#him saying the ancients are half a cookie implies he and the other beasts are too

[tangents-from-an-awkward-void]

Power is the root of corruption, he's learned. The only shard of his good self hidden away in the virtue his successor holds, The Master of All Knowledge watches as the virtue ever so slowly starts to lose its way again...

--- Basically, "Shadow Milk's pre-corruption self saves a bit of his soul inside the pure part of the soul jam before he becomes the corrupted version we see today."

With an hourglass because I'm not as good at drawing those.