Weight of Friendship

—Northwest District, Dotun City; Lanima Region

Alex arrived in front of his house, all destroyed in the front.

"As expected, even my house didn't survive the chaos," Alex thought, he then enters their porch.

Seeing the area where he and her mother trained before hurts his heart because half of his memories and bonding with her are here, and his mother made him clean the place all the time to the point that he even cleans them even after his mother died.

"Mother…" Alex mumbled.

He enters their door, Alex has to use Stacia's Space Manipulation to remove the debris that was in the way, he's also trying to fix some of the places in his house, just to preserve them like the shelves, the table, the chairs, and the floors.

"They took the TV, the sofas, the refrigerator, and all that, everyone was desperate for things to steal," Alex thought while the Space Manipulation is activated—fixing his house.

He then went upstairs, there was no upstairs.

"How did this get ripped out of our house? Can monsters destroy this much? Is that why the ceiling of the first floor fell down?" Alex asked himself after going upstairs.

He went downstairs afterward since there is nothing left upstairs.

"I should check our basement, only I and my mother know it exists so I should get whatever's with value there," Alex thought as he went to the secret entrance of their basement.

The basement is where Alex's mother would always go after she returned home from work. She'd always coop herself in the basement and never once see Alex after she returned home.

"My mother stopped singing me songs for me to sleep right when I became 3 years old, it's also when the first time mother taught me how to fight, the Hugo style to be precise, she was so harsh to me in training…" Alex thought while opening the basement.

His mother only taught him how to open the basement verbally without actually letting him try, when he does, she got mad at him, and it discourages him from ever going near even the vicinity of their basement.

Alex then went down to the basement after he opened it.

"That's probably the second time I've unlocked this door but before, I've only been able to unlock the trapdoor, then mother yelled at me," Alex thought as he enters the trapdoor.

Alex went down the stairs of the basement…

A table, a chair, and a shelf full of papers written on them are Scope researches, even before Alex applied in the Scope Enterprise, her mother was a secret Scope researcher.

"These are Scope research papers, officials too, is my mother a researcher?" Alex asked himself, surprised about the number of research papers and patents on her shelf.

"It's a lot and the fact that these are the only ones here means she's keeping these hidden," Alex thought.

"What else is she keeping here?" Alex asked himself.

He continued to scour the basement but unfortunately, only the table, the chair, and the shelf are what's in the basement. He checked the drawers of the table, only pencils, pens, other tools, and empty stacks of paper are there.

"How should I store all these? Can I use Space Manipulation? It seems impossible but I restored the first floor of my house using it, obviously, space-matter theory can be a reality with this Reign, can I make a hidden storage space where I can create like a game inventory?" Alex thought, asking himself as he theorizes a way to keep her mother's research somewhere.

He then activated the Space Manipulation to create a secret inventory that's hidden.

"I just need to think of a big bubble that's covered in Stacia's barrier, where I can safely store things in, now wherever it can go can be somewhere in space, an empty space," Alex said to himself as he create the hidden inventory.

*zoom*

He then created a portal that goes to the hidden inventory that he created.

"It worked!" Alex shouted as he was surprised he created one.

"Though does it really go somewhere where I can store a lot of things?" Alex thought, he then put his head in the portal.

He saw an empty expanse, just a pitch black area.

Alex then pulled his head out. "I can't really tell until I tried it, let's just chuck my mother's chair in first and see if it works, if it just disappeared then it's gone," he said to himself as he goes to the basement's shelf.

Alex used Space Manipulation to control the chair and put it in the hidden storage portal.

"Let's see if it actually works," Alex thought, he then put his head in again.

He then saw the chair floating in the pitch black of the storage.

"So it just floats, that's great," Alex said after seeing it.

"My voice doesn't reverberate, that means it's endless, there's nothing for my voice to bounce back. I can't believe it worked," Alex thought, he then pulled his head out.

After he was done putting the table and the shelf in the hidden storage, he exited the basement and sealed the basement using Earth Control, not leaving any trace of it, he didn't want to destroy the basement yet because he knows he'll return there if necessary.

"I'll be back here for sure," Alex thought, telling himself.

He then left his house. Just as he left his house, someone from the sky dropped over him.

Alex immediately sensed this so he jumped away from the house while holding Space Manipulation on his right Scope body to keep the house intact.

*BOOM*

Wey, who's following Alex, was able to catch up to him and slammed down on him.

"I don't know when my reaction speed became this fast but I'm hella thankful for it since I'd be crushed and my house will get decimated," Alex thought after dodging Wey's slam.

"You, you aren't just a threat to the Masters of Reigns but also a man that beats up my friend! She might not see me as one but I hate to see her get hurt!" Wey shouted with anger as he approaches Alex.

Wey is blinded with anger that he didn't realize that he only destroyed the ground outside of Alex's house and not Alex's house.

"Is she referring to Stacia?! So they are watching and following me, I don't know their relationship with Stacia but I'm not gonna question that now because he looks so pissed off!" Alex thought, deactivating the Space Manipulation after he reinforced his house with it.

Wey then smashed the ground with his Reign, which he called the Lester Force.

When the ground was shattered and reached Alex, Alex quickly used Earth Control on both of his hands to stop the shattering, and returned the ground back to normal, he slammed his right hand on the ground and quickly closed his fist aiming at Wey with Earth Control activated.

After that, the earth then punched Wey in the body with speed in obtuse triangle-shaped earth.

*whack*

"ACK!" Wey reacted as he was shoved back.

"What's that!?" Wey thought, surprised by what Alex just did.

No other Earth-type Reigners fight the way Alex fights since his mind can visualize a clear image of how he wants the earth to be shaped because he has enhanced memory from the serums he got.

Alex then created 3 big boulders and threw them at Wey.

"He can lift that big with his Reign?! Three at the same time!? Even Rea can't do that!" Wey thought, shocked that Alex is able to do that.

He then charged at the 3 big boulders and forced his Reign to enhance his fist enough to destroy them.

"HAAH!" Wey shouted, winding up his fists to punch the 3 big boulders.

*BOOM*

When he destroyed the big boulders, behind them is Alex's Expanding Orb. Wey then jumped away before it expanded.

*BOOM*

"RrrAAAHHH!!" Wey charged at Alex with his fist conveying his anger.

"Let's see if Stacia's Reign is stronger than his," Alex thought, he then activated her Reign, covering his body with her aura.

*boom*

Wey grabbed Alex's fist while Alex grabbed Wey's arm. "That Reign! That's Stacia's! I thought you only have multiple Reigns but it turns out you can copy them!" He shouted at Alex.

Wey tried to front kick Alex in the body but he parried his leg with his right knee. Alex then side-kicked Wey with his right leg.

Wey was then pushed back.

"Why didn't he move?! Anyone that touches me with my Reign on gets launched! Except for him!?" Wey thought, he was annoyed because Alex wasn't budged by his Reign.

Alex is using Stacia's Reign not like how she uses it but as Space Manipulation, he kept himself in place while handling Wey, though it's obvious that Alex should've been launched away by how much Wey's Reign affects the wind around them. But it didn't happen because of it.

"Let's go even further than this," Alex thought.

He vanishes into thin air.

"What!?" Wey thought, asking himself as he was shocked to see Alex do that.

"That's Stacia's Reign but that's not how Stacia uses that," Wey said while looking around to find Alex.

Alex appeared behind Wey. "That's right," he said, responding to what Wey said.

Wey tried to side-kick Alex but Alex grabbed his leg, pulling him and slamming his hand onto his face. Alex launched him away using Space Manipulation.

*slam*

"I can basically blink out and appear anywhere I want, though if I want it to be fast, I need to appear somewhere near where I blinked out," Alex thought.

Wey pulled himself together and grounded himself, stopping himself from getting launched.

"Sht! I'm outmatched in Reign. I can only hope to do one thing. If he's an honorable man, he will face me equally in a fist fight, I'll see for myself if I can fight him without any Reign," Wey thought, deactivating his Reign.

Alex appeared over him using Space Manipulation.

"Stacia's Reign is amazing," Alex thought.

He then deciphered what Wey is telling him when Alex saw him without Reign on his body.

[Reign Energy absorbed]

[New Reign absorbed…

"Interesting… is that how he does those destructive attacks, I'm guessing he ran out of options when he's on a losing end challenging me in a Reign fight. Now he wants to fight me hand to hand, I'll give it to him," Alex thought, confident in following Wey's terms nonverbally.

Alex went in front of Wey.

"Fool, Stacia trained me in close combat, I can definitely tweak it to outmatch you, and I saw how you fight, he must be using Wing Chun or Shotokan Karate, Stacia knows them but can't fight using them since it was complicated. And she told me to learn about how martial arts are used, I can take him," Wey thought, also confident in fighting Alex.

Wey then charged at Alex, intending to use Kick Boxing on Alex. And as expected, Alex, with Hugo Style, outmatched Wey in every way, being able to use kicks as a boxer styled combatant like Wey isn't enough to stop Alex who can stop a machine that knows almost all of the martial arts, that's also made of a metal that's as tough as the strongest metal in Lanima Region.

Though Wey is trained to withstand even his powers, he's not tough enough to withstand Alex's continuous attacks that also parries, blocks, and dodges his own both physically and mentally. One because Alex's strength was greatly enhanced and second is because his Hugo Style was amplified because of those serums that he received.

"How is he not only attacking me but also parrying and blocking my attacks easily? No, flawlessly? We are the strongest and most skilled warriors of Masters of Reigns but it wasn't enough to match this man!!" Wey thought, feeling defeated by how Alex is defeating him.

"He's a Kick Boxer yet… against Hugo Style, he can't do anything to outmatch it," Alex thought as he continues to strike Wey continuously.

Wey getting attacked consecutively angered him and irritated him to the point that he returned to relying on his Reign again.

"Screw this!" Wey thought, activating his Reign again.

"I knew it, this guy…" Alex thought.

Just as he predicted him activating his Reign again, Alex also activated Wey's Reign, Vibration Control.

Wey is able to increase the force of his fist and negate attacks by vibrating his body so fast it either affects the things he attacks or the things that reach him, though, like Stacia, Wey isn't aware of the true name and abilities of his own Reign.

And Alex knowing about it after he absorbed his Reign put Wey in an even more of a disadvantage.

When they clashed fists again, Alex used his left arm to stop his right hook, even though it's not a Scope body, Wey was able to stop Alex's right punch. But that's not what Alex intended.

"He's not using Stacia's Reign, but his body is glowing orange and yellow aura, wait… That's my Reign! Does he absorb Reign just by touching it!?" Wey thought with an angry face, figuring out how Alex absorbs Reign.

"I'm assuming you now know how I absorb Reign with that face," Alex said while their arms are locked.

"You are an anomaly to all Reign users to begin with!" Wey shouted at him.

"Yes, also I do not intend to become one since I will be the one to stop this city's chaos… once and for all," Alex said, he then grabbed Wey's left arm with his right Scope hand.

Right now, their body's vibration using the Vibration Control is interlocking that the vibrations were getting sent down their ground, when Alex grabbed Wey's left arm, he stopped Wey's body from vibrating.

Stopping his Reign completely…

"WHAT?!" Wey shouted, asking why his Reign was deactivated.

Alex was able to shove Wey back, deactivating Wey's Reign on his right Scope body, and then closing his left fist in front of him.

"Sht!" Wey thought, knowing full well what Alex was about to do so he blocked with his arms without his Reign.

Alex's left fist then blasted a strong force of wind at Wey, blasting him back, literally.

*BOOM*

Wey tried to activate his Reign again before he hits any wall from getting blasted away. Just like what Stacia did when she was launched away by Alex's Hugo Style.

When he landed on the wall. "Ack!" Wey reacted, never feeling any pain before from any fight made him miserable after feeling real pain from fighting Alex.

Wey's Reign then deactivated after exhausting his energy.

"I do hope you don't die from those attacks, you are the strongest in your group, right?" Alex said, asking him after approaching him.

Wey breathed heavily. "Who are you even to Stacia? Why does she value you more than us? To the point that she acts, looks, and feels different around you," he asked Alex after catching his breath.

"Your name is Wey, right?" Alex asked him.

Wey only nodded.

"Wey, you might be with her for 3 years but we've been friends for 2 years, not just in our jobs but also personally, we're not just colleagues, we're probably best friends that… kind of transcended even when I was in a coma. 

She was waiting for me to return because she believes that I can help her, that's the weight of friendship, our friendship, in a crisis and chaos like this, she relies on me to help her even though she has everything she needs to survive. 

At the same time, I am there for her whenever she needs me, and she needs me now. To end this chaos once and for all," Alex explained to Wey why he and Stacia are close friends before. and even now.

"We never hang out, we never talked more than 10 minutes, and we never talked outside of the group's work unless it's necessary, I'm so jealous of their friendship." Wey realizes, "Wait, is this why I've developed a personality of trying to befriend everyone in the group?" Wey thought, asking himself.

"I guess I was trying so hard," Wey said.

"You might have because before, we subconsciously went to dinner the first time we met, after work too, she was my mentor in the company, and now… things have changed." Alex turned around, "go back to where you came from, Wey, I'm going to try to return the city back to its glory days," he told Wey.

Alex then left the area where they fought.