Chapter 176: Darkness Awakened

Chapter 176: Darkness Awakened

With Raging Star Mode active, Zeth stands as the last one standing to challenge Kogen.

“As powerful as you are, my Raging Star Mode will be enough to take you down!” Zeth declares.

He rushes toward Kogen and throws a punch. The blow pushes Kogen back, but it does not do much damage.

“With your Raging Star Mode, you are able to hit me and even push me back,” Kogen says calmly. “It’s more than before, but you still won’t be able to defeat me.”

“We will see about that!!” Zeth yells, keeping up his full intensity.

He leaps above Kogen, preparing to release a Raging Star Blast downward.

Kogen looks up at him, smiling. “It’s pointless for you to try.”

He raises his hand and releases a powerful ray of red energy. At the same time, Zeth fires his Raging Star Blast. Kogen’s attack tears straight through it, destroying the blast completely.

“What!?” Zeth cries out in shock.

The red ray continues upward and pierces Zeth’s body. He crashes back down to the floor, screaming in pain as a serious wound tears through his abdomen. His Raging Star aura flares wildly, tearing up the floor around him.

“See what I mean?” Kogen asks.

Sasha’s eyes widen in horror. “Zeth!”

“It’s time for you to become my ultimate Enigmus!” Kogen declares while glaring.

He steps toward Zeth, but Zeth forces himself up and jumps backward.

“I’m not going down that easily!!” Zeth yells.

He charges again, launching a rapid barrage of punches. Kogen blocks every single one without effort.

“Perhaps I need to start teaching obedience now!” Kogen growls as he grabs Zeth and begins punching him mercilessly. He releases Zeth only to follow up with a kick that sends Zeth crashing into a wall. Zeth’s Raging Star Mode dissipates.

“Damn it…” Joe mutters. “Why are we so easily outclassed…?”

The syringe briefly flashes in Joe’s mind. His eyes widen with worry.

“What hope do we have?” Kurt asks.

“Zeth, get out of there!” Sasha shouts.

Zeth looks up and sees Kogen standing directly in front of him, smirking. His confidence falls apart in an instant, replaced by pure fear.

“I like that face,” Kogen says. “You will become like an obedient dog.”

He grabs Zeth by the neck and pins him against the wall.

Smiling, Kogen says, “Call me master.”

“N- No...” Zeth gasps.

Kogen’s expression hardens, not amused by Zeth’s defiance.

“I’m sorry, I think I missed what you just said,” he says just before he punches Zeth in the face.

“One last chance to say it, or this gets brutal.”

“K-Kiss my ass…”

Just a single moment passes before Kogen begins brutally pounding Zeth.

Sasha stares in absolute horror, her eyes and mouth wide open. “No!!”

She tries to get up, but pain rips through her body and she collapses again. “I must help!!”

“You can’t in your condition!” Emily yells.

“I don’t give a shit!!! Zeth is in trouble so I must help him!!!”

Joe pulls the syringe out of his pocket but he trembles in fear, eyes widened and irises shrunken. He thinks, “Come on! All I gotta do is jab it in! Come on, Joe! Just do it! Your friend is in danger! Become a martyr!” His hand reaches no closer for his arm. “Come on, damn it!!! Do it!!!!”

Sasha’s eyes sharpen with bloodlust as she watches Zeth being beaten. “Let go of him, you disgusting bastard!!!” Her voice leaves a demonic echo trailing it.

Sasha’s scream distracts Joe from the syringe. He and the other heroes focus their attention on her.

Kogen ignores her scream and continues to pound away at Zeth. Blood starts splashing out from his mouth with each hit.

Sasha’s heart begins pounding violently.

“Zeth, you have become the most important person in my life!” she says, still leaving a demonic echo trailing her voice. “Every single hit you take resonates within me too! Your pain is my pain!”

“Sasha?” Emily calls, her eyes widening with nerves.

Sasha’s heartbeat grows even stronger. Her body twitches as her eyes snap wide open. Hatred lies within them as she watches Kogen continue to pulverize Zeth.

“Sasha!? What’s wrong!?” Emily asks with a hint of fear.

Sasha does not respond. Her gaze still won’t leave Zeth as Kogen continues pounding him. His painful moans are becoming harder and harder to listen to.

“Carve out…” she mutters with the demonic echo.

“What!? You’re not making any sense!” Emily yells.

Sasha’s heartbeats intensify further. Her whole body appears to vibrate.

“Hate… Kogen… Protect… Zeth…”

As her heart continues to hammer, images flash through her mind, visions of her carving out Kogen’s insides with her fingers.

“Hate… Carve out… Hellhounds…”

Her expression suddenly shifts. The wide-eyed stare transforms into pure rage and bloodlust.

“Damn you, Kogen!! Damn you to Hell!!!!!!”

Deep within Sasha’s body, a dark magic barrier surrounding her heart begins to crack.

“I’m going to kill you!!!! I’m going to rip you apart!!!!”

The other heroes stare in shock. Even Kogen stops punching Zeth and turns to look at her.

Sasha’s rage explodes further. “I’m going to carve out your insides and feed them to my Hellhounds!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The barrier around her heart finally shatters, setting free great dark power.

Sasha rises to her feet and screams, “You will regret the moment you ever dared to harm Zeth!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A massive dark aura erupts around her. The whites of her eyes turn black and her red irises remain. Her power skyrockets as black electrical sparks crackle through her aura briefly. Her true power has now been permanently unlocked.

She continues screaming. “I will send you to an eternity of torment!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will torture you to the extent that you will beg for death!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Everyone stares in stunned silence, including Kogen. Their eyes are all widened.

Sasha finally stops screaming. She looks down at herself, then slowly lifts her gaze to Kogen.

“I remember now!”

Memories flood her mind for a moment.

“As nothing more than a four-year-old girl, I killed! I killed for fun! Killing brought me great pleasure! I even killed the demons of Hell constantly! My mother, the Dark Goddess, didn’t like killing without cause, or the fact that I killed many of her demons for my own entertainment, so she sealed my darkness and I became nothing more than a human-like girl!”

Emily, Kurt, Joe, and Keith watch her with concern.

“But now I can kill with a cause! I will now kill for Zeth! I will fight side-by-side with him and will put a stake in the heart of the Dark Goddess for him!”

The others breathe a sigh of relief.

“This is a surprise,” Kogen admits. “I had no idea that Zeth could be with the daughter of the Dark Goddess. Well then, you will join Zeth in becoming an Enigmus.”

“Quiet, you piece of shit!” Sasha growls. “I’m going to torture you until you beg for me to kill you! I’m going to carve out your insides and feed them to my Hellhounds!! In our quest to destroy the Dark Goddess, you will be the next to die!!”

She smiles at him with a slow, sadistic grin.

“I can’t wait to hear your screams of agony! Just thinking about it fills me with excitement! Prepare yourself, because I will carve the image of my sadistic joy into your nightmares that will follow you to the afterlife!”

Sasha’s true self has awakened! Will her power be enough to defeat Kogen?

Chapter 176 END

To be Continued in Chapter 177: Dark Awakened Sasha vs Kogen. The Sadist Strikes!