Polnareff's arm was severed into three pieces. The middle section of Silver Chariot's arm was completely swallowed by Ozone Jackers. Casually tossing aside Silver Chariot's right hand and sword, Ozone Jackers charged toward where Dio had fallen.
Bzz!
Dio was temporarily unable to stand due to his injured leg, and the large hole in his chest had also greatly slowed his recovery.
Vanilla instantly swallowed a large hole beside him.
"Quick! Lord Dio! Please follow me!"
Seeing Jotaro so close, Vanilla carried Dio on his back and rushed into the underground tunnel.
"This is bad! They got away again!"
Even though Jotaro used stopped time in an attempt to delay their escape into the tunnel, Dio could still barely move. Relying on two more seconds of action than Jotaro, he forcibly used The World to drag Vanilla into the tunnel with him.
Once they entered that single tunnel, Jotaro no longer dared to pursue them. Chasing Ozone Jackers through a passage with only one path was no different from courting death.
"Move aside, Jotaro! Let me handle this!"
Avdol, who had been unable to act because of the battlefield situation, rushed over at that moment.
"They escaped a long time ago before, so there was nothing we could do. But they only just fled inside now, and with Dio there, Vanilla can't hide in the dark space!"
Magician's Red appeared.
Intense flames erupted from its body and poured down the tunnel Vanilla had excavated.
"Then I'll locate Dio and the others!"
Joseph did not remain idle either and began trying to pinpoint the direction Dio and the others had fled.
"Damn it! He got away again! That guy is truly terrifying. He didn't even die from wounds like that!"
At the tunnel entrance, Polnareff slammed his fist into the ground. His injuries had already been healed by Crazy Diamond, but those wounds were not what mattered to him. Vanilla escaping with Dio was far more serious.
If permanently losing one hand could be exchanged for Dio and the others' deaths, he would not have minded in the slightest.
"Don't worry, Polnareff. They definitely can't have escaped far. Qin Mo, we..."
Kakyoin had just begun to speak when he realized that the three people who had been beside him moments ago were gone.
He did not notice a hole in the ground some distance away. It was roughly the size of a cat, but it was extremely inconspicuous within this vast underground palace.
Inside that hole were three animals that should not have been there.
"Meow, meow, meow, meow..."
A pure white cat and a black cat followed behind a pangolin in front of them, meowing incessantly.
"Kiana, even if you meow at us, we can't understand you. We only turned into cats; that doesn't mean we can speak cat."
Crazy Diamond, a Stand roughly the size of the black cat behind them, appeared on its body and spoke.
"Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow..."
The white cat meowed in dissatisfaction. Even without understanding her, the others could roughly guess what she meant. She was probably unhappy that her Killer Queen could not speak.
Qin Mo, at the front, remained silent. In order to track Dio, he had already switched out his Stand ability for Koby, using Observation Haki to lock onto the two fleeing presences.
As for why the three of them had become animals, that was thanks to the Monkey Talisman among his items. Since Gilgamesh had given Kiana one, Qin Mo had put the Monkey Talisman into his third equipment slot. He had originally intended to use it to ambush Dio, since the Monkey Talisman's effect could be avoided.
However, after they fled, Qin Mo brought Kiana and Mei with him, transformed into animals, and pursued them by digging tunnels.
With a pangolin's burrowing ability combined with the Ox Talisman's strength, Qin Mo could already feel that he was getting closer and closer to Dio and the others.
The End
"Cough... Lord Dio, it's all right now..."
Inside an underground hollow, Vanilla had just opened his mouth when he coughed up blood. His body was covered in scorch marks, the result of using his mouth to directly meet Magician's Red's flames in order to block them.
To prevent accidentally injuring Dio, he had not completely concealed his body to indiscriminately devour everything around him. The price was that part of his own body had been burned as well.
But it no longer mattered. His wounds had long been fatal. What had sustained him until now was entirely his conviction to serve Dio faithfully, but now he could feel that he could no longer hold on. After all, he was still only human.
Conviction could become strength, but it had its limits.
"Lord Dio, I can only bring you this far."
Vanilla looked at Dio's wounds, which had yet to recover, and knew it was because Dio's body was not his own. He had constantly collected blood for Dio, but even so, it had not been enough to fully restore him.
But at least...
A pit was dug into the ground in front of Dio.
"Hm? Vanilla?"
Dio frowned slightly at Vanilla's actions. Did he see that I couldn't recover from my injuries and decide to betray me!?
Foolish Vanilla. At such close range, even with your Ozone Jackers, even if I'm heavily injured, you're still no match for me.
Dio calculated in his heart, only to see Vanilla make a move that completely took him by surprise.
"Let me, Vanilla Ice, offer Lord Dio my final strength at the end of my life!"
Splat!
Ozone Jackers' hand blade slashed down. Vanilla's body fell straight before the pit, and a massive amount of blood gushed from his severed neck into it.
Only then did Dio realize what Vanilla's purpose had been.
"He actually cut off his own head. I'm pleased, Vanilla Ice... I never expected you to be such a loyal servant."
Dio looked at the blood in the pit and thrust his hand into it in one motion. "Your life will not be wasted, Vanilla Ice. Once I defeat the Joestar group, I'll use my blood to revive you. Then you may offer me your loyalty once more."
Dio knew the state of his injuries. Without drinking blood, he could not recover at all, and the Joestar group was still pursuing him. Thus, he absorbed Vanilla's blood without hesitation and completely healed his wounds.
"I never expected that Jotaro would gain the power to stop time as well. It seems I can only defeat them one at a time."
After recovering, Dio looked at the ground. "Before that, I'll hide Vanilla's corpse and avoid the spotlight for now."
The World appeared beside Dio. As Dio's injuries recovered, The World was fully restored as well.
Dio struck the ground beside the pit that had held the blood, attempting to excavate a larger hole to conceal Vanilla's body. Yet, to his surprise, he found that the ground below had already been dug out in advance.
It was not the smooth opening created by Vanilla, but a small open space that looked as if something had dug it out. At the center of that space was a line of writing.
The moment Dio saw those words, his eyes widened.
"NANI!!!"
The World vanished instantly, and Dio's body lost its strength as he collapsed to the ground. "Impossible! How could this be!"
Dio's body flipped open page by page like a book. At the same time, the ground some distance away suddenly broke apart, and a pangolin and two cats crawled out.
With a flash of light, the three animals transformed into three people: Qin Mo, Kiana, and Raiden Mei.
"When you see these words, you have already been defeated."
Qin Mo spoke the words carved into the ground, though the sentence on the floor was followed by a doodle of a cat.
When Vanilla had committed suicide, Qin Mo had already dug to the side of that blood pit. He switched to Rohan Kishibe's character card and laid this trap, then hid nearby with Kiana and Mei, waiting for Dio to fall for it.
Naturally, this was not the only plan he had prepared, but it was the safest method. He could defeat Dio without shedding a drop of blood.
Dio stared at the three of them in terror, but after becoming pages, he could neither resist nor wield any power.
"Although I'd like to see your experiences, after thinking it over, some things are better left unknown."
Qin Mo wanted to know where Dio had encountered so many strange opportunities, how he knew about ascending to Heaven, and why Dio seemed to be playing such an enormous game. He had even made arrangements for after his death, as well as for the whereabouts of those arrows. In the original story, the arrows had been discovered elsewhere, clearly another of Dio's contingencies.
Dio seemed to have glimpsed fate, and he was trying to struggle against it.
Qin Mo was curious about all of this. Along the way, he had noticed traces of fate, but when fighting Dio, those who should have died did not die. For a time, he had wondered whether what he had glimpsed was wrong—or whether he had overcome fate.
He could not be sure. Fate was fate precisely because it was intangible. He did not know whether Avdol and Kakyoin's deaths had also been an inevitable part of it, since the original plot could not simply be treated as fate.
But Dio was terrifying. Qin Mo could not describe it. He was even somewhat afraid to look through Dio's pages.
If he had faced Dio alone without knowing his background, he might have been completely at Dio's mercy.
"Then please make your exit once more."
The light of the Ripple bloomed within the cramped underground cave.
After a century, Dio saw once more that familiar light—the familiar sun-yellow Ripple Overdrive.
"Is it over already?"
Raiden Mei still found it a little hard to believe. Most of the enemies along the way had been killed with ease, and this mastermind, Dio, feared by countless people, had also been killed so simply.
"It's over. Battles between Stand users are battles of information. The enemy was exposed while we were hidden, so this is normal."
Qin Mo looked at the ground where nothing remained. Vampires were creatures like that. When killed by the Ripple or sunlight, they left nothing behind.
"All right, let's head back. This journey has come to an end as well. We still have seven days before we return. Is there anywhere you want to go?"
The moment Qin Mo killed Dio, he received the game's prompt. Given the choice between returning immediately or remaining for a period before returning, Qin Mo chose the longest possible stay without hesitation.
His level had also reached Level 5 because of the thousand experience points. Back when the game had set its leveling requirements, the design had been very simple: one hundred experience points for Level 1, two hundred for Level 2, three hundred for Level 3, and so on.
A thousand experience points was exactly enough to reach Level 5. The cost for equippable character cards had also reached nine points, meaning he could equip an S-rank character card. He was only one point away from SS-rank.
"I'm fine with anything, but after we get back, can you lend me that thing that turns people into animals to play with?"
What Kiana cared about was clearly a little off, but that was Kiana.
Mei, meanwhile, felt a little gloomy about returning. "I'm fine with anything too. Are we going back already? It feels like time passed so quickly."
A New Stand
"Ah! Qin Mo, you actually secretly took out Dio! That's so underhanded!"
Polnareff was extremely displeased after learning that Qin Mo had killed Dio.
The others merely smiled indifferently. "All right, Polnareff. Dio was very powerful. Being able to deal with him without suffering any losses is a good thing."
Strangely enough, Jotaro and the others had sensed it the moment Dio was killed, so they were not too surprised. After the group returned to the hotel above ground, Joseph hurried out to make a phone call.
Just as everyone was discussing their future arrangements, Joseph pushed open the door and came in. "Jotaro, Holly's condition has improved. She's all right now."
He had set out in such a hurry because of his daughter's illness, so after resolving the root cause, he immediately went to confirm the result. Fortunately, the news was good.
"So, what are everyone's plans from here on out? Have you thought about it?"
"Polnareff, why don't you come live with us in New York? You're alone now anyway, aren't you?"
Polnareff shook his head. "Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Joestar, but although I no longer have any relatives, France is still my hometown. My memories are there. No matter where I go, I'll eventually return."
"If you ever need anything, contact me. No matter what corner of the world you're in, I'll rush over in a flash."
Kakyoin Noriaki spoke as well. "Jotaro and I are still students. Students naturally go back to school."
Everyone's gazes turned toward Qin Mo and the other two.
There was no need to mention Avdol. He had already worked with Joseph for a long time before this, and he was alone as well.
"We'll be leaving this time period in seven days."
Qin Mo did not hide it. Joseph said, "Then why not return to Jotaro's home with us? We'll give you a proper welcome."
Qin Mo shook his head. He had already considered his next itinerary on the road, and Kiana and Mei had agreed as well. "I already have a plan. I don't know whether we'll ever return to this time period after leaving, so I want to do as much as I can before we go. Mr. Joseph, can you arrange a plane for us? Also, I'd like to use the SPW Foundation's intelligence network to investigate two people. But please do not approach or monitor them personally. Just find out their addresses, and do not use Hermit Purple either. The other party may notice."
"Sure. Are they the future enemies you mentioned? Do you need our help?"
Qin Mo shook his head. "Your identities are too sensitive. He knows who you are. Besides, I only want to try. If it fails, I'll retreat immediately. Fate may be on his side."
"All right. Who do you want investigated?"
Joseph did not ask further, and Qin Mo gave the names of the two people he had long had his eyes on.
"Enrico Pucci. He's from Italy and should be a seminary student, perhaps an apprentice priest now. The other is in Morioh, Japan. His name is Yoshikage Kira, and his father is Yoshikage Kira's Father."
Joseph nodded. "If it's only their addresses, that won't take long. As for the plane, I'll contact the SPW Foundation. For these seven days, they'll provide you with their full support. If you need anything, contact them directly."
After saying that, he went to contact the SPW Foundation staff. Polnareff leaned over and asked curiously, "Qin Mo, who exactly are those two people you mentioned? Will it really be all right with just the three of you? How about I come help?"
"No need. I'm not planning to confront them directly. You, on the other hand, Polnareff—if you investigate underground organizations in the future, be careful. Don't get crippled by Diavolo. His Stand is King Crimson."
Before you continue