Ticket to Ride: Requiem.
Like Made in Heaven, it does not have the concept of star ratings.
It belongs to an ultimate Stand form far beyond ordinary Stands.
Ability: no longer random distribution of misfortune and luck.
Tear Requiem will form a real ticket that leads to wishes. As long as you hold the ticket, you will inevitably speed forward along the tracks of fate.
Requiem-level Stands all possess self-awareness. Although Tear Requiem exists in the form of a ticket and cannot speak, as long as there is a wish held in the heart, it will surely know it, inviting the owner of the ticket to board the train that leads to that wish.
The multicolored glow of advancing to Requiem faded away.
Dio tilted his head slightly and glanced at the small ticket in Ryosuke's hand.
Ticket to Ride... Dio had heard of it from Funny Valentine. It once belonged to a woman's Stand called Semele, or something like that. Its ability was to manipulate luck and calamity.
"You think upgrading this thing to Requiem will change anything?"
Dio's eyes were arrogant. He crossed his arms, with The World Over Heaven standing behind him.
"In front of my 'World,' everything you do is meaningless...hm?"
Ryosuke ignored Dio's nagging and handed the ticket to Higashikata Josuke.
Josuke stared blankly at the ticket Ryosuke handed over. He felt a bit confused, yet also as if he understood something. In a daze, he took the ticket and clearly saw what was written on it...
Departure Station: Sea of Mist of Desperation
Terminal Station: Withered Calamity God Tree
At the very bottom of the ticket was the passenger's name, "Higashikata Josuke"
Josuke stared at Ryosuke in a daze. The last trace of confusion in his heart completely disappeared. He understood that Ryosuke was afraid he was not prepared enough, so he had made a final insurance for Josuke.
With the ability of the Tear Requiem ticket, even if Josuke had not awakened Soft & Wet: Go Beyond, he could still offset Wonder of U's calamity and successfully reach the core of the Calamity God Tree.
After that, it would be the collision between the flood of calamity and the wish train.
Whether Higashikata Josuke would cut down the God Tree and save Hirose Yasuho, or Kars would kill Josuke and complete the cultivation of the God Tree, would depend on each side's methods and abilities.
Higashikata Josuke tightly gripped the ticket and nodded heavily. "Teacher Ryosuke, I won't let you down!"
He turned and left.
Leaving together with Josuke were Uchiha Madara, Jonathan Joestar, and Hot Pants.
Josuke would be responsible for dealing with the calamity of Wonder of U.
Uchiha Madara would deal with Kars.
Jonathan Joestar and Hot Pants would act as support and healers.
At present, Giorno, Joseph Joestar, and Higashikata Jousuke were still chasing Funny Valentine in unknown parallel spacetime. With Josuke's group leaving as well, the ones left to face Dio and Father Pucci head-on were only four people.
Ryosuke.
Kujo Jotaro.
Johnny.
And Weather Report.
Dio naturally did not want to watch Josuke's group leave.
The Calamity God Tree was the most important part of his plan. Even if there was only a one-in-a-thousand chance it could be destroyed, Dio did not want to see it happen.
Dio and Father Pucci moved, one on the left and one on the right, killing toward the departing Josuke and the others.
The chaotic battle erupted in an instant.
Seeing Ryosuke and Jotaro rushing in, Dio suddenly spread his arms.
"Za... Warudo!"
"Stop! Time!"
In the gray-white frozen-time space, only three people could still move normally.
Ryosuke, Jotaro, and Dio.
They charged at each other with only one purpose.
To put the other within the effective range of their Stand.
Ten meters, five meters, three meters…
Two meters...
"ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!"
The iron fists of the two Star Platinums collided fiercely with The World Over Heaven.
At the moment of collision, Ryosuke and Jotaro felt an extremely strange sensation.
Their fists did indeed hit something, but the force fed back to them was zero.
If it had to be described… it was a bit like Captain America's vibranium shield in Marvel, absorbing all of their attacks.
The problem was that their attacks were ineffective against Dio, but The World's punches coming back were not ineffective.
Every punch was incomparably heavy. After just one exchange, Jotaro's Star Platinum was sent flying.
"Jotaro!"
Ryosuke shouted.
Jotaro met his eyes and instantly understood Ryosuke's meaning. While being knocked backward, he controlled his Star Platinum, and with an extremely smooth motion, grabbed Ryosuke's hand and threw Ryosuke into the sky.
The Golden Rectangle was completed.
Flying into the air, Ryosuke threw the steel ball.
Infinite Rotation.
And it was not ordinary Infinite Rotation. It was a super-speed steel ball enhanced by Ryosuke's Hamon and ultimate lifeform physique, with instantaneous flight speed reaching Mach 6.
Even without any rotational force, this speed alone would be enough to turn any carbon-based lifeform into a dense mist of blood the instant it hit.
But...
"Muda! Muda!"
The World merely raised its hand and easily caught the flying steel ball.
It released its grip.
The steel ball fell less than half a meter, and because time was stopped, it hung suspended in midair.
Ryosuke saw it clearly.
The Infinite Rotation and the massive impact force on the steel ball vanished into nothing the moment they touched The World's palm.
"So this is… Over Heaven."
What the hands touched was the reality Dio longed for.
Suddenly, Ryosuke noticed Dio's body stiffen for a brief moment. Not only Dio, but Jotaro, who had been knocked flying, also froze in midair. Then, in the next instant, time began to flow again.
Ryosuke instantly understood what had just happened.
"Jotaro's time stop is five seconds."
"Dio's is nine seconds."
"Mine is nine point nine seconds."
That brief moment when Dio froze just now was the remaining 0.9 seconds of time stop. It was just that those 0.9 seconds passed too quickly… Ryosuke looked toward Father Pucci, who was locked in battle with Weather Report.
Because Made in Heaven accelerated time, it correspondingly affected their activity time within the time-stopped world.
But one thing was certain, even after Dio evolved The World to Over Heaven, the limit of his time stop still had not changed.
"It means his Over Heaven has a limit."
For example, the laws of spacetime.
Dio could only stop time for nine seconds. When facing his parallel-world selves, he would also suffer severe damage.
Or world-level power.
If Dio wanted to attack other worlds, he had to rely on the Calamity God Tree. He could not tear open the world barrier with his bare hands, invade the ninja world, and seize everything.
Thinking of this, a plan gradually formed in Ryosuke's mind. Weather Report was already killing like a madman. Ryosuke gave Jotaro and Johnny a look, one to the left and one to the right.
The look was not complicated. Simply put, it meant one thing, "I have a way. Get him!"
Dio had not been human for too long and could not understand the exchange of looks between them. Or even if he understood, he did not care.
Dio stood a few steps away with his arms crossed, his index finger lightly tapping his arm.
Don't be fooled by the invincible aura he showed the moment he appeared. Dio was still extremely careful and cautious.
After all, his opponents were Ryosuke and Jotaro.
One was a ghost from another world.
The other was an enemy who had killed him in countless parallel worlds.
So the moment Dio made his move, he activated time stop. His goal was to exclude everyone else from the battlefield and focus on dealing with Ryosuke and Jotaro.
After truly exchanging blows with the two of them once...
Dio's spine… finally straightened up.
"So this so-called Ryosuke is nothing special!"
"As expected, my World Over Heaven is the truly strongest, the most…"
"Invincible Stand!"