Evan’s POV

“Oi! Oi! Wake up!”

A voice could be heard as Evan woke up. His headache wasn’t any better, but with a voice screaming in his ear there really wasn’t much he could do.

“Alright. Alright. Geez mother do you really have to wake my up!”

There was a moment of silence before the voice was heard again, this time shouting.

“What in the world made you think I’m your mother?! Do I look like a female to you!”

Evan was truly awake now. Having severe headaches, but awake. He swiveled his head around finally realizing that he was in the glade of peace. No one should have been able to enter the glade since he used his mana to set up a shield to keep outsiders away. He turned his head to the other side of the bed and saw a man around the age of 25 wearing armor that shined like the sun with a sword sheathed on his belt.

“Hero!”,Evan yelled in surprise while jumping back grabbing a dagger out of the air as it materialized,”you're suppose to be dead! Or at least older. Why do you still look like that!”

The hero has a offended look on his face,”I am dead. And you don’t like this look? It was when I sealed part of my soul into the book, I retained the form I had when I bound my soul to it.”

Evan then took note of the book next to him. He had forgotten that he brought it with him to bed. The book had runes crisscrossing it and was glowing a small bit. Evan hadn’t taken notice of it until just then the headaches messed with him a bit. He saw a small tether connecting the book with the lifelike image of the Hero.

“So what are you doing here then? Why did your soul finally show itself? Did your actual body die?”,Evan asked while letting go of the dagger. Letting it vanish into thin air.

“Let's see where to start”,the hero tapped his chin while having a thinking expression plastered on his face,”Well I should begin from when I left the tree then. Let’s see I left the tree after leaving part of myself behind. Then I went to fight the demon lord. Went down with him. Then I wake up now and have been watching you sleep from the past 3 days.”

Evan nodded throughout the entire explanation. Then registered the words past 3 days.

“How long have I been out?”

The hero shrugged his shoulders holding his hands up helplessly,

“I don’t know. Remember I was brought back 3 days ago.”

Evan looked towards his latest paint which was painted two months ago. He calculated the aging of the paint. Albeit it was difficult to concentrate on the paint when his head was throbbing he finally came to a conclusion.

I’ve been out for almost 3 weeks?! That should be impossible. It's just a headache right?

“By the way”,the hero commented while staring at the painting that Evan has created a couple decades ago. The one named Beauty.

“What is with your mana? That doesn’t seem to be Mirana’s mana. Seems darker.”

“What?!”,Evan exclaimed while checking his mana source. It seemed normal to him. Same color as always.

“There’s no problem with my mana what are you on about?”

“No problem?! A mana source that dark should have killed you already.”

Evan thought the hero was just messing with him. His mana looked perfectly fine to him.

“You won’t believe it without seeing it I guess”

The hero raised his hand and waved. Evan felt a bit of mana leaving his body.

When was the hero able to do that?

Evan stared disbelieving at the little ball of green mana. Then watched as the green was slowly replaced with a inky black.

“What?!”,Evan exclaimed.

Thats whats inside of me? What is that?

The hero looked seriously at the mana.

“This mana was from Mirana… I can feel her aura in it… Why? Unless… no!”

The hero’s expression changed. He looked a bit frantic and started to shout at Evan.

“Has Mirana been absorbing anything foreign?!”

Evan recoiled at the sudden yelling because of the headache he still had,”What? Mother absorbing something? Yeah, she's been absorbing the monster crystals I’ve been collecting. Why?”

“How many! How many has she absorbed?!”,the hero was yelling even more now almost in a panicked state.

Evan was catching onto the hero’s tone and realized something must be wrong,”She’s absorbed at least a thousand. What’s wrong with them?”

“I don’t really understand it myself, but I remember the exact same aura coming from the demon lord. I think he called it the aura of corruption.”

“Yes before the demon lord died he said to not let the aura of corruption take the world. Funnily enough I died from the wounds inflicted a minute later.”

The hero seemed to have calmed down enough to even make a joke. Albeit at his own expense.

“This aura of corruption. Can you remove it?”

Evan was shivering at the thought of that black mana coursing through his veins. The hero looked like he was hesitating before finally saying.

“Are you sure? You will at least half your magic power, maybe even more depending on how much is in your system. The process will be painful and you will be weakened.”

“It’s fine”,Evan replied,”No one can get into the glade anyway so I’ll be able to recover.

“Alright then, prepare yourself”

The hero raised both his hands and Evan felt all the strength flow out of him. He watched as mana enough to cover the entire glade flowed out of him. Then watched in horror as the mana turned black. The last image before he collapsed onto the bed again was the mana condensing into a single black pellet. Right before completely blacking out a giggling female voice could be heard.

Teehee… I’m finally free... Relax... I’ll take control… Big brother...