All at once, Ray Chu drove both hands into Santana's body. In the next instant, Santana swelled like an overinflated balloon—then burst apart with a violent pop, blown into fragments.
"W-What?!"
The sudden reversal left Speedwagon—who'd been drowning in despair—gaping.
Ray Chu, having pulled off the unbelievable counter, let out a long breath. A Hamon aura—born from the same source as Joseph's, yet unmistakably his own—began to form inside him, slow and steady.
"Hamon! That's Hamon!" Speedwagon cried, joy surging through his voice. As a comrade of the first JoJo, how could he not recognize that miraculous power? "Thank goodness—so you're a Hamon warrior too!"
In an instant, he thought he understood everything: Ray Chu had Hamon all along but played ordinary; JoJo had cooperated by passing over his last reserves; and once that borrowed Hamon ran out, Santana would be paralyzed—letting Ray Chu flip the board with a single ambush.
But the truth was nothing like what Speedwagon imagined.
This was Ray Chu's first contact with Hamon. The moment Joseph's Hamon entered him, he realized it resembled Ki from the Dragon Ball world—except it carried an extra, special "frequency."
Once he sensed the link between Hamon and Ki, Ray Chu immediately tried to reproduce that frequency. The fight with Santana only accelerated it. And the moment Joseph's transferred Hamon ran dry, Ray Chu's newly born Hamon erupted—dropping Santana in one burst.
And if he hadn't grasped Hamon's secret at the last second, his only remaining option would've been to return to his true form. Presumably, ki in Pikachu form could simulate sunlight too… probably.
"Heh." Joseph slumped against the wall, a relieved smile on his lips. "No, Grandpa Speedwagon. I didn't expect Ray to figure Hamon out that fast, either. Good thing he did—otherwise we'd be monster chow."
Ray Chu shook his head, staring at Santana's body—shattered into pieces, yet still writhing and crawling across the floor. He had to admit it: Pillar Men really were something else. Immortal by nature, with bizarre life traits. His newborn Hamon could hurt Santana, but it couldn't finish him.
In other words, aside from their weakness to sunlight, Pillar Men were close to perfect—an Ultimate Life Form.
For now, though, as long as they dragged the remnants into the sun, they could seal him into petrification completely. And with human technology, one day they might even decipher the secret behind the Pillar Men's immortality.
Then—without warning—a deafening boom shook the world from deep underground. A blast wave of fire tore through the subterranean base, sweeping toward them at terrifying speed.
"Run!" There was no time to think about where it came from. Ray Chu snatched up the badly wounded Joseph and sprinted for the entrance.
"Save Grandpa Speedwagon!"
JoJo shouted, and Ray Chu hooked Speedwagon with his free arm and charged upward. Fire and shockwaves chased them from behind. At the critical moment, faint threads of lightning seemed to flicker under Ray Chu's feet—and he burst out through the entrance by a razor-thin margin.
BOOM!
The three of them tumbled out past the base's perimeter as the underground facility—packed with explosives—collapsed completely. Flames shot into the sky. The ground above was blown open, revealing a vast, black, bottomless crater.
"Damn… it was that Nazi officer—"
Joseph and Speedwagon stared blankly at the smoking ruin. Then they looked at each other and spoke in unison.
That man hadn't run because he was afraid to die. He'd seen the situation was lost and raced back to the control room to trigger the base's self-destruct.
What he hadn't known was that Ray Chu had already brought Santana down. After that, all they needed was to haul the "remains" out into the sun, and it would've been over.
Stroheim's choice, however, introduced a new variable into a battle that had already been decided.
"Did Santana… die?" The three exchanged looks. No human could survive an explosion like that. But with a Pillar Man's terrifying vitality, they couldn't be sure.
Shk!
At that moment, the ruined base collapsed again—and a hand shot up through the rubble. First an arm, then a man in a torn, tattered uniform dragged himself out.
"Stroheim! He's not dead!"
How could a German officer survive a blast of that magnitude—had he been sheltered in some specialized room?
Then Stroheim's face twisted with pain and regret, and he suddenly shouted, "Don't come near me! That thing… Santana is inside my body!!"
"Inside your body?!" The words hit all three like a hammer.
At the same time, Santana—hiding within Stroheim—forced the body to lunge straight at Ray Chu, the greatest threat.
He took two steps—and then his left foot hooked his right. He stumbled, pitched forward, and rolled several times before finally stopping.
"…"
JoJo and Speedwagon stared, speechless.
The next second, Stroheim shakily pushed himself upright. It was as if two different wills were fighting over the same body, wrenching it into grotesque, unnatural poses.
"I'm sorry," he said, voice trembling. "My actions let the Pillar Man escape. I will pay the price for what I've done."
He pulled out a grenade and gripped it tight. He clamped the pin ring between his teeth, sweat pouring down his brow, and yelled at Ray Chu and Joseph, "But before I die, there's information you must hear! We didn't awaken Santana out of mere curiosity. Besides Santana, we also discovered a Pillar Man beneath Rome!"
"W-What?!" The revelation hit like a thunderbolt—there was more than one.
"Years ago, our army began pursuing the mystery of these life-forms called Pillar Men, who sleep in cycles of two thousand years, and the astonishing secret of their power. And with 'that man' and his ambition to rule the world, it's very likely he'll choose to cooperate with such inhuman beings—creating a terrifying immortal army. War will soon sweep across the entire globe."
"I-Impossible!" Speedwagon, the American oil magnate, shouted in disbelief. "How could Pillar Men cooperate with lowly creatures like humans?!"
He didn't want to admit it, but the gap between Pillar Men and humans was like the gap between humans and ants—no, even greater. Would a human ever "cooperate" with an ant?
"If it were before, maybe they wouldn't." Stroheim forced a bitter smile and looked at Ray Chu. "But news from here will soon reach headquarters. And you—who defeated and killed Santana—will absolutely draw the Pillar Men's attention. When mankind betrays the gods, the gods answer with a flood to wipe the world clean… and you are the godslayers who make even gods wary!"
"Godslayers…" Stroheim's words sent a chill through everyone present. Joseph suddenly shouted, "Why?! Why are you telling us all of this?!"
Stroheim didn't answer. He lifted his head and took one last look at the vast blue sky. Then, with a roar—
"Long live the Fatherland! Long live humanity!"
He yanked the pin.
The explosion roared.
---
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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