---
The system acknowledged the command inside Sekhmet's mind, but the night around him did not pause politely to let hidden order finish its work.
The warehouse still breathed in ugly ways.
Not with confidence. But with the aftermath.
Somewhere in the deeper lane, one of the wounded was still trying not to sob. Another man made the wet, panicked sounds of someone who had lost enough blood to understand death was in the room but had not yet accepted that it had chosen him specifically. A third had dragged himself half under a broken loading frame and was holding his breath so hard it had become its own advertisement.
Sekhmet's gaze shifted across the ruined floor.
Not everyone inside had died.
Of course not.
A raid like this was not a clean line drawn between living and dead. It was a jagged thing. Some fell fast. Some broke late. Some hid. Some bled slower than they deserved.
Bat Bat noticed the same thing almost immediately.
