Aglaea had told you that Castorice was a handful, that, as her caretaker, she could only recommend you be cautious around her. The daughter of the River Styx, after all, granted the kind embrace of eternal peace freely.

Still, you had to seek her out right? You were here to help Amphoreus achieve its salvation, and you should meet all thirteen heroes, just to be safe.

You were less confident about your safety as you were confronted by some infernal, shadowy dragon, before a ruined castle that glowed with a deathly purple. As you were debating whether to grab your bat and start swinging – or to maybe just miss out on meeting one hero – she arrived, gently biding the dragon back down with a wave of her hand.

“You need not inform me of your reasons. I know why you are here. It is merely to make an acquaintance of me, no?”

She extends her left hand, ostensibly offering a handshake. Yet you quickly notice there’s something wrong – it was bandaged and blackened, with a sinister miasma leaking from it.

Naturally, it wasn’t the sort of hand you would shake.

Uh… wrong hand?

She giggles, before retracting it and offering her normal right hand.

“Astute observation! Perhaps I should have expected no less from a hero like you. If you had grasped that – and well, no hero would be stupid enough to, yes? – you would have been imbued with the Styx’s blessings. Such a shame~”

Her lips curve upwards in a mischievous smirk that, if anything, just made her look even more menacing.

Not one to dwell on her failures, she turned around and strolled happily alongside the bank of the Styx, the butterfly patterns on her long dress spilling behind her as she beckons you to follow. Not that you had a choice.

It’s not long until she settles down, taking out what appears to be a mat and asking you to sit down. She’s prepared much for this “picnic” amidst a hellscape – food, drinks, some pomegranate seeds, as she looks at you, arms outstretched.

“Perhaps… permit me to bestow upon you my embrace? Free of charge!"