The late afternoon rays of light shifted into long obscured inky shadows further fracturing as they came in contact with the various pieces of furniture in the room, their once innocent nature now containing a more sinister undertone after Reol’s troubling remark.

“I just can’t catch a fucking break can I!”

The last thing I needed right now was having a pair of Hunters coming to my house and finding out I had five not one but five illegal women without papers, and that didn’t take into consideration why exactly they were tracking me in the first place.

“Pervy ape this isn’t as simple as you might think it to be. You’re in some seriously deep shit, these bastards embedded a remote compulsion effect into the tracker I just absorbed. If it had somehow managed to latch on to you’d end up dancing a pretty little tune on their open palms.”

Reol’s explanation did not spell out good news for me. Hunters' powers were very diverse and almost impossible to avoid once they had a hook on to you. If that were all I’d still be fucked but no, Hunters also liked making the big bucks so any Hunter who knew his worth wouldn't work with the Heroes Guild, and instead side with Garden of Eden, or the Vigilantes Autarky.

Why was this extra lousy news? Well, my safety was compromised if either of those groups got their hands on me. The law bent before the Autarky while the Villians of Eden never held the law in any regard.

I felt like a waiter balancing an ever-increasing pile of orders on a small plate the size of a coffee saucer. Either I start fixing my problems soon, or the entire pile would fall crushing me beneath its enormity.

“I don’t suppose you have something to get us out of this sticky situation we’re in, and I do emphasize the ‘us’ because I won’t be the only one getting the short end of the stick if they find our location.”

I was frank with our slowly encroaching dilemma. Unless Reol stayed next to me at all hours of the day the Hunters trackers might eventually get me since I had no way to repel their abilities.

At that point not even the largest bottle of lube in the world help with the ass-fucking we’d be on the receiving end of.

Reol became lost in her thoughts, her dainty digits wrapping around her chin in deep ponderment, a strand of stray hair falling over her face only to subconsciously get tucked away behind her ear.

“I think if I can get myself large enough power supply and some tools I ‘might’ be able to cobble up together a shoddy disrupter field, but as I said before, I need power crystals to get anything done. I just don’t have the time to get use to your prehistoric tech yet.”

So we had nothing…..

I’d just been in the middle of cursing my luck once again when the doors to the room abruptly burst wide open. The culprit someone unexpected.

Xue drifted inwards, her sudden appearance like that of crisp ocean mist rushing forward towards the coastline, its movement unstoppable, it's arrival inevitable.

“Where is the soul tracker!” She demanded, her voice containing a trace of agitation. This woman's senses were off the charts if she had been able to detect the sudden intrusion of the Hunters ability.

Both Reol and I had been stunned by her sudden declaration, but Reol was able to recollect her composure faster than me.

“I ate it.” She revealed a matter of factly like that was going be enough for Xue.

“You consumed it? That's an impossibility, only the Essence Devourers of the pits of Diyu, have the ability to directly integrate essence without refinement.” She said it with such certainty even I felt like it was a fact, and I’d been here when Reol had given that tracker the good succ.

“Well maybe your Devourers are my fucking cousins or something, I don’t know, but what I do know do is that pervy ape here is being tracked, and the people coming after him don’t have the best of intentions if the mind-enslavement effect is anything to go by.”

“I thought you said it was compulsion?” A nervous titter left me.

“Yeah, well a small compulsion effect usually doesn’t contain enough mana to blow a building to smithereens.” If it weren't for her fierce reply, I might have thought she was worried.

“I need information on the state of the politics of your world, as well as why they might be showing such interest in you.” Pulling out a quill and a long yellow scroll Xue stared at me, rings of gold driving me towards answering her.

“Politics aren’t exactly my specialty, but I guess, I’ll have to do.” I was only being half truthful, I actually knew a lot about the state of affairs in the world, but I didn’t like telling others because I disliked being an information dispensary.

“As for me, I need information on the nature of this worlds economy.” Chiming in Reol added her request which luckily ties in really well with Xues.

“This world can be seen as having three main groups of power, though some consider them Ideologies instead.

The Hero’s Guild, a UN-funded Organization with a branch in just about every country. They determine the branch in charge every other year by the rankings of their Heroes. Usually, it's the US who’s in control most of the time, but occasionally other superpowers might grab the position with the sudden appearance of a New powerful Hero. If I were to describe exactly what they represent, it would be having people use their powers of the greater good.”

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“I'm gonna guess it's not as simple as that.” Reol interrupted me earning a scathing glare from Xue, but she simply chose to ignore it.

“Well, you're not wrong. Greater good sometimes just translates towards making sacrifices for the majority even if those sacrifices include your happiness. Sure, some folk might be ok with it, but a system that essentially turns you into something barely better than the government’s serf never sat well with me.” If Eva’s power had been on the weaker side of the spectrum, she would have been forced into working as a generator, producing electricity for the city day in and day out as her profession.

This time it was Xue who gave in her opinion.

“If the authority of a rule displeases the masses, either the Ruler adjusts to satisfy its subjects, or they will soon see themselves the leader of an empty nation.” Her words opened a path perfectly for me to explain the next organization.

“Many had the same thoughts as you which is what led to the formation of the Garden of Eden, or as the rest of the world calls them Villians of Eden. They saw the forced usage of their powers as a slight against the gifts they had been given and instead chose the path of freedom developing underworld locations across globe deep in Muta beast territories to avoid the Hero’s guild. Unfortunately for them, this freedom meant they had personalities of various moral values which is why the rest of the world ended up calling them Villains.”

My father had been a secret sympathizer of their cause despite working as a Hero. As someone who was decently high up the ladder, he had a full view of how the Hero Guild worked, and he didn't like what he saw. Though that didn’t mean he had the ability to change anything. And despite how defective the Hero’s Guild might be for a powered individuals freedom the other option of complete anarchy was much less desirable.

“Lastly we have the Vigilantes Autarky, which will also give you some insight into the world's economy, little gremlin.” If she was going to keep calling me pervy ape, I might as well get something out of it too.

Neon pink hair flaring up at my choice of name, Reol puffed up but somehow managed not to blow as she settled down, although the glint in her eye had just gained was making me a little nervous.

“The Vigilantes Autarky just as its name suggest is an independent financial superpower, a Conglomerate supported and composed of all of the richest corporations before the decade of chaos. Money to them is the answer to all of the world's problems, and so far it's been a beneficial ideology as they are easily comparable to the Hero Guild in power. They also have a Mercenary division that acts as their own private Heroes, and the best lawyers in the world to go with them if their ‘actions’ sometimes stray too far from legal territory. As for their hand in the economy of the world? They have it on a leash, their very word able to destroy any business if its not at least worth a hundred billion or more.”

Xue continued to write, quill performing an elegant dance on the scroll's paper as she wrote on more than I’d just spoken.

“This Vigilantes Autarky has got to be destroyed before they reach the ability of the Mega Corps of my world.” The deadpan voice hid hatred I’d only gotten a glimpse of earlier when she told me of her origins.

“Merchants don’t have the moral capacity to Rule over the people when they value the coin in their pocket more than a life on the street.” My opinion on Xue only further improved, sure she might still be arrogant as hell, but her morals showed she had a heart for the people.

“Still you didn’t explain why they might be interested in finding you.” Pointing out our current mystery right now I thought hard as to what could the summoning have done to the outside world that could lead to Hunters trying to track me down.

The fucking detectors.

Seeing the change in my facial expression, Xue stopped her hand from the waltz it had been performing on her scroll.

“Did you unravel the answer little disciple.” Little what?!

“Oi did she just call you little?” Her anger stored away as the glint from earlier returned. The edges of her mouth turning upwards.

“Before I answer your question Xue why exactly did you just call me Little?” I might refer to my dick as my little guy, but this was a very hurtful comment.

For the first time since meeting her, Xue became flustered, though I only call it that because of the smallest of pinkish color touched her face.

“As your Master, ‘Little’ is simply an affectionate term I’d seen others use, my inexperience has led to this embarrassing circumstance. I only just accepted you little more than an hour ago and should have waited for the intimacy to build over time.” She stood proud despite the rosy tone of her cheeks, accepting her mistake like it was flowing water at her feet.

Shit, I didn’t realize that taking her as my teacher would lead to this! Is that why she suddenly got much more comfortable to be around? She now saw me as her ‘little’ student. If I didn’t have more pressing matters at hand, I’d try to fix the misunderstanding.

Reol, in a mad fit of giggling that would give Lucia a run for her money, laughed at my misfortune, though she was promptly stopped by Xue who thought she was the one being laughed at.

A light glow in her fingertips, Xue turned Reol upside down, giving me a view of her fine ass.

“This isn’t all too bad. I like this side of you a lot more,” I said with nothing but honesty in my voice.

“GRRR, just tell us why your being hunted you perverted ape!” With a few bites into the air, she fell painfully face first into the ground, undoing whatever Xue had done and induced a wince from me.

“Are you truly ilk of the Essence Devourers?” Xue mumbled so lowly I barely heard it.

Am I not supposed to be answering something! Let me talk dammit.

“So before any more interruptions, my people realizing that it was impossible to keep track of all individuals awaking built these detectors to find those that might try to hide their abilities. To the detectors, it would appear like seismic activity allowing them to accurately pinpoint the location of the target. The only problem with these detectors is that the higher the grade of the ability the more interference the detectors send to each other in order to locate the target.”

Angrily rubbing her hurt cute red nose Reol looked at me menacingly believing it my fault she was now rocking a small bruise.

“Well the pact does say you all have godlike potential, so I'm going to imagine all five of you appearing out of nowhere must have done something significant, precisely what I can't find out until I charge the laptop's battery. On the other hand for the first piece of good news, the interference must have only given them general location which is why the Hunters are looking for us, instead of heavily armed men, busting through my doors and windows.

“Still what are we going to do about the Hunters? They will eventually find us now that they know you're still within the city's limits, and while I can’t build a proper field disrupter if I could just get my hands on at least a fist-sized power crystal, I could use some of this junk to make you a temporary personal disrupter.” Thank god she purposely used terms I could understand.

“I don't even know what a power crystal looks like so not much I can help you with on that end.”

Xue who had been busy digesting all the information had tuned us out, but when she heard Reol’s description, she pulled something out from the deep sleeves of her robe.

“This power crystal you speak of, could an essence stone replace it?” In her hand, a milky crystal radiated warmth and energy, its size just right for what Reol had wanted.

“Give MEEEEEE!!!!”

Like a starved and deranged animal Reol pounced.