Dio and Clark stood frozen at the doorway, their eyes wide as saucers as they stared straight at the massive dark figure slowly rising near the barn.
Rain blew inside, dripping off the ends of their hair, but neither of them bothered to wipe it away.
“Dad…” Dio’s voice took on a trace of tension.
“What the hell is that thing?”
“Did that kid leave it behind?”
“Dio…” Clark felt terrible.
Normally, he should have been able to see clearly through the rain to the shadow on the other side, or even noticed the anomaly the moment before opening the door, but…
All of his senses felt as though they were wrapped in a thick fog.
“Uncle Rock…”
“I…”
Clark’s lips turned pale.
“I feel…
a bit…”
Before he could finish his sentence, an unprecedented wave of weakness suddenly swept through his entire body.
His knees buckled, and he pitched forward.
“Clark!”
Rock acted swiftly, his powerful arm catching the falling boy before he hit the ground.
The moment he touched him, Rock immediately noticed something wrong—
Clark’s body temperature was terrifyingly low, and his muscles were twitching uncontrollably.
This was definitely no ordinary physical discomfort.
Through the curtain of rain, the dark figure by the barn had stood up completely.
With the aid of an occasional flash of lightning, Rock finally saw the creature’s true form—
A humanoid monster over three meters tall, assembled entirely from jagged metal fragments.
Most terrifying of all, the faint green light emanating from its chest burned with a sickening glare in the stormy night.
“Kryptonite…”
Rock’s heart sank to the very bottom.
No wonder Clark had suddenly grown so weak; no wonder his super-senses hadn’t warned them in advance.
That damned green rock was practically engineered to counter Clark.
“D-Dad…” Dio’s voice turned sharp.
“That thing is moving!”
Indeed—
The metal monster began to stride forward.
Its movements were stiff at first, but with every step it took, the metal fragments at its joints emitted an ear-splitting grinding sound, as if it were rapidly ‘adapting’ to this body.
“Take Clark inside!
Dio!” Rock barked sternly.
Gritting his teeth, Dio summoned The The World, intending to drag Clark back into the house.
However, a task that was usually effortless proved exceptionally difficult—
Clark’s weight seemed to have suddenly increased tenfold.
Every step The The World took was like dragging a mountain.
“Would it kill you to eat a little less, you big dummy…”
A wave of dizziness washed over his mind, and Dio panted as he complained, yet he still commanded The The World to grip Clark’s arm even tighter.
*THUMP!*
“Uncle…
Clark lifted his head weakly, his blue eyes filled with self-blame.
“I’m sorry…
I’m dragging you down…”
“Relax, Clark.” Rock interrupted him without turning his head.
“This isn’t anyone’s fault.”
As he spoke, out of the corner of his eye, Rock noticed that Clark’s fingertips were beginning to turn an unnatural bluish-gray—
The Kryptonite radiation was rapidly eroding the young Kryptonian’s vitality.
Damn it.
*HUM—!*
With a low hum, the metal monster suddenly came to a halt.
It tilted its head, its glowing green eyes seeming to observe the three of them from a distance.
The action carried a bizarrely human curiosity, making the atmosphere all the more bloodcurdling.
“It…
it’s watching us?” Dio’s voice trembled slightly.
Rock didn’t answer.
His brain worked at high speed, recalling Giorno’s warning right before he disappeared.
Could he have been referring to this?
But why now?
Why did it have to be right when—
*BOOM—!*
A blinding bolt of lightning ripped open the night sky, its ghastly white light instantly illuminating the entire farm.
*HUM—!*
The lightning struck the monster directly, but it clearly did no damage.
The creature merely shuddered once before continuing its advance with cold precision.
Yet, using that fleeting burst of light, Rock finally caught sight of an engraving beneath the Kryptonite on the monster’s chest through Star Platinum’s eyes—
A faint, X-shaped mark.
Rock’s pupils contracted instantly, and his heart nearly skipped a beat!
Weapon X!
That ‘Reaper-9’ that he was supposed to have shattered into pieces had actually revived itself using the radiation energy of the Kryptonite?!
“Damn it…”
Rock gritted his teeth, his fists unconsciously tightening.
The battle from a month ago was still vivid in his mind—
The silver liquid that seeped into the soil after the metal giant was blown apart, the writhing remains that eerily vanished in the rain…
The two suits from the clean-up team who had left empty-handed…
He had thought it was all over, but they had merely been dormant, waiting for a more powerful energy source to reassemble themselves.
And now, they had found it—
Kryptonite!
“D-Dad?” Dio’s voice came from behind, carrying a rare note of unease.
“Look at the direction that thing is walking!”
Nodding, Rock kept his gaze locked onto the monster.
Dio was right.
The monster was slowly turning its body, its metallic joints letting out stomach-churning grinding noises as its massive form crushed the wheat field, heading straight toward—
Wait?!
Rock’s breathing hitched violently.
“Jonathan…
The words were virtually squeezed out through his gritted teeth.
Giorno’s parting words flashed through his mind in an instant:
*”Watch out for our barn.”*
*”Today is a critical junction.
The Professor said that right in the middle of this rainstorm, my never-before-seen Grandma Martha and Grandpa Jonathan, they—”*
So that was it!
The monster’s target wasn’t them at all—it was the Kent couple!
Perhaps it feared Rock, who had killed it once before, or perhaps it had been pre-programmed with a target!
In any case—
WXR9 was now nothing more than a cold, unfeeling slaughter machine.
“Dio…”
Rock’s voice turned urgent.
“Remember what I taught you?
What do you do when you encounter an enemy you can’t beat?”
“Ensure safety first, then look for an opportunity to strike back,” Dio answered instinctively, a glint of understanding flashing in his red eyes.
“But right now, we—”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
The metal monster suddenly unleashed a piercing metallic shriek, and the Kryptonite on its chest blazed with an intense green light.
Clark immediately curled into a ball in agony, his blue eyes half-closed and his breathing rapid and faint.
The Kryptonite radiation was swiftly draining the life force he had accumulated under the yellow sun.
The rain poured down harder, heavy drops pelting the three of them, yet unable to douse the spreading despair.
Dio’s blond hair clung wetly to his forehead, Clark’s breathing grew fainter by the second, and Rock…
Rock suddenly smiled.
“Dio,” he said without looking back, “do you remember the ‘critical junction’ Giorno mentioned?”
Dio froze.
“Are you saying…”
“History has already changed.”
Rock slowly drew himself up to his full height.
Star Platinum emerged behind him, its purple figure radiating a subtle aura in the rainy night.
“But some things are meant to be settled by the Kents.”
“Dad, then let me fight alongside—”
“No.” Rock cut him off flatly, stating simply, “Right now, you take the tractor, get to Jonathan and Martha before the monster does, and take Clark with you.”
“But—”
“No buts!” Rock’s voice left no room for argument.
“Remember what I said!”
The command hit Dio’s heart like a heavy sledgehammer.
He looked down at the dying Clark in his arms, then looked up at the lumbering metal shadow in the distance—
A choice.
Dio’s lips trembled slightly.
He stood frozen in place, watching his father step forward alone to face the colossal monstrosity.
In the pouring rain, Rock’s back looked impossibly tall.
His cowboy hat was long gone, his brown curly hair soaked through, yet none of it diminished his steady, unwavering composure.