The rapidly descending plane began to be dragged entirely into the ground. Tension and unease filled the cabin.
"Is this the ability to turn the ground into a swamp?" Mista gripped his gun tightly, cold sweat starting to trickle down his forehead. "Ghiaccio, quickly freeze the ground!"
Johnson Joffrey calmly looked at Giotto and found that he was fine. Giotto was only one meter tall, so if the mold attack were to start, it would likely begin with him.
Cioccolata's ability spread through corpses; only a continuous chain of extending corpses formed the range of his attack.
The inside of the plane was relatively isolated. Falling from high altitude, it had already begun to be infected with mold.
A chilling cold began to wash over them. Ghiaccio's ability caused the entire cabin to rapidly cool down, but... the plane continued to descend.
"Ghiaccio! Hurry up! Freeze it!" Mista urged Ghiaccio loudly.
"Damn it... I'm already freezing it..." White Album enveloped Ghiaccio; he was entirely white. His hands were pressed to the ground, and he had already frozen the entire floor of the plane.
Johnson looked out the window; the ice-covered ground was still sinking.
"The ground isn't a swamp," Ghiaccio finally stood up, his dead-fish eyes open. "The floor is hard. His ability only drags people underground."
"My position in the plane isn't enough to freeze that guy. I have to go down; the distance isn't enough."
The height of Ghiaccio in the plane was already beyond his attack range, so he couldn't freeze Secco himself. Secco's ability was not to turn the ground into a swamp, but to drag people underground.
"Since he drags people underground," Giorno mused, "he should have touched the plane. If so, why didn't Ghiaccio freeze him?"
"The opponent is a close-range attacker," Risotto analyzed in a low, hoarse voice. "He must have hooked the plane with chains when it landed, pulling it underground, which is why he was outside White Album's attack range."
"There's more than one enemy," Johnson looked out the window. "Narancia, please search for enemies."
Narancia's Aerosmith's propeller roared, circling above the airport.
"No breathing response," Narancia said simply. "There are no living people left in this airport."
"We must leave here now!" Mista shouted loudly, then fired several shots, breaking open the cabin door.
"Don't go! Mista!" Johnson yelled.
But Mista had already jumped to the ground—
Dense mold began to spread from Mista's toes the moment he took his first step. An expression of surprise appeared on his face, and immense pain began to spread from his toes. Fungi created numerous green holes from inside his body, making anyone with trypophobia vomit.
So that's it, Johnson narrowed his eyes. The reason Secco used chains to pull the plane was not to guard against White Album, but against his own Green Day.
Secco's Oasis could soften all the ground he touched into a lake-like surface, pulling others in. However, in reality, unless he allowed it, the ground should be hard for people. So even if Ghiaccio froze the ground, it was useless. The person who truly needed to be frozen was Secco himself.
"This is a fungal infection," Johnson said loudly. "Open the cabin door. The reason we haven't been infected is that when his Stand activates, any organism within range that moves from a higher to a lower position will be corroded by the fungus."
"As long as we leave the plane, we will be moving to a lower position."
"Then why isn't the person underground infected?!" Melone asked, puzzled.
Giorno frowned, thought carefully, and said, "Fungi spread through corpses and generally exist in plants. Only when the corpse of a plant falls into a cold, damp environment can it continue to spread."
"Over there," Johnson pointed to the several rotting bodies of staff members in the distance who had succumbed to the fungal infection, "are those corpses."
"Pesci!" Prosciutto shouted.
"Beach Boy!!" Pesci flicked a fishing rod from his fingertips, hooked Mista's collar, and dragged him directly up.
But!
Pesci's hand holding the fishing rod suddenly began to spread with fungus—
"Is it the same attack for a Stand?" Prosciutto exclaimed. "Pesci! Pull the fishing rod up quickly!"
Mista's struggles grew weaker and weaker—
"Mista!!" Ghiaccio shouted loudly.
"Can it only cause fungus on living organisms? Uncle Mista!" Giotto suddenly rushed out of the crowd, stretched out his hand, and instantly disintegrated Mista. His body began to cut into countless mosaic-like pieces.
The instantly disintegrated Mista began to rapidly reassemble in the air, transforming into a stone that fell to the ground in an instant.
Everyone watched in shock.
"This is Babyface's ability," Melone said with a sigh of relief. "It's the complete opposite of Giorno's ability, converting organic matter into inorganic matter."
"Decomposing an object and then reassembling it?" Giorno frowned. "It is indeed an ability exactly opposite to mine. This means Mista is no longer an organism."
"What a terrifying ability," Bucciarati exclaimed.
"The door has been opened, and the fungus is starting to spread onto the plane. As we continuously descend, we will quickly become infected by the fungus," Risotto said calmly. "Giotto, turn me into a stone. When I land on the ground, turn me back."
Giotto seemed a little timid, but he still obeyed Risotto, instantly decomposing Risotto into a mosaic-like existence, then reassembling him into a stone, and throwing it to the ground.
When he landed on the ground, Giotto reassembled Risotto back into his original form.
"Ah?!" Prosciutto was surprised to see that Risotto was not infected by the fungus after returning to human form.
"When the captain fell to the ground, he was not moving his own height as an organism," Johnson analyzed. "It's as if the process of him moving as an organism and falling to the ground was deleted."
Risotto immediately discovered the iron chains Secco used to pull the plane to the ground. He manipulated his Metallica to instantly twist and break the chains.
The plane stopped descending.
"Giotto! Send us all to the ground using the same method!" Johnson commanded.
Giotto immediately used his Babyface's unique ability to instantly decompose everyone, including himself, into mosaics, then reassembled them into stones, threw the stones to the ground, and then manipulated his ability to turn them all back into human form.
"Everyone maintain your height, keep your hands raised, and don't lower them casually," Risotto shouted loudly.
"Where's Mista?!" Formaggio shouted loudly.
"He's fine for now," Giotto said, manipulating the stone Mista had transformed into. The stone fell into his hand. "When I turned Uncle Mista into a stone just now, I didn't turn the fungus into a stone."
"So that's how it is," Giorno murmured, "The fungi die if they completely detach from the host."