DISCLAIMER: I do not own JoJo's bizarre adventure or Rising of the shield hero
Dio felt a hard surface on his back instead of being suspended mid-air, it seemed he was lying down.
"Odd, I don't recall getting on the bed," Dio thought, eyes closed. He then opened them to discover that he was laying in a park with a colorful and whimsical design.
Dio looked around and slowly got up into a somewhat defensive stance.
"THE WORLD! Come forth!" Dio internally called out to his stand, but received no response.
"I-impossible!" Dio felt as beads of sweat began forming on his face.
*BARK! BARK! BARK!*
Suddenly three huge dogs jumped out of a few bushes barking and growling towards Dio.
"Dogs. I hate dogs," Dio mentally prepared himself for an annoying encounter.
Raphtalia woke up to a bright sun shining on the tall grass surrounding her.
"Huh? Dio!? Dio!?" Raphtalia panicked, calling out for the one man she thought she could trust.
"D-did he l-l-leave me?" Raphtalia began to tremble at the thought, but tried to remain calm remembering Dio's words,
'I will never leave you, in fact I will make you the greatest demihuman to ever live'. Dio's words echoed in her mind, giving her the confidence to get up and analyze her surroundings. She focused and looked around, then in the distance she could make out a building that suddenly collapsed. Raphtalia smiled.
"There is only one person I know that strong," Raphtalia said in excitement as she began running towards the destruction. She could practically feel the powerful blows as she ran further, until...
*RUSTLE RUSTLE*
She heard something behind her and soon noticed that the grass was taller in a specific area, this alerted her and prepared her for what came next. A gigantic balloon monster, maybe ten meters in diameter, bounced into the air with its mouth wide open. Raphtalia instinctively ducked to the right, evading the razor-sharp jaws of death. The monster then hit the ground she was standing on, creating a fitting crater before bouncing back into the air.
"I've never seen one that big. What do I do?" Raphtalia panicked before collecting her thoughts and reaching for her dagger that she had slept with.
"Come on, Raphtalia, you have to stand and fight so you can save Dio!"
THE WORLD materialized suddenly within Dio's room.
"Huh? Dio!? What's wrong!?" THE WORLD asked in concern as he searched the room.
"Dio? Dio?" THE WORLD turned to see that Dio was sound asleep and Raphtalia snoring.
"That's odd, very odd?" THE WORLD scanned the room one more time and noticed that the door was unlocked. He looked on the ground and immediately threw a punch at the curtain.
"Aww, you found me!" A doll jumped out from the curtains just in time.
"You saw my shadow in the moonlight didn't you, smarty pants?" The doll hung from the ceiling, holding a butcher's knife.
"Wait! How are you awake?! DEATH 16 should be keeping you asleep, no fair!" The doll complained while pointing the blade at THE WORLD.
"So, that is why Dio is still asleep, its a stand ability. Fine then, I shall destroy this one first and then find this 'DEATH 16'," THE WORLD got into a offensive boxing stance.
"You stupid beefcake, you really want to hit me, fine, go for it!" The doll lunged towards THE WORLD.
"Its coming at me so willingly. It must be sure I won't be able to hurt it. Hm, I'll see for myself!" THE WORLD then went all out on the doll, building-leveling power unleashed in multiple blows while keeping Dio and Raphtalia in consideration.
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!" THE WORLD shouted.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!" The doll laughed.
THE WORLD ended the barrage by launching the doll through the window. However, this had seemingly no effect as the doll just jumped back into the room.
"Did I forget to mention that blunt force doesn't hurt me!"
*SIGH* "Of course it doesn't," THE WORLD prepared himself for an annoying battle.
"WRYYYYYY!" Dio screamed in pain as his arm was eaten off by two of the dogs while one ate at his neck. He was currently half buried underneath rubble from a tower that was near the park.
"Get off me, you filthy animals!" Dio shouted as he activated his Space Ripper Stingy Eyes(SRSE) and blasted away the two dogs that ate his arm. Dio stood up and used his remaining arm to grab the dog at his neck. He pulled it off with his head slightly dangling from his neck, spewing vampiric blood everywhere.
"I HATE DOGS!"
The dogs quickly got up and attacked Dio with full force, and it had felt as if they had gotten stronger and healed from Dio's attacks.
"I can't win against dogs! I feel so...useless. I need THE WORLD!" Dio began panicking with bullets of sweat running down his face as he healed.
The dogs proceeded to tank everything that Dio threw at them and jumped onto him, biting huge chunks out of his body, at some point, Dio stopped resisting and fell to the ground.
"Maybe, I deserve this. For being so useless. No, I can't die here, not like this," Dio's fingers scraped the ground as he grabbed a handful of grass blades.
"It could not have been all for nothing. All the things I've done, all the people I've met, all the preparation and planning, was it all useless? Dio held the grass tightly and sucked the moisture from them.
"Dying with such regret, its unbelievable. I am Dio. I am the one who dreams further than all others, I am the one who creates and destroys, I am the savior of those in need," Dio clenched the now stiff blades of grass that stuck out from the grip of his fist.
"I was born for greatness. Why else am I alive in this world? Only I can do what no other man dares, only I can lead this world into an era of light, I, DIO!"
Dio punched one of the dogs straight in the jaw with the blades which cut through the dog like warm butter. The dog was stunned and backed up, Dio then proceeded to fire SRSE and decapitate the dog. Its head perfectly flew in the air and hit the dog on his back. Dio grabbed that dog by the neck and dug his fingers into its veins, sucking every drop of blood until the dog was nothing but a dry husk. Dio's wounds completely healed and all his power was replenished. He turned his attention to the final dog. The dog attempted to run, but Dio used his incredible speed to catch it.
"Let's see if dogs can fly?" Dio jumped several hundred meters in the air and began plummeting to the ground with the dog stuck in his grasp. As they drew closer to the ground, creating a massive fireball, the dog concentrated its eyes and fired an attack similar to SRSE. Dio laughed as he tanked the full brunt of it to his face.
"What is a dog compared to a human, nay, a vampire! Useless, useless, useless, useless, USELESS!"
The two forms crashed into the ground, turning the entire park into ash. Smoke enveloped the area and Dio's figure came out, with his body on fire, third-degree burns all across his body. Dio's clothes were completely burned off his body, with the exception of his pants that now reached until his knees.
"This feeling! Its exhilarating!" Dio began laughing in delight, having thoroughly enjoyed slaughtering those dogs. His body slowly regenerated his missing matter as he arched his back at a 90 degree angle with outstretched arms and laughed maniacally.
"Wait! What the fuck!?" Dio finally noticed that the sun is still out and his armor was destroyed, and yet he was still alive.
"That, that is just impossible," Dio deadpanned.
"Nothing's impossible in a dream."
*BOOM*
Raphtalia gasped in shock at the sight of a large explosion.
"Dio!" Raphtalia was distracted long enough for the balloon creature to bite her tail.
"NYAA!" Raphtalia screamed in pain, quickly withdrawing her tail from the creatures rubbery jaws. She jumped away and landed within deep grass, hidden away from the creature. Raphtalia laid in the grass in fear, anticipating the creature's next move. She breathed heavily, exhausted from having to keep up with the creature, barely escaping death each time.
"I...have to...get...to Dio," she whispered between several pants. Raphtalia then considered her options and looked toward her dagger.
"If I can just stab it while its falling, it might pop," Raphtalia was relying on the slim chance that that would work. The only problem being she would need to know exactly when and where it would land. Such precision was near impossible.
"Its just like Dio said, I need to focus, I need to act not react," Despite her conviction, her body trembled and shook with fear.
Raphtalia gripped her blade firmly, frozen in place. As she stood, she could feel powerful impacts far away. She knew that it must be Dio, fighting for his life. But what could she do? A child with no special abilities. Her entire life has proven that she is useless. Raphtalia began to panic, her grip faltering, she felt cold and shivered. Her body went limp and her temperature dropped tremendously. All biological processes in her body slowed down to a near stop. This state was not that different from death. She had admitted defeat. The creature suddenly felt her presence disappear and believed that it had won. It settled down and seemed to...fall asleep. Raphtalia saw this and became infuriated.
"It's mocking me? It thinks I'm as good as dead. A balloon monster?" Raphtalia could already hear what Dio would have to say about that. This lit a fire in her heart as her body went into overdrive, her body became hypersensitive.
"Hey! I'm right here!" She stood up out of the grass. She stared the creature down with ferocity. The creature stared back and the two had a stand-off.
*BOOM*
The two created sonic booms as they left the ground meeting in the air, Raphtalia held a firm grip and steady aim even while travelling through the air like a bullet, but in truth it was the opposite, her body produced a great amount of air resistance and her hair was pulled by an intense force of gravity, allowing her to control her movement by tilting her head, then combine this with her positioning of her blade which allowed it to cut through the air without drag. All of these factors contributed to an ability only her kind could possess, gliding. In actuality, Raphtalia never intended to clash with the monster mid-air, her plan was to get it to follow a predictable path.
"There's no way I could have predicted the path it chose, there were just way too many, so I forced it into a specific one!"
Just as the two were to collide, Raphtalia used all the strength her body could muster to move out of the creature's way as its jaws just barely missed her. She landed quicker than the beast, giving her ample time to complete her trap. She then lined up her blade with the spot she wanted the knife to land on.
Random Narrator
"While this may seem odd to the usual viewer, this was clearly a classic trap strategy. Raphtalia had used her sensitive sense of touch and quickly understood the soil she stood on before enacting her plan. As a child she always enjoyed playing on grassy open fields. And she gained some experience when it came to geology because of it.
Raphtalia flung her knife perfectly into the ground where the monster would soon land. The knife was firmly planted in the ground as the soil hardened due to exposure to the sun. That! was the true key to her plan. The soil that she felt was clay soil, which is soft when wet and rock hard when hot. Due to the tall grass blocking the sun, the soil was able to stay soft, but now that Raphtalia moved the grass with her movement, it only took moments for the soil to harden, thus holding the blade straight up. The creature only had seconds to realize what was going on before...
*POP!*
The rubbery insides of the creature blew up with a large pop that shifted the grass and created a clear path towards where Dio was located.
"I'm coming, Dio!"
Raphtalia ran, following the path without any further questions.
"Heeheehee. Here we go!"
THE WORLD hovered baffled by this tiny doll's invincibility, it tanked all of his attacks with no damage. But while THE WORLD thought of a solution, several of his body parts suddenly blew off.
"!" THE WORLD was left open as the doll attempted to slash him to pieces.
"TIME! STOP!" THE WORLD spoke powerfully, halting the flow of time and saving himself from receiving more injuries. He began picking up his detached arm and considered his options.
"This doll must be stuffed with cotton which is an excellent shock absorber. Combine that with the intense stand energy I'm sensing, my current state cannot even faze it."
THE WORLD examined the doll further and continued his analysis.
"It is definitely acting independently, but its user is likely not far, since it would be foolish not to confirm the kill afterwards. Same applies to DEATH 16," As THE WORLD spoke, he could feel some of his power and speed drain and the color of his body fade.
"Dio must be trapped in a controlled mental prison, DEATH 16 is likely trying to destroy his will. I must find the user before its too late."
Time resumed and the doll completely missed THE WORLD, landing on the floor.
"Come on, using cheap tricks already?!" The doll made a bored expression.
"I am beginning to really dislike this stand."
The doll suddenly threw the butcher's knife, and as it travelled, it spun. THE WORLD attempted to catch the knife, but it slit his palm and continued its trajectory. THE WORLD quickly turned to witness as the knife hit Raphtalia's hip.
"Raphtalia!" THE WORLD focused his attention on Raphtalia, and as he approached her, he noticed the blade bounced off Raphtalia's hip.
"Hm!?" Before THE WORLD could ponder what just happened, the doll jumped on his back, and bit into THE WORLD. Inconveniently, Dio's injuries at the hands of the dogs reflected onto THE WORLD. THE WORLD felt as weak as a lamb to the slaughter.
"Dio! Don't falter, whatever you are experiencing, real or not, is nothing to a god in the making!"
THE WORLD tried to get this DEVIL (that sounds about right) off of him, he whirled around wildly, eventually coming to stand in the moonlight. THE DEVIL was now facing the bright moon light, this blinded it for a split second. Approximately 0.000058 seconds, ample time for a stand such as THE WORLD, who used this opportunity to focus on stopping time.
"Time! Obey me!"
"It is time you meet your match," THE WORLD grabbed Raphtalia's blade and threw it, the blade progressively slowed down until it stopped an inch in front of THE DEVIL.
"Proceed!"
The blade stabbed THE DEVIL and planted the doll against the wall. THE DEVIL began to panic with its weakness now discovered.
"I might consider letting you live if you tell me where I can find DEATH 16's user."
"You stupid or something? Just 'cause ya beat me don't mean you've won. I was only here to make sure Dio died, DEATH 16 is the true threat."
"Then you shall die a painful death!"
"Don't act like you weren't gonna kill me anyways! As long as Dio dies, fine by me!" The doll confidently said, unfazed by the prospect of death.
"Grr!" THE WORLD clenched his teeth and stopped time once more. He pulled the blade out of the doll's body, leaving THE DEVIL still against the wall. THE WORLD threw the blade again, but this time aimed at a different spot on THE DEVIL's body. Time stop ended and the doll was stabbed again.
"Gah!" THE DEVIL exclaimed, having felt the pain. THE WORLD stared down the doll with a blank expression, something the stand was known for.
"No matter what you do, I won't spill the beans!"
THE WORLD's expression changed ever so slightly, his pupils became slightly smaller.
"This is not an interrogation, it is an execution."
THE WORLD proceeded to spam time-stop and do the same thing over and over again, the doll's screams became more horrific each time until they completely stopped, but THE WORLD didn't.
"No one shall threaten Dio and live, NO ONE!"
What stood before Dio was a spectral being, more so than any stand he had encountered before. The stand was a large skeleton hidden within a dark cloak, a large hood obscuring its skull-like face, the holes where eyes were meant to be possessed a red glow. On top of the cloak was a black and white checkered sash. Two skeletal arms on the right side of its body were present while the left side of its body was concealed by a red side cape. A large crooked scythe hovered next to the entity, imposing a feeling of dread upon all who gazed upon the metal of the blade.
"You must be the one responsible for all this madness. Honestly, I'm impressed. Your ability is quite interesting. I cannot begin to imagine the possibilities at hand, likely infinite. It's a shame that such power is going to waste," Dio, instead of showing anger, stated his astonishment for the scythe wielder's power.
"Funny. You said that to me once before, around ten years ago in our universe."
"Are you aware that I've lost my memory. I was under the impression your leader did not know."
"Well, after seeing what your greatest flaw was, I figured you were not the same mentally as the man I met all those years ago."
"My greatest flaw? Is that what those dogs were. A representation of my short comings. That means I've surpassed them!"
An evil grin appeared on Dio's face, he was evolving, for better or worse.
"Aish! I'll have to introduce myself then. My current name is D-E-A-T-H 13+3!"
"DEATH 16 then?"
"When you say it like that it sounds boring," DEATH 16 complained, a little dejected. Dio's good mood was ruined by the childish display.
"I assume you've come to kill me, so let's not waste anymore of my time."
"For a guy who can stop time. You really are impatient."
The two generated hostile auras towards each other, both of them trying to read the other's next move, neither of them willing to attack first.
"DIO!" Raphtalia ran into the scene and screamed out to Dio without giving DEATH 16 any attention.
Dio looked confused, worried, interested, scared and relieved all at the same time when he saw Raphtalia who stopped in her tracks when she saw this.
"What's wrong, Dio?"
"You've grown!"
Raphtalia looked down and felt that the ground was a lot further away than usual. She appeared as though she had aged ten years. Her clothes barely fit, having completely torn in the middle, resulting in her appearing as if she wore a two-piece that exposed her legs up to her thighs and her abs.
"She must have gone through the same thing I did. I've heard of children becoming mentally older after experiencing trauma, thus this dream world must be visualizing that phenomenon," Dio tried to make sense of the situation, but even with that explanation, he still couldn't believe his eyes. Raphtalia smiled when she realized this.
"Now I'll be stronger, right!" Raphtalia exclaimed with joy.
"I suppose," Dio said unsure of what the ramifications of this were. Raphtalia's eyes became wide with excitement.
"That means we can work together, and definitely kick that thing's butt," She pointed at DEATH 16 without a change in tone or expression, not even looking at the stand either. DEATH 16 stayed silent and lifted his two visible open palms into the air.
"True despair."
These next few moments infuriated Dio more than anything that could have possibly happened. The remains of the three dogs came together and reformed them, and that is not where it ends either. The three dogs then came together and formed one singular dog with three heads. While Dio was infuriated, Raphtaila's mood completely changed, a dark shadow cast over her aura as she stood frozen in place.
"Raphtalia, what's wrong?" Dio questioned.
"That's...that's the monster that killed my parents," Raphtalia spoke quietly and slowly, breathing deeply.
The beast lunged forward and nearly hit Raphtalia, but Dio swiftly covered the distance and bodied the beast out of the way, keeping it away from Raphtalia.
"Not again!" Dio screamed as he fought against the dog beast. Although there was a struggle to be had, Dio could now hold his own, but when he saw that Raphtalia had barely moved, he acted as though he was on the verge of losing, even giving up his arm to be more convincing.
"Forgive me."
Raphtalia could hear the battle behind her and memories of a certain event replayed in her mind over and over again. It was torturous to experience this a second time, even with everything she has learned. Her parents died saving her and Dio will die saving her. Was the purpose of her existence simply to relive the same day until her life ends. If she had more power, maybe then she could have saved them, save him and save everyone. She remembered what Dio had said about good people, that they had to be cherished. Her parents taught her the same thing. That must be evidence that there is more to her existence, a purpose that surpassed any evil, a power that defeats any monster. She reached deep within herself for that selfless courage to protect the innocent and pay back the sacrifices made for her. She gave her soul, body and mind to this power and in exchange, she would be able to make the world into a peaceful, everlasting heaven where such unfairness and evil did not exist. This power carried an infinite malice towards evil. Raphtalia's pupils dilated as this power took control, her body gaining a strong athletic build and her height rivaling Dio's. It only took approximately 0.000003 seconds for the dog beast's heads to be completely missing without a trace. A feat Raphtalia achieved with one punch against an enemy that Dio needed full power and regeneration to beat.
"I'll do it! I can no longer wait for others to. I WILL DO IT!"
In that moment Dio realized that Raphtalia had become the real deal. Exactly what he was aiming for with her training. The nature of fear: fear is the natural warning signal that forces one to realize their limitations and escape from a possibly deadly situation. Will is when one can challenge this instinct and remove their own limitations, physical or mental. Raphtalia has achieved a state even Dio strives for, a state of fearlessness.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? I CANNOT BEGIN TO EXPLAIN HOW BULLSHIT THAT IS!"
DEATH 16 became afraid from the display, no one across the universes, had ever defeated TRUE DISPAIR, not even himself.
"Dio, let's give it hell," She spoke with the authority and power of an archangel. Dio smiled.
"Let us show it why we are number one."
The duo then posed back to back. Dio's back turned as he gazed over his shoulder, his Joestar birthmark visible, and Raphtalia's body faced the side, looking towards the sky while the tips of her fingers touched her face, her other hand was stuck out towards DEATH 16, one leg bended. The fight has begun.
After several minutes, THE WORLD finally calmed down and focused on the task at hand, leaving the doll in tatters. He flew out of Dio's room, fazing through the wall and searching the halls, all while moving as a ghost subtly interacting with the physical world. He checked room to room for any suspicious activity, specifically someone awake. As he haunted the halls and rooms, he discovered a long trail of blood, he followed it and found the corpse of THE DEVIL's user laid outside the door into the inn.
"It seems he wanted to escape, but his wounds were too great," THE WORLD then returned to his search, one question hovering in his mind.
"Was our battle really that quiet? Several people should have awoken. Unless...this DEATH 16 has enough range to capture the entire inn to ensure their plan was not interrupted," THE WORLD could only theorize and speculate with no hope of truly knowing. Eventually he returned to Dio's room, looking for answers.
"Perhaps I could simply kill everyone. No, what am I even saying."
As his mind went mad with possibilities, he felt his color return with even more vibrancy. This meant that THE WORLD had become more powerful as Dio's mental strength greatly contributed to his control with THE WORLD. At the same time, a smile appeared on Dio's face in his deep slumber. THE WORLD then came to a conclusion.
"Likely due to his vampire physiology, Dio still has very limited sub-conscious control over his body," THE WORLD guessed correctly as no one else in the building made any movement. Wait?
THE WORLD had figured out a way to find the stand user.
"Two-on-one! How's that fair!"
The two didn't respond and charged in side by side, getting into the scythe's range.
"LALI-HO!"
The scythe cut through the air so efficiently that it left a vacuum, so when Raphtalia and Dio attempted dodging by jumping in opposite directions, they were pulled back as DEATH 16 pulled back for another swing. Dio then manipulated his muscles to hold on to his bones tightly, breaking them to bend his body to evade the swing. Raphtalia kicked the back of the blade with her instep, using its momentum to send it flying over her head. This move shifted DEATH 16's balance. Dio capitalized and jumped into a front flip, executing the Do Mawashi Kaiten Geri. DEATH 16 fazed threw the move however, so when Dio landed, instead of using his fore arm, he punched the earth beneath him, launching him in the air in a forward spin, executing a 720 degree horizontal spinning kick, hitting DEATH 16 four times before returning to a defensive stance by leaping away.
"I broke my leg with each kick, I had to heal rapidly, yet I still feel the pain. It's as if all the force I threw at him had no effect, like a human punching a brick wall."
Dio needed time to heal so he nodded to Raphtalia, signaling for her to go on the offensive, following his example. She advanced in front of Dio, mimicking a karate cat stance. She then surprisingly began tapping her feet on the ground repeatedly, she did this so quickly and vigorously that a dust cloud was formed. She used it as cover as she dragged her feet closer to DEATH 16, adjusting a few degrees to the left. This hunch was spot on as DEATH 16 made a downward slash to strike the ground directly in front of him. With the scythe inches away from touching the ground, Raphtalia launched a high axe kick to the stand's face. And her foot twisted gruesomely.
"AAH!" Raphtalia screamed, using her fine leg to return to Dio's side. She shook with pain, but stood firmly on one leg.
"So how did you expect to hurt a stand without a stand?"
"What?!" Raphtalia thought they were fighting a demon.
"That is incorrect, I squashed CASTLE OF BLACK underneath my feet and he disappeared," Dio calmly spoke with curiosity.
"You think you squashed him? His stand disappeared because he died from having his limbs blown off," DEATH 16 explained.
"His limbs must have been equivalent to the dragonfly's wings. Was THE WORLD aware of this!?" Dio pondered, very much concerned.
"What do we do now?" Raphtalia asked.
"We'll have to survive until THE WORLD can figure out where the stand user is."
"How do you expect your stand to do that?" DEATH 16 wanted to laugh at how stupid that plan was.
"Oh, as a side effect of amnesia, my stand inherited some of my deeply integrated memories, making him sentient," Dio basically flexed as he spoke.
"WHAT! WTF, seriously!? I'll have to do this killing thing myself!" DEATH 16 was going to throw a tantrum with all this nonsense happening.
"How did you plan to kill us, anyways? Wouldn't we just wake up?" Raphtalia asked.
"What the fuck do you think a dream is!? Your mind doesn't just think about random bullshit! Your mind and soul are directly transported outside the physical dimension."
"Hm!? The multiverse! This could be important to my mission!" Dio became interested in DEATH 16's words.
"And dreaming allows you to go outside infinity to a personal pocket dimension that is tethered to your body. Since my stand is bound to my dreams, I can trap people in my dreamscape and destroy their will. Once I do that, I can control their bodies like puppets while their soul stays captive forever," DEATH 16 explained in order to allow Raphtalia and Dio to understand the seriousness of the situation.
"That's just cruel! Why would you want to do such a thing to someone else!" Raphtalia responded with rage and resentment.
"Because I could only interact with people in my own universe. Well, until a very generous lady gave my stand an upgrade, so I killed this universe's equivalent of my DNA and took his body to fuck with the dreams of people in this universe, like you!"
"Who could have possibly informed you which universe I was in!?" Dio could not contain his confusion.
"Maybe I said too much. Well, bottom line is, you die in my dreamscape, you die in the real world!"
"I will defeat you and save all the souls you've collected," Raphtalia stood firmly on both feet having treated and bandaged her injury with a piece of her clothing.
"Hahahahaha, you sound serious for a standless kid. Remember, this is my dream," The entire atmosphere became darker and more serious as the earth beneath them shook wildly.
"What's happening Dio!" Raphtalia questioned.
"I'm not sure, but hold on!" Dio advised, his feet dug into the ground.
The world began to shift and twist to the point that it seemed that the world had shrunk until it was the size of a marble, leaving Raphtalia and Dio to float in space. DEATH 16 held the entire world between his thumb and index finger. Space was oddly lukewarm instead of freezing cold. There was also air, honestly it didn't seem like space at all other than the black background with stars. Raphtalia aimlessly drifted, wildly flailing her arms to control her movement, but to no avail.
"Raphtalia! Expand your center of gravity! Breathing adds air between your blood cells, focus your breathing to maximize blood flow and pressure to distribute mass across your whole body!" Dio advised Raphtalia as he kept his balance, controlling his movement. Raphtalia nodded, taking a few seconds to get the hang of it, but still needing a lot of focus to maintain it.
"I like marbles, especially space ones," DEATH 16 said this before flicking the earth at Dio.
"You want THE WORLD, there you go!" Dio dodged it at the last millisecond and it flew past him and it hit Mars. The two planetary bodies bounced off each other and continued to ricochet off the other planets. Raphtalia and Dio had to evade them as they picked up more speed and power with each collision.
"I can't keep this up much longer!" Raphtalia shouted over to Dio while nearly being hit by Saturn and Neptune due to losing her balance.
"Don't worry, we'll need to work together on this, follow my lead!" Dio drifted over to Raphtalia and grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to him.
"Focus your movements, be aware of each of your muscles, I'll help you control your center of gravity and you can help me keep up with the rhythm," Dio was teaching Raphtalia on the fly.
"What rhythm?" Raphtalia curiously asked Dio with a puzzled expression.
"Why of course, the rhythm of the universe!"
Dio planned to put his dancing skills to use. Swing dance was the style they would use, Dio leading Raphtalia smoothly while avoiding a web of constant ricocheting planets. They performed athletic movements similar to the style. The two soon became so in tune that they could close their eyes and still use the beat of the eight colliding celestial bodies to evade them.
"You forgot Pluto," DEATH 16 laughed maniacally and flicked the tiny marble labeled as Pluto.
"What's Pluto?"
"It is not even a planet."
Both reactions to this meant nothing as the planet flew at lightning speed, and only Raphtalia could react in time.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Dio cursed at the top of his lungs; Dio's top half separated from his bottom by the tiny projectile.
"Ooh, hot potato!" DEATH 16 threw the sun at Raphtalia.
Raphtalia stood firmly, enraged by Dio's injury, not moving an inch. She glared at the sun and the hot ball of energy's momentum was used to steer it as Raphtalia moved like a liquid, allowing the sun to flow down her body until it reached her foot, then she threw a kick at a speed of Mach 971, more than four times faster than THE WORLD's best current record. This was meant to hit DEATH 16 directly in the eye, but the sun fazed through his face, showing the clear problem with attacking a stand with physical attacks.
"Hahahahahahahahaha!" Dio laughed with excitement. If only she kept this power when they wake up. He would love to fight this Raphtalia, and this wasn't even her peak! Raphtalia, on the other hand, was completely worn out, having almost no understanding of her own power, she recklessly used more than necessary to launch that attack. She was too tired to manage her blood flow and began drifting off in the web of planets.
"Raphtalia, focus!" Dio shouted while trying to reach his lower half as it drifted away.
Raphtalia could barely keep her self conscious! She had to think of something fast.
"If you hit me with more force than I can handle, it'll just faze through me," DEATH 16 gloated.
That's when Raphtalia did something unexpected: she breathed in as much air as possible, and held her breath for less than half a second before facing the distant starry background of space.
"What is she doing."
Raphtalia released the pressure built up in her chest, rocketing her back within DEATH 16's range. Raphtalia used her momentum and maneuvered around the stand. DEATH 16 nervously turned his head and met the angry, yet still face of Raphtalia.
"My foot hurts, so I'm going to use a blade."
"Oh...shit."
Raphtalia pulled out her dagger and quickly began slashing and stabbing DEATH 16, all of her attacks fazing through him.
"Perhaps I wasn't allowing her to find her own style. She is much more efficient with a blade, though judging from her posture, a longer blade is more her style. However, that won't work on DEATH 16, she must be buying me time to come up with something. Hm, I suppose there is one thing I could do," Dio had seemingly calmed down and was now nonchalant about the situation. He had planned to finish this himself, but it seems that is not an option.
"It's up to THE WORLD now," Dio admitted defeat in the face of DEATH 16. He used his powerful fingertip grip and clawed a message into the flesh of his other arm.
Fire, a lot of fire, more fire, very hot fire: was all the baby controlled by DEATH 16 could think about. The smoky atmosphere clouded the room and the baby was forced to inhale the thick smoke. This clogged the baby's breathing organs, causing the natural response of coughing to expel the deadly substance.
"!" DEATH 16 looked around the room, but could only see smoke as his eyes became watery.
"THE WORLD must have started a fire to lure me out!" DEATH 16 was helpless in this state and would soon lose his only key to this universe if nothing was done.
"Fuck me! I need to release the people in the inn so they can get me out of here," DEATH 16 thought in frustration. All this planning gone to waste because of stupid memory loss. As he released the people he could feel his body start slipping in and out of consciousness. At some point, DEATH 16 blacked out for a few seconds. Luckily for him, five adults rushed in the room. They removed him from the room and treated him. As he was in the presence of the adults, DEATH 16 found out that there was no fire, only smoke from burnt books. But DEATH 16 did not give it much thought and quickly re-entered the dreamscape.
"Luckily, I don't have to be asleep to access it."
DEATH 16 re-entered the dreamscape where he left it when he was blacking out.
"Now, where were-"
"MUDA!"
THE WORLD's punch was so strong it created cracks in the skull of DEATH 16.
"I-impossible!" DEATH 16 bent over and held his face. He subtly commanded his scythe to strike THE WORLD.
"MUDA!"
THE WORLD punched through the blade, shattering it into a million pieces, this caused all the planets to vanish. He then stopped time.
*TEMPUS EST MEUM*
Suddenly all the broken shards of metal from the scythe were pointed at DEATH 16 and accelerated towards him all at once. The shards hit DEATH 16 across his body, well actually cloak. The cloak was torn to shreds and revealed the true body of DEATH 16. It was a floating skull attached to a spine with extremely long and sharp spines along with a ribcage that had a padlock and chains covering what was inside.
"Just as I thought, the stand is bound to his dreamscape so his stand is his dreamscape! Destroy the ribcage to free the captive souls!" Dio said with a completely healed body while casually floating.
"I still don't know what a stand is!" Raphtalia, now returned to normal, complained to Dio without any tension or worry.
"Am I a joke to you!" DEATH 16 became upset and recklessly used the two skeletal arms revolving around his body as projectiles fired at Raphtalia and Dio. Dio laid back, sighing with boredom.
"THE WORLD," Dio said unenthusiastically.
*TEMPUS EST MEUM*
The arms were reduced to ash before they even travelled halfway. DEATH 16 could see where this was going and decided leaving now would be smart.
"You have better odds in here than out there, trust me," Dio grinned evilly.
DEATH 16 scoffed and began preparing an ultimate attack.
"ABSOLUTE CONTROL: ANNIHALATION!"
All the stars in the universe all began coming together at incalculable speeds, colliding and forming a much bigger body. The mere process of creating this caused unfathomable amounts of energy to burst out in all directions, prompting THE WORLD to shield Raphtalia and Dio. The great mass of energy concentrated in front of DEATH 16's mouth, all this energy in one spot resulted in one thing.
"A black hole. Interesting," Dio rubbed his chin, wondering how that would interact with time-stop.
"I'll kill you, Dio, and regain the dignity I lost all those years ago!" DEATH 16 remembered his reasons for doing all of this and lamented if it was all worth it in the end. It was too late to go back however as the newborn black hole was formed. DEATH 16 launched the black hole with his mouth.
"LALI-HO!"
The black hole grew in size as it spun with a bright ring of light that ripped space-time. Dio and THE WORLD propelled in opposition to the black hole. Dio could feel the intense gravity as he and THE WORLD drew nearer to it, and as expected from the sudden rise in gravity, space itself bent around the void. Dio felt the black hole attempt to pull him into the event horizon, but he resisted the pull with all his might.
"TIME! IS! MINE!"
Dio declared at the top of his lungs. Time stopped as Dio reached the ring of the black hole. Time ticked away in Dio's head while he flew through the black hole. Dio always believed that within stopped time, the acceleration of gravity was completely halted, however while he was correct on that part, there was more to it.
"One...two? Three! Four!"
Dio soon pieced together the full extent of gravity's control within his world. While gravity's effect on him is null, as he moves, he imposes his own gravitational field upon space around him. This would mean that manipulating gravity around Dio, will have the effect of manipulating the strength of his own field. In this case, the gravity around Dio is stronger, making stopped time flow much slower than normal from his perspective.
"Five...six...seven...eight."
Dio counted on, genuinely hoping that time resumes. He could recall that at the center of a black hole, time and space are stretched to infinity! He would be either trapped in his world or pulled apart by the gravity.
"THE WORLD."
"Yes, Dio."
"We must escape this black hole before time resumes. How far until we have left its effective range?"
THE WORLD used his analytical abilities to calculate the distance needed for them to be safe from the black hole.
"Approximately...300 kilometers."
"We won't make it at this rate."
"We've already maximized our speed."
Dio thought of a way to traverse faster.
"Not exactly."
Dio waited for time to continue its flow. He felt gravity pull on him, and Dio allowed himself to be sucked in as he travelled, going in a spiral. As gravity became stronger, Dio's descent into the black hole became faster. When he was on the verge of being lost forever, Dio completed full revolutions and he ended up facing the direction he previously travelled.
"THE UNIVERSE BENDS THE KNEE IN THE MIGHT OF DIO!"
Time was forced to obey Dio's will, allowing him to escape the swirl of the void by being launched straight out at 0.1% light speed. It would only take a second for Dio to escape completely. As time resumed after an appropriate two seconds, Dio and THE WORLD's fists appeared before DEATH 16.
"Huh!?"
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!"
The stand and vampire launched multiple punches at DEATH 16's ribcage. This shook the very foundation of the dream world, tearing it apart. Many souls escaped DEATH 16's cage and returned to their bodies. Most were already dead, so they were able to rest in peace. DEATH 16 witnessed this as his body was destroyed.
"Ten years. My entire life ended in ten fucking years. I should have listened to that man all those years ago."
DEATH 16 said his last words as the dreamscape crumbled to nothing, culminating in everyone waking up.
Raphtalia and Dio woke up in their room while there was a loud ruckus outside. A baby could be heard crying at the top of his lungs. Within the room however, there was a dreadful silence between the two.
"I-it was...the only way," Dio attempted to justify his actions.
"He...was...the same...age...as me?" Raphtalia spoke vacantly, her expression of horror unchanging.
"I didn't know. If I had known...I..."
From there, Dio paused, for even Dio, as egotistical and devious as he may seem at times, could not bare the weight of killing a child. How far would he go if child murder was acceptable. Raphtalia shook as tears fell from her eyes, the guilt overwhelming her. Dio sat on the edge of the bed, contemplating all of this in complete stoic silence. Raphtalia could see he wasn't allowing himself to feel it, likely still trying to justify it in his head. She sat next to Dio, looked into his eyes...and hugged him. And for the first time, Dio allowed himself to be weak in front of someone, to confide in the comfort of someone else being there with him. He returned the hug passionately.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."