Inside the Speed Force.
Still within this untraceable prison cage, across a vast continent.
Bardi walked leisurely, each step covering several miles. While it looked like walking, in reality, he was using the massive magnetic field emitted by his body and gravitational response to move instantaneously.
"Is it in this direction?"
Bardi frowned and asked.
He had created the Spirit of Being for the sake of obtaining a coordinate—a coordinate pointing to his original Earth.
Kanna was the Spirit of Being from his Earth. She possessed an innate sense of Earth's location and orientation, able to perceive its direction at any moment.
But as Bardi continued calculating time—based on the circulation of his own blood, since normal time held no meaning here—they had already walked and flown for more than a week.
They had covered a distance equivalent to a quarter of the solar system's diameter, around 5.608 billion kilometers.
And yet, they still had not escaped this continent.
Though it was said that this continent continually expanded, growing without end, becoming an eternal Speed Force prison, the distance to the exit never narrowed.
"Are you really still the Spirit of Being of my Earth?"
Bardi suddenly questioned again. Was she truly still linked to his Earth? It seemed all of them had already been reshaped or broken. Could she still sense Earth?
He remained skeptical.
"You're doubting me?"
Kanna sat on Bardi's shoulder, fuming. She lowered her head angrily and jabbed her horn toward Bardi's neck.
It was a force strong enough to pierce a tectonic plate.
Thunk...
Her horn struck Bardi's neck with a metallic clang, like hitting an ultra-dense alloy. The sharp, unpleasant sound gave Kanna goosebumps, and the reverberation left her scalp tingling.
To Bardi, it felt like a mosquito brushing his skin with its legs—just a light tickle.
Bardi didn't even turn around and kept walking.
Kanna's baby-fat face darkened. She held her breath in frustration.
"I'll show you itchy!"
She stood up, her chubby legs lifted and instantly turned into afterimages. Sonic booms erupted as she kicked out repeatedly, a flurry of phantom strikes slamming toward Bardi's neck, her baby-fat cheeks clenched in rage.
"I'll make you itchy!!"
"Yes, that's the strength."
Bardi nodded in satisfaction and praised her. "More strength! Keep going."
"I'm not doing it anymore!"
Kanna pouted and wrapped her arms around Bardi's neck, refusing to move. If Bardi said to go east, she wanted to go west.
Suddenly—
Kanna froze. Her angry expression disappeared. She turned and looked behind Bardi, her aqua-blue eyes seemingly piercing the cosmos, deeply penetrating space.
Bardi, still thinking about how Kanna's strength could've been greater, sensed her shift in mood.
"No need to go forward anymore. Just now, I sensed that our universe's Earth is behind us."
Kanna patted Bardi's neck.
"This is a transformation and replacement of space and time. Until we reach the edge of the Speed Force, it will always be like this—this eternal continent will keep shifting, and we'll never escape it."
Kanna sat down on Bardi's shoulder again, steadying herself as he suddenly stopped. The inertia almost sent her flying.
Bardi came to a halt, and the wind around them stopped like a suddenly halted hurricane. The massive airflow surged forward, tearing through the forest and creating a storm of destruction.
"So, it really wants to trap me here forever?"
Bardi rubbed the bone plating along his jaw. It felt surprisingly good.
The Speed Force was that confident? That it could trap him?
Bardi rubbed the edge of his jaw, lost in thought. A thinker's pose.
With his current body, he was already terrifying—even to himself. Don't push me.
What would happen if he stayed trapped in the Speed Force forever?
"The Speed Force is a conceptual construct," Kanna explained. "It likely lacks consciousness. It's wrapped around the multiverse by the Source Wall, which blocks singular beings from outside the multiverse from entering."
"That's why Trigon can only project himself in. The other singular entities can only send projections."
"You, however, are a singularity born within the multiverse. That makes this unconscious system feel threatened. It fears you'll endanger the balance of the multiverse."
"So naturally, the Speed Force responds with a crisis protocol, creating this Speed Force Prison. You are trapped in infinite loops, endlessly."
"We can't escape."
Kanna sat cross-legged on Bardi's shoulder.
"We're beyond saving, beyond rescue. We'll be trapped here until we die. We'll starve to death."
Kanna sighed, then started singing a gloomy tune.
Even if she could sense Earth's position, it made no difference. She couldn't escape a dimension that could rewrite space and time at will.
Hearing this, Bardi raised an eyebrow. A flash of inspiration struck him.
"What will happen if we remain in this eternal prison for infinite years?"
"What'll happen? We'll starve! And then, we'll eat each other. Kanna will become the food of your beastly appetite! I've been wronged, the poor Spirit of Being..."
Kanna sat on his shoulder, able to see the future. She saw Bardi, driven by hunger, eventually devour her.
It was a bleak and hopeless vision.
Bardi looked down at the ground, rubbing his chin in thought.
Kanna's eyes widened. "Wait… You're not thinking about eating dirt, are you?"
"No. I'm eating chocolate."
With that, a dark light flashed in Bardi's eyes. The Chocolate Beam, inscribed on his soul, had now become his exclusive power. It allowed him to transmute material energy into chocolate.
A large section of land, touched by Bardi's dark beam, instantly turned black. The terrain morphed into chocolate-covered earth.
Bardi scooped up a large chunk. It was sweet and rich. He bit into it with his massive fangs, chewed, swallowed, and instantly digested it. Surprisingly, it felt quite good.
"Hm?"
Bardi's eyes lit up. He smiled. He actually felt slightly stronger. It was minuscule, almost illusory, but he was sure of it.
Without hesitation, Bardi took another massive bite of chocolate.
Still unsatisfied, he increased his size to maximum again, transforming nearly half the continental plate into chocolate. He devoured it in huge gulps.
Kanna's aqua-blue eyes widened in shock.
She had never seen someone eat dirt so joyfully. Her eyes sparkled, and a smile spread across her face.
"Just so you know, I don't eat dirt…"
Before Kanna could finish, Bardi stuffed her mouth with a chunk of chocolate soil. Her face crumpled, about to cry. But under the rule of Bardi, the tyrant, she had no choice. Teary-eyed, she puffed out her cheeks and began chewing.
Chew, chew…
Unexpectedly, a delightful fragrance burst from her mouth. It was… incredibly delicious.
"Give me more!"
Whoosh…
A huge chocolate rock flew into Kanna's arms. She grabbed it with her little hands and started gnawing on it.
"Haha! Sooner or later, we'll eat the entire Speed Force, grow stronger, and devour it all!"
Kanna's eyes sparkled with understanding. She got it.
Since the Speed Force wouldn't let them leave, they'd just eat it. Destroy it from within. The Speed Force could morph into infinite things, but Bardi could consume it all—turning even the Speed Force into food.
Bardi would only grow stronger, devouring light speed and the very essence of the Speed Force.
Kanna bit into a chunk of chocolate rock with a satisfied smile, doing her part to eat the Speed Force.
(To be continued.)