Devil Fruit Powers In The Tower Of God

As Ned rushed towards Lumen, Shaya prepared her own attack.

"Den of Snakes!" Twenty-one serpents made of green water formed in front of her and flew towards Lumen.

Cecro, in the air, had grown five times bigger than before. Purple particles were flowing out of his moth-like wings and forming a sphere of highly concentrated Shinsoo in front of him.

Ned bypassed the black orbs, reaching Lumen in a second, and wherever he passed, he left frost marks behind him. Even more, ice formed on Ned's sword as he was about to attack when a sudden pressure descended on him, slowing his movements.

He was standing between the black orbs, and Lumen had infused his gravity powers to them along with the darkness. Combining the two qualities was easier than what he imagined, but darkness and gravity were the only two he could combine in this way for now.

Depending on the position of the black orbs, they could create a gravity field in between them.

Two metal tentacles formed on Lumen's back, and he entangled Ned's arms. The control of his armor didn't require him to manipulate Shinsoo, and it was an innate ability. The metal tentacle that caught Ned's sword arm was slowly being covered in the ice, while the other one was fine.

Lumen stabbed with his spear of darkness, and the lizard head at the top opened up, revealing its sharp fangs. It chomped on Ned's left arm and shoulder, and its fangs managed to slightly pierce his body. Ned, as a Ranker, had a durable and Shinsoo resistant body.

At that moment, eight of the green water serpents landed on top of Lumen while the others were absorbed by the black orbs. With his naturally high Shinsoo resistance and with the Shinsoo resistant armor, he wasn't that hurt from that attack. However, he was covered by the green water, and it was slowly corroding his armor. A bit of the corrosive water had splashed onto Ned as well, and his skin was slowly starting to erode.

Despite that, the attack from Cecro is the one that alarmed him the most. The purple sphere was made of an extremely high concentration of Shinsoo. From right above him, Cecro fired off a massive purple beam of light towards Lumen. "Sludge Beam."

Two more metal tentacles formed on his lower back, and he used to those to push himself out of the way. At the same time, using the other two and the spear that was holding onto Ned, he moved the swordsman in the direction of the beam, using him as a shield. Lumen's black orbs also flew in an attempt to absorb the massive beam of purple light, but they weren't successful in doing so.

The beam of purple light had hit Ned and disintegrated the left part of his body. Despite that, the swordsman was alive and staring daggers at Lumen, while a massive sword of ice was forming above his head.

Cecro's beam had also hit Lumen, and he was missing his right arm. A black mass bubbled out of his missing arm as it formed his armor. Under his armor, he used his white flames and the abundance of life force that he had to restore his right arm.

Four of the black orbs flew up in the air, in an attempt to catch Cecro in a small gravity field like the one around Ned, but he was able to stay away from them.

Unfortunately, one of them had come a bit to close, and Lumen grabbed one of the black orbs next to him while jumping inside another one, just as Ned's giant ice sword flew past his location.

The black orbs could act as gates among each other, and the user could move between them.

Lumen appeared from the black orb next to Cecro and shot a massive whirlwind blast of Shinsoo. "Damage Counter - Rain of Darkness."

Under the mask of the blast, he shot out his black flames and covered Cecro entirely. Being attacked by the accumulated damage that the black orbs absorbed and the black Phoenix flames, Cecro stood no chance even with the body of a Ranker. It took a few seconds, but Cecro disappeared without even leaving a trace.

Receiving a few years' worths of life force from him, Lumen's eyes were already starting to redden, but since he had already experienced this before, he was prepared for it this time and didn't lose control. He kept his cool since there were two more enemies left.

Now the fight was a 2v1, and Ned was missing the left side of his body. However, Lumen didn't have any more energy stored in the black orbs for another Damage Counter. Thankfully, he took care of the flying enemy. Now, he didn't have to worry that one of them would manage to escape.

Four black orbs flew in the air and formed a square, four more formed a square on the ground, and the eight together formed a cube with the two Rankers in the middle of it. The other four dissolved in the air and filled the area with darkness. "Gravitational Domain of Darkness."

The entire area inside the cube turned into darkness, and a suppression force enveloped the two FUG members. They couldn't see a thing, and their bodies felt heavier. Their fighting strength was greatly reduced inside the domain.

Ned was looking around in vigilance, prepared to jump into action at the slightest movement, but he couldn't see nor hear a thing in the darkness.

Suddenly, he felt a maw chomp on him as its fangs pierced his body. There had been absolutely no signs of an attack coming, and yet, the maw was clearly chomping onto him. Ned slashed with his sword to where he presumed the attack came from, but there was nothing there.

More and more similar attacks that came out of nowhere hit Ned and knew he had to do something about this. Massive amounts of ice started forming around him and covered him up as well. He was planning on freezing the entire area of darkness to break out of the domain.

Lumen tried attacking the ice, but he wasn't able to break it with his spear. "Tsch."

He tried using his black Phoenix flames, but that had little success as well. Lumen dissolved his spear of darkness, and with an annoyed look, started gathering two Baangs of Shinsoo that he infused with the black flames. Forming them together into a black Phoenix, he sent it flying towards the ice. "Phoenix Wrath."

The black Pheonix exploded and evaporated Ned's ice. The FUG member was also caught within the blast, and the black fire covered him up. He tried putting out the fire with his ice, but the black Phoenix flames that were infused with Shinsoo melted his ice in seconds. In a moment, he was burned to ashes, without leaving a trace behind.

Receiving another few years worth of life force, Lumen was on the verge of losing control. He was hoping he wouldn't need to use the black flames to take the woman out. Lumen didn't want to seclude himself again.

Shaya had covered herself in an orb made of her corrosive water. The orb had at least a few layers of the green water. Cecro had died, and she knew that Ned was a bad condition. She didn't think that he would be able to survive today.

Shaya was starting to believe that the one that attacked them is, in fact, Lord Karaka. She just didn't think there was another explanation for what happened. However, why had Lord Karaka attacked them? Had he betrayed FUG?

Shaya just wanted to run away from this place at this point, and just report everything to the Elders. She had tried to escape the domain of darkness numerous times, but she had no idea where she is going.

Shaya had great talent in reading the Flow of Shinsoo, but inside the domain, she had lost her ability to do so. She had never been in a situation where someone could block that ability of hers.

Shaya didn't even see the attack or where it came from in the domain of darkness. As quickly as the layer of the shield was destroyed, she recreated it anew.

A few more attacks came at her, but they were all blocked by the layers of the shield covering her. Just as she was reassured that Lumen can't hurt her, a fang of darkness came from inside her shield, catching her by surprise. The fang only managed to slightly pierce her throat, but then it suddenly started spinning like a drill.

Shaya managed to cover it with her corrosive water, but the fang had already managed to leave a nasty wound. Before she knew it, two more fangs had attacked her in the same manner. They appeared out of nowhere, under her shield, and only slightly pierced her body, but then they would start spinning like a drill.

Twenty minutes later, Shaya fell down, bleeding from holes all over her body. A maw of darkness formed around her and swallowed her, leaving no traces behind. The Gravitational Domain of Darkness dissolved, and Lumen in his armor was the only one left standing there.

He looked up towards the sky, where he had sensed an Observer that was following behind the three FUG members. Grinning, he waved at the observer as a dozen fangs of darkness formed around it and destroyed it.

Lumen didn't remove his armor since he had sensed someone spying on him from a distance. Focusing in that direction, he was able to see a gorgeous blonde woman wearing a pure white outfit, and holding a blue needle that had a zig-zag pattern. He watched as she appeared in front of him with a burst of speed.

"I was going after where a masked Regular was last seen. Who are you and what are you doing on my Floor?" Ari Leya, the Ruler of the 23rd Floor asked him.

The armor covering Lumen's face retracted, and his masked appearance was revealed underneath. "I'm just climbing the Tower like any other Regular on the Floor."

Leya's eyes widened in astonished seeing this. When she received a report of one of her Family members being killed by a masked Regular, she had briefly checked the information on him. Leya knew that he is apart of Androssi Zahard's team, but there was no other information about him.

When she arrived where he was seen last, Leya had seen a confrontation between four Rankers. She had witnessed the fight between the four and was more than sure that the armored person was a Ranker. Never would she have expected for him to be the masked Regular.

"This..." Leya wasn't sure what to say in this situation. This wasn't what she was expecting.

"It's also quite convenient how you arrived right after I killed the three Rankers from FUG." Hearing Lumen's words, she started feeling guilty.

As a Ruler of the Floor, it's her responsibility to stop such situations from occurring. Yet, she had failed, and a Regular was attacked by three Rankers.

Yes, he had survived and even killed the Rankers, but Leya had failed at preventing the attack. She had also stood by and watched as he fought them, and she hadn't ȧssisted him in any way.

"Am I to ȧssume you are also a member of FUG." Lumen's words caused an immediate reaction in the blonde woman.

"No! Never! I'm Ari Leya, Ruler of the 23rd Floor and member of the Ari Family. Joining them would never even cross my mind!" Leya stated.

"I see, I see. So, you stood by the side and observed as three Rankers from FUG attacked a Regular." His words hit her hard.

"I-I didn't know. Had I known that they are members of FUG, I would have stepped in." Leya responded while looking at the ground, not daring to look at Lumen from the guilt she felt.

"So, you would only interfere if you knew they are members of FUG. Tsch. It seems members of the Ari Family have no honor." Lumen replied while grinning under his mask.

"No!" Leya immediately denied that.

"How come? You watched the fight for a bit, but you took no actions." Leya felt like crying. She thought that's a fight between Rankers and not three Rankers that were ganging up on a Regular.

"I... I'm sorry. I will compensate you for my mistakes." Leya bȧrėly uttered under her breath.

"Now we are talking." Said Lumen.