The deeper Malerion wandered into the neon maze, the stranger the night became.
The air tasted of perfume and smoke, and the streets twisted into tighter alleys pulsing with rhythmic lights.
Demons whispered, shouted, bargained, threatened, flirted, and shoved past him like storm currents.
He felt no danger.
Not yet.
Only noise.
Until the alley narrowed behind him.
A shadow blocked the exit.
"Hey, quiet boy."
Malerion turned slowly.
Three demons stood in the alley's mouth lean, sharp-faced, tattoos glowing faintly under neon. Not gang members.
Too unorganized.
Just predators.
Typical Lust Ring opportunists.
One stepped closer with a grin full of needle teeth.
"You're walking like someone who doesn't know these streets," he said. "That means you don't know which corners belong to who."
I'm not here for trouble, Malerion replied.
The second demon chuckled. "Nobody is, until trouble finds them."
The third cracked his knuckles, eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Let's see what he's carrying."
Malerion felt the second Ring twitch inside his chest but only slightly, like a breath caught before speaking.
Alastor's voice whispered in his mind.
"Oh dear. We might have an opportunity…
or a problem."
Malerion didn't move.
Didn't raise his hands.
Didn't posture.
Which only made the demons bolder.
The first lunged.
A sloppy, impulsive strike.
No technique.
Just violence.
Malerion sidestepped, but the second demon was already behind him, grabbing at his shoulder.
His body reacted before his mind did.
A pulse.
Soft.
Barely audible.
But real.
The air rippled.
The demon behind him froze mid-grab, stunned for a half-second just enough for Malerion to twist free.
The first demon snarled. "What the hell was that?"
Malerion didn't know.
Not fully.
But he felt it.
The faint vibration traveling along his lungs, throat, and chest
the instinctive version of a technique he and Alastor had theorized but never tested.
Echo Slip.
A micro-pulse of destabilizing vibration
enough to interrupt balance or timing,
but not enough to harm.
A first step.
The demons didn't recognize any of it.
They just grew angrier.
The largest one charged with a roar.
Malerion inhaled.
The Second Ring shivered.
Not fully formed.
Not stable.
But reactive.
"Try the resonance tap," Alastor suggested calmly. "Just a touch. Let's see if the theory holds."
Malerion raised a hand not dramatically, just enough to center himself.
A faint hum vibrated in his throat.
Then
Tap.
He exhaled a small burst of compressed air.
Not wind.
A sound, pushed outward in a sharp, directed pulse.
The charging demon staggered sideways, losing balance as his inner ear buckled. The pulse hadn't been strong enough to throw him just enough to disorient.
"WHAT?" the demon yelled, tripping into a trash bin.
The other two burst forward together.
No time to think.
Malerion dropped instinctively into the next technique
one he'd never named, but one Alastor immediately recognized.
"Oh ho… clever."
He stepped sideways, twisting his upper body while releasing a second pulse downward not outward.
It struck the pavement.
The ground vibrated.
Just slightly.
Just enough.
The demon closest to him slipped as the shock disrupted his footing.
The third demon tackled Malerion directly, slamming him into the wall.
Pain shot through Malerion's ribs.
He wasn't superhuman.
Not yet.
The demon pinned him, snarling inches from his face.
"GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!"
The Second Ring flared
instinctively, uncontrollably.
A ringing tone exploded through Malerion's mind.
Not loud in the air.
Loud inside the demon holding him.
The attacker's eyes widened.
He convulsed
hands flying off Malerion's arms as he stumbled back, clutching his head.
"Aaagh what is STOP"
Malerion didn't hesitate.
He pushed himself off the wall and moved away.
The demons weren't defeated
just disoriented, confused, angry.
"Get him!" the first shouted.
But the Lust Ring didn't wait for anyone.
A hoverbike screeched into the alley.
A drunk succubus flew off the seat, colliding with the group.
Chaos erupted instantly.
Malerion slipped out of the alley and merged back into the crowd while the demons shouted and shoved each other.
Normal Hell behavior.
Nobody questioned it.
Alastor whispered through a low chuckle.
"Well done. Crude, unstable, barely controlled… but functional."
Malerion exhaled shakily.
His chest ached.
His pulse was uneven.
His body wasn't used to this.
That wasn't strength, he muttered.
"No," Alastor agreed.
"But it was resonance.
And that, my friend… is how cultivation truly begins."
Malerion blended into the neon light as the echo of violence drifted behind him.
For the first time, the Lust Ring felt less like a city
and more like a proving ground.