Time Erasure

Diavolo didn't move.

He was waiting, waiting for Li Qing to reveal his final trump card as he'd predicted.

Then, at the most tense, most critical moment, the moment Li Qing was closest to success, he would strike and extinguish Li Qing's last hope.

The life of an invincible person was just this boring and dull.

Li Qing didn't know Diavolo's thoughts, only mumbling nonsense in front of him:

"Sir, my dear Mr. Diavolo, please be merciful."

"I swear on the Virgin Mary that I stumbled in here by accident today and have no ill intentions towards you or your organization."

"And, you can trust me, I'm really good at keeping secrets—"

"The girl across the street who didn't like wearing clothes in the summer, I watched her with binoculars for a whole summer and never said a word."

"Aunt Liu next door, who likes kissing dogs, will never know that her dog eats poop in the community every afternoon."

"Oh, and also—"

"And Old Wang who lives in 303 downstairs, I never reported him and Mrs. Chen from 304 to the property management for disturbing the peace with noise."

Heh.

Is he spouting this nonsense to make me let my guard down?

How boring.

Diavolo remained silent, only silently calculating the time in his mind:

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds... the 8th second, it's here.

Just as Diavolo had predicted with Epitaph, Li Qing seemed to feel the time was right—he suddenly stopped his ear-piercing nagging and swung his fist fiercely in the direction of Diavolo's main body:

"Sonically Enhanced Wave!"

At this instant, Li Qing's fist began to glow with a dazzling white light.

This light enveloped his fist, obscuring his palm, and then shot out with a whistle at the peak of its brilliance.

"Heh."

Diavolo sneered, then tilted his head slightly, easily dodging the attack of the targeting light.

This Sonically Enhanced Wave flashed past Diavolo's ear and disappeared uselessly into the air behind him.

Almost at the same time, King Crimson retaliated.

It tensed its sinister arm, covered in red and white patterns, and with the force of splitting a mountain, it swung a powerful hand chop.

In the next instant, King Crimson, like a hot knife through butter, easily tore through Li Qing's shoulder with its hand chop, piercing his chest.

Thanks to its Digitization Mode ability, which ignored the rules of reality, Li Qing's flesh and blood instantly healed after being torn, as if it had never been injured.

However, his health bar, much like stocks just bought by retail investors in the A-share market, plummeted from over half to a mere 12% in a high-altitude dive.

To exaggerate a bit, at 12%...

King Crimson could now kill him with a sneeze.

But Li Qing's eyes became even sharper:

The moment the Sonically Enhanced Wave light shot out, as if performing magic, a gun suddenly appeared in his hand.

His strength was still weak; he couldn't win through close combat. He had to rely on firearms to resist.

But King Crimson was extremely fast, and its dynamic vision was undoubtedly sharp.

If Li Qing aimed directly, he estimated he wouldn't even have time to raise his arm before the enemy detected his movement.

At that point, let alone shooting to kill, he might even have his gun-wielding hand broken by King Crimson.

A direct shot wouldn't work.

Therefore, Li Qing chose to use the Sonically Enhanced Wave as a diversion.

While he was pretending to nag earlier, he had quietly gripped the gun in his hand.

Then, Li Qing used the white light of the Sonically Enhanced Wave to cover his palm, perfectly concealing the gun clutched in his hand.

Diavolo couldn't see the gun in his hand, only the ball of white light flying towards him. By the time he dodged the targeting light of the Sonically Enhanced Wave and focused his attention back on Li Qing...

Li Qing had already seized this opportunity to complete the crucial action of "raising the gun to aim."

The next step was for him to simply pull the trigger, and he could blast through Diavolo's head with supersonic bullets.

"You shouldn't have underestimated me, Diavolo!"

Li Qing seized this fleeting moment and fired his death-defying shot at Diavolo.

Flames flashed, thunder roared, and the bullet left the barrel.

King Crimson, though fast, wasn't fast enough to catch bullets with its hands.

Not to mention, this powerful Stand had just moved up to deliver a hand chop to Li Qing and didn't have time to turn around to block the shot for its master.

Diavolo seemed to be defeated.

But

"Wasted, wasted!"

Diavolo laughed maniacally, "All your tricks are useless!"

"Now..."

The muzzle flash of the gun appeared reflected in his pupils, making him look like an emperor with dominance burning in his eyes:

"Time will begin to carve once more—"

"King Crimson!"

At this moment, Diavolo erased time.

The duration he erased this time was still a mere 5 seconds.

However, the instant he entered the "Time Erasure" state, he transcended the restraints of reality's rules, becoming an invincible existence independent of the timeline.

Second 1:

The bullet passed through his void-like body, which was outside the timeline, causing no damage.

Second 2:

Li Qing was in an unconscious "stutter" state.

He gripped the gun tightly, his eyes staring straight ahead, as if confirming Diavolo's death.

Li Qing, whose time had been erased, naturally could not see that Diavolo had not only passed through the bullet unharmed but had also taken two unhurried steps forward towards the bullet.

Second 3:

Li Qing had unconsciously fired the second and third shots.

These two shots still passed through Diavolo's body ineffectively, but Li Qing was completely unaware of it.

At the same time, Diavolo extended his arm and unhurriedly snatched the handgun from Li Qing's hand.

Second 4:

Diavolo removed the magazine from the handgun.

Then, with a deep sense of malicious amusement, he unceremoniously shoved the empty gun, which felt like a toy, back into Li Qing's hand.

Simultaneously, he commanded his Stand, King Crimson, to adjust its actions and preemptively clasp Li Qing's head with its palm.

Second 5:

Diavolo did nothing.

He simply watched Li Qing quietly, observing the laughable expression on Li Qing's face, who still thought he had succeeded in his counterattack, anticipating the comical reaction when he realized something was wrong in the next second.

Finally, the "Time Erasure" state ended, and the timeline returned to normal.

"Huh?!"

Li Qing instinctively froze.

He was blind in Digitization Mode, unable to check a watch for seconds or use blood to time, so theoretically, he shouldn't have been able to detect Diavolo activating Time Erasure.

However, he possessed superior sensory abilities.

To Li Qing, the "sonic environment" he perceived each second was different.

Therefore, the moment Time Erasure ended, Li Qing immediately sensed the change in auditory information:

"The previous second," he was holding a gun and blasting Diavolo's head.

"The next second..."

There were no bullets in the gun, and pulling the trigger only produced a crisp clicking sound.

Diavolo was alive and well, his face full of mockery.

King Crimson, as if casually playing with walnuts, was gently caressing his completely bald head.

"Time Erasure..."

"He's activated Time Erasure again!"

Li Qing instantly understood the situation, and then...

Then it was Diavolo's turn to explain:

"Hahaha..."

"How about that, surprised?"

Diavolo laughed wantonly:

"While you were getting excited about your little trick, I, Diavolo, have erased the time from when you 'successfully counterattacked'!"

"The original time has been erased, and only the outcome changed by me remains!"

"Only the result will be left in this world!"

"And what you are currently witnessing and touching is your future self. It is the 'future' you saw seconds ago."

"This is the power of my 'King Crimson'!"

He stood on one leg, fists clenched, chest thrown back, and said to Li Qing in a dramatic JoJo-esque pose:

"Li Qing!"

"Your utterly unremarkable Stand ability can't possibly defeat me, Diavolo!"

"Oh."

Li Qing responded indifferently.

His expression was like that of a hotel employee who saw a guest painstakingly counting out nine coins at the counter. Not only was he not nervous or taking it seriously, but he was practically bursting with joy.

"You're not scared?!"

Diavolo sensed something was wrong.

"When have I ever been scared?"

Li Qing smiled calmly and confidently:

"I am a little nervous, after all, your power is truly immense."

"However, thanks to your arrogance..."

"I survived."

PS: Potential points of contention (excerpted from Moegirl Encyclopedia):

If it's determined that Diavolo cannot attack during 'Time Leap' but can move people and objects, it will also make it easier to understand some potential logical inconsistencies in the original work.

1. Trish's hand being severed and her being kidnapped: While Bucciarati was watching the elevator floor indicator, Diavolo secretly damaged the elevator and entered. The moment he severed Trish's hand, he activated 'Time Leap' and took Trish away during that period.

2. Diavolo activated 'Time Leap' just before his true face was about to be seen by the cleaner. During this period, he cleaned up, tidied objects, and escaped through the window.

3. After killing the fortune teller in a Sardinian city, he was almost discovered by a child. He quickly activated 'Time Leap', during which he hid the fortune teller's body and bloodstains and left by taxi.

4. Killing Narancia by force: He severed the iron railing and threw Narancia, who had just made a boast, into the air. At that precise moment, he activated 'Time Leap' and 'Erase', during which he concealed his form and waited for the 'result' to be achieved.