Within the human body lies an incredible latent ability. Through trial after trial of training, the power it unleashes becomes boundless!
Stand—
Substitution Messenger!
---
"It's already too late! Huo Yuhao! Jodio! I will kill you—ten million times over!"
The Sea God's trident, suffused with divine might and soul energy, bore down on Jodio. One of the Golden Thirteen Spears—No Return—roared to life. Jodio watched the widening surge of golden light before him and felt his breath catch. If he took this blow head-on, he would surely die. But now… the moment had come.
"Now!" blood-soaked Huo Yuhao called out from afar.
"King Crimson!"
With a thunderous leap, Jodio summoned his martial soul. A towering red-and-white humanoid warrior materialized behind him, arms crossed in a defensive stance. Rather than appearing human, this spirit looked demonic—its grimacing visage the polar opposite of Tang San's holy radiance.
"It's been ready all along!"
The ground beneath Jodio cracked as if sliced by some unseen blade, a deafening roar echoing through the sky, dimming even the sun itself. Stars replaced the surroundings. The only landscape around Jodio and Tang San was a fragment of earth suspended in space, surrounded by an endless stellar realm.
"You've fallen for it, Tang San! This is my escape route!"
Jodio's Ninth Soul Ring flared. At that moment, King Crimson's form deepened to a blood-red hue, then shifted again into a new, nobler aspect.
Its grotesque features transformed into a pure white, inverted triangular mask, eyes glowing emerald with no other expression. More of its body turned white, though its bulk remained unchanged. On its chest appeared the "Epitaph" mask, and shredded cloth draped over its shoulders like Diavolo's hair—Jodio resembled a divine judge.
"King Crimson: Requiem!"
"Requiem ability: Ouroboros—Activate—Time Rewind! External Soul Bone ability: Great Temporal Reversal!"
Two divergent forces converged, and Jodio's form shimmered and vanished. A strange energy swept across the world, severing every causal thread tied to him. And thus, before the God King Tang San, he disappeared.
"Tang—San!"
"The day I return will be the day you meet your end!" Jodio's final words echoed in the void, then he was gone.
"Pincer Offensive—Deploy!" Huo Yuhao, stained with blood, grit his teeth and spoke with unwavering resolve.
"I'm counting on you, Jodio!"
---
Jodio Joestar, male, age thirty-five, is a soul master. He lives in a small fortress town on the outskirts of the Xingluo Empire's border provinces. Unmarried, he earns his living by retrieving the bodies of soldiers slain on the front lines of the continent's conflicts. He neither smokes nor drinks, goes to bed at eleven o'clock every night, and insists on a full eight hours of rest. Before sleeping, he drinks hot orange juice and spends twenty minutes cultivating his soul power—ensuring he awakens refreshed. Every healing soul master agrees: he's as healthy as they come.
Yet even someone this "ordinary" must confront Tang San—simply because he aspires to ascend to godhood.
Just as a hungry infant cries out, so too does Haki respond with breath, and Hakiwang, when stressed, must be sent to the Pan… Park. Jodio didn't come into this world to wither alone; he came to advance. To avoid Tang San's notice, he has never involved himself in other disputes, even after surviving twenty years before Huo Yuhao emerged. Only at thirty did he inwardly seek "power" and finally break through. He's been as cautious as possible.
He never colludes with any faction, hunts spirit beasts only in remote regions, and never displays his martial soul's exceptional powers. He avoids both the spirit-beast camp and the protagonists, and even steers clear of the villains to avoid scrutiny. His sole aim: hitch a ride to godhood. You're the great God King Tang San—surely you wouldn't care about a minor god like me, born the same time as Huo Yuhao?
Clearly, Jodio miscalculated. When he first faced his trial, he was crushed by Tang San's assault and nearly killed on the spot. Enraged, he broke his own defenses for the first time—and finally understood why everyone hated this guy so much. Damn, you really treat this place like your backyard, huh? King Crimson at rest, you take me for a rookie?
King Crimson truly lives up to its reputation as a top-tier martial soul—perhaps because it was birthed by a bug arrow. Even using only Time Erasure and Epitaph, it can easily dispatch foes of equal or even higher level. Often, Jodio doesn't even need consecutive Time Erasures. It was an era of unrivaled might—nothing below a god could stand before him.
But Tang San proved shamelessly overpowered. Upon discovering Huo Yuhao inexplicably allied with Jodio, he broke his guard in an instant and beat him mercilessly. Even Jodio's preparation couldn't secure victory. Divine force is a game-breaking phenomenon: even the formidable King Crimson must bow before it. Your Blue Silver Grass soul becomes the Sea God's trident, your Heaven Hammer transforms into the Asura Sword—and you've got two gravity-type soul rings from dumb beasts? Gravity negates Time, okay? There's no way to fight that!
Yet Jodio had one more trick: his Ninth Soul Ring, King Crimson's Requiem ability—Ouroboros Dream. Combined with his external soul bone, Ouroboros Dream grants time-travel, and the external bone provides time reversal. If… if he could…
Reverse ten thousand years back on Douluo Continent and strike at the source of Tang San's timeline!
"King Crimson's third ability: Temporal Pincer Offensive—Activate!"
Time accelerated. Jodio watched the cracked earth and starry sky smooth themselves out. Racing backward along this temporal pathway, he saw the trees rapidly wither, shrink, and revert to saplings. Farmlands turned to sea, deserts to oceans, wind-eroded cliffs rose into mountains—everything flowed backward. The backward surge of time had begun.
After an indeterminate span, Jodio felt the reversal slow. The flow of everything stabilized. Time, it seemed, had retreated to its furthest limit.
---
Douluo Continent, Year 2636, June
"Finally… finally!"
Jodio nearly laughed out loud. He had succeeded—truly succeeded!
"Gigglegiggle!"
"Boss Jodio! Boss Jodio!"
His wristwatch emitted a strange buzzing, then Huo Yuhao's urgent voice crackled through, punctuated by distant battle sounds. Jodio's elation vanished. He knew he must act immediately, not revel in his second life.
"What's happening? Has he gone berserk?" Jodio asked into the communicator.
"Yeah, but our soul-engineering deflection matrix is still holding. For now. Boss, what's your status?"
"It seems my time-travel has been impeded—something divine has intervened, creating a barrier around me. To reduce the barrier, I had no choice but to reverse myself again. Now I'm… six years old, soul power level five." Jodio summoned his insect-arrow martial soul.
"All six soul bones have been reversed away. I still have the external soul bone for time reversal, though. Don't worry—the Temporal Pincer Offensive will execute. Either I die, or he does." Jodio replied calmly.
"Take care of yourself, boss. The future depends on you," Huo Yuhao said.
"We have four more temporal communications. No more unless necessary, to avoid divine detection." Jodio closed the channel.
"It's exhilarating—like slipping into brand-new New Year's undies. Though I've regressed to a kid's level, I, Jodio, belong to victory! Humph, Tang San—"
Jodio sprang up and landed on a nearby tree. He expected to be near the ruins of Old Shrek Academy—if his guess was right, he was indeed at the edge of Shrek Academy.
But something felt off. His six-year-old hands, made delicate by age reversal, were too sensitive. He instantly sensed an inscription carved into the bark—a trap.
"Watch out—on your right."
ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ!
Jodio barely had time to register the warning before a surge of divine force thundered through the reversal conduit toward him. Then a blow struck from the left—false intelligence! He had fallen into a trap!
"King Crimson!"
Instinctively, Jodio reached to summon King Crimson for protection—then realized he was only level five. He couldn't possibly summon King Crimson now. It was like confidently entering a high-school exam only to realize you're actually a college student who's forgotten all the high-school syllabus!
"No time! I'll use whatever I have—Substitution spirit, save my life!"
He drove a golden arrow into his own heart. Agony and suffocation overwhelmed him—then, an infinite wellspring of power.
"Silver Chariot!"
← To Be Continued