"Judge me?!"
"Hahaha... hahahahahahaha!!!"
As if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world, DIO clutched his face and threw his head back, his laughter echoing across the room.
"It's true..."
"Your existence is indeed a significant threat to me."
He suppressed the flicker of primal fear in his heart, magnanimously admitting to the fact.
He had to confront the reality that Jotaro Kujo still possessed a fundamental "Counter" capability against him.
The slightest lapse in concentration, even a single moment of arrogance, could lead to a defeat that would be impossible to undo.
In this world, Jotaro was the only one who could offer a terminal threat to his divinity.
Feeling "Fear" in such a situation was only natural.
Admitting to that fact was not a matter of shame, but a matter of calculation.
He had felt a similar respect for Jonathan Joestar when he was defeated by him over a century ago.
He hadn't expected to encounter such a sensation for a second time in his long history.
"However... the difference in our martial power has already reached a point beyond comparison."
"No matter how much you struggle, you can never hope to defeat the current me!"
DIO stifled his laughter, his tone turning clinical and lethal.
"In the past, Star Platinum surpassed The World."
"But the current [The World Over Heaven]..."
"It exists on a plane far beyond that of your Star Platinum!"
DIO pointed a finger at the indigo Stand, his voice filled with an absolute, divine confidence.
"The past is the past. What matters is the present."
"The laws of victory have already tilted in favor of DIO!"
Listening to the vampire's grandiose declaration, Jotaro felt a wave of strange familiarity.
He was still the same arrogant, narcissistic bastard who possessed an unlimited capacity for self-delusion.
'Overwrite reality...'
'(The activation requires a physical touch...) '
'He might try to [Overwrite] the flow of time itself to gain an advantage in a rush clash.'
'If that happens...'
DIO hovered in the air, a sight that involuntarily pulled Jotaro's mind back to their final "Aerial Battle" on the streets of Cairo.
Unlike back then, where they had used their Stands' reactionary force to launch themselves, DIO was now truly flying.
The physical range of [Star Platinum] couldn't reach him at that height.
'But... what is this strange sensation?'
Jotaro could sense his mental energy beginning to fluctuate with a frequency he had never experienced before.
It was as if his growth, which had been stagnant for the last eleven years, had been suddenly kickstarted by the presence of his fated enemy.
"Come then!"
"I'll show you the Truth of your own irrelevance!"
DIO accelerated, closing the distance without even resorting to his temporal acceleration. He engaged Jotaro in a direct, close-quarters confrontation.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!!"
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!!!"
The familiar battle cries echoed through the massive hotel room as the two Stands engaged in a furious rush clash.
DIO kept his physical hands close to his chest, relying entirely on [The World Over Heaven] to match Jotaro's speed.
But unlike their previous encounters, DIO's Stand was unable to make direct contact with either Star Platinum or Jotaro.
Jotaro was controlling Star Platinum with a surgical precision, using his fists to accurately parry and deflect every strike that came his way.
K-CHAK!
Every time Star Platinum made contact with the divine Stand, DIO's physical frame would experience a localized explosion of force.
And every time, DIO would trigger his [Overwrite] to negate the reality of the damage before it could turn terminal.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!"
"It seems you haven't been wasting your time over these last eleven years."
This was the first time DIO had experienced a physical clash of this intensity since his death in Cairo.
Watching how Jotaro was able to systematically dismantle his offensive, DIO felt a flicker of genuine respect for the man's indomitable growth.
'But what does growth matter against a god?'
'The results of your eleven years of effort... I have surpassed them in a matter of heartbeats.'
'The World Over Heaven is simply superior to Star Platinum!'
DIO smiled, unaware that he was fundamentally misinterpreting the sensation of the clash.
"I won't allow fate to toy with me a second time."
"I'm going to erase that moment of humiliation once and for all!"
A new, lethal strategy formed in DIO's mind. He had no intention of continuing this exchange of blows.
"Jotaro! You should feel honored!"
"I'm going to use the true power of [The World Over Heaven] to bury you in the history where you belong!"
The [Overwrite] was triggered. DIO moved with a speed that Jotaro's eyes couldn't even track, delivering a single, focused blow to the man's center of mass.
Ugh!
Jotaro was hurled backward, crashing through the hotel walls and falling toward the street below.
"Hmph. You used Star Platinum to buffer the impact of the fall?"
DIO looked down from the shattered window, ignoring the terrified Yuuki as he stepped out into the air.
His priority was the elimination of Jotaro Kujo.
A spirit like that girl could be disposed of at any time.
Cough!
Jotaro felt a searing pain in his chest from the punch. He had taken internal damage, but he realized with a start that he was somehow still alive.
And then, he noticed something in his peripheral vision.
The sleeves of his white coat and his pants had turned pitch black.
He looked down to see that his entire outfit had been replaced by a familiar, dark silhouette.
His school uniform!
It was the very same clothing he had worn eleven years ago.
"Hmph. Are you wondering why you're still breathing? Don't be in such a hurry. The next strike will be the one that ends you."
"Before that happens, take a look around you! Jotaro!!"
"Does this road look familiar to you?"
DIO's voice boomed from the street ahead. Jotaro looked at the buildings and the bridge where he now stood.
"This is...!!"
His eyes widened as the realization hit him. The shifting urban landscape and the architecture of the bridge... it was a landscape he had burned into his memory long ago.
"It seems you remember."
"Exactly! This is Cairo!"
"The place where my destiny was supposed to have turned against me!!"
DIO landed lightly on the pavement, looking at the seventeenth-year-old Jotaro Kujo with a look of absolute, predatory triumph.
"I used the power of [The World Over Heaven] to revert the entire world to that specific moment!"
"I realized that even after ascending to Heaven, I hadn't truly escaped the reach of fate."
"And the source of that fated connection... is you! Jotaro!!"
DIO pointed a finger at the boy, his voice rising with a frantic, uncharacteristic excitement.
"I'm going to change history with my own two hands!"
"I'll rewrite the past into a Truth that favors me!"
"I will become a perfect, flawless existence... an entity that has never known the stain of humiliation!"
"[The World Over Heaven] is the power that allows me to defy destiny itself!"
DIO threw his arms out, his voice filling the empty Cairo street.
Ugh!
Jotaro clutched his chest, finally understanding the scope of what had occurred.
His physical body had been reverted to how it was eleven years ago. He was seventeen again.
And to ensure he broke the cycle of his own defeat, DIO had moved the entire stage of their battle across continents and through time.
He was going to erase the memory of being "One-punched" into oblivion.
[The World Over Heaven]...
As DIO had claimed, it was a power that could reshape fate according to his whims.
"The game is over, Jotaro."
"This strike will rewrite the history of the Joestars forever!!"
DIO lunged. Jotaro tried to stand and defend himself, but he was unable to react to the sheer speed of a god who had already skipped the process of movement.
The punch tore directly through Jotaro's chest. Blood sprayed onto the hot Egyptian pavement as DIO made his final, cold declaration.
"Vanish from [Existence]!!"
"JOTARO!!!"
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]