The moment he squeezed in, Barry felt enveloped by a thick darkness. It wasn't the darkness of a lightless room, but rather a substantial, spring-like, solid darkness.
With the door cracked open, the darkness surged out like a stream. Barry hastily floated back to shut the door, which seemed to be a kind of sealing device. When the door was closed, the darkness ceased to leak out.
Barry felt like a fish drifting in the endless sea of darkness. He wasn't uncomfortable and didn't feel devoured, he just felt a kind of warmth, like returning to a mother's amniotic fluid.
Barry did not forget what he came to do. He looked closely and saw a void in the endless darkness. It was like a portal from which the rich darkness surged out.
Barry's throat moved slightly, and Doctor Strange's excited voice rang in his mind. "Go! Go now! That's the place. I can sense the infinite Dark Power there. Go ahead and consume all the power, and then you can stand alongside gods!"
"No, I..."
But Barry still felt an inexplicable attraction emanating from the portal. He widened his eyes to scrutinize the portal and the surrounding area. He then vaguely saw a huge Array carved into the ground below the portal. There was a hexagonal Array with a circle at each corner and some damp footprints in the center of the circles. From the clarity of the footprints, it seemed like the people who performed the ritual had left not too long ago.
"Someone has opened a transfer portal in the Gotham underground and transmitted this solid darkness there, contaminating Gotham." Barry felt that he had deduced the whole truth, so he turned to leave and said, "I have to go and tell Batman. Knowing the truth might help Batman save Gotham."
"Hey, wait!" Doctor Strange yelled in his mind. "Are you crazy? You've gone through hell to get here. This power belongs to you!"
"I don't need any power." Barry exerted force against the door and said, "I am just an ordinary person. I deeply empathize with the Gothamites living in chaos. Batman is the one who tries hardest to save them. As long as he knows the truth, he can surely find a way to close the transfer portal."
"You, you're beyond redemption!!" Doctor Strange cursed between his teeth, but being across the cosmos, he could do nothing but watch, despite his unwillingness to abandon such a rich energy.
Put simply, Doctor Strange was not wealthy in his original universe. He chose to consume powers from his own younger self in other universes, because these Stranges were new Supreme Magicians and hence easier to deal with.
But likewise, being a young Supreme Magician also meant having little power. Doctor Strange's actions were more like a beggar licking a plate clean, or a thief stealing from the poor. Now, a large mass of energy was right in front of him, but he could not consume it. How could he not be anxious?
"Hey! Hey! Barry, don't be so hasty about making decisions." Doctor Strange slowed his tone, with the patience of coaxing a child. "You might be able to help Batman better if you take this power. He will surely need your help, right? The people of Gotham need you to save them personally."
"Listen, power is not a sin. If you can control this power, you can do what you want with it. But first, you need to acquire it. What harm is it if you take this energy...."
"Even if there's a one in ten thousand chance that people like you would get power, I'd reject all power." Barry decisively said. "It's not that I don't want to take it, it's that I don't want YOU to take it!"
Having said that, he shut up entirely. Well, obsessives attract obsessives, and stubborn people come in groups. The Flash had a good relationship with Batman in the original work. Who could expect that a friend of a stubborn person wouldn't be stubborn himself?
When Batman was stubborn, he was often criticized for not communicating well. When The Flash was stubborn, he could destroy the universe in minutes.
Without a second thought, Barry pushed the door to leave. Suddenly, he heard a commotion coming from the other end of the hallway. Through the crack of the just-opened door, Barry saw a group of gnashing monsters rushing down the corridor.
At the sound of the roar, Barry had a somewhat frightened expression. He murmured to himself: "What death? Who is Darkseid? What are these creatures...?"
"Uh-oh, Barry. It seems that you really are the chosen one. God wants you to absorb this power here, because if you don't absorb it, the monsters rushing in will kill you."
Barry struggled to push the door shut, pressing his back tightly against the door. His eyes widended, "What on earth is going on with those creatures wearing mechanical armor? Where did they suddenly appear from?"
He then took a slightly frightened breath but soon enough, what he had dreaded the most happened. The monsters rushed to the door and smelled the breath of a living human inside. They started desperately trying to break in.
Barry turned his body to block the door with his arm. His own strength could never withstand so many monsters, but this door seemed to be a seal itself. Creatures that did not meet certain conditions would not be allowed to pass. It was almost entirely the door's own strength that resisted the monsters' attacks.
But there were too many monsters rushing into the corridor. At first, they just stood on the ground and scratched at the door, but as more and more of them arrived, they began to climb onto each other, till the large door was covered from the bottom to the top with monsters, all of them relentlessly howling and scratching, trying to tear the big door apart with their terrifying power.
With a barely perceptible "squeak," Barry was terrified to find that the door's seal was faltering.
He leaned against the door with his shoulder, only to find his own meager strength couldn't fend off the monsters for even half a second. He was filled with unease and fear.
Should he really absorb the Dark Power?
No! Barry bit his lip so hard that he tasted blood. The monster in his mind had killed many people. If he acquired all this power, more people would die. Absolutely not!
The door was forced open a crack, and numerous spiky arms squeezed in. One of them almost pierced Barry's head.
In his extreme anxiety and fear, Barry was left with no other choice. He could only continue to take steps forward, pushing against the door.
One step, two steps, three steps, keep pushing, keep accelerating, keep focusing, faster speed, greater strength, firm beliefs —
Suddenly, the light coming through the door crack changes color, and the whole world was enveloped in a flash-like gold light.