"Lord Dior! Please let us handle this! Leave this guy to us!"
As Dior spoke, a crowd suddenly appeared.
They crawled out of black holes and surrounded Roger from all sides.
Roger swept his gaze around them. Aside from the one he'd seen before—the guy who could vanish and devour others—he didn't recognize a single one.
"They're all your dogs, aren't they, Dior?" Roger said with disdain.
"None of you move. This is a fight between me and him—and he's not my opponent at all."
Dior said that, but what he was really thinking was that he couldn't let anyone touch the World Source.
Because the World Source's transfer rule was simple: as long as any living being killed the original owner of a World Source, that killer would obtain the power of that World Source.
If these damned underlings stole the World Source instead… then what?
That was why Dior knew he had to do it himself.
Besides, even without the ability to stop time, [The World] was still the strongest among all Stands.
These people couldn't beat [The World]—not a single one of them.
If Roger killed them and fully learned the secret of Stands, then Dior would no longer pose any threat to Roger at all.
And it wasn't like Dior had no confidence.
"Get ready to die, Roger."
With that, Dior ordered [The World] to attack Roger.
[The World] was a power-type Stand with both Power and Speed ranked A. The instant Dior gave the command, it charged forward, aiming to smash Roger to the ground with a straight punch.
But relying on instinct, Roger narrowly dodged the blow.
Still, he couldn't see the Stand at all, and that put him at a massive disadvantage.
[The World] was unbelievably fast. Even though Roger's reactions were sharp, he still couldn't evade every punch.
Even if he managed to slip the first strike, and barely avoided the second and third, the fourth and fifth—along with other punches thrown with no pattern at all—were impossible to guard against. In the blink of an eye, Roger was battered flying and crashed to the ground.
Fortunately, with Kaneki Ken's ghoul armor protecting him, he didn't suffer any real damage—but counterattacking was completely out of the question.
Leaning on Kaneki Ken's power, Roger decided to summon a weapon.
A blood-red scythe.
He spun it around himself, sweeping scythe-flourishes outward, refusing to let anyone come close.
Even if he couldn't see Dior's Stand, this move could still seal off everything around him.
But while Dior had his Stand attacking Roger, he wasn't idle himself.
The moment Roger focused on defense, Dior started throwing knives at him.
Roger couldn't fully guard against it. He deflected one knife away, only for a second to come screaming in right after.
Annoying as it was, it also proved something: Dior had no real tricks of his own—his abilities all came from his Stand.
Still, Kaneki Ken warned him that Dior was a vampire, with recovery abilities like a Titan's—twisted, and extreme.
Roger tried to deflect a knife back, aiming to injure Dior.
Sure enough, even though Dior dodged instantly when he saw the knife flying back, the blade still cut across his cheek—yet the wound healed almost immediately.
From that alone, Roger understood: Dior had healing on the same level as his.
But if he wanted to truly kill Dior, he had to use the weapon in his hands.
The problem was, with [The World] defending him, Roger couldn't get close to Dior at all.
"If only I could see that bastard…" Roger thought.
And right then, a beam of golden light dropped from the sky, covering Roger.
At first, Roger thought the Titan Paths had malfunctioned, accidentally draping Titan power over him.
He had never planned to unleash Titan power on the capital's staircase—because above him and below him were his companions. If he forced a transformation here, they would be caught in it, too.
Because of that, he'd practically never used his Titan power at all, essentially abandoning the strength of one World Source.
One-on-one, with only the ghoul world's World Source, he couldn't contend with Dior.
Dior was an old hand at using the World Source.
But as that golden light flashed, something that had been invisible began to take shape around him.
That's right—he could see the Stands now.
And he could see clearly that right in front of him stood a Stand unlike the others: a small giant radiating gold from head to toe, clad in golden armor.
What is this? Roger was curious—but it was undeniably there, standing before him.
And not far ahead, there was the one hailed as the strongest Stand—
[The World].
"From here on, you can leave it to me."
The Stand in front of Roger suddenly spoke.
"Who are you?" Roger asked.
"I was once Porco's Stand—God's Attendant."
"Didn't Porco die? Shouldn't you have disappeared with him?"
"If I were a Stand born from him, then yes, I would have vanished. But in truth… I chose him," God's Attendant said. "I am a single, independent entity. I was born upon my first master. He died long ago… and I've already forgotten his name."
"Then why are you protecting me? We don't even know each other."
"I don't care whether we know each other or not. I only obey the call of the strongest power. That power told me to protect you, and I have no choice but to comply."
"Was it Mr. Torin?" Roger asked. "The only one who could have someone protect me is him."
"No. It wasn't," God's Attendant said. "I can't even figure out where that power comes from. I only know I must do what it says. There's no explaining it—it's more like instinct. Perhaps it's just as my name implies: God's Attendant, a messenger who serves a god. The power I pursue is that god. And when it gives an order, I have no right to resist."
Watching God's Attendant appear and speak those words, Dior only scoffed.
"God or no god, you weak little Stand can't possibly contend with [The World]! [The World] is the strongest Stand! And since you and I are products of the same world, the World Source's rules apply to you as well! Roger can break free of the time-stop's control—but you can't!! So die!"
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