---
Sekhmet made his choice at that exact moment. He did not step back. He did not call for retreat. He did not gamble on Raka surviving long enough for the twins to finish their own enemy and come help him. That would have been too slow. Too wasteful. Too uncertain.
Instead, he opened the Void Land.
The dark gate tore itself into existence beside the broken pillar with a deep ripping sound, like the underground itself had just been cut open by a god's fingernail. Blackness folded outward. Cold air rushed through it. The floor near the opening cracked under the pressure.
Everyone saw it.
The armored woman saw it.
The dark-clothed man saw it.
Raka saw it.
The surviving guards and hired killers saw it.
And then two women dropped out of it and landed hard on their backsides in the middle of the chamber.
"Ouch!"
That came from Sofia first.
