Malerion didn't need magic to know the air felt wrong.
The neon outside Sin Rouge flickered with a rhythm that didn't belong to the Lust Ring too sharp, too tense, too aware. The slums breathed differently tonight, as if something was sliding across the edges of their reality.
A predator.
Not one he could see.
But one he could feel.
He stood on the balcony above his district, overlooking the maze of glowing signs and cracked tiles. The usual chaos had thinned. Street vendors whispered instead of yelled. Gangs stayed inside. Lovers hurried home.
Even the wind felt colder.
Inside him, Alastor's voice crackled like old radio static.
"You feel it too."
Malerion nodded.
"Of course I do."
He wasn't talking to Alastor
He was talking to the air, to the signals, to the subtle ripples carried through the Lust Ring's emotional current.
His cultivation sharpened these senses.
Resonance pulsed faintly from the Fourth Ring inside hima slow, steady heartbeat of power that tuned him into everything around.
Tonight, the district vibrated with one emotion:
Fear.
Not the chaotic kind they fed on in battlenot rage, not despair, not lust.
This was organized fear.
Political fear.
Targeted fear.
Quill approached behind him carefully, rubbing oil stains off his hands with a rag.
"You're feeling it too, aren't you?"
Malerion didn't glance back.
"Everyone is too quiet. Even the territory itself."
Quill leaned on the railing beside him, goggles reflecting pink lantern light.
"Something big moved earlier," he said. "Information tides shifted. Contacts went silent. A few merchants disappeared. Donnie's sources are panicking. Even the less paranoid ones."
Malerion inhaled slowly.
"Lesser Goetia."
Quill blinked.
"You figured it out too?"
Malerion's eyes narrowed.
"They're not strong enough to confront a Corvus prince."
"Which means they'll try to erase whatever they think he noticed."
Quill exhaled.
"So… us."
Malerion nodded once, calm as the still air.
"Yes."
The wind rippled across the balcony then soft, but carrying more than just temperature.
A faint echo.
A murmur.
A whisper of intent.
Malerion closed his eyes.
His resonance pulsed.
And suddenly
He heard them.
Not words. Not voices.
Fear vibrations.
Intent threads.
Whispers carried through the Lust Ring's emotional field.
Cut them off.
Remove the disturbance.
Erase the anomaly.
Before Corvus looks this way again.
The mental noise snapped out as quickly as it came
but it was enough.
Malerion opened his eyes.
"You heard that?" Quill asked, uneasy.
"Yes." Malerion's voice was soft, controlled.
"They're acting already."
At that moment, Donnie rushed onto the balcony, breathless.
"We've got confirmation," she said.
"An entire lesser Goetia circle met tonight. Secret. Formal. Full attendance."
She handed Malerion a piece of parchment a spy's sketch of the sigils etched into their meeting table.
Five lesser houses.
Five predators cornered by fear.
"Do you know what they discussed?" Malerion asked.
Donnie hesitated.
Then:
"They voted… unanimously… to eliminate Sin Rouge's influence before Vael returns."
Skit and Bit, who had crept up behind her without anyone noticing, erupted in panic.
"We're too young to die!" Skit wailed.
"We're not even fully paid yet!" Bit screamed.
Liza simply crossed her arms.
"Tch. They won't come directly. Too cowardly."
Dreg cracked his knuckles, jaw clenched in anticipation.
"Let them try."
Malerion lifted a hand gently, and everyone quieted.
"No," he said.
"We do not panic. We do not strike first. We do not show fear."
Alastor purred with approval inside him.
"Spoken like someone who understands power."
Malerion stepped forward to the edge of the balcony, staring down at the quieted streets below.
"They don't know what I am," he said calmly.
"They don't understand my cultivation. My resonance. My growth."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
Inside him, the Fourth Ring pulsed
a steady, grounded leviathan of strength he could feel in every limb.
"They think removing me will be easy."
He opened his eyes again.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"They are wrong."
Donnie exhaled, tension easing.
Quill nodded once, gripping the railing with resolve.
Dreg's smile became dangerous.
Even the imp brothers stood a little straighter.
Malerion turned toward his inner circle.
"Prepare quietly," he said.
"No panic. No rumors. No aggression."
He looked toward the slums.
"Let the lesser Goetia make their first move."
A final whisper of resonance vibrated through him
a warning and a promise.
This wouldn't remain in shadows for long.
The Lust Ring was about to ignite.
And Malerion… would be ready.