DC: Chapter 205/206

Chapter 205: Outsider

Barry looked at the figure in the dust and instinctively took a step back. For a moment, his body recoiled subconsciously, and his heart trembled with fear.

This was his first time facing Bardi—someone crueler and more cunning than any villain he had ever encountered. Bardi had driven them like dogs and cast him aside with nothing but contempt for years.

That figure in the dust made Barry feel as if he were facing some savage, ancient beast. It exuded a bloodthirsty and brutal aura, trampling the earth and releasing an overwhelming oppressive force. The air, the land, every particle around him seemed to groan under its weight.

The entire earth moaned and wailed beneath his feet.

Beneath him, on the cracked ground, was a brutal throne forged from thousands of corpses.

"Damn it!"

Barry bit the tip of his tongue. A bitter, salty taste filled his mouth as he snapped out of the crushing pressure. The feeling was real and suffocating. His heart pounded wildly. Suppressing his fear, his blood felt like it had frozen. His limbs stiffened like ice.

But his memory awakened. What he had endured, what he had experienced, flashed in his mind. The yellow arcs beneath his feet began to flicker faintly, surging upward, giving him strength and helping him stay standing. Eyes wide with terror, he faced Bardi head-on.

In the next moment—

The dust in the sky exploded violently.

Bardi stood expressionless, eyes cold. His stance on the ground was like that of someone atop the highest peak, and a single step was enough to shatter everything.

His body was unrestrained, and the magnetic field controlling the strength of his cells was not being suppressed. As someone powerful enough to destroy a planet, the magnetic field of every cell in his body was staggeringly intense.

At such a terrifying level, with no control, ordinary people who stood before him could be affected on every level—nerves, endocrine system, sensory organs, cardiovascular system, blood flow, digestion, muscles, excretion, respiration, skin, bones—everything could either accelerate or fail. Vision and hearing could even hallucinate.

In his presence, ordinary people couldn't even lift their heads. They weren't qualified to look upon him.

This was the fundamental difference in lifeforms. Just the magnetic field reaction from a planet-destroying powerhouse could crush the internal organs of an ordinary person, deprive them of oxygen, stagnate their blood, and burst their brain on the spot.

This was the pressure from a planet-level being.

That kind of oppressive force, released uncontrollably by Bardi, rippled outward in waves, shaking the air with terrifying impact.

Beside him, under sunlight, the magnetic field distorted. Light twisted in the air as if space itself had shattered.

Around him, a terrifying scene unfolded.

He was like a supermassive planet. His gravitational and magnetic fields were like a singularity born from a planet's destruction, attracting and distorting everything near him, pulling it toward obliteration.

An angry Bardi was terrifying. There was no room for negotiation. No force could stop him.

Waves of overwhelming pressure fields surged violently around him. A massive circular disturbance formed in the sky, and white clouds were pushed far away.

The air trembled.

The earth wept.

Light twisted around him. He looked like a terrifying dark lord, a walking black hole, swallowing and annihilating all in his path.

Barry's face twisted in shock. He stepped back as the oppressive force closed in on him, waves of pressure rolling toward him like crashing tides, suffocating and relentless.

In an instant, Barry stopped breathing through his nose. Instinctively, his eyes widened in fear as he stared at Bardi. It was like witnessing the arrival of a god or demon, like watching all forms in a black hole twist and distort. The immense pressure field crushed his chest. His heart felt like it would stop. His blood slowed. His thoughts threatened to collapse.

The yellow arcs on him surged violently, resisting and offsetting the crushing force through resonance.

"You're not from this universe! You're not Kryptonian! Where did you come from?!"

Barry's voice trembled in horror, eyes narrowing as yellow electricity surged around him. The immense pressure hit like a storm. The arcs on his body responded faster and faster.

It was a nightmarish sight—the vision of a world-ending being.

This terrifying power, this magnetic reaction, left Barry stunned and speechless.

Bardi's white windbreaker flowed despite the still air. Light distorted around him. Stones floated beneath his feet, shattered, and fell. His imposing figure stepped upon the sky, upon the earth, upon the very lifeblood of the planet. The entire world cried beneath him.

Gently, Bardi raised his right foot.

His expression remained blank. His eyes were ice-cold. He gazed down at the world like a giant from the depths of the universe, looking down upon Earth, looking down on Barry, looking down on the Flash.

The Flash had truly enraged Bardi.

His past—whether pain or misery, joy or sorrow—was not something anyone could change without permission.

He had endured all the pain, all the sorrow, as well as the laughter and the smiles. Every part of his past was precious. It had shaped who he was, the version of himself he now deeply cherished. How could he allow anyone to change that?

The entire world, under Bardi's feet and under his gaze, trembled.

The ground began to quiver. The forest, already flattened under Bardi's pressure, rustled like a frightened child, sobbing in fear.

Barry's expression shifted. He shouted in disbelief, "Barmulodi, what are you trying to do?!"

Barry couldn't believe it. The entire island of New Guinea, roughly 786,000 square kilometers, the second largest island in the world, home to around 12 million people—

Barmulodi was about to lift his foot and stomp, destroying the entire island of New Guinea and killing 12 million people.

Yes, without a shred of doubt, Barry could sense it. That cold gaze before him was filled with ruthless, overwhelming dominance.

If he didn't yield, a single step would bury 12 million lives. The second-largest island on Earth would vanish, and the resulting super-tsunami would flood the Pacific. Indonesia, Australia, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines—every nearby coastline would be overwhelmed.

The death toll would far exceed 12 million.

And all of it—caused by Bardi's one step.

"Three."

"You can't do this! We know you! You wouldn't hurt civilians!"

"Two."

"You want them to believe in you. You won't harm them! You need them to glorify you!"

"One."

"They'll be the people you rule in the future…"

Bardi's face remained blank. His eyes, cold as ever.

A truly apocalyptic force descended with that step.

The whole world fell silent.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 206: Flash, You're Done!

The island of New Guinea had reached its end.

Bardi stepped down.

The silence was absolute. There was no sound.

But in the next instant, a violent reaction erupted.

Several kilometers beneath the island, the mantle connecting Earth's continental plates experienced a severe shock and vibration. The force passed through the upper crust, through layers of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. These rock layers, the foundation of the continent, transmitted a devastating seismic shock.

Since the mantle took the impact, the upper mantle—composed of olivine, amphibole, low-aluminum pyroxene, plagioclase, and other crystalline minerals—began to compress, grind, and fracture. The massive mantle layer began to shift and sink.

The entire island of New Guinea suddenly froze.

It dropped dozens of meters from the horizontal plane, and the coastal seawater surged outward violently. When it returned, it would reverberate, forming an immense tsunami.

As the massive mantle began to drift and collapse, the island of New Guinea started to fracture from beneath Bardi's feet. A massive crack spread outward, like an abyssal rift, splitting the roughly 780,000 square kilometer island.

The entire island fractured like porcelain. Cracks rapidly spread through Chimbu, East New Britain, East Sepik, Eastern Highlands, Enga, Milne Bay, Madang, Manus, Central Province, Morobe, New Ireland, North Solomon, Southern Highlands, West New Britain, West Sepik, Western Province, Western Highlands, Hela, Jiwaka—every single province and city.

From a distance, the massive rift looked like doomsday lightning. It erupted from the ground and instantly consumed those who had been peacefully living, working, or enjoying their lives.

On the highway, an enormous fissure suddenly tore open. With no warning, cars were flung weightlessly into the air. They soared tens of meters before crashing down. With piercing horn blasts, they plunged directly into the pitch-black abyss.

Office workers in tall buildings were flung weightless into the air, clinging to ceilings, their internal organs rolling, vision spinning. Suddenly, the buildings split down the middle. A massive rift opened, and the structures collapsed into the dark void, echoing with panicked screams as they vanished into the chasm.

A woman at home fell into a crack. The tectonic plate below shifted and began to sink. Seawater surged onto the land. In the city, between the high-rises, floodwaters suddenly rose, sweeping the entire city away.

"Help…"

"My son… my son!!"

"Ah… my legs! My legs!"

"The end is here!"

"Save me… help me!"

In an instant, the sky was torn, the ground shook, the cities collapsed, the seas surged, and the island's 12 million inhabitants screamed in agony. Their cries echoed with the rumbling and splitting of the tectonic plates, a wail that engulfed the entire Atlantic.

And not just that—the rupture of the mantle, the collapse of the New Guinea plate, triggered global effects: minor earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels. The entire planet experienced abnormal reactions.

"My God, how could this cause a global seismic event?"

"What the hell is going on?!"

"The mantle beneath New Guinea has fractured! More than 12 million people will be swallowed up!"

"What's happening?!"

"Has the world gone mad?!"

"Apocalypse came out of nowhere! Why?!"

"There were no warning signs!"

The United States.

The United Kingdom.

Russia.

Major powers across Asia.

All countries with satellite capabilities observed the seismic wave simultaneously and witnessed the scene through satellite imagery.

The sinking of the world's second-largest island triggered a global chain reaction, striking fear and dread across the Earth.

A massive tsunami, over 700 meters high, began forming. It surged toward Indonesia, Australia, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, and all surrounding areas. Anywhere near a coastline now faced an apocalyptic disaster, with expected deaths ranging between 50 and 100 million people.

The entire Pacific Ocean would become a sea of terror, and everything near it would face destruction.

"Barmulodi!!"

Barry's face twisted. He glared at Bardi with fury and hatred, his heart pounding with rage. Blood surged through every vein and artery. The yellow electric arcs crackled wildly around him, even spreading along the veins of his distorted face.

He was consumed with fury. It was precisely because he knew that Bardi's single step had brought a cataclysmic disaster and tens of millions of deaths that his blood boiled in rage.

The yellow arcs surged around his body. As the ground's cracks worsened and the earth tilted, his fury intensified. His face had become fully contorted in the electric glow.

But he did not strike Bardi. Instead, in a flash of light, he raced along the fractures in the ground, heading toward the nearest city. The wind from his movement created a massive shockwave as he sped off from Bardi's location.

Bardi's face remained indifferent. There was no fluctuation in his heart.

He lifted his feet off the ground and rose into the sky. From a distance, he watched the golden light streak away, blasting forward with immense speed and force.

"Hera, begin calculating the Flash's speed. Model his behavioral patterns. Predict his action model."

Bardi's imposing figure floated in the air.

Below him, a golden light flickered and darted across the fractured island. With each pass, several people were clinging to his body. He was running toward the Australian outback, dropping off civilians, then rushing back.

The continuous golden streak painted glowing lines of light across Bardi's vision.

In his peripheral sight, across the ruined, sunken island of New Guinea, golden lines of hope surged back and forth.

Through his super-vision and internal computational speculation, Bardi could already tell that at this moment, the Flash's speed had surpassed Mach 1200.

A terrifying speed.

After becoming the Flash and gaining the Speed Force, Barry had, in just over a day, reached Mach 1200. As his steps grew faster, his speed climbed in a straight line.

This kind of speed transcended time, transcended worlds. It was the power of true super speed.

And once caught in the pursuit of the Flash, there would be no escape.

"Seventy trillion teraflops of calculations complete. Current speed is Mach 1724… Behavior modeling complete. Action pattern established!"

Floating in the sky like a god, Bardi coldly watched the apocalypse unfold. His windbreaker flapped in the air.

His eyes flashed with icy light.

Flash, you're done.

(To be continued.)