"Aye aye, captain! On the count of three–one, two, three! Fire in the hole!" With a shout she gave a quick flick of the wrist and a spark of light flew against the door. The next second, an earth-shattering boom and flash shook the very foundations of the place. Coughing, Myouga fanned away the dust as she used a concussive blast to clear the air. The smoke was thick and stifling now, and it was coming from the formerly sealed chamber. As for the door, it was completely gone. All that was left were frayed fragments and wood chips on the sides of the hall, while the hinges held whatever vestiges of the door remained. The way was open, but this time Myouga wasn't smiling anymore. She was clearly upset, and not in the same way she had been earlier. That time she had been merely annoyed, but this time her face bore disgust and distaste. There was another stench in the smoke. Blood, and brimstone. 

The room ahead held a reddish glow with torches on stands and obscene imagery hanging from tapestries. Most of them were done in a dark red bordering on rusty umber. There weren't many cultists inside, but these ones were the top members of the hierarchy. Ornately grotesque ceremonial masks with bones and claws decorated their crimson and black garb like trophies. Five of them wore the same outfit, and one had only a half-mask covering the upper portion of the face. The man with the horned bone helm and a sinister twisted staff was standing before an altar of stone, with the body of the dog which had been kidnapped recently tied down on it. The arcanist saw that it wasn't moving, and its tail was limp. Bowls filled with crimson liquid were circling the altar's base with black candles. Strange black crystals mounted on metal inlay were arranged around the room, out of a practical or aesthetic sense. The strongest magical signature was coming from the leader and whatever he was doing, chanting things that made her skin crawl. 

When the two entered, the five upper-tier cultists turned to defend the horned-helm man without his orders. Some of them bore whips serrated with glass and sharp bone, others with saw-toothed sabers. All of the weapons looked like they had been used recently. Putting her lips into a thin line, Myouga put her wand away. She didn't need it to cast, it was just to help her with aiming. But in this situation, she wouldn't have to worry about missing her shots. "These guys aren't going to be like the cannon fodder lying out there. They've even drained the poor dog I gave that sausage to…" She said to Jillian. "That one with the horns has gotta be the head of the whole operation. Let's give 'em a taste of retribution–combo style."

Jillian's own face had grown even grimmer, a similar look of disgust written across her face. She had some vague idea of what was going on behind the locked doors, but her imagination hadn't quite prepared her for the real deal- the thick smell of blood in the air. For a moment she wondered what drove people to doing such horrid things to other living creatures and resorting to such obviously evil magic. These sorts of things rarely went well in the favor of anyone involved, or anyone around period. These cultists must be completely nuts, desperate, or both. There wasn't much time to dwell on the actual reasonings the lot of them were there, doing what they were doing. They needed to be stopped before they completed whatever foul ritual they were in the process of. She very much doubted the results would be anything she wanted to deal with.

The halfing nodded to Myouga, and pulled off her cloak to reveal the chainmail underneath. She didn't want the cloth of her cloak to get torn to shreds, or worse- caught up in one of their weapons. Talk about irritating, "You seriously think you're going to win this fight?- the two of us alone took out everyone outside and you think the five of you can stop us? I think the smoke must be clouding your judgment. The smart thing to do here would be to drop your weapons and leave before whatever foul thing you're trying to acomplish actually happens, I doubt any of you know what you're actually doing." She said as she moved towards them, slowly enough that they could heed her words. She was small, and not too very intimidating on her own, but the blood covering her face, arms, and blade certainly helped a little. Though at this point she doubted the cultists cared, they had come so far into their ritual. 

"Eliminate the intruders! And if need be, their blood will fuel the ascent of a new era." The cult leader turned his back as the ritual began. The blood from the bowls began to rise and form a magic circle on the empty space of the back wall while the man stood before it. The five higher members advanced, crazed with fanaticism as they invoked themselves into a frenzy. "We will wet our blades with your blood infidels! Your blood will feed the power of our god!" One of the women cried, brandishing her jagged blade with bloodlust in her eyes. They rushed the mage and the halfling at once, without hesitation. Not wanting them to get surrounded, Myouga went on the offensive right away by sucking in as much air her lungs could take, then letting out a deafening yell. "HAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" The sheer force from her shout was powerful enough to send them flying backwards, knocking over anything in the path of her sonic blast. She then grimaced and cleared her throat a few times rubbing her neck. The arcanist definitely wasn't doing that again for a while. Popping a throat lozenge, she began securing the rear having given Jillian a clear path to advance. "Aim for the head honcho! I'll take care of the small fry here! Ack..ack…ow." No more talking for now; more blasting.

The halfling could disrupt the leader's ritual while she would keep the others off Jillian's back. The staggered cultists recovered quickly and were heading back to the fight, so Myouga sent them a shower of ice and dirt in reply. Somewhere she was thinking of making a witty joke about heretics and stoning, but her throat wasn't letting her say anything above indoor voice volume. Whips and blades were useless in the face of raw, concussive force dished out by chunks of ice rivaling the boulders from the Mo'mey Steppes. At one point she crushed one beneath what could qualify as a small iceberg, telling the man to 'chill out'. Two others were subjected to a pelting that could win the mother of all snowball fights, and were beaten into unconsciousness. She electrocuted the last one, repeatedly until his muscles were in such spasms that he wouldn't be able to move for days. The entire assault was pretty draining even with all the adrenaline boosting her morale. Now all they had to do was take out the leader and they could call it a…

Myouga froze, as she thought she saw one of the black crystals in the room flicker. The cultists she had subdued weren't struggling anymore, but something didn't feel right. Looking around the room she saw something that made her stomach feel as if she had swallowed a lead weight. First one, then two, then three, then more–the crystals were starting to glow from the inside out. She might have been focusing on the wrong thing all this time. "Oh no…oh no oh no oh no. I've really goofed up this time. I should've just blown up the entire room when I had the chance!" As regret started to sink in she watched in horror as a reddish essence was being drained from the higher cult members to the black crystals positioned around the inner chamber. It was a set-up. The five had been sacrificial decoys, disposable to the leader. Whoever he was, this man knew what he was doing and that notion was terrifying.

Ah yes, of course. Jillian hadn't expected any less from anyone nuts enough to join a cult and participate in whatever insane dark ritual they were attempting to get going, but that didn't mean she hadn't hoped her words would of at least startled them, or scared off one or two of the cultist folks. She really would rather them run off somewhere than for Myouga and herself being forced to kill them. It would have been easier and just all around better for everyone involved!- but no, of course, the guy who was seemingly in charge had to go spout off some orders, and his underlings had to go and say creepy shit just to go ahead and seal the deal, "So be it!- Your deaths will be swi-" Myouga was seemingly ahead of her. Oh well, at least she was quick, all Jillian had to do was go take on the leader of the whole evil shebang.

The halfling had begun to approach the Leader, ready to cut him down- because by that point it was painfully clear that he wasn't going to just step down and surrender. That would be the sensible thing, and clearly, the guy wasn't sensible in the slightest. It didn't quite work out how Jillian had planned it to, though. As she neared him some crystals began to glow and she had the feeling things were going to go from awful to straight up horrible. Somehow she doubted that killing him would do any good, and if the other cultists were much of an example it would likely only make things worse. Jillian let out a long sigh, sheathed her sword, and reached out to grab a hold of the cultist leader. She didn't have to kill him if she gave him a right-good throttling instead!

The sound of assault made Myouga whirl around in concern only to sigh in relief that Jillian wasn't drawing any blood. While her new friend was keeping the big man busy, she went to work getting rid of those nasty crystals. With a snap, she exploded half of the other side of the room. The destruction was earth-shattering, but it did take out a good portion of the dark crystals. The reddish glow was starting to waver, as the lines of draining force were being cut off. Yes! Now, again! One after the other, explosions rattled the building as each of the crystals were reduced to ash. At first the cultist leader had been somehow shielded from Jillian's attempts at giving him a good beating, laughing at what he considered as meager attempts to injure him. Then, one of her punches connected with his jaw. As the last crystal fell, so did the ritual he was initiating. The blood being used for whatever sinister scheme he had in mind fell onto the ground, inert. 

The smell of sulfur and brimstone abated, and the sickening feeling vanished from her stomach. They had done it! Victory was theirs! Feeling like she had been hit by a sack of bricks, Myouga quaffed a mana potion and took a seat on a piece of rubble. "Wheeeew! It's over! Thank the gods, I thought this was going to have a second phase or something." She wiped her brow and rested for a bit, then got up after feeling refreshed. "So, I guess we probably should make sure they don't try anything while we're leaving then? I'm pretty sure the whole city's probably heard the noise of our work by now. They're likely going to think we just finished a bloodbath, so we'd better get ready to explain ourselves once we step out the door." Technically in this situation it wasn't justified self-defense anymore. But they still had most of the evidence of the cult's dealings lying around so hopefully that would back up their explanation to the local authorities.