Nezzar

Part One: Do Not Blink

"Since you refuse to answer me, I should take some worship from you too. It has been so long, you see. Trapped here. Stealing eyes. Trying to get back what was taken from me."

The black mist drifted towards Sekhmet. She gritted her teeth as it advanced, watching with hardened eyes as they began to curl around her feet. It tickled at first then the rising heat came. Stiffening, Sekhmet readied her mind.

"Don't you think you have had enough?"

Sekhmet's gaze snapped to the mouth of the cave. A hooded figure strolled in.

A memory clawed at the back of Sekhmet's mind. She was missing something vital. She had been doing something with Amon-Ra and Sobek.

"Allow me this one chance before you feed," Marduk said, voice breathy with his plea.

"No," the hooded figure replied. "You have drained Sobek enough. At this rate, there will be nothing to gain when I devour him."

Devour... what does—

Apophis was the Devourer.

The realisation came like the clap of thunder. She, Amon-Ra, and Sobek were to face Apophis when everything suddenly went black. There had been a blinding pain in her neck. Spreading. Taking her strength with it. The worst of fate had struck her. To fall into the hands of the Devourer. No. He was roving catastrophe itself. The never-satisfied one. Now she understood why she could not summon her powers. His venom was still active.

Trembling, Sekhmet tried to find her voice. "Apophis, I—"

"No." The single word pressed her to the wall like a large invisible hand. "You will not speak. You will remain silent as you watch how I pay those who treated me worse than a dog when I forgot who I was."

Raw terror sawed through her, biting, chewing, and fanning utterly useless desperation to flee. Unlike getting cut down by an angel, if Apophis devoured her, she would not wake up in the outer darkness. No. She would be trapped in him instead, unable to leave, unable to form an independent thought. Abilities harvested. And the never-ending physical torture that came with the process.

Her only hope of escape was I AM rebuking the Devourer. Or another spirit of equal or more strength defeating him. Perhaps an angel could—

Sekhmet cursed her panicking mind. The probability of any of those occurring was low. It was clear the Devourer had learned his lesson from the last time he got rebuked. He was more calculating now, less brash than the last time he existed as Apophis.

Finally stopping in front of Sobek's kneeling form, Apophis lifted a white arm from the folds of his robe. With an arc of his palm, the vines holding Sobek grew taunt and pulled the reptilian god until his clawed feet hovered a few inches off the ground.

Sekhmet fought to twist away but try as she may she could not turn from the horror about to ensue. A force held her in place, preventing her from performing a simple action as blinking.

"Yes, watch." With his other hand, Apophis pushed his hood away, revealing a bald scaly head and completely black eyes.

A drawn-out grunt pushed past Sobek's tightly shut maws. His small eyes had come back alive, enlarging when they recognised the Devourer before his face.

Apophis' robe fell from his shoulders and pooled at his feet before vanishing like parchments consumed with fire. He had the appearance of a white marble statue, unpolished and stiff. Then he opened his mouth. The corners split, revealing deep pink flesh as they tore up to the base of his ears. Thin strings of amber slid down his chin. Squelching sounds interluded the display as his arms fused to his torso. His legs melted as one then lengthened to a coiling fat tail. In but a moment, his humanoid frame had morphed into a large heaving white cobra, its colossal size making the cave seem ten times smaller.