Chapter 175:

Chapter 175: Heroes vs Kogen. The Battle to End the Enigmus Project!

Beyond The Stars

“You’re going down!” Zeth shouts as he rushes toward Kogen with his fist clenched. He throws a punch at Kogen’s face, but Kogen grabs his arm and throws him into Kurt, knocking them both back against the wall near the doors.

“Take this!” Joe shouts as a dark cloud spreads from his body that encircles Kogen. The clouds start launching razor hail horizontally, but Kogen just jumps out of the clouds’ reach.

Joe and Keith jump up to attack Kogen simultaneously.

“Try all you like! You can’t hurt me!” Kogen yells.

Keith throws a punch, but Kogen moves back to dodge, even while airborne. Kogen then slams his fist into Joe’s gut, causing him to cough up blood and sending him flying into a wall. The clouds dissipate, and Keith and Kogen land back on the floor.

“You bastard!” Keith shouts as he releases a powerful blast of magic energy from a portal behind Kogen, but Kogen deflects the blast back at Keith using just his hands, blasting Keith into the floor.

“Don’t forget about us!” Sasha shouts.

“I’m going to slice you into pieces, you son of a bitch!” Emily yells.

Sasha and Emily attack from opposite sides. Sasha lunges from behind with her Dark Spear while Emily prepares a slash from the front with her Shadow Sword.

“Why so upset, Emily?” Kogen asks mockingly as he jumps and kicks Sasha in the face, which knocks her back. He then says, “I’ve made you greater than you could have ever hoped to become.”

“Because you took my, no, our humanity!!!” Emily screams as she slashes at Kogen. He blocks her Shadow Sword slash by charging his arm with a large amount of magic energy.

Emily’s eyes widen in shock. “What!?”

Kogen smiles confidently. “What does it matter that you can’t call yourself a human anymore? The way you live your life won’t change.”

Kogen head-butts Emily and then punches her to knock her away.

Kogen looks around the room to see all the injured heroes trying to stand again. “You are all disappointing. Do you know what my magic power is at right now? A low B-Rank. The unfortunate reality for you is that’s not even close to my max. So I ask all of you this… Why bother? Why fight? Why resist? My goal is to help kill the Dark Goddess. That is the goal of all of you, is it not?” He raises his voice as he continues. “The Light Goddess will thank me when I become the biggest asset in destroying the Dark Goddess! I’m a hero!!”

He calms down but clenches his fist tight as his eyes narrow. “You can’t even begin to comprehend how badly I want to destroy the Dark Goddess…”

The heroes all stand once again.

Zeth grits his teeth for a moment. “Why, you ask us? It’s because regardless of your intentions, forcing people to change their very being is wrong!”

“And on top of that, you enslave every single one of them!” Kurt adds.

“None of us can ever return to our families as a human anymore!” Emily shouts.

“You even take advantage of their unique situations to make them do it! Poor Charlie…” Keith laments.

“I can say for sure that you’re no damned hero!” Joe growls.

“How would you feel if it was forced on you when you didn’t want it!?” Sasha yells.

Kogen’s eye widens for a moment in surprise after hearing Sasha’s words, but then he calms himself, replying with a hint of anger, “You have no idea… just what I’ve been through…”

“Now that we’ve all said something to you, know this! We’re just getting started!” Zeth shouts.

All six heroes charge at once. Zeth fires a Star Shine Blast while Keith unleashes a barrage of energy blasts through portals.

Kogen does not appear even remotely concerned about the attacks as he says, “You mentioned Charlie. Do you mean Subject 7?”

The energy attacks hit Kogen and explode. To continue the attack, Sasha throws a Dark Energy Ball into the smoke, Emily fires her X12 Shatter Shotgun, and Kurt releases a Mega Aura Whip.

Joe enters his electric form. He quickly rushes toward the smoke and releases a large surge of electrical energy from a punch.

The heroes end their attacks and wait for the smoke to clear.

“Did we get him?” Keith asks.

“I doubt he could come out of that unscathed,” Emily notes.

“My Blitzkrieg was used at full power too so that alone should have done serious damage,” Joe adds.

As the smoke clears, they stare in total shock.

Kogen stands there and barely even has a scratch on him.

“As I was saying about Subject 7…” he says in a calm tone before raising his voice. “Turning him into an Enigmus saved his life! He had a terminal illness and turning him into an Enigmus cured him! How is that bad!? I’m saving everyone in this world and yet the lot of you are rejecting progress!!”

“And yet he would still have to serve under you for the rest of his life,” Keith states.

“He made that decision on his own!” Kogen snaps back. “Is it wrong to want to help the one you are grateful to for saving your life!?” His anger grows. “But it matters not! If your attacks just now are the best you can do, well then—"

Kogen blitzes toward the heroes and begins pummeling them instead of finishing his sentence.

The heroes try to block or dodge, but he is too fast and powerful. Emily tries to slash Kogen with her Shadow Sword again, but Kogen deflects the blade, stabbing it into Sasha’s abdomen.

“Aaaahh!!” Sasha screams.

“Sasha! I’m sorry!!” Emily cries.

Kogen knocks them both away with a swipe of his arm. Emily scrambles up and pulls the sword free from Sasha’s body.

“Oh no! Sasha!” Emily shouts as she examines the wound.

“I don’t think it stabbed any vitals but I’m in so much pain…” Sasha groans.

“You will pay for that!!” Keith roars.

Keith rushes in, but Kogen kicks him into the wall. He falls flat on the floor, too wounded to stand again.

“Hey, bastard!” Joe shouts as he rushes toward Kogen. “You’re pissing me off!!”

Kogen slams Joe into the ground.

“We are relentless!” Kurt yells. “We are not letting you come out victorious!!”

Kurt sharpens his aura until it’s razor-sharp. He throws a punch, but Kogen just punches him three times to knock him down.

“I’m telling you that fighting me is hopeless!” Kogen shouts. “I’m far stronger than all of you!!”