Chapter 15

With Ivy's and Veyle's groups

DIO's hand which Kagetsu was still holding started to move on its own. The sudden movement caused Kagetsu to drop the hand which alarmed everyone. Zelkov quickly threw a dagger at the hand and pinned it to the ground. "That surprised me," said Kagetsu, shocked at the hand being able to move on its own.

Ivy looked pale. "I-I-is i-it… possessed?" Ivy asked timidly with her fear of ghosts and the occult showing.

Griss laughed "Wonderful, I've never seen anything like it! Just what is this guy!?" the tattooed man said with excitement in his voice. Griss had a sinister smirk on his face as he watched the hand try to struggle under the knife. "I want to meet this 'strong guy' . He gets more interesting by the minute. Is he even human?"

Mauvier shook his head to shake off his surprise and had a very rational thought "I don't know what this man is, but do you think his hand is trying to return to him?" said the normally quiet man.

Zephia adopted a thinking pose "You do raise an interesting point, maybe we can use it to track him, but before that we should remove the ring from his finger." Kagetsu quickly knelt down as if on que and moved to remove the ring. The fingers curled up in defiance but Kagetsu was able to pry them open and take the ring. Kagetsu held the ring in his hand and looked over to Ivy, but when Zephia held her hand open the man looked hesitant. "Give it here," Zephia commanded. Kagetsu looked over to Ivy and when the princess nodded, the samurai walked over to Zephia and put it in her hand.

Zephia moved to hand over the ring to Veyle but the girl interrupted her "Keep it, or give it to one of your 'children' you are the most elite soldiers in all of Elusia. I was going to give it to you anyway."

Zephia looked down at the ring in deep thought then turned to look at Hortensia who had been just standing silently to the side, just looking at her feet. "Hortensia , dear, which ring is more powerful. This one? Or the other one the intruder had?" Zephia asked in a sweet yet slightly intimidating voice.

Hortensia looked up at the ring and noticed it was the ring she had earlier. Hortensia thought for a moment before responding "I think the other one is stronger. He used it to defeat an entire room of soldiers in the blink of an eye."

"Is that so? Well then, I'll wait until we have that one in our possession. I need the strongest ring to defend my Hounds." Zephia said, thinking out loud. The white-haired woman looked over to the other three hounds. "Quickly decide among yourselves who gets it." Zephia told them.

Mauvier turned away from them which caused Griss to laugh. "I guess Mauvier doesn't want it. Okay, Marnie, I'll tell you what." Griss said as he walked over to the hand pinned to the ground, pulled out the knife and firmly grasped it in his hand. "I get to keep this, and you get to hold onto the ring."

Marni looked disgusted "What do you want that for?" she asked as Griss began picking at it with the dagger that was just used to pin it.

"I happen to have a new fascination with this intruder. I want to be the one to find him, no matter what. Plus this hand is amazing! A hand that moves by itself, so cool." said Griss as he made a pretty big hole in the hand. Griss quickly pulls out a chain and feeds it through the hand before he pulls out a tome. Griss smirks before he makes a small but powerful flame that he used to weld together the two ends of the chain. "Done!" Griss screams proudly as he puts his new necklace around his neck.

Hortensia and Marni looked squeamish at this. Hortensia spoke up first "That isn't cute at all!" complained the princess and Marni quickly agreed. Griss didn't care much about their opinions as he just watched as the wound he created started to slowly heal around the chain.

"Quit wasting time and find the intruder!" Veyle shouted.

"Yeah, yeah" Griss said before he smirked and ran off in a random direction, Ivy screamed at him "Hold on, He's weak against fire magic!" Griss looked back briefly before he smirked and continued dashing off.

Marni looked annoyed "That idiot! He ran off with the hand. How are we supposed to track him now?"

Zephia looked entertained "Let him be. There's no proof that that thing can track our intruder. We'd cover my ground by splitting up, anyway."

Veyle sucked her teeth "You're far too lenient on him. This isn't a game." the small girl said with her arms folded.

"Allow me to accompany you Lady Veyle" said Mauvier as he knelt down in front of her. "I'll be your shield if we come across him."

Veyle thought about the offer for a moment and figured that Mauvier would be useless on his own since he can't use tomes anyway. So he might as well be her shield in case the intruder caught her off guard so she can torch him with Magician's Red.

Veyle agreed and the two went off in another direction while Zephia went off on her own, saying she'll alert the guards to comb the palace. All that was left were Marni, Ivy and Ivy's retainers. "One of you princesses are coming with me. I can't use fire magic." said Marni as Hortensia looked devastated that she'd have to be apart from her sister.

"But… you have the ring." Hortensia tried to argue

"A ring that I don't even know how to use!" Marni shot back.

"You just say, the fool. It's easy. Well now that you know I'll be heading off, with big sis." said Hortensia as she grabbed onto her sister's arm, prepared to run off.

Marni grabbed Hortensia's shoulder "Is that so? You did say you used to have one of these. I'm taking you with me to help me learn how to use it." Marni said before Ivy attempted to speak up but was quickly silenced by a deadly glare by Marni. "Don't try to talk back to me before I inform your father." She said before Ivy relented.

Hortensia hung her head in defeat as she followed Marni. Ivy looked at her sister's retreating form before she turned to her retainers. "Let's go find him." she said as Kagetsu and Zelkov nodded. Ivy clasped her hands together and prayed in her head Divine Dragon, Alear, please give us strength to find and defeat this man.

The trio went to search in the infirmary; assuming the intruder would seek medical supplies. Just as the three were outside the door of the infirmary Kagetsu spoke up "Do you think Griss was onto something? Could our intruder be something other than human?"

Ivy's face lost color "You m-mean something like a zombie or a g-g-g-ghost?" the purple haired woman asked.

Kagetsu opened the door and the infirmary was pitch black. "It's possible…"

"D-don't be ridiculous like some ridiculous ghost story? Those are just works of fiction." Ivy frantically responded as she entered the dark room together with her retainers. Zelkov found a lantern and lit it. Ivy caught a glimpse of Zelkov's dimly lit face in the darkness and screamed in fear. "AAAHHHHHHH!" She screamed as she jumped backwards into the arms of a skeleton that was usually on display in the room for reference and decoration. Ivy passed out when she felt the skeleton's arms wrap around her.

Zelkov sighed "Is my face really that frightening?" the man said as Kagetsu snickered. Zelkov handed the lantern to Kagetsu before walking over to Ivy and began to shake her awake. "Lady Ivy, wake up. I'm afraid we don't have time to waste here." After some time Ivy awakened. "Ah, awake at last."

Ivy awakened to see Zelkov over her. She looked around and saw that there were several torches lit and the room was no longer dark. Ivy sighed " This is embarrassing…"

Zelkov bowed before her. "No need to worry, we've already combed the infirmary. No medical supplies are missing and it looks like the intruder hasn't been here. What are your orders?"

"Maybe they escaped outside. If so, then they could not have gone far in the snow." Ivy sighed again, attempting to move the situation out of the infirmary.

"Understood my lady." Zelkov stood to exit.

Present Day

Diamant clears his throat "I do apologize for interrupting, Lady Ivy, but what was that part in the infirmary really necessary?"

Ivy looked embarrassed and let out a nervous giggle. " I may have gone into a bit too much detail…"

Polnareff interrupted her "Also how did you know what DIO was doing at the time?"

Ivy looked downwards "That part was just when I assumed that happened. Because of what happened the following day…" Ivy trailed down as she continued the story.

The day after the search for DIO began

Ivy, along with her retainers, continued to search for DIO when several soldiers started screaming.

"Everyone to the throne room!"

"It's the intruder!"

"Help he's too strong"

Ivy and her retainers rushed to the scene. As they ran through the halls they saw the corpses of multiple soldiers on the ground. The copper-like scent of blood was in the air, it made the Elusian Princess feel sick. Ivy started hearing screams of soldiers as they were cut down. "We're getting closer, prepare yourselves" Ivy said to her retainers as they reached the throne room. Ivy's eyes turned wide as she saw the sight before her. DIO was pinning her father, Hyacinth, against the wall with one hand and sunk his teeth into his neck.

Hyacinth screamed in agony "You… monster…" Hyacinth said weakly as his skin began to become wrinkled as his essence was being absorbed by DIO. The sight of the life disappearing from her father's eyes left Ivy in a state of shock. This image of DIO draining her father with the corpses of dozens of Elusian soldiers scattered across the throne room was embedded in her mind.

DIO dropped the king to the ground and looked to the side to see Ivy's shocked expression. DIO smirked "If it isn't the Elusian princess and her underlings. You're too late however. Breakfast just ended, though I could go for seconds." DIO licked his lips as he stared at Ivy's neck.

Kagetsu grew angered and rushed at DIO. Suddenly, DIO's lost hand grew back and grabbed Kagetsu's blade with his hand. This shocked Kagetsu "what? This is impossible! You weren't this strong before!" DIO laughed as Kagetsu tried his hardest to pull his sword free from DIO's grasp but it was fruitless. DIO simply picked up Kagetsu by his sword and tossed him to the side.

"Kagetsu!" screamed Ivy as Kagetsu went flying into a wall with an impact so hard that cracks appeared in the wall.

"Get behind me, Lady Ivy!" shouted Zelkov as he jumped in front of her and threw some daggers at him. Zelkov was shocked when DIO let himself be hit by them and was unfazed. The knives were slowly pushed out of the Vampire's body and the wounds quickly healed.

"Get down Zelkov!" shouted Ivy as she shot a large fireball at DIO. The vampire didn't move at all as the fireball moved towards him. The fireball collided with DIO who appeared to be injured and fell to one knee, but the wounds healed at an incredibly fast. DIO stood back up and was fully healed in a matter of seconds.

"How I have missed this feeling, I feel 100 years younger." DIO joked to himself as he saw the dismay on the faces of his opposition. "I see you look confused about my 'power-up'. However, I'm in a good mood so I'll explain it and why you'll never be able to defeat me now" DIO said in an eloquent tone. Kagetsu rushed at DIO again but the Blond didnt even bother blocking it this time before he grabbed Kagetsu by his throat with one hand and lifted him into the air. "How rude."

"Kagetsu!" shouted Ivy as she readied a fireball but Zelkov stopped her.

DIO noticed this and looked towards Ivy and Zelkov but did not let go of Kagetsu. DIO began talking "After our last encounter I came across this castle's library so I did some reading to understand your world." DIO began as Kagetsu continued to struggle. DIO smirked as he continued his tale "I learned that this country worships the Fell Dragon and that the blood from a member of a royal family could revive it. It made me curious about just what made your blood so precious. Just what special properties could it possibly have?" DIO questioned as Kagetsu began flailing more frantically in DIO's grasp.

"Please release him. I beg of you! He can't breathe" Ivy begged before she looked to Zelkov "let go of me Zelkov!"

DIO loosened his grip long enough for Kagetsu to take in a breath before he tightened it again. " It wouldn't be fun if he died before he finds out what he's up against." DIO said before he continued "I checked everything I could find until I stumbled on a tale in this world's equivalent of the bible. One day a man fell from the sky who had extraordinary powers. They say he could create armor out of nothing and he could soar through the skies like a bird." Upon hearing those abilities, realization appeared on Ivy's and Zelkov's faces… there was only one being like this they could think of, but that person was regarded as a myth. Meanwhile Kagetsu started trying to dig his fingernails into DIO's arms. DIO grew annoyed by this and pierced Kagetsu's skin with the tips of his fingers. As he did this veins began to bulge around the entry point.

Kagetsu began screaming louder as DIO continued " The Artist depictions, his personality, his abilities… the more I read about that man the more he seemed similar to someone I read about from my world. According to that 'bible' all four royal families across this continent are descendants of his. He's even listed in the family tree of the Elusian royal family. He was known as many things… according to the bible: 'The holy one', 'God', 'the ultimate lifeform' etc. I admit it was tough locating his name but when I did, I knew he was that person from my world." Kagetsu began to grow weak in DIO's hand. "That person I refer to is someone that I found out about in the diary of a German soldier known as Stroheim. I discovered that 'that man' was my benefactor that created the stone mask I received my powers from. I began to wonder if even in this body I received from my rival Jonathan Joestar would I be able to unlock the abilities I had 100 years ago if I consumed the blood of his descendants. The descendants of… Kars." DIO said simply as Kagetsu became motionless as he died at that moment.

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A/N: I know been a long time since I updated... The friend I was making this for was going through some things so I put a hold on the fic for a while, plus wasn't really getting a lot of attention anyway. Was keeping a fast release schedule for a while but now... they'll just release when they release.