The Elders all turned to Socrate, who sighed and opened a portal for them.
He hadn’t volunteered for this run, but it looked like he was going to have to go anyhow, and live up to the duties of a ranked Elder, while someone else took care of the Alchemy warehouse for the day.
"Alright, off we go. But just for the record, this is a terrible idea, and it’s going to be utter chaos once we arrive."
The moment that those words were out of his mouth, Socrate regretted them. It was as if speaking them out loud was making it a certainty and not a mere possibility. And he already had the portal open.
The dungeon at Tel was a lively place, always open, but guarded by the Telheusto Clan, a group of former Elders from other Sects and Clans, who had banded together for the sake of making money and guarding the dungeon.
Like so many others, they also liked to make challenges or take a cut of the earnings of groups entering.
And with a pair of early Void Immortals, Socrate had every expectation that their group was going to face the shakedown.
Only, when they arrived, nobody would meet their eyes, and the crowd simply parted to let them go directly to the dungeon. That was not at all what usually happened when you entered this place, and even the members of the Telheusto Clan simply nodded politely to them.
The two groups didn’t have much of a working relationship, though a few would come to make purchases from the New Home Merchant Clan.
They had also sat out the battle, not supporting either side.
Perhaps they were just embarrassed to have been outsiders when they were so close to the New Home, by geographical location? No, that didn’t make sense, the Condim Commanders and the Hyperion Sect were both closer to New Home than they were.
Then he heard the whispers.
"Did you hear about the Hyperion Sect? No survivors. They even went and hunted down the ones who fled to the Templars for safety. They didn’t even spare the bunnies."
"I heard that they kept the bunnies. Just came in and claimed their contracts to bring them back to New Home. Haven’t you been there? There are bunnies everywhere in New Home."
"Still, who wipes out a Clan like that?"
"I heard that the Templars refused to be disbanded, and fought back when they came to collect their fifth. That’s why the Templar compound was wiped out."
"I saw it myself. I was in the city when the fight started. The Clan Leader came and demanded their dues, and got jumped by the Templars and their allies.
Then, she called in reinforcements, some teenage Elf at the Supreme Rank and the pair of Void Immortals.
I don’t think they’re actually Void Immortals, they’re definitely Elders suppressing their aura. They marched through the compound like it was nothing. I was watching from the Auction Mart’s upper floor, and it was like an undead apocalypse.
Those two showed up and then there were undead everywhere.
But not summoned Undead. They turned the fallen Templars into Blood Golems and used them to wipe out their own Clan. It was absolutely brutal."

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