Juniper is having a blast.
Jumping up into the darkness while giggling, the moth escapes the quickly approaching swords and torches of the other guards after dismembering one of them.
Clinging to the roof, she skittles along it and behind a pillar, like the creepy bug she is, before jumping to a different one, all the while screams and shouts ring out behind her.
'Ohohoho this is fun!' She thinks and begins to skulk into the darkest shadows to wait for another opportunity to create a cinematic horror moment.
The moth didn't have to wait for long as one of the civilians had the great idea to try and run for the destroyed entrance.
Quickly moving into position, Juniper dashes forward and swipes one of her mantis blades.
All the others could see is one of their own running into the darkness towards the entrance before-
*slick*
*thumb*
-a severed head rolled back into the light.
After this scene, no one dared to stray from the meagre light in their midst or move about alone from fear of being killed next.
Seeing this, Juniper stepped up her game.
Lurking in the shadow of a pillar near a trio of guards with their torches lighting up the area and blades brandished, she narrows her eyes at the three torches.
Carefully using her psychokinesis, the moth did not simply extinguish the flames, but instead dimmed them.
Swiftly moving in as soon as the light from the torches was only enough to illuminate the carriers faces, she turns into a flashing silhouette that rends the poor bastards apart.
Their pained and fear-filled screams made sure that everyone turned in their direction just in time to see the moth's shadow dive back into the darkness, which is when she released her hold on the torches.
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Free from the invisible force subduing them, the flames on the torches burst out again and light up the mess of blood and limbs that remained of the guards.
Repeating this three more times, things reached the stage where no one dared to stray from the campfires anymore.
'Hmmm, all the guards are dealt with, now only peasants are left.' Juniper thinks while looking at the remaining people huddling terrified around the fire.
'Well, it has been fun, but I still got shit to do, so let's clean this up now.' Having had plenty of fun, the moth finds herself satisfied and decides to end things and move on.
Pointing her clawed hand at one of the campfires she extinguishes the flames and begins to brutally slaughter everyone around it.
Doing this to the other two as well, she finds herself in a blood and gore filled underground hall all alone.
Bringing one of her blades up to her mouth, Juniper licks the blood off it.
"That certainly was an experience, I should find another opportunity for something like this, playing horror monster is quite exciting." Muttering to herself, Juniper begins to gather up the corpses and treasures that lie about in mounds.
She ignores the holy water as it has been mixed with enough blood that the moth doubts it still worked.
Once done, she enters the small room whose entrance is blocked by a red curtain and casually stuffs the two royal corpses clothed in expensive garbs and accessories into her inventory, including chairs, for good measures.
Pulling at the red fabric that served as a backdrop for the two royals, the moth reveals the hidden magic artifact in the form of many floating mirror shards.
"*Whistle* This looks neat." Juniper says while looking at the many shards.
Taping against one with a claw, she watches how the shard is sent drifting away while passing by other shards without any collisions happening till it recovered.
Fascinated by the mystical display in front of her, Juniper activates her [Focus] skill.
With the help of her enhanced mental capabilities, the moth manages to take control of the magic power filling her demonic heart.
The large amount available and the sensation of its utilization when she used her skills gave her enough reference points to start playing around and probing the mirror artifact.
As it is the first time she ever tried something like this, it took more than an hour, even with the skill burning through a good chunk of her reserves with each use, until the moth had a solid enough grasp of how to use the mirror to achieve what she wanted.
Gathering the shards up, she places them in her system for a few modifications.
The problem with these transmission mirrors is that while they allow you to travel pretty much anywhere you wish, once you cross through it, the rift it opened to allow your passage will soon close again and you'll be stranded.
But that is a problem the moth easily solved by adding a neat little modification via system.
[Recall: The item can be recalled into the system inventory.]
Done with that, she takes it out again and flexes her magic power, causing the many shards to assemble into one large mirror easily spanning three meters wide and two high, that, instead of showing Juniper's reflection, gives a grand view of a large city currently under construction and a tall tower with ominous pale green glow emanating from its peak.
Building the city are thousands of people, all with a glowing green crown of thorns and a single vertical eye at the front around their heads.
Their expressions are slack and empty of any free will or thought.
This, combined with the fact that it was currently night, covered the strange city in an eerie light and gave it a very creepy feel.
Looking over everything shown in the large mirror, especially the mindless workers enslaved by the magician living in the centre tower, Juniper nods to herself.
'This should be a good foundation for creating my own mind magic. I will have to tweak it quite a bit till it reaches a level where I'm satisfied with it, but it's better than starting at zero.' She thinks.
The magic that the magician living in that city uses is very crude in nature, it cripples the minds and from what she heard in the show, even damages the souls of the victims to some degrees. Once the spell is lifted, the victims will simply die.
This is not the kind of spell Juniper wanted, but then again, it's probably this crudeness that allowed him to control such a large number at once.
A simple exchange of quality for quantity.