"The... Lowlands?" Aether asked, tilting his head and crossing his arms as he stared at the shadow that had told him the name of the next area he would be adventuring in.

The shadow nodded happily."Yes, the best zone in all of Stormfell!"

’Doubt it.’

"So um... anything I should know?" Aether said, a little awkwardly, after all, he hadn’t seen a shadow be so happy and ecstatic before. It was almost like the only thing running through its body was adrenaline.

"Well, the Lowlands are known for the huge amount of fun and entertainment within them!" The Lost said, while jumping into place.

But if Aether looked past it, he didn’t see anything fun. The mist covered this whole place; you could hardly see anything, which already irritated him. Plus, this place just felt like a big ruin; after all, the stone under his feet was cracked, and he had barely entered the place. Plus, the grass in this place was to high, to the point that sometimes is was almost as tall as him, and while he wasn’t necesaraly the tallest, he wasn’t short, not anymore, he had grown up quite a lot if he had to say in these years.

And worst of all, it was wet; every green thing in this place was damp, almost as if it rained here every single day. And since the sky was filled with grey clouds, he wasn’t going to say that it wasn’t a possibility.

In his eyes, there was nothing entertaining in this place. So either it was just that the Lost had gone crazy, which had quite a lot of sense, or the problem was him.

Which could also be a possibility... he wasn’t someone who had a lot of fun, not that he hated it, nothing really made him have fun anymore, and he had tried, back in the beast human village.

"What kind of fun?" Aether said in a calm tone. Trying to get as much information as possible from the shadow with his ability. Really, he didn’t know if he would have survived so far if he hadn’t had Shadow Speech.

The shadow brought its finger to its chin.

"There are many, but if I had to say, the funnest thing is the competitive nature in this place!"

Aether stood still, more confused than ever, before breaking out in a laugh. If it wasn’t for his knowing the nature of Lost so well, he wouldn’t have been able to figure it out.

"When you say competitive nature, you mean that people fight and kill a lot in this place, right?"

The shadow dropped silently, annoyed that its little trick had been revealed so fast. What he didn’t understand was why it had done this; did it want him to enter this place so badly? Well, luckily for him, he was going to go in no matter what.

"Also, since this is the Lowlands, does this mean the HighLands also exist?" Aether asked, but the shadow didn’t want to respond anymore. Instead, it walked away, but its silence gave him an answer anyway.

"I’ll take that as a yes." He said, smirking.

Fighting in Stormfell was normal..., but if a shadow had to mask the amount of it in an area, it was a bit frightening. Did the Lowlands revolve around killing?

"I guess it was the right idea to leave Kade and Lucien behind. I wouldn’t want them getting attacked and not being able to protect them."

Aether walked through the Lowlands, following the path, as he stepped through broken archways and passed by crumbling walls. He noticed how all of them, or most, were covered in moss and veins, which not only made it seem that rain was common here, but also that people had stopped fighting nature and just let it take everything.

If he were to squint his eyes and look through the mist, he would see that most of the buildings were barely standing, ready to fall any second, meaning that this part at least was abandoned long ago. He also hated the smell. ’Ew...’

This whole place seemed as if it hadn’t had any human activity in a while... but that was probably not true. From what he gathered from the shadow, this place was full of fighting, and an environment like this was great for fighting.

"Good thing I have Eden, that way I can see people even if they approach through the mist-"

But before he could finish, Aether heard a loud screech in the distance, but not one that came from a human; it was something else. A monster? Of course, why wouldn’t this place be infested by monsters, when death is something normal in this place? Why wouldn’t the monster also come to kill? After all, there was free food everywhere, well, at least if the humans in this place weren’t cannibals, since if they were, then the monsters had competition; if they wanted food, they were going to have to get it before the humans.

Looking around, Aether had also found some claw marks on a wall; they were bigger than any from his world, so it meant that they had definitely come from a monster, which wasn’t great. At all.

’They also don’t look that old.’

The ground started to angle slightly up, meaning he was probably walking up some kind of hill, and using Eden, he saw that, in fact, there was a small ramp, as he climbed to another level. The high wasn’t really that big; the altitude had just risen a bit.

Though... looking around, this place really wasn’t organized at all, there were many of these ramps, some where walls used to be. It seemed as if this part of Stormfell really liked staying flat.

Aether continued to climb up one of the bigger ramps, and when he reached the top, he found a small but ruined home, to the point it was missing its roof and more than half of its walls, but it had a campfire. A lit one, and it even had some food on it that hadn’t been cooked yet.

’This is recent, really recent.’ But he couldn’t see anyone, even with Eden.

’Maybe they’re close.’ Though it was harder to see, since around this place, there were a lot of trees, which were really interesting, since he hadn’t even seen one before.

This place was really chaotic,

The grass was also really tall. It felt like going through a jungle, just that the trees were fir trees, so in no way was this a jungle.

It was annoying feeling the grass tickle his face, but he kept going. Once he reached the end, he saw three humans circling... a human girl... with ears?

...’ So what is she, a Human Beast or something?’ He chuckled.

The girl was on the ground, her back against a wall, as the three men kept getting closer to her. If he had to say, he was pretty sure they were bandits, or at least that was what his gut told him.

Aether sighed, taking out his blade. "Hey, you guys, don’t you feel any remorse for gang up on a small girl, seriously, she’s more of a man than all of you three combined."

The bandits quickly turned around, startled at first, but after hearing his words, it was obvious that they had been angered.

They dashed towards him.

"Seriously, when are we going to learn..."

Aether watched as the blade of the first came to pierce his eye, but... seriously, it wasn’t that he was fast or strong; when you’re so predictable, anyone can dodge your attack. Stepping out of the way, Aether kicked the man in the blade of his friend’s, watching as if pierced through him, and before he could even scream, he dashed forward, the third, who was still in shock from what happened, giving him a view of all his body.

’It’s as if he’s letting me see what I want to stab.’ It wasn’t such a hard choice; he wasn’t one to play with his food, and the head was the one he chose.

[You have killed a Reader Fragment-]

’Yeah, yeah, I don’t care to learn their name or whatever.’

Aether then turned to the other two. The one that had been pierced by his friend’s blade was dead; it wasn’t hard to see that. And the other had completely paled; his mind looked as if it couldn’t wrap around the idea that he had killed his friend.

"Hate to say it, but if you are not ready to die, don’t kill."

He said, finishing off.

After taking care of the three men, he walked up to the small girl. Well, she wasn’t small; she was around his age, younger, but not by a lot.

"You alright?" Aether asked, leaning down.

The girl was frightened, but nodded.

"Do you know how to get back to your parents or whatever?"

The girl looked one last time at the dead men before answering. "Y-yes."

Aether sighed in relief. "Good, then I’ll leave."

Her eyes widened as he turned to leave. "W-wait, you... Aren’t you going to help me get to them?"

...

...

Aether stopped in his tracks, looking back at the girl.

...

"No."