The longest chapter yet.

I wanted to get the entirety of Hell Climb Pillar done in just one chapter, for I feel that dragging it on would just be annoying to all who read this.

That being said, enjoy!

Chapter Ten:

The Dreaded Hell Climb Pillar!

Speedwagon could barely manage to hold his tongue around the old woman before him. His best friend had told him to tell her everything, but he had been caught a little bit later by Joseph and was told not to say anything. He admired Jonathan like a role model and he had raised Joseph since infancy, so it was hard for him to choose who to listen to right now.

"Speedwagon, are you alright?"

The acknowledgement of his presence made him jump a bit in shock, making him quickly take a sip of tea.

"Yes, I am just worried about them, you know." He said, his eyes avoiding hers as he looked down at the table. Erina tilted her head and set her tea cup down.

"Are you sure that's all there is? You haven't even touched the biscuits I made; you usually have half of them eat by now." She said, noticing his eyes widen in surprise before he quickly picked one of the baked goods up.

"Ah yes, sorry. I had a big lunch on the way back."

The way she looked at him over her glasses told him she didn't buy it for a second. He sighed and took one more sip of tea. Was he really prepared to lie to the bride of his best friend? If he told her, then she might worry even more and demand to go to Italy right away. From the look on her face, she more than likely would not believe whatever lie he could come up with, or even the lie Joseph told him to tell her.

He took a slow deep breath before he answered her.

"This is it, Air Suplena Island." Lisa Lisa said, gesturing toward the island in the distance with what appeared was a huge tower in the center surrounded by what looked like a house "This entire island is also my personal mansion."

Jonathan's eye widened at the sight, mentally comparing the size to his destroyed family home. Needless to say, it was much bigger. He sighed as the memory of his home left him, and for a moment, he looked out of the corner of his eye when he felt like he was being watched. Like before, he saw Lisa Lisa quickly look away. That made it the eighth time he has caught her looking at him, which made him only wonder why she kept staring at him. Could it be that she…

"Hey, gramps?"

Thankful for the distraction, he turned to Joseph, the young man coughing after beckoning him.

"Yes, Joseph?"

"How can you breath so well with this stupid mask on?" he inquired, lightly gasping. He chuckled and smiled under the mask.

"Did Erina or Speedwagon tell you stories about before I," he paused before continuing "Died?"

Joseph nodded and, in vain, tried to adjust his mask.

"Yeah, they told me about Dio mostly and about Zeppeli's grandpa somewhat." He answered, looking over at the quiet Caesar as he listened to Lisa Lisa explain something Joseph couldn't care less about "Why do you ask?"

Jonathan relaxed in his seat as he looked to the sky.

"Zeppeli was one of the wisest men I ever knew, aside from my father of course. The week he trained me in the art of hamon was one of the most grueling I had ever experienced. He required me to sit under water for half an hour with a rock to hold me down, he made me balance atop a small mountain on one leg while holding two other heavy rocks in my arms and much more, all to prepare me for my fight with Dio." He rose up and looked his grandson in the eye "I can only imagine what our month of training to fight the Pillar Men will be like."

Joseph winced at this, making Jonathan chuckle.

"Do not worry Joseph, I am sure Mrs. Lisa Lisa will only push us as much as necessary." He said with a smile. This did little to alleviate his worry, but he appreciated the attempt at comfort. Aside from some idle chit chat between master and student, the rest of the trip was silent for the Joestars as they got closer to the island, pondering what challenges lie in store for them.

Soon after, they were docked and the foursome made their way to the center of the island toward the huge spire that towered above the mansion that surrounded it. Jonathan had to contain his inner archeologist as he held back numerous questions he had about the island, wanting to inquire about its history and those who had lived on it previously. Suddenly, they all came to a stop in front of a huge set of steel doors. Lisa Lisa turned around as she placed a hand on one of the huge slabs of steel.

"The prologue to your training is what I like to call the Hell Climb Pillar!"

While Jonathan and Joseph merely pondered what she meant, Caesar's loud gasp afterward was enough to give them a clue of how much its title rang true.

"The Hell Climb Pillar?" Caesar parroted his master, his lips trembling. Joseph put his hands on his hips.

"What the heck is the Hell Climb Pillar? You could at least give us a tour before you drop names."

Caesar gulped and looked to his cool headed master, doing his best to control the panic in his voice.

"Master, you cannot be serious! I have never once tried it and the many that do never come back!"

Lisa Lisa remained unfazed by her student's ramblings as she circled around the trio of hamon users.

"If you cannot complete this trial, then you have no reason to be on this island at all." She said coldly, slowly opening the doors. The loud creaking deafening almost everyone present as Jonathan tried to prepare a question.

"Mrs. Lisa Lisa, could you please inform us of what this trial involves exactly?" he asked, almost having to yell over the loud opening of the door. For a split second, a smile cracked through her cold demeanor before it turned back into a frown as she looked at all of them.

"You'll find out once you are down there."

A question of what she meant did not have time to leave either of the men's lips as they were all three kicked over the edge, screaming all the while as they plummeted down the long drop. Jonathan tried in vain to reach out and grab a part of the stone wall, as did his two fellow warriors, but they soon hit the bottom with a loud splash.

Joseph was the first to surface, followed soon after by the others as they regained their breath from the sudden dive. He looked down at the liquid in his hand and ran his hand over the Pillar, gasping when he noticed something.

"This stuff isn't water, its oil!" Joseph yelled, his hands rubbing all over the surface of the bottom of the pillar before him.

"You must climb to the top of the pillar using only your bare hands!" Lisa Lisa yelled down at them, getting their still somewhat dazed attention "You will be confided to die down there if you cannot climb it!"

With this, all the sound that remained was the flowing of oil down the tall pillar, as everyone began to formulate how exactly they would reach the top. Jonathan tested its surface multiple times, trying to get a grip with his palms. But even when he managed to do so, he would almost always slip off before he got more than half a meter off the ground when he tried to climb.

"Blast, I can't get a good grip!" he yelled, looking over to his grandson who also seemed to be having difficulties. Caesar, meanwhile, had managed to climb almost four meters as the two Joestars pondered their problems below. Seeming to notice this, he turned to look down at them.

"Hurry up, Joestars! The more you slack off down there, the more strength you waste!" he called out, the talking almost making him lose his concentration as he nearly slipped off the pillar. Jonathan saw this and noticed how the younger man was climbing and the wheels began to turn as he looked down at his hand.

"Joseph, we need to focus our hamon into our fingertips!" he yelled, recalling the discussion they had had just the day before with the grandson of the man who almost taught him the same thing in depth.

Joseph, crafty as he was, had used his frustration of the situation to devise a more pragmatic way out by tying his shirt around the huge pillar.

"Did the people who died down here lack common sense?" he questioned mockingly as he slowly inched his way up. Jonathan, offended by the statement and his disregard for the instructions of his teacher, attempted to scold him.

"Joseph, that's not how-"

The brown haired man barely made it four steps before a dagger came down from above, impaling the pillar and slicing his shirt in half, making scream as he fell back to the bottom. The unimpressed Lisa Lisa who had thrown the dagger, looked down at him in near disgust.

"Climbing the pillar with anything less than hamon is desecrating it!" she yelled down at the grumbling Joestar as he was helped up by his grandfather "The Hell Climb Pillar craves only hamon, it repels everything else. Don't forget that!"

"Are you trying to get us killed or something, lady? I've never trained in hamon all my life! You know I don't have the strength to climb out of here!"

Jonathan cautiously looked up at their teacher, expecting her to scold him as he had been about to do. Instead, her eyes looked devoid of any empathy for his plight, making his spine tingle. William was strict as well, such as when the old master threatened to stop training him all together if he spilled a drop of wine during his fight with Jack the Ripper, but Lisa Lisa was in a whole new playing field. He doubted she would even drop food for them while they were struggled in the depths of this chamber.

Joseph must have noticed this as well, as he curled his fist up and growled in response.

"Damn it, who does she think she is!" he yelled, splashing some oil around to release some his anger "When I get up there, I'll-"

He was cut off when Jonathan grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him around, the brown haired man's eyes meeting the blue haired gentleman's own, noticing the sheer amount of determination he held within them like he did during the fight with Wamuu.

"Listen Joseph, as much as I want to scold you over how you spoke to your master, we need to start climbing." He said while looking up at the struggling Caesar, having only moved half a meter since "Did you hear what I said before? We need to channel our hamon into our fingertips, like Caesar told us the day before."

Joseph looked over at the pillar and trailed his eyes up to the grunting blonde man, noticing that he was indeed using only his fingertips to climb.

"Oh wow, you're right gramps!" he said, sloshing through the abs high pool of oil. Jonathan smiled as he walked beside him.

"Ready?" Jonathan asked, bending his knees in preparation.

"You don't have to ask me twice!" Joseph said, tightening his fist as he did the same. In perfect synchronization, they both took a deep breath and channeled their hamon into their fingers. Then they leapt almost three meters into the air with the little amount of hamon they pooled into their legs. Jonathan clawed like a mad cat along with Joseph when they got as high as they could, grabbing on as tight as their tired bodies would allow. Joseph slowly opened his eyes and noticed that they had not fallen yet, making him chuckle as he looked back down in shock.

"We did it gramps!" he said, almost falling off when he broke his concentration. Jonathan nodded and looked up, noticing both how far they had to go and how close they were to Caesar.

"Let's do this, Joseph!" he yelled, inspiring a smile under the mask of his grandson as they began their slow ascent.

Forty nine hours later

Days till rings dissolve: 28

Caesar: 18 meters

Joseph: 15 meters

Jonathan: 16 meters

Jonathan did his best to ignore the pain in his fingers and legs, his breathing mask keeping him from gasping as much as he wanted to. His face was caked with sweat as he looked up, seeing that the top he so wanted to conquer was still a painful eight meters away. He also saw Caesar, who did not seem to be faring any better than him or Joseph at the moment.

"Joseph, are you okay down there?" Jonathan called out; looking down to see his descendent was just a meter away from him. Joseph let out a few small gasp before answering.

"Yeah! Not much farther now, eh gramps?" he said back, the strain on his muscles visible as he reached and slowly pulled himself up. Jonathan nodded down to him and focused back on task, reaching up and slowly pulling ahead at a snail's pace. With one last look upward, he noticed that Caesar was barely moving at all at the eighteen meter mark, and he just now noticed why that was. The Pillar seemed to bend outward the more one went up it, making it even harder to navigate than before.

"How wearisome." He said under his breath, pulling himself up once again.

Three hours later

Caesar: 19 meters

Joseph: 17 meters

Jonathan: 18 meters

"What the?" Jonathan questioned, his hand skimming over something as he moved it up to prepare for another pull up. He slowly ran his hand over it and felt his fingers slip into what felt like a crack. A part of him warned that this could be a trap, but the rest of him was thankful for what seemed like a blessing. He pulled up next to it and saw that there was indeed a small crack in the pillar, making him sigh as he stuck his hand in it.

"Joseph, there is a crack-"

Then all his joy faded when he felt his fingers press something inside of the crevice.

"What was that, gramps?" his grandson called back, almost ready to pull up beside him. Suddenly, the pillar began to rumble slightly under their fingers, making them stall their travel.

"W-what was that?" Caesar gasped, the rumbling subsiding afterwards. Just as he was about to move on up, Jonathan noticed a small stream of water coming from above the blonde's head at the twenty meter mark. Then everything came together as he reached up in vain to stop the Italian.

"Caesar, look out!"

If Caesar himself had not noticed in time, his head would have been cut off by the sudden jet of high pressure water that shot out of the pillar. He managed to slide down a bit, catching himself when he was just a foot above the blue haired gentleman.

"What the hell is this!?" Joseph yelled over the sound of the oil.

"It's spitting out high pressure oil!" Caesar yelled "How in the world are we supposed to get by this when we can barely hold onto the pillar?" He mumbled to himself, his arms growing more tired the longer he sat there. And all the three did was hang on for dear life while they tried to come up with anything they could do to get past this barrier of death.

One hour later

Caesar: 19 meters

Joseph: 18 meters

Jonathan: 18.5 meters

Jonathan looked down at the stone in shame, his sweat covered hair falling over his eyes. He had waited long enough to say this.

"I'm sorry you two, if only I hadn't tried to rest at that crack…"

Joseph grunted as he pulled up next to his grandfather, shaking his head.

"Don't worry about it gramps, I would have done the same thing." He said, looking up as he saw Caesar somehow manage to pull out a pen from his left pocket. The blonde slowly brought it up against the rushing water, gasping when the pen was nearly shot from his hand at the sheer amount of pressure. He pulled the pen down seeing that half of the cap had been cut off.

"Damn it, I thought that since it was now see through that the pressure would have let up." He said, sliding the pen back into his pocket "It seems it doesn't matter how many hours we wait, the oil will still be razor sharp from the pressure!"

Jonathan's guilt only built as he listened to the blonde man, his grip tightening as thoughts of self loathing passed quickly through him. But with a quick deep breath, he pushed these thoughts to the wayside.

"No, there is no time to think like that." The gentleman said to himself, his courage slowly building as he slowly climbed up next to Caesar, Joseph following close behind.

"Gramps, what are you doing?"

Caesar too wondered this, his own plan of diverting his hamon to two points of his body still in the self doubt stage.

"I will go first." Jonathan said, looking over at the two young men, their expressions ones of shock.

"What!? You will never make it unless you know how to control your hamon well enough!" Caesar yelled, grabbing hold of Jonathan's arm.

"Yeah gramps, you'll get shredded!"

Jonathan heard their concern and appreciated it more than they knew, but his heart would not let him tell one of them to go before him. He observed the point where the oil was spitting out from and knew that the farther he got from the pillar, the less likely he would, as Joseph put it, get shredded. But he could see no way he would be able to do this without falling off. He furrowed his sweaty brow and gently pulled away from Caesar's grip and got closer to the wall of oil.

He took a slow, deep breath, covering his whole body in a visible glow of hamon.

"My blood is a symphony within me!" he yelled, reaching his hand forward.

"Jonathan!"

"Gramps!"

As soon as his wrist penetrated the gushing oil, he felt an intense amount of pain immediately shoot up his arm. Fighting through it, he managed to land his hand on the pillar and pulled himself up, gritting his teeth as pain shot up through his other arm. With both arms through, he knew the hardest part was about to smack him in the face. His heart racing and his brain scolding him for suck recklessness; he summoned the courage to finally stick his head into the sharp, discharging oil.

With his will burning, he pushed through as quick as he could, yelling his head off all the while from both pain and the overflowing amount of determination inside of him. With this final burst of willpower, he managed to pull himself halfway through the oil and quickly pulled the rest of himself through, gasping all the while as the glow of his hamon faded from sight, the rest of his energy going back to his fingertips.

"I…I did..it." he said through hard gasp. His arms and legs felt like jelly at this point, to the point where he nearly let go. But with his destination in plain view now, he continued his crawl to freedom after turning back to yell "I-I made it! You two can come through!"

"Damn, did you see that?" Joseph asked, his jaw dropped behind his mask "Gramps made it through!"

Caesar was also very impressed by this, but he knew there was no way him or Joseph could pull off the same feat without killing themselves. He was still debating whether or not to call that display insane or amazing, but that discussion could be had when he got out of this pit. Having renewed confidence in his past plan, he pushed himself off the pillar and got to his feet, charging all of his hamon into the tips of his toes.

Joseph could only watch as Caesar slipped half of his body through the oil rather quickly, much quicker than Jonathan had with his brute force approach. Within another ten seconds, the Italian was all the way though, leaving the brown haired Joestar on his own as he tried to come up with his own plan of escape.

Nine hours later

Caesar:…?

Joseph: 20 meters.

Jonathan:…?

When Jonathan's hand finally touched the top of the pillar, he could not have felt a greater joy unless Erina had been waiting for him at the top with a slice of his favorite cake. Using what was left of his strength, he painfully pulled himself up, collapsing from exhaustion onto the stone.

"T-thank you father, thank you Mr. Zeppeli, for lending me your strength."

Despite the mask, his gasps were loud and raspy and he wished nothing more than to stay on the ground forever as his aching muscles and bones finally began to relax. Just as his eyes began to close and he about gave into the sweet embrace of sleep, a grunt to his right made him shoot awake and looked to see the shaky hand of Caesar Zeppeli trying its best to pull him up.

"Caesar!" he yelled and got up to his knees, crawling over to the edge where he began to pull the young man up. After twenty seconds of grunting, the young Caesar finally made it to the top, his back resting on the cold stone below before he gasped out.

"You were not supposed to help me." He said, a wry smile barely managing to cross his face. Jonathan wearily smiled back, the breathing mask proving more challenging now that his lungs had been pressured for three days.

"Apologies, but that is one rule I would not follow."

Caesar closed his eyes, attempting to relax before he shot up straight, eyes wide.

"Master!" he yelled out, jumping to his tired feet and looking around the empty tower "Master, Jojo can't possibly make it through with his level of hamon! Shut off the oil, please!"

With no sign of his master and no response, he looked over the edge of the pillar, trying to see any sign of Joseph.

"I know he's the type to try and break through without thinking it over at first! If he tries, then he'll be cut to ribbons!" he yelled, once again looking around for his master as Jonathan looked down the edge with him "Even if he doesn't, he'll still fall eighteen meters back down, that'll kill him if the oil doesn't!"

Jonathan was about to announce his intentions to jump back down before he heard a yell from his grandson come from down below.

"Cut finely, the beat of my hamon!"

Caesar's heart sunk when he heard these words, the distant sound of the oil briefly colliding with something only making it worse.

"Jojo!" he screamed.

"Joseph!" Jonathan yelled, running to the edge and preparing to jump down before he was stopped by a gentle hand on his shoulder that administered a small hamon shock to him, stopping his every movement in half a second. Caesar looked up and gasped.

"Master!"

Lisa Lisa smiled over to him and silently pointed her finger to the west, making the young Zeppeli turn his head so fast that it would have screwed his spine out of his body.

He saw an exhausted Joseph hanging on the outer wall of the pillar, cheering both him and Jonathan up instantly.

"That lucky fool." Caesar muttered under his breath, smiling all the while.

"But how did he do that? Did the water launch him away when he tried to break through?" Jonathan asked, recovering from the nerve numbing shock from his new master. Lisa Lisa giggled as she watched the mask wearing trickster slowly making his way up the wall.

"It may have looked like luck was on his side, but everything he did was calculated down to the last detail."

Caesar and Jonathan both looked bewildered by this and looked at Joseph climbing, noticing that not only was he past the barrier, but he was also three meters above it!

"How did he get sent flying that far?" Caesar inquired.

"He did not get sent flying; he slid along the barrier with his hamon. The oil loses its momentum the farther it sprays and he knew this, so he used the momentum he had built up to flip over the barrier. This let him clear it while also gaining three meters!" she said, amazing both Caesar and Jonathan "It's astounding, nobody has ever used such a clever tactic to clear the oil like that. He used his weakness to his advantage."

Jonathan smile down at his grandson . While he disapproved of his attitude at times, he could not deny that the boy was more clever than he could hope to be.

"I can say the same for you, Jonathan Joestar. I have never seen anyone power through the barrier like that. Caesar's method is the most common way I've seen people cross it." She said, smiling at the gentle giant. He smiled back and grabbed his shoulder, popping his neck afterward.

"Thank you Lisa Lisa, I hope to learn more from you as the month goes by."

The brown haired woman's smile widened more than she wanted it to at that statement.

"Oh no, Jojo!" Caesar yelled, getting up and rushing over to the edge where Joseph was barely hanging on, Jonathan and Lisa Lisa following close behind.

"Damn it, I think my hamon is about to…" Joseph grunted, his arms and legs shaking from exhaustion as his hamon slowly began to fade from his fingers "I can't get my breathing under control!"

His heart and stomach jumped when he felt the last of his hamon dissipate, causing him to let go of the wall. Before his short life could continue to flash before his eyes, his hand was suddenly grabbed, making him open his eyes to see that it was none other than Caesar with his grandfather close behind.

"Caesar!"

""Hang on, Jojo!" the Italian blonde said back, proceeding to try and pull Joseph up before he turned and looked at Lisa Lisa "Sorry master, I know I wasn't supposed to try and help him."

The woman stared at him silently before giggling.

"It's alright Caesar, but aren't you tired as well?"

This reminder of his current condition seemed to sap almost all his strength in an instant, making him gulp.

"Oh, I forgot."

"Caesar, don't you dare let go!" Joseph yelled frantically, sighing in relief when he saw Jonathan lay beside Caesar and grab his arm as well.

"I'm drained as well, but we may be able to pull him up together." Jonathan said, Caesar nodding in response.

After five seconds of Joseph continually screaming for them not to drop him eight times in a row, he was finally pulled to safety by the two men.

Pillar cleared in: Sixty one hours, nine minutes.

Twenty-six days till the rings dissolve.