Bast sat on the ground, her round belly sticking out. She was beginning to regret sparing the foolish lion, as she had a nagging feeling he would come back to haunt her.
'What if that idiot lion starts throwing his weight around now that he's got someone protecting him?'
The more Bast thought about it, the more suspicious she became.
That fool had always been petty. Back when he ran around with the Gorilla God and the Crocodile God, the three of them had acted like they owned the world, arrogant beyond belief.
'Damn it. I pitied him and spared his life and now I have a bad feeling about this.'
After thinking for a while, Bast slowly raised one chubby paw.
"Um... I feel like I'm still just a little bit short of my final transformation. How about... we kill that lion after all?"
She decided it was better to eliminate any future trouble before it had the chance to grow.
Carol looked at Bast while cradling the sleeping Lion in her arms, there was unmistakable killing intent in her eyes, so Bast immediately backed down.
"Actually... on second thought, I'm probably strong enough already."
Still sulking, Bast's face was buried beneath layers of fat while her eyes darted around. She noticed T'Challa circling the Gorilla God's corpse with great curiosity.
"Hey, T'Challa. Come here."
T'Challa had been examining the Gorilla God's body. Hearing Bast call him, he quickly jogged over.
"Lord Panther Goddess, did you call for me?"
In front of T'Challa, Bast immediately regained the dignified air of a deity, displaying all the majesty she believed a god should possess.
"Do you want to eat lion meat? A certain lion's flesh is especially tasty."
T'Challa glanced at the peacefully sleeping Lion in Carol's arms and decisively shook his head.
What a joke, he'd rather upset anyone than upset Carol. If he made Carol angry, he might end up getting beaten by both siblings together.
As for upsetting the Panther Goddess? That wasn't a problem, after all, Daniel was his friend.
"T'Challa, I'm planning to make life difficult for you."
Bast's displeased voice echoed directly into T'Challa's mind.
But T'Challa wasn't the least bit flustered, he walked over to Daniel, stood on tiptoe, wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and asked, "Daniel, what if someone attacks me?"
Daniel gave him a puzzled look before answering matter of factly, "Then beat the hell out of them. I don't have many friends, so if anyone tries to attack them, I'll send that person straight off to next life."
T'Challa's grin spread from ear to ear, as he shot Bast a triumphant glance before patting Daniel on the shoulder.
"That's my brother! Once we get back, let's design you a new suit."
He knew Daniel's suit had been destroyed, and he had intended to gift him several new suits anyway, so now it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring that up.
Daniel immediately brightened, T'Challa was all smiles as well.
Carol looked down at the Lion sleeping peacefully in her arms, becoming more pleased with him the longer she looked.
Everyone wore happy expressions, everyone except Bast, who sat on the ground fuming. She suddenly felt that this generation's Black Panther was disappointing, his faith simply wasn't devout enough.
Maybe, she should choose a new one.
...
After sulking for a while, Bast finally spoke again.
"I promised to place a protective blessing upon your souls, and I'll do it now."
Without Daniel and Carol, she had no idea how much longer she would have been trapped fighting the two dead Beast Gods and the Lion now sleeping in Carol's arms.
Now that she had finally been freed, she genuinely felt grateful to them, so she intended to honor her promise.
Besides, from a rational standpoint, Bast thought it would be wiser not to renege on her word. Those two siblings clearly weren't the sort to accept getting the short end of the stick
They hadn't mentioned the reward yet only because they probably hadn't remembered it. If they did remember later and discovered she'd withheld what she'd promised... Bast had a feeling her future would be very miserable.
She rubbed the rolls of fat on her belly, stood upright, and strained for quite a while. Finally, she squeezed two drops of golden liquid out of her mouth.
"Swallow it."
"And your souls will become stronger."
Bast spoke calmly. She had done it on purpose, because she wanted to disgust the siblings, and since they had no idea what this substance actually was, she intentionally spat it out of her mouth, even making it look like she was spitting phlegm.
'If they think it's disgusting and refuse to eat it... even better. I'll save some divine power.'
Sure enough, both Daniel and Carol looked thoroughly revolted. The way Bast had produced those golden droplets was simply too disgusting, and they stared at them for a long time.
After staring at the droplets for a moment, Daniel asked, "When that Crocodile roared earlier... was there a soul attack mixed into it?"
"Of course, " Bast nodded. "It even stunned me for a moment."
"All right then."
Without giving Carol or T'Challa time to react, Daniel flicked the two golden droplets straight into their mouths.
"I don't need them."
He had a vague feeling they wouldn't do anything for him anyway. When the Crocodile had roared earlier, he'd felt absolutely nothing.
Ever since his transformation, he'd noticed his resistance to all kinds of attacks had increased dramatically, and he was beginning to realize something.
Superman's supposedly poor resistance to magic only seemed weak compared to his overwhelmingly invincible physical durability. In reality, magical attacks still couldn't inflict much damage on him.
The thing he truly had to worry about was mental attack, as that resistance really was comparatively low.
If his willpower was strong, his mental defenses were respectable enough. But did Daniel look like someone with unshakable determination?
Obviously not, because deep down, he was still just an ordinary person. Even now, he was content with a comfortable life, he had no grand ambitions, all he wanted was to enjoy his peaceful little world, and perhaps one day he'd become someone truly great.
But at this stage, he was simply an ordinary man who happened to possess invincible power, and he still had plenty of growing to do.
Fortunately, ever since reaching adulthood, his resistance to mental attacks had been steadily increasing.
He could clearly sense his soul gradually merging with his body, and once that fusion was complete, anyone who wanted to launch a mental attack against him would first have to break through his physical body.
Given Bast's level of strength, Daniel honestly wasn't interested in the soul-enhancing liquid she'd produced.
It was far more useful for Carol and T'Challa. In fact, Daniel looked over at Bast's plump body, and he could tell she could squeeze out quite a bit more.
'I should get four more drops later.'
'One for mom, one for dad, and one for my dear Susan.'
'Hmm... Tony, that bastard, is pretty weak too, so he should have one as well.'
Daniel looked at Bast with a rather suspicious smile, the look made Bast's fur stand on end.
'Still need four more drops.'
Daniel silently calculated.
As soon as Carol and T'Challa swallowed the golden liquid, they both started gagging. Carol even tried to put the Lion down so she could come over and punch Daniel.
'That thing was disgusting! It may have looked pretty, but Bast literally spat it out like phlegm!'
'Who knows whether it had her saliva on it!'
Just as Carol was about to throw a punch, dizziness suddenly overwhelmed her, and it took nearly ten minutes before she recovered.
When she finally regained her senses, her mind felt astonishingly clear, she even had the strange feeling that she'd become smarter.
Delighted by the thought, she immediately stopped looking for trouble with Daniel. Instead, she happily worked through a math problem in her head, and she solved it almost instantly.
'I really did get smarter!'
Compared to Carol, T'Challa's reaction was much more dramatic. The moment he swallowed the liquid, he passed out completely and collapsed face-first onto the ground.
Fortunately, the ground was fine, as he was still wearing his Black Panther suit. Looking at the unconscious T'Challa, then at the corpses of the Gorilla God and the Crocodile God lying nearby, Daniel scratched his head.
"How are we supposed to get all this back?" He turned toward Bast.
"How about we go back to Wakanda through your divine realm again?"
Bast immediately shook her head, absolutely not. Her tiny divine realm couldn't handle that. Daniel alone was already unimaginably heavy, and now adding two corpses over twenty meters long, she was certain her divine realm would collapse.