| abstract | - Joseph goes to Mexico in search of Speedwagon, revealed to be alive in a secret underground Nazi facility where the Nazis are trying to revive a man who seems to have been trapped in a stone pillar for 2,000 years. Here Joseph meets the Nazi Rudol von Stroheim. Unfortunately, the Nazis are successful in awakening the man, who is christened "Santana" before he kills most of them. Joseph battles Santana and manage to defeat him with Stroheim's help before he seemingly died. Before Stroheim dies, the nazi reveals that three more "sleeping pillar men" have been discovered underneath the Colosseum in Rome and that Joseph must stop them and meet with an ally. In Rome, Joseph meets Caesar, a trained Ripple user near his age who is supposed to show Joseph the ropes. At first, they are unable to do anything but argue; Caesar blames Jonathan Joestar for causing the death of his grandfather William Anthonio Zeppeli through his incompetence. Caesar brings a Nazi named Mark to drive them to the Colosseum, where they find the three pillar men, Wamuu, Esidisi, and Kars, awakened. Mark is casually killed by Wamuu, enraging Caesar and causing the pair to fight him. Unfortunately, even with his American Ripple-Infused Clackers, the untrained Joseph is unable to stand a chance. Luckily, he manages to talk them out of killing him promising to train for a whole month for a rematch. To ensure that Joseph does not chicken out, Wamuu and Esidisi both end up inserting a "wedding ring" inside Joseph's heart and throat. They explain that the rings are internal time bombs set to release poison into his blood if he does not defeat them and retrieve the antidote they carry within a month. Joseph realizes that he will have to train or die, and Caesar introduces Joseph to his master Lisa Lisa, who also reveals that the motives of the pillar men are to seize the Red Stone of Aja to become perfect life forms.
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