"...I wouldn't step within a ten-foot pole's distance with whatever that thing is, Will."
Sparrow had entered the tower roughly a year ago. He was a man down on his luck and desperate, entering with the intention of having his wish of wealth, fame, and status fulfilled by the tower. At the time, he was naive, doubting the difficulty behind reaching the top floor of a tower that only had ten.
Now that he'd spent a year on the wall of Middle Town, he regretted all the decisions that led him to his point. Entering the tower was not worth the risk, and the Reward he received, [Spice Tolerance], was useless. His luck was beyond incredible, it was downright disastrous.
Protecting the wall of Middle Town was not an easy task for someone who lacked a Reward, but he made up for that with his experience. His time was spent fighting for his life, which was good for honing his craft of butchering. With his large axe, chopping through the abominations that approached the wall every day wasn't difficult in the slightest.
Furthermore, the wall itself was incredibly sturdy, a stalwart frame surrounding the massive city within, brimming with thousands of people.
Sparrow never questioned where the walls came from after the first time he asked. It was always the same answer: The Five Craftsmen.
No matter how many times he used his axe to cut through a towering abomination, or weaved through groups of them with precision and expert footwork, his accomplishments would never compare to the five enigmas who received the grace of the tower.
Those thoughts weren't the source of his current annoyance, though.
"Well, Sparrow, I don't know how to tell you this… But, you're probably going to find something a hundred times worse than a giant wolf monster past this floor." His partner, William Tragile, had seen the same thing he had last week. The sight of a hundred silhouettes appearing in the distance, at the bottom of the hill the city was built upon.
At the forefront, the massive frame of an armored man had led the legion of a hundred into view — the man was familiar, the Holy Knight whose name had become something akin to an urban legend for everyone that entered.
War Reaver… If the wall of Middle Town was an impressive bulwark, then War Reaver was the world's humbling battering ram.
He carried the might to breach the wall that millions of abominations had failed to bypass for all the years that the Prime Settlement remained standing. Anyone who stumbled upon him was almost assured to be saved, with rumors stating anyone riding his shadow would find only success.
Riding his shadow was a legion of a hundred Climbers, all of whom appeared exhausted, covered in blood, and hardened from an unclear duration of battle.
Among them, Walkyr — the gunslinger who earned a reputation for being a reliable means of transportation — was the second person to stand out. The man raised his hand and snapped his finger, and before Sparrow knew it, the gunslinger was already atop of the wall near him, collapsing to the ground and earning the shocked gazes of other defenders of the wall.
That was how the supposed "Army of Hope" arrived to Middle Town, led by the mightiest man in the world all the way from the Devil's Den, a place Sparrow had never seen but could not convince himself in good conscience to visit. Something about a sanctuary buried within a mountain of flesh did not spell the words "safe" in his mind.
As it turned out, it didn't sit right with the Holy Knight either. Because only a few hours after War brought his hundred Climbers into Middle Town, he personally announced an imminent, unprecedented danger coming their way.
If anyone else had announced that news, there'd have been doubts.
Hell, there were still a few people that thought it was an exaggeration and that things would be alright…
War Reaver had led a hundred people through hell to get here and make his call to action. There was no chance he'd do such a thing after spending decades fighting through the wasteland. Some might've assumed he'd gone mad, but his mind was indomitable, carrying a title that only a handful of men had ever achieved throughout history. He was of a sounder state of mind than any man, woman, or child deranged enough to enter Aciago Tower.
So, over last week, War has been talking with the leadership of Middle Town, as well as those connected to the other settlements through various methods, to discuss a plan.
What was the plan? Sparrow hadn't the slightest clue. He was only one of the faithful gatekeepers of Middle Town.
There was one thing he'd prefer to keep out of the town, besides the obvious monsters that were deadset on using them as sustenance to fuel their ever-growing mass. It was the subject of their conversation, as a matter of fact.
"I don't know where the hell he found it, or what that thing is, but I want that wolf out of here, Will. I'm telling you, it's bad juju. Bad, bad juju. I had a dog once, and it grew to about the same size as that thing!"
William looked at him stupendously, "You've had a dog that's grown well beyond the height of the tallest men?"
Scoffing, Sparrow looked almost offended that the young man was asking that question. "You think I haven't had exotic pets before, Will? …I'll have you know, the dog almost came up to my chest."
Sparrow was by no means of an impressive height. At best, his stature was average, and at worst he was short, an axe-wielding goblin.
"Mhm. Right. Well, while you've been over there pissing your pants about a big hound, I've noticed some actual weird nonsense." William turned to face the inside of the bustling city, lined with so many structures you'd forget you were a part of a hellish challenge with no chance of escape.
"Really? You, William Tragile, have noticed 'weird nonsense' after… What? Six months or so of being here? Yeah, I've noticed quite a few oddities myself, like the fact that everyone has mystical powers and animated flesh wants to absorb us."
William rolled his eyes, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a pack of cigarettes that he hadn't smoked in weeks. "Alright, jackass. I mean something other than the usual. It's on the inside, one of the guys that arrived a while back."
"Somebody new? Did Reaver bring a serial killer into our group or something?"
William shook his head, "Nah. It was somebody that came about a week before they arrived. The kid who smells like lavender. Ah… Redglaive! Edwin Redglaive!"
Sparrow tried to reach into his memory, and recalled the face of the boy almost immediately. Which was strange, since he hadn't even interacted with the young man.
"Redglaive… Hm, I don't think I've spoken to him. What's so odd about him that it's got you on edge?"
William's face twisted a little, and then he sighed. "I don't know how to explain it. You know my Reward: [Daydreamer's Spotlight Beacon], that lengthy title. Essentially, it ensures that every action I take is within my best interest, in some way. When I sleep or zone out, the steps I need to take are shown to me vividly. It'd been working fine since I arrived here. But, at some point, something started changing in a way I couldn't explain." William sounded worried, too worried in fact. To speak this way when in the safety of the wall would give someone the impression that the wall was not safe. In many ways, it wasn't, but his concern was with someone inside.
"Will, buddy… You're probably overreacting. Rewards are mysteries as a whole. Humans aren't meant to have abilities like we have, yet once we have them they're engraved into our souls. Once in a while, I'm sure your ability can slip up."
Shaking his head, William looked down at the city from the towering wall. "Maybe you're right, but I don't think you are. Sparrow, recently, I've been given contradictory visions. Sometimes, I'll be sent to the wall to do my usual tasks. Occasionally, it'll show me the best route to take home after a shift of fighting amalgamations. But, sometimes… my vision will recommend I take routes I normally have no interest in. In those places, I always see one thing: a mist. Inside that mist, though, I can see a person… Edwin."
It sounded strange to say that he was dreaming of Edwin, because it was. Nothing should've made him infatuated with the young man at all, there was no connection between them besides the fact that he'd accepted the strange, jovial boy into the city when he arrived.
Somehow, there is a continuous, unsettling influence on his visions. Those dreams that'd show him small paths to safety or convenience were slowly being overtaken. At first, the dreams were occasional. Now, they are becoming increasingly more abundant. It was like his ability was trying to send him in the direction of the charming fellow.
"That's… weird. Have you spoken to anybody else about it? Y'know, making sure that you're not just going crazy or something?"
That was the first thing he'd done, in fact. There were quite a few people with abilities based around predicting the future, detecting danger, and even more similar ones, to much lesser degrees like his.
"I tried. It's just… nobody else seems to find it strange. Some of them claim they'd seen something similar, pretty casually. Meanwhile, the rest seemed like they didn't notice a thing. Something strange is going on, Sparrow. I don't know if I'm losing my mind or if we're all just undergoing mass hysteria, but everything revolves around Edwin Redglaive. I mean, Sparrow, he never even told us his full name, yet anybody you ask about him knows it!"
…Sparrow hadn't noticed. It was odd that he remembered the young man's name, but he'd also recalled his full name without it being told to him.
It was… eerie, unsettling. "Will… what the hell crept into our heads?"
As it turned out, there might have been more to worry about than the monsters beyond the wall.
Middle Town was the safest place on the First Floor, and yet something was brewing underneath their noses. These two guards might have been aware of it now, but by the morning, they wouldn't be.