In a secluded motel room in the Puglia region of Italy.
The curtains were tightly drawn, blocking out the Mediterranean sun.
An indescribable tension filled the air, as if something beyond the ordinary was about to be born.
Kira Yoshikage, at this moment, felt like he stood before an unprecedented challenge. He stood in the center of the room, and on the small table in front of him, two arrows lay quietly.
One was ancient and beautiful, topped with a sculpture of a flapping beetle, emanating a deep and alluring aura. That was the Beetle Arrow he had just obtained from Polnareff.
The other was relatively simple in design, with a plain heart-shaped tip. It was the arrow he had snatched from Otoishi Akira's hand, unremarkable, even less impressive than Kira Yoshihiro's original arrow.
Mrs. Shinobu had been gently put into a deep sleep with sedatives and was resting peacefully in the adjacent room; he would not be disturbed.
"Then… let's begin," Kira Yoshikage murmured to himself, his eyes a mix of extreme curiosity, calm madness, and a pure desire for "evolution."
"Come forth, power of Requiem!"
He first picked up the Beetle Arrow.
Killer Queen appeared behind him, grabbing the arrowhead and using it to cut the Stand's finger. The moment the fingertip touched the cold metal, an indescribable, torrential surge of violent energy instantly rushed into his body!
This power was completely different from how he felt when he touched the arrow before; it was older, more domineering, and more… "conscious"!
"Urgh!" Kira Yoshikage couldn't help but let out a suppressed growl, his body trembling violently.
Killer Queen twisted and shattered uncontrollably, but its form was undergoing dramatic, unstable changes!
Strange beetle-like carapace patterns emerged on its pink body, its cat ears elongated and sharpened, and its overall form flickered wildly between solid and energy states!
Its former skin seemed to become an outer shell, nurturing a new life within—the terrifying existence known as Killer Queen Requiem!
However, the arrowhead inside Kira Yoshikage's body suddenly reappeared, angry and roaring!
It was as if a housewife, who had toiled day and night for her family, suddenly saw her husband with a new lover, but he brought the other person directly into their home and even called her 'Madam Cow.'
It was about to explode with rage.
This arrow directly pierced through Kira Yoshikage's shoulder skin and grew out, like an angry golden serpent, coiling and twisting in the air, glaring at the Beetle Arrow.
Kira Yoshikage immediately felt a bad premonition. 'Damn it, it seems like the two arrows really can't be used together, and this one is throwing a tantrum.'
He wanted to activate Bites the Dust Rhapsody to rewind time, but found that he couldn't even move a finger because the two arrowheads emitted two immense pressures, rendering him powerless to resist.
He swallowed, 'No, Kira Yoshikage didn't get this worked up when Star Platinum crushed him…'
But he couldn't stop any of it; the Beetle Arrow also underwent a transformation.
The Beetle Arrow also seemed to come alive, but unlike the arrow in Kira Yoshikage, it was more like a divine beetle. The eyes of the beetle sculpture at its tip suddenly glowed with crimson light!
It was no longer an inanimate object, but like a discerning examiner, a ruthless filter for evolution!
Boom!!!
An indescribable explosion, originating from the depths of his soul, occurred simultaneously in Kira Yoshikage's consciousness and body!
An unspeakable battle took place from an angle Kira Yoshikage couldn't observe, but the outcome was obvious.
The arrow on his shoulder, like a golden serpent, retreated, obediently drilling back into Kira Yoshikage's body, looking somewhat dejected.
Correspondingly, the divine beetle swaggered, raising its two legs high, clearly victorious.
It seemed the arrow inside Kira Yoshikage's body had been soundly defeated.
Subsequently, Killer Queen's collapse continued. It was completely crushed, and a brand new life was born.
This process was not physical destruction, but an ultimate expansion and reshaping of a "concept"!
After 10 seconds, Killer Queen's form finally stabilized, but it was utterly unrecognizable!
It became taller and more slender, its entire body a dark, golden-pink, like cooled lava.
Its originally cat-like head was covered with a rigid, golden beetle headdress, resembling an ancient Egyptian deity, and its compound eyes shimmered with merciless, multicolored light, though a faint shadow of a cat could still be discerned.
Its arms had transformed into sharp, insect-like limbs, now two pairs, with pale white flames burning at their fingertips. Countless tiny, dust-like pink light particles, capable of triggering chain annihilation explosions at any moment, swirled around its body.
Killer Queen Requiem had appeared!
Kira Yoshikage gasped violently, feeling the surging, boundless power within him, almost bursting him apart.
With a slight thought, without even needing to touch it, a glass cup on the distant table silently disintegrated into its most basic particles, vanishing without a trace. It wasn't an explosion, but the most thorough "erasure."
Indeed, his Requiem's ability should be related to erasure, and he felt that with just a thought, it wouldn't just be the range of a single room as before; he could perhaps directly erase the entire Town he was in.
He could see through things, perceiving everything within 10 kilometers of him, and in his perception, with just a thought, all of it could be instantly and completely annihilated, and it wasn't purely a physical attack; it carried the power of causality and time.
And this was just the beginning… "This is… Requiem…"
He looked at his brand new Stand, his eyes filled with awe and possessiveness.
This power was enough to completely "blast" away any threat, any unfortunate "factor" from its root, whether it be people, things, or even… However, amidst this ultimate sense of power, a cold "cognition," as if from a bloodline instinct, pierced into his mind like an electric current.
The Beetle Arrow directly pierced through Killer Queen's headpiece and skull, emerging and pointing at Kira Yoshikage, but strangely, there was no backlash this time.
A calm voice rippled out from the arrow.
[Denial, non-native compatibility.]
[This power is the legacy of 'Kira Yoshikage,' not your original form, not your power; you cannot ascend to godhood.]
[Your 'self' has yet to awaken.]
It was like a bucket of ice water poured over his head. Kira Yoshikage was stunned.
"Kira Yoshikage's… legacy? Not my original? And what does 'ascend to godhood' mean? Isn't it Requiem?"
He looked down at his hands, a tremendous sense of absurdity and emptiness washing over him. All this time, what had been driving Killer Queen was the spirit represented by this body, but this spirit was controlled by him… He… had never truly possessed a Stand of his own?
(Simply put, Killer Queen is the Stand of Kira Yoshikage's physical body's spirit, and the protagonist is a body-snatcher who devoured his spirit, so he can control it, but it's essentially more like a prosthetic body than a true body.)
After the shock came overwhelming anger and unwillingness! How could he tolerate building himself upon the power of "others"? Not even the original owner of this body! Even if this power was completely under his control!
The peace he sought had to be a peace absolutely controlled by his own self!
"You mean I haven't awakened a Stand yet?" He calmly looked at the Beetle Arrow.
[Precisely. You do not yet possess the power of the 'Ghost,' thus you are not qualified to ascend to godhood.]
Hearing this, Kira Yoshikage's gaze sharply fixed on the second arrow on the table—the ordinary arrow!
"If this Killer Queen belongs to 'Kira Yoshikage'… then I will awaken my own Killer Queen!"
A fierce and resolute determination surged in his heart. He didn't even hesitate. At this moment, with Requiem's power upon him, he made a mad decision.
He suddenly grabbed the heart-shaped arrow, gripping the arrowhead. The moment the arrow tip touched his palm, he didn't throw it. Instead, he fiercely plunged it into his chest!
And the Beetle Arrow watched silently.
It was very calm; it was inherently indifferent. In fact, if Kira Yoshikage's situation weren't special, with another arrow inside him and a Stand that wasn't his own, it wouldn't even communicate with him, but would simply remain calm.
Until it completely decayed and was destroyed, or until a person truly worthy of ascending to godhood appeared, and it would ascend to godhood with him.
"Urgh!"
Intense pain struck, but far stronger than the pain was another sensation—plunder! Devour! Evolve!
The heart-shaped arrow seemed to be forcibly melted by a peculiar power, transforming into a scorching, liquid energy filled with infinite possibilities, directly injecting into his heart and flowing through his limbs.