Bardi stared at The Flash, who was suspended mid-air in a spread-eagle position, restrained by thick pipes attached to his limbs.
"Before the founding of the Justice League," The Flash replied with bitterness, his voice tinged with helplessness.
After Bardi had rcilessly smashed the island of New Guinea with a single step, killing fifty million people and leaving tens of millions displaced, The Flash had no choice but to yield. Bardi's power, and his threat to Barry's family, left him with no room for resistance.
He dared not defy Bardi casually and could only answer through clenched teeth, swallowing his anger and powerlessness.
Bardi narrowed his eyes, lost in thought.
In the original tiline where The Flash traveled back to save his mother, the Justice League had already been established, and there was even a Flash Museum standing in Central City.
Clearly, the future that this Flash rembered was not the sa. It was a twisted, deford future.
"In the future… was your consciousness replaced?" Bardi asked coldly.
As he spoke, his pupils shifted, activating his X-ray vision. He scanned Barry's body carefully, observing everything from neural activity to heart rate and blood flow.
The question visibly stunned The Flash. His eyes reflected complete confusion.
"Replaced consciousness? What… what do you an?"
Barry's bewildered expression showed he had no answer. His neural responses and physiological reactions confird his confusion. There were no unexpected spikes in synaptic currents or nerve activity.
Bardi frowned, deep in thought, staring directly at The Flash.
If this truly was a Flashpoint world, and if this was the Barry Allen who had traveled back to save his mother, then it should be possible that the future version of The Flash had replaced the consciousness of this world's Flash.
Based on the knowledge Bardi possessed, in Flashpoint, Barry only appeared after Atlantis and the Amazons had already gone to war, after Britain, Ireland, France, and neighboring countries were subrged beneath the sea. It was at that point that the future Barry arrived and took control.
Judging by that tiline, it would still be several years, nearly a decade, before that future Flash arrived in this world.
If that was true, then the Flash standing before him had not yet been replaced.
Which ant… there was still ti.
If Bardi killed this Flash now, he might prevent the arrival of the future Flash entirely. That would stabilize this world and ensure that this tiline beca the true, fixed reality. Right now, in Bardi's eyes, this world was nothing more than a fragile bubble, like fireworks flickering at the edge of collapse, suffocating him with the threat of its impermanence.
"It turns out… my greatest enemy… is you. The Flash."
Bardi's voice was low, muttering to himself as the horror of his realization settled in.
He had never belonged to this world. His arrival here had been inexplicable, with no clear understanding of how it happened.
But now, with his super-intelligence and near-limitless processing ability, he had finally deduced the truth.
It was because of Flashpoint.
Because of the rupture caused by Barry Allen's ti travel, this worldline was altered. That crack, that distortion, had opened the way for Bardi's arrival.
He was like a foreign object, a cancer lodged within this world.
And if The Flash succeeded in restoring the original tiline, what would happen to Bardi?
Would he still exist?
The thought chilled him to the bone. Goosebumps crawled over his skin as his pupils shrank.
In that mont, Bardi understood why The Flash had been unable to ti-travel successfully when they last faced off in New Guinea. Why Barry needed Bardi's permission to traverse ti.
It was because Bardi was nailed into this tiline. His unique soul, as once described by Trigon, possessed an unusual and singular growth pattern—one that anchored him here, a tumor on the worldline, an existence that did not belong.
But even so, if Barry forced the tiline to reset, the universe itself would resist Bardi. The very act of restoring the original worldline would reject and expel him like an immune system attacking a virus. This was not re rejection. It would be destruction. Obliteration at the hands of the cosmic balance.
The power of the tiline, the weight of the universe, was not sothing Bardi could oppose.
No matter how strong he grew, he was still just a product of this broken worldline. And if the world healed itself, if the Flash restored the original flow of ti, Bardi would be crushed beneath that correction. Annihilated.
His fate was not simply exile. It was erasure.
From the very beginning, his enemies had not been Zod, Jor-El, Superman, the Amazons, Atlantis, or even the gods of Olympus.
No.
It was The Flash.
The Flash, who held the power to reset everything. The Flash, who could undo this entire reality with a single decision.
Bardi's killing intent surged. His body floated upward, his trench coat whipping behind him. Cold mist spread across the floor as the air grew dense and heavy.
He floated toward Barry Allen, suspended helplessly in front of him, his head bowed, his pale face stained with blood.
Bardi's hand rose, fingers spread like the fangs of a python, reaching for The Flash's throat.
All it would take was a single squeeze.
With just a little pressure, he could snap Barry's neck and end the threat forever.
His hand closed around Barry's neck. His fingers pressed into the trembling, sweat-damp skin. The back of his hand lifted Barry's chin, forcing him to et Bardi's gaze.
Their eyes locked—pain and rage clashing in the silence.
Bardi held him there, gripping his throat. But after a few seconds, he did not tighten his hold.
Instead, his voice echoed coldly through the room.
"Take back in ti… just once."
(To be continued.)
***
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