The Dark Faction was on the move, and in various ways. For one, Cronker had expanded his Dark Assassin force, the Dark Hand.
He had been training up a number of students, on top of Joe, Violet, and Tinson. There were also members of the Bonum Society, proficient at using foot techniques, who had joined, and now the squad was ten members strong.
The Dark Hand, as well as several of the Bonum Society members, had spread messages to all the clans to set the plan in motion.
Letters had been received by all clans, from those high up in the mountains to those in the trenches of swamps and caves.
Not a single clan didn't receive a notice, and it was word from the Dark Faction Academy, telling them to comply. They had all seen what had occurred that day, the day the Dark Magus took over the Academy.
How the major clans were useless, and all other clans had already suffered defeat from mysterious groups of people and organizations.
True to their word, they had continued allowing the clans to operate as they wished, not getting involved, as long as they did as they were told. And now that time had come.
However, it wasn't as if the clans receiving the letters were unwilling to comply. If anything, they were more eager to work together with the Academy.
The letters contained details of the plan and the reason for such actions—to rid the scum that attacked the Academy, causing a great loss of many children.
One of the Dark Faction's clans, the Black Marble Clan, was located among the mountaintops. Due to their secluded location, they weren't large in size but had loyal followers who would become members of the clan.
The clan was quite unique as it was almost completely separated from regular citizens, only heading down to the village at the mountain's base to trade once in a while.
Walking up a long grand staircase to reach the top was a group of three people. They were wearing regular Pagna clothing, with two of them carrying large backpacks.
"Man, why did we get stuck with this job? This thing is torture!" one of the men said, pouring sweat and pushing off his thigh to go up another step.
"Apparently things have been pretty busy. I was talking to Stacy, and she got called out too, so we were actually the closest Alter squad to this clan," the other replied, who was struggling less because he was a Pagna warrior.
"Don't you have a spell to make this stuff lighter or something?" the man complained.
"If I did, then I would've used it on myself." The third person was also covered in sweat, making their way up the stairs.
"Why do we even have to do this anyway? Can't we refuse a job that's so far away?"
"You know the deal: Alter has to make income somehow, and we need to spread our name as trustworthy people while gathering information. So let's just suck it up and keep moving forward."
Eventually, the Alter squad reached the top. They were treated well by the warriors, given food and drinks, and finally brought into the main clan base.
Soon after, they were invited to the main room where the clan elders were gathered. It was a large hall with wooden flooring and a raised platform where three elders sat in their chairs.
"It's a pleasure to meet you three," one of the elders said.
"Same to you." One of the men bowed. "I've heard that the request you asked about is to do wi—"
In the middle of his speech, three red arrows shot out, going straight through the Alter members' heads. They fell to the floor and died in mere moments.
The elders had nervous sweat forming on the sides of their faces. When they turned to look, they saw a fairly short woman with dark bags under her eyes, standing by the sliding door.
"Heh… heh… heh!" Froma chuckled. "Is it just me, or is it becoming easier… to deal with these things?" She dragged her fingers across her face.
Seeing Froma look like a madwoman and how she quickly dealt with three members of Alter, including a Pagna warrior, the elders were sure they were on the right side.
"On to the next one, I guess," Froma said, slouched as she went to walk off.
This occurrence wasn't just happening at one clan base. Every clan base in the Dark Faction was calling on the help of Alter members, who were then being assassinated and taken care of.
As for the force known as the Dark Hand, they had gathered information from Anna, as well as all the clans. Descriptions of every person they had seen working for Alter.
After cross-referencing these descriptions, they would go out and take down the members of Alter one by one.
In one location, in a bar at night, drinks were flowing, and many were having a joyous evening.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and Anna was seen entering. She scanned the room with her eyes, then moved to a table.
Upon reaching the table, she grabbed the back of one man's head and slammed it down into his bowl. She then picked the man up by his head again and hurled him toward another, crashing him down.
A third person tried to strike, but Anna avoided it, holding the man's arm, then striking by the elbow with her other hand, breaking it in one hit.
"It's okay!" Anna shouted. "I'm here on orders of the Dark Magus."
She then turned to the man who was screaming in pain.
"You know, I never did like Alter too much, but there was one man I was quite fond of, and now he's gone, and it was you guys who did it."
"But you see, there's one person he cared about, so I'm going to ask you guys… right, you're a retriever team? So what's your lead on a mage called Charlotte?" Anna shouted.
In a day, the existence of Alter would be no more in the Dark Faction, and Alter themselves were too busy, with their focus on something else to even react.