16 Bending Reality

—East District, Dotun City; Lanima Region

In Ayer's office while he's resting—drinking his coffee, someone entered.

"I'm on break, who is that?" Ayer asked as he turns his chair around, looking at who entered.

"Oh…" Ayer thought after seeing who entered his office.

"Ayer,"

"Rea, good to see you again, have you finished your work?" Ayer asked her.

"I have, the Reign users at the South are such pain, why do you even make me do these tedious work?" Rea asked him as she materializes a chair and sat down on it.

"She's now as complaining as me, I remember the time she's just following my requests without complaints, orders to be precise since that's what they sounded like really. But now, she's complaining, I guess she evolved into a proper person," Ayer thought.

"That's because you're the only one that can do that work, Rea, those people became a burden to us, and of course, hard work is with a price, do you need anything? You must have, seeing as you headed here after you're done, which you rarely do," Ayer said, answering her question as he asked her.

3 years ago…

Rea Wirklichkeit, one of the 5 Unique Reigners of Masters of Reigns, she's currently the most powerful Reigner in the group, Ayer is second. The reason why she's not the leader of the group is because of her circumstances 3 years ago, when Ayer invited her to join him, even though Rea is an Awakened Reigner.

[Awakened Reigners are Reigners that fully know their Reigns, their capabilities, and know how to use them]

Rea was used in an experiment after some rogue scientists discovered Reygon patients can output powers. Firstly analyzing Rea's powers by brute-forcing her Reign energy to exit her nervous system, doing it like this hurts the Reigner even more than doing it on their own.

She felt excruciating pain for 3 months of her life, the rogue scientists continue to control her powers to see what they can do, doing nothing to compensate for what Rea was going through, she was a guinea pig for these rogue scientists essentially.

Little did they know that Rea had already found out about her Reign a month after getting experimented on, the rogue scientists were in denial she could do these things.

Rea was deciding if she wants to take revenge on them or not because she doesn't have a life, she doesn't have any jobs before, she's 20 and still a shut-in in her parent's house, so taking revenge on the rogue scientists means that she will have to rely on her own after.

Though she didn't have any choice because the lab she was in was about to be raided by the 1st generation Masters of Reigns, when the rogue scientists were about to leave, Rea stopped them, killing all of them on her own, even though they have Scope weapons and combat training, it didn't matter.

"Your Reign can control reality? Do you know what that means?" Ayer asked after seeing Rea use her Reign to kill the rogue scientists.

"I don't, I wanted them dead, and they died, using… THESE! I hated it," Rea said, emphasizing her Reign as she breaks down crying.

"She was experimented on by these guys, using her for their own gains. She can help us greatly if she joins us, she's still a kid but kids grow fast, since I know what her power does, maybe I can help her, and I have the resources to help us survive for about a year or so, it depends," Ayer thought.

"What's your name?" Ayer asked her.

"Rea Wirklichkeit," Rea answered.

"Her last name is hard to pronounce, so I'll just put that in my head," Ayer thought.

"I'm Ayer Oighear, how about I help you? You might be in your 20s but you're still a kid, I can give you a better life than what you experienced here," Ayer told Rea suggesting her.

"And I'm not dumb enough to easily accept that, what's the catch, old man?" Rea asked, alerted as she materializes a blade.

"Old man!? I'm just 30! I guess that's old enough. Anyway, it makes sense that she is paranoid," Ayer thought.

"Help us, these rogue scientists aren't the only ones, there are many across Dotun City, they will not stop until either all of us are dead, or they control us and our powers, these powers we have, Reign, they can change the future of Lanima Region, it can probably take over the technology. What do you say, Rea?" Ayer answered, explaining to her and asking her as he reaches his hand to him.

Rea felt some sort of ease from Ayer's hand reaching out to him, it's like she met the one that will actually help her.

"Unlike the people that promised to help me, he's open with his motives, I will trust him because I have no one else to trust anymore, I can just kill him if he betrayed me," Rea thought, reaching out to Ayer's hand.

Returning to the present…

"I want some resources like metal, wood, stones, and all that, I'm training at the back of the headquarters," Rea said, answering Ayer's question earlier.

"Did you find out something about your powers again?" Ayer asked her.

"Bending Reality almost has infinite potential, her limits are her imagination and her Reign energy, I'm glad she can't make more Reign energy from it because if she can, I don't have any way to stop her," Ayer thought.

"Something like that," Rea answered his question, "Where do I get those resources?" She asked after.

"In the West section of the headquarters," Ayer said, pointing to the West as he finishes his food.

He then stood up after.

"I'll see you later," Rea said, teleporting away using her Reign.

"She can casually teleport using her Reign now, I won't be surprised if newer members don't know her because she's all over the place," Ayer thought.

"Then again, I'm the one that taught her how to use her Reign to teleport," Ayer said.

In the concept of space, teleporting is much easier, but in the concept of reality, it's more complex, you will need to consider the locations, the placement of all the things around you, the people around you, and all of those things in the teleporting destination. One half is already hard but doubling it makes it even more complex because everything is not permanent, they are always moved. You will need to always rely on memorization.

Luckily, Rea's Reign allows her to do Thought Empowerment. She can make herself believe she has teleporting powers, like Alex except she doesn't have to absorb Reign to copy it, though this is taxing in Rea's Reign Energy. But it's much more taxing if she uses the more complex one.

And Ayer doesn't know that Rea can do Thought Empowerment with her Reign.

He then heads out of his office and returns to work after Rea leaves.

When Alex and Stacia were about to finish their food…

"You?! I haven't seen you around before, are you new here?"

"You have the balls to be so casual to our mistress here. Who do you think you are?" They grabbed Alex's shoulders.

"Hey, disrespecting him means you're disrespecting me, is that understood?" Stacia said after she finished drinking her water.

"Right, wherever one is, no matter who you are, there are still people like them, Stacia is an exception because we've been through a lot but I can't trust myself with them once I joined this group," Alex thought.

As Alex stays in the headquarters of this group—Masters of Reigns, his trust issues grow stronger.

"I'll be done soon, put your hands off," Alex said.

"I still have my personal space, man," Alex thought, panicking in his head.

"Ms. Thiwang, he's wearing a Scope jacket, why did you let him in here? He might be a spy,"

"He even has robot arms, it's definitely from Scope!"

"That's!" Stacia stood up, slamming her hands on the table, "Enough! He's a recruit, without any tags of that company on his jacket means he's not one, furthermore, I'm the one that told him to remove that tag because I am fully aware how you hate Scope at this point," she said, lecturing them as she tries to empathize with them.

"I'm sorry,"

The Reigner grabbing Alex's hand backed off.

"Shall we go, Stacia?" Alex asked, standing up from his chair.

"Let's go," Stacia said.

"Grr… You dare call her name just like that!? Who the fvck do you think you are!?" The Reigner then attacked Alex with his Reign, shouting as he got infuriated at how Alex casually calls Stacia.

"Sht, here we go!" Alex thought, annoyed by the Reigner.

*BOOM*

[Reign Energy absorbed]

[Reign Absorbed: Exploding Hands]

When the Reigner activated his hand, Alex quickly grabbed it, lessening its explosion by absorbing it with his right Scope body.

"He grabbed my hand!? How is he still standing?!" The Reigner thought, surprised that Alex survived it.

Stacia quickly interfered, roundhouse kicking the Reigner with her left leg, with her Reign activated, launching him away.

"You… have the audacity to attack my guest!?" Stacia went up to him and stomped on his stomach.

"AGK!" The Reigner shouted.

"I'm still here! You dared to be disrespectful around me!?" Stacia shouted, angrily asking him as she kicks him while he is down.

*boom*

He was launched to one of the walls of the food court, attracting the attention of the Unique Reigner of the food court.

"Stacia? Stacia! Don't break my food court!" He was surprised to see Stacia, shouting at her.

"Crap, I lost my cool again," Stacia thought after snapping back to normal.

"Bob, sorry about that, this man dared to attack my guest right in front of me, I'll compensate for that wall and the floor over there," Stacia said, apologizing to him as she shows the other place she broke as well.

"Bob, huh? Wait… is he the Unique Reigner that specializes in cooking!? His Reign energy! I can feel it emanating," Alex thought, surprised by how much Reign energy he had.

If a Reigner has a Reign that he specializes in, it doesn't just optimize its Reign energy use but also increases its maximum output whenever he uses it. Like Stacia's Reign, the more she uses her Reign, the more Reign energy she has but at the same time, it uses more Reign energy.

But for Unique Reigner like Rea and Ayer, their Reigns use more Reign energy than the average Reigners because they have more distinct Reigns.

"You? You're not even eating, why the fvck are you here!?" Bob recognizes the Reigner Stacia is beating up, asking him furiously.

"I… ate here,"

"That's just it, you just "ate" here and you're not eating anymore, you could've done more productive things than idling around here!" Bob shouts at him.

"Get out of here before I kick you again," Stacia said.

"I'll remember this," The Reigner thought, infuriated by Alex.

They then left the food court after.

"Dear heavens, I'm very sorry about that inconvenience, I'm so sorry as well, sir," Bob said to Stacia and Alex, apologizing to them.

"It's alright, for me, I've always ignored people like them whenever I can, and worst-case scenario, I'll fight back, obviously," Alex said.

"If you're really joining us, Alex, try not to appear ignorant and weak because those people will target those two kinds of Reigners, they will not stop until you show your own dominance, or you surrender and work under them," Stacia said, informing him.

They headed their way out of the food court as well.

"I get that but my nature has been a pacifist as much as possible, how did you even handle people like them before, Stacia?" Alex asked her.

"Well, it will be a long story, 3 years' worth of stories, though it will not be worth telling now since we're too busy, and I want you to see the changes I've been through on your own," Stacia said, answering Alex's question vaguely.

"Okay… our eating, the celebration for my recovery was interrupted but that's fine, maybe next time," Alex thought as he continues to follow Stacia around the headquarters of Masters of Reigns.

Meanwhile, Walter went to his sensei's room to report to him about Alex.

"Walter! Why are you here? I'm kind of busy right now since Ayer told me to organize these files, even though he fully knows that I hate these types of work! I like smashing things! I'm still a kid!"

"Even though you're still a kid, you still managed to be my sensei," Walter thought.

"Wey-sensei, Ms. Thiwang had a new recruit and he's a Unique Reign user," Walter said, reporting to him.

Wey Lester, the 3rd Unique Reigner of Masters of Reigns, and Bob is the 4th one. Wey currently has the most destructive Reign amongst the Fighters, the Lester Destruction.