Chapter 28: The Limits of Time Stop × Atmosphere Maker

Time Stop is, without question, an invincible ability.

But are there enemies against whom even stopped time cannot secure victory? Dia had pondered this deeply.

First, there are enemies with speed so blistering that Dia cannot activate his ability in time, like Netero's 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva or the post-rebirth Chimera Ant King. Second, those with defenses so impenetrable that no attack can pierce them, again, like Meruem. Third, pure long-range artillery, like Zeno's Dragon Dive. If the distance is great enough, time stop becomes a mere evasion tool, not a path to victory. Fourth, wide-area devastation, such as the Poor Man's Rose. Fifth, long-distance curses, like those employed by the assassination squad in the Succession Contest arc.

Not to mention poisons, traps, and other hazards that his physical body cannot defend against.

Viewed in this light, time stop is most effective only against enemies who are obsessed with close-quarters, one-on-one combat, who lack extreme durability, and whose Nen abilities are straightforward rather than convoluted.

But reality isn't a simple equation. In many scenarios, even if he cannot win, Dia can use time stop to escape. As a skilled Ripple user, Dia knows well the adage: "If the Ripple fails, run for your life." Furthermore, as long as he keeps the nature of his time stop secret, no one will specifically tailor a strategy to counter it. At most, they will send stronger Nen users. It is highly unlikely they would deploy a tactical nuke or a specialized curse squad for one man.

Moreover, as a Stand user, Dia must consider that the Stand and the user share damage. If he sends The World to attack, the Stand possesses no Nen defense. It does not matter how thick the Ken is on Dia's own body; if his Stand is head-shot, he is dead. And based on the feats of Nen users in the manga, while The World is fast and powerful, it cannot completely overwhelm high-level combatants.

Dia had experimented with coating his Stand in Nen, but his Stand lacks pores and consciousness; it cannot maintain Ten. The Nen Dia transfers is in the form of Shu. Once the Stand loses physical contact with him, the Nen drains away after blocking only a few strikes. Worse, coating it in Nen renders the otherwise invisible Stand visible to anyone using Gyo.

This was the reason Dia insisted on developing a Nen beast. If a Nen beast is shattered, he can simply regenerate it. If his Stand loses an arm, it won't grow back on the spot.

Balancing the need to minimize the risk of exposing his time stop and the need for a reliable escape route when outmatched, he set the first ability of his Nen beast as: Generating impenetrable, opaque fog!

Nen development is inherently tied to "Nen capacity." Much like a computer's storage, the amount of Nen techniques a person can "memorize" is limited. Developing a beast solely to create "fog" would be simple, but it would have low versatility and waste his capacity. It is better to base developments on higher-level concepts.

After careful deliberation, Dia defined his development concept as, Celestial Phenomena!

Much like the Stand Weather Report held by Domenico Pucci in JoJo Part 6: Stone Ocean, the goal was to control the elements of the sky. Of course, Dia knew that replicating the ability to reshape the biosphere was nearly impossible. While Nen is influenced by the user's psyche, it has its limits. He could, at best, cosplay as a meteorologist.

However, thanks to the fact that Dia had traveled through the JoJo universe, he knew for a fact that such a Stand existed. Since it existed, he could manifest it. That is the idealistic nature of Nen: it is difficult to materialize a blade that "cuts through everything" because humans cannot imagine such a thing, but if the existence of a concept is clearly known, the difficulty of materialization drops significantly!

Even so, for someone who had only studied Nen for a month, manifesting such a beast, even a prototype, was a task of immense difficulty.

The armored car carrying Dia and the 12th Prince sped through the streets, finally returning safely to the hotel. Dia had even made sure to grab the discarded dolls they had left behind.

"Your Highness! Are you unharmed? And the blood on your face…"

A guard stood watch at the hotel entrance. Seeing the Prince's motorcade, he rushed forward to open the door, his voice laced with frantic concern. Momoze blinked, momentarily stunned. Blood? Is there blood on my face? Right… it was when Dia-san was injured earlier…

She did not respond to the guard. She simply muttered a quiet "I'm fine," and walked toward Dia and Drobada, who were standing silently by the car.

They had been out for less than a few hours, yet they had encountered such a sophisticated ambush. She was not naive; she knew something was deeply wrong. Lieutenant Ralph's team would already be investigating, but the failure of her guards was an undeniable fact. At this moment, she trusted no one except Dia and Drobada.

"Dia-san, Drobada-san, thank you both for your immense efforts. I will inform the Kakin Royal Family to grant you additional recognition."

Momoze had been raised as a royal heir; she knew exactly how to handle such situations. Once the danger had passed, her royal composure reclaimed her mind, and she began the process of winning their loyalty with practiced ease. She wanted Dia to know that his protection had not gone unnoticed.

"It is our duty, Your Highness. No thanks are necessary."

"Indeed. It is only a pity we could not save those loyal guards who fell." Drobada replied in a deep voice. Dia offered a perfunctory expression of regret, remaining oblivious to any deeper implications. The two male and one female royal guards who had accompanied them had all perished in the first wave of the attack.

Just as Dia thought the formalities were over and that the Prince would return to her rooms with her maids, she dropped a bombshell:

"Dia-san, would you mind escorting me to my room? I have some questions I would like to ask you."

"…That is not possible, Your Highness. That is the duty of the royal guards and the ladies-in-waiting." Dia stood straight, eyes fixed forward, and replied calmly.

Huh? Drobada looked at him, bewildered.

"Ehh? No, I mean…" Momoze was stunned, having not expected such a blunt, nonsensical rebuttal. This lack of adherence to social scripts left her momentarily speechless. Behind her, the expressions of the other guards shifted, looking at Dia as if he were insane. Did this guy only hear "return to the room" and miss the part about "asking questions"?

Dia, however, was icy calm. He knew what she wanted to ask, nothing more than questions about the supernatural power of Nen. But his job did not include being her tutor, and he certainly didn't want to field a request to learn Nen. He liked the 12th Prince well enough, but he had no desire to turn their relationship into a master-student dynamic, which would inevitably make things complicated. By responding only to the first half of her sentence, he had effectively, if awkwardly, declined the rest.

Seeing Dia's shut-mouthed, stubborn demeanor, Momoze had no choice but to drop it. She offered a few words of comfort, urging him to see to his wounds, and the group retreated into the hotel.

Having encountered such a massive attack on the first day, Dia calculated that they would likely not leave the hotel again until the auction started. Momoze was not the type to enjoy outings anyway. Dia was perfectly content to stay put; he had more important tasks.

"Mist-mist~"

In the empty room, Dia sat cross-legged on the floor, hand supporting his chin, watching the strange white creature let out odd noises as it swam through the air. This was his "Weather" Nen beast, manifested in a moment of inspiration during the morning's battle.

The beast flew toward Dia, rubbed against his face, and then dove into his hair, flattening itself into a soft cloud.

That's right. It has consciousness.

Dia didn't know where he had gone wrong. He had designed the beast to be mindless, but it was possible that the Ripple, being such a potent form of life energy, had inadvertently granted it consciousness. Such beasts were usually the specialty of Conjurers, like Kite's Crazy Slots. However, for Dia, who used Ripple to masquerade as a Specialist, he still had an 80% success rate in developing Conjuration-type abilities.

Dia reached up, grabbed the little cloud, and pulled it in front of his face.

"Since you have a consciousness, I should name you…"

Looking at the beast he had just "birthed," Dia had already settled on a name long before he had even conceived of its form.

"Let's call you…"

"Atmosphere Maker."

…

In a dark, abandoned building.

Within a dim room, a computer screen emitted a harsh, clinical white light. A gaunt, skeletal figure stared at the display with a bored expression, occasionally scratching his yellowing hair. The computer refreshed constantly, scrolling through long paragraphs of text and photographs that appeared and vanished in an endless cycle.

Suddenly, his eyes brightened. He leaned forward, his right hand clicking the mouse. The screen froze on a specific image.

The skeletal figure let out a wretched, raspy laugh. He picked up a nearby phone and dialed a number.

"Captain Lakshya. I've found the person you were looking for. He seems to be in Yorknew City now…"

"Enough. Save the chatter. Send me the address. Your payment will be wired later."

A cold, clipped voice on the other end cut him off, hanging up without a word. Hearing the dial tone, the man's face darkened, and he began to curse under his breath.

"Damn it… a pathetic mercenary group that's been beaten down to just two people, yet they still act so arrogant…"

But despite his cursing, he obediently opened his email and began to type. After all, a man has to eat.