Chapter 8: 8: The deal that ruined the World.
"Sunlight Yellow Overdrive!" shouted Jonathan, his body covered in golden sparks that allowed him to perform a rather inhuman action.
His fists slammed into the zombie Bruford, pushing him into a pile of other zombies, all destroyed by the remaining Hamon. On the verge of death, Bruford looked at Jonathan with joy in his eyes.
"That was the best fight I've ever had, you deserve to keep my sword..." the zombie pointed with his cracked hand at the weapon beside him, the sword engraved with the letters 'Luck', like a silent blessing for the bearer.
"Alright, now rest in peace," Jonathan muttered, tapping Bruford's head with his foot, knocking him out completely.
Jojo looked down at the hole in the ground where Dio and Selene had disappeared, worried for his companion. He didn't know what kind of power could allow a creature to do so much damage, but he hoped his friend was all right.
The battle had started ten minutes ago, but even though they were outnumbered by a large crowd of zombies, the Hamon warriors were able to overcome them easily, except for a few special ones like Tarkus or Bruford, the others were a piece of cake.
Jonathan and Bruford quickly teamed up in a battle where their fighting spirits converged and they were even able to understand each other. In a way, this fight served as a transition for Jojo, turning him into a true knight.
Jojo held the sword and wrote a 'P' on it with his blood, changing its name from Luck to Pluck. With this weapon, which felt quite good in his hand, Jonathan was able to cut down the excessive amount of zombies in the area.
But when he went to help Zeppeli fight Tarkus, he felt a strange pain in his heart, a heartbreaking sensation that made him fall to his knees, clutching his chest.
Worst of all, this symptom was repeated in Zeppeli and Speedwagon, who were watching the fight from behind some rocks. Not only them but also Erina, who was waiting for Jojo's return, felt this deep pain in her heart.
'What is this pain?' was all Jonathan could think, he couldn't even speak and his breathing had stopped completely, but strangely the zombies didn't approach him, they just watched him from a distance.
"You have been affected by a terrible curse," Tonpetty said as he examined Zeppeli, taking advantage of the fact that the zombie Tarkus seemed uninterested in finishing the fight and had even moved away.
"Master, do you think this was the work of that vampire?" asked Straizo, who had approached Jonathan to use his Hamon to ease his pain.
But the beads of sweat trickling down the man's forehead, as well as his pained expression and trembling body, suggested that his attempts were at best a faint relief.
[Hint: You killed Erina Pendleton.]
[You have drastically changed the direction of this world by assassinating a key element of this world's future, you have gained 5% of the world's source.]
[Hint: You have assassinated Sherlock Holmes.]
[The Hunter's talent: Orb of Essence has been activated.]
[You have obtained: Essence of the Lady (White)
[You have obtained: Detective's Essence (White)
Selene, seeing these messages appear in front of her pupils, narrowed her eyes to half moons and a sinister smile appeared on her lips, now all she had to do was get rid of the Hamon warriors to get even more benefits from this world.
After all, all the contractors, especially the ones from the Reincarnation Paradise, are lunatics with lobster instincts, who go from world to world regardless of the consequences, and as long as you don't break the rules of Paradise, Paradise doesn't care if you blow up an offshoot world.
Selene was already prepared for this step, knowing it was her only way to gain power quickly. Yes, she could choose other less bloody ways, but they were slow, and she had only one goal, to survive.
She was still in the world created by Dio after he had ripped a 'chunk' out of the original world. In front of her were about four red crystal crosses of smaller size, comparable to the gold cross she wore over her nun's habit.
Each cross seemed to encircle a strand of hair from the victims it targeted, and just as the death notices appeared, two of those crosses turned black, and Selene felt that there was additional information in her mind that made her eyes sparkle.
"I wasn't expecting such a benefit... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Selene started to laugh as she used her mind palace to organize what she had received.
Nothing more and nothing less than fragments of the lives she had taken! They weren't many, and they weren't detailed, but they focused on what her victims remembered most.
Of course, this didn't mean that she could use this method to obtain techniques or anything like that from her enemies, but they were a valuable resource.
Because they allowed her to alter her 'aura', hide deep, and give false signs of herself, anyone trying to divine her or curse her would find that she was only focusing on a false shell, even though she had to hold the appropriate cross.
Holding the black cross that represented Erina, Selene's aura changed from dark and twisted to one full of warmth, but with a slightly regal bearing, which meant one thing: she had truly emulated the blonde's general feeling.
She even felt that it went much better with her interest in disguising herself as a nun, maybe some guy with strange habits would find her interesting and let his guard down, or be attracted to her because of it, which could be beneficial in a way if she played her cards right.
Dio, watching Selene's strange methods from the sidelines, sensed this strange change in her, and his mind couldn't help but travel back in time to the day he stole a kiss from Jojo's girlfriend in an attempt to destroy his self-esteem even more.
Sure, he suffered a setback and even made Jonathan find the courage to fight him for the first time, leaving him with a strong impression of this boy who seemed weak at first. Remembering his childhood in this way, where he had to use tactics because of his lack of strength, he glared at Selene.
'If it weren't for this deal...' Dio thought, feeling that even if he created a customized world, it would be too much with Selene, but at least he was making the best of it.
From the moment they arrived in this room, they both recognized each other's difficulties and openly declared their intentions. Dio was a little surprised at first, he hadn't expected Selene to want to kill with her own hands the people who seemed to be her friends.
But this made him feel a certain connection with the girl, they were both the same type of person, both manipulative hypocrites capable of doing anything for their motives, he didn't know hers, but he'd had his clear since he was a child.
Transcend. Transcend his class, transcend his education, even transcend his humanity. Now he wanted to transcend his vampiric state, which was strong but had weaknesses he hated.
He did not want to be a night rat, it reminded him of his past weakness as a human, having to hide. No, he wanted to be superior to what he already was, he wanted to be the ultimate creature, and his new power told him that Selene had the solution for that.
"Okay, I already helped you by creating a channel for your curse to flow out, now tell me what I want," Dio demanded with some fear in his tone, how could he not be afraid?
Ever since his power first stole a piece of the world, he has blinded his fate, drowning in the sea while trying to snatch Jonathan's body, something that certainly did not please him.
In fact, since this event, his mind seemed to have lost the veil that obscured his already astute intellect, realizing that his vampiric body seemed to be increasing certain tendencies in him, diverting him from his original purpose.
Before Selene was Dio Brando, not Dio the Vampire or DIO, but the young man who could kill a dog and burn it in front of its owner, just to break the dog's mind and get a chance at his inheritance.
"It's easy, transcend the source of your power, vampires are just servants of higher beings, just like zombies are your servants. They are asleep now, but in a few years, they will awaken to seek the same as you.
Get the stone mask with the hole in the forehead and seek the Red Stone of Aja in the hands of the Hamon warriors, with your power to steal the world, it will be a piece of cake. Then let the sun itself illuminate the mask as you wear it with the gem set inside.
If you wish to seek more power than you will receive when this happens, you can explore a ritual that uses your power, which I call Stand, as its core.
Not only will you have the perfect body, you will also have the perfect soul, a god of this world, if you want to create something in your image and likeness, you can do it," Selene's words echoed in the void, shocking Dio deeply.
Selene didn't care what this man did with this derivative world, nor if Paradise would recycle this continuity or if it would be used in the future to make the poor people who entered it suffer, even if Dio himself could transcend his limitations and come to an agreement with the Park, but she didn't care about any of that.
Because more than just surviving, her being longed for chaos, for everything to go haywire, and what better way than to give Dio the steps to become a being like Kars mixed with his Heaven Ascension version?
"You're not lying, this world tells me you're not... so it looks like I have a lot to do and study," Dio said, shaking from the pure excitement he felt.
He felt for the first time that his path was more than clear at this point, he was anxious to get started, but he had to do his part. Dio Brando could be many things, but one thing George Joestar had taught him was to keep an agreement, even if there was no trust between him and Selene, an agreement had to be kept.
He might be a beast, but if he was already making more than enough profit, why not do his duty? Besides, the woman before him would take care of his troublesome enemies, so it was another addition, added to the drama of betrayal, Dio seemed eager to see the play that would take place.
[You have given vital information to the being known as Dio Brando, thereby altering the predicted future of this world and causing a great deviation from it. You have obtained 10% of the world's source.]
[You have severely damaged the protagonist of this world.]
[Your actions have attracted the attention of this world's Will.]
[The World Will $$@%&$@$@%$$/$ error, reevaluating]
[The Hunter is under the cover of an emulated aura, in addition to being in another dimension adjacent to this world, the World Will cannot access you directly].
[First Level Boundary Thunder (derivative world) has lost track of you, World Will has decided to curse you].
[Evaluate... your bloodline, Lunar Sprout, has swallowed the curse of the World Will].
[Charm +1]
[Your ability to curse has been recognized as a new passive ability due to the consumption of a higher-level curse, some details have been changed].
[Your Moonwalker profession has included this passive in the template for compatibility.]
[Primary Curse Lvl Max: The curse techniques in your lineage have been completed to a certain level and are now free for you to learn and explore. Your curses have a slight dark fatalistic effect (this skill can only be improved by the hunter herself, each improvement will lead to new aspects)].
While all these messages were coming in, Selene and Dio heard a scream of deep pain, followed by thunder that threatened to fall, but then all was quiet again.
Looking outside, they noticed that all of London seemed to be covered in black clouds, with occasional flashes of golden lightning, but these soon dissipated.
Strangely, only Jonathan felt that something was wrong, but the pain in his body only increased and black blood came out of his mouth. Inside his body, the remnant of Hamon was trying to heal the damage he had suffered, but he could not fight whatever had affected his body.
At this point, Jonathan only remembered the despair he felt as a child when Dio came into his life, perhaps what he was about to experience would soon make that experience seem like child's play.