The majority of people bought his tale and chose to accept his proposal. Although many of these decisions were probably very impulsive and spur of the moment, he did not care. The rest wanted more time to mull it over, while the rest refused, wishing to return to their ordinary life. Edward placed the indecisive people on the refusal list, stating that their mindset was too weak for this upcoming battle.
'13 million accepted the offer — it's almost balanced,' he thought. The golems tallied the remaining 7 million candidates, leading them to five ships that would return them home.
Boom!
The sky suddenly turned black before a portal manifested. A man dressed in an all-black robe and a white mask that resembled bones walked in the air.
"Dark Priest?" Edward yelled. "How could you enter our timeline?"
"You've underestimated our power."
Edward gritted his teeth before running into the sky to confront the priest. They turned into a dark red streak of light that clashed everywhere in the sky. Meanwhile, more dark speedsters rushed from the portal, heading directly to the newly chosen red speedsters.
"No," Edward yelled, distracting himself to activate a shield around the people. The dark priest took this opportunity to plunge his hands into his chest. He punched the dark priest, who evaded, and Edward took this chance to enter the shield.
"How long do you think your god can protect you?" The dark priests sneered. "He was lucky to win the last war, and now, he's weaker than ever."
"The Guardian God has stopped that Mad God countless times, and he will do it again."
"What a pointless struggle. Anyway, I've got what I came for." The dark priest glanced at the group that was leaving and not protected. His dark speedster started running around that group before everyone turned into a dark light that flew into the portal in the sky.
"No, stop," Edward said, but his sudden actions aggravated his injury, so he fell to the ground while holding his chest.
"Priest," yelled countless survivors.
"I…couldn't protect them," Edward said, not hiding his sadness.
"Priest, don't worry about them. You should really take care of your injury," said a humanoid creature with two horns.
"You don't understand. Their fate will be worse than death as they are corrupted and turned into dark speedsters," Edward sighed. "I failed them."
"Maybe we can save them later."
"Yes, so take care of your injuries."
"Maybe you're right," he exhaled. "Let's finish the initiation."
"Sir—"
"Don't worry. I've survived worse. Plus, I'm not afraid of death since it only means returning to the embrace of the Speed Force and the Guardian God." He waved his hand, and a red lightning ball manifested in the sky. It released an enormous bolt of lightning that hit the crowd. The people screamed, thinking they were about to die. However, they were perfectly fine.
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Someone was excited and ran, but his body was surrounded by lightning, and his speed reached a level faster than most motor transportation. More bold individuals started to try, realizing they all had superspeed.
"I know you're excited, but calm down," Edward said with his pale expression. "The ceremony is not finished." A bowl with a red liquid appeared in everyone's palm.
"This is the blood of the Guardian God. Drink it, and your talent or affinity with him and the Speed Force will drastically increase," Edward declared. "Normally, this is a gift to his bravest and most loyal speedster, but an exception was made for all of you because we have just returned and need more talents." Edward coughed. "Now, enjoy."
The power of peer pressure or herd mentality was indeed scary. After a few people drank the potion, the others followed. The process was accelerated when people started bragging about the effect.
"Excellent. Next will be your training, and I promise you it will be brutal." The people shuttered, but Edward ignored them. He had already surrounded this planet in a time bubble. Twenty years inside is one week outside, and he will use all this time to train and brainwash these people using psychology and religion.
While the golems started the training, Edward headed inside the temple, and as soon as he was out of sight, he returned to normal.
"Sir, there is a problem."
"What is it now?"
"The Speed Force is crashing."
"Pardon me?" Edward immediately looked at the data.
"It appeared it was not designed to have so many people tapping into its power," Nara stated, and Edward grunted. The DC Universe's speed force never had more than a million users. Adding the fact their version was not a Tier 11 entity, it made sense for that to happen.
"With this news, things will have to change a little," Edward muttered. "Borrow energy from the stones to stabilize it. We must also modify it to absorb dimensional energy to sustain itself."
Edward was soon busy. He modified the Speed Force while training the speedsters. The training involved many things, including how to deal with people in other timelines. He even took them to "universes" that had been destroyed by the Dark God. He even conducted a rescue mission for the people who were abducted, raising his number of speedsters to 18 million.
At the 20-year mark, it was finally graduation time for these new speedsters:
"You are now ready to protect the multiverse," Edward declared.
"For the Speed Force, for the Guardian God." All 18 million people chanted in unison. The speedsters then stepped on their cosmic treadmill and ran with unparalleled speed. When a portal to another timeline appeared before them, they rushed inside.
Earth 278:
A speedster named Row rushed into that timeline. He followed his training to find a deserted planet to build a temple. According to his guidelines, he could find one of the Infinity Stones to sacrifice to the Guardian God to ensure his revival, but Row since it was not mandatory, Row decided to take things slow on his first trip.
Row was satisfied that his first trip had no issue with the universe's local or dark speedsters. So, he rushed to the next timeline after building the temple to the exact specifications of his training.
Earth-304:
"How is the situation?" Edward asked:
"Project Speedster is a success," Nara stated. "As we spoke, more than 18 million timelines are rushing toward this place."
"Excellent," Edward nodded. This plan was simple: use these speedsters to create convergence forcefully and eliminate as many timelines as possible before the final [Convergence].
"18 million is not enough, so I must recruit more people from these new timelines," he commented. Eliminating 18 million timelines all at once would be considered great success to most people, but nothing in the grand scheme of the multiverse.
"What about the data?" Edward's plan rarely had only one objective, which was the same as this one. The expansion of the Speed Force was crucial data for him to achieve Tier 11.
"They are coming in," Nara replied.
"More good news. The next thing is delivering the information to the main body as secretly as possible."
Edward did not want any link associated with Project Speedster between him and his Earth. He feared some powerful entity would enact its revenge after knowing what he had done. However, he still lusts after the data of this experiment.
The main body already had a plan, so he only needed to execute it. Once everything was finished, Edward of Earth-304 headed to another timeline to recruit and train more speedsters. He cloned himself so he did not have to repeat himself, and after creating a sustainable process of training and recruitment that did not rely on him alone, he hid in the shadows to record more data and wait for his eventual death.