The fracture happened without ceremony.
Sekhmet moved first.
There was no warning, no declaration, no dramatic speech to mark the moment alliances snapped. One second the chamber was thick with tension; the next, it was war.
Atlas closed the distance in a single step.
He did not test her. He did not circle.
He punched her.
His fist drove straight into her abdomen with enough force to collapse stone towers. The impact thundered through the chamber, splitting the floor beneath her boots and sending a shockwave rippling through the air.
Sekhmet's body bent around the strike.
For half a second.
Then she grinned.
She flew backward regardless, blasted through three frost pillars before slamming into the far wall of the citadel. Ice exploded outward in shards and dust.
She stood up immediately.
Spitting blood.
Laughing.
"I was waiting for this!" she shouted, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Finally—someone worth hitting back!"
