Chapter 2435: The Struggle of the Bats (Eight) _1
The red figure sprinted rapidly through the golden space, and at the same time, a deep voice echoed around him, "Do you think this is fast enough, Barry?"
"This isn't solving anything, Batman." A younger voice said, "Now you are the producer of the Divine Speed, as well as its controller, but you've merely jumped from one tragedy to another."
"Your tragedy lies in yourself," Lightning Batman said.
"But even if you become me, you can't reverse either of our tragedies, because the tragedy isn't about you or me, it's about time itself, which inevitably passes and can't be reclaimed."
"I didn't know you were such a pessimist."
The young voice fell silent, but then suddenly an even younger voice came from behind Lightning Batman.
"Stop! Stop now! Otherwise, you'll bring him here!!!"
Lightning Batman maintained his running posture but turned to look; he found a younger Barry Allen had caught up to him.
This young Barry was still a teenager, much younger than the Flash that Lightning Batman knew, but there was an anxious emotion on his face as he said, "You can't run any faster, otherwise, you're expending your life, and the God of Death will come for you."
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
"I'm another Flash, you have to believe me, Batman, transcending time comes with a cost, the Divine Speed won't allow someone to just consume it without replenishment; once you use too much, it will turn you into nutrients," replied the younger Barry.
"You all say I've transcended time, but I can't control time, and that's what I should be able to do, what else haven't you told me?"
Anger tinged Lightning Batman's voice, and Barry was slightly startled because he heard a faint and weak voice say to him, "Get away, Batman has gone mad, he wants to reverse the past..."
"Shut up, Barry!"
"You can't do it." Barry said, "No Flash has ever managed to do it, they've tried countless times, but it always ends in tragedy, and your rash actions will only make you sink deeper."
"Tell me." Lightning Batman almost roared, "Tell me what the truth about time is! As long as I can control time, I can reverse the past..."
"I said you can't!"
"Then it means I'm not fast enough yet!"
Barry felt despair, but Lightning Batman ran even faster, as if trying to shake him off, to prove he was right. Barry had to quicken his steps, which wasn't difficult for him.
"Why are you so fast?" Lightning Batman asked Barry, saying, "You're faster than the Flash of our cosmos."
"Because I'm not entirely the Flash." Barry looked down at the golden glow beneath his feet, different from most Speedsters, because it was black and gold.
The primordial darkness that had once surged into his body had now integrated with the Divine Speed he could generate. He still retained the properties of the Divine Speed, but it was distinct from the ordinary one.
It was for this reason that Barry was no longer bound by the fate of Speedsters, but he knew very well that every Speedster in this cosmos shared the same fate, even now that Batman was using the Divine Speed.
Lightning Batman didn't seem to want to accept this; his intense anger made him run faster, as if desperate to escape Barry and the nagging words about what he couldn't achieve.
The Divine Speed's golden light began to grow stronger, and finally, upon breaking through a certain threshold, a black figure appeared behind them.
It was a pitch-black monster that almost vanished in an instant within the Divine Speed. No matter how fast Lightning Batman ran, this dark figure immediately appeared behind him, grabbed his shoulder, and threw him to the ground.
After stopping running, they should have left the Divine Speed, but now the space was no longer blurred and faintly glowing as when they were sprinting; it was pitch dark.
Lightning Batman rolled over and looked fearfully at the monster in front of him, who had the same face as him but was covered in black spikes.
The creature seemed not to see Barry standing beside him and walked straight toward Lightning Batman; Lightning Batman frantically tried to get up and flee, but at the touch of this black power, he collapsed.
He was gripped by the neck and lifted high, the oxygen dwindling, he was almost dead, but then, he heard Barry's voice again.
"Save him, please, save him, I know you can, don't create another tragedy."
"He killed you, didn't he?"
"He was deceived and blinded, the data from that experiment was not accurate, it just gave an answer he wanted to hear, we knew it was wrong, but it wasn't his fault."
"He could have completely erased my consciousness, but he didn't do it. He felt anxious, fearful, and angry, yet he did not lose his conscience completely; he still believed in his friends—and I had to pull him back,"
"He is no longer the great hero Batman but a prisoner of the desires in his heart, a pitiful, lost child. Save him, Barry."
Barry seemed to make up his mind, took a deep breath, and stretched out One Hand; intertwining black and golden Energy surged out from his hand, but rather than attacking the shadow, it wrapped around Lightning Batman.
As the black and golden Energy gradually enveloped Lightning Batman's body, the shadow's actions betrayed a hint of confusion. It slowly released its grip, looking around as if searching for a target.
This space seemed highly unstable, and as the shadow failed to sense the presence of the dense Divine Speed, the space began to collapse, and the shadow's form gradually started to fade away.
Lightning Batman fell heavily to the ground. He quickly regained consciousness but didn't rise, instead murmuring, "I felt Death, and it was never so close to me before. If it had taken me away sooner, I wouldn't have had to seek answers to all this."
"The one who gave you the wrong answer wasn't the tampered experiment," The Flash's voice appeared again. "It was yourself, the you who remains trapped in the past. You knew the result of that experiment was incorrect, but you desperately wished it were correct."
"But you once told me that the black and white of this world do not flip due to personal opinions, nor should they be muddled by anyone's Greed. Right is right, wrong is wrong."
"You're right, Barry," Batman's voice began to waver, "Then let this all end."
"Wait!" Barry standing aside said, "Batman, do you realize the mess you've just made? You don't plan on leaving us here to clean up the disaster you created, do you?!"
Lightning Batman froze, and Barry spread his hands in frustration, explaining, "I warned you, running too fast would bring catastrophe. Now, disaster has struck, and not just you alone—it's befallen another cosmos because of you, and you must resolve it!"
"What exactly is it?" The Flash asked.
"Haven't you encountered it?" Barry sighed with some helplessness, "It seems you haven't run fast enough, but I and some other Speedsters who have run sufficiently fast have already encountered it—it is the God of Death, the God of Death exclusive to Speedsters."
"We all know how useful Divine Speed is, indeed, we are also its creators, but Divine Speed operates on its own rules; it's not entirely under our control."
"At the same time as we created Divine Speed, we also depleted it. The faster we run, the more we consume, and once we reach a critical point, to maintain its own balance, Divine Speed will summon the God of Death to find us, to kill us, and use our power to replenish itself—that's the life and death cycle of Speedsters."
"Are you saying Divine Speed is a conscious entity?"
"No, it isn't. It's just a natural law-abiding existence. The God of Death also has no consciousness—it just incessantly seeks out the nodes where Divine Speed is denser, catches up with them, kills them; that's why I told you not to run too fast."
"How did you avoid it?" Batman was more concerned with this.
"I... I'm not utilizing purely Divine Speed," Barry continued, "as you've seen, it includes other forces."
"But that's impossible. I cannot master any power other than Divine Speed, much less merge them."
"Because it's a very special power—one that is more fundamental and essential than any other power in this world. To be exact, it comes from you, Batman; it is your darkness."
The figure lying on the ground fell silent for a while before slowly standing up, looking at Barry and saying, "You still have too many secrets."
"Yes, but now is not the time for that," Barry sighed again. "Originally, the God of Death only existed in our universe. I've been extremely cautious while moving in this universe, careful not to run too fast. That's because once I attract its attention, it can cross universes to come here—and there are also Speedsters in this universe. They may not use Divine Speed, but their Speed is equally impressive."
"At the same time, there are concepts of time and Death here, and no one knows if, after it arrives, this guy will appear behind every Speedster and Time Manipulator..."
The Spider-Men finally entered the National Library, where countless books spread across two Buildings. The interior of the library was lavishly and retro-styled, brightly lit, and extremely bustling.
Eventually, they met the Time Manipulator in the central dome. His expression was still somber but shifted slightly upon seeing Shadow Spider-man.
"Do you come from the past?" he asked Shadow Spider-man directly.
"The war in our universe is not a thing of the past but present," Shadow Spider-man tilted his head, "Germany and the Soviet Union are locked in fierce combat, and winter is fast approaching."
"Yet here you stand, doing nothing," the Time Manipulator's tone finally grew angry, "You have the power to stop it."
"I am trying to stop it," Shadow Spider-man replied calmly, "In fact, thanks to the changes I've brought about, the situation is much better. With the addition of some fluid, powerful, and always well-meaning special young people, the Soviet Union has gained a significant advantage, and the war may end sooner."
"You and your companions?"
"Don't be ridiculous. We're just members of a cosmic tour group that couldn't stand by and not help," Shadow Spider-man responded.
The anger on the Time Manipulator's face faded, replaced by a complex expression as he said, "Perhaps you've already noticed that every personality and their abilities here did not appear randomly. My appearance is due to a war that David should never have experienced, a war from his mother, Ms. Harrell."