(Julius POV)

Months passed since the first day of school. I had been learning peacefully with my classmates, enjoying a regular high school experience.

Dealing with bullies, getting love letters, causing mischief and more. I experience it all again. It was almost identical to my old world.

Though the only difference was the mage classes, unlike other subjects, the students are incredibly motivated and willing to do anything to succeed.

But, I had no idea that the battle to decide the fate of our continent and my future was occurring miles away.

***

(Rebecca Storm POV)

"How's the cleanup in Area 11?"

"The Reaper Corps led have erased the demon presence there Ma'am."

"In which areas is the rest of the demon army concentrated?"

"Areas 9, 10, 12 - 15."

The demon continent was split into Areas in 5 by 3 matric. It numbered 1 to 5 in the first column, going north to south, then 6 to 10 in the second column with 11 to 15 in the last one.

"So we have cornered them to the southeast of this continent."

"Yes ma'am. High command states that we need to corner them and end the war by the end of this year."

"This year? The war will probably end within the next month or so. We've located all their S ranks. Once they're defeated, the rest of the demons will follow suit. Ok, colonel. Pull back your regiment. We'll take over from here."

"Roger that."

The woman saluted and jogged off. The war was almost over. We have almost taken over their entire land. Most of the demon's factories have shut down, and we've screwed up their logistics.

In a regular case, it meant that the winner of the war was guaranteed. However, that was not the case. Though the demons had no way of feeding their entire army, they still had enough food for the mages.

And those were usually the ones who decided the outcome of the war. Most of the civilian soldiers had been pulled from the front lines and mages were being called from all over the continent.

I walked over to the tent my party was staying in. I enter and saw them gambling and drinking booze.

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"Really? Right now? We're leaving on a mission in five minutes. And you're doing this."

"No need to be a killjoy. We just getting motivated."

"Motivated my ass. Hurry up and get ready. We're moving around 1000 kilometres south into area 12. This is where a major portion of the demon army remains. We need to clear them out."

"Oh great, we're massacring weaklings. That's boring."

"There have been reports of S ranks being there as well."

"Sounds fun. Leave them to me."

The person I was talking to was named Matthew Ryans. Despite his age, he was very easygoing. He had messy yellow hair he looked no older than 25. Everyone but one didn't look older than 30. He smelled like booze and barely took care of himself.

The only person who had signs of ageing was Thomas. Thomas Ocean was the oldest of all of us, being over 20 years older than me. He was my and Mitchell's mentor decades ago when I first joined the military.

The last person a part of our group was named Lyra Bloom. She was a couple of years senior to me as well. She was a part of 15 royals and had pink hair tied into a ponytail.

Me, Mitchell, Mattew, Thomas and Lyra together formed the hero's party. We were all a part of the 20 Rulers and were ranked 1, 3, 6, 7 and 11 respectively. We were all SS ranks and extremely powerful mages.

After exiting the tent, we jogged over to where the camp was located. Despite the distance, it only took 30 seconds to get there. We stood, overlooking the camp.

Other humans were also there preparing the attack.

"Finally, the backup is here. We are hamstrung without your support."

*Whack*

Suddenly another soldier hit the man who greeted us across the head. He saluted before bowing down.

"I apologise for my subordinate's rudeness. Please forgive him. He is a novice. He doesn't understand the difficulties you face."

"It's no problem."

I waved him off. I could hear his commanding officers scolding the young soldier. If it was me in the past, I would have interfered, but now as I grew older, I understood that the commanding officer meant well and was only trying to help him.

Though my friends say that I haven't changed since I was younger, I knew there was a vast difference between me in the past and the current me.

Though my values have stayed the same; wanting to save the innocents and to make the world a better place, the way I acted on it was vastly different.

Back then I was extremely naive and didn't understand how the world worked. I was innocent as I thought of the world as black and white.

But, as I grew older and saw how grey the world was. The government that every believe would protect them committed foul crimes to safeguard the people.

I was devasted when I first found out about the experimentation the government did to enhance a mage's talent. The experiment was a failure as only a few dozen mages got stronger out of thousands of deaths.

Back then, I threatened the government and forcibly shut down the facilities. But, now I don't know what I would do. I would despise it obviously, but I knew this was a necessary evil for victory.

So I came to a single conclusion to end or mitigate the evils of the government. End the war. Without the war, the government won't need to resort to vile methods to increase humanity's combat power.

I stared off into the distance, seeing the demons chatting, unaware of the calamity approaching them. They would know the devastation that was going to be unleashed upon them.

I hated war. If I could, I wanted to save them and for us to coexist. That was my deepest desire hidden in my heart. However, my brain constantly reminded me that it was never possible.

The world didn't work like that. My ideals couldn't end generations of hatred. Our animosity for the demons was ingrained in our blood. Nobody would accept that outcome. This war would end with one of our species being eradicated.

I hardened my heart as the commanding officers gave the command to launch the assault.