"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!!!"
A torrential storm of fists descended on the small, agile frame before him.
But no matter the intensity of the onslaught, Kid Goku moved with a fluid, animalistic grace that allowed him to evade every strike.
'He suddenly became so much stronger!'
Subaru's warning echoed in his mind. He knew he couldn't allow the man to touch him, so he dedicated his entire focus to evasion.
The [Power Pole] he had relied on for so long had vanished the instant it brushed against the vampire. Goku knew that if his own body were touched, he would likely suffer the same fate.
The boy's mind was simple and direct, which allowed him to perceive the immediate danger with a clarity that others lacked.
'Let's try that...'
Goku recalled a technique mentioned in one of the books Subaru had shown him earlier. He analyzed the description of the movement and prepared to replicate it.
In a single, fluid motion, he pivoted off a balcony railing and dove toward the lower floors of the hospital.
Like an agile mongoose retreating into a burrow, he vanished into the interior of the building.
"Hmm?!"
DIO was momentarily halted by the maneuver. He wasn't about to squeeze his massive, divine frame through a ventilation shaft or a narrow doorway just to give chase.
K-CHAK!
[The World Over Heaven] reached out and touched the building's exterior. In a single second, the entire hospital wing simply ceased to exist, [Overwritten] into nonexistence.
"Waaaaah?!"
Suddenly losing his footing, Goku fell through the air and landed heavily on the ground below.
But his instincts were sharper than ever. He rolled as he hit the concrete and sprang back to his feet in a second.
"The house is gone! You really are a monster!"
Goku looked around at the empty space where the building had been, then turned his gaze toward the hovering form of DIO.
"Hmph. I don't know what those children are planning, but I have no intention of dragging this out."
"I need to settle this immediately."
DIO showed no interest in a prolonged duel. He reached out and touched his own chest once again, [Overwriting] his capabilities to push his output even higher.
The spiritual energy he had harvested from [Saber], Yoshikage Kira, [Berserker], and Okuyasu was still pulsing within him, providing an ample reservoir for his reality-altering power.
Goku pulled his hands back toward his waist, a distinctive posture that caught DIO's interest.
"Hah!"
WHOOSH!!!
A massive wave of air pressure, invisible but carrying a physical weight that rivaled a locomotive, erupted from Goku's palm-strike.
Caught off guard by the sheer atmospheric force, DIO was sent hurtling backward, lost for a moment as his stabilization was disrupted.
'This brat!'
The attack wasn't just physical force; it was a concentrated propulsion of "Ki."
From what DIO could gather, it was a manipulation of life energy that rivaled the output of a Stand. The raw power behind the "Kiai" was enough to bypass his natural defense.
"The next strike will be your end!"
DIO made his decree, his voice dropping to a low, ominous boom as he stabilized himself in the air.
***
"You're saying DIO has reached 'Heaven'?"
"[The World Over Heaven] possesses the ability to [Overwrite] reality itself?"
"And if Jotaro-san were here... he might be able to surpass him and take him down?"
Subaru had offered a concise, hurried explanation of the situation, but the survivors were still struggling to digest the implications.
"I know it sounds like a bad fanfiction, but you've seen what he's doing. You know I'm telling the truth."
Subaru offered his reply with a sense of grim finality. He didn't have the time to convince them; they either followed his lead or they were all going to die.
"He's right."
"If he has the power to overwrite the Truth, it explains why my temporal restoration and Okuyasu's erasure were ignored. And why [Berserker]'s reflection failed."
"It also explains how he systematically eliminated them both in an instant."
Amber chose to validate Subaru's theory. As a Master of time, she could sense the fundamental disruption in the world's logic.
"Wait, wait, wait. This is crazy."
"This means that even if we successfully reset the timeline, he would simply ignore the change?"
Josuke was the first to realize the tactical nightmare they were facing.
"Exactly. If he commands the Truth of the world, he exists outside the flow of temporal causality. He would remain in his Heaven form while we reset back to our previous states."
"In that scenario... he could just kill us all before we even realized what happened."
Koichi offered his own, analytical assessment of the disaster.
"However..."
Rohan rubbed his chin, forced to set aside his suspicion of the newcomer.
Whatever Subaru's source was, it was clear he understood the enemy. And in a battle against a god, information was their only weapon.
But the solution Subaru proposed carried its own weight of despair.
"Jotaro-san died this morning..."
"WHAT?!!"
Subaru's eyes widened in shock. That wasn't how the script was supposed to go.
"DIO apparently manipulated [Saber] into carrying out the assassination. We only received the news a few hours ago."
"..."
The news left Subaru with a film of cold sweat on his forehead.
"Wait... if that's the case, we have to reset to a point BEFORE Jotaro's death."
"The risk is astronomical. Except for me and Assassin, everyone else would lose their memories of this encounter."
"If DIO remains unaffected by the reset, he could systematically eliminate us before we can even warn Jotaro."
Rohan weighed the options, his expression one of intense inner conflict.
They weren't at a dead end yet,Kid Goku was still fighting,but if [Lancer] fell, a temporal reset would be their only remaining gambit.
And even then, the odds were heavily against them. If DIO realized what they were doing, he would simply [Overwrite] the fact of the reset.
"It's a checkmate..."
Subaru felt the weight of his own signature ability,[Return by Death],but he didn't dare to rely on it.
If DIO could [Overwrite] reality, he might be able to negate even the authority of the Witch of Envy. If Subaru died, there was a very real chance he would stay dead.
He glanced at the mental link on his wrist, connecting him to his other allies.
'Miyu, Homura... don't come any closer.'
'Why?'
'The situation here is a disaster. I can't explain it properly right now, but for your own safety... stay away from the hospital.'
Subaru used the link provided by their Stand-connection to send the warning. Then he turned his focus back to the battle.
***
"Puny! Puny!!"
Ignoring the atmospheric shockwaves, DIO closed the distance and landed directly in front of Kid Goku.
He launched a flurry of punches that forced the boy into a desperate defensive roll.
"Captured you!"
[The World Over Heaven]'s massive, white hand reached out and locked around Goku's throat, pinning him to the ground with overwhelming force.
"Guuuh!"
Goku's breath was cut off, but his eyes remained clear. He instinctively began to gather every scrap of Ki within his body.
"Hmm?"
DIO watched as the boy pulled his hands back toward his waist, a distinctive Blue light beginning to pulse between his palms.
"HAH!!"
BOOM!!!
In the exact instant before he would have been absorbed into light, Goku unleashed a phenomenal, concentrated pillar of blue energy.
"Ugh... WRAAAAAARGH!!!"
DIO was swallowed by the radiance, his entire frame caught in the path of the beam as he was propelled upward like a rocket.
The blue wave carved through the atmosphere, heading toward the clouds.
K-BOOM!!!
A massive, circular shockwave erupted in the high altitude above Morioh, the sound of the explosion resonating for miles. The sky was stained a brief, brilliant azure.
Subaru watched the spectacle from below, a look of recognition and hope on his face.
"Goku... he actually did it."
He knew exactly what that light represented. It was the legendary technique of the Turtle Hermit.
The [Kamehameha]!
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]