While the Daywalkers felt a sense of serenity washing over them under Jojo’s melodic voice, Rain scoffed under his breath, "How foolish..."
He was unfazed by her futile attempt, knowing that the Nightmare of the Id technique would not stop until it drained every ounce of its victims’ fear, leaving them as nothing more than lifeless husks.
Crack! Crack!...
As expected, each impact created a fresh web of cracks across Jojo’s spiritual armor, causing the sound of fracturing light to echo in everyone’s souls... a reminder of what would befall them if it shattered.
As much as the Daywalkers tried their best to put their hearts and trust in Jojo, their instincts couldn’t be suppressed. As the thought of death sank deep within their hearts, it birthed the sole natural response: Fear .
Rain felt its emergence instantly, leaving him with a faint, lethargic smile. He said nothing, as he could feel the chameleon’s hex feasting on their fear despite the protection of Jojo’s ultimate!
Fear was an emotion... and emitted emotions were an open buffet; easy to feast upon, but difficult to truly extract from the soul fully.
Although the extracted bits weren’t much, they helped Rain gradually increase the technique’s strength, creating a vicious circle.
Meanwhile, Jojo stood alone against the storm. The toll of the resistance started to show as a steady stream of dark blood leaked from her nose; even the glow of her skin began to dull, turning sickly gray.
"Jojo!! That’s enough!!" Arthur shouted, his voice ringing with worry.
He could see that Jojo’s features were slowly withering as if she were aging years in a matter of seconds. To burn one’s own lifeforce wasn’t an easy decision, and to do it for others’ sake was even harder to accept.
Evangeline and the rest of the Daywalkers felt conflicted at the quickly deteriorating condition of Jojo; they knew she was sacrificing the most precious source of all lifeforms in the universe. Yet, they couldn’t open their mouths to stop her... they understood that the moment Jojo’s constellation fell, it was over for all of them.
Jojo knew this as well. Thus, even when Arthur’s despairing voice, mixed with those of her friends, rang in her ears, Jojo refused to buckle.
’Houda... your choices are your convictions. Even in the face of death, never falter, never hesitate, and never forsake the Dharma.’
Her contracted nightcrawler murmured in her mind, his voice as cool as a spring river. As a nightcrawler, he was supposed to harbor selfish ideologies that prioritized his evolution and survival above all else.
It was an innate trait among most nightcrawlers. Yet, he didn’t seem to care that Jojo was sacrificing both of their lives for the sake of others...an act too foreign for his kind.
In reality, Zar’Vhulek was a firm believer in destiny and fate. For entities with such conviction, no matter what happened, he would always smile and accept his destiny, in whatever shape or form it arrived.
That was his Dharma and source of strength.
In Jojo’s case, it was always, always going the extra mile for her loved ones, regardless of what happened to her.
Thus, despite her trembling limbs and the spiritual rot eating at her strength, her spirit served as a final, unbreakable dam to ensure the horror never reached those standing around her.
"Can you believe it!! She is still holding... barely, but still!"
Gamemaster Envy shouted passionately, his voice nearly drowned by the thunderous cheers of the spectators. Their hearts swelled at the sight of the giant monk... covered in cracks, yet never breaking and never bending.
It was a true representation of an undying will; a testament to what it meant to stand proud and die for one’s deepest beliefs and principles!
Luckily for Jojo, she wasn’t alone in this... she never was.
’I am sorry... it took me a while to finish.’
As Jojo felt her consciousness slipping between light and darkness, a familiar voice echoed in her mind. It was a voice that emitted nothing but gloom, and yet, it curved Jojo’s lips into a forced, bloody smile, tainted by the never-ending stream from her nose.
’Better late than never... he is all yours... I am... going to close... my eyes... for a second...’
Before Jojo could finish her telepathic message, her lids closed shut, and so did the illumination cast from her mutations. Instantly, the gigantic monk shattered into particles as the Prayer Beads lost their spiritual connection to Jojo.
They shattered into white particles as well, finally leaving everyone at the mercy of the crimson, screaming flood.
Yet, just as the first ghost could touch them, the entire flood came to a sudden halt a mere couple of meters away.
Rain, Gamemaster Envy, the Daywalkers, the viewers, and even Bishop Na’thir... they all showed looks of utter bewilderment.
"What the..."
"Did... did he spare us?"
"It can’t be... look at his expression, he’s been blindsided like us."
Tyrese, Mira, and Evangeline whispered among themselves, their guards raised to the limit even though they knew it was futile. All that everyone could do was stare at the frozen, horrifying flood, which now resembled a painting stuck in time.
Speaking of paintings... Jasmine stepped out from the cover of her Erasure Barrier with the same calm demeanor. Yet, what attracted everyone’s attention was a giant paper scroll that followed her against the will of the wind.
When Arthur, Shia, and Nurah saw the painting’s detail, they all shared a relieved smile before swiftly ignoring everything else to check on Jojo’s condition.
It was like they knew... the fight had ended.
’She is really one of them...’
Gamemaster Envy murmured inwardly, his mouth burning to share his information and hype the viewers even more, but alas, all he could do was watch like the rest of them.
"This... is this your doing?"
Rain asked, his tone cold, but carrying a hint of dread at Jasmine’s unknown powers. For entities like him, nothing was scarier than the unknown.
Unbeknownst to the viewers, he had tried his absolute best to regain control of his ultimate, and yet... it refused to budge! He even tried to remove it, and still... nothing. It was as if his technique were no longer under the laws of his aspect, but Jasmine’s!
In a sense... it was correct.
On the surface of the parchment was a perfect, ink-stained recreation of the current battlefield.
Every detail was there: the rope, the terrified Daywalkers, Rain, and even the massive crimson hex. Most importantly, a single word was written next to the painted ghostly beam: Halt .
A single word, and yet its potency was immense, as the laws of reality bent to ensure that whatever was painted or written must be upheld... akin to a binding law!
By trapping the "concept" of the attack on her scroll, she had forcibly altered reality, freezing the actual strike in place!!
Again, Jasmine remained silent, deaf to everyone’s voices, questions, and emotions. She was in her own reality, and in her reality, all that existed was Jojo’s horrible condition, Levi’s relentless attempts to save them to no avail, and the clear despair hidden behind the eyes of her friends and allies. Her world might be black and white, but it helped her shape and simplify the complexity of people and life to serve her best.
There were three kinds: Friend, Stranger, and Enemy.
Protect friends, ignore strangers... Kill enemies.
It was a robotic, simplistic approach, but it was all Jasmine needed to feel pure malice consume her heart as she pointed her finger in Rain’s direction.
Then, she whipped her brush at the scroll, and white ink splashed above Rain’s drawing, completely erasing his existence from the painting.
Before anyone could react, the overbearing law of the Erasure Aspect manifested in the physical world.
Rain didn’t even have time to scream or wonder about the meaning of her act. He felt a sudden surge of instinctive fear rise within him, but it had no source, no origin. It was raw and primal... an emotion he hadn’t felt in a long, long time, as no one he had faced was powerful enough to make him fear for his life.
Until now.
Whoosh!!
A sudden, massive swirling vortex of white light erupted around him out of nowhere. It was as if the hand of a deity had descended to scrub a mistake from the canvas of existence!
His spiritual consciousness, which had been terrorizing the Daywalkers, was the first to go. Soon followed his actual soul, hosted in his partner’s subconscious barrier!
’How... this, this is impossible...’
Utterly stunned, Rain’s mind shattered as he gazed into the swirling vortex at Jasmine. Although it was insane, he would have understood a little if Jasmine were capable of killing his roaming spiritual consciousness.
However, to go after his protected soul through his spiritual consciousness by a mere splash of ink? His brain simply failed to comprehend such reality-breaking power.
As for the viewers, Bishop Na’thir, Bishop Va’ren, and the rest of the powerhouses? Silence took hold of the sky, matching the terrifying, absolute silence of the erasure process.
One moment, he was a high-level threat looming over the battlefield... a terrifying force that made everyone feel like an entire faction was going to get massacred by a single entity. The next thing they saw was him being unmade... under a live stream watched by billions.
Even Evangeline, Tyrese, and the rest of the Daywalkers found themselves staring at Jasmine like it was the first time they had met her... the real her.
Only one person among the viewers shared a different reaction... a reaction filled with concern.
’Jasmine... I hope you know the weight of what you’ve done,’ Hicham murmured inwardly, his gaze heavy with a father’s silent dread. ’From this moment on, I can no longer shield you. The path ahead is yours alone to walk... and only you can protect yourself now.’