Sin Rouge didn't sleep that night.
Most of the district still partied, unaware anything had changed music pounding, lights flashing, souls drowning themselves in distraction…
…but inside Malerion's war room, the atmosphere was sharp enough to cut through bone.
The table was full.
Dreg leaned forward with arms crossed, jaw tight.
Quill had three holographic screens open at once, hands moving fast.
Rafe sat perfectly calm but his eyes were sharper than knives.
And Verosika?
She sat beside Malerion not as decoration, not as a guest, but someone who belonged there more than she wanted to admit. Her arms were crossed, expression unreadable, but her eyes stayed close to him.
The meeting began without ceremony.
Quill zoomed in on the encrypted message projected above the table the same one Malerion received earlier.
No signature.
Just a mark:
A single carved crescent thin, sharp, deliberate.
Quill exhaled through his teeth.
"This wasn't a normal intrusion," he said. "It wasn't brute force, and it wasn't random.
Whoever sent this got through three layered systems without triggering alarms."
Rafe leaned forward.
"And the reason we did detect it…?"
Quill spek The only thing worth someone like that's attention in ouroboros is your new power system malerion.
Verosika looked at Malerion slowly, studying him like she was replaying everything she thought she understood.
Dreg finally spoke, voice flat:
"Someone out there noticed the power shift. Someone who shouldn't be able to."
Bit raised a hand.
"So… is it Goetia?"
"No," Rafe answered before anyone else could. "If it were the court, or especially Paimon, there would've been a crest, a seal, or a formal challenge. This"
He pointed at the crescent.
"isn't a warning.
It's an invitation."
Liz narrowed her eyes.
"Or bait."
Quill nodded once.
"It came from Envy. That's all I could trace before the route collapsed."
At that, the room shifted.
Wrath had been brutal.
Lust was chaotic.
But Envy?
Envy was watching. Always watching.
Skit swallowed.
"So someone in Sixth Ring wants Malerion's attention."
Verosika scoffed quietly.
"They already have it."
Malerion finally spoke calm, even, steady:
"They wanted me to notice. So now we notice them."
Doona tapped her notebook.
"Do we treat this as a threat?"
Rafe answered first.
"A message with no name means one of two things:
either they're too arrogant to think they need one
or they're powerful enough that revealing it would be redundant."
Dreg grinned, a sharp, predatory smile.
"So which is it?"
Quill flicked his fingers and the crescent symbol magnified.
"We don't know yet. But whoever did this operates through information, code, and infiltration not muscle."
Liz murmured:
"Someone who watches before striking."
A beat.
Someone whispered:
"…A Watcher."
The name wasn't official.
Wasn't confirmed.
But the room accepted it instantly.
Malerion leaned back in his chair, expression unreadable until a faint, knowing smirk touched his mouth.
"Then we'll hunt a Watcher."
Skit blinked.
"How? We don't even know who they are."
Malerion stood.
Everyone straightened subconsciously even Verosika.
"No one hides forever," he said. Not from us."
His gaze swept the room his inner circle, forged through war, loyalty, blood, and chosen trust.
"Ouroboros does not wait."
Dreg grinned wider.
Rafe smirked.
Quill's fingers moved faster.
Doona scribbled strategies.
Liz observed with quiet approval.
Skit and Bit cracked their knuckles.
And Verosika?
She watched him with something dangerous behind her eyes
Pride.
Something she never expected to feel for anyone again.
Malerion finished:
"We find them."
"And when we do," Dreg growled, "we make sure they regret looking in our direction."
For the first time since the Fifth Ring breakthrough…
Malerion felt it.
A new front ,opponent beginning.
The serpent was growing.
Malerion stared at the sky and deep inside his soul Alastor spoke calmly, let's just hope it wasn't envy
And somewhere in the Sixth Ring…
the Watcher smiled back.