"What's wrong?" Josuke asked.
Ryosuke looked up at the sky, tilting his head slightly.
"Someone is watching us."
It was a very subtle feeling of being watched, like when you were in high school studying during evening self-study and secretly playing on your phone, and a gaze suddenly came from the window at the back door of the classroom.
You might not notice it right away, but your instincts would sense that something was off.
Ryosuke stared at the sky for a few seconds. The feeling of being watched faded away, as if everything had just been his imagination.
He was certain of one thing.
It was not an illusion.
Ryosuke took a can of iced black tea out of the ghost room and took a big gulp. Only then did he rein in his chaotic thoughts and start thinking again about the information Adan had revealed... Planting a tree.
The only thing Ryosuke could think of was the New Rokakaka fruit tree that had disappeared from JoJo Gospel.
The question was, did Dio still need to do an "equivalent exchange" with someone else?
He already had the power to control the world and resurrect the dead. What could he possibly still need to exchange for?
Earlier, Ryosuke and the others had been discussing this very issue and had come up with several guesses,
For example, the price Dio paid for gaining such immense power might be that his body was constantly being damaged, with serious side effects, and he needed the New Rokakaka to heal himself.
Or perhaps Dio had gained this terrifying power through a kind of unequal equivalent exchange, and now he was simply continuing that process.
Of course, guesses were just guesses.
Their only real use was to give a few more ideas when planning tactics.
"It's about time. We should set off."
The Saint's Corpse flashed with light again. Ryosuke looked at Adan. "It's time to send you on your way too."
Adan suddenly looked up and said in disbelief, "I told you everything, and you still won't let me go? Ryosuke, are you even human?!"
Ryosuke calmly looked at Adan and pressed his hand downward slightly, signaling him to calm down. He said, "You leaked important information. Do you think Dio would let you off without torturing you?"
"Uh… he would."
Thinking of Dio's terrifying appearance, Adan shuddered.
Ryosuke asked again, "Even if I let you go, do you think you could escape from Dio?"
Adan shook his head.
Ryosuke shook the Saint's Corpse in his hand.
"Even if you die, if Dio wants to, he can revive you and torture you again. The only way to avoid that is for me to kill you and seal your soul inside the Saint's blessing. So..."
Adan's mouth hung half open as he stared blankly at Ryosuke.
Sunlight fell from behind Ryosuke's head, forming a halo there. For a moment, Adan couldn't tell whether Ryosuke or Dio was the real demon.
In the end, he lowered his head and said with an unwilling, tearful voice, "I beg you, Lord Ryosuke… grant me death."
Not long after, Adan, Wamuu, and Esidisi passed away.
Corrupted souls +3, current total, 10.
Ryosuke retrieved the Saint's Corpse from Wamuu's body, current total, 4 pieces.
With Second Jo joining the team as well, party members +1, current total, 5 people.
"It really feels like finding a supply point right before a big boss fight in a game," Higashikata Josuke couldn't help saying.
Hot Pants elbowed him. "Don't jinx it. I really don't want to get tangled up in another flood of calamity."
The light from the Saint's Corpse in Ryosuke's hand had become blindingly bright. New cracks of light appeared beneath their feet, and spatial teleportation activated once again.
Second Jo turned back one last time to look at the chaotic battlefield.
Kars, Wamuu, and Esidisi had arrived far too suddenly. He, Lisa Lisa, and Caesar had no choice but to scatter and flee.
Second Jo didn't know where they were now, but Ryosuke had checked using Hermit Purple, and both Lisa Lisa and Caesar were still alive.
And for them to live better lives…
"I've got to take down that bastard called Dio!"
Second Jo was full of ambition, and amid great anticipation, he was swallowed by golden light.
Then...
He saw a pitch-black spike shoot straight toward him at a speed so fast he couldn't react at all.
Just as his chest was about to be pierced through, a thin layer of golden light appeared.
The small golden boat carrying Ryosuke and the others rocked slightly as it was stabbed by the spike, then quickly stabilized again.
The legendary Tequila Girl turned pale with fright and fell to the ground.
Second Jo stared at the black spike that kept extending outward along the Saint's golden light.
One end was sharp, while the other stretched deep into the Sea of Fog, so far that no end could be seen.
Even more terrifying was that there were thousands upon thousands of similar pitch-black, straight spikes within sight.
They came out of the fog and disappeared back into it.
These were just the ones they could see, how many more were there that they couldn't?
"What the hell is that?" Second Jo asked.
No one answered.
No one knew what it was.
Standing at the edge of the golden light, Ryosuke looked closely at the spikes piercing into the distance. Suddenly, he noticed a faint rhythmic motion in them.
The rhythm… Was like a human heartbeat.
Hot Pants also leaned in to observe. "Last time we traveled through time and space, these things weren't here… Could it be that we triggered some kind of mechanism in the Battle Tendency world?"
Josuke and Second Jo walked over, everyone offering different opinions.
Amid the noisy discussion, Uchiha Madara, who was standing at the edge with his arms crossed, threw out a single line,
"These spikes are thin at the front and sharp at the back. If you look closely, you can even see subtle bumps and patterns… Don't they look like tree branches?"
Everyone was startled.
Only Ryosuke gave Uchiha Madara a slight nod.
He thought the same.
Not because he could see it, without the Sharingan, Ryosuke didn't have Uchiha Madara's level of observation.
It was because the instant the spike struck the Saint's golden light, Ryosuke sensed its life fluctuations,
"Rokakaka, Yasuho… and it seems… Kars too?"
At the moment this thought surfaced, the feeling of being watched appeared again, and this time it was exceptionally clear.
Every single branch became the other party's eye, staring straight at Ryosuke.
"Wait!"
Second Jo raised his voice. "Don't you think these branches… seem to be getting closer to us?!"
It wasn't "seem to be."
Ryosuke looked over. The branches that had originally been scattered were rapidly closing in.
No one wanted to find out what would happen if they were trapped by these eerie branches, or whether the Saint's power would even be able to break free.
Ryosuke immediately took out all the relics. The surrounding golden light flared brilliantly, and their speed surged.
Like street racing, they weaved up and down through the blocking branches, constantly darting through. And then...
BOOM!
A black tide appeared.
The black tide crashed fiercely against the small golden boat. Everyone felt their vision go dark as a sensation of weightlessness and the world flipping upside down hit them.
They were pushed into another spacetime once again.
The sound of howling wind filled their ears.
And within that wind, Ryosuke vaguely heard the sound of a piano, "Gold Experience Requiem!"
A lock of golden hair drifted past the corner of his vision.
Ryosuke's hair stood on end. He sharply turned his head, just as a bronze-colored fist smashed toward him at an unimaginable speed.
Ryosuke's pupils shrank violently.
'Gold Experience Requiem.'
The moment he arrived in this spacetime, Ryosuke was attacked by GER.
Gold Experience, evolved into "Requiem," surpassed ordinary stands in power, speed, and reaction in every way.
In the original story, even the pebbles it flicked casually were enough to make King Crimson, with both power and speed rated A, completely unable to defend.
To deal with it, there was only one option.
"Star Platinum!"
"Ora ora ora ora ora!"
"Muda muda muda muda muda!"
Two stands that could both be called invincible in close combat unleashed hundreds of punches in an instant.
Fist met fist. Neither side gained the upper hand. After one final collision, they were both forced back by the impact.
Ryosuke landed on the ground.
Giorno hovered in the sky, his long golden hair flying in the wind. In his eyes was absolute contempt for life, just like…
His father.
Dio Brando.