翁公和媛媛在厨房里猛烈进出

With that clarity, I could recall my most important memories, just for a single fleeting second, but that was all I needed.

My past experiences and memories shaped me into the person I am today, so when the lake of corruption took them all away, I was nothing—no identity or thoughts.

Just a blank canvas.

Rolling over onto my backside, I stared down into the pitch-black void below the glass floor, actually admiring it for once.

Where had the lake of corruption gone?

Straight into my body.

Every single vein of my body flowed with corruption as my blood intermingled with the pitch-black corruption in my body.

No longer was I limited to a single arrow... I could create an entire quiver and hundreds of arrows at the same time.

More than that, I had discovered something new.

Corruption was a living being just like me.

It could move and form living objects, just like how the corrupted had come together earlier to form that corrupted figure I fought.

I could create living and moving things if I used enough corruption...

After lying down and silently staring into the night-black abyss below for a couple more minutes, I finally mustered the energy to stand up.

Using some of the newfound corruption in my body, I manifested bandages and placed them all over my body to stop the blood from leaking.

Limping across the invisible glass floor, I slowly approached the tree before slumping down against the trunk.

Looking up, I saw the log now colored a perfect dark brown, and every single leaf was colored a pure green with no blemishes.

All the cracks in the tree had healed, and the tree was even growing, new branches sprouting out of the trunk every second.

It was no longer corrupted.

The tree is back to its original state.

More than that, as I continued glancing up the tree, I saw a shiny golden fruit hanging from one of the branches, just waiting to be picked.

"ah... it can wait."

Climbing up this tree and picking that golden apple in my current state was just impossible.

Anyways... I was tired.

Finally, giving into the burden on my eyelids, I closed my eyes, seeing the familiar sight of pure darkness.

"...For someone with the best eyesight in the world, I\'ve been seeing darkness a whole lot recently..."

Using the log as a pillow, I leaned back and slowly drifted asleep. Even in this creepy outer-space-like area where I had almost died countless times, I immediately fell asleep.

-*-

Tapping her foot anxiously while staring at the closed portal on the ground, Liana resisted the urge to use her power and break the entire fairy-like space in half.

"You said to do what I wanted, right? This is what I want to do. Blame yourself for this!"

That what was the boy had said before jumping into the portal.

Just when she had started to feel sympathy for him, he had been so infuriating.

How could someone be so annoying and sad at the same time???

Reeling her thoughts, Liana focused on the real problem at hand.

The tree, what would become of it... now that a human had entered the portal.

What would become of the human?

The elves, herself, and their forest... what would happen?

He knew the future, didn\'t he?

Did he know something about the tree that Liana didn\'t know?

He doesn\'t seem like the type to go into situations without planning... but then again, Liana had only chatted with him for less than twenty minutes.

As countless questions swirled inside Liana\'s head, she realized that there was nothing she could do at the moment.

Walking to one of the beds, Liana laid down, but didn\'t close her eyes; instead, she stared through the window and at the pitch-black sky.

Just letting time pass by, Liana emptied her mind of her worries while enjoying the moment of silence.

How long had it been... since she was able to relax?

Would she have seen this sky had she sacrificed herself earlier in the ritual?

*CRASH*

A sudden flash appeared and blinded Liana\'s eyes. She instinctively looked at the portal she had been closely eying the entire time.

As the portal opened up, Liana jumped off the bed and ran to the magic circle, only to see the masked boy walk out of the portal.

His clothes were practically non-existent as his shirt was ripped in pieces, revealing his chest, and the bottom half of his legs were also visible.

But, despite those large areas of no clothes, almost none of his skin was visible.

He was covered in bandages, which, for some reason, were pitch-black.

As Liana stared at the emerging masked figure in shock, he spoke before Liana could say anything.

"Look for yourself; the tree is fine."

Flicking away from the masked figure to the window, she immediately noticed that the grass was healed as it was colored a lush green, and the trees had completely healed.

More than that, the space was no longer dark...

A bright sun illuminated the entire area, making the space feel even more fairy-tale-like as the green grass and tree leaves seemed to frolic in happiness under the sun\'s rays.

Hearing a mutter from the masked figure, she turned around from the window.

"happily ever after, my ass..."

Collapsing on the bed, Liana was just lying on, the masked figure put his head on the pillow and went silent.

At a loss for words, Liana stared at the slumped masked figure for a moment before sighing.

"I-i don\'t know what happened in there... but I must thank you. Not for just saving the entire elven kingdom... but for saving me as well..."

However, the masked figure was unable to respond as Liana quickly noticed he was asleep...

*CRASH*

The next second, the masked figure rolled off the bed and onto the hard wood floor of the hut.

But... that was not what made the loud crashing noise.

His decent to the floor had actually been silent.

On a wall across from the sleeping figure, there was a pitch-black mask lying down...

It had flown off his head when he fell off the bed.