Crimson Moon Dio

At the sight of this.

Danya froze on the spot.

But the people inside had no intention of showing mercy and pulled the triggers at the same time.

Accompanied by deafening gunfire, countless bullets shot out in an instant.

Danya’s combat instincts were fairly strong, and he immediately tried to dodge. But due to his carelessness and rushed preparation, he was still riddled with bullets in an instant.

"Danya!"

Straizo and Zeppeli cried out at the same time.

But this was clearly not the time to worry about their companion, because the others were receiving the same treatment from the bullets.

Erina hurriedly swung her Broadsword in an impenetrable blur, standing in front of Jonathan and blocking the barrage for him. Meanwhile, Straizo sharply cut off his own hair, using Ripple to strengthen the strands and turn them into a shield that stopped the bullets aimed at him.

Only after the enemy’s volley ended did the group get a chance to clearly see the scene inside the castle hall.

More than a hundred pairs of scarlet glowing eyes were staring at them.

They held all kinds of firearms, even crossbows. The first row lay prone on the ground, the second crouched, and the third stood in place, maximizing the ferocity of their firepower.

"This… this is…"

Even with their mental fortitude, everyone was inevitably shocked by this astonishing sight.

"Damn… these vampires aren’t playing with Stone Masks anymore, they’ve gotten into military tactics?" Even Fang Mo could not help complaining. "Holy shit, they’re gunning down the old masters!"

"There are over a hundred vampires just in the hall!?"

Speedwagon’s face filled with horror as he roared, "Dio… he didn’t devour these people at all. He turned every last one of them into vampires! They were once the honest civilians of Windknight’s Lot, but now they have to turn their blades against us under that man’s control. They even learned how to use modern firearms. He is the cruelest and most cunning devil in the world!"

"The more terrifying part is still to come."

Straizo’s face was somewhat pale as he panted heavily. "Over a hundred vampires… the few of us will probably have a hard time defeating them."

"No, we can’t keep stalling!"

But at that moment, Zeppeli suddenly shouted, "They’re reloading! We can’t let them keep using those guns… we have to find a way to break this deadlock immediately!"

With that, Zeppeli immediately launched an attack.

He suddenly raised his head and took a mouthful of water, then violently sprayed it outward. Under the control of Ripple energy, the droplets became rapidly spinning circular discs of water. "Ripple Cutter!"

The Water Blades spun into the hall, striking several vampires who failed to dodge and destroying a large pile of firearms along the way.

But strangely, although these vampires had clearly been hit by Water Blades imbued with Ripple energy, they did not die. They even continued letting out sinister laughter, sending chills down everyone’s spines.

"What…"

Zeppeli was stunned as well.

But before he could react, the vampires on the other side had already launched their second attack.

After all, there were more than a hundred vampires on the other side. Zeppeli’s interference alone was extremely limited, so quite a few vampires had managed to reload and began a second round of shooting.

This time, however, Zeppeli was prepared. He quickly rolled to the side of the main gate.

The enemy was firing from inside the doorway, so all he had to do was hide in their blind spot. The others followed suit, beginning to evade the attacks from the firearms.

But just then, Erina charged straight in.

"Erina!"

Jonathan cried out in alarm.

But Erina did not pay him any attention. Her Broadsword danced so densely in her hands that bullets could only throw up bursts of sparks against it, and she charged into the hall with savage force.

"What the hell is with this woman!?"

Straizo was dumbfounded. "Why is she so strong? She can block bullets with her physical body alone… could she be a vampire too?"

"No, I heard Erina is a demigod," Jonathan answered honestly.

"Huh?"

Straizo was even more bewildered after hearing that.

But Jonathan had no time to keep explaining. His girlfriend had already charged into battle, so he could not lag behind. Taking a deep breath, he roared, "Silver Ripple Dash!"

Ripple burst from his blood and fused with the Nichirin Blade in his hand. Then, a ring of faint golden airwaves appeared beneath Jonathan’s feet. Taking advantage of the instant when Erina drew most of the enemy fire, he charged fearlessly into the castle hall and began attacking the vampires.

"Blazing Sun Ripple Dash!"

Jonathan infused the power of The Sun into his blade, then fiercely swung it upward.

Orange-red Sun Power resonated strangely with Ripple. Torrential, searing energy spread and expanded through the air, as if a great mass of solar flame had been splashed forward, directly engulfing more than ten vampires.

The vampires did not even have time to scream before turning to ash.

"Holy shit, Explosive Wave Sword!"

Fang Mo was instantly shocked by the sight. "Jonathan is badass now. Ripple really evolved into Wave!"

Meanwhile.

Erina had gone completely berserk as well.

Unlike Jonathan’s methods, which were especially effective against vampires, the Enchanted Golden Apple and an entire basket of Essence Berries had practically turned her body holy. Facing the barrage of gunfire, she used both hands to snap off a marble pillar in the hall, then swept it sideways.

Vampires could regenerate at high speed, but firearms could not.

The surrounding firepower immediately weakened. Like a terrifying machine, Erina mercilessly ground vampire after vampire into minced flesh.

Even a single punch from her could smash a vampire’s head apart.

"This… what even…"

To be honest, Straizo was numb from witnessing this. It was one thing that this woman was not a Ripple User, but the man called JoJo had to be one, right? Then what the hell had that move just been?

He had directly thrown out a mass of sun-like energy and killed vampires…

And you called that Ripple Dash?

With his worldview shattered, Straizo hurriedly roared at Zeppeli, "Zeppeli! Where the hell did you find disciples like these!?"

"Didn’t I tell you?"

Zeppeli said, "They aren’t my disciples. They are that mage’s disciples."

"A mage?"

Straizo was stunned, then looked toward Fang Mo.

"You haven’t forgotten that dragon from over ten years ago, have you?" Zeppeli reminded him. "That dragon was the pet of that mage."

"She’s my daughter."

Fang Mo overheard their conversation and corrected him.

"…"

This time, Straizo simply said nothing. But from his expression, it was not hard to tell that he probably wanted to say something like, Then why the hell did I even come here?

"Alright, let’s not stand around either."

After saying a few words, Zeppeli stopped talking to Straizo and charged directly into the castle hall, gathering Ripple as he attacked a vampire.

"Hermit Ripple Kick!"

With a loud shout, Zeppeli lashed out with a powerful whip kick, striking the vampire.

But to his surprise, the vampire did not die. Instead, it raised its head and gave him a vicious glare, leaving Zeppeli completely baffled.

Then, in the very next second.

A strange stabbing pain suddenly came from his leg.

"What!?"

Zeppeli was shocked. Looking down, he saw that his leg was covered in a thick layer of frost. "This… this is…"

"Hahaha! This is the Vaporization Freezing Method Sir Dio taught us!"

The vampire across from him laughed cruelly. "Sir Dio already figured it out! You use the energy in your blood to attack, so as long as we freeze your blood… all you can do is wait obediently for death!"

After saying that, the vampire raised its hand and tried to grab Zeppeli.

But at that critical moment, a Broadsword suddenly came spinning through the air, cleaving the vampire before him in half before automatically flying back.

"Mr. Zeppeli, are you alright!?"

Erina asked worriedly while fighting in the distance.

She grabbed the heads of two vampires with each hand and smashed them together with all her strength, instantly splattering their brains. They had clearly used the Vaporization Freezing Method as well, but it was utterly useless against Erina. Eventually, Erina simply threw out her sword to kill enemies on its own, then picked up a huge vampire and came crashing down from above, knocking over a large group with a thunderous boom.

As for Jonathan on the other side.

Flames of The Sun blasted from every pore of his body, making him seem like a walking blaze. The Vaporization Freezing Method obviously could not affect him either, and he fought with effortless ease.

"So… you’ve been fighting monsters like these all along?"

Zeppeli gave a bitter smile. It seemed he had overestimated his own combat ability.

But just as he let out a sigh of relief, he saw the vampire split in half before him reveal a cruel smile. For some reason, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Then he saw the vampire’s eyeballs turn blood-red.

"Erina! Jonathan! Watch out!" Zeppeli hurriedly shouted.

And in the next second.

The vampire before Zeppeli suddenly let out a scream. It seemed to transmit some kind of signal, because all the vampires present had their eyes turn red at the same time. Then their irises ruptured, and countless incredibly thin, incredibly fast jets of water sprayed from their eyeballs.

In the original work, this was one of Dio’s ultimate moves, called Hamon Overdrive.

Its principle was to use a vampire’s ability to control their physical body to highly compress the aqueous humor inside their eyeballs, attacking enemies like an ultra-high-pressure water cutter.

In the original work, Jonathan had been shot through the trachea by this move and died miserably.

But in the original work, only Dio could use this technique. Here, however, there had originally been more than a hundred vampires. Although some had already been killed, there were still at least sixty or seventy left.

How spectacular would it be for dozens of Dios to unleash Hamon Overdrive at once?

The entire castle hall exploded apart in an instant. Every load-bearing marble pillar, staircase, chandelier, floor, and wall—anything visible to the naked eye—was sliced apart.

Ordinary Ripple Users like Zeppeli and Straizo did not even have time to react before several high-pressure water cutters passed through their bodies. They were cut into pieces and collapsed onto the ground, blood spraying out as if it cost nothing.

Even Ripple… Wave warriors like Jonathan could not avoid severe injuries. Although he had learned Ripple and possessed Sun Power, he was still flesh and blood in the end. If he had not evaporated part of the water streams with Sun Power, he too would have been cut in half.

The only person present who was probably unharmed was Erina.

Erina had already been extremely fast at dodging, and with the strength of her body, even taking high-pressure water cutters head-on only hurt and scraped her skin a little. It was not enough to seriously injure her.

As for commentator Speedwagon.

His luck was truly good. Because he had been standing behind Fang Mo, he had inadvertently escaped this disaster.

"This… what was that…"

After seeing this, Speedwagon was so frightened that he dropped to the ground with a thud. "Uncle Zeppeli, Mr. Straizo, and Jonathan… everyone was nearly wiped out in a single instant. What kind of terrifying attack was that!?"

"JoJo!"

Erina cried out in alarm and rushed to Jonathan’s side. "JoJo! Are you alright?!"

"I… I’m fine…"

Jonathan struggled to look behind him. "But Uncle Zeppeli and the others…"

"Mr. Steve!"

Erina came to her senses and hurriedly turned to Fang Mo. "They aren’t dead yet. Could you please save them? I’m begging you!"

"Oh, sure."

Fang Mo nodded. These were all people with true Golden Spirit. It would indeed be a pity for them to die like this, so he raised a hand and used Gravity Field to pull them before him.

"Damn, just how many pieces did you all get chopped into?"

Looking at Zeppeli, who only had his head and the left half of his chest left, Danya, who had been riddled like dice, and Straizo, who had almost been cut into a human stick, Fang Mo could not help saying, "Good thing I know how to heal while preserving the head. If you had any other doctor here, just playing jigsaw puzzles with your body parts would be enough to kill you more than ten times over…"

"Mr. Mage, please hurry and treat them!"

Speedwagon could not endure it any longer. His voice was nearly tearful as he said, "You absolutely cannot let Uncle Zeppeli and his companions die. They’re all good people…"

"Alright, alright, I know."

As Fang Mo spoke, he began taking out Potions of Instant Health.

But at that moment, strange footsteps suddenly came from the ruins. Then, a peculiar voice rang out.

"Jo↑Jo↓…"

Accompanied by that familiar voice, the mastermind behind all this slowly stepped out from the shadows.

At the sound of that voice, nearly everyone focused their gaze there. Jonathan especially began gritting his teeth just from hearing it.

But when Jonathan truly raised his head and saw the other person, he suddenly froze.

He had originally thought he would see Dio’s evil yet handsome face. But when he looked up, he discovered that the other man was actually wearing a Stone Mask.

And for some reason, there was a strange hole in the Stone Mask’s forehead.

The instant Dio appeared, even the moonlight seemed to be stained blood-red. A terrifying pressure radiated directly from him, and everyone’s hearts tightened.