AThe buzzing had become a physical vibration, a hum that shook Siegfried's bones and made Fenrir's fur stand on end. The Forgotten Strait opened up before them like a gaping gorge made of organic walls and blackish ooze.
But in the center of the single passage, where the tunnel narrowed, the road was blocked.
A ten-meter-tall Colossus stood there. Its body was not made of flesh, but of a compact agglomeration of millions of flies and necrophagous insects, held together by an invisible will. It had no face, only a large orifice from which acrid smoke escaped. In its right hand, it wielded a scythe made from a giant's femur.
Siegfried stopped dead in his tracks, raising his hand to stop Jormund.
"It's Beelzebub, or at least one of his Manifestations," whispered the knight. "He won't attack us if we respect the Law of the Strait."
The Colossus took a step forward, the sound of his footsteps resembling the crushing of shells. A voice, composed of thousands of harmonized chirps, rose from the monster:
"No one crosses the belly of the world without feeding the hunger that composes it. Pay the price, travelers. Give what is most precious to you, or become the meal yourselves." "
Jormund stepped forward, his golden aura piercing the sticky darkness. He did not reach for his weapon. He looked at the Colossus with the recognition of one primal force toward another.
"What does the Lord of the Flies demand?" Jormund growled.
"Energy... history... Time," replied the creature, staring at the luminous veins of the son of Chronos.
Siegfried intervened, fearing that Jormund would give up part of his life.
"We pay in combat essence!" He took from his bag a vial containing the residual spark of a hero's soul that he had kept since his fall. But the Colossus shook his head.
Jormund then understood. He placed his hand on the monster's writhing chest. He did not give his life, but he released a temporal impulse, a fraction of the eternity he had absorbed in Tartarus. It was pure energy, fuel capable of feeding millions of larvae for centuries.
The Colossus absorbed the fluid gold. Its structure vibrated with pleasure, and for a moment, the buzzing turned into a song of gratitude. The creature slowly moved aside, its silhouette partially disintegrating to leave a clear passage.
"Pass, son of Time," echoed the multiple voices. "But know that the higher you climb, the heavier the price will be. Queen Hel already knows that you have borrowed the shadow. "
"Let her know," replied Jormund without turning back.
The Pack rushed into the strait, leaving the insect guardian behind. They had passed beneath war, beneath the gods, and before them, at the end of the tunnel, a different light was beginning to dawn: that of Bifrost, the last step before the world above.