The restaurant existed for one purpose.
Noah Vale.
It wasn't just exclusive. It was absolute. Every table, every dish, every detail revolved around him alone. Chefs stood ready to prepare anything he might want, pulling from cuisines across the world. British, Indian, French, Japanese—nothing was off-limits.
If Noah asked for something rare, it would appear.
If he asked for something forbidden…
They would still find a way to present it perfectly.
He sat at the center of it all, unhurried, tasting his way through a menu that had no real boundaries. The world had bent itself into something that catered to him completely.
And then—
Something felt wrong.
A faint, crawling sensation prickled across the back of his neck.
Noah paused mid-motion and looked up.
The world… shifted.
No.
Rewound.
The server who had just stepped away was suddenly moving backward, retracing every step with eerie precision. In the kitchen, droplets of sauce rose back into the air, slipping neatly into containers. Sliced ingredients reassembled themselves, edges sealing as if the cuts had never existed.
Time wasn't stuttering.
It was reversing.
And Noah could see it.
He set his fork down slowly, eyes narrowing.
"So that's what this is…"
His gaze sharpened, focusing past the surface of reality itself.
There—
A current.
An unseen pathway threading through time, and within it, a figure sprinting forward with relentless urgency. Every step that figure took rippled outward, dragging the world along with it.
"That speed… no. Not speed alone."
Understanding settled in.
"The Speed Force."
Noah leaned back slightly, studying the phenomenon.
The reason he wasn't being affected was simple.
He didn't belong to the rules this universe followed.
He never had.
His body didn't make sense. His strength defied physics. His endurance ignored energy limits. Even the strange system embedded within him wasn't something that could be replicated or overwritten.
He wasn't just powerful.
He was… singular.
Across timelines, across alternate versions, there was only one true Noah Vale. Everything else was an imitation at best—echoes without substance.
So when time itself bent—
He remained untouched.
"Found you."
His vision cut across the planet, locking onto a single city.
Central City.
And within it—
A man in red.
Barry Allen.
He moved like a living bolt of lightning, his body wrapped in scarlet, streaked with gold. His speed shattered any conventional limit, but that alone wasn't what mattered.
He wasn't just moving through time.
He was changing it.
Noah's eyes flicked again.
There was another Barry in that same city—one just beginning to understand his powers.
Which meant the one running now…
Didn't belong here.
"Great," Noah muttered. "A time tourist."
The pieces clicked into place.
This wasn't an attack.
It was collateral damage.
When something broke the barrier of time using the Speed Force, the backlash didn't stay contained. It spread outward, distorting nearby timelines, tangling cause and effect across multiple realities.
This universe had simply been… caught in the spillover.
Noah stood.
"I just finished fixing this place," he said under his breath. "You're not about to tear it apart."
In the next instant, he was gone.
The air split as he shot upward, breaking through the atmosphere without slowing, then angling toward Central City.
Timing mattered.
And he arrived at the exact moment the distortion peaked.
Without hesitation, Noah stepped forward—
And vanished into the current itself.
The world dissolved.
In its place—
A tunnel.
Not made of matter, but of moments.
Past and future blurred together in a flowing corridor of shifting light. Events flickered along its walls, fragments of time looping and overlapping in impossible ways.
Inside it, Barry Allen ran.
His expression was strained, exhaustion etched into every movement. He pushed himself forward, chasing something just out of reach—
Another version of himself.
"I'm close…" he muttered, breath tight. "Just a little further…"
Hope and despair twisted together in his chest.
If he caught up, he could stop himself.
Stop the mistake.
Stop the moment he went back to save his mother.
Because saving her—
Had broken everything.
"I'm sorry, Mom…" he whispered.
He reached out.
Fingers stretching toward his past self—
Almost there—
And then—
A hand grabbed his shoulder.
Barry's eyes widened.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
He turned, shock flashing across his face.
Standing behind him was a man he didn't recognize.
Tall. Calm. Completely out of place in a space that should have been inaccessible to anyone without the Speed Force.
Noah Vale smiled faintly.
"I don't really care who you are," he said. "Or what you're trying to fix."
His grip tightened.
"But you're messing with my world."
Barry barely had time to react.
Noah moved.
A single kick.
Clean.
Precise.
Barry's body snapped backward, hurled out of the time stream entirely. For a split second, their eyes met—
Relief.
Regret.
Then he was gone.
The tunnel destabilized instantly.
Without Barry sustaining it, the structure collapsed in on itself. The currents twisted violently, snapping shut like a closing wound.
And Noah—
Was still inside.
The distortion surged, swallowing him whole.
Then—
Nothing.
Beyond everything.
Beyond space, beyond time, beyond the structure of any single universe—
Something stirred.
An awareness vast enough to encompass countless realities opened its eyes for the briefest moment.
It looked.
Not at a planet.
Not at a timeline.
But at him.
At the anomaly.
At the singular existence that didn't fit.
For an instant, infinite possibilities unfolded—paths, outcomes, endings.
Then the gaze withdrew.
Silence returned.
And in that silence, something new took shape.
An unseen boundary.
Vast.
Endless.
Encircling layer upon layer of reality, all centered around one point.
Around one being.
A domain, unnamed until now.
A place that could only belong to him.
A world… redefined.
A paradise.
...
Read up to 100 chapters ahead and access exclusive novels by joining my Patreon!
patreon.com/Zyxxar