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

Chase rubbed his nape. “Well… I think you deserved it.”

Deserved it? She questioned in her mind. “Uh… Thanks, I guess.” She said, blushing. She turned away from him, noticing some glares and stares from the audience. Most of them weren’t happy with Ashanti getting that far into the tournament and Chase surviving to see second place. Do I deserve to not be bullied? Do I deserve to stay here? Amidst the bullying, threats, and violence? She turned to face Chase. “Uh… Do you think I deserve to be where… to be where I am?”

Chase shook his head without hesitation. “You don’t. People are just treating you like this because they think they can. Kind people like you shouldn’t be here.”

She blushed again, softly nodding her head while smiling. “You’re right. I don’t deserve to be here. Let’s leave.”

“Leave?” Chase questioned. He thought about what she was saying for a few seconds before nodding his head. “I’ll follow you wherever you want to go.” 

She nodded. “Thank you, Chase. The Heavens have blessed me with you… Wait for me here, I’ll go pack.” She ran off, still blushing heavily. She went to pack and leave Gowns. Leave in hopes of finding a new life.

“She’s leaving?” Lucas asked, appearing from behind Chase. He held the Jagged Edge Blade in his hand. His beast was standing by his side, sheepishly looking away. “I’m guessing you’re going with her?”

Chase nodded. “Ignoring the fact that I’m her summon, I still wouldn’t leave her side.” He said.

Lucas smiled. He handed the weapon to Chase. “Then you’re going to need this instead of those kitchen knives you had.” He said.

Chase took the curved knife, staring at its carbon-black blade and lime-green edges. “T-Thanks.” He looked up at Lucas. “Why… Why were you participating?”

“I knew you would ask that.” He said, chuckling softly. “I joined to make sure you didn’t lose this weapon to somebody else. Or lose your life. Many people in the tournament want you dead, not just those three girls.” He explained before patting him on his shoulder. “Well, good luck with your new life. If you ever can, write me a letter. I would love to see how my beautiful sister is doing. Make sure she never sees the letter. She’ll give you hell for keeping in contact with me.”

Chase nodded before bowing his head. “Thank you for everything, Lucas. Without you, I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did. And I’ll make sure Ashanti is always safe.”

Lucas wiped a tear from his eye sneakily. “T-Thanks, Chase. I entrust her to you… and I’m talking about as a bodyguard and friend, not as a lover. If I dare hear you’re dating her-” He instituted that Chase would die by pressing his finger against his throat and dragging it across. “-you’re dead.”

Chase nodded, smiling. “Don’t worry… I won’t.” 

Lucas nodded. “Good luck with your travels. Make sure to tell me about what's outside this town.” He said before waving bye and leaving. He left before Ashanti arrived.

When she did arrive, she had her bags packed---which wasn’t much inside it----and stood by Chase’s side. “Are you ready?”

Chase nodded, smiling. “It’s been an honor to be by your side, Ashanti. I hope I can stay by your side… for eternity.”

Ashanti nodded, blushing. “Of course… That’s all I need from you.”

They left Gowns in their rearview mirror, taking a carriage out of town. They headed deeper into the Asher Kingdom, finding themselves in the next chapter of their lives. They began anew.

Sister Marie grabbed Tasu and rushed him inside. She sprinted towards the nurse’s office on the first floor, near the main lobby of the orphanage. She took him into the room where the nurse, Sister Rebecca, was reading a book with the title of “The New Guard”. She shot up from the chair she was sitting on and motioned for Sister Marie to lay Tasu on a bed. Sister Rebecca got to work quickly, checking the wounds to see that the bullets had gone through cleanly and left no fragments. With this, she cleaned the wound and disinfected it. 

After making sure he wouldn’t get an infection, she gave him small doses of medication to numb the pain before applying stitches to the wounds. She stitched up the wounds before asking Sister Marie to contact Sister Aleshia and use her high-level healing skills to fix up what Sister Rebbeca couldn’t. 

Magic in this world was useful and it saved many lives, but healing magic paled in comparison to non-magical medical tools. Magical spells were used to cleanse most infections, heal most organs, and correct most of the damage, however, it never healed everything. Magic wasn’t omnipotent. It was as powerless as mortals were.

While Sister Marie rushed to grab Sister Aleshia, Sister Rebecca bandaged up his wounds. She did his best to dress every wound and nick he had. However, Sister Aleshia’s magic did the rest. Fortunately, none of Tasu’s organs or functions had been destroyed in the attack as Britain didn’t manage to fatally wound him. However, he was left with several small scars that proved a fatal weakness of magic. Even so, he was still alive, which was something to celebrate. 

“Before anything, explain what happened and who the man was.” Sister Marie demanded, cutting any celebration plans short. “Why did he attack you?”

Tasu let out a large sigh before nodding his head softly. “Can it just be us?” He asked. Sister Marie glanced at the other sisters, asking them politely to leave the room for a few minutes. They nodded, leaving without hesitation. With them gone, Sister Marie asked him to explain what happened. He released all of the information he knew. “He… He was a vampire hunter. He gave out his name as Britain. He somehow knows about Angelica’s identity. He also mentioned Rudolph. His earlier outburst wasn’t an accident.”

“This man, Britain, wants to kill Angelica? Do you know what guild he’s with?”

Tasu shook his head. “He never said.”

Sister Marie nodded, biting her lip. “Okay… Did he say anything else about himself or Randolph?”

Tasu shook his head. “Nothing else.”

“Okay, then. Stay here and rest. I’ll alert the others about the man.”

“I can help you.” He said, trying to get out of his bed. Sister Marie stopped him, slightly pushing him back onto the bed.

“I’ll take care of it. You stay and rest.” She ordered. Tasu opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out. He relented, laying against the bed’s pillow. “Good, I’ll be back as soon as I can to check up on you.” She turned around, exiting the room and letting Sister Rebecca in. Sister Aleshia followed her to alert the others. They headed upstairs to the principal’s office where the principal worked tirelessly on paperwork. Sister Marie knocked on the door, waiting for the principal to let her in. Once she did, both sisters entered.

“What is it, Sister Marie and Sister Aleshia?” The principal, a purple-haired female in her late forties, asked. She was dressed in a suit, her hands intertwined over a small stack of papers in front of her at her desk. On both sides of her were large stacks of unfinished paperwork. 

“What happened?”

“A vampire hunter attacked one of our children and is allegedly controlling another.” Sister Marie reported.

“Controlling? How?” The principal, Rachel Howzer, asked. “Using a mind-controlling skill or…?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but… it doesn’t appear so. It looks like the hunter is provoking the child without the use of a skill.”

Rachel nodded, rising from his chair. “Alert the other sisters. Greenfire is undergoing a lockdown. No child is allowed to be outside their rooms and all personnel are to be at full alert at all times during lockdown. Is that clear?” Both sisters nodded. “Good.” She started. “Do we have a description of the hunter to share?”

Sister Marie nodded. “He was dressed in a trenchcoat and a flat-top hat. The hat blocked me from seeing what the man looked like.”

Rachel nodded. “Go and alert everybody. Make sure everybody gets into their room. Not a single child, for any reason, is allowed to walk around freely.” She ordered. Sister Marie and Sister Aleshia nodded, turning around and splitting up to tell both floors of workers about the lockdown. Rachel’s orders were quickly enforced as sisters ushered the children into their rooms while every window and door was locked securely. The sisters quickly became guards, patrolling and checking up on the children. Everything was chaotic for the first ten minutes but slowly became controllable. Lockdown had started.

***

Tasu entrusted Angelica to her new dorm mates as he went off to find the author of the message. With him gone, Angelica looked around shyly. Her dorm mates, three girls her age, squealed as they took sight of her.

“Oooh, what beautiful skin!” One of the girls exclaimed, being a white cat beastkin. She shot up from her bunk and touched Angelica’s skin. “How is it so beautiful?”

Angelica didn’t know how to respond, sheepishly looking away. 

“Leave her alone, Darcy. You’re scaring her.” One of the girls remarked, sitting on the top bunk. She was a dark elf, dressed in joggers and a loose tee-shirt. “My name is Jemma, you must be the new girl, right?”

Angelica nodded. 

“Well, nice to meet you,” Jemma said before glancing at Darcy. Darcy backed away from Angelica and bowed her head. 

“I’m Darcy, it’s nice to meet you.” She said. Angelica nodded her head as a response.

Jemma, meanwhile, glanced at the third girl in the room. The girl was of the angel race, busy reading a book on the bottom bunk under Jemma. “Hey, introduce yourself.”

The girl nodded in acknowledgment. She slowly got out of her bed and approached Angelica. She bowed her head slightly. “I’m Maya, nice to meet you.” She raised her head and quickly went back to reading.

Jemma then turned her attention to Angelica. “What’s your name?” She asked.

“A-Angelica.” She responded. 

Jemma nodded, getting off the top bunk. “Well, Angelica, welcome to your room - room 5B. You can take the top bunk over Darcy. Also, don’t worry about her. Whenever she sees something beautiful, she tends to touch it without asking for permission. You can ignore her.” She explained.

Angelica nodded, still not looking at any of them. However, she was listening to Jemma and the others. “T-T-Thanks,” She whispered.

Jemma nodded. “Yeah, no worries.” She said. 

Angelica nodded, headed to the top bunk. She lay on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. It had been painted recently, the white paint glittering with the help of the lone lightbulb in the room. It was bright enough to illuminate most of the room. 

Darcy, meanwhile, had turned to Jemma and asked her a question. “Can you keep telling us about the war?”

Jemma nodded. “The Vampiric War VII was started because the Westlock Kingdom decided that they wanted to waste resources and kill off the last vampires. The war ended, obviously, with the Westlock Kingdom winning. The entire vampire race was erased because of Westlock - all because they don’t like vampires.”

“Do the other kingdoms like them?” Darcy asked.

“Westlock is the only one that discriminated against them. The others treated