A few days after the Gamma Team's training with Hayato began, Camille received a call from linda Autumn, telling the woman that the GTS would be visiting the Jade Palace.
Ever since the war against the Azure Rebels and the Onyx Cartel began, the Golden Twilight Syndicate had been scouting the western areas closer to their territory.
linda's tone sounded quite severe on the phone, so Camille knew that their visit would be significant.
When the GTS arrived, Camille called upon the Oga and Gamma teams to et up at the briefing room, where they greeted each other as it had been weeks since their last eting.
Asphodel also joined, accompanied by Balthazar, Laurent, and Claudia, her oldest children.
Curtis, one of the GTS leaders, was happy to see Zac in one piece. However, sothing about his expression caught the redhead's attention, as he seed to be bothered by sothing.
"Everything okay, dude?" Zac asked Curtis.
"Ermm… You will hear the rest from Granny," the man replied with apprehension.
After everyone had gathered inside the briefing room, Ira, The Golden Fox, stood before the entire group to reveal their findings.
The GTS managed to infiltrate the western side of the country, and while so of their mbers had violent encounters with the cartel in the rainforest, a couple of scouts reached a city called "Limsa."
Limsa used to be a beautiful city with lots of rural spaces and recreational parks. Even when the cartel ruled over the western side of Novaria, Limsa was considered a great place to live after retirent.
Of course, after Netherius took control of the cartel, the city was in steep decline as the cartel squeezed the citizens of everything they had, leaving most of the population entirely poor.
Nevertheless, it had gotten even worse for the people living there.
"My scouts took a video of the buildings… I'm sure so of you will know what this is," Ira comnted, playing a recording on the screen behind her.
In the video, they saw an ordinary apartnt complex with no more than fifteen floors. However, strange black and dark green tendrils twisted like vines around the building.
The tendrils seed to fuse with the architecture, creeping over the walls and windows, pulsating with an eerie green light, and transforming the structure into a sinister monunt that extruded an aura of dread and decay.
The spectators were baffled at the sight, while Dante and Asphodel were utterly displeased, knowing exactly what they were looking at.
"This is the beginning of a necropolis…" Ira comnted.
"Like… A city for the dead?" Zac inquired.
"Sort of—but not exactly," the Golden Fox replied.
Dante decided to step up and explain further, as he had foiled Netherius' plans to create a necropolis once in the past.
Back in their old world, Netherius tried to convert the entire city of "Jarsion" into a necropolis. Unfortunately for him, Dante and his party were staying in the city at the ti, which led to their final encounter.
Building a necropolis was one of the biggest feats that a necromancer could accomplish, and there was only one ancient necromancer who had managed to complete it.
Netherius, who was determined to beco the strongest necromancer in history, wanted to replicate this feat, but his efforts were thwarted by Dante and his party.
When a city was turned into a necropolis, all of the structures were slowly corrupted by "death's ichor," a shadowy substance that hardened around the buildings, producing a necrotic aura that slowly sapped the life force of any living being.
Prolonged exposure to death's ichor could corrupt the minds of the living, causing hallucinations, paranoia, and gradual loss of will.
Furthermore, death's ichor produced so much necrotic energy that it allowed the necromancer to control or create new minions from anywhere in the city.
"So… Netherius can literally control that ichor from his ho?" Zac pondered aloud.
"Well, if his ho is inside the necropolis, then yes…" Dante replied.
During the tis when Dante and his party faced Netherius in their old world, half of the city of Jarsion had been converted into a necropolis, and Dante rembered that the necromancer would create traps and environntal hazards on a whim.
Netherius could also summon any undead to any location in the necropolis, so his control over his territory was quite palpable.
"You make it sound like it's impossible to infiltrate…" gan interjected.
"That's because it is… At least for anyone who can't entirely suppress their aura," Dante comnted.
"Besides, we would need soul-warding talismans to resist death's ichor…" he continued.
It didn't matter how experienced a mage was—there wasn't a single living being that could resist the corruption.
When Zac asked how the warlock managed to resist it in the past, he explained that Faelyn, the mage in his party, had enchanted talismans for their group, allowing them to fight inside the necropolis without losing themselves.
Unfortunately, Dante didn't have the ability to make those talismans as it required an advanced level of mana control, so he glanced at Ira, who was the most experienced mage among them.
"I could make the soul-warding talismans, but it might take so ti to make this many…" Ira said, her eyes sharp and severe.
Considering that both of their factions were sending a decent amount of soldiers, they would need at least a hundred talismans, prompting Asphodel to offer her help.
The Vampire Mother stated that she had never made a soul-warding talisman before since she never had the need for it, but she believed it was a good ti to learn sothing new.
Asphodel's mana control could've been considered the pinnacle of magic by so, so Ira agreed to teach her how to make them and reduce her amount of work.
As the group began to organize their next move, the Winter and Autumn handlers received a call at the sa ti, surprising them when they saw it was Alexander Spring.
The won stood aside a bit far from the group to speak privately, returning with smirks on their faces.
"Did sothing good happen?" Dante asked, noticing the won's auras were quite positive.
"We'll receive a visit from the Azure Rebels tomorrow… Seems like we have a lot to talk about," Camille replied, smiling confidently.
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