Is this really a Game?!

"Yeah, I did have some help though, come, let's meet the others, we need to vacate the area anyway, the enemy should be arriving soon since you destroyed the array."

"Uhh, yeah." Reign simply stared at Eisenhorn in shock before following the man.

He was now back in the real world, and he was able to sense and gather mana once again. It was as if he was previously unable to breathe and was finally given air. He could feel his body screaming out in pleasure as it was finally able to get some mana.

Once a person had reached a certain level of strength, which was usually the first evolution or right below it, mana would become something that the body would actually need to get.

Without mana, one could die after a couple of days, that was if the person was unable to find a suitable replacement for mana.

Reign followed Eisenhorn and the two quickly ran through the forest, getting further away from the army camp. Reign asked no questions as this was not the time nor place to ask them.

As for trusting Eisenhorn?

Reign felt that he could trust the man, after all, he was the one that had saved his life during his stay in the other layer. Back when he was almost finished with destroying the soul of the prince, the figure form before appeared and looked around in confusion.

It was only when Reign destroyed the stone slab that he was able to see who it was.

He had heard how the prince and the two puppets talked about Eisenhorn, and it was now that he put two and two together. The whole story about how the person was talented and could have become a notable figure was definitely aimed at Eisenhorn whose talent was perhaps higher than even Reign's.

He had a powerful ability, but Eisenhorn had a rank Z proficiency with his weapon, something that Reign was not even close to.

The two men ran and ran until they finally reached a nearby mountain. Eisenhorn looked around them before suddenly using his hand to cut through the air. With that simple notion, he disappeared.

"What?!" Reign shouted out in disbelief.

"He went to a different layer, perhaps he did it in order to check for any enemies?" Aethion said as Reign looked around weirdly.

"But if he can travel through the layers with such ease, why the hell did he just not come to the layer I was in previously?"

"I don't know, layers are not something I am that familiar with, but from what I know, different layers contain different elements inside of them, the one you were in had nothing, perhaps he couldn't use his powers in that layer either and would be trapped had he entered to help you?" Aethion said after a couple of seconds deliberating about what the reason might have been.

"That, makes sense, I guess?" Reign scratched the back of his head as he answered Aethion. He stood in the same spot for about 10 seconds before another tear in space appeared and Eisenhorn appeared once again.

"Sorry, I should have explained what I was about to do before doing it, my bad." Eisenhorn saw Reign and immediately realized just how his behavior could have been seen as suspicious. He then proceeded to tell Reign pretty much the same thing Aethion did about how the layers of the world were different and how the one he had previously used actually allowed him to see everything except for Reign.

He could actually see Reign now if he was in the same layer as before as it was the array that the prince and the others had created that made Reign invisible to him previously.

Eisenhorn then stopped talking and started drawing weird symbols on the wall of a mountain for a couple of seconds before the symbols suddenly disappeared and a small entrance opened up. He proceeded to enter through the entrance and motioned to Reign to follow him as he went deeper inside the mountain.

The tunnel was relatively small and could only fit one person at a time. Reign simply followed Eisenhorn through the barely lit tunnel as they traveled for about 1 minute before coming to the end of the tunnel.

There was a small opening at the end, but there was only a bedsheet and some bottles of water and provisions there.

Before Reign could even ask why they were here, Eisenhorn went to a wall and again started drawing the weird symbols with his hands, only that the symbols were different this time around.

It took Eisenhorn a bit longer to do it this time, but after he finished, the symbols once again disappeared in the wall before another entrance opened up.

"He likes to be careful, that's why such a method exists," Eisenhorn commented without offering any further explanation and moved through the entrance. Reign, of course, followed after him.

The tunnel they were now in was pretty much the same as the previous one, albeit a bit shorter.

After they came to the end, they were met with a larger open space in which about 20 people could fit inside.

There were a couple of bedsheets inside the hidden area and a table on which a map was rolled out. Looking ahead, Reign could see some familiar faces in the hideout.

Raigon, Lico, Licht, 2 of the generals that led the armies and 4 more Tier II combatants that were previously in the army were all present in front of Reign.

"You guys, what are you doing here?" Reign asked them as Raigon came to him and patted him on the shoulder.

"It's good to see you man, take a seat, we were just talking about what to do," Raigon said before motioning for Reign to sit on one of the rock stools that were visible around the table.

Everyone else nodded at Reign and said hi before focusing on the map in front of them.

"Well, I guess you still know nothing of what transpired after the battle against the demons, right?" Raigon suddenly asked Reign who simply nodded at him.

"Well, first of all, it has been about a week since the final battle in which we defeated the demonic creatures." Raigon suddenly dropped a bombshell on Reign.

"What, how is that possible, I could have sworn that-" Raigon suddenly raised his arm to motion to Reign to stop before explaining.

"It seems 'they' had used some kind of array to put you to sleep and completely messed up your biological clock, hell, even we were tricked into believing that you were sleeping for over a day at first," Raigon said before sighing.

"The king, the prince and princess, Lisea, my father, and many more were all part of the scheme," Raigon said with a sad expression.

"They managed to exclude me out from the loop completely, I only found out thanks to one of my spies managing to find some suspicious activity around the camp."

"I investigated things personally, and that was when I found out that my father and many more that belonged to the higher circles of the kingdom were conspiring to do something."

"After hearing how they were mentioning the queen, it was easy for me to guess that she was the ring leader, but I still had no idea what was happening back then."

"The actions that followed happened quickly."

"We were suddenly hunted down by masked men whose identity we didn't know, all of them being Tier II and Tier III, something that shouldn't have been possible."

"There were about 40 of us that joined hands at the very beginning, but our numbers soon dwindled down to what you see in front of you right now."

"My father and the others had conspired with the queen who turned out not to be human, I have seen her use her true form, and even though it was from a distance and she had done so in order to deal with uncle Eisenhorn, I could feel a sense of dread coming from her."

"Whatever the queen is, and whatever means she had used to get everybody on her side, it was something that I had never expected to happen, not even in a million years," Raigon said with a solemn face before looking at Reign.

"You were their primary target, but they knew that they couldn't simply attack you as your relenting could lead to a catastrophe."

"They decided to wear you out by using the array before trying to kill you inside the layer where you would quickly find yourself running out of mana, you would have been at their mercy, if not for uncle Eisenhorn finding out and being able to go there."