(Unknown SS rank in an undisclosed location)
"So we lost Damien Burns."
I pressed my fingers against my forehead as I sighed in frustration. Losing an S rank was difficult to handle. Especially because of his position as one of the protectors of Central High. Though he was still alive, attacking Tartarus was the height of folly.
"Damn you, Moria."
When Umbra Moria spoke to Damien, must've wanted to talk to me. He knew that Damien hid a recording device on him.
I pondered over what he said. He wanted to believe in Rebecca. To let her lead the next generation to change the current system. I wanted to agree with him, but as Damien said, he was naive.
I respected Rebecca in the past and still do to this day. Yet she hasn't been able to do anything during her time as the Mage Empress and Hero.
They haven't lived like I had and didn't know about how bad things got. My mother died while I was young and my father died of illness soon after.
I lived in the massive slums outside the city. Food was scarce and I could only steal to survive. Nobody cared who lived or died.
We weren't mages, so the government just saw us as worthless statistics. With how cold the winters got, I lost many friends every year. I luckily had a talent as a mage to escape poverty.
But during my travels, I saw exactly the same in every city. If you weren't born with the 1 in 10,000 lottery ticket, nobody would care about you.
Mages off duty would commit so many crimes, yet they were given a pardon. Justice was on their side. Nobles were the epitome of this.
They were all blessed with golden spoons in their mouths and abused their powers from birth. Though they only made up a little over 1% of mages, they represented the worst of them.
I created Ataxia with like-minded comrades to fix the problems in our society. We all had the same beliefs and were wronged in some way by the current system of governance.
"Luckily Damien's capture won't push our plans too far back."
He had already given all information about Central High. We could sneak our agents in and kill the students. As much as I hated this, it was the only way to bring chaos, allowing us to rise from the depths.
Ironically, S ranks and A ranks who were given the most freedom were not allowed near Central High without permission. They would be questioned immediately.
Even the protectors of the school such as Damien weren't allowed near it unless of an emergency. Otherwise, I would've asked him to kill the students by himself.
It was protected by many barriers and artifacts they could even detect and deflect attacks of S ranks.
They were fueled by the mana of Dengen Trees which individually had mana comparable to A ranks. Thousands of them simultaneously meant that even S rank's law-breaking power was rendered ineffective.
They also were constantly maintained and improved by the best enchanters of the generations, meaning that disabling them was out of the question.
Even Umbra Moria himself admitted he wouldn't be able to sneak into the school. I didn't want the check the validity of the statement so only B ranks and below could go on this mission.
'Thankfully Trevor Wells is out of commission. I only need to lure out the two A ranks, and we'll be fine.'
I organised my thoughts as I laid my eyes on my subordinates. These were my trusted comrades fueled by the same ideals I had.
My eyes also laid upon the trash of the society we had among us. Ideally, I would've only liked to work with people with objectives like mine, it was impossible.
I didn't have the same connections and needed help from the underworld. This led to me needing to partner up with Vision.
They didn't care about our ideals and wanted to benefit from the chaos that we would produce. The image of the leader of Vision popped into mind.
He was strong, stronger me. I instinctively knew I stood no chance against him. I imagine thousands of scenarios where I battled him and they all led to one outcome. Defeat.
He probably just wanted me to become his puppet after we overthrew the government. But I wasn't going to let that happen.
I was going to surpass him in strength. It was difficult, but I knew I still hadn't used up my talent and could become stronger.
I clenched my fist and vowed to kill them when the first chance arises.
"Sir, is this the final lineup?"
A subordinate of mine passed me a tablet, showing the list of mages who were going to infiltrate Central High.
We already had some students and teachers on the inside so we continued making preparations for our attack next year.
I wasn't looking forward to the anarchy that was sure to occur in the future, but I had resolved myself to this years ago.