Whispers of the Gods

Chapter 1 Prologue Marley
The keel of the Puffin skidded across the angry shore, and the schooner was breaking free from the whirlpool's white tusks.

The blood-colored moon was covered by dark clouds, and they rolled ferociously in the night sky, as black as the shroud of Hedar, the death star god.

Mare Giganta's feet slipped on the deck slick with fish guts and spilled beer.

The rain slanted down with the storm like iron nails, making him breathless.

The thunder is like the roar of a dragon, high-pitched and irritable.

"captain!"

Mare tried to open his eyes wide, and vaguely saw the appearance of the sailor in front of him.

"Captain, we must do something!" shouted the sailor hoarsely.

The rain twisted Marley's long hair into twine and soaked his jacket.

He could smell his own fear, a smell mingled with sea debris and death.

He shouldn't have sailed on a blood moon, Mare thought, that would be a bad omen.

This was supposed to be a relaxing and pleasant trip, starting from Swan Harbor in Longkou Bay, stopping at Vivalia's Weiqing City, and then going to the Hall of Ashes to congratulate their young queen on the coronation.

"I know!" Marley yelled.

He couldn't calm down and think in the chaos and storm.

He found the rudder while shaking from side to side, and the helmsman was holding the tiller tightly, his face full of horror.

Mare stepped forward and grabbed the tiller firmly with both hands, resisting the vortex together with the helmsman with all his strength.

His Puffin rolls and tilts like a pike perch rolls in its death.

The decks buckled and heaved with a creaking sound, but the sailboat squared itself once more.

The tumult of the sea caused a commotion in Mare's blood, and the tearing rain stings his bare arms like icicles.

The rain was icy, but he felt unexplainably hot.

"Hold on!" Mare yelled into the wind.

The salt water hissed and lashed his face.

His eyes were hot and he could not close them as he stared at the tiller, at the crack in the sea that was trying to swallow them.

Streaks of lightning were imprinted in the sky, and the thunder continued to beat, and it exploded, leaving behind a shock.

Mare and his sailors had sailed past the coasts of Abyss Island and Sunshine City, and the sea was still calm at that time.

But looking back now, it was more like the penetrating silence of a cemetery.

Brutally steep waves ripped apart the hull, screaming sailors on deck were swept into the sea, or smashed to pieces over the edge of the ship.

Mare's grip tightened, his hands starting to go numb.

Waves rose beside him, covering the sky, and the wind called his doom.

The "Puffin" could only drift with the tide, praying to the sea god to calm his anger.

Mare refused to let go, he began to spin dizzily, and slowly lost consciousness...
-
Marley woke up choking on the seawater in his throat.

He opened his eyes abruptly, and was forced to close them again in an instant by the harsh midday sun.

The sea lapped against the rocky shore as if dissatisfied with his survival.

Marley coughed, trying to figure out where it was.

The world around me is as hazy as a dream. In early summer, the sky is cloudless and the sky is clear again.

Mare tried to get up, he climbed over the reef and got a glimpse of the whole island.

"Damn it," Marley cursed.

There is no life on this island, no animals, no plants, no water, nothing.

All that was left were mountains of gray brick and asphalt piled high on the wasteland.

Of course he would be rushed to the island of death, and the gods didn't want him to live at all.

Surviving the vortex was just playing with his impending death.

Marley stood on the rock and looked out, trying to find survivors like him but found nothing.

Why did he want to go to Vivalia to attend the coronation of Queen Narozaria?The Korva family is a tyrant expelled from the Republic.

Mare began to regret the journey he had started, and now he would die on this cursed island.

He seemed to be able to hear the voices under the ruins of the building, which belonged to the souls punished by the God of Stars.

Legend has it that humans and gods lived together in the star world, and Nemir, the lord of the stars, and his gods and humans coexisted harmoniously.

But the arrogance of human beings angered the gods, they demoted human beings to the mortal world, and let the seven star gods take charge of everything on the ground.

The human world is more difficult and cruel than the star world, and pain and misery have become the whole of human life.

Human beings who were dissatisfied with this treatment gathered together and began to build two towers reaching the sky on the island of storm and the island of light, hoping to return to the astral world and start carefree enjoyment again.

The plan was finally discovered by Nemir, who sent divine punishment and destroyed the Tongtian Tower, and the people on the island became souls that could never be freed.

They were crushed under the ruins of the Babel Tower, tortured by pain all the time, and attacked anyone who tried to enter the building.

No one will set foot in this cursed land that is now called Abyss Island and Dead Isle,

Those foolish or insane enough to try are either lured insane by the spirits of these wardens or simply vanish from sight on the island.

The voice under the ruins rang softly in Mare's ear again, it was a language he couldn't understand:

They sounded like conversations, but they didn't make sense to him; they read like sentences, but their content was indistinct and incomprehensible; he couldn't even tell the gender of the speaker.

He thought about those buried here, and wondered what it would be like if anyone else heard the voices.

This familiar, trembling voice was inviting him.

come here.

Mare's mind was speaking to him.

we need you.

Mare slowly approached the ruins, he was gradually overwhelmed by the charming voice.

He opened his mouth slightly, and slowly stretched out his right hand to touch the wall.

At that moment, Mare felt that he had become a part of the entire ancient building, and the tangible and intangible chaos melted in his mind.

He seems to be looking up at the starry sky, but also seems to be overlooking the world.

The stars leap, and history turns.

And through this layer of blur, he could see a pair of jet blacks flickering like a dream, and they were scrolling to read everything.

Mare couldn't resist the thought of meeting their eyes, but the greedily expanding darkness seemed to pull his soul out of his body.

Mare pulled his hand out, and murmured to the rhythm of his weak heartbeat.

He seemed to spy into eternity.

(End of this chapter)