Marcus had searched many places in Central City. After all, the location Bruce and Alfred had given him was somewhat inaccurate.
However, after hearing the loud noises of battle, he immediately rushed over and happened to see Bruce and Barry.
"Teacher, it's you!" Bruce said with a smile when he saw the Gauss armor's appearance.
Although he didn't recognize Marcus's current armor specifically, the appearance was somewhat similar to his other forms. Combined with Marcus's familiar voice, there was no way he'd mistake him.
"Alfred called me and said you were asking for help, so I came!" Marcus explained.
He turned his head to look at The Flash in red standing next to Bruce.
"Hey, speedster. Did Batman give you a ring?"
He could clearly see Barry was wearing an Incinerator Ring on his finger, but the energy in both their rings was obviously insufficient—only a faint glow remained.
"Hello, I'm The Flash. Yes, Mr. Batman did give me a ring, but I used up all the energy in it for that attack," Barry explained.
"It's fine. The ring's energy can be recharged." Marcus looked at Bruce again. "The Incinerator Lanterns need to be distributed as soon as possible. Otherwise, the rings' power won't improve at all."
"I understand," Bruce said with a slight nod.
The Incinerator Ring's power was indeed strong, but the demons they'd encountered were extremely powerful too. They were already struggling to deal with these creatures. If they couldn't hang the Incinerator Lanterns in churches as soon as possible, their disadvantage would continue growing with each battle.
"Look out!" Barry suddenly shouted.
The beetle demon that had been knocked away stood up again and was now rapidly moving toward Marcus.
THUD~
Marcus simply raised his hand and caught the demon's fist.
Under Bruce and Barry's gaze, the hard shell that had exhausted all their strength—the shell they couldn't damage at all—now had countless cracks spreading across it.
"This guy?" Marcus tilted his head to look at the hideous beetle demon, then violently swung his arm.
The beetle demon flew into the air with Marcus's motion, then slammed into the ground, completely destroying the already broken terrain.
The blow left the demon dazed. It lay on the ground for a long time without being able to react.
But Marcus didn't stop. He reached out to grab the beetle demon's head and lifted the hideous creature up. In the instant he activated his thermal extraction ability, the beetle demon's entire body turned pale. Cracks appeared all over its shell as it was directly frozen into ice.
However, Marcus's body became extremely full of energy. The power radiating from him made the two watching feel genuinely frightened.
Then all the energy filling Marcus's body surged out from his arm and instantly poured into the frozen beetle demon's body.
BOOM!!!
The frozen demon exploded, leaving only a long horn in Marcus's hand.
This was Gauss's ability—thermal siphon. Although this armor was built for extreme speed, it didn't mean the armor's attack ability was directly related to speed, unlike Barry's approach.
Thermal extraction was a large-scale attack method. It could attack a wide area by absorbing and releasing energy from the kinetic battery.
Just now, Marcus had simply concentrated this ability on his arm, turning the area-of-effect attack into a focused one-on-one strike.
However, after concentrating it like that, the power thermal extraction could unleash became even more terrifying.
He'd only used a small part of his power to instantly freeze the beetle demon's body into solid ice. And the released flames, meeting the frozen state, had completely blown the creature to pieces.
"What incredible power," Barry whispered as he watched.
He and Bruce had spent so much effort trying to defeat this demon, but they couldn't manage it. Yet this demon couldn't even last a minute against Bruce's teacher. It was blown to pieces in mere moments.
WHOOSH~
As he was thinking, Barry's vision blurred and Marcus disappeared instantly.
Then his shoulders suddenly felt heavy—a hand pressed down on them.
"Bruce, do you remember the images I showed you? Don't you think his abilities are very similar to Quicksilver's?" Marcus asked.
Although he said that, Marcus knew clearly the difference between The Flash and Quicksilver.
They were both speedsters, but their abilities came from completely different sources. The Flash's superpowers came from the Speed Force, while Quicksilver's came from his mutant genes.
Of course, beyond the difference between Quicksilver and The Flash, there were various differences among speedsters in this world too. However, most speedsters used the Speed Force. Very few used other abilities for their speed.
Hearing Marcus's words, Bruce recalled the information.
He still remembered Quicksilver. When Marcus had shown them images and information about mutants, he'd introduced each mutant's abilities to them.
Quicksilver had been highlighted in particular. After all, his identity was unique—like Nina, the little girl who could control beasts, Quicksilver was the child of Magneto Eric, one of the mutants who controlled fundamental forces.
"They are somewhat similar, but their abilities are still different," Bruce said carefully.
Quicksilver's speed was fast—extremely fast. But aside from super speed, Quicksilver had no special abilities.
The Flash was different. He not only had super speed but could even control the lightning surrounding his body to attack while moving at high velocity.
The conversation between the two left Barry confused. He didn't understand what "Quicksilver" was.
However, Marcus's hand lifted from his shoulder, making him feel considerably lighter and more relaxed.
"Alright, the matter's resolved, so I should head back. If there's anything you can't handle, just notify me directly," Marcus said.
As soon as he finished speaking, Marcus disappeared from in front of them in a cloud of mist.
"Speed Force? Good power," Marcus murmured after returning to the farm.
He raised his hand, and a ball of golden lightning appeared in his palm. This was Speed Force energy—Barry's Speed Force, to be specific.
He'd extracted this from Barry during their brief contact, and it would work perfectly as his final empowerment, making it his own source of speed.
He casually injected the Speed Force into a blank empowerment core. The moment it integrated with the armor systems, he transformed into lightning and rushed forward.
It had to be said, the speed brought by the Speed Force was indeed incredibly powerful. Especially after integrating it with the armor through power empowerment, it burst out with powerful velocity that seemed to transcend time itself.
Just now when he'd rushed forward, he'd seen his own afterimage. And he hadn't even fully unleashed his power—he was already at this level.
If he exploded with all his power, he didn't know if he'd see his own time remnants, but he was certain he'd probably destroy something important.
"No, the power empowerment can't be used carelessly. Having the Speed Force is enough, and the Speed Force empowerment seems very compatible with Volt!"
Marcus's entire body changed. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into Volt.
After integrating this empowerment into the armor, Marcus felt like the entire world had slowed down. The armbands on his arms crackled with countless electrical currents.
"Oh, it really does fit perfectly. And integrating the Speed Force doesn't just make the speed faster—reaction speed and other abilities are much faster too."
He didn't experiment with other abilities. After all, this was the farm. If he destroyed the farm's granary because of his experiments, that would be quite the problem.
In a burst of light, Marcus lifted the transformation and walked back into the farmhouse with the Speed Force empowerment.
"Where's my fried chicken?!" Marcus exclaimed in shock, seeing that all the fried chicken from his spot had disappeared.
He'd only been gone a short while, and Jonathan had eaten all his chicken.
"Hahaha, there are still fries and fried onions here—all yours!" Jonathan laughed, pushing the plate of remaining food toward Marcus.
After watching Marcus leave, Bruce and Barry both breathed a sigh of relief.
The demons here had been dealt with. Although it was unknown whether new demons would appear, at least no new ones would show up for a short time.
"This is your Incinerator Lantern. When the ring's power is insufficient, you can use the lantern to recharge it," Bruce explained.
He demonstrated to Barry how to replenish the ring's energy.
"Alright, everything here is done, and I need to leave. As for the demons, you can talk to your companions about them, but it's best not to mention my identity."
"I understand. But who is your teacher? That's the first time I've seen someone so powerful," Barry said with genuine interest.
Marcus had been faster than him, and his power was extremely terrifying. It was hard not to pay attention to someone like that.
"The teacher... he's a voidwalker," Bruce said, unable to help laughing as he recalled Marcus telling them about his origins.
Marcus was a voidwalker who journeyed through different worlds. Sometimes he stopped and stayed in a world, but he'd never remain forever.
"A voidwalker?" That left Barry a bit confused, but he didn't ask further.
He was just curious about the mysterious teacher. But he needed to stay vigilant about the demons.
After saying goodbye to Bruce, Barry returned home with the Incinerator Lantern. As soon as he set it down, Cisco's voice came through his communicator again.
"Barry, the energy fluctuations disappeared. Did you handle it?"
"Handled. Someone helped me blow up the demon!" Barry confirmed.
Hearing "demon" again made Cisco and the others' expressions become more serious.
Why was Barry still saying "demon" instead of "metahuman"? And who was this person Barry mentioned who helped him?
All kinds of questions swirled in their minds. Finally, Cisco couldn't help but say, "You'd better come to the lab to explain this. I don't understand what's going on."
Barry nodded slightly at his friend's curiosity. He happened to have some demon wreckage he needed them to study anyway.
"Okay, I'll be right there!"
A flash of lightning streaked into STAR Labs, and Barry arrived carrying wreckage from the beetle demon.
"I know what you want to say, but it really was a demon, not a metahuman," Barry said immediately.
He placed the beetle demon's remains on the table and handed them over for research.
"What a huge carapace! Is this from the demon you mentioned?" Cisco asked, eyes wide.
"Yes, that's from the demon. It looked like a humanoid rhinoceros beetle. This is the wreckage left after it was blown up."
After describing the beetle demon's appearance to everyone, Barry turned to look at the female researcher.
"Caitlin, you're the biology expert. Check it out. This is definitely not an Earth creature."
Seeing Barry's certainty, everyone looked at each other. Finally, Caitlin took the wreckage and walked into the lab while the others continued talking.
"Speaking of which, I wasn't the one who identified it as a demon. That was the Dark Knight of Gotham—"
"Batman came to Central City?" Cisco said excitedly.
That was the famous Batman, the Dark Knight of Gotham, a powerful figure known throughout America.
After all, he alone had made Gotham—a city of sin—orderly. That kind of strength definitely couldn't be ignored.
"He came specifically looking for me because..." Barry explained everything Bruce had told him about the demons in detail. He even showed them his Incinerator Ring.
The moment he saw the ring, Dr. Harrison Wells—sitting in his wheelchair—had his pupils contract. Although he'd never seen this specific ring, he had seen other rings before.
Rings that could emit colored spectrums held very important positions in the history he knew from the future.
Because those who used lantern rings weren't just one person, but groups of people. Corps of lantern wielders, like the Green Lantern Corps with their green spectrum.
"According to the history I know, there shouldn't be any so-called Incinerator Ring," Harrison thought. "But what about the ring on Barry's hand?"
While he was thinking, Cisco put on Barry's Incinerator Ring, wanting to use its power like Barry had.
However, the ring that had been so magical in Barry's hand became completely ordinary in his. There was no change at all.
"That's strange. Why can't I use it?" Cisco wondered, looking at the motionless ring on his finger.
He'd been waiting for a while, but he didn't feel any impact. There was no "path of virtue" that Barry had mentioned.
This was clearly just an ordinary ring. Nothing strange about it.
Yet when this ring was in Barry's hand, something extraordinary definitely happened. It made him extremely confused.
Taking the ring back and putting it on, Barry's mindset shifted. The Incinerator Ring's power exploded instantly, and his clothes turned pure white, emitting a faint glow.
"Maybe this ring is bound to its user. Everyone can only use their own ring," Barry said slowly.
Then he withdrew all the heavenly power. There were no demons around right now, and he didn't want to waste the ring's energy.
After the power dissipated, Barry returned to his normal appearance, which surprised everyone at STAR Labs.