Standing fully submerged in the brilliant radiance of the sun, DIO offered his response to Josuke and the others.
The vertical shaft of light that had been his intended tomb was now a divine spotlight, answering his call as he ascended to the state of [Heaven].
His physical form had undergone a radical, transcendent transformation.
Gone were the charred remains of his body. He now possessed a frame of pale, white skin and magnificent, long golden hair. He was dressed in high-waisted white trousers and a corresponding top, with golden 'D' emblems buckled at his belt and knees.
Star-shaped patterns,the mark of the Joestar bloodline,now extended from his forehead down across both cheeks, framing his sharp, predatory eyes.
"How is this possible...?!"
"Jotaro-san never mentioned anything like this!"
Josuke and the others stood frozen, their minds struggling to process the visual evidence of the vampire's change. This wasn't just a healing factor; it was a qualitative leap into a different plane of existence.
"Assassin!"
Rohan Kishibe didn't waste time on shock. He turned to the girl standing behind him, his voice sharp with urgency.
"Understood."
Amber offered a silent nod, immediately attempting to trigger her temporal restoration.
No matter the nature of DIO's evolution, if they could simply rewind the clock to a point before his ascension, all this gathered power would be systematically erased.
"Hoho... another attempt to reverse the flow of time?"
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!!!"
DIO's voice was filled with a resonant, condescending amusement as he sensed her activation.
He didn't move from his spot, choosing instead to strike the ground with a single, heavy fist. The impact sent a rhythmic tremor through the earth that seemed to anchor the very concept of the present moment.
"Assassin?"
Rohan urged her again, his anxiety mounting.
But the response he received was one of absolute, crystalline despair.
"The temporal rewind... it's being blocked!!"
Amber stared at the distorted flow of time, her expression one of shock. The logic of her ability was being systematically negated by a force she couldn't comprehend.
"What did you say?!!"
"How did he do that?"
Rohan lost his characteristic composure, his voice rising in Pitch.
Temporal restoration was far more than just a simple [Time Stop]. It was a fundamental reset of causality.
The idea that it could be "Blocked" by physical force was preposterous.
"Even if you were to return to the moments before this, you cannot alter the objective Truth of my ascension."
"From this second forward, no Master or Servant on this board can hope to stand as my equal."
"The ultimate Truth of the world is now firmly within my grasp!"
DIO threw his arms wide as a new, porcelain-white manifestation of [The World] appeared before him.
"It was the Joestars who guided me to this threshold..."
"Josuke Higashikata, you've proven to be far more useful than I anticipated."
DIO's gaze locked onto Josuke, a freezing, oppressive weight that left the boy struggling to breathe.
"Tch! Always with the talking!!"
"I'm gonna scrape you right off the face of the earth!!"
"Wait! Okuyasu!"
Unable to withstand the mounting pressure, Nijimura Okuyasu lunged forward, summoning [The Hand] to deliver a terminal strike.
Space itself was erased by the swing of its right palm,a high-concept attack that no physical barrier could repel.
Okuyasu was certain that he could bisect even this new version of DIO.
"Hmph... Nijimura Okuyasu. You speak with a warrior's bravado, yet your heart is drowning in terror."
"You only attacked because you were desperate to prove that I am still a mortal who can be harmed."
"But unfortunately... that shallow logic no longer applies to me."
Facing the erasure of space, DIO simply commanded [The World] to strike forward with its fist.
BOOM!
'!'
Okuyasu stood frozen, his eyes wide with disbelief.
DIO stood perfectly intact. Not only had the space-erasing effect failed to manifest, but his Stand appeared to have encountered a physical resistance that should have been impossible.
"How...?"
Before he could react, [The World Over Heaven] was already in his space.
"Okuyasu!!"
Josuke and Koichi screamed the warning, but it was already too late.
DORA!
Okuyasu instinctively ordered [The Hand] to intercept the blow, launching another spatial erasure.
But the white fist of DIO's Stand struck the spatial void and ignored its logic entirely. It slammed into the arm of [The Hand] with absolute, reality-altering force.
In that single instant of contact, Okuyasu and his Stand dissolved into a stream of white light and were inhaled into DIO's frame.
'!'
'?'
The scene left Rohan, Josuke, and Koichi paralyzed with horror.
"Okuyasu...?"
Koichi whispered the name of his friend, his mind unable to grasp the sudden, total absence of the boy.
"DIO!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!!"
Josuke's fury erupted in a raw, animalistic shout, his expression one of pure, incandescent rage.
"Do not concern yourself. Nijimura Okuyasu has merely become a contributor to the ultimate design."
"[The World Over Heaven]... my new Stand. While I have used the souls of the tens of thousands in Morioh to satisfy the requirements of the ascension..."
"That doesn't mean I am unwilling to accept further nourishment. A Stand user with a mental will as concentrated as Okuyasu's is exactly the kind of 'Sinner' I require to maintain my energy."
"And of course... that applies to you and Rohan Kishibe as well. And all of your Servants."
DIO's explanation sent a wave of freezing dread through the survivors.
WHOOSH!
A sudden, violent atmospheric collapse descended from above, slamming into the hospital grounds with enough force to hurl Josuke and the others through the air.
BOOM!
The hurricane-force impact lasted for only a second before it was systematically neutralized.
"[Berserker]. I would have thought you'd be better at reading the environment."
"But it seems you are eager to offer yourself as a sacrifice."
Still floating above the ground with his arms crossed, DIO looked toward the rooftop of the hospital, where a slender figure was silhouetted against the sky.
"Huh? You were a dog running from me just a few minutes ago. Now you're acting like a wolf because of a little wardrobe change?"
"Does that ridiculous suit really give you that much confidence?"
Accelerator leaped from the rooftop, landing with a heavy, precise impact that cracked the hospital's foundation. He stared at DIO with a predatory, dismissive grin.
"Ah! He just ran off again!"
"He knows how dangerous that thing is, so why does he always have to be so stubborn!"
Yuuki watched from the rooftop, her voice filled with a desperate, frantic worry.
She wanted him to stay back, but she knew that trying to convince the boy to retreat was a lost cause.
"I'll give you a piece of advice..."
"I am not Josuke Higashikata."
"For me... eliminating you now will take only a single blow."
DIO listened to Accelerator's sharp, abrasive mockery with an air of clinical detachment. Instead of responding with anger, he simply raised a finger and made his own decree.
"If you think you can do it, then by all means... try."
Accelerator didn't need a second invitation.
His ego was already bruised by the vampire's earlier escape, and the claim that he could be defeated in a single blow was a personal insult.
In the entire world of Academy City, only a handful of people had ever dared to speak to him with such absolute certainty.
[The World Over Heaven] launched itself forward like a railgun projectile.
Compared to the complex vector manipulation Accelerator utilized, the Stand's approach was deceptively "Simple",a straightforward, direct charge with a raised fist.
'What a joke... you talk a big game but all you've got is a brawler's lunge?'
Accelerator had seen what happened to Okuyasu, so he didn't rely on simple physical armor.
He poured his entire cognitive capacity into the calculation, reinforcing his [Reflection] barrier with every bit of data he possessed.
He wasn't underestimating the threat. He was preparing for an absolute, mathematical defense.
THUD.
The white fist of [The World Over Heaven] struck the invisible barrier and came to a dead halt in the air, as if it had hit a titanium wall.
"Heh."
Accelerator sneered as he prepared to reverse the vectors of the Stand's own arm and shatter its internal logic.
But then, a cold, crystalline chill raced down his spine.
The fist that should have been reflected began to move forward again. It ignored the mathematical laws of the barrier as if they simply didn't exist.
'!'
Without a second's hesitation, Accelerator triggered a localized wind-pulse beneath his feet and catapulted himself backward.
'My reflection was... bypassed?'
"Impressive reaction time."
Even as he tried to put distance between himself and the Stand, the voice reached him from directly behind his ear.
DIO was already there, his massive fist already beginning its arc.
Accelerator tried to recalibrate his defense for a new contact point.
"Before the Truth that I now command!"
"All laws... all formulas... are utterly meaningless."
BOOM!!
This time, the fist didn't stop. It connected with and ignored the defensive calculations entirely, striking Accelerator with the full, reality-shattering weight of [Heaven].
Just as Okuyasu had, the boy who stood at the pinnacle of Academy City dissolved into a stream of white light and was absorbed into DIO's frame.
"BERSERKER!!"
Yuuki screamed the name as she felt the psychic connection to her Servant severed in an instant.
"Well... that takes care of [Berserker]."
"And your arrival is perfectly timed..."
"Lancer! And his Master!"
DIO looked toward the sky where a golden cloud was descending toward the hospital courtyard. A wide, predatory smile spread across his face.
The Flying Nimbus touched down on the concrete, and Kid Goku and Subaru Natsuki stepped off to face the new, divine monster.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]