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Chapter 746: Collective Consciousness, Savitar
By Great Demon Spirit
The world lost its sound.
Countless images seemed to flow by at the speed of light, like reflections in a mirror or the moon on water, appearing in an instant and vanishing just as quickly, ultimately disappearing into an unknown place.
These frenziedly converging torrents of information constantly assaulted the speedster's brain. This was a situation every speedster had to face when traveling through time.
The Speed Force granted speedsters super-healing and a super-brain, allowing them to fight tirelessly as if on adrenaline, but the Speed Force could not grant them unwavering willpower.
Those with weak willpower would have long been entangled by the countless images, either dying in their run and becoming one of the Black Flashes controlled by the Speed Force, or becoming completely lost in countless eras, dying alone.
Barry struggled to persevere, his gaze fixed on the endless path ahead. He consciously ignored the images flashing past at the speed of light, staring intently forward, sensing the countless points in time.
Zzzzt!
Suddenly, Barry's figure vanished from the Time Stream, disappearing from every era. He was dragged away by an unknown power, pulled in an unknown direction.
Something unknown had interfered.
...
An unknown amount of time passed. It could have been a second, or it could have been countless years. Time had long lost its meaning.
When Barry opened his eyes again, he found himself in a world that was somewhat unfamiliar.
A blue sky, green grass, a tidy cobblestone path, clean benches...
It was somewhat strange, yet also vaguely familiar.
But it was completely deserted.
Barry looked around with a grave expression. He was certain this was not the place he had intended to go.
Definitely not.
The last time he traveled through the timeline was when Steppenwolf was steamrolling Earth's superheroes, and The Flash ran to the past to ask Tony for help. Barry was very familiar with the sensation of time travel.
But this time, he had clearly not reached his destination when something knocked him unconscious and snatched him away to this place.
Barry tried to accelerate but was horrified to discover that the Speed Force within him had vanished without a trace.
This had never happened before.
“Thawne knows things I can't access…”
Barry's face was ashen as he walked slowly along the cobblestone path.
The gentle sunlight shone on Barry, yet it sent waves of chills through him.
He didn't know how long he had been walking. The scenery remained the same: blue sky, grass, path, benches.
Finally, Barry saw a person sitting on a bench ahead.
It was... himself.
“Who are you?” Barry asked cautiously, frowning.
The man closed the book in his hands, casually set it aside, glanced at Barry, and then slowly stood up.
“I should have told you this a long time ago,” the man said faintly. His smiling face was completely calm, but for some reason, Barry could clearly sense an immense coldness from him.
“What?” Barry asked.
“The price.”
The man replied, breaking off a willow twig and handing it to Barry.
Just as Barry was about to reach for it, the twig suddenly withered. Its verdant green leaves turned yellow, falling to the ground as if time had suddenly accelerated.
A sense of foreboding rose in Barry's heart. He desperately tried to summon the power within him, but he still only had the muscular strength of an ordinary human. The Speed Force had completely vanished from him.
“Everyone who plays with time will be played by time. I should have told you this last time, but there was a guy I really despise present, so I didn't stop you.”
The man handed the scorched willow branch to Barry and said faintly, “Not a single speedster is qualified to change the timeline. What awaits them is the severe punishment of time, and you are no exception, Barry.”
“Are you trying to stop me? No, who exactly are you? Are you me? My future self?” Barry frowned, remaining highly vigilant.
This place was too strange, and the person in front of him who looked exactly like him was even stranger.
“...I am not you, but I am you,” the man said casually and began to stroll along the winding path.
Barry was completely bewildered. After a moment of hesitation, he chose to follow; it was the only thing he could do.
“I don't care if you're me or someone else, let me out of here. I have something very important to do,” Barry said in a low voice.
“You will regret it.”
“I'll regret it if I don't! No matter who you are, give me back my Speed Force and let me leave this place!”
The man froze, about to say something, when suddenly his expression shifted slightly. The next second, the entire world began to collapse, and he threw Barry back into the Time Stream.
The Speed Force Collective Consciousness will not actively kill The Flash; this was a program set in place when it was created.
The Speed Force flooded back into Barry's body. He looked at the suddenly normal scenery, a trace of confusion and disarray flashing in his eyes. Was that... fake? Or was it real? Was I affected by the Time Stream?
Shaking his head, Barry focused on the path ahead and resumed his run.
...
Barry was gone. It seemed the Speed Force Collective Consciousness had run into some trouble.
An uninvited guest had violently broken in.
White arcs of electricity vibrated through this space-time as a futuristic suit of armor appeared. Dense arcs of electricity, so thick they flowed like water, coursed over the armor's surface. The brilliant white light was extremely blinding, illuminating a non-existent darkness.
At least in the eyes of the armor's owner, this damned place was nothing but endless darkness.
“Savitar…” the Speed Force Collective Consciousness said, looking expressionlessly at the newcomer.
Savitar, the Barry Allen who had gone to the extreme and succumbed to corruption, the Barry Allen who had slaughtered his friends and family, the man who had completely abandoned the name of The Flash.
A man who called himself the God of Speed.
“You touched something you shouldn't have…”
A deep voice, grating like sandpaper, sounded out. Beneath Savitar's flat helmet, a white light swirled and flickered. In a blur, Savitar appeared before the conscious entity and shattered it to pieces with a single punch.
“Sooner or later, I will control you again and completely obliterate this damned program of yours…”
Savitar's gloomy tone radiated a chilling killing intent.
A new conscious entity formed. This time, the Speed Force Collective Consciousness chose to appear in the form of Savitar.
It was the image of a Barry Allen with half his face burned away—evil, hideous, and bloodthirsty.
“I will stop you again. If you become a god, it will be a disaster for the Multiverse,” the conscious entity stated indifferently.
“Then try it. I lost once; I will never lose a second time. I only need one chance to destroy you, but you can never destroy me... I have been to the end of the concept of time, and I know information that even many gods do not. I will—become a God!!!”
(end of chapter)
By Great Demon Spirit
The world lost its sound.
Countless images seemed to flow by at the speed of light, like reflections in a mirror or the moon on water, appearing in an instant and vanishing just as quickly, ultimately disappearing into an unknown place.
These frenziedly converging torrents of information constantly assaulted the speedster's brain. This was a situation every speedster had to face when traveling through time.
The Speed Force granted speedsters super-healing and a super-brain, allowing them to fight tirelessly as if on adrenaline, but the Speed Force could not grant them unwavering willpower.
Those with weak willpower would have long been entangled by the countless images, either dying in their run and becoming one of the Black Flashes controlled by the Speed Force, or becoming completely lost in countless eras, dying alone.
Barry struggled to persevere, his gaze fixed on the endless path ahead. He consciously ignored the images flashing past at the speed of light, staring intently forward, sensing the countless points in time.
Zzzzt!
Suddenly, Barry's figure vanished from the Time Stream, disappearing from every era. He was dragged away by an unknown power, pulled in an unknown direction.
Something unknown had interfered.
...
An unknown amount of time passed. It could have been a second, or it could have been countless years. Time had long lost its meaning.
When Barry opened his eyes again, he found himself in a world that was somewhat unfamiliar.
A blue sky, green grass, a tidy cobblestone path, clean benches...
It was somewhat strange, yet also vaguely familiar.
But it was completely deserted.
Barry looked around with a grave expression. He was certain this was not the place he had intended to go.
Definitely not.
The last time he traveled through the timeline was when Steppenwolf was steamrolling Earth's superheroes, and The Flash ran to the past to ask Tony for help. Barry was very familiar with the sensation of time travel.
But this time, he had clearly not reached his destination when something knocked him unconscious and snatched him away to this place.
Barry tried to accelerate but was horrified to discover that the Speed Force within him had vanished without a trace.
This had never happened before.
“Thawne knows things I can't access…”
Barry's face was ashen as he walked slowly along the cobblestone path.
The gentle sunlight shone on Barry, yet it sent waves of chills through him.
He didn't know how long he had been walking. The scenery remained the same: blue sky, grass, path, benches.
Finally, Barry saw a person sitting on a bench ahead.
It was... himself.
“Who are you?” Barry asked cautiously, frowning.
The man closed the book in his hands, casually set it aside, glanced at Barry, and then slowly stood up.
“I should have told you this a long time ago,” the man said faintly. His smiling face was completely calm, but for some reason, Barry could clearly sense an immense coldness from him.
“What?” Barry asked.
“The price.”
The man replied, breaking off a willow twig and handing it to Barry.
Just as Barry was about to reach for it, the twig suddenly withered. Its verdant green leaves turned yellow, falling to the ground as if time had suddenly accelerated.
A sense of foreboding rose in Barry's heart. He desperately tried to summon the power within him, but he still only had the muscular strength of an ordinary human. The Speed Force had completely vanished from him.
“Everyone who plays with time will be played by time. I should have told you this last time, but there was a guy I really despise present, so I didn't stop you.”
The man handed the scorched willow branch to Barry and said faintly, “Not a single speedster is qualified to change the timeline. What awaits them is the severe punishment of time, and you are no exception, Barry.”
“Are you trying to stop me? No, who exactly are you? Are you me? My future self?” Barry frowned, remaining highly vigilant.
This place was too strange, and the person in front of him who looked exactly like him was even stranger.
“...I am not you, but I am you,” the man said casually and began to stroll along the winding path.
Barry was completely bewildered. After a moment of hesitation, he chose to follow; it was the only thing he could do.
“I don't care if you're me or someone else, let me out of here. I have something very important to do,” Barry said in a low voice.
“You will regret it.”
“I'll regret it if I don't! No matter who you are, give me back my Speed Force and let me leave this place!”
The man froze, about to say something, when suddenly his expression shifted slightly. The next second, the entire world began to collapse, and he threw Barry back into the Time Stream.
The Speed Force Collective Consciousness will not actively kill The Flash; this was a program set in place when it was created.
The Speed Force flooded back into Barry's body. He looked at the suddenly normal scenery, a trace of confusion and disarray flashing in his eyes. Was that... fake? Or was it real? Was I affected by the Time Stream?
Shaking his head, Barry focused on the path ahead and resumed his run.
...
Barry was gone. It seemed the Speed Force Collective Consciousness had run into some trouble.
An uninvited guest had violently broken in.
White arcs of electricity vibrated through this space-time as a futuristic suit of armor appeared. Dense arcs of electricity, so thick they flowed like water, coursed over the armor's surface. The brilliant white light was extremely blinding, illuminating a non-existent darkness.
At least in the eyes of the armor's owner, this damned place was nothing but endless darkness.
“Savitar…” the Speed Force Collective Consciousness said, looking expressionlessly at the newcomer.
Savitar, the Barry Allen who had gone to the extreme and succumbed to corruption, the Barry Allen who had slaughtered his friends and family, the man who had completely abandoned the name of The Flash.
A man who called himself the God of Speed.
“You touched something you shouldn't have…”
A deep voice, grating like sandpaper, sounded out. Beneath Savitar's flat helmet, a white light swirled and flickered. In a blur, Savitar appeared before the conscious entity and shattered it to pieces with a single punch.
“Sooner or later, I will control you again and completely obliterate this damned program of yours…”
Savitar's gloomy tone radiated a chilling killing intent.
A new conscious entity formed. This time, the Speed Force Collective Consciousness chose to appear in the form of Savitar.
It was the image of a Barry Allen with half his face burned away—evil, hideous, and bloodthirsty.
“I will stop you again. If you become a god, it will be a disaster for the Multiverse,” the conscious entity stated indifferently.
“Then try it. I lost once; I will never lose a second time. I only need one chance to destroy you, but you can never destroy me... I have been to the end of the concept of time, and I know information that even many gods do not. I will—become a God!!!”
(end of chapter)
