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Chapter 747: The Time Nailed in Place
To the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, Savitar was an elusive bastard who could land a heavy blow on it at any moment. Even a powerful program like the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, which wielded a massive amount of Speed Force, had to treat him with caution.
Back then, it had worked together with the Ultimate Flash to successfully take down the maddened Savitar, locking him into the Speed Force Prison.
According to the Speed Force Collective Consciousness's calculations, there was almost no possibility of Savitar escaping. This was because it knew Savitar too well; no one in this world knew his psychology, thought patterns, and behavioral habits better than it did.
Other prisoners might have had a chance to escape, but Savitar, who was cornered and monitored by the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, had no such opportunity.
The Speed Force within Savitar's body was also within the scope of what the Speed Force Collective Consciousness could access. Therefore, after being locked in the Prison, he should have never had a chance to get out for the rest of his life.
But reality was just that absurdly dramatic. When Savitar went berserk in the Prison, he just so happened to be influenced by Tony, successfully grasping that impossible possibility and escaping.
Tony was a troublesome Anomaly. In the perception of the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, anyone who affected its goals was an unstable factor that had to be closely monitored.
But Tony eventually achieved Deification, ascending to become a Singular God in a world sealed by the Speed Force Wall. This made things even more difficult for the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, and its threat assessment and monitoring level for Tony skyrocketed.
According to its operational programming, let alone Tony's Deification, even if he hadn't achieved it, it was not supposed to interfere as long as he didn't cause substantial damage to the Multiverse.
This was related to the programming The Flash set when he created the Speed Force Wall. The Flash was also worried that the Speed Force Wall would lose control and ultimately become a monster that would destroy the Multiverse.
"Tell that guy, this time, I will kill him and replace him!" In Savitar's icy tone, there was an unconcealed Killing Intent.
In front of the Collective Consciousness, he clenched his fists. More white light immediately surged forth from the surface of his Armor. These immense electric arcs, almost tangible like flowing water, brewed a heart-pounding destructive power.
With a whoosh, Savitar broke through this world's Dimension and left.
The Speed Force Collective Consciousness watched ahead expressionlessly, its cold programming calculating the optimal solution. After a moment of silence, it also slowly vanished on the spot.
Savitar, a person it had no right to kill, was a huge problem.
...
The Flash was running frantically, heading toward the point in time when he was five years old.
Yellow electric arcs left a long trail in the Time Stream, piercing through an unknown number of timelines across countless eras. His red Battle Suit had already become a long afterimage.
The closer he got to the time node, the more images and sounds swirled in The Flash's mind. Countless warm memories tempted him.
The Flash gritted his teeth, roaring as he stared straight ahead.
There, a vortex suddenly appeared, and The Flash plunged headfirst into it.
He arrived in the year he was five.
Childhood memories flooded his mind. The maple leaves by the street were swaying. Barry stood on an empty road at night, looking around with a slightly dazed expression.
"Here... this is the place..."
Barry murmured.
He remembered it clearly. That night, his five-year-old self was awakened by a piercing roar and his mother's screams. He had groggily walked from the bedroom to the living room, only to see red and yellow electric arcs spinning rapidly around his mother.
But the next second, countless electric currents flashed before his eyes, and his five-year-old self suddenly appeared on the street, outside his home... as if some kind of power had teleported him away.
"I will stop you!"
Barry gritted his teeth. The price of Time Travel, the dire consequences of altering the timeline—he threw it all to the back of his mind.
Sanity is a good thing, but expecting someone to remain sane all the time is the most painful thing in the world.
...
Just as Barry returned to the past and was about to interfere in the battle between his 22nd-century self and the Reverse Flash, on the planet Cybertron, Tony's brow twitched slightly, and he opened his eyes.
Carefully tucking Wanda in, Tony walked to the living room, picked up the teapot, and poured himself a cup of tea. He sat on a recliner and looked out at the lawn.
At night, the automatic sprinklers were faithfully carrying out their duties.
"The timeline has been nudged."
Tony sniffed the aroma of his tea.
The Information Aggregate from the past was continuously transmitting to him what had been disturbed by an unknown party. For a Singular God like Tony, changes in the timeline could not possibly escape his perception.
A Singular God like Tony, just by existing, was a super information processing hub that was constantly and wildly expanding. He was always receiving massive amounts of information transmitted back from the past and future. At the same time, if he didn't deliberately contain himself, he would also broadcast a massive amount of information outward.
In a place like the Multiverse, a Singular God's Information Aggregate was a lethal weapon, possessing terrifying destructive power over all sorts of timelines and universes. Only upon reaching the Sphere of the Gods would he no longer need to so painstakingly contain it, and could release his Information Aggregate at will.
And at this moment, at a certain node in the past, an uninvited guest was about to do something, which had already caught Tony's attention.
"It's Barry again... I warned him long ago not to change the past, but he still went and did it."
Tony shook his head helplessly.
The Main Universe's timeline had already been nailed down by Tony. Even if one day in the future Tony were to leave the Main Universe forever, the timeline after his departure could be altered, but the events before his departure would remain unchangeable.
This was because the Singular God had already twisted and fixed the past. Everything that had happened was like the unshakeable main trunk of a great tree. Only after Tony leaves would the trunk's future growth proceed normally, allowing the countless branches that sprout afterward to be modified.
But the main trunk could never be interfered with, unless it was completely destroyed.
Tony gently placed the empty teacup on the table. After pondering for a moment, he tapped his head, feeling a bit of a headache. He wasn't proficient in Time Travel either, and he worried that a reckless attempt would cause immense damage to the timeline.
He could afford not to care, but the many inhabitants of Cybertron would be terrifyingly affected. If the timeline were damaged, many of them might be erased from existence.
The destructive potential of a Singular God on the timeline was insanely devastating.
A sliver of his Willpower detached from Tony's main body. It followed the complex and chaotic temporal turbulence, flying rapidly into the past, tracking Barry's trail as it traveled toward that specific point in time.
Tony felt that if he didn't do something, that fool Barry would definitely die. He couldn't possibly withstand the backlash from the entire nailed-down timeline.
(end of chapter)
To the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, Savitar was an elusive bastard who could land a heavy blow on it at any moment. Even a powerful program like the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, which wielded a massive amount of Speed Force, had to treat him with caution.
Back then, it had worked together with the Ultimate Flash to successfully take down the maddened Savitar, locking him into the Speed Force Prison.
According to the Speed Force Collective Consciousness's calculations, there was almost no possibility of Savitar escaping. This was because it knew Savitar too well; no one in this world knew his psychology, thought patterns, and behavioral habits better than it did.
Other prisoners might have had a chance to escape, but Savitar, who was cornered and monitored by the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, had no such opportunity.
The Speed Force within Savitar's body was also within the scope of what the Speed Force Collective Consciousness could access. Therefore, after being locked in the Prison, he should have never had a chance to get out for the rest of his life.
But reality was just that absurdly dramatic. When Savitar went berserk in the Prison, he just so happened to be influenced by Tony, successfully grasping that impossible possibility and escaping.
Tony was a troublesome Anomaly. In the perception of the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, anyone who affected its goals was an unstable factor that had to be closely monitored.
But Tony eventually achieved Deification, ascending to become a Singular God in a world sealed by the Speed Force Wall. This made things even more difficult for the Speed Force Collective Consciousness, and its threat assessment and monitoring level for Tony skyrocketed.
According to its operational programming, let alone Tony's Deification, even if he hadn't achieved it, it was not supposed to interfere as long as he didn't cause substantial damage to the Multiverse.
This was related to the programming The Flash set when he created the Speed Force Wall. The Flash was also worried that the Speed Force Wall would lose control and ultimately become a monster that would destroy the Multiverse.
"Tell that guy, this time, I will kill him and replace him!" In Savitar's icy tone, there was an unconcealed Killing Intent.
In front of the Collective Consciousness, he clenched his fists. More white light immediately surged forth from the surface of his Armor. These immense electric arcs, almost tangible like flowing water, brewed a heart-pounding destructive power.
With a whoosh, Savitar broke through this world's Dimension and left.
The Speed Force Collective Consciousness watched ahead expressionlessly, its cold programming calculating the optimal solution. After a moment of silence, it also slowly vanished on the spot.
Savitar, a person it had no right to kill, was a huge problem.
...
The Flash was running frantically, heading toward the point in time when he was five years old.
Yellow electric arcs left a long trail in the Time Stream, piercing through an unknown number of timelines across countless eras. His red Battle Suit had already become a long afterimage.
The closer he got to the time node, the more images and sounds swirled in The Flash's mind. Countless warm memories tempted him.
The Flash gritted his teeth, roaring as he stared straight ahead.
There, a vortex suddenly appeared, and The Flash plunged headfirst into it.
He arrived in the year he was five.
Childhood memories flooded his mind. The maple leaves by the street were swaying. Barry stood on an empty road at night, looking around with a slightly dazed expression.
"Here... this is the place..."
Barry murmured.
He remembered it clearly. That night, his five-year-old self was awakened by a piercing roar and his mother's screams. He had groggily walked from the bedroom to the living room, only to see red and yellow electric arcs spinning rapidly around his mother.
But the next second, countless electric currents flashed before his eyes, and his five-year-old self suddenly appeared on the street, outside his home... as if some kind of power had teleported him away.
"I will stop you!"
Barry gritted his teeth. The price of Time Travel, the dire consequences of altering the timeline—he threw it all to the back of his mind.
Sanity is a good thing, but expecting someone to remain sane all the time is the most painful thing in the world.
...
Just as Barry returned to the past and was about to interfere in the battle between his 22nd-century self and the Reverse Flash, on the planet Cybertron, Tony's brow twitched slightly, and he opened his eyes.
Carefully tucking Wanda in, Tony walked to the living room, picked up the teapot, and poured himself a cup of tea. He sat on a recliner and looked out at the lawn.
At night, the automatic sprinklers were faithfully carrying out their duties.
"The timeline has been nudged."
Tony sniffed the aroma of his tea.
The Information Aggregate from the past was continuously transmitting to him what had been disturbed by an unknown party. For a Singular God like Tony, changes in the timeline could not possibly escape his perception.
A Singular God like Tony, just by existing, was a super information processing hub that was constantly and wildly expanding. He was always receiving massive amounts of information transmitted back from the past and future. At the same time, if he didn't deliberately contain himself, he would also broadcast a massive amount of information outward.
In a place like the Multiverse, a Singular God's Information Aggregate was a lethal weapon, possessing terrifying destructive power over all sorts of timelines and universes. Only upon reaching the Sphere of the Gods would he no longer need to so painstakingly contain it, and could release his Information Aggregate at will.
And at this moment, at a certain node in the past, an uninvited guest was about to do something, which had already caught Tony's attention.
"It's Barry again... I warned him long ago not to change the past, but he still went and did it."
Tony shook his head helplessly.
The Main Universe's timeline had already been nailed down by Tony. Even if one day in the future Tony were to leave the Main Universe forever, the timeline after his departure could be altered, but the events before his departure would remain unchangeable.
This was because the Singular God had already twisted and fixed the past. Everything that had happened was like the unshakeable main trunk of a great tree. Only after Tony leaves would the trunk's future growth proceed normally, allowing the countless branches that sprout afterward to be modified.
But the main trunk could never be interfered with, unless it was completely destroyed.
Tony gently placed the empty teacup on the table. After pondering for a moment, he tapped his head, feeling a bit of a headache. He wasn't proficient in Time Travel either, and he worried that a reckless attempt would cause immense damage to the timeline.
He could afford not to care, but the many inhabitants of Cybertron would be terrifyingly affected. If the timeline were damaged, many of them might be erased from existence.
The destructive potential of a Singular God on the timeline was insanely devastating.
A sliver of his Willpower detached from Tony's main body. It followed the complex and chaotic temporal turbulence, flying rapidly into the past, tracking Barry's trail as it traveled toward that specific point in time.
Tony felt that if he didn't do something, that fool Barry would definitely die. He couldn't possibly withstand the backlash from the entire nailed-down timeline.
(end of chapter)
