Black Sabbath

"There are two paths that you can follow. The first path is for the chosen ones who will live... and the other! The path of death!"

- Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath (ブラック・サバス) is the Stand of Polpo, featured in the fifth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Vento Aureo.

Only able to exist within shadows, it has the ability to pull an individual's soul from their body and pierce it with the Stand Arrow contained within its mouth.

Appearance
Black Sabbath appears as a large humanoid with a head, bound in a dark laced cloak and Venetian hat. Its body is riddled with small cables giving the impression of stitches. It also bears an Arrow motif on its hands and collar.

It is designed after a Venetian costume, notably inspired by the work of Casanova and by the image of Death. The borders of its hat and the scarf are used to evoke the image of Medieval Italy.

Personality
Black Sabbath is an automated Stand that blindly follows the instruction given to it and thus doesn't have a personality.

It nonetheless talks to its victim, grandiosely announcing their impending trial by explaining that they can either "follow the path of the chosen or that of death" when pierced by the Arrow.

Black Sabbath is said to often make a "Bfff" (ブフゥ~) sound.

Abilities
Black Sabbath is an automated Stand that follows simple and direct preset commands. As such, it is characterized by its long-range strength, lack of damage transfer (to an extent that Polpo was unaware that Giorno Giovanna beat Black Sabbath ), and straightforward way of attacking. A formidable adversary in the shadows, it is nonetheless vulnerable to sunlight. However, even if beaten, Black Sabbath can be summoned back.

For undisclosed reasons, Black Sabbath is linked to Polpo's test and his lighter. When someone holding the lighter puts it out but then reignites it, Black Sabbath materializes within the shadows and attacks all witnesses. It then automatically seeks to impale the souls of those present with the Arrow in its mouth to awaken a possible Stand, even if they already have one. Polpo uses this Stand to weed out weaker recruits and only keep those with a Stand. Those who pass the original lighter test and are therefore never given the opportunity to gain a Stand still pass, but are only linked to less combative areas such as intelligence teams or drug-running.

Polpo is seen chewing off his fingers, and in the next panel seemingly grows them back. While this is never explained, Giorno suggests that it may be part of Polpo's Stand ability.

Shadow Power
Black Sabbath's main ability is to draw power from the shadows. The Stand is incredibly powerful within the shadows; its prowess can increase at least to the point where it can overpower and outspeed Gold Experience.

Moreover, Black Sabbath can hide within shadows. It can sink inside a shadow as if it were water and go from one point to another near instantaneously as long as the shadows are linked, allowing it to easily re-position itself in the midst of battle. It can even hide in small shadows and use them as transportation, using a bird's shadow to cross a sunlit space and hide inside an isolated tree's shadow.

The drawback of this ability is that Black Sabbath is vulnerable to light. Being even partially exposed to sunlight pains it considerably, thus its movements are restricted to the shadows. To escape, the Stand must touch a shadow again and hide inside. In the sunlight, it is vulnerable and Gold Experience was able to destroy it with a barrage of punches.

Soul Pull
By grabbing an ordinary human's shadow, Black Sabbath is able to forcibly drag out their souls, whereas grabbing a Stand user's shadow would drag out their Stand.

Arrow Storage
Black Sabbath can store objects inside its mouth, and Polpo uses that to hide an Arrow inside. The Stand can then pull it out when needed, and continuously pierce people with the Arrow to awaken a Stand with little care about whether they have a Stand or not already. When Polpo unwittingly shoots himself in the mouth, he also destroys the Arrow inside Black Sabbath's mouth.

Background
Little is known as to how Black sabbath was acquired by Polpo, however, we can assume (but not confirm) that this was before Bruno bucciarati was tasked with hiding Polpo's fortune as we can infer he would have been aware of Sticky fingers' ability and its utility for hiding said fortune.

VENTO AUREO
First seen in chapter 451, Joining the Gang, Part 2, Black sabbath is autonomously activated upon the flame of Polpo's lighter being extinguished. This leads to Black sabbath killing an old janitor and then engaging in combat with Giorno Giovanna and Koichi hirose in an attempt to pierce them with a stand arrow to awaken a stand ability or perhaps eliminate unworthy people from passing the test which can be inferred as Polpo is unsure whether Giorno has gained a stand ability, however, acknowledges the possibility he may have been pierced by Black sabbath's arrow as opposed to passing the test as instructed.

Black sabbath is seemingly dissolved or otherwise destroyed by the sun by Giorno, due to the nature of Black sabbath it's likely that due to the nature of long range autonomous stands, it had survived until Polpo himself was killed later within the chapter.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * The manner in which Black Sabbath attacks its targets with the Stand-creating Arrow is eerily similar to how the Alien from Ridley Scott's 1979 film kills its victims via an inner jaw impaling them in the head.