Nilrem had to advance carefully and slowly to avoid detection by any of the craving ones, they seemed to have been stripped of any logical thinking or ability to assess situations, they wouldn't react of one of the others had suddenly dropped dead when their back was turned, they only cared about noises and what they saw.
This made them exceptionally easy to take out and avoid, only when they unknowingly assumed smart positions was it harder but their slugginess and long time to react to Nilrem allowed him to just sprint in front of them and be hidden from their sights before they even realised he was someone they wanted to devour.
Then, they would walk up to the thing they saw and most of the time, be killed.
Nilrem was trying to somewhat catch up the Gluttony, he felt like it would be best to know where she was, the grunts and complaints of the cravings ones would completely cover up the sound of her quit footsteps, he wouldn't want to just bump into her by accident.
Also, if she was to head for the great magus, he would need to distract her, he couldn't just let her get to him, as powerful as he was, a cardinal sin would certainly not be in his capacity to defeat.
Continuing like this and making sure to be as stealthy and silent as possible, he soon managed to catch up to the sin, it was fairly easy since she was only walking and with her size, she hadn't gone that far.
Suddenly, she stopped in the center of four conjoining hallways and looked over at a flight of stairs leading down, she looked around some more as if she was looking for a landmark or some indication before walking toward the stairs.
Nilrem started to wonder how she had managed to get everyone in the academy in so little time if she was always going at that speed, anyone could have outrun her, especially if a panic had occured and everyone had run in different directions.
Surely, she could go much faster if needed.
She walked down the steps, one at a time, one foot down and then the other before descending another step, it was incredibly lengthy to walk down such a small staircase.
He stayed at a reasonable distance, waiting for her to get a bit ahead before risking taking the stairs himself, if she were to take a look behind her, he wouldn't be able to just get away without a corner or a room at hand.
She once again marked a stop once she finished going down the stairs, Nilrem couldn't see her face from where he was but the sight must have been harrowing as she slightly tilted her head back and let grostesque, tentacle-like tongue out, it squirmed around lightly before she retrieved it back and turned around.
"A flame infused liver, a delicious marrow, surprisingly interesting gums and..." she spoke in a soft voice but certainly not a childish one.
Her perpetually open eyes scanned the area atop the stairs as Nilrem stayed as still and silent as possible.
"Someone with tasty bottled up feelings, where are you? I don't need anything else from you... I won't eat you..." her mouth shifted into a monstruous smile as it extended up to the side of her eyes and above, almost forming a perfect circle of jagged teeth.
"I swear" the same tongues as before appeared from maws in her palms and pulled her up back at the top of the stairs as she started searching the area.
Before she could get to him, Nilrem grabbed a vial and threw it outside of her sight far away.
The sound of glass shattering caught her attention but she wasn't as easy to trick as the craving ones, she didn't went there and simple sent a tongue covered in teeth to search the place for herself.
'Crap...' he couldn't go anywhere without being seen and if he ran, she would hear him for certain, she never blinked and she seemed to be looking everwhere at once as her tongues tasted the air in search of her prey.
She was going to find him no matter what he did, so he prepared to try the impossible but it seemed like he wasn't out of luck, before she could reach him, something caught her attention in full.
Nilrem felt it too, the powerful wave of mana washing over him, he knew that feeling well.
'The great magus has opened his tower...' he thought, for the wave to reach him there, the magus was well aware that an intruder was there.
Gluttony's tongues started quivering like crazy.
"A mana core? In a human? What a delicacy!" she spoke and with only the sound of wind rustling, she was gone, clearly, when food was involved, her speed was completely different.
Nilrem quickly stepped out of his hiding place, almost slipping in the saliva the sin had left everywhere, things had gotten worse, it wasn't him who was in danger but the great magus.
He ran as quickly as he could but even as his best speed, he couldn't even catch a sight of the sin, the fight had already been engaged once he got there.
It was nothing like he had seen before, with his tower right behind him, the magus could freely cast spells without much worry about running out of mana, it was a firework show of incredibly precise and deadly spells.
Yet, as if she was only having candies thrown at her, instead of trying to dodge Gluttony went out of her way to catch every single spell to devour them.
In the grasp of her maws, the spells cracked and were consumed like any other food, her burlap cloak was nowhere to be seen in the sea of mouths, teeth and tongues, had he not known better, Nilrem could have thought an eldritch horror had appeared right here and there.
Whenever a spell injured her, she would recover by eating the damaged part and restoring it immediately, as powerful as the great magus was, he wouldn't be able to overwhelm her, it was a battle of attrition he couldn't win.
'Can I do anything?' he wondered as he tried to analyse the situation.
Did Gluttony have any opening? Was the magus trying to do something? Could she even be defeated at all with what they had?
His stress piled up but he couldn't let it alter his judgement.