Chapter 565: Hopelessness

Chapter 565: Hopelessness

Narrator: The final battle against Dakame continues as she has just changed into her final form.

*The heroes all face Dakame in her Darkest of All Form*

Dakame: This is a form I achieved with Korobu’s help. Perhaps you could say that it is similar to your Soul Power.

*Dakame holds out her right hand*

Dakame: The battle is over. You have lost.

*Zeth is angered and starts rushing toward Dakame*

Zeth: You haven’t won anything yet!

*Zeth starts trying to rapidly punch Dakame but Dakame easily blocks every punch using her hands*

*Dakame does a swiping kick that hits Zeth in the gut which makes him cough up blood and sends him flying back*

*Sasha, Joe, Kurt, and Keith start rushing toward Dakame*

Harmona: Wait! Don’t!

*Sasha releases a Soul Beam. Dakame dodges it by jumping*

*Keith comes out of a portal behind Dakame and kicks her on the back of the neck. It doesn’t even make her flinch which shocks Keith*

*Without even turning around, Dakame does a back-slashing motion with her arm which leads a trail of dark magic and it slices into Keith’s body and significantly wounds him. He falls down to the ground*

*Storm clouds converge right above Dakame as she lands back on the ground and a super powerful lightning strike hits her. There is barely a scratch on Dakame from the attack*

Joe: No way! That was a lot of lightning strikes combined into one mega strike!

*Dakame quickly reaches Joe. He tries to defend himself by holding up his arms and having razor hail on them. Dakame punches him. Her punch shatters the razor hail and hits his arms, causing his bones to crack and is knocked back while in severe pain*

Harmona: I told you all to stop!! Get away from her!!

*Kurt has flown upwards and is preparing to do an Aura Meteor attack*

*Dakame launches upwards and grabs Kurt by the neck, stopping his attack. She then spins him around and slams her elbow on his back which sends him all the way down to the ground, and also in a lot of pain*

*Emily has finished charging her Supreme Cannon*

Emily: It’s ready!

*Emily fires the Supreme Cannon as Dakame lands back on the ground. She gets a direct hit. However, it only leaves scratches which shocks Emily*

*Dakame smiles*

Dakame: How cute.

*Dakame quickly reaches Emily. Emily starts trying to punch Dakame but Dakame easily grabs her arms and then does her own punch that knocks Emily back in pain*

*Zeth has rejoined the battle and releases a meteor attack that is covered in Sasha’s purple flames*

*Dakame releases a powerful blast of dark magic energy that collides with the meteor attack and destroys it*

*Zeth and Sasha are shocked as Dakame reaches them. Dakame starts pounding them repeatedly. She then blows them back with a burst of her dark magic*

*Zeth and Sasha are left with significant wounds and injuries just like their friends*

Zeth: Can we really not do anything!?

*Suddenly, a lot of flying angels start appearing from the sky and they release a barrage of magical attacks down at Dakame*

Harmona: Don’t attack her!

*Those attacks are hitting her and around her, but they have little effect as she looks up at them*

Dakame: How sad. More pests broke through.

*Dakame releases a barrage of powerful black rain up toward the angels. Many of them are hit and they fall down to the ground with some of them dead and some of them badly injured*

*Harmona confronts Dakame*

Harmona: I won’t let you harm any more of the ones I care about while I’m around!!

Dakame: And what do you plan to do about it?

*Harmona continues fighting Dakame while the heroes just try to get up*

Zeth: *huff huff* Is it… over? Is this it for us?

*Sasha, Joe, Emily, Kurt, and Keith also have lowered morale and it shows on their facial expressions*

*As they look on, they hear someone*

???: Are you really just going to give up after coming this far?

*The heroes all have shocked expressions and then turn around to see Kogen (no longer demonified), Udana, and Fisha behind them*

Zeth: It’s you…

Udana: Don’t look so surprised. We died and went to Hell. You’re looking at our souls.

Fisha: Every soul here now knows about this decisive battle. We wanted the front row seats. Too bad Daykona refused to join us.

Kogen: Never mind all that. You all were determined to take down the Dark Goddess all those years ago. You can’t give up now after coming all this way. I also remember everything now after having my memories wiped when I was reincarnated as a demon. You freed me from that demonification.

Udana: Look at all of you, more grown up than when you came to stop our Enigmus plan. This situation isn’t as hopeless as you think.

Fisha: So get back up and fight!

Kogen: Show us that you really are capable of killing the Dark Goddess!

Udana: And then start a new course in the history of this world!

*The heroes look at them as if they did become newly inspired to continue the fight*

*Before the heroes do anything, Zothena arrives. Though, she is injured*

Zothena: I can tell things aren’t going well right now.

Zeth: We could certainly use your help in the fight.

Zothena: In addition to being injured, my soul was somewhat weakened from restoring Harmona’s soul. I can’t fight Dakame. I have a better plan.

Sasha: What would that be?

Zothena: Bursting Soul.

*Zeth and Sasha are shocked*

Zeth: That!?

Sasha: You completed your research!?

Zothena: Yes. Normally, the most power one has in their soul is the 100% threshold that they are born with. When I restored Harmona’s soul, I could not make it go higher than the 100% cap she was born with. But using Soul Power… it’s different. When someone uses Soul Power, a different person can use their soul to add to that person’s Soul Power and in that way, a person using Soul Power can make their soul go beyond 100%. (Author’s Note: If this was drawn, there would be a diagram to show that information)

Zeth: That’s great!

Zothena: There is a downside to it though. The soul added to the Soul Power user becomes excess energy that the Soul Power user burns through. It does not return to the original owner of the soul. That soul energy is gone for good and the person who donated it now has to spend a lot of time regenerating their weakened soul. So it should always be used as a last resort. I think this qualifies for that. I’m going to further weaken my own soul and make the two of you use Bursting Soul.

*Zeth and Sasha come to terms with that*

Zeth: Alright…

*Zothena claps her hands together as her soul starts flowing. She then puts her left hand on Zeth’s shoulder and her right hand on Sasha’s shoulder*

*Zothena’s soul starts flowing into them and their eyes open wide with less focus as they look at an upwards angle. The other heroes and Kogen, Udana, and Fisha look at this with intrigue*

*Soon, Zothena stops and falls to her knees as she breaths heavily*

Zothena: *huff huff* That should be enough to take on Dakame as she is now…

*The other heroes look at them with awe*

Emily: Look at them now…

*Everyone gets a good look at Zeth’s and Sasha’s full appearance. Their soul aura now has a fiery effect. Zeth has angelic markings on his body while Sasha has demonic markings on hers. Their armor has even changed to become more angelic and demonic respectively* (Author’s Note: Inspiration for the designs was Fierce Deity Link in Majora’s Mask. I just had to have something inspired by that somewhere in this story.)

Zeth: This power is incredible! I’m ready to return to the fight!

Sasha: We’ll kill the Dark Goddess and bring in the New Era!

Narrator: Zeth and Sasha have taken their Soul Power to the next level! There are only 9 chapters left!

Chapter 565 END

To be Continued in Chapter 566: Bursting Soul Unleashed