Endyr was, in fact, very much not dead. Actually, "very much" would be an incorrect statement, since she was dangerously close to death and could slip into it at any moment from all the blood loss. As Jester and Bartholomeus stared down at her, she was focusing every iota of willpower on herself, trying to contain her leaking blood and stop herself from crying out in pain.
The plan had been simple: first, escape the chains bonding her and then escape the cells, then the laboratory, and eventually the citadel. Of course, "simple" here just meant it was straightforward, not that it would be easy. On the contrary, Endyr doubted she could pull off the first step. But with certain death awaiting her by staying put, and a potential resurrection down the line, she was feeling up to at least trying her luck. To accomplish the first step, she decided to pull off the classical technique: gnawing off her chin limbs.
Not entirely of course, since she would need her arms, legs and obviously, her head. But by slicing the flesh under and around the chains, with a healthy amount of blood as lube, she had successfully wiggled her way out of the chains. Doing the same for the one on her neck had been far more dangerous, but she had done it successfully without dying of a blood haemorrhage. It hurt like fuck though, and no amount of experience with pain helped it go away. Thankfully, the biology of an Abomination was quite remarkable: she could actively control her muscles and circulatory system to stop herself from dying. Similarly, she was able to mute the pain somewhat even if she couldn't eliminate it. She swore to inflict three times as much pain upon the ones who trapped her here in the first place, but that was just an empty bluff.
Half the people in this city would be dead in several; centuries, and anyone who survived would obviously be far above her. Still, what did an immortal have if not grudges? And Endyr was certainly determined to regain her former status. She had old debts to settle, and goals to complete. But enough but the future, lets focus on the present.
A major part of her plan involved avoiding the senses of all the powerful Ascenders within the citadel. Bartholomeus, the weakest person she had seen so far, was an Epic Tier Ascender, and seemed relatively far into that stage too. Jester, Belgemir, Fallacy, Serapis and Tamar seemed to be split across the various stages of Supreme and Sacred, but none of them were Gods either. This point bothered her slightly, since the Canons of every Church called them Gods during the Third Era, but she chalked it up to what people defined as a "God" being different than current day. Indeed, Sovereigns and higher were too far removed from normalcy to be called mortals. 'Hmmm, perhaps they can be called Pseudo-Gods, or Demigods?'
Endyr briefly contemplated how to classify Jester and Serapis but gave up after a second. Regardless of that, she could sense that Serapis and Tamar were on the cusp of reaching Divine Tier, so they were more than enough to squash her like a bug. In order to hide from them, she had turned to the System for advice. And the answer she received was...
[Host should make use of their connection to the Plane of Infinity to hide from the eyes of others. While Host is unable to see their Status, it does exist. Furthermore, the Skill {Archaic Dialect} is still in Host's possession. Using that, Host should be able to sneak past the two approaching, as well as everyone else in the citadel. Of course, this excludes the likes of {Serapis}, {Tamar}, {Fallacy} and the {Almighty}. Host can only pray they have cast their gazes elsewhere.]
"And what about the stench of blood that will follow after I remove the chains?"
[Host can alter their biology to remove the blood's scent. And before you ask, yes Host can do this. Do not underestimate your new vessel. From what the System has managed to analysis about the Infinite Universe, Abominations as a species are firmly seated at the pinnacle of evolution, or near it at least.]
Endyr's heart skipped a beat at that information. "The Abominations exist outside Orvonia?
[....Host does not have enough Authority to access this information.]
Realising it had let too much slip, the System, fell silent and refused to answer any more questions. It stated Endyr had everything she needed to attempt an escape, though it didn't mention her chances of success. She didn't want to hear them anyways!
Jump forward several hours, and here she was. Crumpled up in a mangled ball, bleeding profusely from self-inflicted wounds. Sure enough, neither Jester nor Bartholomeus had detected her abnormalities as they approached. Her blood was scentless and tasteless while her Mana pattern had almost completely vanished, just like when she was chained up. Once she became aware of the duo's presence, and they became aware of her condition, the second step of the plan began. Staying completely still, she listened in on what the two were saying now.
"...What do we tell Rapelt?" Bartholomeus asked with a sunken expression. Jester pinched his lips together as he stared into space in thought for several seconds before shrugging and raising his hands in the air. "Hell if I know" he answered breezily. Though Endyr couldn't see it, a vein throbbed on the old man's forehead at the remark. "This is your fault" he blamed in a raspy voice. "If you hadn't distracted me earlier, I could have gotten here in time to stop the Abomination. You can be the one to explain to the Almighty what happened here!"
Bartholomeus was being unfair here, since Endyr had enacted her plan long before he set out to retrieve her. That's why she was so close to death, after all. She had misjudged how long till the execution and had lost too much blood while waiting. She obviously didn't mention this of course, and was more than happy that the two were fighting. 'Easier for me to escape from this place if they're trying to kill each other' she thought.
"Now you listen here, old man. A professional" Jester stressed the word clearly, "wouldn't have been distracted by the rambling of a child, now would they? In short, this problem is your fault! You can tell Rapelt what happened to his sacrifice!"
"You stupid brat, you used your status to draw my attention! You practically hypnotised me! How could an Epic like me resist a Sacred like you? Furthermore, since you're a higher Tier than me, you should have sensed something wrong! You fucked this up, so you take accountability!"
Jester scowled heavily before relaxing, a playful smile on his lips. "But I'm just a little boy, a child! As a wise and experienced elder, shouldn't you have noticed something wrong? This is your lab, after all. We all know how much of a paranoid control-freak you are. No way you wouldn't have surveillance measures set up to watch the beast."
Bartholomeus fell silent at that, failing to find a good rebuttal. In truth, his security features had failed to go off when the Abomination killed itself. In that regard, the blame truly fell upon him. Seeing that Bartholomeus had fallen silent, triumph glistened in Jester's eyes as he shot the Abomination one last glance before turning away. "Well, I'm not so cruel to leave you stranded like this. I'll head back to Rapelt and try to buy you some time to think of a story. Be quick though, you know Tamar has a fiery temperament when she gets annoyed."
With that, the boy swaggered out the door and left Bartholomeus' sight. Swallowing a bitter curse, he ran his hands through his sparse hair as he tried to come up with a plan. To tell the truth, the failure of the ritual wasn't even that big a deal. However, the people had been riled up and were expecting a show, and the Almighty was meant to personally observe the ceremony. No ritual meant to crows would be displeased, and that meant a blow to the Almighty's reputation.
Death was the least of your concern over such a thing.
Deciding to deal with the corpse first, he released his Mana and lifted the Abomination's body out of the hole. Dumping it unceremoniously to the side, he subconsciously looked out the doorway to see if anyone was approaching. As such, he missed Endyr rise slightly, and the gleam of claws that suddenly extended. As he turned back to her, his eyes widened just before she sunk her obsidian claws into his gut.