Suguru Geto tried to pull his weapon back, only to find that the staff was practically welded to that hand.
He simply relaxed his grip and said, almost jokingly:
"Sorry I couldn't make you go all out. Will you let me see what you can do now?"
"Sure. My turn, then!"
The instant he finished speaking, the muscles in Dio's arms bulged. Cursed energy surged through them like a volcanic eruption as he wrenched the Playful Cloud and the great katana in his grasp out to either side.
The sudden, tremendous pull threw both Suguru Geto and the cursed spirit Incarnate Taira no Masakado off balance, forcing them to stumble forward.
Seizing the opening, he struck with both hands, throwing a plain straight punch to either side. Each carried devastating raw strength and cursed energy as they hurtled toward Geto's face and the cursed spirit's torso!
Sheer strength worked wonders, overwhelming them with its force!
Geto felt the pressure of the incoming fist against his face, and his scalp instantly prickled.
An intense sense of danger made him twist, sidestep, and retreat without thinking. At the same time, he turned his wrist and swept the Playful Cloud sideways, trying to deflect the side of Dio's approaching arm with a precise strike and alter the punch's course through finesse.
Meanwhile, Incarnate Taira no Masakado followed its combat instincts, swinging its great katana in a vicious horizontal slash from the side. Together with Geto, it formed a pincer attack, its blade aimed straight beneath Dio's ribs!
Huh?! That feeling-!
So hard!
The expression on Geto's face changed drastically.
The moment the Playful Cloud's deflection and Incarnate Taira no Masakado's slash touched Dio's arms, tightly encased in dense cursed energy, they failed to budge them even slightly. Instead, it felt as though they had struck some absolutely inviolable, perfectly rigid body!
A bizarre, overwhelmingly powerful reaction force surged back through their weapons!
The sudden recoil stiffened the muscles in Geto's arm and even half his body for an instant, breaking his attack apart!
That single instant of stiffness decided the outcome.
Together, Geto and Incarnate Taira no Masakado were sent flying by Dio's utterly unremarkable straight punches, without the slightest flourish.
Both had protected themselves with high-level cursed energy reinforcement at the critical moment and escaped serious injury. But while the damage from this one-sided thrashing might have been limited, the humiliation was immense.
Then Dio stepped forward and loosely curled his right hand around empty air. The closing of his fingers looked like both an act of plucking something free and a declaration-
"The World!"
An eerily familiar sound of turning gears and rippling waves abruptly rang out, and a washed-out filter settled over the surrounding world.
The World lunged forward, its golden fists once again becoming a raging torrent.
"Muda, muda, muda, muda!"
Geto and the cursed spirits bent slightly backward in midair, their bodies arching at unnatural angles.
Within the realm of stopped time, tremendous force hammered their chests, shoulder blades, and limbs again and again.
No single impact caused immediate destruction. Instead, it was like repeatedly hammering a piece of metal-deformation accumulated, potential energy stacked up, and the promise of destruction was etched, layer by layer, into their very existence.
Like repeatedly exposing the same frame of film.
Like drawing cracks all over a pane of glass before it had actually shattered.
Then, the instant time resumed, all the destructive force accumulated within stopped time erupted at once!
Blood sprayed from countless wounds like water from a broken pipe!
Geto flew backward and slammed heavily into the ground.
Shattering agony exploded through every part of his body, especially his chest, abdomen, and back.
Yet he could still breathe-though his breaths were terrifyingly shallow and rapid.
Every attempt to inhale brought distinct, teeth-grating sounds of bones scraping and cracking within his chest, as though fragments were shifting with each breath, slicing through his delicate lungs and organs.
Not far away, Incarnate Tamamo-no-Mae and Incarnate Taira no Masakado lay collapsed like balloons burst by a tremendous blow and then discarded, their bodies unnaturally twisted and ruptured in multiple places.
Dark cursed energy slowly leaked from their disintegrating bodies, like life draining away with blood.
But the tenacious vitality of special grade cursed spirits allowed them to cling to life for a while longer.
"I won, didn't I?" Dio walked up to Geto and looked down at his fallen figure. "Will you still honor our wager, Mr. Geto?"
Geto barely managed to raise his gaze, his voice broken by pain. "...Yeah... you... won..."
He let out a long breath, bloody foam spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"Then... what do you plan to do... over the next ten years?"
Dio crouched and held his palm over Geto's caved-in chest, healing him with positive energy produced through reversal.
Shattered bones fitted back together like footage playing in reverse. Blood appeared from nothing to refill his vessels, while torn muscles and fascia were delicately woven back into place as though by invisible hands.
The entire process was quiet and orderly, as if time itself were being gently turned back in that one small space.
About half a minute later, Geto's sunken chest had returned to its normal shape. His lethal internal and external injuries were almost completely healed, leaving only the pallor on his face.
He coughed a mouthful of lingering clotted blood from his airway and remarked, "An incredible reverse cursed technique."
"Before we discuss the ten-year plan, let me ask you something:
"If we subdue cursed spirits born from particular negative emotions using Cursed Spirit Manipulation, will they continue drawing strength from those human emotions to sustain or even strengthen themselves?"
That was Dio's question.
"...Yes. Cursed Spirit Manipulation can operate using only the cursed energy of the spirits being controlled. Its user doesn't need to supply them with any cursed energy.
"So, even while on standby, subdued cursed spirits continue absorbing the corresponding negative emotions to recover and build up cursed energy, just as they did in the wild."
"In that case, why don't we simply absorb and take control of the vast majority of cursed spirits in the world?
"Surely having us manage them would be better than letting them attack humans at random."
"I have considered that approach."
Geto braced himself against the ground and slowly sat up, his voice low and hoarse.
"It would indeed curb the harm cursed spirits cause humans to a tremendous degree. But ultimately, it treats the symptoms, not the cause.
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation is extremely rare. A user might only be born once every few hundred years.
"Even if our generation could suppress an entire era through sheer strength, what happens when we grow old and die?
"Do we hand this world back to chaos?
"I don't believe I should leave the problem to future generations.
"Wouldn't ending all of this within my lifetime be a more complete salvation?"
Dio shook his head gently.
"Yes, you're right. But you're in too much of a hurry.
"Why? Why must you see the ending within your own finite lifetime?
"The world probably won't grant people their wishes so easily. Besides-"
He paused, looking calmly at Geto.
"If we could become immortal, couldn't we suppress cursed spirits forever and maintain this order forever?"
"Immortality? It's not that sim-"
"Trust me, it can be done. Just put your faith in me."
Dio cut off his objection.
"As long as souls capable of carrying human consciousness and memories exist in this world, I can already think of a way:
"Keep cloning our own bodies and let our souls reincarnate within them.
"The shells will age, but consciousness and memories can endure."
"...Modern science can't clone humans yet, can it? Let alone transfer consciousness."
"It can't in 2017," Dio said with a faint smile. "But will it still be impossible in 2077? Have faith in science's potential."
Geto blinked, then nodded with a helpless little chuckle. His healed wounds still ached faintly. I lost, after all. Then... I might as well try believing.
A world stained by the five defilements, a human realm like hell.
He had once thought that, in a world like this, he would never again be able to smile from the heart.
Yet now, behind Dio, the setting sun cast broad swaths of warm, clear orange light, coating even the rubble and dust in gentle hues. It irresistibly reminded him of the youthful days he had spent alongside Satoru.
"All right," Geto exhaled at length, as though letting go of some obsession. "I can't win an argument with you."
"Heh-heh-let's change the world together and make it a better place!"
It was not merely a material victory-a victory of the mind also gathered around Dio, pushing him to a higher plane.
In just this brief battle in which he defeated Suguru Geto, the Victory node seemed to be polished by an invisible hand, quietly lighting up halfway.
That was hardly surprising. Suguru Geto possessed that much "weight."
Viewed from six dimensions, the countless choices of countless people intertwined to form parallel worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges.
Yet among that boundless ocean of worldlines, certain exceptional individuals influenced a vast number of possible futures, leaving a vivid mark across countless timelines.
Much like Kayneth, who was bound to die in the Fourth Holy Grail War, Suguru Geto, so closely tied to Satoru Gojo, likely held a similar position-his death ushered in the beginning of the story that followed.
Influencing such a special individual and rewriting his fate was tantamount to defeating countless possible futures!
Before you continue