My Space-Time System

637  Corruption and Rituals

The book titled, Corruption, exposed Blake to a term that was foreign to most of the human race but extremely important.

From the onset of creation, the term corruption didn't exist as the Mother-stream only controlled life and death. However, all that ended during Valerius' betrayal of the realm, which led to the opening of the barrier.

With the troops of Neons that managed to make it into the universe, came Pure evil known as Anti-life or corruption; whichever one wished to call it. The worst part of the situation was that even when the Neons were dealt with, the corruption remained. Although it is actively being restricted from spreading by the Mother-stream it still manages to infiltrate multiple areas and infect things unfortunate enough to encounter it.

Contrary to what one might think, Anti-life or corruption doesn't outrightly kill an unfortunate target (at least most of the time), instead it takes full control of the target leading to all sorts of mutations.

The mutations were not only physical but also magical. The powers of the unfortunate hosts not only became twisted and distorted, but the infected also began awakening irregular abilities outside the pathways.

Dusk stalkers were one-eyed corrupted humanoid creatures with pale-purple skin tones. They usually possessed larger than no heads, wrinkled skin, and a lanky physique that was poor for combat but optimum for speed and stealth. Unlike almost every creature in the southern continent that was physically dangerous, the combat capabilities of the Dusks stalkers were abysmal. In fact, if put against a champion realm human, the chances of the human coming out on top were extremely high.

However, Dusk stalkers had a unique kind of strength that made them one of the most dangerous creatures in the Black zone, Stalking.

The mutation of these corrupted creatures gave them affinity to the darkness element as well as darkness-related abilities. No one knows if it was a result of their original element being Darkness or an external factor altogether. However, this trait made them masters of stealth, who are almost undetectable even by Peak Angels.

This laid a foundation for one of the most insane abilities Blake had ever heard about, Instant Death.

"What do you mean by Instant Death?" Brian was terrified.

"When a target has been stalked for a certain period by the Dusk Stalker, Instant automatically activates, killing the target on sight." Blake explained causing the group to go pale as they realize what would have happened to one of them if Blake hadn't informed them on time.

"I think that explains what happened to the unfortunate member of the joint expedition." Damon rubbed his hand on his chin and asked. "How do we counter it?"

"You don't… at least from the little I know." Blake shook his head and continued. "Dusk stalkers are rare and at the same time extremely difficult to discover talk less of capturing. The only reason I knew about its presence was my Foresight ability that warned me of the extreme danger about to

befall us. It was only from it that I was able to deduce what we were dealing

with."

"According to the book, they're instances where people in the main realm tried to capture dusk stalkers, but it never ended well. Even if you are able to discover a Dusk stalker, it still doesn't interrupt the stalking ability. So as long as you don't kill it in time, the Instant Death ability will still activate." Blake explained.

"So we should just keep running any time we encounter one?" Camilla couldn't help but ask.

"Exactly, although I doubt we would constantly be on the run, as dusk stalkers are rare." Blake answered. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Wow, the first thing we met on this continent is a very rare corrupted creature, what wonderful luck we have." Brian said with a tone that oozed with sarcasm.

"Ignoring Brian's tone, why do I have a feeling that the Dusk stalker isn't the only rare kind of creature we will meet?" Tessie expressed her concern.

"Then your intuition will be correct..." Cassius answered as darkness formed a projection of his body.

"If you remember correctly, I mentioned that there was something wrong with the southern continent. The presence of a corrupted creature most likely means there are more of them. Corruption is highly contagious, and from what I have seen so far, it explains the oddity in the environment." Cassius further went on to explain the deductions he had made with their little discovery.

"But what could lead to corruption on a continent-scale?" Blake couldn't help but ask, especially since this prison was sealed from interacting with anything outside.

"A ritual… A Deity-level ritual." Cassius rubbed his chin as he answered in a pondering tone, before going on to explain in detail.

"Corruption shouldn't be present in this prison, meaning it was brought in by something or someone. The someone could be Azkelwart as he is the only one who could leave the prison but that is unlikely as he shows no signs of corruption."

"As for the second option; the only thing I know that could bypass the seal of this prison is a ritual. Although I don't have the details of it, Valerius conducted a ritual to bring you here, but that coupled with his injuries from our battle completely drained him forcing him into a slumber."

What even made him certain that the ritual wasn't the source of the corruption was that Blake and everyone else from Earth were still normal, and there were no reported cases of corruption in any of the empires.

"Conducting a ritual is basically establishing a connection with the Mother-stream to make a special request. And of course, one must pay an equivalent price for the request to be granted. It is most likely during this exchange that corruption found its way into the seal. However, I have no clue what the motive of the ritual might be." Cassius explained.

"I have a feeling that we would only get to know at the spire." Blake said.

Their main purpose of coming to the Southern continent was for setting the human race free. So staying in the pocket dimension wasn't an option.

After close to an hour, the group finally decided to return to the Black zone and continue their journey to the Spire.