The smoke cleared away, leaving a tall, ethereal-looking woman in its place. She sat there, perched on the stone pedestal, eyebrows raised in surprise as she stared down at her hands. A look of complete befuddlement was on her face. Wondrous. Equal parts confused and awed.

Finally, she looked up and locked eyes with Ari. She had long, flowing hair of cloudy blue crystal, and her irises were the same composition of the just-vanished Core: a shimmering prism of infinite colors.

She was, in a word, otherworldly.

Slowly, she raised an imperious hand to the side, gesturing for the advancing vampire to halt—though it already had in confusion.

“What,” the woman said, “did you just do to me?”

Ari could barely respond. She was ensnared by the woman’s rainbow irises. There was something ancient lurking behind that human facade. Her [Transform] ability might have worked, but had it created a personality as it did most monster girls? No. Merely placed the Core into a body. The unknowable thing still held full reign; she sounded, more or less, the same as she had before. Not by tone, obviously, but … her.

Maybe changed in some way, though? She had to hope that. Because if not, then Ari was still, y’know, dead.

“And why,” the Core continued slowly, “do I have the urge to breed with you?”

If Ari hadn’t almost been killed, such an unexpected question might have forced a laugh out. Instead, she stared, wide-eyed. “It comes … with the skill, I guess?” She’d forgotten about the whole sex part of her transform ability. She’d only used it to save her life.

The woman pushed off the pedestal, dropping to her feet in a movement that would have a panther looking clumsy. She stalked forward, and Ari quailed at her advance. A dismissive hand gesture sent the vampire scurrying away.

“You’ve modified my mind,” the woman said. “I feel it. I’ve been changed. Fundamentally.”

“In my defense,” Ari said, retreating from the Core, until suddenly, her back connected with a solid wall, and she had nowhere else to go. “You were going to kill me.”

“Because you interfered with my creation. It was a reasonable response.” She arrived, then slapped a hand against the wall next to Ari’s head. She leaned forward, and Ari had no idea if she was more intimidated, scared, or … unfortunately, aroused. This woman—this creature—had a presence. It pressed down onto her, even without accounting for her proximity. The way she leaned so close Ari could study each of the thousand, crystalline colors of her irises, and feel her breath on her face. “Or …” she said slowly. “That’s what I thought.”

“Um,” Ari said. Despite the severity of the situation, she was finding it intensely difficult to focus on the Core’s words. “T-Thought? Past tense?”

“You changed me.” Her nose wrinkled. “Cut something out of my mind. You have me questioning whether I … overreacted.” She traced a cold fingernail down Ari’s cheek. “I don’t like questioning myself.”

“Sorry?” Really, Ari should not be turned on, right now. Focus. This was literally the first time in her adventuring career she was facing a possibly lethal situation. She should not be wondering what those long, elegant fingers could do, or what kinds of noises this otherworldly woman would make if Ari played with her.

“Mm.” The Core cradled Ari’s chin in two fingers, turning her head side to side. Ari swallowed. “I suppose it isn’t wholly a bad thing. I haven’t been … reduced. Rather, expanded. New emotions. New concepts. But you’ve drained my clarity, stolen my conviction. You’ve left me with … unproductive thoughts.” Her eyes dipped down, then back up, making it clear what she meant. “Ones irrelevant to my singular purpose,” she emphasized.

“And that is?”

“Expanding my domain.”

Ari swallowed. “So, um. But that means … you’re not going to kill me?”

“Perhaps not,” the Core said. She leaned close to Ari’s ear. “I have better uses for you, I now realize.”

A cold hand pressed onto Ari’s stomach, then slowly slid down, burning where it passed. Ari started panting, the excitement of the situation—and the flood of whiplashing, intense emotions—making everything that much harder to sort through. Her head spun.

“Better uses?” she gasped.

“There’s much to learn, I’m realizing. From you. And not just in … this way.” Punctuating the end of the statement, a firm pressure—the Core’s adventuring hand finally arriving—pressing into Ari’s center. She whined, wiggling her hips in anticipation.

“Like … what?” It was nearly impossible to focus on the reality of the situation. To not just give in and let herself be played with. But her footing, her safety, was still too tenuous. She didn’t know what was going on, or how this all would end.

Two digits sank into Ari, then curled forward, eliciting a spike of pleasure up Ari’s spine. She cried out and bent forward, hugging the strange woman, and pressing her forehead into her shoulder.

“As I said, you’ve opened my eyes,” the Core replied. “Expansion … it should be my singular goal. But your abilities. Your existence at all. It means something.”

“It does?” She tried to ignore the powerful, curling fingers thrusting in and out. Should she fight back? She didn’t think that would go well. The Core was an even more powerful entity than Victoria. The master of this entire dungeon, an unknown. Better to let her have what she wanted, so long as it meant Ari’s well being wasn’t compromised.

And she really knew how to use her fingers.

“And the outside world,” the Core said curiously. “I never considered it. What’s it like?” Her lips curled in amusement. She leaned forward and whispered. “Moreover, can it be conquered? Added to my domain? How did I never question this?”

The thrusting picked up pace. Ari groaned, falling backward into the wall, her legs shaking as she was thoroughly, expertly finger fucked. She tried to think about what the Core had just said. It was important, obviously. Then again, what could Ari do about it? Anything? She was just trying to make it out of this surreal situation alive.

The Core got down on her knees, then buried her head between Ari’s legs. Ari dug her fingers into her hair, instantly, feeling the long strands of soft, glass-like material. She wondered at it. The tresses weren’t like anything she’d ever seen. Almost everything about this woman was unique.

And she was just as good with her tongue as her fingers.

She lasted barely a minute before she was coming apart, losing the second fight of her adventuring career. She cried out, pushing the Core’s head deeper between her legs, shaking as burning euphoria rushed through her. The Core wiggled her head side to side, brushing her nose into her shaved pubic region. It was such an amazing sight, and doubly so with those celestial irises locked with hers.

Finally, the Core pulled out of Ari, satisfied that she’d taken Ari apart so easily. She stood and kissed her. Ari tasted herself, head swimming and barely staying standing, even leaned against the wall for support like she was.

“Now,” the Core said. “I want some answers.”