Barry looked at the figure in the dust and instinctively took a step back. For a moment, his body recoiled subconsciously, and his heart trembled with fear.
This was his first time facing Bardi—someone crueler and more cunning than any villain he had ever encountered. Bardi had driven them like dogs and cast him aside with nothing but contempt for years.
That figure in the dust made Barry feel as if he were facing some savage, ancient beast. It exuded a bloodthirsty and brutal aura, trampling the earth and releasing an overwhelming oppressive force. The air, the land, every particle around him seemed to groan under its weight.
The entire earth moaned and wailed beneath his feet.
Beneath him, on the cracked ground, was a brutal throne forged from thousands of corpses.
"Damn it!"
Barry bit the tip of his tongue. A bitter, salty taste filled his mouth as he snapped out of the crushing pressure. The feeling was real and suffocating. His heart pounded wildly. Suppressing his fear, his blood felt like it had frozen. His limbs stiffened like ice.
But his memory awakened. What he had endured, what he had experienced, flashed in his mind. The yellow arcs beneath his feet began to flicker faintly, surging upward, giving him strength and helping him stay standing. Eyes wide with terror, he faced Bardi head-on.
In the next moment—
The dust in the sky exploded violently.
Bardi stood expressionless, eyes cold. His stance on the ground was like that of someone atop the highest peak, and a single step was enough to shatter everything.
His body was unrestrained, and the magnetic field controlling the strength of his cells was not being suppressed. As someone powerful enough to destroy a planet, the magnetic field of every cell in his body was staggeringly intense.
At such a terrifying level, with no control, ordinary people who stood before him could be affected on every level—nerves, endocrine system, sensory organs, cardiovascular system, blood flow, digestion, muscles, excretion, respiration, skin, bones—everything could either accelerate or fail. Vision and hearing could even hallucinate.
In his presence, ordinary people couldn't even lift their heads. They weren't qualified to look upon him.
This was the fundamental difference in lifeforms. Just the magnetic field reaction from a planet-destroying powerhouse could crush the internal organs of an ordinary person, deprive them of oxygen, stagnate their blood, and burst their brain on the spot.
This was the pressure from a planet-level being.
That kind of oppressive force, released uncontrollably by Bardi, rippled outward in waves, shaking the air with terrifying impact.
Beside him, under sunlight, the magnetic field distorted. Light twisted in the air as if space itself had shattered.
Around him, a terrifying scene unfolded.
He was like a supermassive planet. His gravitational and magnetic fields were like a singularity born from a planet's destruction, attracting and distorting everything near him, pulling it toward obliteration.
An angry Bardi was terrifying. There was no room for negotiation. No force could stop him.
Waves of overwhelming pressure fields surged violently around him. A massive circular disturbance formed in the sky, and white clouds were pushed far away.
The air trembled.
The earth wept.
Light twisted around him. He looked like a terrifying dark lord, a walking black hole, swallowing and annihilating all in his path.
Barry's face twisted in shock. He stepped back as the oppressive force closed in on him, waves of pressure rolling toward him like crashing tides, suffocating and relentless.
In an instant, Barry stopped breathing through his nose. Instinctively, his eyes widened in fear as he stared at Bardi. It was like witnessing the arrival of a god or demon, like watching all forms in a black hole twist and distort. The immense pressure field crushed his chest. His heart felt like it would stop. His blood slowed. His thoughts threatened to collapse.
The yellow arcs on him surged violently, resisting and offsetting the crushing force through resonance.
"You're not from this universe! You're not Kryptonian! Where did you come from?!"
Barry's voice trembled in horror, eyes narrowing as yellow electricity surged around him. The immense pressure hit like a storm. The arcs on his body responded faster and faster.
It was a nightmarish sight—the vision of a world-ending being.
This terrifying power, this magnetic reaction, left Barry stunned and speechless.
Bardi's white windbreaker flowed despite the still air. Light distorted around him. Stones floated beneath his feet, shattered, and fell. His imposing figure stepped upon the sky, upon the earth, upon the very lifeblood of the planet. The entire world cried beneath him.
Gently, Bardi raised his right foot.
His expression remained blank. His eyes were ice-cold. He gazed down at the world like a giant from the depths of the universe, looking down upon Earth, looking down on Barry, looking down on the Flash.
The Flash had truly enraged Bardi.
His past—whether pain or misery, joy or sorrow—was not something anyone could change without permission.
He had endured all the pain, all the sorrow, as well as the laughter and the smiles. Every part of his past was precious. It had shaped who he was, the version of himself he now deeply cherished. How could he allow anyone to change that?
The entire world, under Bardi's feet and under his gaze, trembled.
The ground began to quiver. The forest, already flattened under Bardi's pressure, rustled like a frightened child, sobbing in fear.
Barry's expression shifted. He shouted in disbelief, "Barmulodi, what are you trying to do?!"
Barry couldn't believe it. The entire island of New Guinea, roughly 786,000 square kilometers, the second largest island in the world, home to around 12 million people—
Barmulodi was about to lift his foot and stomp, destroying the entire island of New Guinea and killing 12 million people.
Yes, without a shred of doubt, Barry could sense it. That cold gaze before him was filled with ruthless, overwhelming dominance.
If he didn't yield, a single step would bury 12 million lives. The second-largest island on Earth would vanish, and the resulting super-tsunami would flood the Pacific. Indonesia, Australia, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines—every nearby coastline would be overwhelmed.
The death toll would far exceed 12 million.
And all of it—caused by Bardi's one step.
"Three."
"You can't do this! We know you! You wouldn't hurt civilians!"
"Two."
"You want them to believe in you. You won't harm them! You need them to glorify you!"
"One."
"They'll be the people you rule in the future…"
Bardi's face remained blank. His eyes, cold as ever.
A truly apocalyptic force descended with that step.
The whole world fell silent.
(To be continued.)
***
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