[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/T7qbbS2.png[/img]
[h3]The Capital - Nieve[/h3]
[/center]

“This place is definitely giving me the creeps if that is what you mean” Rayne agreed to the suggestion that she'd feel what was off, but as it turned out Quin was entirely correct, and was so even sooner than she might have guessed. As they moved into the building the miasma within rippled along the edges of the almost always invisible radially extending chains of her Link. In doing so it made her ever so slightly more aware of it, and the connection to the distant villagers it linked her back too, as miasma and spiritual bond brushed against each other, creating a slight resistance to her movement that was noticeable if not in any way actually obstructing. 

Like pushing through a thick fog.

It only got worse from there, the ‘fog’ thickening in a way, tugging at the Link in a way she found incredibly unpleasant. She was certainly already sick of it by the time her eyes also got to see the corruption’s influence, be it the black soot or the golden butterflies. Those to her seemed like a rather disjointed pairing to her, nor did she have any real experience with their sometimes relationship with death, so while Sanae thought to shoot first Rayne had herself been hesitant to do so.

The subsequent ‘demonstration’ with whatever the hazy shape Qing summoned answered any questions she might want to ask, and so she was then very much on board shooting part of the plan.

Just in time too, as they started coming out of the walls all around them.

“Ah!” Rayne gave a panicked shout, blinking back and promptly blasted one, but there were far too many for her piddling firing speed to manage. Fortunately after the moment of panic she got her tactical brain in gear, pivoting and activating a spell card. This one burst into a cloud of purple miasma all of her own, shrouding an entire side of the entry room with it as she cast cloud of darkness upon it, one that attempted to smother the golden butterflies as they emerged from the walls.

“That’ll sting you too!” she warned as she emerged from the cloud, though if it looked like they were being overwhelmed it’d probably be preferable to dive into said mist if the butterflies were as bad to have touch you as Qing said. Still, for the moment she’d prefer to hold her ground, specifically because with the cloud devouring butterflies made her next spell incredibly potent. The spell was garbage collector, which caused each and every single butterfly destroyed to give her a pip of mana. 

Suffice to say, this put her generally reserved amount of spellcasting into overdrive, as she no longer had to worry about managing her mana. She did still have to worry about friendly fire however, leaving the lighting strike spell clogging up her hand while garbage collector took up the other while it was active.

The remaining slots however was then rapidly cycled through, the witch knight first launching a trio of seeking swords that swatted more butterflies, gained a shimmering barrier of magical armor that might block a single butterfly, gaining a single entirely irrelevant extra pip of mana, and generating a little turret that fired her own magic bullets at nearby butterflies, all within more or less a second of each other. 

The next spell however sealed the deal: ghost gun. This little number turned her one shot a second peashooter into a rapid fire machine gun that spat out twin streams of ghostly blue bullets that not only pierced through walls, but also relentlessly hunted down the closest hostile. Suffice to say, no longer needing to aim, and being able to hit the butterflies before they even emerged from the walls, was very handy.

After that, however, with the bullet upgrade sticking in her hand till it timed out as well, her mana spending spree came to a n abrupt end even as mana continued to roll in.

Still. 

Who needed spells when you had a magical homing machine gun?