give up the progress she had made here, and had to gamble everything to quickly complete Shiller's incubation and take over Diana's duties, continuing to create chaos on Mercury.

As a result, the sunk cost was too high, directly trapping Shiller. The time spent on Shiller was enough to incubate three or four superheroes, and now disengaging meant all that time was wasted. She could only follow through to the end, even if it meant hitting a brick wall.

And Shiller just so happened to show a very weak demeanor, giving her a feeling that success was imminent. Coupled with the final verbal provocation, one of the Three Phases, the mother, like a confused being, was completely focused on pursuing victory without guarding against Shiller.

The multiple-bodied Shiller had a safety mechanism; once his body or spirit hit rock bottom, he would be forcibly transported back to the High Tower.

Arrogance exploited this, reaching the critical point of triggering the safety under Circe's curse and Hecate's pursuit, pulling the mother of the Three Phases back to the High Tower.

After devising the plan to trap Diana with Bruce, Arrogance contacted Greed through the Gladiator Ring System. Since they planned to use the High Tower to deal with Hecate anyway, why not make full use of it and sell her for a good price.

On one hand, he could make a fortune from Greed, and on the other, the Marvel World possessed the superhero with the strongest mind-reading ability among almost all the comic worlds, Professor X. He should be able to figure out the mysterious nurturing ability of the mother, especially since Diana, as well as the suspected controlled Edward and Jonathan, also needed rescuing.

Greed was also interested in the mysterious Magic Goddess. He gave Shiller more suggestions, prompting him to seize the opportunity to deal with the mess that was Mount Olympus as well. This led to the Young Avengers being tasked with that series of running errands.

The strategy for Mount Olympus was completely different from that for Asgard, as Odin and Zeus are entirely different.

Odin may not be a good father, but he is at least a good Emperor. Young Thor may not be a good ruler, but he is certainly a good brother, while young Loki is neither a good leader nor necessarily a good brother, yet he at least has ambition and ability.

As the saying goes, with so many talents in the world, you must have at least one, right?

Zeus essentially has none. If you have to say he has one, it's his talent for having children, and those capable on Mount Olympus are more or less related to him in some way.

Just by looking at the incident with the Magic Goddess, you can see how incapable Zeus is.

If you need Hecate's power to resist the darkness, then at least make it look good on the surface, even if it's just making empty promises. If you really plan to go all out, you must ensure a fatal blow and not give the adversary any chance to recover.

But Zeus simply gave up on rescuing Hecate, thinking the cost was too high, allowing her to fall into slumber yet unwilling to relinquish the power she wielded against the darkness, letting her revive—a classic example of stupidity and shortsightedness, yet thinking of himself as clever.

It's said that waste is just resources in the wrong place, but no matter where you place such a person, he can turn any place into a junkyard.

Greed found Zeus of no use, but Mount Olympus was still of use, these Elder Gods were long-lived and each more capable than the last, effectively filling the gap of insufficient Magical abilities in the DC Universe.

Thus, disregarding Zeus and providing Mount Olympus with a real leader seemed the best move, and in terms of ability and moral standing, Hera was the perfect choice.