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Her plea for faith fell on deaf ears, which in hindsight was somewhat unsurprising with everything else going on. People pulled out of wherever they had come from, unsure if it was just part of wherever that was. Rayne at least had the advantage of knowing this was somewhere entirely beyond the context of where she had been due to the loss of her links. Meanwhile they called out for allies, made preconception leaps of logic, or in one case slipped away from the group as if they were a danger.

It only came to Rayne’s mind that that last was perhaps the smartest reaction to finding yourself around dangerous looking strangers when one of them floated up into the air, activating some kind of power in what came off as a threatening manner as he demanded answers. Rayne hoped it was just that he was scared and defensive, rather than wanting to lash out, and so she approached her reply with that hope in mind.

“We’re-” she pushed because technically she couldn’t talk for everyone and then corrected “I’m not a ghost, and I don’t know where we are, but I do know it's nowhere near where we once were. I was connected to everyone left alive where I was from, and none of you were among them. So. It's a different place ? A different world? We’ll need to figure it out together so please, don’t attack anyone here!”   

She wasn’t really sure what terminology worked in terms of how to talk about this place outside of the context of the place she had just been, but they were beyond the reach of Gaia’s cycle, and that raised all sorts of questions. The information they got from the locals raised even more, about who this goddess was, how she’d brought them here, why people were being attacked, and oh so many more. But the questions would have to wait, because one of the others wanted to be proactive when dealing with these ‘Raven Heralds’ who were attacking the church. 

The creator of the barrier agreed, and so it looked like they were going to have a fight on their hands ever so soon.

Acting out of habit Rayne lifted her hand up and splayed her fingers as she always did when preparing for battle, only to be surprised to find a trio of spectral cards appearing in her hand. 

“Wait but how…” she asked herself, before figuring it out.

Her mana pool wasn’t sourced from the Link, she’d grown the said pool via hearts of nature and the cards were technically physical things, enchanted to work alongside her Link given powers rather than being sourced directly from them. So she had this power at least. Just no way of refilling her incredibly limited mana reserves.

Wrecking ball, magic shield, sentry gun, she saw as she checked her hand. The first was powerful, but the way it shot wrecking balls out in front of and behind her meant that she’d risk wrecking the church’s wall if she used it too close. The third was worthless, because if she couldn't shoot magic bullets, it couldn't either.

The second however came in handy almost right away, because while the green haired woman’s barrier was lower to let people sortie out just after a volley of arrows struck, that didn’t mean that that volley was the last. So if she could do one thing, she resolved to do something about that problem.

She jogged over to the window through which the shooters outside could get the best angle on them and then called out  “Magic shield!”as she put a thumb to the spectral card and flicked it upwards out of her hand to use it. As soon as she did, a 3 meter tall oval shield of some kind of brassy-bronze material appeared before her, floating in the air, blocking the window, and a few moments later absorbing some arrow fire just as she’d intended it too.

Said shield was invulnerable, but as a trade off it did not last forever. So Rayne set about doing what she had said she would if she didn’t have power: making a barricade. Heaving with all her might, she dragged over and then upended a few of the worn benches in the church in-order to  block the windows with something physical and permanent. 

The Witch Knight whipped her brow and gave a little sigh after the physical exertion, and then checked her hand of cards to see what she’d drawn after her use of Magic Shield.

“Armageddon?” she read out loud, finding one of her most indiscriminately destructive cars in her hand, and then quietly adding “let’s hope it doesn’t come to that”