Chapter 2216 Styx Bridge Guardian

"Forget it, let's go over the bridge honestly!" Clark forced a smile, and comforted himself: "Since those dead souls can cross the bridge safely, we should be fine!"

Is it all right?

It turns out he spoke a little too soon.

As soon as everyone approached the bridge, there was a wave of magic power in the air.

Immediately afterwards, a burst of eerie laughter came to my ears, which made one's hair stand on end.

Joan looked up at the place where the laughter came from. Just above the crystal arch bridge, the vague figure of a knight was being transmitted from the "spiritual world", gradually solidifying.

The first thing that appeared in his field of vision was a tall and strong horse-shaped monster, with a black mane, thick smoke mixed with flames from its mouth and nose, and smoke rising from its feet, exuding a scorching breath from its whole body.

On the back of the horse-shaped monster sat an old woman with a crooked body, dressed in a black velvet cloak, with a wrinkled face and a huge aquiline nose, a malicious smile, and the flickering viciousness in the sunken eye sockets. The gaze immediately reminded Joan of the "old witch" in fairy tales.

The old witch was playing with a Philosopher's Stone, which looked like a crystal clear heart.

"Oh~ I recognize that black horse." The ice wolf raised its head, its blue eyes met the red eyes of the black horse, "That guy must be the so-called 'Nightmare', those villains who worship evil gods and The death knight always rides such a cool-looking black horse when he comes out."

"Apart from the dark guards and death knights, the old hag is also one of the most common passengers on the nightmare's back." Hilde slowly raised his spear, ready to fight, "If I guess correctly, the one blocking our way at this moment The old hag must be Modgood, Bridgekeeper of the River Styx."

"Oh? Today's young people can still know the name of an old woman like me. This is really rare!"

The old hag on horseback grinned ferociously, revealing a mouth full of white fangs that did not match her aging face.

"You little fellows are really strange. You are obviously living people, why do you have to cross the Styx River? Don't you know that crossing this bridge is opposite to the kingdom of the dead?"

Gaina took two steps forward, stood at the end of the bridge, looked up at the old hag on Nightmare's back, and greeted politely.

"Dear Mrs. Modgood, I am a witch from the Temple of Styx in the 'Nation of Fog'. Inspired by my lord Hel, I went to his kingdom of God to listen to his teachings. Please let us pass bridge."

"Hehe~ little girl, since you claim to be a pilgrim from the Styx Temple, you should have that kind of round biscuit in your hand, right?"

The old hag poked out her bird-claw-like skinny right hand from the wide sleeve of her robe, rubbed her index finger and thumb, and gestured to Gaina to count money.

"Old woman I'm a good talker, girl, just give me a Hull pie and I'll let you cross the bridge. That's a good deal for you, isn't it?"

"What are Hull biscuits? I've never heard of them!" Winter Witch said innocently, "Grandma, can I give you other biscuits?"

The old hag's complexion immediately darkened, and her eyes became extraordinarily gloomy.

"Little girl, you'd better not play tricks with me! If you really don't have Hull pie, hehe, then it's okay to take the initiative to hand over one person for me to suck up the blood and have a full meal. You can cross the bridge safely."

The old hag looked away from Gaina's face, looked at Joan, Clark, Hilde and Sharon in turn, and finally returned to Gaina's face.

"I suggest that you have a good discussion and choose one person to be a sacrifice for crossing the bridge. Think about it, lovely young people, you only need to sacrifice one companion to ensure the safe passage of others. There are more people in the world. Is this a better deal?"

"Well, to be honest, if I were one of you, for the sake of sincere friendship and to protect the interests of the team, I would rather take the initiative to stand up and sacrifice my life so that other companions can cross the bridge safely. They are all good boys who are honest and kind, so they must have such a plan, right?"

Gaina didn't make a sound, turned her back while holding back her anger, and said to her companions: "Don't believe that old hag's nonsense, she's just pretending, but she's actually trying to provoke us to fight among ourselves!"

"You don't need to say it, we all saw it."

Clark clenched his fists, his knuckles crackling.

"Don't talk nonsense to that old hag, if she won't give way, just beat her up!"

Hilde held his breath and turned to look at Joan: "Dr. Vader, what do you think?"

"Is this old hag also called 'night hag'?" Qiao An recalled the relevant records in the literature.

"That's right, the old hag is a 'night hag'. Although it looks a lot like a green hag, a demon hag, and a sea hag, it's actually not a humanoid monster, but a demon race born in the lower planes. A hag is more powerful than a hag, but she doesn't have much blood relationship, and she doesn't have the ability to initiate and participate in a 'hag gathering', so she always walks alone, and her only partner is the nightmare horse she rides."

Gaina herself has a quarter of the "winter hag" blood, and she understands the characteristics of various hags better than Joan.

"By the way, you may have noticed that I didn't mention 'winter hag' just now. This is because there is a huge difference between winter hag and other hags, so it is not easy to compare them together."

Gaina looked at Joan intentionally or unintentionally, as if waiting for him to ask.

"Is there anything special about winter hags?"

Mr. Mage is still too young to take the bait.

Gaina smiled slightly, caressed her cheeks, and did not hide the narcissism on her face.

"Our winter hags, the most special thing is that they are super good-looking, all of them are stunning beauties, and they are naturally beautiful, and they are not disguised by magic!"

"When people mention hags, they always think of ugly hags with hunchbacks and wrinkled faces. This is too unfair to us winter hags!"

"Hey! Are you praising yourself in a different way?" Joan was annoyed and funny.

"So what, am I wrong?" Gaina asked confidently.

Joan scratched her head, thinking back to the illustrations about winter hags in various literatures. Except for her slightly darker complexion, she is really not picky about her appearance. Compared with other kinds of hags, she is a clear stream. Proud of the winter hag lineage.

"Hey! You little fellows, just keep chatting, don't pretend that I don't exist!"

On the crystal bridge opposite, the old hag yelled impatiently.

...

Allusion: Gjoll

The Gower was one of the twelve rivers of Elivagar, which flowed from the spring of Hvergelmir and came to the world through the Ginunaga.

It is said that the place where the river flows through Heim's underworld near its gate is the "Styx" in Norse mythology.

According to legend, the river is extremely cold and there are knives flowing in the water.

This river is the border between Niflheim and Helheim, and there is a gilded crystal bridge on the river, suspended by a single hair.

Most of the ghosts after death pass the bridge on horseback or in carts. These horses and carts are funerary objects burned together with the dead during cremation.

The hideous old hag, Modgud, guards the Crystal Bridge, and whoever crosses the bridge must let her suck blood as a toll.