Suddenly, Barry felt as if he were the bubble being washed down the sink by the flowing water, rapidly drawn away from the present world by a force, and then he found himself floating in a cosmos constructed of gold. A voice echoed in his ear.
"Run! Barry! Run!!!"
Unconsciously, he moved his feet, following the voice. In this space devoid of physical constraints, he ran faster and faster, feeling more and more exhilarated as if all the frustration and indignity he had felt lately were being left far behind him.
Keep running, Barry reminded himself, if this was a dream, he wanted to outrun all his troubles so that when he woke, at least he wouldn't break out in a cold sweat from a nightmare.
"Do you think this is a dream?" a voice said.
"Who are you? Where am I?" Barry instinctively slowed his pace, seemingly waiting for the figure to appear.
When the voice appeared again, it said, "Don't slow down, speed up, and then you can see ."
Barry had no choice but to continue running, faster, faster, even faster...
The golden light beca denser, from a pale gold to a rich golden yellow. Barry turned his head and saw a ghostly figure running beside him.
As his speed increased, the ghostly figure gradually solidified. Finally, amidst the infinite radiance, they stopped, but they didn't leave this world, they were just quietly floating in the warm glow.
Standing opposite to Barry was another him.
He was very young, and seed to be a college student, wearing a sweatshirt with a cartoon pattern that Barry would normally like, chid with a bit of baby fat, rosy complexion, bright eyes, looking very healthy.
"I'm you from the future, we've t before." The college-age Flash said, "I think you should rember, we last t in Gotham School of Magic."
"Yes, it was you who told to choose Rodriguez College."
"Just to get you here." The other didn't avoid admitting it, "I don't like to talk about destiny, but almost every Barry Allen ends up getting the Divine Speed, we eventually beco The Flash."
Barry understood everything, his future self suggested he join Rodriguez College so that his present self would et Little Bruce and Harley, the troublemakers, and then go through a series of trials to get here.
"I don't get it." Barry frowned, "How can it be? I an, how could my future self with all the mories go back to arrange my past mories? That's absurd."
"No, it's not absurd at all." The young Flash shook his head, "You just have another choice to make."
"What?"
Barry looked into the young Flash's eyes, affording a complex emotion. He opened his mouth to ask, but the young Flash's thoughts have already drifted back to a few days ago.
In the principal's office of Rodriguez College at Gotham School of Magic, Shiller, who had explained his whole plan, yawned sleepily. Constantine also stood up and stretched, saying, "Even the best movies can't go on forever, I think we should all go rest a bit, the exciting part is yet to co."
"I agree." Pala also stood up, nodding her head, "Next ti, be better prepared. I can handle the snacks, who's getting the drinks?"
"I'll see to the drinks." Bruce put the pillow back on the sofa and said, "If it's a family movie night, then I must invite you all to Wayne Manor, I also want to invite a few friends over."
"God, you're not going to invite Jack, are you?" Constantine helplessly spread his hands, "And then we as drunk as skunks start playing cards, he again steals my joker card on the sly and won't admit guilt... fine, fine, if you're going to invite him, rember to call Gordon too, only the chief's handcuffs can restrain him."
"I don't care." Zatanna shrugged her shoulders, "I'm quite interested in your crocodile friend."
As they walked outside, Bruce said, "He won't be able to co, all the construction sites are speeding up for the music festival, he's working three jobs a day till midnight, he doesn't have any ti for a movie."
"Hal and Oliver probably won't have ti, either. They're busy harvesting spring wheat in xico. But Diana and Clark might co, they're quite interested in their counterparts from another universe."
They chatted for a bit more and then departed at the office door. They had been imrsed in the construction of the Gotham School of Magic for a while, and many matters in the outside world remained unattended. After dispersing, they all returned to the outside world to deal with the loose ends in their real lives.
Shiller had reclaid his position at Gotham University, which was one of the conditions he had negotiated in return for inviting Professor Anna and Victor and others from non-magic disciplines to help at the Magic Academy. After he left, the admissions office completely stopped accepting new students. Roy had called Anna's office nurous tis due to complaints from out-of-town students, and Anna was on the verge of going crazy.
Originally, it was Greed who went back to the office. He thought it might be fun to cover for Arrogant at work for a few days. But the mont his butt touched the chair, he heard a "kakaka" sound ringing in his ears.
He turned his head and saw a shredder, grinning with saw teeth, floating in the air. Man and machine stared each other down.
Then Greed understood why diocre had been bitten by the shredder and had howled in the Abyss for three days. The shredder that Arrogant's students had given him was alive, and it could bite six hundred tis in three seconds.
When Arrogant returned, he found himself standing on the decorative line on top of his office corner wall, about three ters above the ground. Gray mist imdiately chid in, saying: "That wasn't who brought him up there. I didn't even know you had such athletic skills."
Arrogant looked down from the decorative line and saw a shredder staring up at him with an open mouth, imdiately understanding the source of Greed's athleticism.
Transforming into a gray mist and returning to his seat, Arrogant casually crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it into the shredder. After a faint noise of grinding, the paper disappeared, and the shredder quietly returned to its original spot, smacked its mouth and went quiet.
Seeing the mountain of papers on the desk, Shiller lightly shook his head and said, "Unless there's so sort of miracle, it'll probably be choked with academic rubbish for the next week."
Just as Shiller was buried in correcting papers, digging gold out of crap, a knock ca from his office door.
By the way, Shiller now had a standalone office, but not because of any academic advancent. The main reason was that the other professors didn't have his athletic skills.
Shiller raised his head and turned towards the door. "Co in," he said.
It was Barry Allen that entered, the young version.
Shiller gently lifted his eyelids, revealing a tinge of interest. But no matter what it might be, it was far more interesting than academic rubbish during his paper grading. Shiller put down his pen and looked at the young Flash who had walked in, saying, "Long ti no see. Have you made any progress lately?"
"Ah, interstellar psychology...wait, I'm not here for an academic report. I have sothing I want to consult you about, Professor."
"Is it related to theoretical psychology, or is it related to your own psychological state?"
The Flash was taken aback, instinctively reacting, "What's the difference?"
Standing up, Shiller guided The Flash to the single sofa by his office window. He gestured for The Flash to sit on one side while he took the other, crossing one leg over the other before speaking.
"Just to be clear, I'm a psychologist and a professor of psychology, not a practicing psychiatrist. Although I'm licensed, it has been a while since I last provided psychological counseling. I'm unsure if my professional skills are rusty."
"You should understand the gap between theoretical psychology and applied psychology. If you truly have an urgent psychological treatnt need, I can arrange for another personality of mine who holds a position as a practicing psychiatrist to treat you."
The Flash gaped, but before he could say anything, Shiller spoke again. "Don't feel troubled. The experience accumulated over years of practicing is important and not sothing your theoretical knowledge can replace. Also, my other persona is more than willing to do this."
"No, I an can I listen to your opinion first, and then ask him afterwards?"
Normally, such a potentially disrespectful suggestion would have made Shiller frown. But when Shiller saw The Flash's face, he thought of the paper he brought during his last tiline jump. The quality of that paper was on par with the graduation thesis Evans submitted and could be said to rank among the top three papers Shiller has received since he started teaching in Gotham.
Shiller had an enormous amount of patience for such students, a level unimaginable to most. He didn't find the request to be excessive, nodded and said, "Begin by describing your specific problem."
"I am Barry Allen, but only one of them."
"What do you an?"
"The younger Barry of this tiline will awaken his Divine Speed in about three days due to an event in another universe. He faces a choice, and I'm Barry Allen from one of the resultant tilines."
"What choice?" Shiller followed up.
The Flash licked his lips, as if struggling with inner conflict. Then he suddenly looked up, eting Shiller's gaze, and, in the next second, Shiller saw an endless sea of darkness in his eyes.
Shiller raised an eyebrow, but remained silent.
"He can choose to claim the Dark Power buried deep beneath Gotham, a power that would rge with his Divine Speed, turning him into a unique entity across all universes: the Black Flash...which is ."
As he finished his sentence, a thunder-like golden glow began to flicker around The Flash. But within a second, the thunder originating from the cosmos retreated, turning pitch black and enigmatic.
The Flash's previously soft hair danced in the non-existent wind, his eyes filled with imnse darkness, his voice echoing from the depths of space.
"This is an incredibly powerful force, the original darkness coupled with the original speed. When I run, the Dark Multiverse feels like dust fleeting before my eyes..."
"So why are you here?"
In an instant, both the dark power and divine speed force dissolved. The Flash was back to being an ordinary university student, but his face bore no less worry. Letting out a deep sigh, he said,
"Because it's unstable, I may lose control."
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