Darth Kars shifted, and the space next to him melted.
Black could literally see the textures making up the dimension within the Forest Vault becoming liquid.
The laws themselves were getting ripped apart!
Bolts of golden lightning were snaking out of Darth Kars, covering the entire Forest Vault.
His long, wild hair was flailing so mightily that the tiny horns he carried on his head, as part of his Pillar Men Inheritance, had revealed themselves as well.
His entire bronze-skinned body was pulsating between different hues of white, almost like a metallic sun, his bloody pupils planted dead forward…
Black felt the gaze on him and frowned.
This… shouldn't have happened.
From beginning to end, he had made sure that it wouldn't come to this.
Yet, for the first time, the Conspirer of Fate seemed to have unwillingly helped someone surpass their limits?
And the greatest matter of shock was that it had happened right in front of his eyes.
First, the fusion of concepts itself was almost impossible, no matter what kind of epiphany Darth Kars had experienced, Black knew.
In Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, a Ripple, more commonly known as Hamon, was an energy used in the ancient form of martial arts. Through self-controlled respiration, a trained person could produce an energy manifesting as ripples throughout their body, which was identical to the energy of the Sun.
It was similar to Haki from One Piece Bubble, but… much less versatile.
In fact, after studying it thoroughly, the AI had found it to be closest to the Breathing Arts of Demon Slayer. Of course, in that case, Ripple was much more profound than the Breathing Arts themselves.
However, because of the Sun-like properties of Ripple and the fact that all the Breathing Styles had been derived from Sun Breathing Style, Hinokami Kagura, the Ad Infinitum had been dedicating a great chunk of its processing power to find a feasible way to fuse these two concepts.
Not only would it help Kai's personal Hashira-Demons in his Verse Fusion timeline grow stronger, but it would also allow them to push past their limits once he had fused other timelines, turning Verse Fusion into a proper Bubble.
But, for the same reason, such a fusion was not practical when it came to pairing Ripple with Force.
It was like combining a Breathing Style with Armament, or even Conqueror, Haki.
Even approaching such a fusion would require centuries' worth of effort, requiring one to solve countless variables.
And such a fusion should have been an even bigger impossibility when it came to Darth Kars because of one simple fact.
The Pillar Men couldn't use Ripple.
For them to use this concept, they must wield their Ultimate Form, which Darth Kars had yet to obtain clearly.
That must be the reason why he had opted to become a Sith, gaining Force as a secondary weapon.
As one reached the upper boundaries of the 4th Set, and especially when it came to the 5th Set, having a concept that was similar to Haki, Force, and Transparent World was not a choice, but an essential requirement.
As if all these reasons weren't enough to shock Black, then, second — he was the Lucky One — not the Lucky Helping Hand!
It was obvious that Darth Kars shouldn't have succeeded in fusing Ripple and Force.
Even if he had experienced some kind of abnormal, once-in-a-lifetime kind of epiphany, that still meant he had a chance of failure.
Black's Luck should have exaggerated that chance of failure, making it the only result possible.
Or, at least, that was what his Lucky Intuitions kept telling him.
Which meant, not only had Darth Kars done the impossible, he had been lucky enough to do so in Black's presence.
Which meant, unlike Black Ghost, who had no way to counter Kai's Luck, and Mang Jian, who had refused to use the Bunny's Foot to do the same, Darth Kars had already used the counter provided to him by the Hyperspace Raiders.
Which, in turn, meant that everything from the beginning that happened, happened in Darth Kars' favor!
And, looking back, a small percentage drop in Super Intelligence Ability didn't even seem bad when compared to what he had gained.
Coming to all these conclusions, Black had no choice but to accept the truth.
There still existed forces and items in the Multiverse and Tower that could affect his Luck. Not enough to make him unlucky or make him outright suffer, but enough to make the enemy survive against his conspiracies.
A HUM pervaded the surroundings then.
It wasn't because Black had begun piling up Buffs, but because of the Forest Vault's Bounded Field melting as Darth Kars dug his feet into the ground and pulled back his hand, making a fist.
"Tell me you have a way to survive that!" Venom barked.
Black didn't know the answer himself.
For now, all he could do was to reply to the challenging gaze.
"Retrace…"
So, piling buffs over buffs, becoming a horned and tailed black-skinned demon, Black finally opened his mouth.
"… On!"
A suppressed boom rang out as the Unequippable Buffs also began boosting his Stats, a pool of blood splashing under his feet.
But this… wouldn't be enough.
So, the Demonic Emperor let out a breath.
A red mist began fuming out of Black as he used Selfless Breathing, shattering the nearby space with a crack!
Hidden within the madness, for the first time after attaining the mastery of Ripple-Force fusion, Darth Kars' pupils stirred.
"Are you trying to… fool me again?" he asked, his voice thundering.
Veins throbbed on Darth Kars' entire body, the Force materializing as a red, raging sun around his fist.
Then, pushing the entire Forest Vault back and letting out a wrathful, screeching noise, he shot forward.
CRACKKKKKKKKKKKK!
Thick bolts of yellow lightning snaked, leveling the other half of the Forest Vault.
Taking a stance and letting out a breath to enter the most ideal state, Black shot forward as well.
Ripple Force —
Darth Kars punched, the red sun on his fist collapsing, becoming a Black Hole.
Selfless Breathing: Third Transformation —
Black lifted his foot and brought it down, imagining the scar he had given his father, The Banished.
— Void Fist!
— Recoilless Storm: 15%!!
The punch met the kick…
… and everything ceased to exist with a massive BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
****************
AN: Cinematic Image of collision of Void Fist and Recoilless Storm is available
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