The knight in the abyss

Chapter 782 The Other Half of the Story

"Hag?"

This word aroused the interest of all the partners, they exchanged glances with each other, and Brutal said bluntly:
"Where are those damned guys? They stole Dad's soul here, but I have a lot of debts to settle with them..."

"Your father is not the first victim of hags." The elf captain sighed, "You are now too, and there will be more in the future."

"That's not necessarily true." Brutal clasped his hands in front of his chest, "We are very strong, and you also saw that Medusa's corpse..."

"I don't doubt your strength, but compared to those hags, I'm afraid..."

Soveris shook his head, just when the tavern owner came over pushing a cart and interrupted their conversation.Baskets of freshly baked bread, boiled potatoes and a stack of grilled wolf steaks were placed on the upper shelf of the cart, alongside a small wine barrel with a capacity of about five gallons, while the lower shelf was filled with dishes and empty wine glasses.The tavern owner is a rather strong middle-aged man with black hair and a thick beard. He greeted everyone with a passionate voice:
"Welcome, friends from afar, are you hungry?"

"It's okay to be hungry, but I'm really thirsty." Brutal sniffed hard, his eyes became excited, "Oh oh oh, your wine seems very good, I can smell the aroma of fresh malt It's..."

"Hahahahaha, did you hear me, everyone, even the dwarves praised my wine! Come on, this barrel is yours!" The man laughed happily, and carried the entire wine barrel to the table of everyone , "It's on your head, old black bird."

"Uh, there's only this one bucket..." The brown-haired elf bent down, and brought wine glasses from under the trolley to the table, "You'll have to pay for any more, fifteen gold coins for a bucket... Cheers, friends, to..."

"To Raven Town." Lancelot said softly, "May it never be disturbed by evil."

"To Raven Town!"

After a while of clashing wine glasses, everyone put down their glasses one after another, sighing in satisfaction.Brutal offered to pour wine for others, while Lancelot tried to continue the conversation:

"Your Excellency Soveris..."

"Please, just call me Soveris, it sounds really awkward, Your Excellency."

"Okay, Soveris." Lancelot nodded in agreement, and continued with a serious expression, "What role do hags play in this land? If we want to leave, do we have to deal with them?"

"Although I can't be sure, it's likely to be that way. After all, since they arrived, no one has successfully left...at least I don't know."

"since?"

"That's right." The elf nodded, "You probably already know that the ruler of this demon realm, the Lich King Peyton Derek, was defeated by a group of adventurers more than 100 years ago, causing the fog that closed the border to dissipated, but it revived again shortly after?"

"The baroness in the Wolf King's Lair did mention it to us."

"Oh? Then what happened after she didn't tell you?" Soveris frowned, "About ten years after Payton's resurrection, a group of strange old ladies came here. We now know that they are hags Changed, but then they looked like just a bunch of wizened, queer humans, with an aging appearance that my elf couldn't comprehend, and seemed to pose no threat to anyone."

"Those old ladies did not enter the town, but drove a caravan pulled by a donkey and lived in the forest. Strange black smoke rose from the depths of the forest from time to time, and then an old lady who turned into a hag would appear, Pushing a trolley with wooden wheels, they are selling their dream cakes in the streets and alleys. That kind of cake is a powerful hallucinogen, which will make people who eat it go to a heavenly place temporarily, where they can enjoy themselves joy..."

"Hmph, a typical seducer's trick." Alamir made a disgusted nasal voice, "They create a desire first, and then ask for a reward after they succeed. When the price is too high for the victim to afford, they will ask the victim to make a In exchange for some evil deed, and after the victim is ultimately irrevocably corrupted, they receive the real reward—a soul, usually in the form of murder."

"You're right, my distant relative, but we didn't know this from the beginning." Soveris shook his head with a wry smile, "On the contrary, it was the Lich King who first realized something was wrong, and it sent an envoy to ask the hag We stopped providing that tool that would alleviate pain and fear—it thought so. But the messengers sent by the Lich King never came out once they walked into that woodland, whether it was a weak skeleton or a powerful death. Knights, all without exception."

"Finally, one dark night, the Lich himself stepped into the woodlands of the hags with an army of the undead. I still remember that night when fireballs set the forest ablaze, lightning tore the sky, and rain fell , and finally everything disappeared in the thick fog..." The voice of the elf became a little erratic because of the memory, "However, when the sky lit up again, I was surprised to find that nothing seemed to have happened—the forest that was burned at night Still standing, the hags pushed their carts and set off again as if nothing had happened. I wanted to go deep into the woodland to continue investigating, but a strong intuition told me that I had to leave immediately, otherwise I would be completely destroyed..."

The partners fell silent for a short while, and Soveris' words revealed some disturbing information—those hags were far more powerful than they thought.You know, every lich was once a legendary spellcaster, and becoming a lich doesn't affect their spellcasting ability except to get rid of death.Considering that Peyton Derek is also the master of this Demon Realm, its strength in the home game will be improved to a higher level, even an ancient dragon may not be its opponent.

But those hags can win in such a situation, so what kind of strength do they have?

"I wanted to ask just now..." Karalin on the side said hesitantly, "How many of those hags are there?"

"There are thirteen old ladies in total." Soveris turned to look at the scholar, "Everyone is a hag, I'm sure."

"This is impossible!" The scholar's voice was full of disbelief, "I have never heard of such a large-scale gathering of hags, even five are very rare..."

"That's the truth. If you want, I can take you to identify them one by one." The elf shrugged and took a sip from his wine glass, "Another fact is that since that great war, there hasn't been a single second in the Demon Realm." Clock unsealed, but Peyton Derek was never seen again..."

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(End of this chapter)