Devil Fruit Powers In The Tower Of God - Chapter 29

The 9th Floor was a lot like the 3rd Floor, in the sense that it was a small town. As the group was looking around, a woman with a spiky, blue mohawk walked up to them. She was wearing a black leather jacket, leather pants, and knee-high shoes.

“What up, Regulars. The name’s Moxie, and I’m your Test Administrator.” She greeted them while waving her hand.

“Here on the 9th Floor, we like playing games! Every few years, we change up the Test, but it’s always in the form of a board game. The current game on the Floor is something we like to call Sky Chess.” Moxie explained while pointing towards the sky.

Up in the air, you could see squares that were spread out. Each was a distance away, where you had to jump quite the length to be able to reach it.

“Cna you please hurry up? I really want to take a bath!” Androssi begged the punk-looking woman.

Moxie smirked at her and deliberately started talking in slow motion. “The special thing about this game is that it’s played by four teams of eleven Regulars, unlike the normal chess where you have only two teams. Each team starts in the middle of each side of the board. The board is 11×11 squares.” She spelled out each word, letter by letter, driving the Princess of Zahard crazy.

“Each team has five Pawns, a Rook, Bishop, Horse, Queen, and a King. Pawns can only move one space forward. Rooks can move two squares, either vertically or horizontally. Bishops can only move diagonally two spaces. Horses can move in an L shape, two squares forward and one to the side. Queens can move three spaces in any direction, and Kings can move in any direction without limit.”

“You can only attack enemy pieces if you are on the same square as them. Each turn a piece has to be moved. You can not pass a turn without moving one.”

“Each team has to have one Player, who will choose how the pieces move. The Player can be chosen by the team, but all other positions are randomly ȧssigned before the game starts.” Moxie explained the rules.

Leesoo raised his hand and asked a question. “What if a Regular can’t jump to the square they are sent to?” Each square was quite a distance away from another. Some Regulars might not even be able to jump that distance.

“Well, that’s not our problem, Regulars.” Moxie laughed out. “Those are the rules, and if you can’t play the game by the rules, you will have to wait until a new game is chosen, or you can go back to where you came from.”

Moxie pulled out ten black cards and flicked them towards the group. “Each Regular gets a free room ȧssigned to them. The card will point in the direction of your room.”

The moment Androssi caught the card, she was already running towards her room.

“There are a few facilities on the Floor, but you can go and explore them on your own. If you have any questions… I won’t answer them. So good luck, Regulars.” Laughing out, Moxie left them by teleporting away from there.

“Guess we need one more Regular in order to attempt the Test,” Leesoo commented.

Lumen sighed, but there was nothing he could do to change the rules of the Test. If he is lucky, he could find someone useful. If not, he could pick a random Regular just for the Test.

Their group was still missing a Lightbearer, so it would be good if they could find a good one here.

“Either way, we might end up staying here for a bit. Let’s go and see what this Floor has to offer.” Lumen told the group.

Just a few minutes after they started exploring the Floor, they heard a sonic boom. Before they could realize what’s happening, they saw a blonde man standing in front of them. Dressed similarly to Lumen, the man was holding a Silver Dwarf under his arm.

Almost everyone from the group was able to recognize the Silver Dwarf as Evan. The silver-haired Ranker looked very miserable and was silently sobbing. The blonde man roughly dropped Evan on the ground.

Before anyone could even react, the blonde man appeared in front of Lumen and gave him a crushing bear hug. His bones cracked from being hugged by the blonde man.

Despite having his guard up, Lumen couldn’t even react to the man’s movements.

“My dude! I’m so happy to see someone from the outside world!” Lumen didn’t recognize him at first, but after hearing his words, he realized the man that hugged him is Urek Manzano. An Irregular just like him.

The group was momentarily frozen from the incredibly fast movements of the blonde man, but they quickly got out of their stupor. They were about to attack the man, and Lumen was able to sense that. “Stop. Attacking him would be pointless.”

Urek is one of the five strongest people in the Tower. Their attacks would only tickle him.

“Oh, man! I don’t know why you are here, but I’m really happy to see you. Let’s go somewhere more private.” Just as Urek finished the sentence, the group heard another sonic boom, and the two disappeared from their spot.

The whole group was puzzled about what happened. The situation was very confusing, but Leesoo was the first to comprehend Urek’s words. “Wait, did he say outside world?”

As the group was pondering on those words, another person arrived. Princess Yuri looked around and didn’t see either Lumen or Urek. “Damn it, Urek. Why did you steal my date?”

The situation was getting more and more baffling by the minute. The blonde guy they just saw take their leader away was Urek Manzino? Princess Yuri had a date with Lumen? He was also pretty much confirmed to be an Irregular by Urek’s words as well.

Bombshell after bombshell was delivered to them in such a short time.

As they were trying to comprehend the situation, Urek and Lumen appeared in a remote place on the 9th Floor.

“Little bro! I don’t why you’ve come to the Tower, but I’m glad to see someone from the outside world. You don’t have to stand on ceremony and treat me like royalty. Just treat me like your big bro!” Urek told him with a satisfied smile.

“Um, sure. Whatever you say.” Lumen was confused by his words. He didn’t plan on treating him like royalty in the first place.

Urek looked at him for a moment and uttered. “You actually don’t know who I am?”

“I know your Urek Manzino, an Irregular just like me. One of the strongest people in the Tower and the fastest one to climb to the Top.” Lumen told him all the information he knew about him.

“Wait, you really don’t know who I am. Wow! What kind of backward place are you from, if you can’t recognize the Great Prince of the Manzino Empire?” Urek asked him with wide-eyes. He comes from one of the biggest Empires in the entire Universe, so he didn’t expect someone from the outside world not to be able to recognize him.

“I’ve never heard of that place. I’m from Earth, we don’t have such an Empire there. In fact, Empires don’t exist there.” Lumen truthfully answered him. There are a few countries that could be considered Empires, but he didn’t think of them as ones.

“Earth?! Hmmm. I’ve never heard of that place. Which Galaxy is it from?” Urek asked while scratching his chin.

“We call it the Milky Way.” Lumen answered. He didn’t expect that this would their first conversation, but it was better than nothing.

“I’ve never heard of that as well. That’s odd. But you truly haven’t heard of the Manzino Empire? The Empire that spans over five Galaxies. One of the biggest in the entire Universe. With Amory Manzino, the God of Power and Destruction, being the Ruler of the Empire.” Urek explained his origin, expecting to see some kind of response.

“Never heard of it.” Lumen replied. The people from Earth only speculated that there could be other intelligent beings in the Universe, but they didn’t have any proof for that.

“Damn! You really are from a backward place. Then how did you even come to the Tower?” Urek questioned him.

Lumen hesitated for a moment. After thinking about it, he decided to tell him about his story.

“Well, I was promised a grand adventure by a weird man, and I was sent to the Tower to have said adventure.” Before he could continue, Urek stopped him.

“Impossible! You can’t be sent to the Tower. The Tower has to open its doors for you. You were tricked by him. Just like how I was tricked by that bastard Phantaminum. He promised the same thing to me! Now, I have to find a way to get out of this place without making trouble for my old man.” Urek denied him immediately.

“But that’s the truth! I didn’t even know about the Tower’s existence. If it wasn’t for that Loki guy that called himself an Axis, I wouldn’t even be here. Hell, he was the one that gifted me my powers!” Lumen didn’t mind telling that to Urek since he didn’t believe he could steal them away. From his first impression of him, he didn’t seem like that kind of a guy.

“Impossible! There is absolutely no way for someone to send you into the Tower. It’s also impossible for him to be able to grant you your powers. Axises might be the only naturally born divine beings, but they can’t grant powers to others. In fact, no divine being can grant someone powers. Otherwise, the whole Universe would be filled with people like you.” Urek’s words made sense, but that’s what happened to Lumen.

“If you didn’t look so convinced that that’s the truth. I would have killed you already for lying to me.” Hearing that, Lumen didn’t know what to say. That was the actual truth, and exactly what happened.

“But that name Loki, it sounds familiar.” Urek scratched his chin with a thoughtful expression.

“Ah! I think I remember now. Loki is from those drifter Gods. Yes, that right! Those guys are pretty famous. No one knows from where they come from, but they are a pretty strong bunch.”

“From what I remember, they once said that the place they come from has extremely weak and stupid monkeys. They tried helping their civilization improve, but didn’t have much success. Annoyed by the stupid monkeys, they started roaming around the Universe and didn’t have a territory for themselves.”

“At one point, they took over a Galaxy, but all the divine beings were angry at their actions. They banded together and forced them away from that Galaxy. However, that’s all they were able to do, just force them away. That group had incredibly strong Gods amongst them like Zeus, Odin, Thor, Jupiter, Amun, Indra, and a bunch of others.”

“Due to their strength, the divine beings formed a pact with them. They would be allowed to roam free around the Universe, as long as they do not attack the territory of other divine beings.”

“Whenever they were asked where they came from, they would always curse how stupid and weak that place is. I heard they are a fun group when you get to know them, but I never got to meet any of them.”

Lumen was amazed at hearing stories about the Gods that were only myths on Earth. Never would he though that all of those incredible stories would actually be true. The Gods from Earth were even famous across the entire Universe.

“That’s amazing, but Loki called himself an Axis, not a God. What’s the deal with that?” Lumen asked Urek, trying to understand his own situation better.

“That shouldn’t be possible. I’m 100% certain that he is a God. Although Gods and Axises are both divine beings, you can’t be both at the same time. You can become a God, but you can’t become an Axis, you have to be born one!” Urek’s explanation was starting to confuse Lumen.

“Then how do you explain my situation? I was a normal 20-year old human a few months ago. I had absolutely no special powers until Loki granted them to me and sent me here.” Lumen asked him. It’s not that he was unhappy with his powers, but he at least wanted to know more about how he received them.

“That… I don’t know. It’s shouldn’t be possible. As I said, no divine being can grant powers to someone else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a God or an Axis. That’s simply impossible.” Urek resolutely told him.

“Take me for example. Both of my parents are Gods, so I inherited some of their powers. I might not be immortal like them, but my lifespan is greatly increased. I also had my powers since the moment I was born. They weren’t given to me by a divine being.”

“What you are saying, just doesn’t make sense. Damn!” Urek started massaging his temples. “I didn’t expect to have this kind of conversation with you. I just wanted to ask you how my father had reacted to my disappearance.”

“Neither did I. I just wanted to know more about the other Irregulars. Can you tell me more about Phantaminum and Enryu?” Lumen asked, hoping to get some hints from hearing about the other two Irregulars.

“Phantaminum is a shitty, cheating, lying scum. If you meet him, never listen to a word he says! That’s all you need to know about him. Enryu, on the other hand, I’ve never met. I don’t know anything about him, other than that he killed the Guardian of the 43rd Floor. Which is pretty impressive.” Urek’s explanation didn’t help him at all, but Phataminum did sound a bit like Loki.

“Well, that was mighty useful.” Lumen sighed.

Urek thought for a moment and pulled out an alcohol beverage from his Pocket. He took out two glasses, filled them up, and presented one to Lumen.

“Tell you what. You tell me about your whole life on Earth before you met Loki, and I will tell you about mine before I met Phantaminum. Sounds good?” Urek asked.

“It’s better than nothing.” Lumen accepted the alcohol-filled glass, and the two sat down, sharing their stories.