Follow Your Heart
Diavolo's tone was full of sarcasm.
But his gaze remained unwavering.
Caution, a quality that the weak value most, was deeply ingrained in the very marrow of this Dark Emperor.
Although the crippled kid and two brats present didn't seem to pose much of a threat, Diavolo used his "Epitaph" ability to survey the next ten seconds immediately after appearing, just to avoid being caught off guard.
In the pre-visualization segment:
He easily snatched the Bug Arrow, Polnareff tried his best to fight back but was easily knocked to the ground.
He chuckled and uttered a few mocking words, then the King Crimson raised his leg high, preparing to deliver the final blow to Polnareff.
This future suited Diavolo perfectly, so Diavolo followed that path until now.
Then, in the foreseeable latter part.
Unsurprisingly, Diavolo saw himself being attacked.
But all we saw was Mista's attack—
Because Giorno in that future scene died before he could even make a move.
The future depicted in the Epitaph represents Diavolo's fate if he hadn't used the Time Erasure weapon to change his destiny.
Therefore, in the future depicted in the Epitaph, he did not use the Time Erasure to dodge the precision-guided bullets from the Sex Pistols.
Furthermore, since the King Crimson doesn't have the ability to catch bullets with his bare hands, this future Diavolo naturally died a frustrating death from those unavoidable bullets.
Of course, this is nothing special; he's experienced this kind of situation far too often.
If Diavolo took the future seen in his Epitaph as fact, he probably wouldn't even know how many times he had died.
The real purpose of these "deaths" was to give him the opportunity to see his enemy clearly in advance:
"Guido Mista".
"Precision-guided bullets, once fired, force me to use Time Erasure to avoid them."
"Heh, you do have a pretty good Stand ability."
Diavolo looked down at Mista, his eyes filled with a hint of wariness.
The lighting was dim, making it difficult to see clearly, but he could still vaguely perceive:
The young man downstairs was trembling slightly as he held the gun.
Compared to Giorno beside him, his disordered and heavy breathing was all the more clearly visible in the darkness.
"You are afraid."
"Such a will cannot stand against me."
In this tense, almost frozen moment, Diavolo spoke with a relaxed tone:
"Now I'm upstairs, you're downstairs, and Polnareff is right at my feet."
"It will only take me one second to kill him. The only way you can stop me is with bullets."
"But your revolver only has six bullets, and you've already used one."
"Your bullets will eventually run out, reloading takes time, and your attack methods will eventually have gaps."
As he spoke, Diavolo Polnareff, who was forced to prostrate himself at his feet, a cold glance:
"You want to stop me from killing?"
"You'd better give up now, and I might spare your lives!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the King Crimson raised his hand high in a chop.
Polnareff's life is in grave danger.
Diavolo is right.
Mista couldn't even imagine how he could stop Diavolo.
The opponent's ghostly movements and swift, unexpected attacks left him, who had never truly witnessed Time Erasure, deeply shocked.
"How can we stop such a powerful being?"
"Damn it. Forget about rescuing that old man with the broom-like hair, I can't even think of how to protect myself!"
"With my abilities, I can only help buy a few seconds at most."
In that split second, Mista felt a sense of powerlessness.
Diavolo was more terrifying and more intimidating than any enemy he had ever encountered before.
This young man, who had been a soldier for less than two days, eventually fell into confusion.
With this confusion in his mind, he unconsciously looked at his companion beside him, Giorno Giovanna.
Giorno noticed Mista's gaze, a gaze that clearly said:
"What to do?"
Should we run away?
Giorno didn't say much.
With the same tense but not flustered gaze, he directed Mista's eyes to Polnareff, trapped at the feet of the King Crimson, and to the Bug Arrow that Diavolo held tightly in his hand:
Clearly, if they give up, Polnareff will die, and the Bug Arrow will inevitably fall into Diavolo's hands.
Then, Giorno simply replied:
Follow your heart!
"Follow my heart?"
Mista was slightly taken aback:
If he were truly acting from the heart, he would be turning around and running away right now.
He thought to himself
Upstairs, the King Crimson had already raised his hand high, ready to take Polnareff's life in the next second.
"Sex Pistols!"
There was almost no thought.
Mista instinctively pulled the trigger, and the bullet whistled out of the barrel.
The firelight dispelled the darkness, King Crimson's offensive was thwarted once again.
Diavolo, with a displeased expression, was forced to activate Time Erasure, and once again used the short 0.5-second Time Erasure to dodge the turning bullet.
Just like before, Polnareff survived.
"This"
Only then did Mista awaken from his dream:
What he subconsciously chose just now was not to be stunned or to run away, but to continue that "repetitive and useless" attack.
So this is what Giorno meant by following his heart.
The heart of an ordinary person is fundamentally different from the heart of a warrior.
"I see."
Although the result was no different from before, Diavolo was still unharmed, and the situation had not improved at all.
But Mista's gaze unconsciously hardened:
"I want to save that old man, I want to steal that arrow, and I want to defeat that man!"
"This is my true feeling!"
He uttered "unrealistic" declarations, but his hands, gripping the gun, gradually became steady.
"Overestimating yourself!"
Diavolo's tone remained dismissive.
However, he had to admit that Mista and Giorno's "out of touch" behavior had indeed caused him some minor trouble.
"Sex Pistols!"
"Gold Experience!"
The two of them launched an attack simultaneously.
They didn't discuss tactics because the situation was too urgent for them to communicate and analyze—if the offensive stopped, Diavolo would kill.
All they can do now is try their best to stop what is about to happen.
"Mu da wood da wood da wood da!"
The Gold Experience's swift punches rained down on the ground without reservation.
A huge vine quickly emerged from the ground.
These vines, infused with a massive amount of life force, grew wildly, like agile snakes, surging upwards towards Diavolo standing on the upper floor with the force of a raging tide.
But Diavolo didn't care about that.
No matter how fast the vines grow, they are still just vines. By the time they can climb to the second floor and attack him, Polnareff's head will probably have already been chopped in half by hand.
His primary enemy right now is still Mista's Sex Pistols.
The unassuming golden figure now rides atop the supersonic pistol bullet, precisely and swiftly adjusting the course of the metal beast beneath it.
Diavolo remained completely focused on his defense.
The King Crimson's stunning dynamic visuals captured the moment the bullets were about to strike, and then:
"Let time fly!"
Another 0.5 seconds was quietly deleted.
The bullet pierced through his body and landed empty-handed.
"The third bullet."
Diavolo silently counted in his mind; he knew that Mista would have to reload after firing six rounds.
That way he can seize this opportunity to achieve his goal:
Kill Polnareff, then leave with the Bug Arrow.
The purpose of killing Polnareff was to ensure that the secret of the arrow technique would be lost forever, so that Jotaro and the others would not find other arrows that might have the same effect and gain the same opportunity to become stronger as him.
It's easier to understand if they just leave:
Jotaro didn't know when he would arrive, and after getting the arrow, he didn't want to stay here for even a second longer.
He didn't even want to waste time killing Giorno and Mista —there was no point in acting rashly; it wouldn't be too late to settle scores with the enemy after he had thoroughly studied the secrets of the Bug Arrow.
Ultimately, if it weren't for those two guys being so oblivious to the situation and getting in the way, Diavolo would have already killed everyone and made a quick getaway.
What annoyed them was that they really went all the way in getting in their way:
The vines continued to spread wildly upstairs in the darkness, even though they were moving so slowly that Diavolo could see them with the naked eye.
Bullets whistled through the air again, even though the first three shots had no effect.
"The fourth shot."
Diavolo counted the number of bullets and activated Time Erasure again.
The bullet missed its target; there was no doubt about it.
"Fifth shot."
Diavolo used short Time Erasure for the fifth time in a row.
The answer he silently counted in his mind was already close to the revolver's maximum capacity.
"You only have one bullet left!"
Diavolo was breathing softly.
The long Time Erasure during the initial arrow-catching maneuver, coupled with the five consecutive short time-consuming Time Erasure dodging bullets, did indeed consume some mental energy.
But his tone remained calm, and carried an all-knowing tranquility:
"Is one bullet enough to stop me?"
The second update will be posted later.