Devil Fruit Powers In The Tower Of God - Chapter 34

Arriving at the 10th Floor, they were greeted by a chubby looking man. He was wearing brown leather pants and a jacket with a white shirt underneath. On his head, he wore a binocle and an archeologist brown hat, and he carried a cane in his hand.

“Greetings, Regulars. I’m the Ruler of the 10th Floor. Howard is my name, and puzzles are my game. Hohoho.” He laughed out while hitting the ground with his cane.

“The Test for my Floor is a simple one.” Howard twirled the cane in his hand and pointed it at a gigantic black cube in the distance.

“See that beauty over there. That’s my own personal labyrinth. It’s amazing, right?” Howard told them with a pleased smile on his face.

“I wouldn’t call that a beauty,” Androssi muttered, but Howard acted as he hadn’t heard her.

“I’ve spent hundreds of years, perfecting it and making it as hard as possible. It’s separated into ten different levels, all filled with various traps. All of those levels are connected in some way, shape, or form so you could easily move through them as long as you know the path.”

“Once your Test starts, you will be sent to a random location in the labyrinth. All you have to do is escape from it. There is only one exit in the labyrinth, and it randomly changes at certain time intervals. Pretty cool, right? Hohoho.” Howard explained the rules with a hearty laugh.

“So, Regulars. Are you prepared to take on my Test, or would you like to go back to where you came from?” Adjusting his binocle, he asked them.

Lumen’s group confirmed, and Howard looked pleased hearing that.”Great! Then, I wish too many of you don’t die inside my masterpiece. Good luck, Regulars.”

Before they knew it, they were all transported to a dark place, surrounded by walls on their left and right sides. As soon as they were inside the labyrinth, they heard a dying scream echoing out.

“What a way to start this off.” Leesoo sighed to the side.

“Well, Merrie, this looks like your time to shine.” Lumen told her, and she stepped up to lead the group. As the Guide and Lightbearer, she is the most suitable for that position inside the labyrinth.

“Trust me, I will find the exit as quickly as possible.” Merrie confidently stated and had already used her Lighthouse to illuminate the darkness. Already having picked up the general direction that the exit is, she started marching towards it.

After passing by a few turns, she stopped the group. “Stick to the wall on the right side here, there is a lava trap in the middle of the path.”

Merrie was the first to pass by, and everyone else followed after her. She stopped in place and told them. “After this point, there is a trap on the wall. We have to move to the other side.”

Whenever the group encountered more than one path, Merrie would confidently pick one without any hesitation.

Merrie led the past quite a few traps before they reached a tunnel going up. However, there was no ladder for someone to use to go up, rather there were small platforms, where one would have to jump to, to climb higher.

They had to go through numerous traps, while they were traversing the levels of the labyrinth. They seemed to have started somewhere near the bottom, as they had already climbed up four levels. With Merrie leading the way, they weren’t caught in a single one of the labyrinth’s traps.

“Something’s not right here,” Merrie said as they reached the next level. There was something off about the current level, and for some reason, she couldn’t see what it is.

“I can feel it too.” Lumen also felt something off about the current level. The place felt darker than even the previous levels, and that didn’t sit well with him. There was something weird about the darkness. He didn’t know if this is part of the Test or not, but he had a bad feeling about it.

Merrie continued leading the group, but her confidence had dropped down, and she seemed a lot more hesitant than before. She will take a minute or two, just to decide which path to take. She also almost missed a couple of traps and detected them at the very last second.

They were currently waiting for her to decide between three different paths when Lumen suddenly turned his head to the side. He felt a malicious intent from that place, but he wasn’t able to see anything there. Nonetheless, he was sure that there is something or someone there. Reading the flow of Shinsoo, he was bȧrėly able to perceive a figure in the darkness.

“Quite perceptive, to be able to sense me in my domain.” A voice came from that direction, as the group saw a yellow-eyed man in a scaled armor walk out of the darkness. Dressed in a black and red cloak with a white robe underneath, he stepped up with confidence.

“Who are you?” Lumen asked as he narrowed his eyes. The person in front of him felt extremely dangerous, and he could feel the killing intent oozing out of him.

“I’m Karaka, a FUG’s Slayer, and your worst enemy. The Elders want you to either join us or die, but I already made that choice for you.” Karaka replied, and in an instant, formed a black colored Baang in his hand.

“Die.” Karaka sent the black colored Baang towards Lumen, but he was already prepared for that. Transforming into his element form, he dodged the blast of Shinsoo and appeared next to Karaka in a burst of speed. The armored man’s Baang exploded in the back and created a wall of darkness that blocked the rest of his team.

Strengthening his leg with Shinsoo, he sent a kick towards Karaka’s head. The armored man, surprised by how fast Lumen was, wasn’t able to avoid the attack. Unfortunately, his armor wasn’t just for show, and when Lumen kicked it, he felt like he hit an unbreakable barrier.

Nevertheless, Karaka was sent flying into the labyrinth’s walls and made a human-shaped hole. Being able to sense his presence there, Lumen charged up a massive light beam and shot it in the hole. Despite that, he was still able to sense the presence of the armored man.

Leaving the human-shaped hole, Karaka didn’t even have a scratch on his scaled armor. “That’s a nice spell you got there. Too bad, my armor is spell protected.”

“As much as I would love to play with you, I’m working under a time constraint,” Karaka said with an evil glint in his eyes. Seeing Lumen in his element form, he smiled in a sinister way.

“Did you know that darkness is the absence of light? Let’s see how you will deal with that. Karaka Style: World of Darkness.” Big black orbs started appearing and revolving around Karaka.

In response, Lumen had created his own technique and created his miniature sun. Light beams were being constantly shot towards Karaka and the black orbs, but each laser was easily absorbed in the black orbs, without causing them any damage.

Seeing the lack of success with his light beams, he shot the miniature sun towards Karaka, while avoiding his black orbs. Despite knowing how dangerous it would be to detonate his technique in a closed environment, he had little choice in that matter.

Sadly, before the explosion could fully form, the miniature sun was surrounded by Karaka’s black orbs, and they easily absorbed the mini supernova.

“Resisting is futile. Your fate has been decided. Black Goral’s Horn Whip.” From the black orbs, whips made of pure darkness shot out towards Lumen. Karaka had created so many of them and sent them in such a way, that Lumen couldn’t avoid them.

Four of those whips made of darkness pierced through him. For two of those, he managed to make a hole in his element form and let them through, but the other two pierced his lung and shoulder.

Lumen jumped away from the whips and started healing his body with his Pheonix flames. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you? Why don’t you take back all of your surprises then? Damage Counter – Rain of Darkness.”

One of his black orbs flew to his hand and greatly swelled in size. In a moment, it was as large as Karaka. The technique converts all the accumulated damage absorbed by Karaka’s black orbs into one, and he shot it towards Lumen. The Shinsoo blast encompassed the whole tunnel, so he wasn’t able to avoid it and was hit by it.

Despite that massive blast of Shinsoo hitting him straight on, Lumen was still left standing. His clothes were nearly destroyed, his body was bloodied up, but his Pheonix flames were working their magic and restoring it.

Although surprised that Lumen survived that, he didn’t give him a chance to recover. More whips of darkness came out of his black orbs and pierced Lumen through all sides. In his injured state, he wasn’t able to avoid them. Looking like a porcupine, he couldn’t move an inch, with all of the black whips piercing his body.

Two armored tentacles came out of his armor and stabbed Lumen in the heart and stomach. Karaka, using his armored tentacles, brought Lumen in front of him. “As I said, resistance is futile.”

“Fuck you!” Lumen cursed out and spat on his face. His body was bleeding all over, his heart was pierced, and he knew that he didn’t have a chance against the armored man. As much as he wanted to crush Karaka, he knew that he didn’t have the strength nor the time to do it. His Pheonix flames were trying their best to heal up his body, but without his heart, he wouldn’t survive for much longer.

Karaka, unfazed from being spat on, created another tentacle from his armor and stabbed Lumen in the head. Seeing the tentacle flying towards him, time slowed down for Lumen, and he felt something snap within him before everything turned black, as he lost consciousness. Just as the tentacle pierced him, his whole body burst into massive white flames.

The Pheonix flames that have always been warm and gentle suddenly turned extremely hot and destructive. The armor that Lumen couldn’t break nor pierce through, slowly started melting and forming a small metallic orb on the ground.

Karaka, surprised and scared from those white flames, tried detaching his tentacles, but the flames had already latched onto him. Try as he might, he couldn’t remove those scorching white flames, no matter what he did.

He couldn’t believe that Lumen had such a suicidal technique up his arsenal. He should have expected it, considering he has similar techniques he likes to use, but that’s due to him being able to revive himself. Karaka didn’t think someone else would work on suicidal techniques.

As he was trying to separate himself from Lumen’s flames, he lost concentration, and the veil of darkness that was blocking the rest of Lumen’s team was dissolved due to that.

The first thing they all saw Karaka being burned alive by fiery white flames. They could all feel the heat emanating from the white flames, and they saw how helpless Karaka looked while trying to stop them. However, they couldn’t see a sign of Lumen, and that frightened them.

Slowly but surely, the armored man was being burned alive. With each second, more of his armor would melt off and drop on the metallic-looking ball on the ground. He tried using his black orbs to absorb the annoying flames, but even they were burned up by the scorching fire, melting into a black liquid that dripped onto the metallic ball. Seemingly, nothing could stop the fire that had engulfed him.

Karaka knowing that he can’t do anything about the white flames, turned towards the group. With an evil glare, he sent off five Baangs of Shinsoo, aiming to kill a few of those Regulars. However, the Shinsoo blast only managed to severely injure them.

If his heart wasn’t hidden away in his own dimension, he would have died on the 10th Floor, by someone who had just entered the Tower. Thankfully, he had managed to kill that person, so he won’t cause him any trouble in the future.

Karaka would have preferred to have been able to kill a few of those Regulars that witnessed this, but he will surely meet them in the future and end them. Now, he would have to reconstruct his body anew.

Within a moment, Karaka had completely disintegrated, and there were no signs of him or Lumen left. Except for the small metallic-looking ball on the ground, that was formed from his melted armor and black orbs.

“What is going on here!?” A booming voice echoed out as Howard appeared in the labyrinth. Looking around, he noticed the destruction caused to his masterpiece, and that angered him greatly.

“WHO DID THIS?!” Howard yelled out towards the group, but then he noticed the dejected and overwhelmed looks of the Regulars there. They were all wide-eyed, staring at an empty space, unable to believe what had happened.