– New York City, America- 11:30 AM –
Kars soared over the city, surveying the scale of destruction wrought by the Reich and dark aether forces. Those who did spot him on the way were eventually cut down by him.
"I've only dealt with patrols at this point, no elites," he muttered, eyeing the Ausmerzen in the sky. "Perhaps it's time to investigate that flying fortress. And—"
Boom!
Suddenly, his wings were blown apart by two micro-missiles from behind, sending him crashing hard into the ground.
As his arms began to regenerate, Kars stood and shouted furiously, "WHO DARES STRIKE ME FROM BEHIND?!"
"Long time no see, Kars."
The familiar voice made Kars' eyes widen. He turned to see the good old Rudol Von Stroheim, whose shoulders were now equipped with retractable micro-missile launchers.
"You should be in space," he said calmly.
"And I assumed you were dead," Kars spat back in disdain.
"Well, fate had other plans. Reincarnating in a timeline where the Reich won the war using ancient technology of the Da'at Yichud was not what I expect. But with this new cybernetic body, which I'm now twice as powerful than the form you met all those years back! Or has it been much longer?" He shrugged. "Who knows."
Kars drew his blades. "The results will be the same. Besides, there is no volcano to launch me into space this time. If you're alive, perhaps Joseph is too. If he is, I'll spill his blood on this earth!"
"Still want him dead after all these years?" Stroheim scoffed and chuckled at his words, "Seems like old habits never die."
"They never do."
With a small smile, Stroheim adjusted his monocle.
"Shall we begin?"
~ Guilty Gear OST - Find Your One Way ~
"The hell are you thin-"
Just as Kars was about to step forward, Stroheim already rushed towards Kars at incredible speed and delivered a hard punch to his face that stunned him. Stroheim followed by sending a left hook, but Kars quickly recovered and swings his blades on him and both his blade and Stroheim's fist collided, creating a massive shockwave, which surprised Kars given his blades should have sliced through Stroheim like butter.
"What?!"
"Da'at Yichud steel, son!"
Taking advantage of Kars' surprise, Stroheim headbutted him and then uppercut him into the air.
With a ferocious roar, Kars morphed his arms into wings and flew toward Stroheim for a dropkick. Stroheim quickly jumped back, and the kick hit the ground instead.
As Stroheim landed, he fired a red plasma laser from his monocle at Kars, sweeping the beam horizontally and cutting Kars' body in half, along with several buildings, which collapsed around them.
Stroheim looked at Kars' bisected body and laughed.
"Come on, Kars! I know you're not dead!"
With a sigh, Kars reattached his body with ease and unleashed a barrage of wind slashes toward Stroheim. In response, Stroheim activated a cybernetic implant he had acquired on his spine from Arasaka hours earlier, which is called...
"SANDEVISTAN!"
Suddenly, Stroheim's body moved at a speed beyond that of a normal human, leaving afterimages as he dodged the slashes and appeared right in front of Kars' face.
"NANI?!"
"BAKA MONOGA!!"
Shouting, Stroheim punched Kars' face into the ground, then grabbed his legs and swung him like a WWE Cesaro, sending him crashing into a billboard on a nearby building.
"GERMAN TECHNOLOGY IS THE FINEST!"
The next moment, his abdomen opened, revealing a machine gun that began firing a stream of .50 caliber rounds at Kars. Still on the billboard, Kars deflected the bullets, but the billboard behind him was shredded to pieces.
In the midst of the barrage, Stroheim switched to depleted uranium rounds and increased the firing speed. Kars had to deflect at an even higher speed, but the relentless barrage started to overwhelm him to the point that some bullets began to hit him.
"Damn it!"
Two rounds struck his eyes, blinding him, and the rest tore through his body, sending him falling from the billboard to the ground.
Stroheim chuckled, "I'm liking these upgrades."
As Kars got up and regenerated his wounds, he stabbed the ground with his fingers and used his organic life creation powers to make multiple sharpened bamboo spikes erupt from the ground around Stroheim to impale him from below, but he quickly activated his Sandevistan, moving at incredible speeds to dodge the spikes and get behind Kars.
"Where did he—"
"Right behind you."
But this time, Kars anticipated the move and swung his blade. Stroheim leaped over the swing, and the blade sliced a car in half instead. With a grin, Stroheim spun midair and kicked Kars in the face, sending him backward.
"You are going down, you dummkopf!" Stroheim shouted, cracking his knuckles. He clenched his hand into a tight fist, causing the air around it to twist, and punched out.
Over tens of meters away, Stroheim flickered, and the punch arrived instantly, almost as if by teleportation, with his fist buried in Kars' chest.
Kars braced himself, expecting to be blasted back, but for some reason, he didn't move.
"...What?"
Suddenly, gravity shifted, sending Kars and numerous items in the streets spinning away before flying back to Stroheim's direction.
Stroheim grabbed Kars from behind again, executing a German suplex that shattered the ground apart and sent them both falling straight through the earth. Soon, they landed on top of a moving underground train in the city's tunnel network, which was filled with dark aether zombies.
"You done, Kars?" Stroheim asked with a sneer.
"Not yet!"
🎶STRIKE BACK!🎶
Activating his jet boots, Stroheim flew towards Kars and kneed him in the face. Kars kicked him away and went for a vertical slash, but Stroheim dodged with his Sandevistan and punched the back of Kars' head, tossing him onto the roof of the train's third carriage. Stroheim fired another laser beam from his monocle, but Kars blocked it with his blades and created multiple octopus tendrils from his back and send them toward Stroheim.
Stroheim quickly morphed his hands into buzzsaws and sliced through the tendrils, swinging his arms left and right, but one tendril managed to slap his face.
"YOU DARE STRIKE MY FACE?!"
In a rage, Stroheim ripped the tendril apart and uppercut Kars into the air. He then flipped a cannon shell into the air, which landed in a loading chamber on his right arm. The chamber closed, and his right arm morphed into a cannon. Stroheim rammed the cannon barrel into Kars' chest while he was airborne and fired the shell, blasting a hole through Kars' chest and back. The force of the shot sent Kars flying through the tunnel ceiling.
————————————————————
Back on the streets, the ground burst open as Kars flew out and crashed into the wall of a building. Stroheim followed, jumping out of the same hole and firing micro missiles from his shoulder launchers. The missiles impacted Kars and the building, causing the entire structure to collapse and bury him.
"Flawless victory for me."
But Kars emerged from the rubble unscathed, roaring as he flew toward Stroheim.
"HAMON!"
Red electricity crackled around Kars' body as he channeled his more deadlier version of Hamon and strike Stroheim in the chest with his Hamon-infused fist. But to his surprise, Stroheim's body refused to melt, all because the Da'at Yichud steel encompassing Stroheim's body, except for his head, acted as a poor conductor for Hamon, preventing it from traveling through his body.
"What?! What are you?!?"
"A fellow soldier of the Reich!"
Stroheim activated his Sandevistan and rammed Kars through dozens of buildings before smashing his face into a wall and tossing him into the air. Kars unfurled his wings and flew into the sky, with Stroheim in pursuit by activating his jet boots.
"There must be something he's vulnerable to," Kars muttered while gritting his teeth. Then an idea struck him. "Wait! He's vulnerable from within."
Kars created countless small termite mounds on his wing feathers and launched them at Stroheim, who blocked the feathers, but the termites began infiltrating his cybernetic body through the gaps.
"The termites will cripple him by attacking his mechanical parts with the evolved pincers I created for them,"
With that in mind, Kars let out a malevolent grin, thinking it might be over for his opponent.
Stroheim, however, activated a nitrogen coolant system within his body, which freezed the termites. The frozen insects fell out of his body and shattered upon hitting the ground.
"Close, but no drinks on me," Stroheim sneered.
As Stroheim calmly said those words, he flew at Kars with even greater speed. Kars scoffed and went for a Hamon strike to Stroheim's head, but Stroheim activated his Sandevistan and dodged the attack, slamming both his fists down on Kars' face and sending him crashing onto the roof of the Empire State Building.
Stroheim landed in front of Kars and began a relentless assault, punching his chest repeatedly.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"
Reeling his right fist back, he gripped it tightly and yelled.
"DIE, YOU PIECE OF SCHIEBE!"
With full force, Stroheim punched Kars so hard his fist ignited an explosion, blowing the entire roof of the skyscraper completely. Following that, Kars crashed back to the ground along with the roof's rubble, but he noticed Stroheim landing dozens of meters away and approached him once more.
Stroheim cracked his knuckles. "My blood is red, white, and black, Kars. I wonder what color yours is."
Kars stood up with a scowl. "Stroheim, you can't kill me. This fight is damn pointless."
"Well, I'm having a good time testing my cybernetics."
As he spoke, Stroheim activated his Sandevistan and ran around Kars in a blur. Kars heightened his senses to determine from where he would attack.
Then, he sensed an attack coming from the right.
"I GOT YOU NOW!"
Kars shouted and brought out his Hamon-imbued blades, aiming for Stroheim's head. But Stroheim grabbed the blades, ripped them off Kars' arms, and stabbed him in the head with them. However, Kars isn't finished as he extended the blades from his legs and swung at Stroheim, who caught these too, ripped them off, and stabbed Kars in the eyes.
Blinded and wounded, Kars still stood, The pain and anger fueled his resolve as his body beginning to regenerate.
With a furious roar, Kars gathered all his power to land a single hit, but Stroheim swiftly evaded and transformed his arms into miniguns, activating his abdomen machine gun and launching micro missiles from his shoulders, firing all of his arsenals on Kars at once like a happy trigger maniac.
"HAHAHAHAHA!! CRY SOME MORE!!!"
Stroheim continued firing his weapons witj the micro missiles adding to the chaos and filling the air with smoke. Though Stroheim couldn't see the immediate results through the smoke, he knew his shots were hitting Kars. When the smoke finally cleared and Stroheim ceased fire, he was surprised to see Kars encased in his clam armor, which had absorbed all the rounds from Stroheim's bullet and missile barrage.
"Haven't seen that armor in a long time. Last time you used it was to survive the volcano," Stroheim remarked.
Kars chuckled confidently. "I'm glad you remember. Now, unless you have any missiles or bullets left, fire them. But they're useless against this armor. Coupled with my Hamon, not even your pitiful nuclear weapons could dent it. Is there anything useful left for you?"
Stroheim smirked ominously. "Just one."
"Hm?"
At that moment, Stroheim's chest opened a T-shaped hole as it begins glowing intensely red.
BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!
Before Kars could react, the German cyborg unleashed a massive pillar of red energy at him. Concentric rings, from large to small formed around the pillar of plasma, emitting a deep vibration and an ominous humming sound.
This time, Kars could neither block nor dodge. He was forced to face this attack head-on, uncertain if either his armor would be enough to withstand it.
The beam struck directly where he stood. The immense, crushing force drove him to his knees instantly.
"RAGGGHHHHHH!!!"
Kars struggled to endure. His armor crumbled, disintegrated piece by piece, but he stood firm as was swallowed up by the light, completely immersing him in its powerful embrace as his armor and body began to gradually vaporize until there was nothing left. But the devastation didn't end there..
The beam of energy traveled a further distance, going as far as miles upon miles, destroying whatever was in its path. As a result, countless buildings, skyscrapers that were high enough to receive the blast were easily obliterated by it and were reduced to rubble in an instant
It all happened in an instant too, at a speed mere humans could never comprehend.
Finally, Stroheim decided to shut down the laser beam and catch his breath. He looked ahead to see that Kars was reduced to nothing more than a skeleton, with only his eyes still intact. Everything behind him, including the road, buildings, and even the Statue of Liberty itself was completely scorched and melted by the intense heat of the blast.
"Huh... so that's what it does."
~ Music Ended ~
Adding to his shock, Stroheim noticed Kars' eyes staring directly at him. In mere moments, Kars' entire body regenerated, his skin, organs, muscle tissue, and clothes. Soon, he was back to normal, though visibly shaken and breathing heavily.
"T-That was very close!"
"Well, this is surprising."
"As I said, you can never kill me. I will come back again and again. Now I know your moves, and you wasted them for nothing. Fate hasn't written my defeat by your hands!"
Hearing this, Stroheim burst into laughter, seemingly to irritate Kars.
"What's so funny?!" Kars demanded.
"You're right, actually."
"Huh?"
"It's not my fate to defeat you, and it never was. You're nothing more than... a practice dummy to test my cybernetics today," Stroheim said in an insulting way.
"You little wrenc-...!"
"SHUT IT, KARS!" Stroheim interrupted firmly. "A Joestar will defeat you and it will always be a Joestar that is fated to defeat someone of great evil like you and those with a sense of justice. Fate favors justice, and that is why you lost that day because of your arrogance and evil!"
Kars scoffed, "Bold statements coming from someone serving those who committed many war crimes!"
"True, but I mean well," Stroheim replied as he began to walk away.
"DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, STROHEIM!! FIGHT ME!"
"Our fight is meaningless," Stroheim stated bluntly. "And like I said, I came to test my gear on you, knowing you're unkillable. I have a war to attend to. Do whatever the hell you want, you are always fated to lose anyway."
Kars was seething with anger, his teeth clenched so tightly they seemed ready to shatter and veins were popping on his forehead. Just an insult from Stroheim was unacceptable and seeing himself as nothing more than a testing dummy for his opponent's gear, fueled his rage to its peak.
He was truly pissed off.
"RAAAARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
But just as Kars was about to charge at Stroheim again, both of them heard a loud rumbling from the streets below. They both turn to it, only to be met with an enormous flood of water rushing towards them, dwarfing countless buildings in its path.
"A flood?!"
Reacting swiftly, Stroheim and Kars took to the air, and the flood hit the streets they had just been standing on, submerging everything beneath the water.
As Stroheim landed on a rooftop, he scanned his surroundings but saw no sign of Kars.
"He must've bailed out," he muttered to himself, then turned his attention back to the flooded streets. "This water is at least two hundred feet high. But how did this flood happen?"
To find the answer, we need to rewind to the moment Stroheim and Kars began their intense battle.