"The technique is about to activate..."
Realizing that the situation had reached an irreversible conclusion, Itachi Uchiha released his grip on the half-dead Yoshikage Kira. He looked up at the hovering figure of Accelerator and spoke with a flat, finality.
"Huh? You've been acting like some kind of cryptic fortune teller this entire time."
"Are you incapable of speaking plainly, or is your brain just fundamentally broken?"
Accelerator, hovering in the air with his usual arrogant posture, looked down at the shinobi with a sneer.
BOOM!
He flicked a wrist, sending Itachi hurtling into a nearby wall with a localized shockwave.
Itachi hit the concrete with a dull thud. He knew that even if he were destroyed here, the golden-haired man downstairs would still achieve his ultimate ambition.
'Hahaha... so this is the power hidden within those eyes of yours?'
'Fate is truly on my side. It has prepared every single key I require.'
'This entire war... it was all designed for me to transcend my limits!'
Controlled by the parasitic [Flesh Bud], Itachi had been forced to use his Mangekyou Sharingan to cast a specialized technique on DIO.
[Transcription Seal].
A complex seal that allowed a Sharingan user to store a specific technique within their own eyes,or the eyes of another,to be triggered automatically once certain conditions were met.
And the condition for the technique DIO had demanded was simple.
It would only activate when he was at the very threshold of death.
***
"Is this guy... is he really DIO?"
"He looks like he's about to vanish completely."
Rohan and the others had arrived from the rooftop to regroup with Josuke. They stood at the edge of the courtyard, watching the vampire's body dissolve into ash under the relentless brilliance of the sun.
"A vampire's greatest weakness... is their inability to face the light of the sun."
"I hope you regret every single choice that brought you here, DIO!"
"This is going to be the very last 'Sunbath' of your life!"
Josuke delivered his final declaration, his voice firm with a sense of grim satisfaction as he watched the monster burn.
"ARGH! AAAAARGH!!"
"HAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Contrary to their expectations, DIO didn't scream in agony. He threw his head back and laughed, the sound of his amusement cutting through the sizzle of his burning flesh.
Death?
Death was indeed the thing DIO feared more than anything in existence.
From his initial schemes to steal the Joestar fortune to his eventual quest for immortality... his entire life had been a testament to his twisted, indomitable will to survive.
Joseph Joestar's son...
He possessed a great deal of raw talent, but compared to DIO, he was still a child.
Did he really think that pinning him in the sun would be the end of it?
Everything that was happening now was according to a master plan.
In fact, DIO had been hoping for this exact outcome.
Initially, he had merely planned to absorb the blood of other temporal manipulators to strengthen his [Time Stop].
But after witnessing the ceiling of [Saber]'s capabilities, his goals had evolved.
Merely drinking blood was a small-minded pursuit.
He wanted to achieve the goal he had spent decades dreaming of.
With Itachi's power acting as a catalyst, he finally had the opportunity to bridge the gap.
For this, DIO was willing to make a monumental gamble.
The evolution of a Stand was, in its simplest terms, the transformation of one's mental energy.
And for a human,or any sentient being,when was the mind most turbulent, most pushed to its absolute threshold?
It was in the moments of extreme emotion.
Anger, grief, joy, or terror...
Mental energy fluctuated wildly in those states. It was Jotaro's legendary fury that had allowed him to break through and destroy DIO in the past.
That was a form of reinforcement.
And for DIO, only the prospect of "Death" could provide the intensity of mental pressure required for his next stage.
Because it was the one thing he loathed and rejected with every fiber of his being.
Eternity was the only Truth!
Yes.
He would complete his evolution and ascend to Heaven!
Under the suffocating pressure of "Death," his mental energy had reached its peak.
And under the threat of total annihilation, the Naruto technique sealed within his eyes finally broke its shackles.
"Hey?!"
Sensing a sudden, unnatural shift in the atmosphere, Josuke stared at DIO with wide, terrified eyes.
"What's happening?!"
"His body...!!"
"The sun is still hitting him... but why isn't he turning into ash anymore?!!"
The others realized the horrifying truth as well. Cold sweat began to pour down their backs.
DIO's body was still surrounded by a halo of burning light, but the process of disintegration had stopped.
He was holding his form.
"Hahaha... HAHAHAHA!!!"
The sound of his mocking laughter sent a wave of unease through the group.
"You bastard!! Just die already!"
Nijimura Okuyasu, overwhelmed by a primal sense of panic, summoned [The Hand] and swung its right palm through the air to erase the vampire's remaining frame.
K-CHAK!
Space was erased, and DIO's head and torso were bisected by the invisible void.
And yet, his life-force showed no signs of flickering.
"He's still alive!!"
"Heaven's Door!!"
Koichi's scream was echoed by Rohan, who immediately summoned his Stand and lunged toward the monster.
SWISH SWISH SWISH!
Rohan's pen blurred as he wrote the command directly onto DIO's charred chest.
[Do not offer any resistance. Fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.]
"I don't know what kind of trick you're using, but as long as you're unconscious, we can handle anything you try!"
Rohan shouted, even as he ensured the text was firmly imprinted into the vampire's being.
But in that next moment, as if delivering an inescapable decree...
A voice reached out and touched everyone's mind, its source impossible to pinpoint.
It was DIO's voice, now calm, measured, and absolute.
"The first requirement is... [My Stand]!"
[My Stand]... [The World]!
"The second requirement is... [A Trustworthy Friend]!"
[A Trustworthy Friend]... In the memories DIO now possessed, modified by the Genjutsu, that role was filled by Itachi Uchiha, a man who had grown up with him and whose loyalty to the divine laws was absolute.
"The third requirement is... [The Souls of Thirty-Six Sinners]!"
[The Souls of Thirty-Six Sinners]... Sacrifices. Vessels of concentrated spiritual energy.
The ominous words continued to resonate, and a second later, the group watched in horror as countless pinpricks of white light began to converge on the courtyard from all directions.
"That's... are those...?!"
"The souls of the people of Morioh?!!!"
"This can't be real..."
"My sister... my mother... they're in there!!"
***
'?'
Accelerator sensed the shift in the world's logic. He watched as Yoshikage Kira's body dissolved into a streak of white light and flew toward the courtyard. He narrowed his eyes.
"There's no way to stop him now."
Itachi Uchiha stood up with great difficulty, his voice filled with a hollow sense of resignation.
As Accelerator watched with a mix of curiosity and annoyance, Itachi also dissolved into light and vanished from the spot.
"Something is coming..."
The feeling of unease coiling in his chest was a sensation Accelerator had rarely experienced.
And the decree continued.
"The fourth requirement... [The Fourteen Words]."
[The Fourteen Words]... Spiral Staircase, Rhinoceros Beetle, Desolation Row, Fig Tart, Rhinoceros Beetle, Via Dolorosa, Rhinoceros Beetle, Singularity, Giotto, Angel, Hydrangea, Rhinoceros Beetle, Singularity, Secret Emperor!
"Damn it!!"
The group stood paralyzed, unable to intervene. They couldn't even begin to comprehend the nature of the phenomenon unfolding before them.
'!'
"Impossible... my [Heaven's Door]..."
Rohan watched in shock as the words he had written into DIO's body began to fade and dissolve.
"AAARGH!!"
"What is this?!"
Koichi and Okuyasu backed away, unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure radiating from the vampire.
And the final stage began.
"The fifth requirement... [Courage]!"
[Courage]... The absolute resolve to discard one's own Stand and soul to reach a new plane of existence.
"This is bad... really bad!! Get back!!"
Josuke shouted the warning as the weight of the expanding energy threatened to crush them.
"The final requirement... [The Location]."
[The Location]... To travel to 28 degrees 24 minutes North latitude, 80 degrees 36 minutes West longitude, and wait for the arrival of the [New Moon].
Constructed within the artificial reality of the Genjutsu, in an "Unfamiliar" landscape, DIO stood before a massive, looming [New Moon] and delivered the final sentence.
All requirements have been met.
The decaying, charred flesh erupted in a blinding, transcendent radiance.
In this moment... DIO has arrived.
At [Heaven]!
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]