The chamber felt different once the Fifth Ring settled.
Quill felt it first the air pressure shifted just enough to make his ears pop.
Rune-plates flickered nervously, reacting to something they weren't designed to handle.
Malerion stood in the center of it all, still as a blade in its scabbard.
Not glowing or crackling with lightning. No theatrics.
Just heavier.
Like gravity had chosen a new anchor.
Quill swallowed loudly.
"…Yeah. No offense, boss, but you feel like a building that learned how to stand on two legs."
Malerion didn't answer at first.
He was too focused on the changes running through him.
The Fifth Ring wasn't loud like the Fourth.
It wasn't chaotic like the First.
Was quiet dense absolute.
Anything he did now would be sharper.
Cleaner.
More precise.
He lifted his hand.
A faint shimmer rippled around his fingers not visible light, but a distortion, like heat rising off asphalt.
Quill flinched.
"Okay, what is that? Tell me that's safe. Please tell me that's safe."
"It's resonance compression," Malerion murmured.
He closed his fist.
The distortion folded inward, tightly packed.
Before, using raw resonance always risked leaking waves accidental flares, emotional bleed, spatial tremors.
Now it obeyed like a trained muscle.
He opened his hand again.
A small pulse of waywes perfectly silent rippled outward.
One of the floating rune-plates drifted into its path.
It didn't break.
simply… stopped.
Frozen mid-air, locked in place by invisible pressure.
Quill's jaw dropped.
"Okay. That that is new. You've never done that before."
"No," Malerion admitted. "I haven't."
The Fifth Ring gave him compression the ability to condense his power to terrifying density and stability, the ability to anchor resonance so it didn't run wild.
Two abilities any Overlord would kill to possess.
Alastor's voice hummed through his mind, pleased:
"Elegant, isn't it? Controlled pressure. Exactly the kind of power that ruins egos."
Malerion ignored the commentary and released the plate.
It clattered to the floor, freed.
Next, he tried something smaller.
He inhaled, letting his senses spread outward not like before, where he had to consciously direct his perception.
Now the world came to him.
He felt:
The buzzing stress in Quill's nerves.
Faint fear-laced curiosity of demons in the building above.
Tension swirling through the district an instinctive response to his breakthrough.
Before, sensing emotions was like hearing noise underwater.
Now it was like reading ink on paper.
Perfect clarity.
He whispered:
"Emotional resonance… full-spectrum."
Quill blinked.
"Do I want to know what that means?"
"It means I can read more now," Malerion said simply.
"More layers, distance, depth.
Quill's eye twitched.
"Hooray. Fantastic. Excellent. So now you're an Overlord and a walking lie detector."
Malerion didn't deny it.
Instead, he tested the feature that surprised him most.
He lifted his hand again… and dissolved.
Not fully not visually but his physical form loosened, shifting into faint vibrations before snapping back.
Quill jumped so hard he smacked into a table.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL"
phase, Malerion said calmly.
"Sound-body transition. The Ring enhanced the ability."
It felt natural.
Like he could become vibration for a split second dodge an attack slip through a grip appear somewhere else in a blur of distortion.
Not teleportation or invisibility.
Just pure resonance movement.
Alastor purred in amusement.
"Oh, that will give someone nightmares. Please tell me you plan to use it creatively."
"Eventually," Malerion murmured.
"And what do you call it?" Quill asked, rubbing his head.
Malerion considered.
"phaes."
Quill stared.
"Okay, that one actually sounds badass."
More tests followed
Echo Guard:
A bubble of dense resonance that muted incoming force.
Sensor Bloom:
A soft outward pulse mapping emotions, hostility, and killing intent within a wide radius.
Phase Touch:
A technique that let his fingers slip through solid material for a heartbeat.
Small things.
Useful things.
But one stood above the rest.
When he closed his eyes and focused on the Fifth Ring, the entire district responded.
Every emotional thread.
whisper of fear or tension.
heartbeat within Sin Rouge.
He could anchor to them.
Not control.
manipulate.
Anchor.
He could turn the district into an extension of his perception and defense a territory ability that any overlord would kill for.
Quill noticed the slight glow in his eyes.
"What now?" he asked nervously.
Malerion opened them again, voice steady.
"…I can feel all of Sin Rouge."
Quill nearly sat down.
"Like metaphorically?"
"No."
Quill stared at him like at a god who accidentally walked into the wrong room.
"…Okay. Boss. I'm saying this with love.
Please don't ever fight inside your own territory."
Malerion allowed himself a faint smirk.
"I'll keep that in mind."
As the Fifth Ring slowly settled into its natural orbit, he felt something else too:
Expectation. Potential. A path so steep it felt like staring up a mountain.
Alastor's tone softened for once not mocking:
"The Sixth Ring will change you."
"Not today," Malerion said.
"No. But soon."
Malerion nodded.
He knew the truth.
The Fifth Ring didn't bring chaos.
It brought clarity.
It was a breakthrough
But to him?
It really was only another step.