A mysterious horde of dark creatures is invading the elven forest. They infest the magic trees to multiply themselves, turning them to the dark element, changing the very nature of the forest.

I don't know who the creator of these monsters is or what they are trying to accomplish, but their mana feels similar to mine, and they look a lot like the imps I can make. They also seem to originate from the area I'm in.

"This is bad, if someone sees me here they're going to think that I'm the one who did this."

"You ARE the one who did this! Don't try to play dumb!" Uh... if Xania is going to expose me like that then my plan of pretending that I don't know what's going on is not going to work.

But then what am I supposed to do? Those stupid imps are not listening to me, and for some reason, I cannot dispel them like usual.

Now my reputation, and by extension, the reputation of dark elves is going to get even worse... It wasn't enough for my imps to be useless, now they have actually reached negative levels of usefulness.

"Is this really a bad thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they only seem to be turning the normal trees, and you said earlier that dark trees will help elves in the same way as the other trees. So what's the problem?"

Xania has a point. In the end, the only thing that will change is that there will be more magic trees protecting the forest. Even if the elves call them 'cursed trees' they might change their mind after having them around for a while, and it's not like they're going to lose the trees of the other elements.

*munch munch*

I turn around to see a group of imp biting one of the earth trees.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

The imps are not supposed to be intelligent or have free will, right? It's starting to feel like they can tell what I'm thinking and will do everything they can to annoy me.

Let's not panic, with how weak the imps are, it's going to take them a while to do any real damage to the trees. I need to analyze the situation calmly and come up with a solution.

"Hey Luna, look. There's a group of elves coming this way." Looking in the direction where Xania is pointing I see the elves trying to hunt down the imps, how did they get here so quickly!?

It seems like there's no time to analyze the situation calmly, let's use violence instead.

'Shadow needle'

A weak spell is all it takes to destroy one of the imps. The creature then merges with the mana of my spell and takes the shape of a ball, then the ball splits into two smaller balls that then take the form of two imps.

"..."

My imps can get killed instantly by any attack... Except for my magic, apparently.

"Look! It's the dark elf! She's making more of them!"

And the elves saw me doing that. Of course they did.

"Tell your minions to stop infesting the forest! Otherwise, we'll... uh... please tell them to stop." One elf starts yelling at me, but after taking a look at me he seems to become a lot less forceful.

"They're not my minions, I don't know where they've come from."

The elf looks confused. "But we just saw you..." He stops talking for a moment when he looks up, I look down, and our eyes met. "Yes! Of course! These are not your minions at all!"

A girl that was standing behind him pushes him aside. "We just saw you making more of those things, we won't be intimidated so easily!"

Even if she says that her body is shaking and she's avoiding eye contact with me.

"Alright, it's true that I made those imps. But it was an accident! I'm trying to make them stop but they're not listening to me."

"How stupid do you think we are..."

"This time I'm telling the truth! I swear!"

While I'm thinking of a way to make them believe me, Xania grabs another elf by the collar and starts shaking him.

"Hey, you! Do you know if there's a young gray demon boy in your village?"

"I... I think I heard that someone like that had been taken to the village."

"What!? What do you mean 'taken'!?"

She's treating him very roughly, it's going to be hard to teach her to be less violent.

"He's an intruder, so he was imprisoned."

"HE WAS WHAT!?"

She's shaking him even more brutally than before, and the other elves are pointing arrows at her. I hurry up to grab her and drag her away from them.

"Everyone calm down. You don't really want to start a fight right now, do you?"

For some reason, that last line seems to have had a strong impact. All the elves nervously lower their bows.

Still, the elves who are hunting the imps are doing quite well. But the dark trees do not seem like they'll stop making more of them, it seems like there was a lot of unused dark mana in this forest, which explains why the imps are not listening to me, even though they originate from my mana and my desire to change the forest, only a small part of the mana they're made of is actually mine.

If more and more imps keep being made, killing them won't do more than slowing them down. Whenever some imps manage to slip past the elves, another tree will be transformed, and they cannot continue to hunt them forever.

But I think that I've found a solution. The trees are not defending themselves because they cannot recognize the imps born from other trees as enemies, however, an elf can instruct trees of their same element to kill them. And the best part is that an elf can communicate with multiple trees at once if they are close enough, that gives me an idea...

I let Xania run to the village to look for her brother, I hope that she doesn't cause any trouble...

"What is that?"

"This is a magic circuit."

A group of elves is watching me prepare the circuit with amazement. The way they are acting makes it seem like they've never seen a magic circuit before... just how isolated are these people?

"This will increase the range in which you can communicate with magic, that way you can instruct the trees of the entire forest to protect themselves from the imps."

"Really? Then why don't you tell the dark trees to stop making more of those fruits?" An elf asks with a bit of suspicion.

"I... I already tried, they didn't listen."

That's probably because deep down I don't want the dark trees to stop being made. I had much more conviction when I gave my first instruction, so I cannot override it, but I don't want to admit that to them.

"How do we know that we can trust you?"

"If I wanted to destroy this forest I wouldn't need to trick you. Also, don't you want to know what it's like to use a magic circuit?"

They're curious, I can tell. It doesn't matter how strict their rules are, the temptation of trying something you have never seen before is strong.

"Stop right there!"

An old man is approaching. That's unusual, old elves are very rare.

"It's the elder." I hear someone say in a low voice. Is this man the leader of their village?

"I thought that I had warned you about this. You should never listen to what a dark elf tells you, she'll bring death and misfortune to our forest."

This old man is a bit rude...

"I don't want to bring death to anyone, I'm only trying to help."

"Perhaps, but dark elves like yourself tend to have some very strange ideas of what 'helping' means. Always trying to lure our people into danger, valuing their lives as little as you value your own."

"What are you talking about? I value my life quite a bit, and the lives of others as well."

"You are a dark elf. It's in your nature to put freedom over security, ambition over complacency, desire over life."

"Then I must be different from all the other dark elves. I don't like to take risks and I've lived a very peaceful life until just recently."

"You might have never had to make the choice. Tell me young lady, what are the things you enjoy doing the most? What is it that you want to do with your life?"

"What I enjoy... reading books and researching magic I guess."

"Then imagine that one day, it became impossible for you to do either of those things, and the only way for you to do them again is to travel to a distant city. But the trip is dangerous, and you're just as likely to die as you're to make it there. Would you make the trip? Or would you settle for another lifestyle that you do not enjoy as much?"

Uh... this is strange... I never saw myself as a risk-taker, but when I think about it the answer to that question seems obvious.

"I would make that trip. I'd rather live the way I want to than live safely."

"And with that, you just proved that you are a true dark elf. Most people would not make that choice, and certainly not so easily."

Now that I think about it, when I sensed Vilde at the bottom of the infernal caverns, I decided to go see him even if it was dangerous, for no other reason than me being curious. I think that I've just discovered something about myself that I've been ignoring until now.

"Still, I don't see how that's a bad thing."

"The problem is that the trees cursed with dark magic are also the same way. Instead of asking them to follow a strict set of rules, they will demand that the elves leave the forest, pursue their ambitions, and go on adventures that put them in danger. Having a long lifespan requires a safe, slow, and consistent lifestyle, not just the blessings of the forest. And so, the forest will not offer a longer life to those who choose to leave, the only thing it will give to those elves is the means of fulfilling their ambitions. Darkness is the element of death, we must destroy all of the cursed trees."

"I won't claim to know more than you about magic forests, but I'm sure that destroying that many trees will do quite a bit of damage. And it's not like the elves have to listen to the dark trees, the rest of the forest will still be around. Shouldn't people be allowed to choose for themselves?"

"No, not if their choices could end up killing them."

This old man really represents everything I hate about elven society... But I won't let him have his way. I have no right of forcing other people to live their lives the way I want to, but neither does he.

'Shadow lance'

I fire a spell upwards with more power than usual to show my strength and then activate my 'intimidate' skill.

"You are NOT going to get rid of the dark trees. If you try to do it after I leave, I WILL come back."

An expression of true terror appears on the elder's face, but he's able to stay on his feet, which is not something that I can say about everyone who feels my intimidation.

I then turn around to address the other elves.

"Choose for yourselves how you want to live your lives. But know that if you decide to always stay in this forest, you will not live longer lives, just slower ones. And there's one more thing I need to say..."

I just learned something new, it seems that when a shapeshifter gets really scared they lose control of their transformation for a moment.

It was only for a fraction of a second, and she was near the back of the group, but there's no way that I would miss it. I approach the 'elf' and punch her, revealing her true form.

"I don't think that you guys are as safe as you think you are."

forli

I'm going to tell you all the truth, all of this stuff about the imps transforming the trees was not part of my original plan. I added it because I thought that it would feel underwhelming if Luna visited the forest and didn't get into some sort of conflict with the elves.

But after last chapter, I didn't know how to continue, this is the first time that has happened to me. Then I wrote a chapter, didn't like it at all, and started again, which is also not something I had done before. Then I started thinking about a bunch of stuff that will come later and I can't decide exactly how everything will go and I just felt that I didn't want to write for a while...

Anyway, I hope that the chapter I ended up writing was at least a bit enjoyable and didn't feel too weird, let's hope that I don't have as much trouble with the next few.