Zong Shen stepped into the Hall of Heroes.
His footsteps landed on the ice-like floor, producing faint echoes.
Azure light refracted down from the ice crystals in the dome, forming a tranquil field of light within the hall.
His gaze swept across the ice sculptures of varying forms.
Each one embodied Vigia's most exceptional souls from thousands of years of history.
But at this moment, his divine sense did not linger long on these departed heroes. Instead, it spread toward the depths of the hall like spilled mercury.
He sensed the presence of living people there, and more than one.
In the shadows at the innermost part of the hall, three figures stood silently.
They were not ice sculptures, but real living beings.
They had merely concealed their auras almost perfectly.
As though they had blended into the surrounding chill.
Only when Zong Shen's gaze fell upon them did the three slowly emerge from the shadows.
The leader was a female knight clad in silver-gray chainmail and a cloak of snow wolf pelts.
She appeared to be around thirty, with stern features and ash-blue hair tied into a neat ponytail behind her head.
A slender ice-patterned rapier hung at her waist.
A dim blue gemstone was embedded in the sword's hilt.
She stood as straight as a spear, her eyes sharp and clear, entirely devoid of the fear or struggle shown by the others.
There was only an indifferent calm.
To her left stood a male Ranger wearing dark brown Leather Armor and carrying a Rune longbow.
His face was lean, his eyes alert, and his finger joints were covered in calluses formed from years of drawing a bow.
A quiver hung at his waist, its arrow fletching made from the feathers of some ferocious icefield bird, gleaming with a