As Endyr trekked down the forest trail, she came to the abrupt and strange realisation that she was a dead Abomination walking.
This statement was based on three very important discoveries: first, her Mana-Infinity conversion was starting to die down. While she had recovered a fair bit on the surface, it was literally just skin tissue growing over her wounds. She was still missing a significant amount blood, bone marrow, and muscle internally. This was partially her fault though, since she redirected the Infinity energy to directly provide stamina instead of healing her body. But now, whatever part of her body kept up the conversion had reached its limit and she was slowing down.
The second thing that hinted at her impending doom: the city walls had most certainly been reinforced to stop her from climbing over them again. As the saying in the Main Universe went, "never underestimate the work efficiency of a God and "His" zealous followers." Hopefully they hadn't installed aerial defences too, because Endyr saw flight as her only way into the city now.
The third, and by far the biggest, reason was that she felt the Mana level on the entire mountain be cut in half in a mere instant. She had been slowly walking between green tress and shrubbery one minute, and was pressed against the ground and struggling to breath the next. With her Abomination eyesight, she could see an ocean of Mana be pulled towards the temple in the city's centre, and a large amount of it was converted into a strange type she had never seen before.
This Mana was a grey-white with flecks of blue, purple and yellow. Recognising Air, Lightning and Water Mana combining together, Endyr made an educated guess and labelled it as Sky Mana. Lighting for lightning, Fire for the sun, Air for air, Water for rain and Gravity to tie it all together was the textbook recipe for Sky Mana.
In this time period, there were several people capable of using Sky Mana, far more than the modern era. The Dragons and Giants both possessed it and were still relatively numerous on the Borealis Continent from what history showed, and any number of powerhouses could have dipped their hands in it too. But in this city, only one such individual had the Authority to do what was happening now...
Endyr looked up to observe the massive carpet of dark clouds gathering over the city. She could see streaks of lightning flashing in and out like serpents, and the moisture in the air began to climb upwards. Paradoxically, the sun, which should have been dimmed by the clouds, only shone brighter and more gloriously. To top it off, she found it increasingly more difficult to move, like the air pressure was weighing her down. Only it wasn't the air itself, but rather the thin strands of Gravity Mana that were leaking out from the massive nimbostratus above her head.
The Almighty had discovered her escape, and "He" was pissed.
'Don't tell me he actually cared that much about that old man? I thought the stories of "Him" being infinitely benevolent and caring was just propoganda bullshit spread by the Churches! Does the death of one old man really stir "Him" that much?!'
Endyr feared a thunderbolt falling from the Heavens to smite her, but thankfully that didn't happen. Instead, the clouds cleared away after several minutes and the sky went back to normal. While she couldn't see from this distance, no one in the city seemed to have even noticed. Some sort of barrier/illusion was likely in place to keep the ignorant masses ignorant of anything wrong.
But Endyr's heart failed to rise again, because she knew that the hunt had officially begun. Her concealment was still holding up, but as seen as she ran out of Infinity energy she would be revealed like a firefly in the dark. Even Belgemir, who seemed to b the weakest out of everyone she saw in that citadel, was a Supreme Tier entity and could crush her with a simple gaze. The Almighty likely wasn't bothered with the games and pretences anymore either: instant execution was all that awaited her upon discovery.
So, she had to sneak past half a dozen of the most powerful entities Orvonia had ever seen into a city that was actively primed to resist her kind while slowly getting weaker with each passing minute, and being on a timer before she just dropped dead. 'Funnily enough, I remember one of my past Avatars was in an even worse situation once...What was it again? Something to do with a pack of Celestials...'
The one silver lining was that the Almighty was content enough to sit out the hunt "Himself". Of course, if "He" turned out to be gatekeeping the temple itself, then she would just slit her own throat and be done with it. But until she felt defeat grasping her by the neck, she wouldn't give up or surrender so easily. And so, Endyr converted as much Mana as she could in one go and poured it all into her limbs, dropping on all fours like a beast and running forward fast enough to strain against the sound barrier. She was afraid to go any faster, as it would draw attention, but made sure to toe the line as much as possible. She arrived before an isolated portion of the wall shortly after her forelimbs began to ache and exhaustion deepened its grip over her mind, but immediately ordered her wings to unfurl. She had no time to stop and take in her condition.
Letting out a hiss at the pain of her skin being sliced open and pushed aside, she took a second to get used to her new appendages before curling her wings several times as an experiment. Satisfied she could fly properly, she bounded forward in a running jump off a risen lump of soil and spread her wings as wide as she could. Thankfully this part of the wall wasn't built on a flat terrain and was facing the mountain slop[e, so she could get enough air to glide forward. Channelling her energy of Infinity, she flapped as hard as she could and managed to push herself onwards and upwards. Sailing on, she clip her left leg against the lip of the wall as she went over it, causing a sharp zap! to sound. She grimaced as a dull ache immediately made itself known.
Landing on a stone wall in a deserted square, Endyr scoured the city with her eyes to try and detect anyone targeting her. Just as she was about to relax her guard as little, she felt a large blob of Mana suddenly turn her way and begin moving straight for her. Staring her eyes more, she identified a glowing gold orb with a familiar signature. It was the same as the golden-haired man she saw with the woman in front of the temple: Rapelt.