If taking flight was freeing, then the way Theo ran with the winds was liberating.
The flight offered undisturbed freedom, one born of speed and full of trouble Theo never thought about before.
But his run?
It felt as if he actively cast off the shackles of his old body, the shackles that he had to endure even when the cultivation of his second life reformed his flesh!
The winds screamed in his ears. The sights blended into an abstract painting, forcing him to use another glyph just to see where he was going. A small shockwave left in the wake of each step he made, tossing up the dirt and effectively leaving behind a trail marking his advance.
This sprint filled Theo's mind with the sense of extreme rush, as if he finally became what human beings were all born to be, just a smudge of speed in the slow, vast world they were born into.
And yet…
'I need to get off the road!'
Gritting his teeth, Theo pushed with all his might to do the impossible and angle his path away from the straight shot of the old, paved road.
It was the issue he didn't have to worry about when flying, for he skipped past everything down below, free from the burden of taking the world itself into account.
But right now, as he jumped from one leap to the other, moving at speeds that felt quite unreal?
Now, he had to think about the consequences of doing so.
It was the first rule of modern magic for a reason. Because with the use of the glyphs, one could turn a small amount of their own mana into a spell of a catastrophe class, easily bringing ruin to entire cities!
Even though all Theo did was run, doing so wasn't free of consequences.
Every time he stepped down, he would leave a shockwave behind, one strong enough to easily cause harm to mortals and even weaker cultivators.
If he crashed into something… or much worse, someone?
There wouldn't be a body left to bury.
Which is why, regardless of how hard it was to do at the speed at which Theo moved, he continued to stack physical effort with yet another glyph, all in a bid to change the course, even if by a minimal factor.
His physical efforts, however, even when taking into account the cultivation that supported his flesh, were nothing in the face of the speed Theo reached.
As for his glyph…
It was already the fifth one that he deployed and kept around.
A fifth sink for the world's mana around him.
Just the first three glyphs necessary to maintain his rush nearly sapped all of the mana Theo could harvest out of the air. The glyph that artificially sharpened his vision was more algorithmic in its nature, only requiring a minimal input…
Which was the only reason why Theo could afford it in the first place.
But a glyph capable of affecting his course?
'Sure, I could slow down, but…'
Theo gritted his teeth.
All the time and energy he put into raising his speed now meant it would be all the harder to slow down. And if he did so, just to alter his course, then he would have to repeat the whole process all over again!
None of the options Theo was used to would yield a satisfactory result. And with every step that he made, he raised the odds of turning some innocent travelers into a living sacrifice for his rush!
'Fuck it!'
Gritting his teeth, Theo did the unthinkable. And against all that he learned back in his original lifetime, against all the habits he established, quirks he developed and mental shortcuts he found…
He invoked the old-style magic, using his mana to directly power a spell, rather than turning it into a glyph capable of supporting itself with the world's mana.
While not exactly a criminal act by any means, it was still wasteful enough to make Theo feel as if he was committing treason against the magic itself.
But if a slight mental discomfort was the price of saving innocent lives from himself?
'Then so be it!'
Gritting his teeth, Theo ran the calculations in his mind.
If it was any other mage living a second life instead of him, putting the old-style of magic into use here wouldn't be possible either. Because no other mage ever had to be as prudent with his use of mana as Theo.
What others considered a merely good, clean and not wasteful approach to one's mana, for Theo was an absolute priority.
After all, when squaring up against other glyph-wielding mages, with his mana reserves limited to just the mere fifth realm, mana-prudency was Theo's one saving grace!
Which is why, when molding an old-style spell, Theo knew all the tricks to limit the mana-usage it required, both for the sake of making it efficient but also not to drain all of his mana just to change the direction of his run!
Out of all the rules and tricks that applied, there was one principle that stood above all else.
Simplicity.
Which is exactly why, rather than casting some sort of complicated spell with several dozen substructures added to its main frame, all Theo did was directly manifest his own mana into the form of a wind.
Then, as if he was tossing his fart away, he expelled said wind.
He only did so at the peak of each leap he made, when the anti-gravity spell of his glyph was at its weakest, granting Theo's measure the greatest possible leverage.
Poof!
Step.
Poof!
Step.
Poof!
In just three attempts, Theo saw the road below him turn into bushes.
Bushes that flattened mere moments before his foot could descend upon them, crushed by the underbelly of his anti-gravity glyph.
After all, by following the same principle of mana conservation that was so deeply ingrained into Theo's blood, rather than negating the gravity, Theo's glyph merely affected how it applied within its sphere of influence. And for every bit of gravity less within the bubble of the glyph's effect, its effects would be amplified outside of it.
Thump!
Contrary to the solid path with nothing but dust, mortar and stones to resist the increased pressure, the bushes, the grasses and even the smaller trees that Theo now started to run on top of would soak the shockwave of his step, scattering the tattered bits of the greenery while dampening the actual effects of his descent.
'I should've done it right from the start,' Theo thought, taking a mental note of this lesson.
For all his knowledge, genius and potential… right now, he was still winging it.
Be it the spirit stones manufacturing, flight, his current run or even establishing a potential relationship with the Serene household and the way he handled his sect, they were all shoddy attempts to make the most out of what Theo could do.
'I can already feel it all coming back to bite me in the ass,' he thought, only to then grit his teeth and continue.
Shoddy work, makeshift solution, improvisation or not, while not perfectly — things worked out.
And so, rather than worrying over the ins and outs of the potential consequences of speedrunning everything the way he did, Theo simply chased those thoughts away and focused on the task at hand.
Right now, all he had to do was run.
Past the caravan that departed way before him.
Past even the sect itself, which now turned into a mere landmark for Theo to guide his step rather than a goal for him to reach.
All the way to the wildlands, beyond anyone's supervision or surveillance, where Theo could finally set the stage for the next phase of his plan!