--- [Gael’s perspective]


    After having visited all the major cities in the middle area, it was finally time to explore the outer area.


    The first towns I visited were very similar to Lux.


    It was mostly pretty quiet, and people went about their day without much trouble.


    They didn’t live as extravagantly as the people in the major cities, but it was still nice.


    They had everything they needed, and there was a strong sense of community.


    It felt nostalgic.


    Walking around at night in those villages felt so calming; it even made me feel homesick for the first time ever.


    I could feel that my journey was nearing its end; it was almost time to go home.


    But not yet!


    There was still more to see.


    I visited this one village called Antiqua.


    Antiqua was a strange one…


    Unlike everywhere else I’d visited, there were no children running around and playing.


    There were playgrounds, but they were all overgrown or broken down.


    It was a fairy large village, bigger than Lux I reckon, but…


    There were barely any people around.


    Everywhere else, you’d see people strolling around, or working.


    Not here.


    There were no lights on in the houses.


    There were no people working in the shops.


    There were barely any people there at all.


    I stayed for around a day, yet I don’t think I ran into more than a dozen or so people.


    Strangely enough, the citizens were all old.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Every single one.


    I remember asking if it was an abandoned village and everyone had moved elsewhere, but they denied it.


    I asked if there had been an escaped monster from a dungeon that had attacked them, but they denied that too.


    So many houses, yet so few people…


    There had to be a reason, but everything I could think of was wrong.


    The day after, I visited another ‘strange’ village; Morbus.


    It seemed normal at first, at least after what I had seen the day before, but I quickly realized something was wrong…


    There was a man missing a leg whose only mobility aid was a frail stick.


    There was a woman working at a bakery while clearly having a high fever.


    There was a kid with a nasty scrape on their knee walking around with no treatment.


    All of this was shocking enough, but my jaw dropped when I saw their ‘hospital’.


    It was just an open field with dozens of people lying on the cold hard ground.


    From what I saw, none of them were ever treated with anything other than water and torn pieces of cloth.


    It didn’t even look like the ones who looked after them knew what they were doing.


    All those sick people, yet no medicine, no doctors, and no healers, to be seen.


    They deserved so much better…


    Seeing all that horrible stuff and knowing I couldn’t do anything about it made me feel sick.


    I couldn’t stand it anymore, and left.


    I felt like a coward, but I just couldn’t deal with it.


    I was about to head home right then and there, but on my way back, I ran into another village…


    Mors…


    Just moments after entering the village, I could tell something was off.


    How?


    The smell…


    Nowhere I had ever been before had had such a strong and foul smell.


    No matter where you were, you could smell it.


    It was impossible to avoid, and it overpowered everything else around.


    It didn’t take long to find out why…


    At first, it looked like they had a homelessness crisis there.


    Everywhere I looked, there were people sleeping on the streets.


    But I was wrong…


    There was no homelessness…


    All those people…


    They were dead.


    Their rotting corpses laid around every corner, every alley, and outside every building.


    In the heart of the village, there was a large pile of bodies.


    There were mostly just bones and ashes left…


    It was like an above-ground graveyard.


    But why were there bodies all around town?


    Why were they not moved to the large pile with the rest?


    I never asked why, I simply wanted to get away as quickly as possible.


    Despite never asking though, I think I know why…


    To me, it seemed like they simply stopped caring…


    There were simply too many bodies, so eventually, they stopped bothering to move them.


    But there was another question that haunted me…


    The bodies around town looked like they belonged to recently deceased people, so how come there were so many of them?


    Was there suddenly a massive influx of deaths?


    Why?


    The question wouldn’t leave my head, but I had already decided to leave.


    I just couldn’t take it anymore.


    My journey had been going so well for so long.


    It was everything I had ever dreamed of, then suddenly, those last few days had sullied everything that came before.


    How come there are so many places where people live like this?


    The middle area had cities with so much wealth my mind was constantly blown.


    Yet here…


    I had enough; I had to go home.


    Back to Isaac and Iris.


    Back to the only place in the world that might make me forget what I’d seen.


    Just when I was about to leave Mors, I ran into a man who’d completely change the trajectory of my life.