Chapter 1119
Changes were occurring more rapidly inside Catarina than she could properly comprehend, and that was without considering the effect she was having on the world around her. It was partially instinctual, though in many ways it was informed by what she had learned about Domination from others, as well as different cultivation paths.
Her path to Domination wouldn’t look exactly like that of Zaur Beridze. Nor would it look like Sudin, Koronis, or even Timothy. Despite the fact that he was advancing along with her, even her husband shared different perspectives on the world and on themselves.
The aesthetic shift in the platform beneath her was influenced by the Citadel of Exalted Light in part. The fact that there was a transformation, however, was not merely a choice she made. It was a fundamental part of Domination, as far as she could tell.
Unlike Assimilation, where a cultivator took an object, region, or concept and bound themselves to it to gain power, Catarina came to understand Domination functioned in almost an opposite manner. Instead of being empowered by her anchor, she was the one empowering it. That matched the growth aspects of Enrichment to some extent, but it still wasn’t quite right.
Catarina almost got caught up in the flow of energy. She wasn’t sure what would have happened if she did. Perhaps she would have died, or perhaps she would have achieved something akin to a second Ascension. The only thing that she was certain of was that she would no longer be present in the same way if she had let it happen. The anchor was not a place to store her power, though it did indeed do that.
The reason for the name made more sense. It wasn’t something to which Domination cultivators shackled themselves for no reason. Not a weakness without purpose. Instead, it was a necessary part of continued existence, at least in any way they’d previously experienced.
If Catarina let her ego speak for her, she would say she now had a greater control over the rules of reality itself. If she was more humble she might recognize that she could merely break some of the rules more easily than before.
After some indeterminable amount of time Catarina felt her connection to reality solidify once more. She was quite pleased that she hadn’t exploded. And extremely curious as to the changes her husband had wrought.
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