At two in the morning on Saturday, the eighth day of the Month of Rising Winds.
The gray snow had fallen for an entire day, dyeing the woods outside Randall River Valley City completely gray. Yet amid the still-falling snow, the pitch-black night was far from quiet. Fires burning everywhere, columns of smoke rising, and explosions of every kind made this night seem incomparably long.
When Miss Sylvia arrived with Luvia and Siris at the bright bonfire amid the woods strewn with gravel and black mud, where the other three Great Witches stood, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Miss Galina lifted the restrictions around the temporary camp, and an Eighth Ring lady led the three of them into the area illuminated by the bonfire. Miss Sylvia counted heads. Although the young lady on the makeshift stretcher was receiving treatment from two High-Ring Sorceresses, the number of people in the camp matched the number when they had set out. Only then did she feel somewhat reassured.
But then she saw that Miss Aurora's right arm had been bandaged and placed in a sling beside the bonfire, and she asked worriedly:
"What happened?"
Miss Benanis, who was treating her, answered:
"During the battle, some black mud accidentally got on her right arm. It had been manageable before the earthquake, but afterward, the revived fossil monsters were noticeably stronger. On top of that, none of us had been able to rest properly all night. Sivie's condition is all right. Nina over there has both legs petrified, and her situation is more serious."
She did not continue, because Siris had already taken the Clay Holy Grail from the side pouch of the horse they had ridden over:
"Shade told me to bring them. There happen to be two."
The Holy Grail of