A brief rest.
Kikyo led the three, who still looked as if they had not had enough, away from the giant pit and walked south for about half an hour before stopping on the leeward side of a hill.
The hill was not tall. A few crooked pines grew on its summit, their trunks twisted like an old man's spine, their bark covered in deep cracks.
South of the hill stretched a gray-white wasteland with no end in sight.
There was nothing on the wasteland.
No trees, no grass, no stones—only cracked, dry earth and the occasional wisp of pale, ink-green mist seeping up from the fissures.
The mist was very faint, like thin fog in the early morning, but it carried an indescribable fishy smell.
"That is the residual evil aura around the outer edge of the seal."
Kikyo sat down against a pine tree, placed her longbow beside her, took the small cloth pouch from her waist, pulled out a few dried medicinal herbs, and put them in her mouth to chew.
The bitterness of the herbs made her frown slightly, but she did not spit them out. She forced them down.
"The seal itself is at the southernmost end of the wasteland. Judging by the concentration of evil aura here, the crack in the seal is larger than I imagined."
Sakura sat beside Kikyo and looked down at her own hands.
The skin on her hands was still red. Although the places burned by the evil aura had already been treated with medicine, they still hurt with a searing sting.
Saku sat down close beside Sakura, hugging her doll in her arms. Her small face was buried against the top of the doll's head, with only her eyes showing.
Her eyes were red, and her eyelids were