Alexander silently grit his teeth, minutes felt like hours, but the lurker, seemingly satisfied with its feast, continued to munch on the limb.
"Luckily for me, the whole city should be in chaos by now, that alone drastically increases the chance of an unexpected event helping me get through this".
Alexander's thought pattern was simple, with chaos came opportunity, now all that was left was for the opportunity to present itself.
It was at this very moment that the room began to shake, it started small, but eventually, Alexander found it difficult to stay in place.
Just as the lurker turned its attention towards him, a fiery explosion blasted the room from the outside, then a figure, clad in steel armour shot by.
Alexander didn't get a good look at the figure, but they appeared to be battling a vile spawn, but that wasn't the most awe inspiring factor to what just happened.
The human figure appeared to be flying through the air, with enough raw power to blast through a mountain. Alexander has heard about these powerful seekers many times.
He crawled out of the dirt and debris, stared silently at the disfigured corpse of the lurker that was killed by just the clash between those powerful beings, Alexander's eyes lit up.
"Was it a Watcher or a Harbinger".
Alexander couldn't really tell which rank the pathseeker that flew by was in, a Watcher could glide through the air, but only a Harbinger could truly soar through the skies, unimpeded by mortal creatures.
Alexander didn't sit there, dumbstruck, he picked himself up and ran out of the building through the entrance that was just made.
He was on the second floor, so he could more or less get a good view of the chaos in the city; from his position, Alexander could spot thousands of vile spawns with varied ranks. Swarming the city from beyond the tall wall of darkness surrounding it, the hollow.
Thousands of people were stampeding in random directions, adding to the chaos and indirectly causing the death of hundreds of people.
Alexander could also see humans in armour like that of the knights in story books, they were the champions of humanity, and they faced the vile spawns courageously, it was like death was a foreign concept to these people.
Few of them could even soar to the skies and challenge the massive vile spawns whose shadows cover hectares of the city.
Alexander felt his blood run cold, his knees heavy and goosebumps creeping over his skin, a smile spread across his face, if another person saw this.
They would wonder if Alexander was mentally unstable, but he wasn't, the boy was more sane than most people in the city of New Vale.
Did he enjoy pointless death, no, did he want most of the people in the city to die, well maybe so, but the boy with blood red eyes wasn't smiling because he was enjoying the flood of vile spawns bringing carnage upon the people.
He was smiling at the tower that seemed to touch the sky in the distance. He knew what he was about to do was insane, but apparently if an adolescent walks into the tower, then they automatically trigger their first mystery.
And to Alexander, this was the perfect opportunity to get to it, the chaos was a day late, but who knows, maybe he could still make it.
His present situation made him remember a conversation he had a couple years back.
"Old man Jerry used to say to me back in the day, most seeker's die before they even stop breathing. Old man Jerry isn't really that old, but he'd seen a lot of his life pass by faster than a hooker after making some gold…
Oh but this isn't about old man Jerry, it's about the man he told me about, a man that spent his life believing in some ideal no one talks about… spent his life chasing it, and only ever had scars to show for it, Jerry found him somewhere in the world of the tower, looking for the gravesite of some demon or something…
Apparently he was good with shovels and bad with words, Jerry seemed to believe the guy, so both could be true, not really sure though, never met the man…
Jerry was the type to sing along to the crowd and tell stories while kissing a good bottle of whisky, that night he whispered to me, almost afraid the dead would hear, crazy old man…".
Alexander chuckles to himself before jumping down to the nearest chunk of concrete still attached to the building, hoping he could climb down without drawing attention from the vile spawns or breaking his neck.
But that didn't stop his trail of thoughts.
"He says to me, have you ever seen a man who's just waiting to die?. Now back then I had no fancy dreams, but I still didn't say a word, instead I looked towards the little puddle of water nearby…
I couldn't see my reflection from the angle I was in, but I knew old man Jerry could… so he laughed, kinda sad and said… You've only seen a kid with no goals in life, death ain't coming till you close your eyes and still stand tall, then it will come for ya kiddo…
He turned away and said, the crazy bastard never did find what he was looking for, you never do if you search in the tower they say, but only men who don't dare to close their eyes ever say that…
I was a little confused at the time, so I asked, Jerry, where is the man now?, and he said… he got caught into some misfortune, and what bits of him came back was the kinda of remains you don't look at before dumping in a grave…
His party members said it was an accident, but I don't see it like that. I think Lee opened his eyes for a split second, and couldn't comprehend the truth he saw, so he bumped into a pebble, and what happened next was far worse than a splintered toe…
Some men get killed in the tower, but most men, they accept it, and end up like the kinda dead we don't want kids looking at, by the way kiddo, this ain't about a crazy obsessed man searching aimlessly in the tower of mysteries…
This is about being able to accept what you see in there, so if you ever do find yourself staring at that construct of deception, then make sure you don't hesitate, don't look away, and once you see, close your eyes and don't ever open them back again".
Alexander made a small final leap and made it to the ground, he raised his head, clenched his fist and shot towards the tower without a second thought, the wind in his ear and his eyes ready to close forever if it meant finding the truth he was searching for.