19 Dragon's Dream, Burn!
Valentine pov:
I looked at Snake, as she looked amazed by the inside of D4C. I decided to let her take in everything slowly.
It would be easier to explain all of this if she was in a calmer state of mind. The only real reason I showed her D4C was to form a connection. More specifically, a spiritual connection.
What does the most prominent religion have that made it stay so popular and still rise in popularity?
It was some sort of proof. Jesus managed to make Christianity rise above Judaism, despite its environment, because he showed proof through his miracles. If a non-religious individual was to be met with the holy corpse, he would have no way to deny the religion.
This is a similar aspect. Since I showed her something otherworldly to her world, she has no choice but to unconsciously believe in me. People respond to the supernatural with either fear, or admiration. If I showed Love Train to everyone, once I became the president of this city, wouldn't they have no choice but to revere me as a god?
"Do you believe in my dream now?", I asked Snake.
She turned to me with a stunned expression. It seemed like she was trying to formulate words, but they were quickly disregarded when she looked back at this amazing scene.
"I believe we should head back to my office now", I told her.
She mindlessly nodded and quickly followed my lead. I've realized that she might've been the only "normal" person I've shown my stand to. Break her mind now, and gain her trust through the process.
We were almost about to leave, when all of the sudden, I got a strange sensation in my pants. I stopped and looked towards my pocket, only to see a pointed figure stretching through the fabric of my pants.
I reached to pull it out of my pocket. Strangely enough, it was the wish granting token. It was almost gravitating to a specific spot nearby. I followed the direction it was pointing to. I found myself in an alleyway, facing an abandoned house.
This was probably a trap, but what if it was like the corpse part? Could the token be attracted to another token too? I have to make a decision here. I would much rather risk this being a trap than losing a possible wish granting token.
"Snake, there is something important we must find here", I told her.
She was definitely a viable sacrifice, even though I do want to use her. For now getting another possible token is more worth it.
"Wh-what? What are you looking for?", she asked curiously.
"It has to do with the power you saw earlier. That's all I can say right now, but be sure to be careful."
It had a singular door in the front of the house. The house looked like it was barely standing on its own. I carefully entered watching out for any possible attacks. I could barely hear Snake's footsteps as she gingerly walked behind me.
All I saw was a single person in the middle of the broken house. He had a black robe with chains around his neck. He had brown hair, and looked extremely young. And he was holding another token!
"So you've finally arrived. It's infuriating that you made a follower of the one true God wait for so long…", the young man said with anger.
"Valentine, do you know him?", Snake asked me.
"He's an enemy of mine, and he's currently holding a very valuable object in his hands. We need to defeat him right here and now", I responded.
"I didn't expect someone else to be with you, but it doesn't matter. I was chosen by the Fungus God to choose those who are worthy enough to be sacrificed. I wear this sacred duty in my life with great zeal. And now I've chosen myself to inherit a great power, all thanks to you", he said condescendingly.
Something unmistakable rose from behind him. He had a stand! The cultist must have used these tokens to wish for stands! I myself couldn't wish for another stand because I could only wish for one thing at a time. To think they also had a token!
"I'll introduce you to Dragon's Dream!", the enemy stand user shouted.
"He has a baby dragon?!", Snake exclaimed, confused.
"It's an enemy stand user?!"
Third pov:
The young man quickly started to throw acidic mushroom bombs towards Valentine and Snake. They both dodged in opposite directions from each other. Suddenly, Valentine twisted his ankle in an awkward way the moment he landed on the ground, which caused him to fall toward where the acid landed.
Quickly he used D4C to lift himself out of the way and only landed next to the acid puddle.
"Watch out!", Snake urgently warned Valentine.
She used her qi to throw fireballs at the incoming acid mushrooms. Valentine rushed the enemy, not waiting for him to recover at all. But...he stopped running?
"Why'd you stop?!", asked Snake.
"I guess you're more of a challenge than I expected. To think you would be able to see it. Actually you can't, can you? You only sense that my stand did something, but you can't exactly figure out what it is, right?", questioned the enemy stand user.
"Well it's only obvious that your 'attack' is actually right in front of me, right? Isn't that why you stopped attacking?", shot back Valentine.
Without speaking, the enemy started throwing more acid mushrooms. This time however, he started to run towards Valentine.
"Snake! He did something to the qi around the air! I need you to tell me when it changes in the air!", Valentine commanded Snake.
With the help of D4C, the acidic mushrooms never touched him. As the enemy was about to get into D4C's range, he quickly changed directions and leapt backwards!
"You were to focus on my stand! Now you're surrounded with my acid!", the enemy exclaimed.
Valentine looked around him, only to notice that the enemy was correct. All around him wait acid puddles.
"Valentine, get the hell out of there, he changed the qi in the air!", screamed Snake.
She started to use her qi to throw fire at the enemy. The only thing the fire hit was Dragon's Dream. As the fire entered the stands bubble, it started to twist and and fall into the multiple acid puddles.
The acid puddles quickly became lit up in flames. Acidic steam rose up from the fire, which started to rise up to the roof of the house. The acidic steam tore through the roof, causing parts of the roof to collapse near Valentine's area.
The dust from the corroding roof causes the fire to rise even further up. All of this left Valentine completely vulnerable to his impending doom.
"Snake! You need to distract him while I find a way out of here!", urged Valentine.
Quickly adapting to the situation, she rushed towards him. This time however, she didn't throw fire at him. Instead, she started to circulate her qi to rush at him in one go. Dragon's Dream immediately stood in front of its user. It started to grow in size, almost completely covering his front side!
Snake reacted quickly and slid under him. She turned around and kicked him in his back. Unfortunately for her, Dragon's Dream went through its user, engulfing his whole torso! The moment her kick landed on Dragon's Dream, her leg separated from her body!
The stand spat its user's torso and Snake's legs back towards Valentine, who was busy blocking the falling rocks using D4C. Valentine was preparing to jump away from his unlucky spot, but instead he had to dodge a torso! He dodged to his right, when suddenly, Snake's leg hit his throat!
He managed to not fall in the fire surrounding him, but the acidic steam completely burned his back! He threw himself forward and fell on his knees.
'Dammit, I can't breathe! Was that Snake's leg? My throat was severely damaged, and the fire isn't making it easier to breathe! But at least now I know what his stand does! He can create an 'unlucky' spot. Anyone in this spot suffers from deadly misfortune, and any attacks that go through the stand gets redirected to the unlucky spot", thought Valentine.
The user's torso and Snake's leg both went back to their owners. The enemy stand user took the offensive this time. He rushed at Snake with his stand hovering over him protectively.
'What the fuck was that!? That's complete bullshit! I have to keep dodging and buy time for Valentine!' Snake thought, hectically.
The enemy kept harassing her with a mass of acid mushrooms. Knowing that getting surrounded by acid would mean her death, she kept close enough to him to limit the amount of acid mushrooms he could throw without affecting himself.
Recovering from his damaged throat, Valentine stood up. His eyes held the determination of a human with a general will to survive. He didn't care how much damage he was going to suffer, but as long as he could leave this unlucky spot, he would win.
He converted all his qi into D4C and just ran for it. He used D4C to protect himself from the flames, acidic steam and any falling debris. The only problem was that there was still some acid on the ground.
The acid tore through his shoes, and bore into his skin. His running soon turned into a limping. He was quickly running out of breath, but despite all these problems, he was almost out of the fire!
Suddenly the flames started to erupt! His qi reserves quickly plummeted, leaving D4C unable to protect Valentine completely. The acidic steam started to burn him on all sides! He fell from the severe lack of flesh his legs had.
He desperately crawled to the acidless ground in front of him. The only thing that hurt him was the fact that he wouldn't achieve his goal! Nonetheless, he finally made it out of the unlucky spot!
His legs were almost entirely gone, parts of his arms had charred bones showing, and he was almost out of qi. D4C exhibited the same injuries as him too. He forced D4C to move, the only thing motivating him was his sheer will.
D4C slowly reached for his pocket. After a few scruciating seconds, it pulled out his gun. Valentine struggled to aim it with D4C. The enemy was still distracted with Snake! He could kill him with this one bullet!
BANG!
Dragon's Dream got in the way! The bullet was spinning in it's bubble gaining more and more speed! Even worse he could feel the qi in the air change! He was back in the unlucky spot!
A breeze blew into the house, pushing all of the acid steam towards the part of the roof Valentine was under. He could hear it slowly crumble.
"Did you really think that would work! You were chosen by God to die by my hands! Any sacrifice chosen by the Mushroom God is destined to-!", the enemy stand user yelled in absolute glee before he was cut off.
He looked down and saw a hand through his chest.
"You fucking moron!", yelled Snake.
She immediately took advantage of the distraction Valentine provided. She charged up an attack the moment this idiot decided to turn her back on her. She ripped out his heart and burnt it to ash.
After the enemy fell dead, the stand disappeared. Snake remembered about Valentine's condition and rushed towards him. Unfortunately for her, she was too late. A large part of the roof came crashing down on Valentine.
She screamed in terror, before she fell down and cried. She couldn't believe it! She was just introduced to something godly, and it was immediately taken away from her! Just how unlucky was fate towards her?
She kneeled down to do a silent prayer for Valentine. After a few minutes she finally got up.
"Are you finally done?"
"V-Valentine?!"
"I used my 'power' to heal myself. I should take you back now. I bet your assistant is still waiting for you right?", he responded.
"Oh ok", Snake said dumbly.
She was clearly tired of all of this. All she wanted was to take a bath and forget all about this day. Valentine led her to the entrance, and slammed the door on them. They appeared in Valentine's office again.
"Boss where were you?!", Snake's assistant asked, worry evident in his face.
"I'm tired right now. Let's just go…", she responded.
After some discussion they finally left. Valentine silently stood at his desk. He reached into his pocket to pull out his prize.
'This was clearly a test. They probably wished for my power, and got a random stand instead. They also used the token to bait me to their stand user. This means that they have multiple wish tokens, and they're confident enough to risk letting me have another one. Nonetheless, this was a very fortunate encounter.', summarized Valentine.
To be continued...
