Creating Anime In A Fantasy World

Chapter 252: The Premiere of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure! (Part 14)

The moment the scene unfolded on the silver screen, panic flashed across the faces of the audience. None of them had expected the vampiric Dio to be so overwhelmingly powerful. Jonathan was utterly outmatched.

And before anyone could dwell on it further, the movie pressed on, the pace relentless.

“JoJo! Let me savor this power a little longer! Even I don’t know the limits of this strength yet!”

With a single strike, Dio sent Jonathan sprawling to the floor, laughter rumbling darkly from his throat. But when his gaze snapped back, Jonathan had vanished.

“Hiding?” Dio sneered, his voice dripping contempt. “Pointless! I told you, didn’t I? The more a human relies on tricks, the faster he learns that humans are bound by limits. Stop your pitiful struggling!”

He strode forward with arrogant confidence—only to be engulfed by a sudden blaze that roared up before him.

“This isn’t a trick…” Jonathan’s voice rang out through the fire. His silhouette emerged with Speedwagon at his side, his eyes blazing with conviction. “This… is courage!”

The inferno swallowed Dio whole. Yet even as flames consumed his body, the vampire’s flesh knitted back together at terrifying speed. Burnt skin and muscle regenerated as though time itself were reversing.

Jonathan’s expression hardened. He shoved Speedwagon away, forcing him outside the burning mansion. “Go! Leave this to me!”

Alone, he faced Dio amidst the rising flames. Seizing a fallen longsword from the floor, Jonathan planted it like a foothold, vaulting upward to grasp a beam on the second floor. From his perch, he glared down at the monster below.

“Dio! I will not allow you—or your cursed power—to remain in this world!”

Dio tilted his head back and chuckled. “So, that was your aim? To draw my attention away from your companion? Very well. I’ll drain your life and heal my burns at the same time.”

And then, as though gravity held no meaning, he placed a foot against the wall and began walking upward, striding through the blaze as calmly as if strolling a garden path.

One pursued, the other fled, their duel climbing higher and higher until they reached the rooftop.

“It’s useless, useless, useless!” Dio roared. “No matter how high we climb, even if I fall from here, I won’t die! These flames, this height—they only corner you, JoJo, not me!”

Jonathan’s gaze lingered for one brief, pained moment on his father’s body, lying swallowed by fire below. He inhaled deeply, voice carrying above the crackle of flames:

“Father… my heart aches. Please, let these flames guide you to Heaven. And grant them the strength I now need—to finish what I must do!”

There was no mistaking it now. A clash unlike anything seen before was about to ignite in earnest within this burning battlefield.

…

The tension of the movie had climbed to a fever pitch. Even viewers who had seen the film before found their hands clenched tight, unable to relax.

Few films had ever reached this level of suffocating dread—perhaps only Goblin Slayer had evoked something similar. Yet even then, the gap in strength between enemy and hero was never as hopelessly wide as this.

For how could an ordinary man hope to battle a vampire? By all logic, Jonathan Joestar’s fight was already lost.

And yet—despite the despair, the audience did not abandon hope. Instead, they felt it stir within them. As Jonathan stood, battered but unbowed, a strange light seemed to blaze from him. It was more than bravery. It was something primal, undeniable—the courage of humanity itself.

…

“He’s coming!”

On screen, Jonathan scrambled desperately to the rooftop’s edge, his breath ragged, his eyes fixed below. He knew what was coming.

And sure enough—crash! The rooftop behind him erupted in splinters as Dio burst through, unleashing a monstrous roar—“WRYYYYYYY!”—and lunged straight for him.

The clash was brutal. Jonathan barely had time to raise his guard before the vampire’s fist connected, sending him hurtling across the rooftop with bone-shattering force.

“Too weak… far too weak,” Dio mocked, his voice dripping venom as he advanced.

Reeling from the blow, Jonathan’s eyes wavered—and then sharpened. In that instant, memories of their seven long years together surged within him. Clenching his fists, he raised his voice in defiance, shouting into the night:

“My youth… has always been bound together with Dio’s. And now, I shall bring that youth… to its end!”

With those words, Jonathan Joestar threw his arms around Dio, dragging him off the rooftop as the two of them plunged straight into the raging inferno below.

From the ground, Speedwagon—witness to everything—narrated in disbelief, his voice trembling as he cried out.

“Don’t do it, JoJo!”

Inside the sea of flames, Dio stared at Jonathan, eyes wide with shock that he would dare embrace mutual destruction.

“You insolent fool! You would really go this far?!”

“The mansion is gone. Father is gone. I’ve already lost everything. All that remains is this life of mine,” Jonathan declared, his voice steady even as the flames licked at his body. “So I’ll throw it away… if that means sealing your power forever!”

Dio’s lips curled into a cruel smile. Digging his fingers into the stone wall, he kicked Jonathan away with monstrous strength.

“Farewell, JoJo! For just a fleeting moment, your resolve shook me. But die there, in the ashes of your father’s home—consider it a blessing! You fool!”

He spread his arms wide, voice swelling with arrogance.

“I have transcended humanity! Undying, eternal! I will rule this world, JoJo—and it is you who gifted me this power!”

Jonathan’s body hurtled downward, but in that desperate moment his hand caught a protruding iron spike from the wall. With sheer willpower, he swung his battered body up, his belt whipping out to coil tightly around Dio’s leg.

“I’m not finished yet, Dio!”

“What?! You—!”

“This time, I won’t let go!” Jonathan roared. With his free hand, he drew a small dagger—Dio’s dagger, the very blade that had pierced his father’s chest. “This knife… will be your end!”

The steel sank into Dio’s body as Jonathan clamped down with all his remaining strength.

Dio’s scream echoed over the crackle of flames.

“Impossible! Both of your arms are shattered, your body is burning—and yet your strength hasn’t waned?! Fine then! I’ll take you with me into the fire! But mark my words, only you will perish here! Not even these flames can destroy me!”

“Father… lend me your strength, just this once!”

Jonathan’s voice rang like a prayer. As if the heavens themselves had answered, he kicked off the wall with all the power in his body, slamming Dio’s figure directly onto the sharp spear of the hall’s great stone statue.

“GAAAHHHHHHHHH! You dare?! You DARE!!!”

Dio’s screams shook the burning mansion. In that instant, he recalled Jonathan’s explosive power—power that had always lain dormant within him since childhood. But above all, he was forced to confront that unwavering spirit, that indomitable will that refused to yield even when cornered.

“JoJo… it wasn’t supposed… to end like this… My life…!”

His voice faded into a final, ragged wail as his form crumbled away, dissolving into ash, lost forever to the flames.

Jonathan was flung clear of the collapsing mansion by the blast of fire. Speedwagon rushed forward, catching his battered body in his arms.

And when he felt the faint but steady breath of life still flowing within him, tears spilled down his cheeks.

“He’s alive… He’s alive! This man… he’s won!!!”