The island of New Guinea—fractured, broken into countless pieces, sinking—was collapsing. High-rise buildings toppled, seawater surged, and the ruined cities were swallowed. The cries of millions in an instant made Barry's heart ache to the point of suffocation.
A golden flash of light darted back and forth without pause, evacuating civilians. Entwined in golden arcs, The Flash moved with desperation. The arcs looked like a vast net, sweeping through a doomsday scene to rescue scattered lives.
Even The Flash himself didn't know how many people he had saved. In a short span of time, the island cracked, the tectonic plates ruptured, a massive earthquake struck, and coastal cities were struck by tidal surges. All of this erupted at once.
The Flash ran over the fractured ground, getting faster and faster, a yellow arc trailing behind him, leaving a long afterimage of electrical current. He ran over water, over crumbling buildings, shattered debris, and chunks of stone midair.
He saved lawyers, police officers, criminals, janitors, gardeners, politicians, businessmen, men, women, and children... all humans, without distinguishing between who was worthy.
Because all of humanity was within the range of his salvation.
Even a man committing robbery was scooped up by The Flash and carried to safety on another landmass in an instant.
The situation was too urgent to judge or hesitate.
In this apocalyptic city, he could only unleash his speed, flickering yellow arcs behind him, spreading golden light, bringing hope to the people and saving lives.
With a fearful child clinging to each of his arms, three women on his back wrapped in the Speed Force, and a suited man hanging from his chest, he darted across the Australian outback, dropped them off, and dashed back again.
To him, the entire world slowed to a crawl at the divine speed he was now reaching. In his eyes, time dragged, and he was saving it all.
By the time he reached the next ragged vagrant—
He had already saved 4,802,391 people. He hadn't counted carefully, but it was certainly that number.
Boom!
The sky suddenly erupted.
At the same time, Bardi's eyes gleamed coldly in the sky. A massive sonic boom exploded above. His imposing body dived straight down, friction igniting fiery red heat across his forehead. The wind swept back his black hair, exposing a sharp face with a broad forehead and high nose, like a god descending with power.
He arrived before The Flash.
After seventy trillion deductions, Flash's speed and behavioral patterns had been completely predicted.
No errors.
The Flash and Bardi arrived at the vagrant simultaneously. Their eyes locked.
Gravel burst into the air. The ragged vagrant was struck by the force of Bardi's descent and instantly hurled into the air. His organs ruptured, his body crushed and paralyzed.
A large hand, like a serpent striking from a hole, shot forward. The white palm radiated intense heat as it grabbed the Flash by the neck and clamped down, lifting him off the ground.
The move was flawless. Not a single miscalculation.
From the data gathered through Flash's previous rescues of 4,802,391 people, Bardi had modeled his action patterns and calculated his maximum burst speed. In a blink, he had seized The Flash by the neck and lifted him up.
The Flash's eyes widened in horror. In his back-and-forth rescues, he hadn't been able to keep track of Barmulodi. His movements had become more focused and linear. No one could keep up with his speed. He was only getting faster.
Yet Bardi appeared before him.
Fear gripped his heart. In an instant, his breath caught, his neck tightened, and his feet left the ground.
"Caught you."
Bardi's face was expressionless. He gripped The Flash's neck with one hand and raised him effortlessly.
The whites of The Flash's eyes turned red. The blood vessels expanded outward, his face filling with red lines. He was suffocating.
The sun slanted across The Flash's back, casting a shadow over Bardi's face. From the Flash's view, he looked like a merciless demon. His hands and feet trembled in fear as Bardi held him aloft, seemingly ready to tear him apart.
A surge of yellow arcs burst violently from The Flash's body.
"Ah!"
The Flash groaned in pain, his neck still held tightly. The yellow arcs expanded instantly, even engulfing Bardi.
His figure began to blur with the rapid motion of the arcs, struggling within Bardi's grasp.
Speed Force Vibration!
A vibration strong enough to phase through matter and space.
His heart trembled. Countless arcs sparked as he tried to shake free, because… millions more were still waiting to be saved.
He clenched his teeth and roared in pain.
But Bardi simply puffed his cheeks slightly and blew a powerful cold breath down at The Flash's legs.
The vibrating arcs slowed instantly. The extreme drop in temperature, exceeding minus one hundred degrees, created inertia and resistance.
The yellow arcs grew sluggish, dragging The Flash's body weakly, no longer vibrating at high frequency.
In the end, as if Bardi exhaled a freezing breath, he blew the high-frequency arcs away. His breath covered The Flash's legs in freezing air that dropped below minus one hundred degrees.
Instantly, Flash's legs froze. The icy chill penetrated his thighs, muscles, and cells, freezing and necrotizing every part of them, down to the bone marrow. His bones turned brittle and white as the cold reached their core.
His legs became translucent, pale white, encased in spreading frost.
Boom!
Like shattered porcelain.
The Flash's legs shattered. Frozen shards fell from his body all the way to his hips. His legs were completely gone, with only the frozen stumps trembling and dangling.
Bardi remained cold and ruthless. Arctic air rose around him. He stood bathed in a frozen domain, like a merciless ice demon.
His fingers tightened around The Flash's throat, embedding deep into his neck.
"Ah!"
The Flash screamed in agony. His body became clear, no longer vibrating. The yellow arcs on his body faded with a mournful whimper.
He hung there, horrifically suspended in the sunlight.
His legs were gone, frozen and destroyed. His face turned red from being choked, his tongue began to protrude, and his eyes bulged with red veins, as if they would burst.
"Still want to travel through time?"
"Ye... yes… sorry… please… please save… them."
(To be continued.)
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