She scrambled to her feet and extended a finger with a razor-sharp claw on the end before crouching down next to the monster’s carcass and slitting it open about the middle. The stench that rose from the creature was indescribably foul. Undeterred by the smell, I stepped forward and crouched down beside Astrid.

“This is where you find the core?”

She nodded, then gagged. “I can’t quite bring myself to put my hand in there.”

I gave her a look. “I’ll do it.”

“Thanks,” she said, backing off.

It seemed only right for me to do this disgusting task. After all, it was me who would benefit the most from having the monster in the mansion’s database. Holding my breath and encouraging myself with thoughts of having a summonable giant undead cobra in my arsenal, I plunged my right hand inside the monster’s corpse. I rummaged around until my hand came up against a hard, cold, flat surface. Gathering my strength and willpower, I plunged my hand in a bit deeper and got a grip on the slick object.

A thick sludge of half-rotten innards spilled out as I hauled the Putrefied Cobra’s creature core out into the open air and held it up. It was slick with the creature’s juices, and it looked evil. The object was shaped like a pyramid and was about the size of my clenched fist, as the others had been, but unlike the others, this one was black. Not the elegant, shining black of obsidian, but a matt, empty black, like a total absence.

“It’s corrupted,” said Belinda quietly. “The core is corrupted.”

“I’ve heard of this kind of thing happening,” said Selena, “corrupted creature cores. But I’ve never seen one. It’s horrible!”

The women kept talking, but I found myself tuning out, their voices fading as the corrupted core pulled at my awareness. It sat in my hand, cold, wet, and heavier than it looked. The blackness of its surface was absolute void. There was fucking nothing there; just a deep, horrible emptiness.

And then, like a spark of light at the bottom of a well, I felt something stirring. There was something in there, deep within the core, not quite an awareness, but a presence. A spirit.

It called to me, and I dived after it, feeling my attention giving it power. Then, just like blowing on a spark to make it flare into a self-sustaining flame, the presence leaped up and became a life force. I saw to the heart of it, and saw there a noble, wild creature.

It was the Cobra—uncorrupted, untainted, as it would have been if it had been left alone and never been guided in cultivation by a human. It was a powerful, beautiful, strong animal, and in a flash, I understood that the evil taint had come from outside and put it on the path of corruption.