The Witch Hunter System
chapter-692

Boundless Sea of Nothingness

In an unknown region of emptiness, Varuna continued to be hammered by the dust of nothingness as he traversed the life-extinguishing void.

Usually, anything that touched the dust of nothingness would disappear from existence – whether it was life, matter, or energy, all concepts of their existence would cease to exist when they came into contact with the nihilistic power coursing throughout the Boundless Sea of Nothing.

However, this was not the case for Varuna.

When the dust of nothingness touched Varuna, he did not disappear. On the contrary, it was dust of nothingness that ceased its 'existence' as its nihilistic power disappeared, transforming into Origin Power that empowered and sustained Varuna.

In the first year of travel, Varuna occasionally encountered beast-like Outer Beings in the red void of nothingness. Alas, not much was known about its specific species.

Every Outer Being discovered in the Boundless Sea of Nothingness was nigh invisible. The only determining factors of their existence were their movements, which distorted space and provided rough outlines of their figures.

On rarer occasions, some would also sparkle with countless glittering colored light particles.

In the following hundred years of void traveling, Outer Beings were no longer spotted. Only the endless red void of nothingness accompanied Varuna.

As Varuna continued his lonesome travel, the situation remained unchanged for another ten thousand years before beast-like Outer Beings were spotted in groups. They numbered in the hundreds like the last group.

Varuna wanted to study and understand them, but unfortunately, even with his seemingly omnipotent power as an Outerverse Originator, he couldn't crack the secret of their existence.

It was as if they were protected by a power of invisibility from a higher dimension that hid their true appearances from the world. As such, Varuna's lower-dimension perception failed to perceive them.

Another possibility was that concentrated dust of nothingness had long integrated with their beings, becoming a layer of their flesh and granting them the ability of invisibility.

The last possibility Varuna thought of was that the dust of nothingness naturally became concentrated and gained sentience.

Nevertheless, Varuna never gave up on his pursuit of an answer – he continued to study the Outer Beings for set periods during his travels whenever he encountered new groups of Outer Beings.

The Outer Beings could not threaten Varuna with their meager power at Half-Originator.

This dull cycle of lonesome travel and study continued for a whole chaos cycle. In the second chaos cycle of travel, stronger Outer Beings appeared. Their powers ranged from Early-stage Innerverse Originator to Late-stage Innerverse Originator.

Varuna wasn't sure if he would encounter Outer Beings as powerful as him or even stronger if he continued his blind journey.

However, he didn't stop.

In the latter half of the second chaos cycle, Varuna finally discovered something other than the dust of nothingness and unintelligent Outer Beings – a fragment of a dead chaosverse that persisted through the decay of nothingness.

The chaosverse fragment was not very large, but not too small either – it only contained six thousand star realms.

Remnants of the chaosverse's laws also remained.

However, there was no normal life in this chaosverse fragment. Instead, it became a nest for billions of Outer Beings. Furthermore, there were Outerverse Originator-level Outer Beings among them.

If this piece of chaosverse ever reached Chaos, all life would end unless the Lord of Chaos intervened.

Nevertheless, it was also in this chaosverse fragment that Varuna made a surprising discovery – not all Outer Beings were hostile towards him. At the very least, the avian and aquatic-looking Outer Beings were docile and tameable.

As the Lord of the Boundless Seas and Skies, Varuna had created countless skies and seas, giving life to many avian and aquatic lifeforms. His unique aura as their creator made all avian and aquatic lifeforms naturally intimate and subservient to him.

Varuna didn't expect his unique creator aura would also affect Outer Beings.

Nevertheless, this pleasant surprise was only a small episode in Varuna's long, lonesome travel.

In the third chaos cycle of traveling through the red void of nothingness, Varuna finally made the ultimate discovery – the infinitely boundless world of a higher dimension.

Unfortunately, that was also where he met his end, perished at the hands of a celestial-like Outer Being that was as big as an entire chaosverse. In front of such a colossal entity, Varuna's size and power were simply far too insignificant.

Vaan almost lost himself in the long river of memories and time and believed himself to be Varuna at some point as he experienced everything through his eyes.

And yet, when it came to the most crucial ending point of Varuna's life, everything suddenly became blurry and disconnected. He was robbed of the truth before he was given a chance to perceive it.

...

As Vaan's mind drifted through a seemingly timeless and pitch-black void, just when he thought the recollection had ended, he was pulled into a new memory – Varuna's first reincarnated life.

…

The 127th chaos cycle of Chaos, Primeval Chaosverse, Everblue Star

In the Year 723 of the Dark Age, a Solaran prince was born in the Memoria Royal City shortly after a pandemic outbreak. It should have been a time of joy for the Memoria Royals as they welcomed the new member of their house into the world.

However, the newborn prince was born with one ocean-blue eye and one blood-red eye, causing confusion, panic, and fear to arise within the Memoria Royal Family.

"This is my baby…?"

Queen Lumina glanced at the blood-red color in one of her baby's eyes with horror and repulsion after her hard labor.

Caw! Caw!

A murder of crows suddenly started flocking and gathering outside the castle with excitement as they circled the sky in celebration of Prince Victor's birth.

The unknown phenomenon startled and frightened royals and servants alike.

"Curse… It's a curse! It's a cursed baby!" a maidservant screamed in horror as she blocked her ears to deafen the crows' cries.

"No! My baby is not cursed!" Queen Lumina cried as she held her newborn, profound sadness flooding her heart. Shortly after, she glared at the maidservant and barked, "Drag her out and execute her!"

"N-No! I didn't do anything wrong! I'm not mistaken! Please don't kill me! That thing should be killed instead!" the maidservant cried.

Alas, her pleas fell on deaf ears as the soldiers dragged her out of the castle and executed her.

At the same time, all details of Prince Victor Memoria's birth were hidden from the public. Unfortunately, a small bucket of water couldn't extinguish a forest fire.

As the murder of crows grew in numbers, blotting out the sky of the royal castle, rumors of the cursed prince easily spread like wildfire. After all, the day of the prince's birth was also the day the murder of crows gathered.

Bodies littered the streets day after day as people died from the Black Death, and the atmosphere of the royal city became heavy with the stench of death and fear.

After enduring months of such suffocating gloom, public unrest reached the boiling point of eruption, and people crowded outside the castle gates with pitchforks, shovels, and axes—any tools they could use as weapons.

They demanded the royal family hand over the cursed prince for execution, believing the cursed prince was the source of the plague.

"Uneducated and ignorant swines! These peasants know nothing but speak a lot of rubbish! Your Majesty, you mustn't listen to them!" Queen Lumina pleaded to her king.

However, her hopes were dashed by the following words, "I'm sorry, my love."

The public outrage was too great, and King Luther Memoria submitted to the external pressure. Prince Victor was dragged out and burned to death in public at the tender age of three months.

As a result, Queen Lumina turned crazy.

Unfortunately for the Memoria Kingdom, the death of Prince Victor did not solve their pandemic crisis, but it worsened instead.

On the day of Prince Victor's death, the endless murder of crows cried as the heaven itself seemingly mourned his loss. At the same time, the numerous crows went mad and attacked all humans on sight with frenzied rage. They wanted to avenge Prince Victor, even at the cost of their lives.

They gorged on human eyes, ate infected rats, polluted wells and rivers with their corpses, and devastated crops, causing widespread damage beyond everyone's imagination.

The entire kingdom trembled at their wrath.

A week later, the Crazy Queen was also dragged out of the castle to be burned at the stake in public after she was labeled as the witch who gave birth to the cursed prince.

At the moment of her death, Queen Lumina looked at the crowd of peasants with hollow eyes of endless despair, desolation, and resignation and spat vengefully, "Ignorance is not a sin, but even ten thousand deaths won't earn you my forgiveness! I will wait for you in hell! I curse you, curse all of you to die ugly, miserable, and pathetic deaths!"

"Did we do the right thing?" a peasant questioned his morals.

Nevertheless, even after Queen Lumina's death, the Memoria Kingdom continued to be plagued by the Black Death and the wrath of all winged creatures of the sky!

It wasn't just crows but all birds that joined the war against humans later!

The people of the Memoria Kingdom were finally aware of their grave mistake, and there wasn't a single person who didn't know how to write the word 'regret,' not even the illiterate.

Unfortunately, the Memoria Kingdom was already doomed to fall, and the whole country eventually fell to ruin in a short span of six months without a single survivor.

Later, the incident shocked everyone living on Everblue Star.

…