My body was electrified by the potion, and I could feel my center meridian expanding as my mana was restored. I’d only taken a sip, and it had replenished all my mana stores. It made sense—I was only a Level 1 cultivator, which meant I had a really small amount of mana, and the soldiers were probably at least 3 times my level, so the flask would have probably only provided them with a single use.

When I caught up to the two Outworlder women, neither acknowledged me at first. They both had their essence batteries in their hands, the devices pulsing with patterns of golden light. I heard a hum that seemed to be coming from the bodies of the women, like the whir of a refrigerator’s compressor. They were absorbing the essence they had just harvested, giving themselves a power boost and regenerating their mana reserves.

After a moment, Astrid glanced at me and smiled, her eyes falling on the magitech MP5 which was slung over my shoulder. “Nice rifle.”

“Thanks. I picked up a full mana pot, too.” I nodded at the glowing essence battery in her hand. “Shouldn’t you wait until we’re somewhere safe? Aren’t you worried about cultivator’s sickness?”

Absorbing too much essence into your body too fast often led to cultivator’s sickness. The ailment lasted anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, so most often absorbing essence or creature cores happened when you were in a safe location.

“Nope,” Astrid replied. “We’re not worried, because no more soldiers are coming. Belinda has scanned the whole area. It’s a peaceful stroll from here on out, and anyway, we can’t bring full batteries with us into the mansion.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Kyrine,” Astrid and Belinda said together.

“Abrax-who?”

“She likes to hog the resources,” Astrid replied. She obviously felt like she was explaining, but it didn’t make much sense to me.

”Is she your boss, then?” I asked.

”She wishes,” Belinda put in with a laugh.

”She’s…” Astrid began. “She’s… Uhhh... .” Astrid trailed off as her eyelids fluttered, and her full lips parted slightly. She let out a gasp that sounded almost sexual, then shivered all over. I raised my eyebrows at her.

”Sorry about that,” Astrid said, sounding a bit embarrassed and gesturing at her essence battery in explanation. “Absorbing so much essence at one time feels a bit… weird. As I was saying, Kyrine isn’t our boss. She’s more like… well, like a big sister, I guess. A really weird, jealous, and violent big sister.”

Belinda laughed. ”I regard her more as a petulant younger sibling,” she said as she pocketed her empty essence battery. ”The kind you need to keep on a short leash.”