Instead of being scared, a smile formed on the face of Cassius as he saw the beast flying towards him.
It was all because he saw someone. Lucifer was flying above the beast. The spikes that were extending towards Cassius were sliced by the wind blades.
The beast also realized that Lucifer was above him. Spikes came from his back, attacking Lucifer again.
This time, Lucifer was completely prepared for it. His wind blades once again slashed the spikes.
He didn't attack with his lightning since he wanted to test something.
Spikes came out from his fingers, stabbing the ugly beast.
The beast's pitch-black eyes opened wide as the spikes penetrated his body. Even his hard skin didn't protect him.
He started falling to the ground. Lucifer went down with the beast, not letting his finger spikes come out.
Thump!
With a thump, the beast fell to the ground. It wasn't moving at all. It was facing the same thing that Lucifer faced.
The reaction of Lucifer's spikes with the creature's blood brought another parasite into existence inside his bloodstream.
Despite being the original beast of this skill, he wasn't able to stop the parasite inside his body. It was under the control of Lucifer now. As for his own mind, it soon went blank.
"Do you think you can control it like it was able to control Hunter Union members?" Yaliza appeared beside Lucifer.
He was able to guess why Lucifer didn't kill the beast. Lucifer was using the same skill as this beast.
"I'm just testing if it works. So far, I think it does work. I feel a connection being established between the parasite inside his body and me. Time to test what it can do," Lucifer said as he retracted his spikes.
Everyone else who was present here watched everything in shock. None of them knew that Lucifer had stolen the abilities of this creature.
Lucifer's hand returned to normal.
"Stand up!" He commanded.
The ugly creature stood up, hearing Lucifer's commands.
"Is he... under your control now?" Cassius asked Lucifer.
Lucifer nodded. "I believe so. All of you should still stand back just to be safe."
Everyone stepped back, giving space to Lucifer.
"Ask it to dance! Let's see if it actually listens!" Uzuki suggested from a distance.
"Go and hug that guy," Lucifer commanded, pointed towards Uzuki.
As he finished, the beast started running towards Uzuki.
"What the heck?! I don't want to hug that ugly thing!' Uzuki exclaimed as he started running away.
"Stop!" Lucifer commanded. The beast stopped.
"Come back to me!"
"Sit down!"
"Stand!"
"Attack that wall with your spikes!"
Lucifer kept commanding the beast to test his theory. The beast followed all his commands.
"I think it worked. That's enough testing. Let's kill it and leave!" Uzuki suggested, returning to the group now that he wasn't being chased by this ugly beast.
"We still can't be sure if it's pretending or not. You can't put your defenses down," Alicia reminded Lucifer, still suspicious of this creature.
" It might be the same trick he pulled when he pretended to be trapped in my barriers, only to attack you when you weren't looking!"
"I know. That's why I want to test something else. It'll be the last test. It can't pretend with this," Lucifer replied, not taking his eyes off the beast.
"Don't move as I kill you!" he gave his last command to the beast that blankly stood in its place.
Lucifer placed his right hand on the head of the beast, letting his decay take effect. The body of this creature started decaying.
Even as the beast decayed, it didn't move at all. It didn't resist at all. It was as if Lucifer's orders were absolute, even if it meant dying.
The beast soon turned to dust which fell on the ground.
"I guess it wasn't pretending at all," Lucifer muttered, walking towards the body of Zeiss.
He used his decay and destroyed Zeiss. He used the same skill on every other Hunter Union Warlock, killing them.
"We're done here." Finished with everything, Lucifer wore his right glove and started leaving.
He opened the door and stepped outside. Others also followed him.
....
For half an hour, no one spoke anything even though they all had tons of questions in their heads.
There was complete silence.
The silence was ultimately broken by Cassius. "How were you able to use the powers of that creature?"
"Yeah. Are you able to copy powers now? Wait! Were you able to copy powers for a long time? Can you use mine?" Alicia also chimed in, now that the topic was brought up.
"I can't steal powers or copy them," Lucifer straight answered. "You can rest assured."
"Then how were you able to use the powers of that beast?" Uzuki asked.
"He gave it to me himself," Lucifer replied. "I think I received his powers when his spikes entered my body. Probably because of the parasite that it left inside my body."
"So we can also get the powers of that beast if he had stabbed us?" Uzuki asked. "His powers were certainly cool."
"Now that I think about it, isn't this powers similar to that girl Milena of the Divine Empire? She can turn people to her loyal servants by drinking the blood of fallen beings?"
"Similarly, you can turn people to your puppets by using your spikes?" he added, finding the similarities.
"If you want that power, I can try giving them to you. All you need to do is have a spike impale your chest," Lucifer replied.
"Then defeat the parasite, stop yourself from turning into a mindless puppet and then heal from the life-threatening wound which will be the hole in your heart. It's simple. Do it." he suggested, bringing a spike out of his left middle finger.
"Ah, I'm fine. I don't want that power. Now that you mention it like that, only people who have infinite healing can achieve this. You're lucky," Uzuki responded.
"Yeah. But still, next time you should be careful. I mean, come on! You're our leader. You told us to be careful when going in, and then you yourself weren't careful. You were lucky this time, but that might not be the case next time," Alicia chimed in.
"I know. I should've been careful there. Lesson learned. Moreover, it turned out in my favor. Now I have this new skill," Lucifer accepted that he made a mistake.
'Now I also have knowledge. I just need more tests. How can I absorb more power? The future is going to be really painful, it seems,' he thought, sighing.
To test this skill, he needed to repeat what happened, and that certainly was painful, but he also had hope for the future. This one trip to the dungeon had changed everything for him.
The Dungeon he thought to be the Dungeon of Darkness turned out to be a Dungeon of infinite possibilities.