The Envy Ring never slept.
It watched.
Long before Ouroboros expanded into Envy, the Ring had earned its reputation:
The place where eyes mattered more than claws, where secrets were sharper than weapons, and where every shadow belonged to someone.
Tonight, those shadows belonged to him.
The Watcher.
No one called him by a real name anymore not because it was forbidden, but because no one who learned it stayed alive long enough to repeat it.
He stood at the highest ledge of the Envy market spires, a dark silhouette against the shifting neon green fog. Below him the Ring pulsed with movement:
Merchants whispering lies disguised as truths.
Smugglers weaving through labyrinthine alleys.
Information brokers trading rumors like currency.
The Watcher inhaled slowly.
He felt the disturbance in his network hours before the message reached Sin Rouge.
A surge of power masked, but not masked well enough.
An anomaly built from nothing Hell had seen.
Even Paimon's execution that ancient earthquake hadn't concerned him as much as this one.
Because unlike Paimon… this anomaly was new.
Young.
Growing.
Spreading.
And now it had reached his Ring.
The Watcher's fingers traced the small crescent shaped dagger at his hip the same crescent he carved into the note Ouroboros had received.
"So," he murmured to himself, "the serpent grows teeth."
His voice echoed strangely in the empty air. As if the Ring itself bent closer to listen.
A slender demon in a hood approached behind him, silent as mist.
"My lord," she whispered, kneeling, "the message was delivered. No trace left behind."
"Of course there wasn't," the Watcher replied. "If they could track us i would not act
She lowered her head further.
"And… do you believe Ouroboros will take the bait?"
The Watcher's chuckle rolled like velvet over broken glass.
"they already have."
His eyes pale emerald, glowing faintly with amusement swept over the swirling market far below.
"Ambitious leaders always react to invitations. Especially the ones who pretend to be patient."
He turned his gaze toward Lust Ring's direction though the horizon offered no view of it.
Only instinct.
Awareness.
Pull.
The anomaly.
Hidden inside a man.
Growing into something that did not belong to any Hell born bloodline.
The Watcher's smile widened.
"A new force emerges," he whispered. "Not Goetia. Not sinner. Not demon. Something… invented."
The hooded demon trembled.
"Should we eliminate him before Ouroboros becomes too large?"
Watcher's hand moved in a lazy arc and the demon collapsed to her knees as if gravity thickened around her bones.
She gasped for breath.
The Watcher crouched in front of her.
"You mistake me," he said softly.
"Do you think I fear a rising serpent?"
She shook her head, terrified.
He leaned closer.
"I do not kill curiosities. I study them."
Her breath hitched as the invisible pressure intensified.
"And this Malerion… is fascinating."
He released her, and she fell forward, coughing.
"Stand," he ordered. She obeyed instantly.
"Tell the others to watch Sin Rouge closely. Every movement. Every whisper. Every expansion."
"And if they expand too far?"
maybe they've grown enough but who cares?
The Watcher turned away, his cloak blending into the neon fog.
He stepped from the ledge.
Not fell.
floated.
Stepped as if gravity itself obeyed him.
And the shadows swallowed him whole.