Sin Rouge breathed around me alive, structured, reactive while Resonance rolled quietly through the Third Ring in slow, deliberate circles. Four years of cultivation had reshaped my senses into something sharp enough to read a room before a single demon spoke.
I didn't see emotions.
I heard them.
Lust—warm velvet hum.
Fear—thin glass tension.
Greed—vibrating copper.
Violence—cracked metal, ready to shatter.
Harmonic Sense, my first awakened technique, had grown monstrous.
Now I could isolate individual signatures in a crowd, detect lies the moment they formed, and sense killing intent two floors away.
Internal Echo Reinforcement strengthened my body bones resonant, muscles compressed with subtle vibration. I wasn't larger. But stronger. Denser. Focused.
Karmic Pulse Disruption, fully stabilized, could stagger groups or sever magical focus with layered pulses. Subtle, brutal, and efficient.
Resonance Shear the blade technique had fully awakened.
A thin, clean arc of compressed energy , slicing through Hell-iron as if it were fruit.
Not unstable.
Not dangerous to me.
But exhausting in long battles.
And now, after years of refinement:
Resonance Guard a defensive shell lasting up to ten seconds, enough to survive deadly blows or surprise magic.
Echo Step micro-movement through emotional flow, slipping past attacks without effort.
Resonance Binding still incomplete, but capable of slowing an opponent by tethering their emotional field.
These weren't half-formed ideas anymore.
They were tools.
Weapons.
And stepping stones for what I still needed to become.
Dreg approached the balcony, arms crossed, eyes sharp.
"You're stronger," he said simply.
"Stronger than last month," Donnie added from behind him.
"Stronger than last week," Quill muttered, tightening a rune bolt on a new device.
I didn't deny it.
I felt it in every breath.
The Third Ring was too full.
Too dense.
Spinning too fast.
Like a locked chamber waiting for a key.
"You're close to the Fourth," Dreg said.
"Yes."
"How close?"
"Close enough that meditating feels like pushing against a wall that wants to crack."
"Then why hold it back?"
I exhaled slowly.
"Because every powerful demon in this district will feel it the moment it snaps open. And we're not ready."
Donnie leaned on the railing.
"We're stable, but we're not quiet anymore. Once you break through… eyes will open."
"And claws," Dreg added.
"And curiosity," Quill smirked. "The dangerous kind."
They weren't wrong.
Breaking into the Fourth Ring wasn't just personal.
It would send a shockwave through Lust Ring's emotional fabric.
The Goetia would feel it.
Powerful sinners would notice.
Curious predators would come sniffing.
And we weren't yet in a position to reveal everything.
Not yet.
Not for another seventeen years.
Dreg watched me, expression unreadable.
"How far are you from the Radio Demon himself?"
I met his gaze.
In raw destructive force? Still far below.
In technique?
Closer.
In control?
Closer still.
Dreg's jaw tightened.
"In a duel?"
I didn't rush the answer.
…He wins 100%
Dreg grunted. "Good. Means you're sane."
Donnie raised a brow. "And in seventeen years?"
The Third Ring pulsed.
Slow.
Heavy.
Certain.
In seventeen years, I said quietly, I will surpass him.
None of them argued.
None of them doubted.
Because they'd watched the growth with their own eyes.
Quill, wiping resonant dust off his gloves, set down a thick metal cylinder etched with runes that glowed faintly turquoise.
"Prototype Mark V Resonance Stabilizer," he said proudly. "Built specifically so your Fourth Ring breakthrough doesn't turn the bar into a crater."
Dreg frowned. "So it explodes?"
"Only a little," Quill said.
Donnie's eyes widened. "Define 'little.'"
"A controlled harmonic rupture. Nothing fatal."
"That's not better," she hissed.
Quill shrugged innocently.
"I made improvements. Barely any chance of catastrophic failure now."
"Barely?" Dreg asked.
"If I say yes, will you stop asking?"
"No."
"Then no."
Donnie sighed.
Dreg cracked his knuckles.
Quill smirked proudly.
I just breathed.
Because I could feel the truth vibrating inside me:
I was no Overlord.
Not yet.
But I had climbed beyond the typical Lust Ring power, beyond the petty nobles, beyond minor Goetia servants.
Strong enough to kill most threats.
Strong enough to stand in a fight with an Overlord and live.
Not strong enough to win.
Not yet.
But in seventeen years
before canon begins
with six fully formed Rings and the full evolution of Resonance
I would become something else.
Something beyond demon hierarchy.
Something beyond Alastor.
Something neither Hell nor Heaven understood.
A force built from harmony inside chaos.
A creature born from order inside sin.
A cultivator in a world that had no word for cultivation.
And the Third Ring kept spinning, begging for the shackles to break.
But not tonight.
Not yet.
Preparation came first.