"Hey Luna, are you sure that you know where my brother is?"
"I don't know where he is exactly, but this should be the right direction."
The only problem is that when I asked the trees they told me that the village is also that way. I hope that we find Rax before reaching it or things might get complicated.
"Sis!"
"Rax!"
A young boy comes running at us from the trees. Xania seems happy to find her brother safe, she tries to step forward to meet him, but I don't let her get past me. The boy stops in front of me and looks up at my face, I crouch slightly and then punch him on the stomach sending him flying until he crashes against a tree.
"Eeeh!?" Xania watches in shock as her 'brother' falls on his back, reverting to the usual blue-skinned and lanky body of a shapeshifter.
"That was a shapeshifter?"
"You couldn't tell? You were working with one of them before and he was trying to impersonate your brother."
"But that transformation was perfect. How could you tell?"
"Perfect? He didn't look anything like Rax. The eyes were half a millimeter higher, the ears were a full millimeter shorter, the nose was a bit less pointy..."
"Ok, ok, I get it. You never let anything less than perfection get past you."
Wind mages, illusionists, and shapeshifters. Are the demons that entered the forest some kind of spy squad? Well, if that was the best that they can do there's no way that any of them will be able to trick me, at least not if they transform into someone I know. I guess I'm good at detecting illusions.
A few minutes later we run into another two elves.
"Are you the one who's been helping us against those invaders? We would like to invite you to our village."
I throw a punch at their faces with each of my hands and both shapeshifters get knocked out at the same time.
Are these guys even trying? I know that I said that they needed to transform into someone I don't know, but there's no way that a real elf would invite me to their village or even talk so casually to me in the first place.
Still, punching them when they looked like that was oddly satisfying... Uh, that's not something that I should be thinking.
I ask the trees once again if they have seen Rax. I hope that they cannot be deceived by shapeshifters; I don't think that they can.
"Xania, there's a problem. It seems that your brother is in the elf village."
"That's better than the demons catching him. Do you think that they won't give him back to us?"
"They will if I'm insistent enough, don't worry. But I don't want to go there at all. I guess at least we don't need to hurry anymore."
I signal Xania to stop with my hand.
"Is something wrong?"
"There's a demon ahead. He made himself invisible with some magic, did he think that I would not notice him?"
"Most people tend to not notice things that are invisible..."
The demon throws two objects at us, I can sense some wind magic on them. Both me and Xania manage to duck in time to avoid them, which is a good thing because several trees get cut down when the weapons fly back to their owner.
A figure wearing a dark green cloak materializes after turning off his invisibility. Now I can see what he has on his hands, are those boomerangs? That's an unusual weapon.
"Luna, I've seen that guy before, I think that he's a demon lord. Watch out, he could be dang... what am I saying, you're Luna, of course he's not dangerous."
"Xania, so you have decided to betray us." He says.
"I think that it would be more accurate to say that you are the ones who betrayed me."
"That woman next to you. Is she the so-called 'queen of darkness'? Her intimidation skill is certainly strong, but it won't work on me."
Intimidation skill? What is he talking about? I'm not doing anything.
"Just so you know, there's no way that you can beat her," Xania warns him with an exasperated tone. The cloaked demon turns to look at me and we make eye contact for the first time.
"S-stop that! I told you that it's not going to work! If you are trying so hard to intimidate me it must mean that you must not be all that strong."
"I'm not trying to intimidate you. All I'm doing is standing here."
Without saying another word, he throws his boomerangs at me. With my new skill, I can actually predict their trajectory, I wonder if I can catch them with my hands...
I place one of my hands in front of one of the flying weapons, but it cuts my fingers in half, those things are sharper than I thought. I see a smile on the demon's face, but it disappears the next moment as my fingers stop falling and move upwards instead, getting reattached to my hand.
Next, he aims for my face. If I'm not mistaken, those things are only sharp on the edges. If I can grab them from the right angle and with perfect timing, I think that I won't get cut. I can at least calculate the correct place and time, will I be able to do it?
...
No, I wasn't able to do it. Both of the boomerangs hit my face head-on, but at least they couldn't get past my skull. It seems like my body is just not fast enough to keep up with my mind.
"I see..." My spells are much faster and more precise. As expected, a mage should focus on magic to fight after all.
"What do you mean you 'see'? You have those things going through your eyes..." Xania's voice sounds defeated for some reason. She seems to be following the same pattern as Nera of just giving up after getting to know me for a while.
"I didn't mean that literally."
The boomerangs vanish and appear again in the hands of the demon, is that a skill to recover one's weapons? When he sees my eyes regenerate in an instant he stares at me looking like he doesn't know what to do.
"Use that attack again."
"I... I give up, I don't..."
"Use that attack again, please."
"Yes! Please spare my life!"
Why is he so scared about me asking him to do something? I even said please.
This time I'll use a small mana push to stop the attack. A mana push is nothing more than using one's raw mana to create a force, it doesn't even count as a spell so I've not even considered using it in battle until now. I know that many other mages use it for its casting speed so I should have probably tried this sooner.
The boomerangs are sent back. I was only planning to stop them, but it seems like I used a bit more strength than necessary and they end up piercing the ground right in front of the demon, who falls on his butt.
I walk to him slowly, so that he doesn't get even more scared than he already seems to be.
"Thank you for helping me test a few things. I don't need you anymore."
He fainted... didn't Xania say that this guy was supposed to be a demon lord?
Xania gets closer and looks at him with a thoughtful expression.
"These guys seem a bit too much just to capture my brother, and they also attacked those elves. Are they trying to take over the forest? But why would anyone want to do such a thing? Is a lot of work for very little reward."
"Maybe that Kalroth guy wants to control all of the demon wasteland?"
"That could be... if that's the case, you might have saved this forest by defeating these guys."
"I'm not sure if that's a good thing."
If I'm honest, I really do not like this place. The way that other elves treat me makes me want to hate them back, and their way of living stands against everything I believe in. But I know that hatred never leads to anything good, I need to stay rational and not let my emotions get the better of me.
It's just that... I actually think that getting rid of this forest would be doing them a favor. If they were forced to leave they would get to experience what freedom feels like, perhaps then they would consider changing their ways.
Uh, just thinking about that makes me feel like a part of me is going away from my body. Of course, that's all only my personal opinion. It would be far too arrogant of me to assume that my way of living is the correct one, and it's not like the elves are hurting other people by staying in their forests. I have no right to force others to change their ways, and those demons have even less of a right. I won't let them destroy this forest.
"Luna..." Xania taps me on the shoulder and points at some trees that are being transformed into dark trees. It seems like a bunch of my mana just expanded around me. So that's what I felt leaving my body.
Now that I look around, the trees that already had an element are unchanged, but there's a lot of normal trees being transformed, further than I can even see. What's really weird is that some strange purple fruit the size of my head seems to be growing from those trees.
"What is that?"
Some of the fruits fall to the ground, and from inside, small monsters come out. They look just like the imps I summon.
"Luna, is that supposed to happen?"
"No, I've never heard about anything like this..."
A couple of imps run to another normal tree and start biting it. The tree then transforms into a dark tree and fruit begins to grow on it as well.
When I look around again, I see hundreds of imps running around everywhere. What's going on here?
How does Luna manage to be so hilarious, yet also so terrifying?
The interaction with that demon lord sure is hilarious but understandable to be scary for him (dismemberment healed, eyes healed while also failing to pierce skull even though she would survive that anyway, her very scary presence on top of it and her “requests” as well).
Despite reading so many books, she lacks the self-awareness to realize that she used a classic bad guy line.
Thanks for the chapter.
I wonder if enough trees change into the dark type, will the forest also wish for change? And Luna might be too powerful for the forest to offer her much. It'll be more like the forest depending on Luna instead.
Or could it be that the forest heard Luna and took the initiative to change so that it isn't destroyed?
Should be that her mana reacted to her will (mana reacts to especially dark mana that makes the world as you want it) and started making that thought of hers a reality.
I feel like the forest really don't care what kind of trees they are. They just kindof get along with whatever's thrown at them.
seen Rax, I hope that they cannot be deceived by shapeshifters, I don't think -> Rax. I ...shapeshifters; I
want to go there at all, I guess at -> all. I
of course, he's not dangerous." -> remove comma
faster and more precise, as expected, a mage -> precise. As
personal opinion, it would be far too arrogant -> opinion. It
“I guess I'm good at detecting illusions.”
Both that and being able to spot any flaws, no matter how minor
Luna got to punch some shapeshifters disguised as elves huh? How cathartic for her.
Xania’s flat reaction to Luna saying “I see” when she has boomerangs in her eyes was great
Luna saves the forest only to accidentally doom it to being all dark element and therefore subject to change and ending the long standing self sustaining stasis it had. The rest of the world will assume this was intentional and that Luna has now conquered the elven forest
Thank you.
I wonder if someone sufficiently powerful (of different elements) were to transform those normal elf trees would fruit with their summon show up (or maybe exclusive to basic element imp?)? Or is this an exclusively dark tree thing? Would this happen with only Luna or any elf with dark element? At the very least, I believe her mana was reacting to her will and as such it spread out to start turning all the normal trees and the imps will finish it.
Good thing those imps themselves should be pretty much harmless, though this does mean the scenic view of the elf forest will be ruined. Whoops but oh well.
Thanks for the chapter. Its great to see Luna's ability to cause unintended disaster expand. Just accidentally convert the forest into dark trees, probably changing the elves living there.
Luna is a “normal” elf (at least it says so on her status). The other elves may call her a “dark elf” but that just means she is an elf with a dark attribute. Turning the trees should have no relation to effecting the elves directly. That being said, it likely will cause them much inconvenience and have them move.
@Ediav42
Elven culture focuses on listening to the will and desires of the forest.
The dark element is the element that wishes for change.
The forest's trees soak up and gain aspects of an element.
The majority of the trees in the forest are currently gaining the dark element, which desires change.
The way that the elves manage to sustain itself and gain a long life is by listening to the will of the forest, which is now becoming completely dominated by the dark element, and also gaining an aspect that will instantly turn any regular tree that sprouts immediately to the dark element.
With all the trees being dark element, there will never be a chance for another tree of another element to be born again.
Therefore, Luna has created a situation in which the elves literally have no choice but to change in some way. From now on, the forest will demand it, and the elves must follow the will of the forest. It's either change their culture while remaining in the forest or change their culture by moving from the forest. Either way, it's a change.
The fruit of the imp horde will take over the whole forest ahaha
This literally happened right after Luna wished for the forest to change and for the Elves to change their way of life. Whatever's happening with these dark trees, I think it's going to do exactly what Luna just wished for one way or another.
Sounds like Kalroth has already taken control of the village. I guess the next question is, do the real elves know it yet?
Ah no matter how long of a chapter you write it's too short
Thanks for the chapter.