Elven City

The three elders stood together and began to discuss something among themselves within earshot of Eliz and the others. Eliz left them and turned around, only to almost stick her nose in the chest of Alarr, who had appeared behind her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked, frowning at her with a stern face.

Eliz took a step back and looked up at him. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Holm stepped forward as well. "We are to protect you, my lady. And now you will go who knows where without anyone." He didn't like this setup either.

"Alobela is coming with me. I will not be alone," Eliz protested, pulling the "thrilled" maid, whose expression was deader than stone, towards her.

All pairs of eyes focused on Alobela for a moment, who didn't even blink before slowly, almost involuntarily, raising her hand and giving everyone a thumbs up, as if telling them to leave it to her.

This seemed to calm most of them down; after all, they now knew that Alobela was no ordinary maid. Even if she couldn't fight properly, she was still fast as the wind and could grab Eliz and escape.

Alarr still didn't look happy, though. "No disrespect to Alobela and her abilities, but I still don't understand why you didn't choose one of us."

Eliz nodded. "Honestly... because you're all pretty intimidating. I doubt they'd give permission for any of you. Alobela seems the least dangerous of us all."

"You could have insisted. If you excel at anything, it's getting the things you want." One corner of Alarr's lips lifted a little ironically as he said this. Eliz darted her eyes at him and put her hands on her hips before patting her chest. "What are you talking about? My middle name is modesty!"

Eliz meant it as a joke, of course, but no one laughed, only giving disbelieving looks. "Ahem," Eliz cleared her throat in embarrassment. "Just trust me. I know when and how to act when I need to."

They might have discussed it more, but the board of elders stopped consulting and called, "We can go."

"It'll be all right. Take it easy," Eliz smiled at everyone and then turned and headed for the council, Alobela following her.

Alarr watched as Eliz stood by the council. All three elves raised their hands towards the window, and their hands began to glow blue. Blue mana rose from their hands and flew towards the window, intertwining with each other as they did so, hitting the window.

The glass didn't shatter, but the mana in it disappeared, and then the glass glowed with a white light through which nothing could be seen. Gradually, all three elves entered the mirror.

Eliz looked back before she too entered, and Alarr's stomach contracted uncomfortably. As the white light illuminated Eliz from behind, it almost looked like she was walking into the gates of heaven. It made Alarr feel uncomfortable, and his instincts began to ring alarm bells. But before he could do anything, Eliz and Alobela walked into the light.

Alarr considered for only a moment before stepping forward, determined to follow. His instincts rarely failed him. "Haa... how annoying." He stopped, however, when he heard Fraril's voice.

He looked back at him to see him standing calmly beside Grash. "What?"

"You could tell something was wrong, huh?" Fraril said calmly, a benign smile on his face.

Alarr squinted his eyes. Fraril looked fine, but something in his stance and voice sounded different. Then he glanced at Grash, who also seemed unusually calm, and the hairs on Alarr's neck and arms stood on end at that moment. He remembered the story of the strange siblings and their dolls.

"Since when?" Alarr grunted and slowly moved his hand to his weapon.

"Since the beginning, I guess? We let them believe they had escaped," Grash replied and smiled.

Alarr didn't quite understand. Fraril and Grash seemed perfectly normal, there was no faking it, but the words about letting them believe they had escaped gave some clue. Still, Alarr was unable to understand the whole thing, but he understood well that this was not the real Fraril and Grash.

"Why have you revealed yourselves now?" Alarr reached for his weapon, but a large hand suddenly grasped his wrist tightly, and Alarr looked at Holm in surprise.

"Because there's no need to pretend anymore," Holm replied, and Alarr felt his heart skip a beat as he saw Raiana approach him from the other side. Had everyone been replaced? When did this happen?!

"What... what's going on?" Paterik looked confused as he observed the tense situation.

Alarr gritted his teeth, and then his eyes flew quickly to the window that Eliz and Alobela had passed through. "Shit!" he growled. He had to get to Eliz before it was too late!

----------------------------------------

Eliz stepped through the portal, blinking rapidly to get rid of the squint in her eyes. When she finally saw properly, she looked around.

"Whoa!" she gasped in amazement.

They appeared on a green hill, atop which stood a majestic tree. The tree was several meters tall, its leaves and flowers white and golden, its trunk a light brown color with white moss in places. A pure light emanated from the tree's crown, making it look holy.

image [https://cdn.leonardo.ai/users/e70a625f-a29f-469a-912e-d78c50e456f1/generations/201bda68-1ddf-4778-b1bb-c4134b88c2aa/Anime_Pastel_Dream_A_grand_and_majestic_World_Tree_stands_prou_0.jpg]

Eliz admired the tree for a moment before looking around and seeing that the sky was dark, dotted with stars. She wondered where she was. "Where are we?" she asked the elders curiously.

The older, androgynous woman looked back at her. "It's an enclosed space." She didn't elaborate further.

But Eliz didn't need more information; she had read enough novels to know this concept. "I see. Sort of like a pocket dimension."

The elder who answered her looked surprised that she actually understood and pursed her lips in displeasure. Eliz could only grin inwardly. Oh please! Who doesn't know cultivation novels? Pocket dimensions are just classics!

"Alright. Let's get this over with." Eliz stretched her arms and made her way up the gentle slope to the tree.

Eliz was quite excited; she could see her goal in front of her. All she needed was a little more, and she could finally get this over with.

Once Shannon was healthy again, she could begin her duty, and the war with the River Kingdom would be resolved. Though Eliz didn't believe she would avoid the war altogether, it would probably come from another source, but she should buy a little more time this way. She still planned to steal the Mana Cannons from the River Kingdom, but she would have to have them modified so they wouldn't cross the border and draw the attention of that strange Planetary Tree.

Eliz stopped in front of the World Tree and looked up, then looked back at the others who had followed them. "Can you give me some space?" she asked.

"I'd rather not," the bearded elf replied.

Eliz shrugged her shoulders. "Fine. But then don't get upset." Before either of them could wonder what she meant, they froze in shock as Eliz started kicking the tree with her foot. "Hey! Shannon! I'm here! Come out, you lying motherfucker!" Eliz let out her pent-up frustration.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

All three elders' chins dropped when they saw Eliz kicking and cursing at their sacred tree. It was so shocking that they were unable to move. Alobela watched it calmly as always, probably not even surprised. Instead, she started looking for something before pulling a knife from somewhere and walking over to Eliz.

"Lady, I have a knife here if you would like to commit vandalism." Alobela was always helpful.

Eliz paused and smiled cheerfully. She may have had her own knife, but they hadn't thought of this. "Good idea! What do you think I should carve into the bark?" Nasty things came naturally to her mind, but they seemed tasteless.

Alobela replied in all seriousness, "Shithead?"

Eliz was speechless for a moment. Coming from Alobela, who always made sure Eliz was a proper lady, such a dirty word from her mouth sounded almost bizarre. She couldn't say that she was entirely comfortable with it.

"Um. If you say so," Eliz remarked, taking the knife from her before swinging it to stab it into the trunk of the World Tree.

"No. No! Stop!" All three elves finally recovered and shouted in horror to stop her from doing what she was doing.

"STOP! STOP IT, ELIZ!" Eliz stopped her hand when she heard a strong but youthful girl's voice that also sounded panicked.

Eliz stepped back, glad that Shannon had shown up before she really had to carve a derogatory word into the tree for good.

"I'M HERE. I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS, YOU KNOW? WHY ARE YOU TAKING THINGS TO EXTREMES?" Shannon complained, whining a little as she did so.

Eliz looked around but didn't see her anywhere. She glanced at the tree again. "Can you talk normally? Where are you?"

Shannon was dumbfounded for a moment. "Here." Her voice no longer sounded like the voice of God with a dynamic echo.

"Where?"

"Here. Down here!"

Eliz stopped looking up at the tree and instead her gaze traveled down, down to the roots of the tree, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Ha! What the hell?"

Naturally, Eliz was pretty sure Shannon could take on some sort of form. She imagined it would be some beautiful elven young girl or little girl. At the very least, she was sure that Shannon would take a humanoid form. After all, a novel like the one she was in simply demanded it.

But she hadn't really expected this.

image [https://cdn.leonardo.ai/users/e70a625f-a29f-469a-912e-d78c50e456f1/generations/83d19ba7-d122-46eb-93d8-f8e0738c9a0b/Anime_Pastel_Dream_A_charming_snail_adorned_with_a_whimsical_s_3.jpg?w=512]

"Why are you a snail?" Eliz asked, a little disappointed.

"Hmpf! And why shouldn't I be a snail?" Shannon was obviously offended when she noticed how disappointed Eliz was.

Eliz smiled apologetically and scratched her head.

"My lady! You're talking! What a blessing!" The council of elders rushed over to the snail and fell to their knees. The one with the beard even looked like he was about to start crying.

Eliz preferred to distance herself from them and watched the somewhat bizarre scene as the three dignified elves groveled before the snail. Alright, she knew it was Shannon, but it still looked weird. Really weird.

"My lady, why haven't you spoken for so long?" The bearded elf clasped his hands together as if in prayer, looking at Shannon with a touched expression.

"I couldn't. But now step back! My guest and I have work to do. I'll explain things later," Shannon told the council of elders and tried to shoo them away.

Eliz could understand why Shannon didn't want to linger now. From the earlier conversation, she understood that Shannon couldn't speak because she was suppressing the dark mana that had infected her roots.

Now that Eliz had forced Shannon to come out and communicate, there was probably no one to suppress the dark mana. But that didn't matter anymore. Eliz was here to save the day, after all.

The three elves reluctantly stood up and backed away, allowing Eliz to approach Shannon again and squat down in front of her.

"I may still be mad at you, but let's get things sorted out first. You and I will deal with things later," Eliz said, agreeing that although she had a lot to say to Shannon, it could wait.

Shannon was quite cute in front of her, after all. She didn't look like a typical snail; she was a little bigger and all white. Her shell was gilded and seemed to be inlaid with gold and bleached stones. Shannon's body also had gold and blue decorations that slightly resembled cloth.

In addition, she had two large, black eyes and three antennae instead of two. Overall, her head slightly resembled a rabbit's. She looked quite cute.

Shannon nodded her head. "I don't know why you're mad at me, but I'll be glad. I'm all tired out."

"Okay. So all I have to do is... do what you said?" Eliz had no problem shedding her blood, but she certainly didn't want the elves to witness it.

"Yes."

"Fine, I'll do it, but you have to send the elves away. No one needs to know how I'm going to do it." Eliz was sure Shannon would obey. That was also the main reason she wanted her to show up.

"Huh? Okay?" Shannon didn't seem to understand why Eliz wanted this, but she was going to oblige. She turned her head to stare at something behind Eliz.

"What are you doing..." Shannon spoke, and Eliz felt a chill at that moment.

Maybe if she had trained more, or had better fighting skills, she would have been able to react, but despite the fact that she had already started learning the basics of fighting, she was still far from that.

She only managed to move enough for the initially fatal blow to hit her shoulder. A black stream of energy flew through her shoulder, leaving a hole the size of a walnut.

"Aaaggrr!" Eliz cried out in sudden pain and collapsed to the ground while clutching her shoulder, a cutting pain hitting her brain. She turned to see an elderly elf with a beard standing behind her, while behind him, the elderly woman had just stabbed the throat of the androgynous woman who had fallen to the ground, choking on her own blood.

Eliz's gaze went to Alobel, who was standing nearby and still looked calm and unconcerned. Eliz shuddered. What the hell?

She blinked her eyes and immediately checked their potential, the pain overridden by terror. "Damn, damn..." she muttered a curse as she read the description.

Marionette

That's all there was. Just... nothing else.

"Damn, I should have checked that a long time ago! Why didn't I think of that?" Eliz gritted her teeth, mentally berating herself. She should have checked everyone the moment she first heard about the Dark Mage siblings!

But even though they knew they could make believable dolls, she never thought they could replace humans like that! When did they ever manage to replace Alobel?

Eliz froze at the thought. What about the others?

"What... what did you do to the others? Where are they?" She snapped the question at the three.

Alobela turned to her and smiled. Eliz flinched. Damn... smiling Alobela looked scary. "Don't worry. You won't care soon."

Eliz forced herself to calm down and closed her eyes, feeling the blood from the wound oozing through her fingers. "Shannon?"

"Y-yes?" Shannon sounded scared and confused.

"Can you do something?" Eliz wanted to know.

"No... no... sorry. Dark magic still...." Shannon started to explain, but Eliz wasn't listening anymore. A simple 'no' was enough for her. She had expected it a little; otherwise, these siblings wouldn't have attacked her, but they knew Shannon was too weak right now.

At least Eliz could put things back, but she wasn't running away yet. She needed to get more information before she returned the sequence so she would know what to do next. "I assume you were the first to replace Fraril and Grash. But when did you manage to replace the others?" Eliz asked.

"At night. At the hotel. It was a bit of a quick action because we didn't expect to get the chance so soon," the elf man stood over her and helpfully explained. Eliz was glad it had worked. After all, villains like to talk when they feel like they've won.

Eliz sighed. She had no idea. She felt stupid. "Fine. And what were you trying to accomplish? I thought dark mages were chaotic and not into any long planning." She looked them over and slowly sat upright.

Alobela looked up at the world tree, and then her gaze fell on a trembling Shannon. "Any dark mage can do whatever they want. Whether it's chaos, self-destruction, or some deep plan. We want to destroy the immortality of the elves."

"Huh?" Eliz blinked.

"Oh," Shannon gasped and crouched down.

Eliz then made a face and gritted her teeth. "This conspiracy has nothing to do with me at all! Then why the hell are you dragging me into this!? Just because I'm supposed to cure Shannon? You control the Elder Council, so what's the big deal about poisoning her again? Did you feel sorry for Shannon? Sure... a little, but it's not like the original plan really counted on me."

Would that have made things more complicated? Sure. And of course she'd rather have Shannon alive and on her side, but certainly not at the cost of getting Eliz and her people killed!

Eliz quickly thought about what else to ask, but suddenly the two elves and Alobela turned away, peering down at the window from which they had emerged.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Eliz slowly began to rise to her feet, careful not to draw their attention back. As she straightened up, she noticed someone stepping out of the light.

It was a man in black armor wielding a large two-handed sword. Relief washed over Eliz, but seeing Alarr appearing hurt, exhausted, and bloodied made her heart race even faster.

Her violet eyes met his red ones, which then shifted down to her bleeding wound. He frowned and raised his sword into the air, slamming it forcefully into the ground.

"Aaaaarrr!" he shouted, and upon impact, the ground shattered, and the blade started to glow red. A crimson aura surrounded Alarr instead of the usual blue mana. His hair stood on end as if charged with energy, and his red eyes intensified.

image [https://cdn.leonardo.ai/users/e70a625f-a29f-469a-912e-d78c50e456f1/generations/1d787824-5255-4cc0-888b-1203b0936f4e/Default_Warrior_in_black_armor_both_hands_holding_a_large_blac_4.jpg]

"You bastards, I'll kill you all," Alarr growled, veins popping on his forehead and neck.

Eliz swallowed. She had a sinking feeling that this wasn't what a scene where a knight in shining armor rescued a lady in distress was supposed to look like. It seemed rather ominous.