This is the thirty-eighth attempt.
Raven took a deep breath, and black magic surged from her body, transforming into a thin, almost transparent layer of shadow energy that enveloped Barry's mutilated body.
This is the limit of what she can do, an "anchor" that doesn't belong to this dimension, used to resist the tearing force of the torrent of time.
Barry placed his hands on the slanted conveyor belt, which was covered with scratches and charred marks, evidence of his previous thirty-seven failures.
"Start up."
His words were brief and calm.
Along with his words came the humming sound of the Green Lantern energy lantern being activated.
The faint green light instantly intensified, flowing into the entire device along the tangled wires.
Electric light crackled across Aquaman's trident, channeling energy to its core.
The conveyor belt started to turn, slowly at first, but soon the speed increased exponentially!
Barry has no legs; he can only use his arms instead.
His hands left two blurry afterimages on the high-speed conveyor belt, each strike producing a piercing friction sound.
Golden Speed Force burst from his body, but they were far less dazzling than in his prime, instead revealing a dimness of powerlessness.
"Not enough... faster..."
Barry gritted his teeth and forced out a few words. The muscles in his arms had swollen to a terrifying degree, and the blood vessels under his skin were clearly visible. Every exertion of force felt like a challenge to the limits of the human body.
Losing his lower body deprived him of the crucial balance and core strength needed for running; he now relies entirely on the brute force of his upper body to drive his Speed Force.
The speed was increasing, the surrounding scenery began to distort, and the air was torn apart with a shriek.
Raven could sense that Barry's "existence" was becoming thinner, as if he could be swept into some unknown spacetime rift at any moment.
She immediately increased the output of her magic, and the black energy solidified, firmly pinning him to the real dimension.
"Faster! Just a little bit more!" Barry roared. In his vision, ripples were beginning to appear in the space ahead, a sign that the spacetime barrier was about to be torn apart!
Success is within reach!
However, at that crucial moment, an accident occurred.
"Snap!"
A crisp sound of bone cracking rang out.
Barry's right arm could not withstand the excessive load, and the arm bone broke instantly!
The immense inertia and the tearing force of the Speed Force acted on him simultaneously, causing him to instantly lose control and be violently thrown out by the conveyor belt!
Golden lightning and black magic exploded out simultaneously.
Barry!
Raven cried out in alarm, and the shadow energy instantly transformed into several tentacles, forcibly dragging Barry back from the raging energy turbulence before his body was completely disintegrated by the Speed Force.
"Boom!"
The Cosmic Treadmill let out a mournful cry, the Green Lantern's energy ran out, and the entire device shut down completely.
Barry crashed to the ground, his only remaining left arm weakly supporting him, while his severed right arm twisted at an odd angle.
He was panting heavily, sweat mixed with dust, leaving deep, disheveled lines on his face.
After resting for less than thirty seconds, he used his left hand to support himself on the ground, dragging his injured body, and tried to crawl back towards the cold machine.
He was about to begin his thirty-ninth attempt.
"Enough!"
Raven's figure blocked his way. She crouched down, looking at Barry's mangled left hand and completely deformed right arm, an indescribable emotion stuck in her throat.
"Stop trying, you'll die."
"I... can still..."
"You can't!" Raven interrupted him rudely. "Look at your body! You can't go back like this! You need a prosthetic limb!"
She thought of Cyborg and those mechanical technologies. Perhaps, replacing flesh and blood with machines could allow him to "stand" up again.
Barry shook his head and gave a bitter smile, "It's no use, Raven. All the cutting-edge technology still in operation on Earth is controlled by Lex Luthor. The two of us can't take anything from him."
The man who had fought Superman his entire life unsurprisingly chose to betray him when the apocalypse came.
"Then let's go find them!" Raven insisted. "There must still be survivors on Earth, and... heroes."
"Who?" Barry asked wearily. " Shazam? I looked for him. Billy doesn't want to fight anymore. Darkseid's army destroyed his home, and like me, he lost his legs. Even divine power can't regenerate them."
Every name spoken is like reopening a bloody wound.
Raven paused for a moment, then shook his head. "Not them. Not those surrendered villains either. We need to find a... bastard."
"Who?"
Constantine.
Upon hearing the name, Barry paused for a moment.
John Constantine, the charlatan who manipulates magic and lies, walking between heaven and Hell.
They had dealt with this troublesome guy quite a bit when the Justice League was still around.
Do you have his coordinates?
"I can find him," Raven replied confidently. "His Soul Stone reeks of Hell sulfur and cheap cigarettes; on a magical level, it's as conspicuous as a searchlight in the night. Wait a moment, I'm casting a teleportation..."
Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly trembled.
A sharp, excruciating pain, as if it were about to pry open her skull, suddenly struck her. Raven groaned, fell to one knee, and clutched her head tightly with both hands.
"Daughter... do you think I can't sense it? You want to go find that scum and have him deal with me?" The voice of the Trigon roared wildly in her mind, "Stop dreaming! Stay here and obediently become my door!"
"Get out!" the Raven growled in anguish.
Seeing this, Barry immediately understood what had happened.
He propped himself up with his intact left arm, moved to Raven's side, and without saying anything to comfort her, simply stated calmly, " Raven, climb onto my back."
Raven looked up, her pale face covered in cold sweat, and stared at Barry in astonishment.
"You show me the way," Barry continued, "I'll take you there."
Raven's gaze fell on his empty lower body, on his broken right arm, and her eyes almost overflowed with pity.
Should he use his only remaining hand to drag the weight of two people forward?
This is so cruel!
Barry saw through her thoughts; he forced a smile that looked more like a grimace.
"It's no big deal, Raven," he said, a renewed, unyielding fire burning in his blue eyes. "Whether I have the Speed Force or not, whether I have legs or not, I am still Barry Allen."
These words, like a bolt of lightning, shattered the last vestige of hesitation in the Raven's heart.
She said no more, gritted her teeth, endured the excruciating pain in her mind, and carefully moved her body to lie on Barry's not-so-broad back.
She was very light; years of repression and pain had made her exceptionally thin.
She reached out her arms, not to wrap them around Barry's neck, but to gently grasp his shoulders.
Barry felt the weight on his back and took a deep breath.
"Hold on tight, Raven."
He let out a low growl, and with a sudden burst of strength in his remaining left arm, he frantically dug at the cracked ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and gravel as he charged toward the unknown darkness the Raven had pointed to.