The latter turned around and his eyes brightened when he saw his most loyal follower bring in the sacrifice.
"You have done well, Gerald. Your devotedness will be rewarded in full tonight. But first let us welcome our new brothers into our fold."
Gerald bowed lowly at the waist and handed over the body bag to another member before moving to one corner of the hall. There, two other members removed his jacket and clothed him with a black robe similar to the one with by the Reality Displacement magic user. Then the three of them proceeded to join the others with Gerald moving to stand on the other side of the altar. The member who had taken the body bag had removed the covering and carried the girl to the foot of the altar. Bending a knee in subservience, he offered her up to his leader who then placed her on the altar.
Turning back to face his followers, the cult leader proclaimed in a high voice, "Brothers and sisters of the Dark Fellowship! We are gathered here to witness the indoctrination of our new members! They have agreed to follow our laws and perform all tasks given to them, to live their lives in servitude to our unholy master! And now it is time to seal their oath with blood and empower them with the life force of an innocent!"
Having ended his introduction, he picked up the silver knife and brought up the girl's wrist. Laying it above the bowl, he cut deeply to ensure the blood flowed rapidly. Once it was full, he motioned for one of his subordinates to remove her from the altar. Then he raised his hand above the bowl, muttering arcane incantations until the red liquid turned black with thin wisps of smoke drifting off its surface.
With a come hither gesture, he motioned the new initiates forward and passed the bowl to them. One by one, they drank until there was nothing left. The bowl was returned to the leader, who watched with barely concealed glee at the finalization of the ritual. He had done this multiple times thorough out the years, each completion of the process granting him increased vitality and power based on the innocence of the sacrifice. Soon it would all be worth it. Eventually he would gain enough power to summon his master into this realm and be rewarded for his tireless efforts.
Returning to the altar, he continued his speech. "Now brethren, let us-"
The sound of a body hitting the ground cut him off and all eyes turned to the source of the distraction. One of the new initiates had collapsed to the floor, convulsing violently with his eyes rolled up in his head and bloody foam gushing out of his mouth. The sight was so shocking that it froze everyone in place. It was when the second and third initiates began exhibiting the same symptoms that everyone became alarmed.
The cult leader immediately recognized that something had gone wrong, not only by the sight before him but by the fact that he was not feeling an increase in power. Rather he felt an icky discomfort rising in his chest. Soon it became too much and he spat out a glob of blackened blood. His shock was evident on his face as he realized what had happened.
"Gerald you fool! How dare you bring such an unclean individual here?" He bellowed in anger at the visibly distressed man.
Gerald fumbled with his words in an effort to explain. "M-master Byron...I-I had no idea-"
"Hey! I take offense at that! I may not be an innocent little lamb but I still have standards!"
Every pair of eyes turned to the foreign voice that had interrupted the stuttering man. It had come from the sacrificed girl, who was currently standing while lifting one of their members in the air with one hand. The other hand was buried in the poor man's chest and his silent pleas for mercy slowly became garbled sounds. With a vicious smile on her pretty face, she tore out his heart and flung his body away with such force that it created spiderweb cracks in the wall. Then she savagely squished the organ in her hand and licked the blood running down her hand, grinning wickedly at the cult leader while doing so.
"Mmmm, that was nice. What do you feed these guys down here?"
Her voice brought Byron out of his stupor and his face contorted in a fit of rage.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" he roared.
The girl just cocked her head at him like he had just asked her something stupid.
"Umm, you guys brought me here? The whole sacrifice thing? You didn't forget, did you?" she asked and shrugged. "Meh, it must be the years finally catching up to you. Not like I'm one to talk anyway.
"Although I must thank you for doing so," she continued and raised her clean hand behind her, palm facing outwards. "We've been looking for your hideout forever now. So yeah, thanks for bringing us here."
Throughout her speech, the cult leader picked up on one word in her last sentence.
"Us?"
Her grin turned absolutely feral as tangible purplish black shadows bloomed into existence behind her. Out of the shadows, four figures stepped into the hall to stand beside her.
"Us."
Among the people who came out of the portal, the only female among the four was about five and a half feet tall, a similar height with the other girl. But while the other had straight black hair, she had light brown hair that lay in tame waves down to the middle of her back. Unlike her counterpart who was still smiling viciously at the cultists, she had a gentle yet sad look on her face, as if pitying the people in front of her.
The young man beside her didn't have such a look on his face. In fact he didn't have any look on his face at all. His disposition was one of total indifference and his eyes which were as black as his hair, stared at the cult members with such coldness that it sent shivers down their spine.
On the other side of the first girl, stood a young man with distinctive Asian features. He had dark eyes and white hair which looked a bit messy, as if he had just got out of bed but still gave off a nice touch to his already handsome face. Out of the rest of them, he was the only one who had a look similar to the first girl on his face. His lips were curled in a cocky grin and his eyes twinkled with excitement, not unlike an addict who had found his fix.
But out of them all, the most intimidating gaze came from the man at the far left. He looked quite young, they all did in fact. None of them could have been up to twenty five years but there was a certain feel to his brown eyes that gave them a strange sensation. One that made them feel like they were being watched by a predator far older and wiser than they could ever how to be. It felt like they were being appraised by him, as if to know whether they were worth his time.
It was not a pleasant feeling.