Multiverse: by Nick Venomz (best books to read for beginners .txt) 📕

The man smirked. “Of course.”

TBC…

Aksel sprinted towards the village with Roman and Liliana on his tail. He rushed home with all of his might, however, the plane had long passed him, moving faster than he could on his own. It had now reached the Town Center, hovering over it. The plane was the Injection’s special weapon, the Striker, a carbon-black freighter that had wings like a normal airplane but could hover like a helicopter thanks to the wings being able to shift from being horizontal to vertical, as well as using several boosters to keep it in place. The Striker held several tens of fully armored men, bombs, and a few vehicles at their disposal. The aircraft was an extremely expensive piece of military technology that the Injection rarely used to prevent losing them and suffer financial huge losses - it was only used in important battles for the Injection’s future or whenever they were faced with huge clumps of witches.

Aksel, who was struggling to reach the village, looked up and noticed the Injection’s Striker opening both sliding doors of the aircraft, two sets of helmets peering below them at the village. Then, a bundle of rope was thrown out on both sides; the men expected the ropes to fall all the way down to the ground and give them easy access, however, they didn’t expect there to be a barrier protecting the village. The bundles of rope hit the transparent shield, sliding to the sides. They looked as if they were floating with no plausible explanation.

This moment of confusion as the men inside the Striker stared at the rope gave Aksel and the others enough time to reach the village. “Grant me the power to dispel the barrier while granting me the power to establish a new barrier.” He chanted, breaking the barrier momentarily. Roman and Lililiana dove inside, allowing Aksel to close the barrier. “Ensure my loved ones are protected if I were to ever leave. Let nobody, not even the Godking, touch them. Fortify and secure.” He turned to face the Striker, noticing that the rope, which had scraped against the sides, had been sliced in half after Aksel deactivated and quickly reactivated the barrier. 

“Their rope’s gone, they may go in for a landing or a bombing.” Roman deduced, staring at the Striker as it began ascending. 

Aksel nodded in agreement. He knew that every Striker was loaded with bombs and that they could easily gain the altitude needed to pummel the village into the dirt.

“Where’s Kat?” Liliana asked, looking around.

Aksel looked behind him, not realizing that she hadn’t been behind them. “The witches we met must’ve stopped her from following us. It makes more sense for her to stay with them. Anyway, get everybody in their houses. We’re going under lockdown.” He ordered.

Roman nodded, turning to his daughter. “Help me get everybody inside.” She nodded, following him towards the clumps of houses near and around the Town Center.

Meanwhile, Aksel headed straight for the Town Center where a water fountain waited for him, a panel displaying information about the fountain in front of it. Aksel rushed to the panel, going around it where he pressed a button. A keypad appeared, forcing him to dial in a set of nine numbers before a small panel popped out. It had a keyboard that asked for the password for the Lockdown Initiative. 

Aksel typed into the keyboard the password of “Alessia Hollow”, the name of the witch that had granted the barrier to Hornsville. Once he pressed enter, a lever appeared on the left side of the panel. He grabbed hold of the level and pulled it downward. An alarm blared as the lever hit the bottom, alerting all of the citizens of Hornsville. Even Roman and Liliana, who were some distance away from the alarm, heard its echo, moving faster to shoo everybody inside, especially the slaves that they had taken in.

Aksel sat on the ground, looking up at the Striker which had gotten high into the air and roared forward. It was going to make a U-turn before coming in for a bombing run. However, it was too late for them as the Lockdown Initiative had been activated. 

By now, several moments after the alarm’s last screech, almost everybody had gotten inside. Aksel, who looked around the Town Center and saw nobody nearby, grinned. Everybody’s safe… Now let’s hope Alessia’s barrier can hold up to the Striker’s bombs. He thought as the transparent barrier was being reinforced by a thick layer of mithril that covered every side, sprouting out from the ground. It fully covered the barrier within seconds, just in time for the Striker to reach the village.

It opened the bomb bay doors, sending several silver-pointed-tip bombs down towards the village. Each bomb had a name written in black ink on the side of them, however, soon those names would be forgotten once they made contact. 

Aksel and the other citizens of Hornsville, all inside except for Aksel, waited until the roars of the bombs. Every moment of silence drove them crazy as the atmosphere grew restless, waiting for the sounds of death to be over. 

Fortunately, after several long moments of waiting, the sounds came. They roared, striking one side of the barrier and extending to the other side, several tens of bombs being thrown out in a straight line. The explosion after explosion shook the village and some even thought that the barrier would crack and let in some of the bombs, but those thoughts were, fortunately, nothing more than thoughts.

The eerily silence dissipated but was quickly taken over by the sounds of the Striker landing and boots stomping towards them. Aksel rose, grabbing at his side where a wound waited to be infected, before heading towards the sound of the boots. He carried his sword, ready to strike if needed. 

As he neared the sounds, he chanted for the mithril in front of him to vanish, giving him a good view of the incoming troops decked out in black tactical armor and all wielding rifles using ammunition created by the Holy Church - a type of ammunition thought to be blessed by God himself, completely made out of light.

The troops had on face masks, many of which had designs on them, and had on goggles so Aksel couldn’t see their eyes. From where he stood, they were emotionless, only pure killing machines. 

Aksel glared at the incoming troops, raising his sword. I’m not in good condition thanks to the incident in the forest. I have to hope the barrier keeps them out, but… I need to be careful or else more reinforcements will come. There has to be a dozen of these Strikers and dozens of more men. I need to act quickly before they trample my territory. He thought to himself. He braced himself to fight the men by himself, but, fortunately, it wasn’t needed. Out of nowhere, the men were lit on fire, their screams of agony being muffled by the barrier. However, he could see them burning and collapsing to their deaths. They were quickly killed within seconds, but how? 

Aksel glanced at the forest and saw multiple silhouettes falling in the distance. He correctly assumed that they had given their collective mana to Natasha to burn the men from a long-distance away. Now, many of them fainted because of a lack of mana.

“Roman! ” Aksel shouted, rushing to Town Center. “Roman, I need you now~”

Roman ran out of the house where he had been staying. “What’s wrong?”

“Get everybody out, the soldiers were killed by the witches in the forest, but they’re all fainting. We need to go get everybody.”

“Let everybody out, isn’t that dangerous. I thought we-”

“Forge the rule, for now, get every able-body person here and let’s head to the forest. They saved us, so let’s return the favor!” He declared. Roman nodded, rushing off to grab everybody he could, including Liliana.

Aksel turned around, facing the direction of the forest. They saved us… just like you did, Alessia. And like what you did for us, we’ll always return the favor.

He thought before sprinting forward, being followed by several of his fellow citizens. Many carried makeshift stretchers and other tools to carry the witches back. They quickly reached the forest before Injection reinforcements came, recovering the witches and bringing them to the forest. Now the family of Hornsville has increased but at a cost. They saved witches and killed Injection soldiers. A price was quickly put on their heads, specifically Aksel. They wanted him dead more than ever, especially a certain… girl of his past.

Tasu moved on his own, leaving Angelica with her dorm mates. He didn’t want to involve her in his investigation, deciding to do it on his own. He was used to moving on his own.

He decided quickly to track Randolph, the most suspicious person in the orphanage. With the earlier sudden fight that seemed out of character for the usually good-tempered and kind Randolph, Tasu was unsure if something else was occurring behind the scenes. 

He wouldn’t just attack Angelica for no reason, right? And even Sister Alecia, who brought him to the orphanage and oversees him, was dragged into the mess. Something’s wrong here… like he did this to gain something. But what? He has nothing to gain from causing a scene… unless he did gain something. Is Angelica related to why he made a scene or was she chosen at random… Does he know about her true identity? I don’t know enough to prove anything… I guess I’ll have to track him and see if he knows anything. Tasu thought to himself. He went from the female dorms towards the male dorms in search of Randolph. 

He spent several tens of minutes searching for Randolph before finding him with his friends playing in the cafeteria. They weren’t doing anything malicious, only playing as if nothing had happened. His friends didn’t mention anything to Randolph about his outburst and he didn’t mention anything either. Everything seemed normal, which Tasu saw as strange. What if his friends are connected to the outburst? Maybe they’re trying to hide the truth about it… No, I shouldn’t make everybody a suspect so soon without any evidence.  He turned away, leaving the cafeteria. He headed out of the cafeteria and out of the orphanage. Children were