Is this really a Game?!



"Leader, is something wrong?" One of the Tier IV combatants who was in Reign's team asked upon seeing Reign frown after looking at the map that he had.

"No, just thinking of something unrelated to the mission, let's continue, Miss Liara's team is next to ours, so if we were to encounter any danger, we can get reinforcements quickly." Reign said as the team members all nodded at him with some excitement.

Liara was the second-in-command of the Lucrecius region and was known as one of the most powerful Tier IV combatants that humanity had to offer, her team being close to them would definitely be of big help if they needed it.

'What the hell is that girl thinking?' Reign asked himself as he shook his head. He had left Liara's apartment and made sure nobody noticed him leave as he used his light and darkness manipulation to cover his body, rendering him invisible to anybody.

Even Tier V combatants would have trouble noticing him upon using such means, the only drawback was that he was using the two abilities to the fullest, which put quite a strain on his mana reserves.

Liara had arrived in front of the wall with her team later on, and she said nothing to Reign, merely glancing in his direction before talking with her team members.

Unfortunately for them, the way the two of them were acting last night had been noticed by some people who weren't too drunk at the time, and their departure sparked a debate. Everybody knew that Liara had never dated and that she had never found any man that interested her, so her going away with Reign was quite an unusual sight.

Many debated whether the two of them were up to something and whether the stranger that had only arrived that day had managed to sweep Liara of her feat. Many defended Liara and got into arguments with those that said otherwise, and since they were almost all drunk, they almost started a brawl.

Since nobody had seen any of them after that, not even when the two went to Liara's apartment, most simply decided to ignore the entire thing, believing that the two were more interested in exchanging pointers and talking about their plans for tomorrow than anything else.

Liara was known to be a battle maniac and loved to spar against people she deemed worthy enough. She loved learning new skills and techniques and never shied away from a challenge. Nobody actually believed that Liara and Reign had done anything since her reputation was well known, and even those that teased her admirers and white knights were merely doing so to get a reaction out of them.

Nobody would have expected that not only did the two of them do something, but they had slept with each other and that it was Liara that initiated the entire thing, and she had done it more than once.

Reign and his team had been out and going deeper inside the demon region while Reign noticed that one other team was getting slightly closer to them, which was still nothing weird as the teams could join hands if they wanted to, but right now, when they were not coming across any powerful enemies, it was simply not needed.

Upon checking who it was, however, Reign frowned as he had no idea what Liara was doing by getting near him right now. Was she planning on perhaps attacking him because of what happened this morning?

That made no sense as the others would get involved, and he was certain that she wouldn't want to hurt any of them.

Maybe she was planning on having him fight some powerful demons before stabbing him in the back.

That also made no sense as she hated demons with all her heart as she had been fighting against them her entire life.

'I guess I'll find out later, plus, it's not like her intentions of coming over here have to be exactly negative, after all, she might be coming here for a different reason.' Reign thought as a slight smile appeared on his face.

'Aethion, do you think she may have developed a crush on me?'

"A crush?" Aethion asked before scoffing.

"It seems we need to check if you have something wrong with your brain or soul too, saying such nonsense after sleeping with the girl, the same one that tried to give you some more in the shower as well, I'm quite sure that goes well beyond a simple crush."

'Yeah, I know, I just don't know what the hell is going on in her head right now.' Reign stated with a sigh before moving forward with his team who were all looking at him with interest as this was the first time he was showing such a confused expression on his face.

"Hey, do you think something really happened between the leader and Miss Liara?"

"I don't know, but looking at his expression, something bad probably happened, right?"

"Miss Liara didn't even say hi to him when we all gathered, did he maybe get shut down by her?"

The team members all started whispering to each other, unaware that Reign was able to hear everything they were saying, but instead of calling them out, he simply smiled bitterly as they had no idea just how wrong they were.

About 2 miles away from Reign and his team, Liara and her team were walking deeper inside the demon region as well, but instead of walking in a straight line toward the demons, they were going slightly right, which meant they were slowly inching closer to Reign and his team.

'Liara, what the hell are you doing, why are you going toward that bastard?!' Liara screamed in her head as she knew that if she and her team continue walking this way, they would meet up with Reign and his team later on.

'I hate that bastard, I should hate him, and yet, every time I think of him, I can only think of nice things, it's driving me crazy!' Liara shouted in her head as she didn't understand what was going on.

She still didn't fully believe the story that Reign had told her about the vortex in her soul, but she did know that something weird was going on since last night. Her behavior, plus the fact she remembered nothing that she had said or done, made it clear that her thoughts and even her actions were somehow being manipulated, she just didn't know whether it was Reign that had done it or not.

She managed to remember what happened in the shower after Reign left, and upon remembering how it truly was her that went to Reign and did what she did, she felt incredibly ashamed. She remembered how Reign told her to stop and even tried to forcibly pry her off of him, but she did everything she could to stay in place and get even closer to him.

That memory made her soften up a bit when it came to Reign as she truly did start believing some of the things he had said, but she was still a bit apprehensive about him.

'He said that he will need to block that again, so … we will need to be alone again.' Liara said as she slightly blushed before her face quickly returned to normal as she sensed a couple of powerful auras in front of her.

"Enemies, Tier IV demons, get ready for battle!" Liara shouted as she stared to the front apprehensively. She could sense that there were more than 10 Tier IV demons charging at them, she just didn't understand why they had shown up here as they were still not deep inside demon territory.

"Sir, I am certain that the reaction is coming from the front." One of the demons said to the leader of the group who was staring at Liara and her team who were about 500 meters away from them.

He smirked as he saw Liara and licked his lips in anticipation. 

"She's a strong one, call for the others as well, they shouldn't be too far away." The demon told the other demon who quickly nodded his head before taking something out from his spatial ring. A disgusting, worm-like creature appeared in his hand and he whispered something in it before biting it and tearing it apart.

"Charge, let us deal with these humans!" The leading demon said as his aura exploded out of him, showing the power of a peak Tier IV demon. The others roared as well and charged.

Liara stared apprehensively as the auras coming from the demons were higher than she anticipated as even the weakest was a mid-grade Tier IV, and there were a total of 13 Tier IV demons charging at them, with about 30 Tier III demons following behind them.

"Send a signal out, one group is relatively near us, they should arrive quickly to aid us!" Liara shouted to her teammates before exploding with her own aura.

"Get ready, this is going to be a tough one."