Thor flicked his hand, and ripples spread across the dark blue portal in front of him. Without looking back, he stepped inside first.
The moment the viscous seawater beneath my feet disappeared, a scorching, dry wind carrying sand and gravel rushed towards me.
Diana, Mera, and a bruised and battered Arthur followed closely behind. The four of them were stunned by the sight before them as soon as they stood still.
This is a city being torn apart alive. The yellow sand that fills the sky is not sand, but a kind of nanoparticle that shimmers with a metallic luster. They are like living locusts, silently decomposing and devouring the steel and concrete of skyscrapers wherever they go.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of ozone and the acrid odor of burning metal.
A golden bolt of lightning stumbled back at high speed across the ruined street, each turn accompanied by a series of ear-piercing sonic booms.
Behind him, a convoy of more than a dozen menacing Batmobile was pursuing him at an equally incredible speed. Their shapes resembled mechanical behemoths from a nightmare, with ominous scarlet lightning crackling across their bodies.
" Bruce! You've used so many War Machine to hunt me down! What do you want?!" Barry Allen roared breathlessly from within the golden lightning.
Inside the lead Batmobile, a figure clad in scarlet armor uttered two overlapping voices: one of Bruce's coldness, and the other, deeper within, Barry's faint, pained whispers.
"I want what you were born with, the Speed Force."
Barry narrowly avoided a head-on collision with a Batmobile, which crashed into a building and shattered a War Machine pillar, sending countless pieces of debris crashing down.
"Speed can't save you from regret! I've tried countless times to rewrite the past, but it only creates more disaster! You simply don't understand the curse of this power!"
The Red Death raised his hand, maneuvering several Batmobile to simultaneously encircle Barry, completely sealing off all his escape routes. He sneered:
"I've seen curses. I've watched Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian fall one after another. I run and fight day after day, but I'm never fast enough. You have the speed to reach anything, yet you're always held back."
Deep within his consciousness, the remaining fragments of Barry Allen's mind pleaded intermittently, "No... Bruce, there's no way out..."
Barry took a desperate gamble, attempting to rely on molecular vibrations to penetrate the vehicle's armor and reach the Red Death itself.
You cannot fill your sorrow by plundering power!
The Red Death simply raised his hand, and a jet-black shockwave of the Speed Force erupted, forcing Barry back violently.
"In my world, I have tried every gentle method. Today, I will no longer beg. I will take."
The Red Death's voice was devoid of emotion, "These tanks are just appetizers—you can outrun machines, but you can't escape a pursuit faster than despair."
As soon as he finished speaking, a large number of Batmobile simultaneously activated their freeze cannons and thermal missiles, creating an impenetrable network of firepower.
Barry was forced to dodge at high speed continuously amidst a barrage of deathly bullets, which rapidly depleted his stamina.
He glimpsed the ordinary people on both sides of the street who hadn't had time to escape; under the radiation of the Scarlet Speed Force, their skin was visibly aging and withering, their life force being rapidly drained.
"You've transformed the entire Central City! Ordinary people will be torn apart by your Speed Force! Stop!" Barry's eyes widened in fury.
The Red Death glanced coldly at the aging civilians. "The road to the new world is paved with sacrifice. Barbatos promised me a reality where I would never lose anyone again. Defeating you will end all the tragedy."
"Such a world does not exist!"
"Then let me prove it to you with my own hands!"
The crimson black mist surrounding the Red Death suddenly surged, and all the Batmobile accelerated in unison, closing in from all directions.
Just as Barry was about to be completely engulfed, an extremely thin, cold, pale blue beam of light descended from the sky without warning, precisely sweeping across the entire battlefield.
"Click--"
Apart from Barry Allen, all the Speed Force Batmobile that were speeding forward, along with the crimson lightning that coursed across them, were instantly frozen into crystal-clear ice sculptures. They remained in their forward-moving posture and crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces.
On Thor's nanotech armor, a tiny cannon muzzle on the shoulder emitted wisps of cold air.
He turned around and realized that the gothic girl dressed as a ghost had vanished without a trace.
"Did it go to retrieve the Soul Stone of my cheap 'daughter'?" Thor wondered to himself. "But do beings in the Dark Multiverse really have Soul Stone? Or is it just some kind of recycling and reuse of cosmic laws?"
" Diana! Arthur! Mera!"
Barry, who had survived the ordeal, saw his comrades and his face lit up with ecstatic joy. "Great! I knew you guys would be alright! Come help me! That Bruce, he's gone mad, he tried to kill me!"
However, before he could finish speaking, the crimson Speed Force around the frozen the Red Death Reaper suddenly erupted, instantly breaking free from the icy restraints.
He glanced at Thor and the others, his overlapping voice carrying a hint of displeasure at being disturbed.
"A few more are just here to die."
Thor ignored him, walked straight to the still-shaken the Flash, held out his hand, and said in an unquestionable tone, "Give me some of the Speed Force."
Barry was stunned. He looked at Thor's unfamiliar face and then at the suit of armor that was clearly in the style of " Batman." He couldn't quite process what was happening.
He instinctively turned his questioning gaze toward Diana and Arthur.
Diana nodded decisively without the slightest hesitation.
She had witnessed Thomas's methods firsthand—decisive, efficient, and to the point. In the current situation, he was the most reliable savior.
Arthur looked reluctant. He touched his still-sore cheek and squeezed out a single word through gritted teeth. "... Here."
Having received confirmation from his teammates, Barry no longer hesitated.
He placed his hand on Thor's shoulder, and a pure, golden Speed Force surged into Thor's body without reservation.
"This should only last for a while," Barry said quickly. "Tell me, how do you want me to cooperate, Blue—"
Before he could finish speaking, Thor shoved him aside with such force that the Speedster staggered a few steps.
This is a family education issue; it's none of your business.
"Huh?" Barry was completely dumbfounded. What kind of family education was this?
But the next second, they had no time to think.
Golden and red lightning exploded on Thor's body.
On the surface of the nanosuit, countless golden divine patterns lit up, rapidly analyzing and reconstructing this new energy.
He didn't even take a running start; he simply vanished from the spot.
At the same time, the Red Death transformed into a crimson streak of light and charged head-on toward what he considered the greatest threat— Thor.
A streak of gold and red, a streak of scarlet.
Two bolts of lightning, representing extreme speed, collided violently in the heart of the city, which had been razed to the ground.
There was no earth-shattering noise, only a moment of absolute silence.
Immediately afterwards, an unprecedented Speed Force storm suddenly erupted centered on the point of impact.
The energies of gold and red clashed and Oblivion, transforming into pure kinetic energy and ripples in spacetime that spread outwards.
The surrounding remaining buildings, the decomposed nanoparticles, and even the space itself were instantly torn apart, evaporated, and turned into Void in this storm.