Lust Ring was used to chaos.
To shouting, music, broken bottles on the floor.
Gangs that rose and fell in the same week.
Fear but the small kind, the everyday kind.
Today's fear was different.
It was quiet.
Heavy.
Like the air had forgotten how to move.
Not because someone died.
Demons died in Lust Ring every day.
But because something ancient had moved far above them.
Malerion had watched Prince Paimon's execution of a sinner Overlord through Alastor's senses a perfect, absolute kill delivered with frozen space and holy steel.
No one in Lust knew the details.
They only felt the echo.
And echoes were enough to make the entire ring tremble.
THE STREET REACTION Fear Without Logic
Sin Rouge didn't have to make any moves.
The panic made the moves for them.
Small gangs that had resisted for months suddenly vanished from their territories.
Others fled deeper into the slums.
Others came begging at Ouroboros's door:
"Please take our block. We don't want trouble. Just let us keep what we have."
Some left entire warehouses abandoned.
Others simply dropped their colors and ran.
Dreg watched it all unfold with a grin stretching across his face.
"Boss, this is a damn buffet."
Donnie scribbled numbers on a clipboard like she was keeping track of falling dominoes.
Rafe worked his contacts, expanding influence without lifting a blade.
Bit and Skit quietly mapped the empty spaces, the gaps, the places where territory had no owner at all.
And Malerion…
Malerion sat behind the bar, still seeing flashes of Paimon closing space like a fist, ending the foolish sinner Overlord with one precise strike.
Even Alastor's presence in his mind felt calmer than usual.
"You witnessed a demonstration of true authority," Alastor murmured.
"Hell remembers lessons like that."
SIN ROUGE LOOKS TO MALERION
Dreg leaned against the bar.
"So, boss. All these little rats are shaking. You wanna take everything now, or slow and quiet?"
Malerion lifted his gaze.
"We don't rush. We slip in where no one's looking."
Donnie nodded immediately.
"That keeps us off the radar. No ripple effects."
"Exactly."
Skit asked:
"What about the ones who want to join us? Do we take them?"
"We take the useful ones," Malerion said.
"Fear doesn't make good soldiers."
Rafe added:
"Word spreads fast. People are saying some ancient power woke up in Pride Ring. That's why everyone is freaking out. Not because of us, not because of local gangs because they think someone old and untouchable moved."
Malerion gave a quiet hum.
"Good. As long as they're looking upward, they won't notice what's happening down here."
A STRATEGY OF SHADOWS
In forty eight hours, Ouroboros accomplished more than in the last three months.
Territories surrendered without fights.
Routes offered themselves to Sin Rouge for protection.
Smaller groups begged for alliances they never would've considered before.
Rafe and Dreg spread a map on the table.
"Look at this," Rafe said, tapping red marked areas. "All of this collapsed because of Paimon. Not because of us."
"Like someone opened a door for us," Dreg said with a low laugh.
Malerion studied the map, feeling the weight of the moment.
Because what he saw through Alastor wasn't normal power…
It was the power of a Goetia prince one of the eldest.
And he…
he had stepped onto a path that could someday reach that level.
But not yet.
For now, he was a shadow.
Lust Ring didn't even know his name.
"We take these three districts," Malerion ordered.
"No more than that."
Bit frowned.
"Why not everything?"
"Because panic is a wave," Malerion answered.
And waves disappear fast. We move quietly, and no one will realize we've grown.
QUIET GROWTH
Over the next days, expansion became almost effortless.
No bloodshed, challenges Interference from bigger players.
Just organic, silent growth.
By the end of the week, Ouroboros had become one of the five largest groups in Lust Ring…
…and not a single outside force noticed the shift.
Exactly as Malerion intended.
BEHIND HIS EYES — Paimon's Lesson
When night fell, Malerion sat alone behind the bar, staring at nothing.
Every few minutes, fragments of the execution returned:
Paimon freezing space with a gesture.
Crushing an Overlord's reality.
Ending a soul with clean Holy Steel.
Alastor whispered:
"You've seen what only the highest can do."
Malerion's fingers tightened on the counter.
"Down here," he said quietly, "no one even knows why they're afraid."
"That is why you were able to grow," Alastor replied.
"Chaos above becomes opportunity below."
Malerion drew a deep breath.
Yes.
He had watched a prince enforce the law of ancient ages.
And one day
one day
he would stand among beings of that scale.
But today?
Today he would use the panic of Lust Ring.
And panic…
was the easiest tool in Hell to shape.