"I'm back..."
Feeling the multiple powers filling his body, Takatsuki had never felt so complete.
Perhaps it was partly because he was already accustomed to the existence of these powers, and partly because the sense of loss and regaining them amplified this feeling.
"But where is this place?"
After re-familiarizing himself with his body, Takatsuki looked around.
The surrounding environment was not any place he was familiar with; it was more like being in a dark palace, and he sat like the king of this palace, upon a huge, dark stone throne.
Even with Takatsuki's adult physique, this stone throne appeared incredibly massive.
Looking back, the backrest extended infinitely towards the sky, merging into a pitch-black void.
Despite having no light source, everything here could be seen. Those dark areas were not invisible.
Rather, there was truly nothing there.
It felt completely unlike being in the material world.
"This is Throne of Heroes, dear."
Ai's voice answered Takatsuki's question.
"Is this Throne of Heroes?"
Although Throne of Heroes, or rather, Throne of Heroes, was not in the form of a palace or a seat, Takatsuki had learned about it through Ai's introduction.
The scene here was entirely altered by the owner's perception. In Takatsuki's subconscious, Throne of Heroes looked like this.
"This is too boring. Where are the others?"
Although it was how his own subconscious perceived it, Takatsuki himself found it somewhat unacceptable. A void Throne of Heroes felt too gloomy.
"Throne of Heroes has no spatial limitations, so each Heroic Spirit has their own space, and everyone is in their own space."
Takatsuki roughly understood: "Never mind Throne of Heroes for now. Settle the rewards for my previous mission."
Takatsuki appeared here not for any other reason, but precisely because he had completed his mission in the Jojo world and returned to his own body.
His body had been kept by the system in the space it had opened up.
And within that space was the endless Throne of Heroes.
"Okay, Daddy."
Actually, to summarize, the main quests didn't need summarizing because their rewards were simple and were settled immediately.
A total of 27,000 crystals, even after deducting what he used in that world, left him with 25,300 crystals.
The only unknown was that mysterious side quest.
To defy fate...
In the end, Takatsuki ambushed the Bucciarati Squad, throwing Giorno into the Mirror World inside the turtle, then discarding the turtle to prevent Giorno from interfering.
He then crippled Mista's combat ability, directly extracting and killing Bucciarati, Narancia, and Abbachio.
Trish, who hadn't awakened her Stand, was too terrified by the scene to move, and he naturally had no intention of harming her.
Thus, all the main quests were completed.
As for the subsequent side quest, Takatsuki already had an idea. Defying fate doesn't necessarily require complete victory, so Takatsuki reconstructed the three individuals' bodies using replica dolls and inserted Discs, "reviving" them.
Although there were many ethical considerations involved, Takatsuki didn't care.
To describe it in one sentence:
Saving you has nothing to do with you.
Ignoring the few people who were hostile to him, Takatsuki confirmed the mission completion and directly left that world.
As for what would happen to Fugo's body left there, or whether they would beat him up, Takatsuki couldn't be bothered.
"Mission reward: Player level increased to 20."
"Good heavens, I forgot about that setting until you leveled up."
What level was Takatsuki originally? Level five?
This leveling experience was truly difficult to obtain.
"There's nothing I can do, Daddy. You messed up the main storyline of the Original World so badly that there was no way to gain experience. Luckily, this opportunity found a small loophole."
Ai's voice held a hint of helplessness. She continued, "Not just that, there's an even better reward."
"A better reward? What is it?"
Reaching level twenty not only increased the number of equipable character cards, with the cost increasing to 24 points, allowing him to equip three S-rank character cards and even two SS-rank ones, but his equipment slots also increased to seven.
He had never fought such a wealthy battle...
That was probably the feeling.
And even then, Ai said there was a better reward?
"It's a chance to ascend to Heaven."
"Ascend to Heaven?!"
Takatsuki's eyes widened: "Is it what I'm thinking? The one from Jojo?!"
Ai's voice was full of affirmation: "Of course, after all, it's the result of me analyzing it while Daddy was defying fate."
"So, what do I do?"
Although extremely excited, Takatsuki still suppressed the urgency in his heart.
What did ascending to Heaven mean? In the Jojo universe, it was practically saying he would become a god.
Through the sublimation of a Stand, one could obtain even greater power.
"Don't rush, this is just an opportunity, and I still need some time to refine this method."
Ai's voice held a hint of helplessness: "This ritual is specific to the fate of that world; it's a kind of summons of fate, so Daddy can't use the original method."
What was the original method?
Thirty-six souls of great evil, the courage to abandon one's Stand, trustworthy friends, the Stand "The World," fourteen secret phrases, and...
A special location.
Although this method was Pucci's way of ascending to Heaven, it was actually originally prepared by Dio for himself. He had made many preparations for it, but they were brutally shattered by Jotaro.
No one knew how Dio learned this method, nor did anyone know why he was so certain that this method would open a new world after ascending to Heaven, but Pucci successfully used this method to fulfill Dio's long-cherished wish, proving that this method was not his own fantasy.
"We need to prepare our own method for ascending to Heaven, free from the limitations of that world's fate, and..."
Ai's voice held some delight: "This method must be completed in that world, and some things must be prepared in advance. This preparation is much more difficult than the method Dio prepared."
Ascending to Heaven in the Jojo world was a trap prepared by fate.
Moreover, this method was only applicable to a few individuals.
Takatsuki naturally couldn't use it.
But with his daughter by his side, a method uniquely his own was presented to him.
A path to ultimate evolution.