Legend: Season Two by Nick Venom (children's books read aloud txt) 📖

embedding it inside of John’s neck. John clawed at the arrow, breaking off the tip farther into his wound. He discarded the rest of the arrow.

The chain’s grip loosened enough for Ace to slide out and charge towards John. Unprepared, John raised his arms to block the attack. However, Ace went under his arms, piercing his stomach. He grabbed his back and pushed the sword in deeper. The wound expanded into a large hole in his gut.

“I… was… supposed… to…” He collapsed before he could finish his sentence. He gurgled out blood, almost limp dead on the floor. 

Ace and Aver fell to the ground, both exhausted. “We need to get everybody out.” Ace said, staring at the hostages not far from him.

“I’ll do it.” Aver said, jumped up, and went to the hostages still tied up, sitting in the middle of the floor. He unmasked the first hostage to reveal Catrina, her eyes bottling with tears. “Stand up and follow me. We’re leaving.” 

He went through all of the hostages, unmasking and untying every single one. However, he noticed something was off. There was an extra hostage, not somebody he thought he knew. He took his time to reach the hostage, hesitating to unmask the person. It could be a suicide bomber posing as a hostage.

He ripped off the mask, revealing a large muscular man dressed in heavy iron armor. “Who are you?” He asked the man.

“I’m Ex Minder. A retired knight from Edurdale.” He said.

“Ex?” Aver asked. He remembered the name from Ariana’s ball. He was one of the candidates to marry her. “Why are you here?”

“I’m retired. I wanted to enjoy a peaceful life, away from the royal family.”

“Weren’t you supposed to marry a princess?”

Ex glanced at Ariana, realizing what Aver meant. “I was invited for that reason, but I refused. I wanted to settle down and marry a normal girl, and live my life in a peaceful village.” He motioned at their surroundings. “That didn’t happen.”

“Okay-” He cut Ex’s binds, helping the man up. “-help me get everybody else out. We’re-” He heard a loud gasp, turning around. John hadn’t died, raising himself. He grabbed his chain and pierced Ace’s left shoulder. Ace collapsed to the floor, blood puddling around him.

Aver sprinted to protect Ace, but realized that he would put Ariana and the others in danger. He hesitated to leave them alone.

“I’ll protect them, save your friend,” Ex remarked. He brandished a knife from his shoe. “I couldn’t use it to unbind me, but now it’ll be useful.”

“Thanks.” Aver sprinted to Ace’s side, drawing the bow and pointing it at John.

Meanwhile, Kira had awoken, drowsy. He struggled to understand where he was, shaking as he stood up. He turned to face John and Aver, but his balance was off-put. He nearly fell to the ground. 

“Jordan, what happened?” He asked out loud. Jordan hovered in front of him, pointing a wing at John. “He’s not dead.” He glanced at the others, his vision slowly coming back to him. “Gate!” He shouted, throwing a portal next to them. “Get into the portal, it’ll take you to the main entrance of Striktin.” They nodded, rushing into the portal. Ex, however, took his time to reach the portal. He was hesitating on leaving or not.

“Kira, I need help. Ace’s been-” John charged forward, taking Aver off-guard. He pummeled the young boy with punches. The Gatling gun named John riddled Aver with gut-wrenching punches - each being more devastating than the less.

“Freeze Strike!” Kira shouted, pointing his palm at John. The attack froze John, saving Aver. 

“T-Thanks,” He tried to regain his breath. “Help me get Ace up.” Ex rushed to Aver’s side, picking up Ace and bringing him through the portal. Aver followed after Ex, hesitating to enter the portal. “Let’s go, Kira. The fireball will hit the town soon.”

“Okay, then let’s-”

“Carry animosity, skin knives,” John muttered. “Grant me the power of explosions and rid my enemies of their mortal bodies. This will be my last wish.”

“Explosion?” Aver questioned. “Go! Go! Go!” He jumped into the portal.

Kira went to the portal, listening to John crackle as he went, “tick, tock, tick, tock. Nine seconds, eight, seven, six-”

He jumped into the portal, Jordan following after him. He closed the portal, arriving at the main entrance. He glanced back in the direction of the warehouse. Soon, it would hit zero and level the building. An explosion to rid the world of John and his subordinates.

“Good riddance,” Kira remarked.

With everybody gone and only John and his subordinates left, he looked around. His crazed expression softened. Is this how I wanted my life to be? Used and discarded? I’m sorry everybody. I’m sorry. Maybe in my next life, I won’t be controlled by a stupid Goddess or some dark entity. Next life, I want to live for myself. I want to be my own person. Please, God. 

 

TBC…

Episode Fifteen "Striktin's Destruction

The group ventured through the portal and emerged through the other side, popping up in front of Striktin’s main entrance. They barely escaped the explosion, detonating mere moments later.

The explosion brought the survivors to their knees as a large whiplash drove them. The intense wind cracked the main entrance and the ground began to shake harshly before suddenly stopping… then continuing. Tremors were driving the ground apart, tearing them apart inch by inch.

Ace stood up, patting his knees from the dirt, and looked around. Debris from the warehouse had landed around them, but none of it had hit them. Mysteriously, the debris missed them all. However, Ace didn’t care about the debris, feeling the intense warmth of another problem. He glanced up and noticed the fireball close to colliding with Striktin. They didn’t have long before Striktin was wiped off the map. 

“Let’s go,” Ace told the others. They agreed with him. Kira, half-paying attention to Ace, nodded while sending Jordan off to search for something. “What happened?”

“I’m doing a quick search on the refugees. I haven’t seen your guards or my friends.” He explained. Ace nodded, understanding his intention. Who knew if Mace, Silver, Orion, Dawn, Wolfe, or Keagan survived. Hell, who knew if John and the others were truly dead.

“That’s true, let me-” Ace was interrupted by a sudden shout. The shout came from Wolfe, emerging from the forest line. He sprinted to them, his clothes bloodied and torn. “What happened to you?”

“After taking care of all of the guards, I was going inside to help you, but… somehow I lost consciousness. I don’t know what happened after that since I woke up here, safe from the explosion. I don’t know why.” Wolfe explained. “It felt like I was plucked out of the explosion.”

“Plucked out of the explosion?” Kira questioned, staring at the sky. Was it Visa or another god? He thought.

“Let’s get going. The fireball will collide with the town soon.” Ace said. The fireball was too close for comfort and was about to strike the town within ten minutes. He wanted to be out of the fireball’s radius before it strikes.

“Jordan will search for your guards and direct them to us. For now, let’s get on carriages and leave.” Kira instructed them. Ace nodded, motioning for Aver to help him search for carriages. Fortunately, there were two that were discarded by the Striktin citizens, riddled with problems but good enough for travel. Ace and his group jumped into one while Kira, Scarlett, and Wolfe got into the second one. They were heading in different directions - Ace and his group heading to Holy Legend while Kira and Scarlett followed the other refugees to a town near Great Wolfstein. 

They began traveling away from Striktin, watching as the town disappeared from their sight. The fireball, large in size, lingered over the town. They weren’t able to extinguish it and were forced to retreat. Even so, many were still in high hopes as they still had their family with them. They hadn’t lost anybody.

Meanwhile, after a few minutes of scanning the carriages, Jordan found Mace and Silver. The two had been stuffed into one of the carriages alongside Orion and his Fizer group; which had departed some time ahead of them. 

Seeing Jordan, the guards quickly deduced that they were needed,  jumping out of the carriage and following the bird to the two carriages falling behind the rest. They jumped into Aver’s carriage, kneeling in front of Ariana.

“Miss, we’re sorry for not being by your side. Your father, the king, assigned us to you to protect you and the future king. Punish us as you see fit.” Their heads were lowered, allowing Ariana to punish them however she wanted.

Ariana stood up, hovering over them. They closed their eyes, expecting a punishment. Instead, however, she touched their heads and told them to “stand up.” They stood up, staring into her eyes. “Forget about it. We lost nobody, but it will not happen again. Make sure you correct any future behaviors.”

Mace and Silver nodded, bowing their heads. “Yes, miss. Thank you for your mercy.”

“Forget it.” She sat down. “Let’s focus on returning home. There’ll be no punishments for you.” The guards nodded, thanking her again.

Meanwhile, Ace cuddled with Teresa and Catrina. He had a few wounds and felt sluggish, but nothing that a few hours of rest wouldn’t fix; and some healing from Vivian.

To fix up Ace and the others, they sent Mace to fetch Vivian to heal them. She quickly entered their carriage, working on them while the others watched. 

While she worked on Ace, Teresa stared at her. “Can you heal him?”

“I’ve dealt with worse.” She told her confidently. “He’ll be better with a few days of rest. Nothing to worry your little nose about.” Teresa let out a small giggle, happy to see that Ace was fine.

“Yeah, he’s beaten demon lords and faced off with an evil god, this is nothing,” Ariana remarked, proudly smiling. 

Teresa nodded, holding the stuffed fox doll, Aresa, in her arms. Act sat by her legs, his head moving from Ace’s face to her’s. 

Vivian, on the other hand, didn’t speak again, healing  Aver and Kira’s wounds to the best of her abilities. All they needed were a few days of healing---which would be covered during their trip back to Holy Legend. Once they were taken care of, Vivian went to take a step out of the carriage but stopped herself. She didn’t feel comfortable being with her father---who had been acting weird for some time. 

“You mind if I stay?” She asked. 

“Go ahead, it’s the best we could do.”

“Thanks,” She smiled at Ace before sitting down on the carriage’s bench.

Ace nodded, staring up at the ceiling. His hand fell to the bench, moving silently towards Catrina. He grabbed her hand, not showing a reaction. Catrina shot up, looking around to see if anybody noticed her. She stared down at her hand, noticing that her fingers were intertwined with Ace’s. 

“You hate it?” He whispered, not turning his head.

“No,”

***

Kira glanced over at Scarlett. She stared off in the distance. He rested his hand on her head. She turned and stared at him. “We’ll be moving to a new house. We’ll make it a home.”

“Will we?” Her eyes were dead. “Can we?”

Kira nodded, patting her head. “We will

***

Ariana rested her head on Aver’s shoulder as the carriage rolled down the gravel