VENTURE! Prologue

VENTURE! Prologue

Once, long ago, there was a hero. A hero who protected the innocent and vanquished the wicked. He was recognized by all as a mighty force, admired by those he swore to protect and feared by evil itself. That was, until one day— a day remembered as the moment that changed his life forever...

He fell in love. But not with any of the countless fair maidens from the villages, eager to wed him. No, he fell in love with the very force he had always opposed: Death itself. He, the valiant hero, defender of the innocent, had fallen for the goddess of death.

What a match made in heaven.

Until it wasn't... For it was forbidden for gods to love mortals. And Death had broken that sacred law by loving the hero, defying the order of the heavens. The hero’s love now faced the wrath of the gods, cast down to the darkest depths of existence, his once-noble reputation in ruins. For the first time in his brave, virtuous life, he fled. He ran from everything— his home, his duty, the honor he once held dear— as he sought a new life and a family of his own.

But gods do not forgive so easily. The goddess, enraged by the hero’s abandonment, sought retribution. A sentence was placed upon him— an eternal punishment for his betrayal. No one of his bloodline would live past the age of thirty-five. His new family would bear the weight of this vengeance, bound to suffer for all eternity. As the years turned into decades, decades into centuries, and centuries into a millennium, generation after generation fell victim to the goddess's cruel decree.

Until, at last, one of the hero’s descendants refused to accept it any longer. He would not allow his family to suffer under the weight of this curse. He vowed to break it— to save his bloodline and restore the honor that had been lost.