Getting into the tower proved a more difficult task than any of them had guessed. Despite the fact that cultists clearly hadn't been expecting an assault, they unfortunately weren't entirely incompetent as they had possessed enough foresight to put a magical lock on their door, and a damn good one at that.
At first, Jasper had assumed they could just power their way past the barrier. In theory, any such spell had to have to been powered by something - perhaps a mage, perhaps an essence crystal - but if a power source existed, presumably that source could also be exhausted. Thus, they'd promptly proceeded to rain down a hail of blows on the barrier, but after a good ten minutes had gone by without the spell so much as even flickering, Jasper realized they needed a new solution. Whatever the power source was, it was going to be so easily exhausted.
Fortunately, Ihra had found a solution in the grimoire Aphora had left her, a ritual that claimed it could disrupt "spells of protection" - they could only hope this counted. Less fortunately, she didn’t have all the required ingredients. By the time they’d trekked there and back from the market square and set up the required runic circle, Jasper knew all hope of a quick assault had been thoroughly lost. The cultists had had hours to prepare for their entry. They’ll be waiting for us.
By that point, he’d questioned whether they should even continue the assault; fighting through three hundred some cultists had already seemed like an uphill battle, but if there was the possibility of Yas̆gah personally joining them, he feared it would turn into an outright slaughter. Jasper wasn’t even sure if they could beat Yas̆gah one-on-one, let alone if the would-be goddess was backed up by a small army. Yet he also knew that if they left, even if it was only for the sake of pursuing a more advantageous opportunity a few days later, they would likely be condemning Tsia and Annatta to death. And that wasn’t a decision he could bring himself to make. We have to at least try, he decided reluctantly.
But if the barrier had proven far more difficult than he'd expected, the battle was just the opposite. Before the rune was activated, the troops had gathered in formation around him, prepared to charge through the moment the barrier fell. Fortunately, the builders of Naḫas̆s̆innu didn’t believe in doing anything on a small scale; the great doors were more than large enough to let them pass through on horseback, and he hoped a cavalry charge, backed up by the power of his new spell, would be enough to break the cultists’ morale.
What none of them had accounted for, though, was the sheer power of the runic formation Ihra activated. Rather than simply lower the barrier, it blew straight through it with enough force to send the massive, iron-rimmed doors flying into the gathered ranks of the cultists. Almost as surprised as the members of the Brotherhood, Jasper had still managed to spur Dapplegrim on in time to take advantage of their confusion.
Rounds of Sacred Star softened their ranks even further before he’d plowed straight into their midst, consumed by the pale, white flame. With every blow he struck, the fire spread, latching onto the Djinn around him like a supernatural napalm. If anything it was a little too effective; despite the fact that he was fighting cultists, some of whom no doubt were guilty of human sacrifice, watching their skin literally melt and shrivel beneath the all-consuming flames of Fiery Charge was tough for him to stomach. But he did it anyways.
The center of the cultists’ ranks wavered, then utterly broke as the Djinn literally trampled each other in their efforts to escape the spreading flames, and with the center collapsed, the flanks were unable to hold on much longer. He’d feared the battle would turn into a bloodbath for his own troops, but instead it was the cultists who were slaughtered. Yet, when the last of the cultists had fled deeper into the building, or retreated down the steps that led into the pit, Jasper felt more confused than relieved. Sure, they’d beaten the bulk of the cultists’ forces - at least for now - but these were merely the chaff. Where the hell were all the leaders?
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With a twist of her fingers, Barbartu renewed her spell. The air around rippled for a moment, briefly revealing her true form, before the illusion closed around her, making her as near to invisible as her skills allowed. True invisibility, alas, was not in the domain of illusion, but her spell was more than good enough to deceive anyone who hadn’t heavily invested in their vision stat.
Then, fully cloaked, she crept down the stairs to investigate the site of the very unexpectedly one-sided battle. When the bells first rang the alarm, Barbartu had been quick to act. Most of the more powerful brethren were down in the cavern with the Nizirtu, but there were, of course, a few staying on the surface to keep watch over affairs. She’d made certain they didn’t reach the battle.
Her strikes had been nearly unopposed - the fools never anticipating that an attack would come from within - so she’d fully expected to arrive in time to watch the battle and, possibly, if Jasper and his friends were being overwhelmed, to be forced to intervene. She wanted him to win the first battle, after all.
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Instead, after assassinating the handful of brethren mages, she had reentered the halls to find them crowded with cultists fleeing as if the devil was at their back. She’d had to fight her way against the crowd like a salmon swimming upstream, and by the time, she’d reached the entrance, her curiosity had swelled to a crescendo. How the hell had Jasper and his two friends routed the brethren so thoroughly?
But as she peered over the weathered balustrades down into the tower’s grand entrance, she found her answer. The hall was piled high with the bodies of the brethren, and the once dirty white floors were stained a new color. But despite the cultists’ flight, the hall was far from empty - a small army of Moon-kissed warriors dressed in green tunics were rooting through the bodies.
It was an unexpected wrinkle to her plan, and a well-worn crease formed between her brows. Where did he even get these troops? He hasn’t even been in this blasted province that long. She shifted her position to get a better look and her heart stilled as she spied something else - something far more disturbing.
A tall blonde man stood in the midst of their group. On its own, he might not have seemed particularly remarkable, but judging from the way the others walked past - and even through - him, it was clear they weren’t even aware he was there.
A Sidhe? As if reading her thoughts, the blonde man turned to look in her direction. Barbartu trusted in the strength of her illusions - even Yas̆gah had been deceived for quite some time by them - but when the man offered her a cheeky wink, she knew he had seen right her through. She tensed, expecting him to attack her, or at the very least expose her presence, but he just looked away.
She watched in silence as the group finished their search - retrieving the bodies of a few of their brethren - before reforming their ranks and beginning the descent into the pit itself. She followed in their footsteps, careful to keep far behind them, but a knot of worry sat heavy in her stomach. Despite the fact that everything had gone the way she wanted thus far, between the presence of the Moon-kissed warriors and - above all - the blasted Sidhe, she couldn’t help but feel that her plan was spinning out of control. May Irkalla and Nergal watch over us.
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Jasper stared at the set of the stairs that led into the abandoned city. The wide flight curled to the left, hiding the city and its ever-present darkness from sight, but he knew all too well what lay beyond. After the first wave of the cultists had fled, the Moon-kissed had wanted to search through the bodies to retrieve their own. Despite his reservations, he’d agreed and the search hadn’t taken as long as he feared. Within fifteen minutes the soldiers had regrouped and were ready to descend into the pit. Just have to take this first step.
Refusing to give in to his fear, he took a step down. He felt a brush of movement at his side, and turned his head to find Ihra beside him.
They walked in silence for a moment, then she turned him to with a pensive expressive. “Do you think there waiting for us down there?” She spoke barely above a whisper, trying to prevent the soldiers from hearing.
He didn’t answer at first, and the loud footfalls of the soldiers echoed behind them as they continued down the stairs. “I’m not sure,” he finally admitted. “That battle was pretty much a cakewalk, but…that can’t be it, right? There’s got to be some pretty high-leveled cultists somewhere.” Not to mention a demigod, he thought bitterly.
She frowned. “Maybe we just caught them at the perfect time.”
Jasper snorted. “I doubt they all went for cigarettes and milk. That would be way too good of luck or,” he paused as a horrifying thought occurred to him, “actually, maybe it would be pretty rotten luck. We just assumed their leaders would be here, but what if they aren't?”
Nēs̆u, who had been listening silently thus far, piped up. “Tsia is down there. That’s all that matters,” and Rā’imu bobbed his head in agreement.
“That is why we are here, is it not? As long as we retrieve my sister, who cares what a few barbarians squatting in the darkness get up to?”
“Those ‘barbarians’ have been sacrificing innocents for years,” Jasper countered. “Freeing Tsia and Annatta is important, but we need to stop the cult too. Killing a few low-ranked followers isn’t going to cut it.”
The man shrugged dismissively. “There were always be those who lurk in the dark, Jasper. You cannot kill them all.”
“Maybe not,” Jasper disagreed, “But that doesn’t mean you have to look the other way. Besides, I don’t really have much of a choice. Kas̆dael herself gave me a quest to stop their cult. What am I supposed to do - just ignore a goddess' personal request?”
The Djinn frowned but held his peace, and silence settled over the group.
When they reached the landing of the stairs and turned down the final flight that led into the bowels of the earth, the fallen city once again loomed into view.
The handiwork of the cult was evident immediately. The darkness was still oppressive, pushing down upon Jasper’s shoulders with an almost physical presence, but it was no longer absolute. Hundreds of large metal braziers had been set up along the edge of the mighty road that wound its way down to the bottom of the pit, and though the light they offered was dim and meager, it was still a significant improvement.
The elevated highway too was in better condition than on their last trip. The large gaps that had forced Jasper and Ihra to detour through the cliffside homes and into the hidden streets that were carved deep into the earth now had makeshift bridges spanning the yawning chasms, which made their navigation through the city far easier than before.
But there was still no sign of the remaining cultists. Were the men we fought upstairs really the cult’s only forces here? Jasper doubted it, but as they spiraled deeper and deeper into the pit with no opposition, he began to wonder if it really was possible. Either that or it’s all a trap.