Chapter 3057: The Mercury Record (54)

Returning to Apollo's temple, the group seemed a bit silent. The news they had just received was too shocking, and everyone needed time to digest it.

They had once assumed that the mastermind must have the ability to mentally manipulate others, could control others to do things, and then delete their memories.

But it wasn't until Hera spoke of the ability of the "Mother" aspect of Hecate's three faces that they realized this matter wasn't that simple. This wasn't manipulation, but a direct change to a person's personality.

In other words, Hecate didn't need to control anyone. She only needed to re-nurture a person to get what she wanted—someone who was sincerely loyal to her and willing to do things for her.

This was much more terrifying than manipulation.

If a person was controlled by someone else, they would definitely show flaws. Even if all memories could be read, there would always be subtle differences in behavior and speech, especially when they needed to be manipulated to do things; the flaws would be even more obvious. Even Professor X wouldn't dare to say that controlling someone to hang around their loved ones wouldn't be noticed at all.

But if it were Hecate's reshaping, then this person was still this person. Their memories, habits, behavioral patterns, and personality itself actually had no changes, and it was very difficult to see any problems through their external performance.

In other words, to crack this kind of reshaping, unless you had telepathy—and even telepathy might not be useful, because no matter how you read it, you could only read normal memories. Personality was an abstract thing, and concrete telepathy couldn't crack it.

Dick had a splitting headache, but Jason said very firmly, "I think this ability is not without flaws. Think about it: since it's nurturing, it requires time. Although it might not actually take 10 months, it can't be as simple as the mental manipulation of superpowers. There must be some limiting conditions."

"That's true," Dick nodded. "If it could be reshaped in an instant, she would have conquered this universe long ago."

"But the problem is, if Diana has a problem, how did she re-nurture Ares and Poseidon? They didn't have much contact time; otherwise, it wouldn't have escaped Hermes's notice."

Dick thought for a moment and said, "I suspect this nurturing isn't really putting people into her womb; it might be some abstract reference."

At this time, Raven spoke up: "Nurturing the spirit should not involve the flesh in the first place. Everything might be completed at the spiritual level and won't be expressed externally, just like pregnancy is completed within the mother's body."

Dick seemed to understand a bit. He said, "In other words, maybe Diana only had contact with Ares and Poseidon, but she had already captured them at the spiritual level and re-nurtured their spirits, making them feel that it was worth paying everything for Hecate."

"I seem to know why Hera is so sad," Aisha sighed. "A mother knows her child best. Hera might have sensed something wrong with Ares, but she couldn't find any evidence and could only watch him walk toward death."

"There's another question," Jason suddenly spoke up. "Since contact can capture them, why not Zeus and Hera? Controlling the King of Gods and the Queen of Gods directly—wouldn't that be more convenient?"

"Maybe a medium is needed," Raven said. "Although it's a capture at the spiritual level, a medium is also needed at the material level. Ares and Poseidon had a good relationship with Diana, and Diana could more easily let the medium contact them. But Zeus and Hera's relationship with Diana is average. If she were to contact them rashly, it might expose her."

Jason nodded, feeling that this explanation also made sense. Those who could be deceived were naturally those who trusted her, and wanting to rashly contact someone who wasn't that close to you wasn't easy. Making abnormal behavior to plant a medium would increase the risk, and there was no need for that.

"Just now Hera said that the Mother is only one side of Hecate. There are also the Maiden and the Crone. Are they all in Diana?"

Aisha's question hit the key point. Although Hecate was three-in-one before, it might not be like that now. If the three of them split up, it would turn from one mastermind into three.

Even if Diana was one of them, taking her down wouldn't be enough. The other two were hiding somewhere, and even attacking Diana rashly might make the remaining two hide deeper, causing even bigger trouble.

"My head hurts so much," Dick rubbed his temples. "Let's talk about something less heavy. Do you think the Justice League will notice the abnormality, and what countermeasures do they have?"

Jason thought seriously for a while and said, "If Diana is truly the one with the problem, then I don't think they could be completely unaware. Don't forget, who is the one that mental manipulation can't fool the most?"

Dick and Aisha were both stunned, and then suddenly realized.

Logically speaking, the one that counters mental manipulation is the telepath, because as long as you read their mind, you can find out they are being manipulated. But Hecate's manipulation is implicit. Maybe a telepath could turn the other person's spiritual world upside down and still only feel that the person is just like that.

But psychoanalysis is different.

Psychoanalysis isn't simple mind-reading. What it reads isn't the thoughts of this person at this moment; what it analyzes is a person's personality.

Although empaths can empathize with emotions, psychoanalysis is based on the empathized emotions to perform rational analysis, using professional knowledge to parse the empathized emotions to analyze the other person's personality. This is a professional skill, not a superpower.

Although it does look a bit like a superpower, its fundamental difference from mind-reading is that it is stable, reliable, and can be continuously produced, just like other known theories in modern science. It doesn't change or become unusable or inaccurate because of the recipient or oneself.

In other words, once this analytical method is mastered, it can be used at any time and in any situation. It's not that it works today but not tomorrow, or that it works for analyzing this person but not that person.

Professor X's power lies in the fact that he has both superpowers and analytical skills, which complement each other and achieve each other, which is why he is the benchmark for all psychic ability users.

And Lilith lacks professional analytical skills. Reading memories and thoughts is okay, but she can barely analyze a person's personality, so she couldn't judge whether someone was abnormal.

Therefore, Schiller, who has mastered this skill to perfection, is the true nemesis of this so-called personality reshaping, as he specializes in exposing fake personalities.

If that's the case, Dick and the others can assume that Schiller had seen Diana's problem early on and was prepared. Then their previous inference that it was likely the Justice League who released the eldest son was correct; the Justice League had been preparing all along.

Starting from this line of thinking, why did they appear here?

It seems they followed the clues all the way here, but the process was too smooth, without any interference options. It was almost a single-line search, which makes one have to suspect that someone guided them here.

What did the person who guided them want them to do?

The group discussed this question. Dick first proposed a relatively conservative assumption: "Assuming only Professor Schiller saw Diana's abnormality, but he could only feel it without any evidence, then our searching for clues and coming here is to find evidence."

"Think about it. The Justice League just formed and is already starting to catch a mole. It's really demoralizing. If there is no solid evidence, even with Professor Schiller's endorsement, it's hard to convince people. So I guess one of our tasks should be to find evidence among the gods to prove that Diana did indeed cause trouble."

Aisha nodded and said, "I agree with this point, because since the eldest son released by Schiller could kill Ares, there's no reason he couldn't kill Poseidon. Why was Poseidon released?"

Everyone present was smart. Jason immediately said, "Because Poseidon must have truly committed a crime to form a complete chain of evidence. That is, Diana controlled or instigated Poseidon, making Poseidon defy the King of Gods' decree to descend and injure the Sea King of Atlantis."

"If Poseidon and Ares were both dead, both would be attempted crimes. Then even if evidence was found that Diana might have controlled the two, because they didn't actually do anything, the crime couldn't be attributed to Diana."

"It seems that's the case. But I think it's more than that. Diana is now on Mercury, and Mercury is near the sun. And we followed the clues to the sun and entered the portal. Don't you think it's too coincidental?" Dick said again.

Jason thought while saying, "The sun must be the key. If the Justice League truly has a plan to deal with the Diana controlled by Hecate, then finding evidence to convict her is the first step. Controlling her according to the evidence is the second step. The third step is to truly deal with her. Is the Justice League wanting to use the sun's power to deal with Hecate?"

"It's not impossible," Raven said. "Hera said it, didn't she? Hecate is the goddess presiding over the night and witchcraft, which should happen to be countered by the sun in occultism."

"But it's not that simple, children," Apollo walked out from behind the temple and said. "I can't deal with Hecate, and Helios can't either. As for that star you know called the sun, I'm afraid it can't cause any harm to the goddess."

Everyone looked at him in unison. Apollo walked over, sat beside them, and said, "If your task in coming here is to find a way to end Hecate, then perhaps what you are looking for is the Spear of Longinus."

"Spear of Longinus? What is that?"

"This name comes from the mythological legend in the Bible. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, a warrior pierced Jesus's flank with the spear in his hand. The blood flowed down the spear shaft onto his hand, and he was therefore moved and became a saint. The code name is Saint Longinus."

"Then what is it actually?"

"Actually, it is the code name for a powerful weapon stored in the realm of light," Apollo's eyes flashed with inexplicable brilliance. He said, "The true name of this weapon should come from its founder. I prefer to call it—the Spear of Sunrise." ===== CHAPTER 3058 =====