[The Central Battlefield]
Sunlight shot straight in from the far end of the eastern horizon. The moment it touched the vampire army fighting against Stroheim's soldiers, waves of shrill wails erupted. Their entire bodies burst into raging flames, and together with their ugliness and sins, they were reduced to ashes.
"We finally made it to daylight!"
Joseph clenched his fists tightly, staring at Kars standing more than ten steps away.
"So… this means we've won, right?"
Sunlight was also the weakness of the Pillar Men. As long as they were exposed to it, Kars would turn to stone, and then they would have an entire day to deal with him.
However, faced with the blazing sunlight, Kars not only failed to retreat into the shadows, he spread his arms wide instead.
His long hair fluttered, and his tall, upright figure shone under the sun like a gleaming ancient Greek statue.
One hand rested on his hip, the other lifted his loincloth, his expression arrogant and unrestrained.
A human fetus needs only ten months in the womb to complete an evolutionary metamorphosis that took life nine hundred million years to achieve, and all of these changes come from the memories embedded in genetic factors.
Just a few minutes ago, using the Red Stone of Aja and the Stone Mask, Kars completed his final ascension ritual and became the "Ultimate Lifeform."
He could read the genetic information of all living beings in the world and transform accordingly, possessing the abilities of all life, immortality.
No weaknesses whatsoever.
The sum of all advantages in existence.
How could such a Kars possibly fear sunlight?
Stroheim couldn't believe his eyes. "Not afraid of sunlight… does that mean Ripple doesn't work on Kars either?! JOJO! Do you still have a way?!"
"Ah, yeah, I do. I still have one ultimate move left, the strongest ultimate move I haven't used yet. That is..."
Joseph took a deep breath, his eyes resolute, fists raised, thighs tensed.
"Running away!"
Kars burst out laughing.
He loved nothing more than the sight of prey fleeing in terror.
Kars could tell that Joseph wasn't claiming to have some new plan. This was simply the most basic instinct of a creature at the bottom of the food chain, running away when faced with the apex predator. Nothing more.
Not in a hurry to chase, Kars savored the moment. He spread his arms as pitch-black feathers sprouted one by one, transforming in an instant into a pair of eagle wings.
Whoosh!
With a gentle flap, Kars took to the air, like a true eagle, flying in the direction Joseph was fleeing.
Joseph ran for his life. Ahead, he saw Stroheim's transport plane.
No matter what kind of Ultimate Lifeform it was, as long as it was still a living being, it couldn't possibly be faster than an airplane.
This had nothing to do with being an Ultimate Lifeform, it was simply the pure laws of physics.
Behind him, Kars's laughter drew closer and closer. Joseph gritted his teeth and sprinted. Suddenly, in the jungle shadows at the end of the road, he spotted someone galloping on horseback, charging straight toward him.
Joseph's heart skipped a beat as he shouted, "Go! Get away! Don't come over here!"
Even though Joseph usually seemed unreliable, he could tell what mattered in critical moments.
With Kars still behind him, if this unlucky guy really charged in, he'd probably be killed by Kars without a second thought.
But the other person acted as if he hadn't heard at all. Draped in a pitch-black cloak that snapped loudly in the wind, wearing a matching black cowboy hat, before his face was even clear, the dangerous aura he radiated could already be felt, along with the speed at which he was approaching…
That speed was way too fast.
Joseph was about to shout again when the words suddenly caught in his throat.
He saw the horse's eyes.
A solid crimson red.
This was clearly a vampire warhorse.
And anyone riding a vampire warhorse could only be a vampire.
"Haha..."
A soft laugh came from the sky.
"I was going to play with you a bit longer, JOJO. Looks like the game ends here."
Kars issued an order to the onrushing Ryosuke.
"Stop him for me!"
Ryosuke seemed to obey Kars's command, driving his warhorse out of the jungle.
The scorching sunlight fell on the vampire warhorse. After charging for ten kilometers, the horse let out a wail, its body emitting a rotten stench. Its legs gave out, and it rolled across the ground.
Before the horse even fell, Ryosuke leaped into the air and lunged toward Joseph.
Kars laughed loudly and lunged forward as well.
Blocked in front and chased from behind, Joseph was instantly pushed into a desperate situation.
Kars noticed the cloak and hat Ryosuke wore, as well as the deliberately chosen jungle-shadowed route, and thought to himself that this one was a smart guy.
Anyway, almost all the gathered vampires were already dead. Kars decided to let Ryosuke serve as his subordinate, it would count as recognition, Kars's thoughts were abruptly cut off.
He stared in shock as Ryosuke pulled out a shotgun.
Ryosuke held the gun in one hand, the muzzle aimed straight at Kars.
'Has he gone crazy?' Kars thought.
A mere vampire daring to attack Kars, and with a gun at that, such a useless human weapon.
The next second...
BOOM!!!
Purple flames from the explosion swallowed Kars whole. Chunks of flesh were blasted away by the shockwave, slamming into the ground and carving out deep craters.
This was naturally not the power of a shotgun.
Shotgun shells were extremely easy to modify. On the way here, Ryosuke had dumped out all the steel pellets inside the shells, cut off his own flesh to fill them, and injected large amounts of dragon vein energy into that flesh.
The moment dragon vein energy came into contact with an enemy, it triggered a violent explosion, and the power of it was even greater than Ryosuke had expected.
After landing the hit, Ryosuke showed no joy. He spun the shotgun in his fingers, and during the rotation, the bolt-action mechanism completed another chambering.
Bang!
The second shot exploded again, further suppressing Kars's counterattack.
Ryosuke followed up immediately, holding the gun in his left hand while drawing a cleaver from his waist with his right.
Crackle!
Golden Ripple electricity flashed.
After becoming the Ultimate Lifeform, Kars truly no longer feared Ripple. But from the moment Ryosuke began practicing Ripple, he had never intended to rely on its vampire-countering properties.
With Ripple enhancement, the blade became sharper and faster, and he slashed straight toward Kars's neck.
A layer of "armor" suddenly rose from Kars's shoulder, blocking the strike.
His eyes bulged as all the flesh that had been blasted away earlier transformed into hummingbirds.
Hundreds, thousands, of sharp beaks stabbed toward Ryosuke.
This was a true saturation attack.
This was supposed to be the day he seized control of the world, yet he had been beaten into such a sorry state by a single vampire. Having just become the Ultimate Lifeform, Kars, who had been in an excellent mood, was genuinely enraged.
"Die!"
Joseph stood there dumbfounded.
The exchange was far too fast. One moment, Ryosuke had leapt out of the jungle on horseback; the next, thousands of hummingbirds were stabbing toward him.
Joseph's mind was full of question marks, and he instinctively shouted, "Watch out!"
He didn't even know what good that "watch out" would do.
But at the exact moment Joseph shouted, Ryosuke, who had been standing there as if stunned, tilted his head slightly, glanced over at him, and gave a faint nod.
Thousands of hummingbirds reached Ryosuke.
Ryosuke violently flung his cloak. Under Ripple enhancement, the pitch-black cloak became incomparably tough, like a massive bird-catching net.
With a sweep through the air, he trapped all the attacking hummingbirds inside. The cloak turned into a sealed sack, with only one opening left, and the shotgun extended straight into it.
With one foot pinning down the constantly writhing, screaming sack, Ryosuke lifted his head and calmly locked eyes with the furious Kars, then pulled the trigger.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Four shots in a row.
Thousands of hummingbirds, annihilated.