Author's Notes: So this has been an idea that's been stuck in my head for some time. I've come across a few Kuroinu fanfics (all crossovers), and I figured I had an idea that hadn't been done before. Now granted, from what I've seen, a lot of these fics come down to harems or pure lemon-fics (which is better than how (half) the original material mostly consisted of nauseatingly viscious rape hentai). So, I figured, in my imagination, Eostia could do with a fighter of an entirely different caliber. Do keep in mind, however, that while Kars is Kars, he'll be heavily nerfed compared to what he used to be (which would still make him stronger than virtually anyone or anything else, but he can't be omnipresent and omnipotent anymore (yes, I know that goes against the canon, but it's just not good for fic material)). And, lastly, what better person to save a land about to be savaged than someone as... peculiar as Joseph Joestar's great rival. Without further ado, here's the prologue.

Redemption

No way. The vacuum of space would have made him scream in agony had his lungs not been fully robbed of air. Even the burning death the volcano's magma had offered was not nearly as bad as his blood boiling from within. This cannot end here. He was drifting farther and farther from Earth, after all he had done, after all he had accomplished. I AM THE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM. I CANNOT DIE HERE. But his wrathful thoughts were given no answer, as the world, his world, became so small it was a blue spec in the distance. DAMN YOU JOJO. And just like that, the spec was gone. The moon went away much faster. It took every bit of his strength to get into a comfortable position, cross-legged and eyes closed. His blood had since stopped boiling and ice was spreading to his body. It was up to his neck. How? His head froze as well.

And so, he drifted into space, deprived of every sense save for consciousness itself. I am Kars, the last of the Pillar Men. I created the masks, improved myself a hundredfold where my people were stagnant. My one weakness, the Sun, became my strength. Hamon, my poison, became my weapon. I am the ultimate life form, how could I lose? How? Silence was his answer, silence and darkness. In the hell that was to be trapped within his own thoughts, he fought with righteous fury to remember himself in all his glory. I am Kars, the ultimate life form. I am Kars, the undying. I am Kars, the immortal. I am Kars, the God!

But in the absolute emptiness of space, the ultimate abyss, man and god were the same. Powerless. So, he fought tooth and nail to remember himself, his life, his memories, his dreams, his fears. I am Kars, master of Esidisi and Waamu. I am Kars, the last of the Pillar Men. I am Kars, the father of the vampires. I am Kars, the ultimate life form. But time was irrelevant when there was nothing to measure it with, and seconds could be years and years be seconds. Enough passed so that he struggled to simply remember his name. I am Kars. I am Kars. I am Kars. I am Kars.

But name and identity were worthless with no one around to behold them. And in time, those thoughts drifted from his head. Memories were beginning to flee him, as he struggled to keep himself from going dormant again. He no longer thought with fury and righteousness, but merely curiosity, simply looking for an answer for his eternal punishment. I succeeded. I survived my race and the Sun, I found the stone, I defeated the brunt of my enemies. Why would I achieve the ultimate power just for it to be rendered useless?

And the flames of wrath were slowly washed way by the mellow waters of defeat. What was the point? I lost Esidisi, my old friend, and Waamu, my loyal warrior. Even Santana, the servant that followed us. Their sacrifices were in vain now, because I did not even fail. I have what I wanted, I earned the power, and instead it was rendered useless. Why? Silence again. Defeat soon transformed into mourning and regret, solitude turning into a horrifying punishment.

Do I deserve this? If I was wrong and JoJo had the right of it from the start, then I should have been cut down from the start. Yes, I was ruthless, but I wouldn't have been if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I should be dead. Instead, I am trapped. And from regret, humility slowly birthed into his mind, if not with afterglows of the old righteous cause and ambition that had fueled him. JoJo defeated me not because my cause was wrong, I WAS meant to be the ultimate life form. It's because I misused this, looked to earn it the wrong way, and use it for the wrong reasons. I was meant to be the god of that world, but I strove to be its devil instead.

In the end, Kars was Kars, he would never fully understand the concept of humility after centuries of embedding egomania into his being, but he accepted that he suffered for his sins, and that just as he had earned godhood, he earned solitude. And so, in that final nirvanic state of understanding and acceptance, he stopped thinking and allowed himself to surrender to the silence. He drifted and drifted through the vacuum of space and time, his mind slowly freezing along with the rest of his body. In his last moments, a few last words formed in his brain. If I were to start all over again, I would try once more, but I would do it right. Silence was his answer.

Then came warmth. Between when he last thought and when the warmth came, he could not tell how long had passed. But for a few moments, he felt blessed with the internal warmth. His body was yet frozen, but he could feel it in his mind, in his soul, a hand reaching out to him. He let it grab him, pull his mind elsewhere, give him sensation. It could have very well been pain and he would still have welcomed it, memories of his blood boiling in space bringing forth nostalgia rather than trauma. But it was something else, as if his eyes were being guided and pulled into a window to look elsewhere. Outside they were closed, but in his mind, he opened them.

He was standing, beneath blue skies and above lands green and fertile. It was a welcome sensation, a beautiful image so grand and true that he almost laughed in wondrous joy. He wasn't though, it didn't quite feel right on this occasion. He'd done things here, he sensed, he wasn't sure what. He had never been in this place, and while he didn't have any sort of 'true' magic himself, he could tell that the place he was in was truly fermented with it. He was on top of a green hill, and a gush of wind blew his mauve mane back. He turned to the source and found the edge of a storm coming close to him. When he focused on it, the world shifted around him.

He was in the eye of the storm now, the gale screaming in his ear. No rain came, but the silence had been drowned by a chain of thunders, so fast he would have mistaken them for the beating of a great titan's heart. Looking down, he raised a brow at the sight that beheld him. Where once he stood on top of an amicable green hill, now he was above a mountain of corpses. The blood on his hands confirmed that they were his victims. Some were men, more were beasts of different sorts, none of which he recognized. His brows furrowed at the sight. Why did I do this? Though he felt no guilt nor regret nor horror when he asked the question in his mind, only feeling pure curiosity at the sight.

One body caught his sight, the only one standing, alive. She was at the foot of the mountain, looking above at him in terror, though not cowering from the sight. He started walking down, stepping over heads and bodies and limbs, dismembered or not. When he reached her, he found her to be… unique. She was dressed similarly dressed to those who were once his kind, wearing naught more than sandals up to her knees and a few cloths to cover her breasts and her nether regions. She looked fair, he'd admit, though at the moment, that was the last thought on his mind. Her silvery blond hair blew with the next gust, allowing him to see her very pointed ears. Not human then, or at least not fully.

"Did you do this?" While there was a measure of fear in her voice, it was better laced with curiosity than accusation. He turned his head halfway back to look at the pile again. It was probably around fifteen feet tall. He turned back to her, rubies boring on emeralds. "It would seem so."

"Why?" When she asked, he asked himself the same thing. Again, he did not feel the necessity to purge all other 'lower lifeforms' from the world, but he did not feel bad about it either. "I don't know. Perhaps they deserved it."

She frowned but said nothing. There was silence between the two, occasionally interrupted by the winds or the dripping wet sound of the blood falling from his hands. "Who are you?"

A thousand and one names and titles came to his mind, but they didn't seem as important now. "Who do you think I am?"

"Someone who will change this world completely. For the better, I pray." He looked around. The storm still left the world obscure, and what once was a beautiful landscape was now littered with corpses and blood. "As do I."

She frowned again, though Kars remained still. She was rather tall by human female standards, around six feet, he would guess. That still made him a foot taller than her. He observed her calmly, waiting for her to start the conversation again. She looked into his eyes with reluctance, if not with a hint of pinkness in her cheeks as well. "For the sake of Eostia, I hope I am doing the right thing."

She carefully pressed her hand against his chest, and suddenly, he was back in the nothingness again. He was shocked at first, but the warmth that had entered his mind slowly spread to his heart, blood beginning to pump again and bringing the rest of him to life. For a brief moment he thought on the blonde woman who had granted him sensation again and wanted nothing more than to pleasure her until he left her body wholly numb. The thoughts quickly left his mind, granting them little care in favor of merely feeling again. He felt warmer and warmer. And warmer. And warmer. It wasn't quite burning, but it was intense. Then there was a light. And so the ice shattered.

Author's Notes: Not quite Kars, but not fully OOC either. I figured this would be a fun little scenario to create, see how it comes along. It would definitely have defining moments and Kars does get plenty of his old abilities back, but being stuck in space for such a long time perma-weakened him. I want the Princess Knights to have a fighting chance. If I put Kars as the Ultimate Lifeform in this fic, it'll be a gory one-off that no one will survive (there's nothing that would stop him from duplicating himself (hence why in his description, it read 'Sex' as 'Useless')).

So, let me know what you think and if any of you fiends would like to read more of this. It won't be a priority amongst the fics I'm writing, but I'd try to update it from time to time.

The Almighty Afroduck,

All Hail