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He realized then that the transformation did not only change appearance. It changed hunger. It changed priorities. It turned men into something else.
And that something else was now standing between Lily and the kobols outside.
Sekhmet’s mind raced.
If Lily woke now and saw her guards like this, she would scream.
If she screamed, the kobols would find them.
If the kobols found them, they would die.
And if Lily saw Sekhmet covered in blood with ghoul guards, she might not trust him enough to travel with him again.
Sekhmet’s jaw clenched.
"I will tell her the truth in the city."
Not here.
Not in purgatory.
Not while he was still learning what he was.
He turned to the guards, voice low, commanding.
"You two," he said. "You can still think. You can still listen."
The first guard’s jaw flexed.
"Yes," he rasped.
The second guard’s eyes flicked to Lily, then back to Sekhmet.
"What are we," he demanded, voice rough and frightened.
Sekhmet forced his voice steady.
"You are alive," he said again. "And you are strong enough to hold a line."
The cave mouth echoed with kobol voices now.
"Smell human!"
"Inside!"
"Break!"
TapTapTap!
The kobols were about to push into the narrow entrance.
Sekhmet made his decision.
He lifted Lily in his arms again.
"Hold the entrance," he told the guards.
The guards blinked, confused.
"You want us to... fight," the second guard said.
"Yes," Sekhmet said.
The first guard’s face twitched.
"And you," he rasped.
Sekhmet’s voice hardened.
"I take her to a safe place," he said. "You delay them."
The second guard’s expression twisted.
"You are leaving us," he accused.
Sekhmet’s eyes narrowed.
"I am using you," Sekhmet admitted bluntly. "Like purgatory uses everyone. But you have a better chance now than you had as bleeding men."
The guard flinched.
Sekhmet leaned closer, voice low and sharp.
"If you want to live," he said, "you fight. If you want to die, you can sit and cry about your face."
Bat Bat snorted.
"Cry face," it repeated, amused.
Sekhmet ignored the bat.
He looked at both guards.
"You do not look human anymore," he said, voice quieter. "If she sees you like this, she will fear you. She will fear me."
The first guard’s eyes flickered.
His voice came out rough but honest.
"She might," he said.
Sekhmet nodded once.
"And I cannot afford that," Sekhmet said.
He did not explain further. He did not need to. The guards understood enough.
They stood.
Their bodies moved differently now. Faster. More fluid. Less pain. Their wounds still existed, but they looked less fatal. The blood they lost had been replaced by something else.
Hunger.
The first guard took his spear from the ground, grip tightening.
The second guard grabbed his sword again. His fingers looked longer, nails sharp enough to be weapons on their own.
They positioned themselves at the cave mouth.
Outside, kobol shapes appeared in the opening, eyes glowing.
KRAAAH!
The first kobol shoved forward, knife raised.
The first guard lunged and stabbed.
Shhk!
The kobol screamed and fell, but two more replaced it instantly.
Sekhmet did not wait to watch the outcome.
He turned and stepped deeper into the cave, away from the entrance, toward the darker back section where stone formed a natural pocket.
He focused inward. He touched the void connection.
The Void Land.
The gift from the Void Lord. His emergency.
Sekhmet whispered, voice low.
"Open."
The space in front of him shivered.
Whooom...
A thin tear appeared in the air, like darkness folding into itself. Not a portal of bright light. A doorway of void, swallowing sound. The edges rippled faintly.
Sekhmet stepped close enough to feel cold from it. The void smelled like nothing.
He carried Lily through.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the world shifted.
The cave vanished.
Purgatory air vanished.
Sound became muted, like the universe had put its hands over its ears.
He stood in a dark land of floating stone and calm emptiness. The void land was not a city. Not a room. It was a pocket of space shaped by void principles. The ground was solid but felt unreal under his feet, like standing on hardened shadow.
Dim purple-gray haze hovered in the distance. Far away, jagged floating rocks drifted slowly, suspended in endless quiet.
Bat Bat fluttered in after him, eyes wide.
"Wow," it whispered.
Sekhmet did not care about wonder.
He laid Lily down gently on the ground. The void land did not feel cold to her skin. It felt neutral, like a room that refused to choose temperature.
Lily’s breathing remained steady.
Sekhmet’s chest tightened with relief.
She was hidden now.
Safe, at least for a few minutes.
But the system’s earlier condition stabbed into his mind.
He could not stay here long. Ten minutes, maybe. Less, with his chaos energy still strained.
Sekhmet turned to Bat Bat.
"Stay with her," he ordered.
Bat Bat puffed up.
"I boss," it repeated.
"Guard," Sekhmet corrected.
Bat Bat nodded seriously.
"I guard Lily," it said.
Sekhmet hesitated, then spoke more quietly.
"If she wakes," he said, "do not let her leave the void land. Keep her calm."
Bat Bat blinked. "Calm," it repeated, then added proudly, "I pee calm."
Sekhmet’s jaw tightened.
"Do not pee on her," he hissed.
Bat Bat looked offended.
"I not pee Lily," it promised, then paused. "Maybe kobol."
Sekhmet did not have time to argue with a bat’s moral logic. He turned back toward the portal.
The void land was a hiding place, not a solution.
He still had to survive outside. He still had to deal with kobols. He still had to deal with the guards he turned.
And he still had to deal with himself.
Sekhmet stepped back through the tear.
Whooom...
Sound returned instantly.
Clang!
Screams.
Kobol howls.
KRAAAH!
The guards were fighting at the narrow entrance.
The first guard had his spear buried in a kobol’s chest, lifting it off the ground like a pinned insect.
Shhk!