When they heard the term "Super Weapon," Dick and Jason's eyes lit up.
Actually, they sometimes felt that their universe was a bit more logical than others': events usually spiraled progressively upward in an orderly fashion, step by step, with very few instances resembling a rocket shooting straight up, and thus they harbored little hope for any pie-in-the-sky luck.
Could a Super Weapon that completely turned the tide of battles really exist? Wouldn't that mean they could strike wherever there was an issue?
However, Apollo quickly shattered their delusions when he shook his head and said, "Handling this gun isn't difficult, the problem is you need the strength to throw it."
Dick and Jason hurriedly pressed for more details, and Apollo reluctantly explained that the so-called Sunrise Gun was actually forged from the mystical sun in the sense of mysticism.
Defining the boundary between the Magic Side and the scientific aspect had always been a problem; many might think the fantasies of the Magic Side are certainly derived from reality, such as the existence of the sun leading people to believe that there should be a God governing it, hence creating the Sun God.
But in DC's cosmos, it wasn't so. From the beginning, the scientific aspect and the Magic Side were two completely different worlds.
The appearance of the sun wasn't a chicken-or-egg question.
The Sun God didn't appear because the world had a sun, nor was the sun there because there was a Sun God first; rather, once fantasies about the sun similar to the Sun God emerged, another sun appeared in the world—that sun is the mystical sun.
Most ordinary people could only see the blazing celestial body overhead, but they held endless romantic fantasies about the sun and made numerous efforts to explore it. All these fantasies, research, and related literary and artistic creations involving myths, legends, and fictional characters collectively constituted the mystical sun.
This sun was the raw material that fashioned the Sunrise Gun.
The weapon existed only in the mystical sense—invisible, intangible, without any physical form, meaning it couldn't be launched by ordinary methods. Outstanding force wasn't useful here.
After hearing Apollo's profound explanation, the group was perplexed; they were not adept at handling such matters.
It goes without saying for Dick and Jason who were still mere mortals without any superpowers. Their mentor Bruce, although an Angel, inclined more towards positivism and wasn't well-versed in mysticism.
Raven, influenced by her father, was born a natural magician, but the teaching level in her homeland was subpar; her teachers taught her to suppress her powers by controlling her emotions, but nothing else.
Aisha, a Lantern Beast, had very chaotic memories of her time as a beast and had mostly forgotten any relevant knowledge she might have had before.
They were not classically trained, weak in theoretical knowledge, and lacked enough inspiration and imagination in mysticism. It would've been hopeful to get them a machine that could powerfully throw a spear, but controlling an invisible, intangible Mysterious Gun was asking too much of them.
But they didn't intend to give up. Dick looked at Apollo and asked, "Since this gun was crafted and proven to be so powerful, surely someone has used it before, right? How did they do it?"
Apollo nodded and replied, "Indeed, this gun has been used three times. I was present only the first time when it was still in its testing phase. The owner picked a direction and threw it out..."
"How did they throw it?"
"Which direction?"
Jason and Dick asked different questions, forcing Apollo to answer each in turn. He said, "The power used involved something beyond my understanding; I can only tell you what I could see."
"Firstly, there wasn't any powerful fluctuation. I only saw a flash of light. Secondly, there wasn't any throwing motion, but he held a notebook in his hand that seemed to have something written in it. Lastly, I'm not sure where the destination was; I only saw a field of stars."
This description was a bit too vague. Dick and Jason exchanged looks; feeling that at this point Apollo wouldn't withhold information, he probably just couldn't discern much.
"Where is this gun? Can we go see it?"
"It's in the uppermost part of the Bright Domain, follow me."
Apollo led them back to the center of his God's Temple, where a beam of light bathed them. They quickly floated upwards along the speed of light, climbing higher until the scenery below grew distant and then fused into a pool of light.
They arrived at a place made only of light and under Apollo's guidance, continued towards the dense core of radiance, feeling an increasing sense of oddity as they proceeded.
Their bodies didn't feel the temperature but psychologically, it seemed to grow hotter around them. Jason thought this might be what was referred to in mysticism—a concept not existing in the real world, but a composite of human spirit and impression.
Apollo stopped and pointed ahead. Following his direction, they saw a strangely shaped framework.
If they had to describe it, they might say it looked like a rocket launcher, but the problem was that there wasn't any warhead attached. They circled the peculiar framework several times, but still could see nothing.
"I have a feeling like there's a thorn in my back," Raven said, who was the most inspired person here. She had become very cautious since arriving, saying, "There must be something here that we just can't see."
"Can you feel it?"
"A little," Raven said, somewhat perplexedly shaking her head, "We're still far from truly touching it. I… don't know what to do."
The lead went cold again. This thing clearly exceeded their understanding and wasn't within their control at this time. Persisting in studying it here would just be a waste of time.
Their dream of fast-tracking control over the super weapon had been dashed. Although they were slightly disappointed, they were accustomed to such setbacks and quickly started considering other matters.
"I just knew it wouldn't be so simple. If lethal force can't be controlled, then the person who guided us here must believe there's another way to eliminate Hecate …" Dick pondered aloud.
"I think we're overthinking it," Aisha said. "Our main purpose here was to collect evidence of Diana's crimes, looking for ways to eliminate Hecate was just incidental."
"I think we can find a middle ground," Jason said. "With our abilities, completely annihilating the Magic Goddess is unlikely. Even if the Justice League manages to subdue her, they wouldn't rely solely on us to kill her, do you think it could be that the Justice League hopes we might kill one aspect of her?"
"One aspect?" Dick thought it made sense, deeply considered it, then said, "If Diana has been reshaped by her mother's aspect, she plays the most critical role in this entire plan. The one standing behind her must be her mother, and what the Justice League wants to tackle is also the mother's aspect."
"Is there any news about the other two aspects?"
"I guess not, but if the Mother is trapped, the Maiden and the Crone are bound to show up," Dick said.
"Do you think the Justice League intends to trap the Mother to make the other two aspects show themselves, or simply wants to kill one of them and weaken the strength of the Three-Phased Goddess?"
"Fishing or direct attack? It's a good question," Aisha said after pondering briefly. "I believe it leans towards the latter."
"How so?" Dick asked curiously.
"The Justice League wouldn't risk the students. If it's about fishing with the Mother to draw in the other two aspects, then it skips breaking them down one by one and moves straight to the final battle. What about the students on Mercury?"
"Moreover, Bruce is not an advocate of quick victory. He might play dumb, but he's not really naive. He understands that wanting everything leads to getting nothing. For safety, he would also choose to disable an arm first, using a soft knife to cut the flesh rather than forcing the opponent to pit themselves against him, which would be of no benefit to him."
Jason and Dick recalled Bruce's attitude and felt Aisha's reasoning made a lot of sense; Bruce had no need to take a risky move against all three at once.
"If he chooses to break Hecate's arm first, then he must eliminate the Mother in one fell swoop, not giving the other aspects a chance to save her. I think that's another reason he brought us here. But if the Mysterious Gun can't be used, what else can be used to kill the Mother?"
The discussion hit another impasse, but everyone understood that since they had come here, there definitely was an answer here; there must be some detail they hadn't noticed yet.
At that moment, Hermes appeared again, bowing to Apollo, then said to the others, "The Queen of Gods wants to see you. Please follow me."
With puzzled looks exchanged, they didn't understand why Hera wanted to see them again, but they still followed Hermes out of Apollo's temple, heading toward the Queen of God's palace.
When they saw Hera again, she was no longer dressed elaborately but wore common Greek female attire with a bronze branch crown on her head, standing by the window on the mountainside.
The group stepped onto the spacious terrace to see the majestic and dignified Queen of Gods, her whole body exuding fatigue, her eyes filled with sorrow.
"You're looking for a way to combat Hecate," Hera stated definitively, and Dick and the others didn't deny it but nodded.
Aisha, grasping the undertone in Hera's words, asked, "Do you have a way, Queen of Gods?"
Seeing the endearing Aisha, Hera's tense expression softened a bit. She waved Aisha over, bent down to touch her head, and said, "Yes, I brought you here exactly for this."
"Please forgive me for not summoning you in the main hall; the Divine King does not wish for Hecate's death. He needs Hecate to maintain the barrier against the darkness," Hera straightened up, bowed her head, unable to hide the sadness in her eyes. "I cannot disobey him, but I also cannot watch my children die."
"Please accept our condolences," Jason said, knowing that regardless of what kind of person the War God had been in life, he was Hera's child. They were standing before a bereft mother who had lost her child.
"You might have heard the legend from ancient times, when a group of mages imprisoned Hecate. Do you know how they did it?"
Aisha was briefly stunned, but then it clicked. Indeed, in ancient times someone had successfully trapped the fully-realized Three-Phased Goddess, meaning there was already a method to defeat Hecate; it just hadn't been pursued.
Before they could ask, Hera continued, "The ancient wizards who trapped Hecate were known collectively as the Lords of Order, and the most powerful among them was called—Nabu God."