Kars

Kars is the leader of the Pillar Men and the main antagonist of Part 2: Battle Tendency.

Kars is the leader of the Pillar Men, and the designer of the Stone Mask. His goal is to evolve further to become immune to the sun's rays, and thus he seeks the Red Stone of Aja to empower his Masks, battling the Ripple users for its possession.

As the creator of the Stone Masks and Vampires, Kars is one of the more influential characters in the series, his invention having far reaching repercussions for a number of major characters, such as Dio Brando, the Joestar Family and the Zeppeli Family.

Early History
Kars was born 102,000 years before the events of Battle Tendency. His people - who would be dubbed "Pillar Men" in the future - lived underground and survived off the essence of other living things, failing to reproduce due to their long and worthy lifespans. Despite living in a peaceful, well-supplied society, Kars was dissatisfied; in his eyes, his race could easily rule over the Earth if not for their lethal weakness to sunlight. Consumed by ambition, he began seeking a way for his race to "tame the sun" and leave the underground.

In time, Kars created the Stone Masks and began to test their effects on himself. However, their spines were unable to penetrate his own skin deeply enough to unlock his full potential - instead, he gained increased body manipulation powers at the cost of greatly increased hunger.

Eventually, his race began to fear Kars for his obsession, as the increased hunger caused by the mask would threaten their way of life if its use became widespread. Soon, Kars found himself under attack from the rest of his people, who sought his execution despite his protests. Unable to sway them to his side with promises of godhood, he slaughtered his people himself, including his own parents. Along with Esidisi, one of the only members of his race who agreed with his ideals, he took two children, who were presumably the Pillar Men to be known as Santana and Wamuu.

Eventually, Kars learned of the Red Stone of Aja, coming to believe that its power would perfect the Stone Mask. He developed a modified version of the mask that could combine with a flawless "Super Aja", leaving Santana behind while he and the others traveled across the sea to Europe. There, during the time of the Roman Empire, Kars found a Super Aja in the possession of a Roman Emperor, only to be blocked from his goal by a tribe of Ripple users. While successful in the tribe's decimation, he and his comrades were forced to hibernate under the Roman Colosseum.

Battle Tendency (1939)
In the present, Kars is introduced as the leader of the Pillar Men, getting attacked by Wamuu after stepping on his shadow and apologizing for having forgotten that trait. After Joseph's initial defeat, Kars and the other Pillar Men set off to find the location of the Red Stone of Aja, eventually settling in an abandoned mansion in San Moritz, Switzerland. Having found a lead to the stone, Esidisi had planned to contact Kars after retrieving it, but was promptly defeated by Joseph instead. Growing suspicious at the lack of contact, Kars sets off to Italy to handle things himself.

At the border between Switzerland and Italy, he is confronted by Rudol von Stroheim and Joseph Joestar; he quickly deduces that the latter was responsible for Esidisi's death, and vows to kill Joseph in return once he secures the Red Stone of Aja. Although briefly caught off-guard by Stroheim's new cyborg body - designed to surpass the Pillar Men, based off of Santana's data - he soon regains the advantage and cuts the German down, revealing that Santana was easily the weakest of the four. He manages to retrieve the Red Stone, only to have it taken from him by Joseph after a short struggle and a fall off a cliff. Kars travels back to San Moritz, where he is eventually confronted by Joseph and Lisa Lisa. After watching Joseph's victory over Wamuu, he agrees to have a fair fight with Lisa Lisa at the nearby ruins, but ultimately tricks her during their fight with a doppelgänger and steals the stone from her, leaving her unconscious.

This immediately enrages Joseph, who battles Kars but is continually trapped in a dilemma where Kars pierces Lisa Lisa's feet and strings a rope through the wounds, forcing Joseph to grab the rope to stop her from falling. An overconfident Kars approaches as Joseph lights his scarf on fire and attacks, but falls from the beam clutching the rope as Kars severs it to finish off Lisa Lisa. However, this is revealed to have been Joseph's intentional setup, as he drew Kars' attention to his upper body while he arranged the loop of rope with his legs below, tricking him into stepping into the loop and forcing him to keep his opponents above the spikes below. Kars faces Joseph in a final standoff with his arm blade, but is soundly beaten as Joseph's Ripple breaks the blade and wounds his arm, knocking him off the railing and into the spikes below. Stroheim and his Nazi troops arrive along with Speedwagon, Smokey and the Speedwagon Foundation Special Forces. Stroheim gloats over Kars before ordering his troops to finish the Pillar Man off.

As the Nazis unleash ultraviolet light upon him, Kars unexpectedly dons a modified Stone Mask with the Super Aja in place; the light activates the mask and enables him to enter his ultimate form. The humans can only stand in horror as Kars displays his new-found power by briefly transforming his hand into a flesh-eating squirrel and then standing in the sunlight while his remaining vampire minions are instantly destroyed. Kars then proceeds to enact his murderous intent on Joseph's life as the latter lures him away from the others in a German airplane, using it to force Kars into a volcano in hopes the magma can kill him.

Inside the volcano, Kars evolves a continuous and inorganic porous material to protect himself from the magma while digging his way out and slicing Joseph's arm off. He then developed his own Ripple, the energy potent enough to melt human flesh, deciding to use it to kill Joseph out of poetic justice. Joseph unconsciously defends himself by using the Super Aja to redirect Kars' Ripple into the ground, causing an eruption that blasts the land the two fighters are on into the air. Kars attempts to escape, but is briefly distracted by Joseph, allowing volcanic debris and the latter's severed forearm enough time to knock Kars out of Earth's orbit.

Kars prepares to return to Earth after being thrown out of orbit by ejecting the built-up air within his body, but the air freezes on its way out. His vital body begins to freeze from the near-absolute zero temperature and he becomes trapped in the void of space for eternity as half-mineral, half-animal. Unable to die even though he wishes for it, Kars eventually stops thinking.

Appearance
Kars takes the appearance of a tall, very well-built man. He has elegant, relatively feminine facial features, and a much lighter complexion than the other Pillar Men. He has long, dark, wavy hair which he keeps under a dark, tight head-wrap (taking it off as a sign of either honor or aggression).

Personality
Kars is intelligent, ruthless, and single-minded in his dedication to obtain the Red Stone of Aja. He was stated to have been a genius among the Pillar Men, having been the original creator of the Stone Mask.

Powers and Abilities

 * Light Mode: Kars' power is that of light; he is able to produce bladed appendages from his arms and legs and use these to reflect blinding light toward his enemies. The light comes from the tiny, shark teeth-like claws running along the edge of the blade much like a chainsaw. It is from the reflections of these claws that gives Kars' Light Slip Blades their shining intensity. In this mode, Kars' blades are sharp enough to cut through most objects, including an automobile and several bullets at blinding speeds.


 * Bodily Manipulation: As with the other Pillar Men, Kars has the same body manipulation capabilities shared by his companions. Once he becomes the Ultimate Being, Kars's shapeshifting abilities are enhanced with access to the genetic code of all of Earth's known life forms along with reactive evolution. As a result, previous Pillar Man abilities like absorption become functionally obsolete.


 * Ultimate Form Abilities: As the Ultimate Life Form, Kars acquires multiple abilities and skills:
 * Superhuman Intelligence: Kars is an extremely intelligent and cunning individual, even by the high standards of his species. He was the one who created the Stone Mask, studying the Pillar Men's brains to unlock untapped power. In battle, Kars is methodical and observant, able to analyze the enemy's plan and plan accordingly with cunning and ruthlessness. Kars has also mastered his godly powers quickly, using the power of Earth's fauna and even its most obscure properties to his advantage. In every setback, Kars manages to quickly find a counter or a way to exploit it and reverse the situation.
 * Superhuman Senses: Kars can sense the heat and air pressure around him by forming antennae. His vision is akin to an astronomical telescope, and he is able to hear anything from whale calls to bat screams.
 * Superhuman Strength: Kars' strength is 900 kg/cm2.
 * Regeneration: Kars can heal any wound in a short period of time.
 * Immortality: Kars is invincible, immortal, and nigh indestructible. He does not age, is self-sustaining, and is described as more beautiful than a Greek sculpture.
 * Reactive Evolution: Kars can also alter his body to withstand extreme conditions, as seen when he evolved a continuous layer of inorganic porous material to survive being submerged in magma.
 * Ripple: In his Ultimate Form, Kars is able to use the Ripple, but at a level that is hundreds of times stronger than Joseph's - According to Stroheim, Kars's Ripple is comparable to the intensity of the Sun itself, and it can literally melt and vaporize human flesh on contact.

Age
Having already been alive for around 100,000 years, Kars took a 2,000 year sleep before the events of Battle Tendency, making him around 102,001 years old by the end of Part 2.