Chapter 29: The Power of [Silver Chariot]
Unable to find the Stand user's body. Unable to find the enemy's Stand. Yet subjected to constant attacks from enemy Stand users. Even surrounded by puppets created through Stand abilities...
To anyone else, this would undoubtedly be a dead end. But for Shirou Emiya and Avdol, the current issue was truly just a minor problem.
Simply put, this was the sheer dominance of elemental-type Stands!
If one looks back at the entirety of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, the reason Avdol's battle scenes are so few and far between is precisely this.
The ability to manipulate fire and heat is, quite frankly, powerful at a glance. If Avdol were truly allowed to let loose, then aside from a few fellow elemental Stands, Stands with unique "gimmick" mechanisms, or those with space-time abilities, [Magician's Red] could solo the majority of the Stand users appearing in Part 3.
Unfortunately for the enemy, [Judgement] was none of those exceptions. Its Stand mechanism wasn't complex enough to leave [Magician's Red] without a counter.
Consequently, it was only natural. Under Shirou's development, he and Avdol—who had mastered the ability to freeze things as an extension of heat manipulation—combined their power to flash-freeze the entire restaurant.
"Apologies, Mr. Joestar. In the face of [Magician's Red: White Album], it seems we'll need to find a new place to eat," Shirou said.
As for finding exactly where Cameo was? There was no need. For Cameo to operate [Judgement], which has a Range rank of C, and to precisely control the clay puppets it fabricated, he couldn't be far away.
This meant Cameo, who was likely still inside the restaurant, had been frozen solid along with the building without the group breaking a sweat. Regarding this subordinate of DIO, after being frozen for a few days, he would naturally lose the will to continue pursuing them.
"It's fine. If anything, this serves as a good reminder," Joseph said, waving his hand dismissively. "Even if we book out a restaurant, we can't necessarily guard against DIO's pervasive Stand users."
"Not just while eating. For any hotels or restaurants we stay in during the rest of our journey, I'll use [Hermit Purple] in advance to confirm they are safe."
Just as Joseph finished his suggestion and prepared to use [Hermit Purple] to spirit-photograph a new, safe dining location—
Swish—!!
An extremely faint sound of air being sliced. It came from afar, drawing near with incredible speed. By the time the sound reached their ears, a long, slender silver rapier blade had already pierced through the prosthetic arm Joseph used to manifest his Stand.
It pinned his prosthetic arm firmly to the glacier behind him created by [Magician's Red: White Album].
"...!?"
A silver rapier blade? The projectile blade of [Silver Chariot]?
An enemy Stand attack? There wasn't just Cameo/Judgement sent by DIO, but another one as well?!
One could tell from this warning shot alone: if the opponent had truly intended to kill them just now, they would have certainly reduced the team's numbers by one, rather than just hitting Joseph's replaceable prosthetic.
In other words, while many details from Shirou's memory of the "plot" had lost their reference value, Polnareff's noble character—his adherence to chivalry even while controlled by a flesh bud—remained intact.
In the instant the attack arrived, Shirou's brain quickly identified the enemy. A series of thoughts flashed through his mind, but none were as urgent as the realization he had upon seeing the silver blade pin the arm to the ice without losing momentum.
"This... this is? ...Oh no!!"
The freezing power of [Magician's Red: White Album] surged from Shirou's hands once more.
But everything was too late. Polnareff's target had never been Joseph. Or rather, hitting Joseph was merely a secondary convenience. His true target was the glacier. More accurately, the clay-puppet bombs frozen inside the ice!
The rapier blade of [Silver Chariot] had pierced Joseph's prosthetic, inevitably exposing the internal mechanical structure and creating electric sparks from severed wires!
When the clay bombs—whose Stand-stabilization had already been released by Cameo, leaving them needing only a point of ignition—met the sparks from the damaged prosthetic, it was like lightning striking dry wood.
Before Shirou's freezing ability could lower the temperature, the explosion had already triggered.
Because the triggered bomb was right next to Joseph, Shirou was forced into a split-second choice: continue trying to lower the overall temperature, or provide a layer of frozen protection for Joseph, Jotaro, and the others to shield them from the blast.
Choosing the latter, Shirou was unable to stop the chain reaction once the first bomb went off. The raging fire touched off the other clay bombs Cameo had planted nearby, one after another!
BOOM—!!
"[Silver Chariot]... well played, [Silver Chariot]."
Shirou was forced to passively and continuously reinforce the thickness of the ice shields around Joseph, the others, and himself to withstand the shockwaves. Looking at the wreckage of the restaurant after the series of blasts, he offered a heartfelt tribute to the power of [Silver Chariot] and Jean Pierre Polnareff.
"By using the bombs [Judgement] failed to detonate, he used the high heat of the explosion to rescue the Stand user from the ice.
And that's not all. This explosion has completely flipped the roles of attacker and defender..."