The apartment lights were dim, letting only the neon glow of the Lust Ring drip into the room.
Malerion sat on the balcony floor with his back against the railing, eyes unfocused, breathing slowly.
The air was thick with SIN, drifting like invisible dust.
It settled on his skin, sank into his nerves, vibrated faintly inside his chest.
Inside his mind and soul, the Echo Ring pulsed
weakly, irregularly, like a newborn heart.
And then the other presence stirred.
ALASTOR:
"You're doing it again."
MALERION:
Doing what?
ALASTOR:
"Listening too hard."
The voice echoed through his mind, familiar and yet distant
a fragment of himself, but older, sharper, experienced in ways Malerion was not.
"You'll tear something if you keep forcing the resonance like that."
Malerion exhaled, the ring flickering inside him like a sputtering flame.
I'm just trying to understand it.
This… thing inside me.
"'Thing' is as good a word as any."
A faint crackle of radio static rolled through their shared soul-space.
The soul-chamber flickered into existence
unstable, rippling like liquid glass.
The Echo Ring inside appeared as a faint circle of dim light, barely holding itself together.
No manual.
No precedent.
No knowledge.
Just them.
I can feel SIN gathering on its own.
Not much, but… something.
"And does it hurt?"
Not exactly.
More like… pressure.
A vibration I don't fully control.
"Then treat it carefully.
If it collapses, we don't know what happens.
You could lose the body.
Or worse."
Malerion swallowed.
Worse was not defined.
That alone made it terrifying.
Do you think there are more of these Rings?
"…I don't know."
For the first time since they split, Alastor's voice held no confidence.
"This is your creation, not mine.
I can observe, give you instinct, intuition
but I don't understand this energy.
Echo… SIN… whatever we call it.
You feel it too, though.
"I feel the ripples, yes.
But I cannot shape it.
You can.
That makes you the only expert in a field that didn't exist until you were born."
A heavy silence followed.
So we're blind.
"Completely."
If SIN is the fuel…
then maybe the Ring transforms it?
"Possibly.
Or maybe it poisons you slowly and you'll explode in a week."
Very helpful.
"I'm only being honest.
We don't know what this does.
We don't know if it has limits.
We don't know if it can grow…
or if it will consume you."
The Ring flickered again stronger this time.
Malerion felt a pulse run through his limbs.
Not power.
More like… awakening.
It's reacting to the SIN in the air.
"Or the SIN is reacting to it."
Do you think it can evolve?
"…I think it already is."
What about the world outside?
Hell itself.
Where are we in its timeline?
ALASTOR:
"Lucifer and Lilith still rule together.
They keep the realm stable, if such a thing is possible here.
Charlie is young, still untouched by problems
The static softened.
Stolas?
"Barely a teenager.
Buried in his noble duties.
He has no idea how complicated his future will become."
And Rosie?
Alastor's voice tightened.
"She watches.
More than she should.
More than makes sense."
You think she feels this?
"If she does we're already in danger."
Silence.
Heavy.
Real.
So what do we do?
ALASTOR:
"Learn.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Study SIN.
Study the Ring.
Study yourself.
No predictions?
"How could I predict something that has never existed before?
You are the first to create this Path."
…Echo Soul Path.
The name settled into the void like a seed.
"Hmph.
Pretentious.
I like it."
The Ring pulsed again weak, unstable, but undeniably alive.
They stared at it, neither fully understanding what it meant.
Where it would lead.
Or what it would cost.