Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2834

The memory ended, leaving Cassie alarmed and disturbed.

‘It... can't be.'

She had glimpsed too much in Torment's tainted mind.

She had glimpsed things that she should have never seen.

She had delved into the alien mind of her Defiled past self, and now...

Cassie felt something changing inside of her.

Something seemed to have died, and something seemed to have been born. Something seemed to have moved in her heart, and something seemed to stop in her soul.

Her very being was writhing in pain of a transformation as everything that comprised her, that was her, struggled against the vile rebirth. A force more terrifying than anything she could imagine was trying to change her, while a power she never knew she possessed was trying to preserve her.

She knew what was happening to her all too well.

It was Corruption.

‘No, no, no...'

Knowledge was the origin of all power. It was also the heaviest thing in the world. And, sometimes, it was the most dangerous thing in the world, too.

It was forbidden knowledge that had corrupted the First Seeker, after all. And once that knowledge spread, the Defilement was born.

By witnessing a memory of Torment, Cassie had exposed herself to Corruption. And now, her soul was at risk of becoming infected by the vile darkness.

‘Calm... down.'

She tried to compose herself, soothing her reeling mind with logic and reason. Corruption, in and of itself, was not that dangerous. No... actually, there was nothing more perilous than Corruption in the world. But it also took different shapes and shapes — people tended to think of it as a monolithic force, but it wasn't.

There was an almost endless variety to Corruption. There had to be, considering that its source — the primordial Void — was ever-changing. It could have different origins and conjure different ends. The causes of Corruption differed in potency, as well.

Take the most modest form it took, for example — the Seeds of Nightmare that bloomed in the hearts of Aspirants. Merely forming a soul core was enough to destroy these seeds. Countless Sleepers had done it with the help of the Spell, while Rain did it all by herself, while Awakening naturally. More than that, there were hundreds of millions of people who carried the Seeds of Nightmares in their hearts, but never succumbed to Corruption simply because the power of the Domains they belonged to — the power of their Sovereigns — suppressed the Seeds, preventing them from blossoming.

The Path of Ascension was inherently opposed to Corruption. Therefore, the higher one climbed on it, the more resistant to Corruption they became.

So even if Cassie had been infected by Corruption because of Torment's memory, it did not mean that she would succumb to it. She could resist it, as well.

In fact, she was ready to fight against it to her very last breath.

But to do that... she needed to know what was happening to her first.

She needed to finish piecing herself together and gain full control of her mind, her soul, and her Will.

‘I need to focus.'

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