Chapter 693 Second Memory (5)
?A hundred years after Prince Victor died on Everblue Star, Varuna's second reincarnation started in the Great Desolate Chaosverse, Grand Blue Star.
The world was frighteningly cold in the Grand Blue Star, making life extremely difficult for humans. Nothing could grow on land, and humans could only live in coastal regions next to the sea, where aquatic lifeforms thrived limitlessly.
Although fishing wasn't easy, it was still possible and was the only source of survival the primitive humans knew.
When Varuna's second reincarnation, Venice Delmar, was born, his fishing village was blessed with countless stranded fish on shore as if they were trying to reach him and pay their respects.
However, the villagers saw it as god's gift to them instead. After all, what kind of delusional idea was a newborn getting worshipped by fish?
Nevertheless, it wasn't a one-time blessing. Since the day of Venice's birth, fish have been found stranded ashore each morning, in amounts fishermen could only dream of catching before.
Each day was like a yearly harvest, and they didn't need to work for it.
Such a miraculous situation couldn't be kept secret, and the news spread to other villages.
In those days, many people visited the Frostbone Village to verify the truth for themselves. After the truth was confirmed, Frostbone Village experienced a large influx of migrating villagers.
In a mere five years, the small Frostbone Village developed into a large, prosperous city of twenty thousand people. Frostbone City became the future of humanity in the dark ice age.
Unfortunately, good times did not last forever.
The daily offering of fish failed to keep up with the population, and even the amounts became lesser and lesser. People began to despair when even the fishermen returned from their daily trips with poorer harvests than in the past.
Famine struck Frostbone City, and people started dying from malnutrition and hunger. Bodies piled up by the day, and greater despair seeped in.
With nowhere else to turn to, the people of Frostbone City prayed to the gods of the sea for more abundant fish blessings. Alas, the sea answered them with silence and a further reduction of daily stranded fish.
Around that time, five-year-old Venice visited the sea with his fisherman father for the first time and discovered his ability to communicate with aquatic lifeforms and befriend them.
At the same time, they started to gather around his father's fishing boat with joy as they greeted and paid their respects to Venice.
Venice's father, Marvin Delmar, was almost frightened to death when so many large aquatic lifeforms rose above the sea surface, rocking the small fishing boat with wave after wave of icy cold seawater.
"You scared my Papa. Can you not scare him?" Venice asked the large dolphins and whales in a childish voice.
Marvin was immediately surprised to see the huge sea creatures retreat into the sea and draw some distance from the fishing boat to make them feel more comfortable. These huge sea creatures actually listened to his son!
Suddenly, he recalled that the day his son was born was also the day the old village started receiving the gift of fish.
'My son was born to rule the seas!' Marvin thought excitedly.
Unable to suppress his urge to test his theory, Marvin quickly made a request of his son, "Hey, Bud. Can you try asking them to give us some fish to eat?"
"I'll try, Papa," Venice agreed innocently.
Shortly after, he asked the large dolphins and whales as per his father's request, and sure enough, they disappeared into the sea for a moment before returning with schools of fish in their mouth.
Marvin lost his breath in his excitement on the spot. After a moment, he quickly reeled in the fish with a net before filling the boat to its load limit.
That day, Marvin earned the praise of the entire city when he brought the fish back. And in the following week, Marvin would always bring Venice fishing with him every day. The loads of fish he brought back daily for the city earned him great awe and envy.
Many fishermen figured Marvin must have found a golden fishing spot. They decided to tail him on one following morning secretly. It was then that they witnessed the shocking sight of oversized dolphins and whales offering fish after Venice made the request.
Before long, the whole city knew the secret after the fishermen shared the discovery. Venice's happy days ceased the same night, and his nightmares began.
The city authorities deprived Venice of his parents and dragged him out to sea from morning to late night, forcing him to ask the sea lords for schools of fish every day. Such laborsome travels were naturally too much for a five-year-old boy to handle.
But even though Venice was tired and cold, he had no choice but to follow the forceful whims of the adults.
Everyone in the city abused his gift as much as they could without caring for Venice's health and happiness. They weren't sure if his gift would last forever. Thus, they sought to stock up as much seafood as possible while his gift lasted.
Much to their pleasant surprise, Venice's gift did not disappear, even after several weeks. But at that point, he was already too weak to walk. He did not get the rest that a child should.
As a child messiah who brought salvation to his city with his special gift, he did not receive the respect and care that he was owed. Instead, all he got was physical and mental abuse due to his naivety and young age.
"Brother Dolphin, Sister Whale… Please don't give us fish anymore… I'm tired… Too tired… I don't want to do this anymore…" Venice cried before receiving an abrupt slap from an angry fisherman.
"Nonsense! How can we eat if you do not ask them to give us—"
Roar!
The sea itself was seemingly enraged as the fleet of fishing boats was rocked by heavy waves of water. The furious cries of the Sea Lords summoned the wrath of the ocean as countless more members of their kind answered their call.
"Q-Quick! Back to shore!" The fishermen cried in fright.
Fortunately for them, the angry sea life chased them but did not hunt them down for fear of hurting Venice in the process. As a result, the fleet of fishing boats made it all back to Frostbone City safely.
Since that day, no fisherman dared to venture out to sea again.
However, they found a more effective method to receive their daily offering of fish from the sea – by torturing Venice at the shore and letting his painful cries echo to the sea.
Even though the furious Sea Lords summoned a whole army of sea creatures to the shores of Frostbone City, they failed to advance further due to the city's effective threat to kill Venice if they continued.
Ultimately, the Sea Lords could only give in to the greedy and desperate humans' demands and retreat.
"Scream, Boy. Call out to them. Ask them to bring us fish from the sea," the heartless city lord demanded.
"Bad man! You are a bad man!" Venice cursed the city lord before saying, "Brother Dolphin and Sister Whale are so nice to give us fish to eat every day, and yet you seek to abuse our kindness!"
"You bite the hand that feeds you! You ungrateful, bad—"
Pah!
The furious city lord slapped Venice without restraint, barking, "If I tell you to scream, you scream! I don't need to be lectured by a little shit!"
"City Lord, you…"
Several guards and fishermen were startled by the city lord's excessive display of force, fearing he would hurt the child badly.
After all, in this blizzard hell, where no crops could be grown, and the only source of food came from the sea, any heavy injury would likely lead to death since they couldn't make any medicine.
This was especially the case for children.
How could the weakened and dispirited Venice withstand such a heavy blow? He was instantly knocked out with some blood dripping from his mouth.
Seeing this, the City Lord finally showed a bit of concern. How could he let their golden fish die?
"Someone, tend to him at once!" the City Lord ordered.
Alas, Venice would no longer wake up. His weakened body already lacked strength and barely had enough energy to maintain their functions. Now that his body had suffered an injury, his deficient energy was used to heal his body.
However, without the strength to eat and ward off the cold, Venice's body continued to weaken on its own until death took him away.
Meanwhile, Venice's father was filled with regret, while his mother was completely heartbroken by his situation, not knowing their child had already passed away. Ever since they tried to fight back for the custody of their son, they had been locked away in prison by the city lord.
"Gone… How can he be gone…? Why is he so weak?!"
"City Lord, it's not good. The furious people have gathered outside your home; they are demanding your head, blaming you for killing the Sea Child."
…
Frostbone City was quickly engulfed in chaos as people fought and blamed each other for not treating Venice better.
But no matter what they did, everything was futile; they could undo what had happened.
With the last vestige of Venice's unique aura disappearing from the world, the Sea Lords became aware of his passing. The sea was immediately boiled with endless fury and madness.
Not long after, Frostbone City vanished from the face of the earth along with all its residents, washed away by the wrath of the sea.
…
In the first reincarnation, Varuna died because of ignorance. In the second reincarnation, he died because of greed. Before Varuna's reincarnations were given a chance to grow their wings, they were mercilessly clipped by human malice.
Hundreds… Thousands… Tens of thousands… Millions…
Varun continued to reincarnate into different worlds with low life value and development, dying tragic deaths before reaching adulthood. They couldn't resist the first tribulation given by the heavens.
Nevertheless, with each death and each cycle of reincarnation, the aura of the Lord of the Boundless Seas and Skies was washed away, bit by bit, until all traces of it were gone.
Since then, the difficulty of the tribulations given by the heavens has lessened.
Ding!
<You have finished viewing the first half of Varuna's tragic cycle of reincarnation>
<You have recovered some Boundless Sea and Sky Aura from your first life as the Lord of the Boundless Seas and Skies>
<[Warning]: The heavens have noticed you and grown envious of your talent>
Vaan's heart suddenly felt cold after hearing the last notification; he completely understood what it implied.
Tribulation was coming.
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