Sin Rouge wasn't a club anymore.
Not tonight.
Tonight it was a battlefield where no one bledonly trembled.
The first group twenty-four demons stood in a rough formation. Some looked terrified. Others excited. Most were just exhausted. But they were here, willing, trusting.
Quill stood beside me, arms crossed, ears tilted forward in cautious attention.
"You're sure about this?" he asked.
No.
I stepped forward.
But I'm sure enough.
Alastor's voice brushed the inside of my mind like a cold fingertip tracing a glass rim.
"Remember: subtle. Controlled. Touch their bodies, not their souls."
I inhaled slowly.
The Third Ring expanded inside me.
Not violently.
Not brightly.
Just… deeply.
And the resonance flowed out.
A low-frequency pulse, invisible but heavy, rolled across the room like a silent wave. It slid into lungs, wrapped around bones, sank beneath skin.
Demons gasped.
Some staggered.
One fell to a knee.
But no one screamed.
Their emotional signatures spiked fear, awe, panic but the resonance smoothed the edges before any of them could spiral.
I adjusted the frequency instinctively.
Pressure dropped.
Warmth rose.
Their muscles eased.
Their breath steadied.
Good.
This was working.
I pushed a little deeper aligning their breathing, tightening their posture from the inside, encouraging their bones to micro-harden, their tendons to stabilize.
Quill whispered, "What the hell… I can see their stance changing."
He wasn't wrong.
Some demons straightened.
Some stabilized.
Some suddenly stood firmer, as if their weight distribution shifted into something more efficient.
Then
It happened.
The unexpected effect.
Not dangerous.
Not harmful.
But surprising.
The demons closest to me within two meters began subtly resonating with one another.
Not with me.
With each other.
Their breathing synced…
their heartbeats synced…
their emotional signatures aligned…
A feedback loop.
A faint, collective rhythm.
Quill stepped back, eyes wide.
"What the FUCK is that?"
Alastor whispered, half laughing:
"Oh… that's interesting."
I hadn't seen this coming either.
Group resonance, I murmured.
"Is that good?" Quill asked.
Yes, I said.
It means they'll coordinate better. Move better. Fight better.
"And if it gets stronger?" Quill pressed.
I paused.
…if it gets stronger, they may start sharing instincts. Coordination could reach ridiculous levels.
"Like a hive mind?"
No. Not thought-sharing.
I shook my head.
More like… synchronized survival instinct.
Quill stared at me.
"That sounds terrifying."
It could be.
The pulse softened slowly. I released control, letting the resonance continue only as a faint vibration.
Some demons collapsed.
Some burst into relieved laughter.
Some immediately began stretching, shocked at how much easier their bodies responded.
One demon whispered:
"My joints don't hurt anymore…"
Another:
"I can breathe deeper."
Another:
"I feel… steady. Balanced."
Donnie stood in the back, trembling with pride.
"That was AWESOME!"
I exhaled heavily.
The first mass strengthening was done.
But the unexpected effect inter-user resonance opened a door I hadn't planned for.
Quill motioned me aside.
"We need to talk."
We stepped onto the old balcony overlooking the city neon rivers, seductive signs, tall spires wrapped in magical pheromones. The air smelled like Lust Ring's signature:甜 heat + perfume + danger.
Quill spoke first.
"These people… what do we even DO with them now? You're giving them strength. Not a lot yet, but it's real. Real enough that someone might notice."
"We hide them in plain sight."
"How?"
"In the workforce," I said.
"But not randomly."
He listened, tense but curious.
We divide them by skill and temperament, I continued.
Not by strength.
"Explain."
I pointed down to the streets through the balcony railings.
Lust Ring has sectors. Official and unofficial.
Quill nodded.
"Clubs, bars, brothels, casinos… but also warehouses, transport crews, cleaning crews, the pheromone farms"
Yes, I said.
And we will place them strategically.
Even Alastor hummed approvingly.
Quill frowned.
"Okay, so what's the plan?"
I looked out over the neon-drenched streets.
Group One the lightly strengthened go to normal jobs. Bar hands. Floor staff. Transport workers. Security shadows. Their improvements will look like luck or good diet.
Quill smirked slightly.
"Basically the ones who won't stand out."
Exactly.
"Group Two?"
The loyal ones, I said.
We place them where information flows. In clubs, in district markets, near small-time gang routes. They'll hear rumors before anyone else.
Quill blinked.
"You're making an intelligence web."
Yes.
"And Group Three?" he asked quietly.
"The elites."
I watched the slum lights flicker below.
They stay close. We train them directly. Their strength cannot be hidden.
Quill swallowed.
"And when an overlord demons eventually notices?"
I answered with Alastor's words echoing faintly in my mind:
Then we make sure we're too valuable and too prepared to crush.
Quill stared at me.
Then looked down at the twenty-four demons catching their breath below.
"…this is insane," he whispered.
But it's working.
"It IS working," Quill admitted reluctantly.
And this, I said, watching the new recruits stand taller than when they entered…
is only the first surge.
As the strengthened recruits slowly dispersed into the club some stretching, some laughing weakly, some still stunned by how their bodies suddenly felt lightersomething unexpected stirred beneath my ribs.
A faint thread.
Then another.
Then dozens.
I froze.
Quill noticed immediately.
"What? Did something go wrong?"
"No…" I whispered.
"Something changed."
The Third Ring pulsed once soft but clear.
And suddenly I felt them.
Not their thoughts.
Not their exact positions.
But their presence.
Like glimmers of warm embers scattered through a dark room.
Each ember carried a signature
unstable confidence,
soft hope,
quiet fear,
emerging discipline
and all those emotional traces reached me through a new, invisible network.
Alastor hummed in my mind, delighted:
"Ah… now this is interesting."
I exhaled slowly.
I can sense them, I murmured.
The ones I strengthened. Their emotional rhythm… it's connected to me now.
Quill blinked.
"You mean you can track them?"
Not exactly, I said.
It's more like… I feel when they're stable, or panicked, or calm. As if their echoes are brushing lightly against mine.
Quill stared.
"That's… unnerving."
It's useful.
Alastor chuckled.
"A commander who can feel his soldiers' fear?
How poetic."
I stepped back to the railing and watched the neon-lit streets below.
Wherever my strengthened recruits went…
tiny echoes tugged at my chest like quiet heartbeats.
I can feel who's ready, I said softly.
And who's not.
Quill's expression shifted from confusion… to understanding… to something bordering on awe.
"So this," he whispered, "is how you'll build them into something bigger."
No, I corrected, feeling the network settle inside me like roots anchoring into soil.
This is how they'll build us.
And as I felt the faint emotional signatures of every strengthened demon, pulsing in sync like distant bells
I knew:
This was only the beginning.