Chapter 283 - 283: 283 THE SHADOW OF SEKHMET

283 THE SHADOW OF SEKHMET

A forest of lethal points hovered around him, humming with …. A restrained force.

Damen's muscles tensed instinctively but he did not raise his guard.

He could feel it.The strands weren't targeting him… They were evaluating. They recognized him.

Then, slowly, the metal tips lowered.

They did not see him as a threat.

Damen exhaled quietly.

"Wake up, Eryn," he said again, this time gripping her shoulder more firmly and giving her a slight shake.

There was still nothing.

Her body was here…. But her mind was somewhere else.

Then—

A whisper threaded through the air.

"Help her… help my daughter."

Damen froze.

He remembered that voice.

"Zalira?" he muttered.

He scanned the crater. There was no one around.

"She can't hear you," the voice continued — not around him, but inside him.

He stilled.

"You're in my head," he said quietly.

"Yes."

The presence was gentle, but laced with urgency.

It was Zalira, the ghost of Eryn's mother.

"How do I help her?" Damen asked, his tone sharpening. "She's not under psychic attack. There's nothing to fight."

"She has gone inward," Zalira replied. "Into the Source. Into the fracture of her own mind."

Damen's jaw tightened. "What?"

"She drew too much from the well," Zalira continued. "The power awakened something within her…. Her inner demon. If she faces it alone, she may not return."

Damen looked at Eryn's vacant stare.

"Then send me in."

There was a brief silence.

"I will guide you," Zalira said softly.

The world shifted and the crater dissolved.Sound collapsed into a distant echo.

In the next instant, Damen felt his body go weightless — not falling, not rising, but unmoored.

His consciousness was pulled free.

"Good," he said quietly, "Eryn wake up."

-----

[The Silver City Museum of Antiquity]

The roof of the Silver City Museum of Antiquity arched overhead in a vast glass dome, sunlight cascading onto the exhibits below.

The light shattered.

A winged vessel tore through the dome in an explosion of glass and steel, crashing into the museum floor. Shards rained like crystalline hail as the ship unfolded mid-impact — wings retracting, hull shifting — transforming into a towering humanoid mecha.

The Silver Valkyrie had arrived.

Unlike Liorea's personal-sized Steel Valkyrie, this was a warship-class construct — nearly half the size of Project Hermes.

Its silver armor gleamed beneath the broken dome as internal systems stabilized. Inside its compact five-seat bridge sat Liorea, Lander, Dorin, and Isabelline. A holographic projection of Kail flickered before them.

"Now that we're inside," Liorea said, scanning the interior schematics, "where do we find Professor Arkon?"

"I'm accessing the available security feeds," Kail replied. "Stand by."

Dorin frowned. "Shouldn't we disembark? We can't exactly search the museum in this thing without leveling it."

"Splitting up would be faster," Isabelline added.

Lander shook his head. "We don't know what's inside here. Leaving the ship's protection could be dangerous."

"Stay put," Kail said. "I'll locate him."

The rear hatch opened. A swarm of reconnaissance drones streamed out into the museum corridors.

Liorea nodded. "We move when the drones confirm the professor's location."

Moments later—

"He's in the Prehistoric Section," Kail reported.

"Good," Liorea said.

Instead of lowering the ramp, the Silver Valkyrie's shoulder cannons rotated and fired.

"What are you doing?" Dorin shouted.

"Making a shortcut."

A section of the museum wall detonated.

The Silver Valkyrie surged forward, crushing through debris and ancient displays until it reached the Prehistoric wing.

Amid broken stone columns and scattered relics stood a man clutching scrolls and tablets.

He stared up in outrage. "You can't just break into a museum and vandalize the heritage of our race!"

The mech lowered to one knee. The bridge canopy opened.

Lander stepped out. "Professor Arkon. It's me — Lander Strong, from Strong & West Agency. Remember me?"

Arkon adjusted his glasses, recognition dawning upon him. "Detective Strong? What is the meaning of this?"

"We need your help," Lander said. "It's about saving the city."

Liorea and the others remained inside the cockpit.

"We stay on the ship. Let Lander bring the professor over", she said.

Alien sightings had been reported across Silver City. The museum was far from secure.

Suddenly, small shadows began slipping from the fractured corners of the museum halls.

"I am detecting multiple intruders," Kail warned, his hologram flickering urgently.

"What intruders?" Liorea demanded.

"Shadow Hounds… and Shadow Lions."

On the holoscreens, lean black shapes crawled over rubble and broken displays — canine forms with ember-red eyes and elongated limbs, followed by larger feline beasts moving with predatory coordination.

"What are they?" Dorin whispered. "What are these monsters?"

The Silver Valkyrie straightened instantly, armor plates shifting as shoulder cannons locked into position.

"What about Lander and the professor?" Dorin pressed.

"We don't have a choice," Liorea replied. "If we don't deal with these things now, they'll reach them anyway."

"She's right," Kail added. "The ship will draw their focus."

The autocannons roared.

Shadow Hounds lunged from every direction, their bodies shredding under gunfire — yet many survived long enough to slam into the mech.

Claws sparked against reinforced alloy. The entire structure trembled as more creatures piled on.

"Can the ship withstand this?" Isabelline asked.

"My Silver Valkyrie is reinforced with reinforced top-tier metallurgy and layered force fields," Liorea answered steadily. "Rank 5A defensive class. It costs me a fortune, it will hold."

Dorin's gaze remained fixed on another screen. "The ship might survive. But Lander and the professor won't."

In the Prehistoric Section, several lion-like creatures closed in.

Lander drew his pistol and fired. The shots cracked through the chamber — but the bullets barely penetrated the beasts' shadow-thick hides.

Something felt wrong.

Across the city, alien sightings had been chaotic and scattered. But here — they were converging.

"Why are there so many aliens here?" Lander growled, backing toward Arkon. "They weren't this concentrated anywhere else. What do they want with this museum?"

Professor Arkon's voice trembled.

"They may not be after the museum… They may be after me."

And then—

The opposite wall exploded inward.

Stone and dust billowed through the hall as something vast stepped through the breach.

A lioness emerged from the haze — powerful, poised, and unnatural.

Her golden coat gleamed over sculpted muscle, each movement deliberate and silent. Her amber eyes burned with ancient intelligence.

From her broad shoulders unfurled immense wings of burnished gold, their shadowed tips stirring the air with a slow, commanding beat.

She did not prowl.

She hovered.

"What the hell is that?" Dorin whispered.

No one answered.

Only Professor Arkon stepped forward, trembling — not in fear, but in awe.

"That…" he breathed, his eyes wide, "that is the Shadow of Sekhmet."

"I have finally seen her with my own eyes."