Charlie smiled wryly. "It's the size of my head. Carrying it around is just inconvenient. I left it in Aurous Hill, safe away from prying eyes."

Vera nodded. "It's a cauldron, not a ring… So what could be affecting the aurora?"

Charlie shrugged. "The Earth's magnetic field?"

"Not possible. Auroras just don't shift like that…" Vera shook her head and suddenly exclaimed, "Wait, it's changing again!"

Charlie looked up and saw that the radiant vortex was suddenly split in four like a cake, while the specks of light looked like the stars had begun to gather toward the center.

Everything seemed to move quickly with every passing moment, the density of the vortex eventually growing and forming two criss-crossed Z's up in the skies.

Vera's expression was extremely horrified, and she murmured, "Oh… It reminds me of a certain symbol!"

Charlie had to agree that it looked like the ancient symbol in the form of an equal-armed cross, with each arm continuing at a right angle, used especially