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Time passed. Izumi, Four Eyes, Mohawk Thug, and Forrest all worked on their weaknesses with the help of their support. As these four were busy improving their grasp on their abilities, there was uproar at the Hero Association. In a dark room with shiny floors, men in black suits sat around a long table. These people, who were each heads of individual departments in the Hero Association, were the top executives in the company. After receiving government financial support in addition to sponsors, the Association was estimated at a 500 billion-dollar company. The massive glass doors showed a clearly healthy budget. A voice rang out as an older man slammed his fists on the table.

“What can we do about this? Someone give me an answer.”

“Sir!”

A middle-aged man with the first sign of wrinkles answered dutifully.

“My employees and I developed three possible ways to completely defeat the Villain Association.” The man pressed buttons on a tablet and brought up holograms over the table.

“The first choice is simple. We can mobilize all S class heroes toward their base. We are estimated to find the base in less than three days, giving us plenty of time to call all available S class Heroes. The problem with this choice is that it will leave less flexibility in large scale monster attacks, as we would not be able to deal with Threat Level: Fire threats easily.”

The Hero Association, in order to improve efficiency of defense measures, has a system of identifying threat levels. The lowest- Threat Level: Spark- is the lowest. These threats can usually be dealt with by any B class hero, or a team of C class heroes. The next threat level- Flame- can be dealt with by and A class hero or above. The next, and second highest, is called Fire. Threat Level: Fire would usually require a team of A class heroes, or a single S rank hero. These estimations aren’t set in stone, however. Occasionally, threat levels can escalate to a higher threat level as information is acquired.

The room of middle aged and wrinkled men grunted in response. Assembling all S class heroes was usually a last resort, as many of the heroes have difficult personalities and time schedules. The man continued talking.

“The second choice would be a large-scale invasion of lower ranked heroes. If we assembled enough teams and squads of A, B, and C rank heroes, we would be able to annihilate their headquarters through sheer quantity.”

The room of men sat forward in their seats. The old man, who was named Anubis Godfrey, was the director of the company. He responded.

“While this would likely have heavy casualties, this choice is a double-edged sword. While I believe organizing this team would be easier than the entirety of S class, we would have difficulty keeping trust with our heroes for employing a method such as this.”

The middle-aged man, who was giving the impression, smiled respectfully.

“Correct. Additionally, the Villain Organization has at least 5 S ranked villains. This choice has the highest chance of ending in defeat. Thus, I believe that the third option is the best course of action.”

The room of executives looked expectantly. Godfrey listened.

“The third choice is to mobilize multiple S ranked Heroes, while supplementing them with support teams of B and C ranked heroes.”

Godfrey narrowed his eyes at the man’s words before speaking.

“No A class?”

“No, sir. The A rank, as the class just below S, has incredible strength. While these heroes are weaker than S, we have over five times the amount of A rank heroes as the S class. Keeping the A rank heroes flexible to answer to threats will be able to handle any monster attacks. As long as we increase their pay, most will be fine with working overtime. In addition, many A rank heroes have a strong sense of duty.”

“I understand.”

Godfrey replied with an approving look. He faced the executives of the table and barked orders.

“We will be going with choice three. We will choose three S rank heroes to deal with the S rank villains, and have a multitude of C rank and B rank heroes offer support and clear the trash.”

The group of executives nodded their heads with a serious expression. The Villain Association had been a thorn in their sides for years, but it had recently grown more aggressive and bold. As the venture to find them was expensive and dangerous, they could no longer be ignored.

“The operation will take place in three days. Make it happen.”

“Sir!” The crowd nodded in unison before leaving the room to fill their duties. The man giving the speech began to walk out as well.

“Cash.”

The middle-aged man turned his head to see the director.

“For this operation, I am putting you in charge. Prove to me that you are capable of taking over the Hero Association in the future.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cash bowed and left the room. He had been waiting for an opportunity such as this. Under no circumstances could he fail and lose the favor of the current director.

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Elsewhere, in the middle of the wilderness with no other buildings for miles, a staircase leading underground was hidden beneath the trees. After descending a lengthy flight of stairs, a metal door was locked. A man with a hood held a card up to the door. After a few moments, the door opened. Walking through the doorway, the hooded man entered a large room made completely out of quartz. Strangely, the room was so filled with machinery and gems, the inside looked more like a spaceship than a secret hideout. The man sat down in a five-seated glass table in the shape of a pentagon. At each point of the pentagon was an empty seat. The man clicked a button on the table to reveal holograms in the shape of people in each seat. Everyone except for the man in the hood was a dark hologram, only showing the outline of the person. With two shadows being that of men and two being that of women, the five seats were full. The man in the hood began talking.

“Sorry to call you all on such short notice.”

“Before we begin, why don’t you remove your hood, Sirius? It’s common manners.” The shadow of a large, brutish man growled. The aggressive tone of the voice sounded more like a beast than a man.

“My apologies, Ash.” The man removed his hood to reveal a white mask. He lifted his mask to show his severely scarred face. It had clearly been burned terribly in the past. He spoke with a professionally calm tone.

“Then, I will not waste anybody’s time. We have successfully begun the first stage of our goal thanks to the effort put forth by everyone here. However, as a result of the previous success, we have finally caught the Hero’s Association’s attention. They will be attacking our central headquarters in three days.”

“Let them come.” The brutish man growled again. “I’ll put them down like the dogs that they are.”

“Ssso, it’s finally begun.” One of the women spoke. Her voice, which sounded like a serpent’s hiss, carried an air of arrogance.

“It’s been a while since I’ve killed and heroesss…”

The two figures that had yet to speak sat in silence. The woman sat upright in an unwavering position, while the man had slouched into his seat. He made the yawning gesture as the others conversed. Sirius responded with the plan to deal with the hero attack.

“There will be three S rank heroes attacking. They will most likely the weakest of the S class heroes, but they are still dangerous. Ash and Medusa, I will leave the S ranked heroes to you.”

“Sirius.”

Ash spoke in a loud and aggressive voice. The voice trembled in anger.

“You think I cannot devour them myself?”

Medusa giggled at the anger shown by Ash. She spoke with a shrill hiss.

“You overestimate yourself, Ash. Brute force is not enough sometimes, hm?”

Ash looked over at the shade of Medusa. His voice trembled in outrage. Even though no one could see his face, everyone could feel the wrath behind his tone itself.

“Medusa… If you keep speaking, I will prove that a snake can’t grow back their tail.”

“Enough, Medusa.” Sirius’s voice broke the tension.

“Ash, it is not that I do not have courage in your strength. Your power is truly a boon to our cause. However, S class heroes are nothing to sneeze at. Almost all of them have more than one trick up their sleeve, so having Medusa as backup in case of trouble is a necessity. After all, the outcome of this conflict will likely end up on the news and in other media, so we cannot risk even the slightest chance of failure. Your two tasks are to slay the S class heroes. If, for some reason, you feel at risk of losing your lives, immediately withdraw. Losing a headquarters would be a loss, but losing our top Villains is a much bigger setback.”

Ash calmed himself as he listened to Sirius’s explanation. If they were to accomplish their purpose, the five of them must remain alive until the time comes. Medusa and Ash were both incredibly strong figures in the Villain Association. Sirius continued his instruction.

“Hellfire.”

“Sir?”

The woman that still had not spoken finally broke her silence.

“There will be a large amount of lower ranked heroes in the attack as well. I will leave that to your Dark Company.”

“Understood. We will defeat them by any means necessary.” The woman spoke promptly.

“Excellent.”

“Oy.” The last person of the five spoke. His voice sounded sleepy.

“I don’t feel like coming over there, so you guys can handle it yourselves.”

“That’s fine, Dream Eater. However, in the future, you must be willing to assign the tasks assigned.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s a long way away, right? I’ll just relax until then.”

Before anybody could respond, his hologram disappeared. He had broken the link to leave the meeting.

“Bastard.”

Ash’s voice rumbled. It was not surprising that he would be frustrated- despite both having the same prestige, their personalities were polar opposites. Like fire and ice, they had no hope of getting along.

“Anyway, that concludes the meeting. I will send the coordinates of the predicted attack point to you. Do not fail. This is just the first clash in our long-fated battle with the Hero Association.”

The holograms disappeared in a flash. Far away, in a large castle on the side of a volcano, a woman sat on a throne made of volcanic rock and iron. Her scarlet hair, which flickered flames, sat underneath a hovering red circlet. Despite her beautiful face, her eyes showed a brutal and harsh demeanor. The colorful jewels that littered the design showed an obvious status symbol. Her red and black style of clothing was remnant of ancient royalty. She stood and descended the stairs in front of the throne as a man in black armor kneeled.

“Queen Hellfire… Might I ask for orders?”

“Organize the Dark Company. We’re hunting Heroes.”

“Understood!”

The man kneeled further before leaving to gather the soldiers. She continued down the hallway before being led outside. Looking up and brushing her flaming hair out of her face to stare at the night sky, a cold and distant voice whispered from her lips.

“So, the time has finally come… Forrest.”

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