Giorno had gotten out to inspect what was going on. "So, it's a mold of some kind. I remember reading about this in biology class. There's a type of mold that prefers moving to lower altitudes, but they can't expand their range of habitation by themselves. Instead they infect insects, multiplying and killing the host once it reaches a lower altitude. This type of mold is commonly called cordyceps. This Stand works on the same principle, using the corpses of living things to expand its effective range."

"And the only reliable thing we have to kill it is my virus," Fugo noted, "But I only get six capsules per day, so it's hardly reliable as protection. For now let's get to a higher elevation. Maybe if we can get higher than the user, it won't effect us at all." "Shouldn't be too hard," Giorno said, "Even if we don't know where the user is, there's only so many high places he can be." "We don't have time to rescue everyone in this village," Buccellati said sadly, "But if we can get out of here the user will follow us, and those that are still alive can sort out the rest."

"Then let's find ourselves a car at a higher elevation," Mista suggested, "We can head for Roma from there." Nearby, Cioccolata frowned. "They were able to get to shore easily. That man, Fugo... His virus is too strong for my Green Day." His smile returned when he saw the recorded footage Secco showed him. "But... It's good to see their faces twisted in horror as they try to plan on how to stay alive!" He rubbed Secco's head, encased in the odd suit.

"Still, this is going to be more tricky than I thought," Cioccolata admitted, "I'm starting to understand how they survived this long after betraying the boss." He got out some sugar cubes, and Secco removed the lower part of his mask so his mouth was open. "Good boy, Secco," Cioccolata said lovingly, "You've earned a nice treat." He tossed the cubes to Secco, who was able to easily grab all of them in his mouth, though he had to make some nice rebounding skills when one wound up going long.

"Now, let's make our next move," Cioccolata said, "Buccellati is bound to try going for a car next. We know his target is somewhere in Roma. Secco, use your Oasis to track them!" Secco's Stand, Oasis, was in fact the suit he was wearing. Silently, he dove into the ground and starting moving through it, like he was swimming through water. Cioccolata smiled. 'The boss put us on this mission for a reason. Whatever powers they may hold, they'll soon learn the real force behind human evolution.'

Luckily for the group, the village was built into a mountainside, making increasing elevation easy. And the higher they went, the less of the mold they saw, to the point where the number of corpses was starting to drop. However, Buccellati couldn't help but think something was following them. "Rarity, can you send out a crystal carpet? I want to make sure nothing is tracking us." Rarity nodded. "Art of the Dress!" Her Stand's crystals started spreading down the staircase they were on.

It moved over a nearby corpse, and suddenly dipped into the ground. "Something's wrong!," she called out, "The molecules where I'm growing my crystals are dropping into the ground! If we sink lower the mold will start to infect us!" "Then get us higher!," Buccellati called out. Rarity quickly created a crystal ledge that elevated the group, even as the staircase started to sink beneath them. "There must be two enemies!," Mista realized, "The one behind the mold, and whoever's doing this!"

Rarity saw a gloved hand reach out of the ground and claw at her crystal ledge, as if it was trying to make something happen. "Whatever power he has, it can't affect my crystals. Quick, get to the streets." Buccellati noticed something as they got to the higher level. "Look down below. The corpse we passed and the beer cans it was holding are sinking, but not dissolving. This new enemy can only affect things like rock or concrete, not metal or anything organic."

"We need to get to a car," Rarity said, "Which one do we take?" "Look for one near a corpse," Buccellati suggested, "It'll still have the keys with it, saving us the time it would take to fumble around for one." Rarity then noted something. "Strange... Even though my Stand can still detect when the ground is deforming, it still feels solid. Like something is pushing through the molecules." She had her Stand smash through the ground, then start growing crystals deep inside the pavement. "Let's see if we can flush out our new friend."

After a bit, the expanding crystals caused Secco to erupt from the ground. "Found him!," Mista called out and he fired off three shots, "Sex Pistols!" The six Stand bodies started kicking around the bullets. Secco started to deflect them, but then saw there were more than three projectiles to worry about, as Sex Pistols was also tossing around a few crystals shards from Art of the Dress, as well as one of Purple Haze's virus capsules. As this last one neared him, he quickly dove underground and made a beeline away from the effective range of the virus.

This gave the group time to get to the car and start it. "Damn it...," Secco said as he called Cioccolata. 'What's the matter?' "That girl, Rarita. Her Stand has a power that counters mine. It can grow crystals which my Oasis can't swim through." 'That complicates matters,' Cioccolata admitted, 'I can see them driving away right now. I suppose it can't be helped. Get back here immediately. It's time for plan B.' Secco nodded. "Okay, I'll head back to you."

As the group was driving up the hill, Fugo heard something. "What's that?" He looked out and freaked. "Shit! They're above in a helicopter!" A corpse covered in mold started to drop. The group tried to stop it with their Stands, but it fell too fast, crashing into the car's roof and causing it to start sliding down. Rarity quickly stopped the descent with a crystal wall to keep the mold from spreading too much as Fugo used Purple Haze to destroy the corpse before it could spread more mold.

The helicopter came in, and the group saw more people getting infected by the mold. "The subconscious," Giorno mused, "It's the seal on our powers, keeping them from going out of control. But this man, the one behind the mold, he delights in cruelty. That's why he has this power. It doesn't matter to him if his destruction hurts the boss. He'll keep spreading this mold all the way to Roma, just to kill us. And he doesn't care who else gets killed along the way."

"This is nuts!," Fugo said, "Why would the boss even let such a destructive Stand come after us!?" "He may have felt like he had no more choices," Buccellati reasoned, "We defeated Notorious BIG, a Stand that by all rights should have been invincible. And the boss probably knows we're getting close to discovering either his identity or a way to beat him. He feels he has no other options left but to risk destroying all of Italy, if it means killing us once and for all."

Mista tried firing at the helicopter, only for Secco to deflect all the bullets. He then dove right into the ground at a higher level. "Mista, reload quickly!," Giorno said, "Let Rarity handle the man who dove into the ground!" "Do you have a plan?," Fugo asked. "The one piloting the helicopter knows the range of Mista's pistol," Giorno said, "But that's all he likely knows." Mista nodded, as Giorno focused Gold Experience's power through his bullets.

Sure enough, the bullets only hit a building the helicopter was flying over, but then started to sprout like vines, wrapping around the legs of the chopper. Meanwhile, Rarity was carpeting the ground around them in crystal, only leaving a few spaces for Secco to surface from. He leapt out of one part of the ground, then glared at Rarity. "If it's just one-on-one... I don't need to dive into the ground!" He started to make his attack like he always did, but something was off.

His plan was always about turning the ground into mud and using the rebound from his elbows to increase the speed of his punches. But now, not only were his punches slowing down, but his elbows kept hurting. As Art of the Dress caught one of his attacks, Rarity noted something. "Why are you constantly hitting your elbows against my crystal carpet?" Secco looked down. "Shit! I forgot what you were doing earlier! My Oasis can't affect those crystals! It only works on stone!"

Meanwhile Cioccolata was having problems of his own. The plants created from Mista's bullets and the building they hit were keeping his helicopter from flying. Because of that, it was easy for Giorno and Mista to reach him. "So his power is imbuing objects with life energy, then?," Cioccolata noted, "No matter." A striped green humanoid appeared behind him. "It's no match for Green Day's mold!" Unfortunately, the mold didn't seem to be doing it's job.

Giorno started climbing the tree. "Giorno," Mista said, "I should be able to hit him from here." "Let's make sure he hasn't somehow left the heli first," Giorno said, checking the tree and the helicopter with his Stand. He reached the helicopter, and saw some used medical equipment. As he wondered what they were for, Cioccolata suddenly shot out from nowhere, looking like he had mutilated himself. Giorno managed to knock him aside with Gold Experience, only to get attacked by Green Day's severed arm.

Giorno managed to keep himself from falling out of the helicopter, but Cioccolata was chuckling. "Curiosity is the foundation of evolution," he said, "There are two cases in which happiness exist. When despair becomes hope. I had despaired when I was caught in your plants. My Green Day couldn't seem to affect them. I panicked in despair, but I survived. I used my knowledge of medical practices to amputate my limbs without dying, controlling them using the mold in the cuts."

He grinned as Gold Experience made to attack, only for Giorno to get attacked by Cioccolata's legs. "The second thing that brings happiness! It's watching someone fall into despair!" Giorno grinned. "Then you only get half the happiness you were expecting!" He quickly got out a small bullet and used Gold Experience on it, turning it into a branch that he used to grab the front of the helicopter and elevate himself, shocking Cioccolata.

"This was given to me by Mista as I started climbing," he explained. Cioccolata grinned. "Not enough!" He pulled the control lever from the helicopter and hit the branch. "That branch is a living thing! So I only need to infect it and you drop by a few centimeters!" He laughed as Giorno dropped down and started to grow mold, only to stop when the bullet the branch came from shot out and hit him through his head, causing the spread to stop. "When you used your mold to kill the branch it become dead wood," Giorno explained, "And by doing so it turned back into a bullet."

He looked at the dying Cioccolata. "But I feel no happiness from this. What's the point in feeling happy... About a victory that was yours from the beginning?" He saw Cioccolata hanging from the tree. "But I can tell you're just playing dead. You must be thinking that if you can move just a few more centimeters then you can fall off the ledge and escape, only to reactivate the mold and claim victory. It's a plan that could work. Because of the attack you made, there's a hole in my right lung, one of my subclavian veins has been severed, and my right humerus, right hand, and at least four ribs are broken."

He shrugged. "It's questionable if I can make to it you with any sort of speed. But Gold Experience's projection range is two meters, so it's not like I need to actually reach you, just get close enough for my Stand to finish the job. So I tell you what. If you stay right there, I'll only render you incapable of fighting, but I promise no harm will come to you. The choice is yours. I'm coming up now." Cioccolata started laughing. "I'd look behind you first."

Giorno turned to see Cioccolata's severed arm had Mista by the throat. And he was holding Coco Jumbo. "The rest of your group is inside there, right?," Cioccolata asked, "You shouldn't have been babbling away! Otherwise you would have noticed my left arm circling from behind the tree! Now I'll savor victory as I sever--" But he never got the chance to finish, a giant stag beetle suddenly burst from inside his brain. "I was speaking because I wanted time," Giorno pointed out, "Time enough for the bullet I shot through you to mature until it reached adulthood."

Cioccolata then remembered that the bullet had hit from the propeller. "You... You kicked that bullet into the propeller as it turned back from being a branch!" "And as I did I turned it into something else," Giorno admitted, "From a simple larva into the stag beetle now eating your brain. That way, it wouldn't matter if you lived or died, I'd still kill you off." "But...," Cioccolata argued, "You... You promised that if I stayed still you wouldn't harm me..." Giorno scoffed. "Know your place! A deal like that is too good for a man like you!" And with that, Gold Experience attacked at full force.

"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA! MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA! MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA! MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA! MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA! WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

As Cioccolata fell into a nearby garbage truck, which started closing once he landed, his cell phone dropped on the building and started ringing. It was Secco, who had managed to reach one of the holes in Rarity's carpet and dive underground again. He checked his phone, but no one was answering. He saw a couple messages in his inbox and checked them. The first seemed promising enough, saying that while Cioccolata was trapped he had a plan to take out both Giorno and Mista. Secco swam through the ground for a bit before finally finding a spot outside the crystal carpet, likely the extent of Rarity's range.

However, when he surfaced, he saw no sign of any mold, just a bunch of confused people. They had already reached Roma, and were close to the Coliseum. He quickly checked the second message. 'Secco... I took a bad hit during the fight. Giorno is more crafty than I thought. I managed to overhear something. Mista was talking to that turtle. You know, the one the group was using to transport themselves? They said something about going to the Coliseum to meet someone, possibly someone who could give them something to defeat the boss. If you see my mold start to lose power, you must go to the Coliseum and kill this man! I know you can do it!'

Secco lowered his hand. He then chuckled as he threw the phone into a nearby lamppost. He then proceeded to crush camcorder he'd been using. "So you were weak in the end, weren't you!? It was only because I thought you were strong, smart, and practically invincible that I followed your orders! That, and the sugar cubes and back rubs were nice... I don't have to follow your orders anymore, but just this once, I'll do it one final time! I'll kill that man at the Coliseum, then come back and finish the others!"

Fugo, Rarity, and Buccellati managed to keep up, but Secco had already reached the Coliseum first, just in time to see a glinting light near the entrance. He grinned and went for it, swimming through the ground. He then saw a man standing there, waiting. "I have you now!," Secco said as he leapt out, only to get himself impaled several times over by a group of identical humanoid figures in silver colors, all of whom were carrying rapiers. "I should have guessed someone would try and intercept Buccellati's team," the man said, "Luckily I was able to observe your earlier fight, so I know a lot about your abilities. You're fast, but no one beats me for speed without manipulating time itself."

Secco dropped to the ground, bleeding out, as the trio approached the man. "Well," the man said, "Almost no one. I think Jotaro and I are pretty even in that department." The multitude of figures merged into one and donned a set of silver armor. "Just who are you?," Buccellati asked. "Pardonne-moi," the man said, "I believe now is the time for introductions. My name is Jean-Pierre Polnareff! And this is my Stand, Silver Chariot!"

Polnareff assist, motherf****r!

We'll see in the next few chapters why Polnareff is still hale and hearty in this universe. Though some of you guys may already suspect the answer to that.