The temple in the fog blended extremely well with the swamp. The vines clinging to its outer walls, along with the moss and lichen growing at the corners, almost made the temple merge completely into the swampy backdrop.
It seemed very large—so large that, to Shade, it was almost a quarter the size of Ice and Snow Castle. It was just that no one had tended to this place for a very, very long time. From the outside, the right side of the entire temple had already collapsed by nearly half. Most of the windows had been sealed with wooden boards, and even the columns before the entrance had been reduced to little more than broken remnants more than half their original height.
The temple doors were tightly shut, but Shade could see firelight inside through the crack. He crossed the two columns and came to the door. After hesitating for a moment, he rapped hard on the wooden door. When no one answered, he pushed open the door on the right with force.
A creak broke the silence of the swamp. The fog and Shade's shadow entered the interior together. In the slightly empty hall, among the figures seated around the fire, only one person looked vigilantly toward this new intruder.
After confirming that Shade was humanoid and that he did not have any messy elemental traits on him, the witch reminded him in a very cold voice:
"If you want to come in, step inside and close the door. None of us wants too much of the fog outside getting in."
By the fire were three witches and one young man. Though he was called young, he looked to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, much older than the Outlander's appearance. The man was definitely an ordinary person, while