Melon gave us a map of the surroundings of Nebula and it showed the place where the Dungeon of the Shrieking Man was located, it was a little inside Teeth Forest. Rodolfo and I went out to the square, the day was still cloudy and a few drops began to fall lazily.

“Don’t you mind if we do the mission together, Sabela?” he asked.

“No, of course I don’t. Besides, if we go together we'll probably find the girl first.”

We left the square following the wide street that led to the city gates, and halfway there I realised that I had not given Melon Abdon's letter. I was tempted to go back; but I didn’t do it. I didn't think anything bad would happen if I gave it to him when we returned from cleaning the dungeon.

We left the city, crossed the treeless countryside and entered the Teeth Forest. After a while, we found ourselves in front of the Dungeon of the Shrieking Man and there I knew the reason for the name: the entrance was in the shape of a person screaming as if he was being tortured in the cruellest possible way. A little in front of the door we came across a small charred corpse and I was afraid because I thought it might be the girl, but when we got closer we saw that it was a goblin.

“Who would burn it...?” I asked Rodolfo.

“I don't know, but I'd like to know," he answered and touched the monster with the toe of his shoes.

I approached the stairs that plunged into the darkness and a cold breath scraped my ankles.

“I don't know why the goblins live in places like this," I said.

“Maybe it's because we killed them if I see them?” Rudolph gave me a mocking smile.

“Well, if they weren't monsters we wouldn't kill them,” I replied.

“Yeah, but you don't choose to be a monster or a human.”

He was right about that, but I didn't like to think too much of such things. So I started down the stairs of this eerie dungeon. After about four or five steps, I was surrounded by darkness so thick that I couldn't even see my hands.

“I think we should go back to the city and get some lanterns,” I said, and I hated the idea, because in the bowels of that dungeon there was a girl who needed our help.

“No need, Sabela... Light,” said Rodolfo, a white sphere appeared above his palm and hovered there.

“That's very useful. Thank you... Hey, can the goblins see in the dark, can't they?” I asked.

“Yes, they can, why do you ask?”

“I suposse it makes sense because it's pretty dark in here... Come on, we don't have time to waste,” I said and picked up my axe, holding it in my hand made me feel safer.

We walked through the narrow stone corridors of the dungeon and the first of the goblins appeared around a corner. He stared at us with his mouth open and raised his arms.

“Friends or foes?!”

On hearing such a stupid question I laughed.

“What do you think?” I replied.

I aimed the axe at it and the monster attacked me, hurting my stomach with its claws. That really pissed me off because normally these monsters don't even give me a scratch and in two days I got hit twice. The worst thing was that it was more or less in the same place.

“Die!” I shouted.

I hit him all over his head with my axe, and as I pulled it away a stream of blood shot out of the wound and all over my shirt. The monster made a pathetic groan and collapsed to the ground. His body shook a few times and it didn't take long for him to die.

“Let me heal your wound, Sabela,” Rodolfo told me.

I had the mark of the beast's nails on my belly, and the wound was bleeding, leaving my shirt pretty bad. From Rodolfo's fingers came a white light that kissed my wounds, giving me a feeling of warmth that drowned out the pain.

“Let's thank Helios that it wasn't more serious,” commented Rodolfo.

“How so? -I asked, running my hand over the wound, where only a few white streaks remained.

“My faith is not enough to heal serious wounds. You must know that if it's a matter of life or death, there's little more I can do than watch and pray,” explained Rodolfo.

“Well, I'll try not to get mortally wounded.”

Further on, we found two goblins and this time Rodolfo also helped by attacking one of them with his sabre. My axe fell on the other and the idiot tried to stop it with one hand, the blade cut his wrist cleanly. When he grabbed his arm screaming in pain, I hit him hard on the head until he stopped moving. Rodolfo took care of killing the other goblin.

“Are we doing great, aren’t we? I could be killing goblins all day.... This is good, not like fighting that hobgoblin that killed me twice,” I said and smiled, at that moment I thought that being an adventurer was the best. The feeling wouldn't last long.

“Oh, that almost killed me, I mean...” I said, not wanting to confess to him that I had the 900 lives ability because the Mark appeared on one buttock. “It's impossible to die more than once.”

“Usually yes, but there are exceptions: Breogan, an adventurer of the Sons of the Sun, is immortal thanks to a Mark," said Rodolfo,

“Really immortal? That's strange...” I said to myself, as I scratched my belly, "Oh, look at a goblin there, what a fool! He doesn't realise we're here!”

Inside a room there was a monster rummaging around inside a trunk, its back to us. I pointed the axe at it and prepared to throw it because I had the idea of gaining the ability to kill monsters that way.

“Hey, I think I can take him out in one shot, what do I get if I do?” I asked Rodolfo.

“I'll invite you to dinner.”

“Yeah, free dinner... Then it's impossible to fail.”

I threw the axe and was actually surprised when my weapon flew through the air with the speed of an eagle and nailed into the monster's back. The monster began to screech in pain and I had to move in to finish it off.

“I think I have to take you out to dinner, even though you didn't kill him at the first try," said Rodolfo.

That made me happy, because I had always wanted to eat at a restaurant in Nebula, but I had never been to the city in my eighteen years of life. But it was also true that I should not waste too much time, because after giving the letter I was supposed to go home immediately.

After a while of walking through corridors that were all very similar, I began to get more and more nervous because no matter how much we walked through the dungeon we could find no trace of the girl. In addition, every now and then we came across burnt corpses and whenever I saw one I was afraid that it might be the girl's body.

“But where on the hell is that brat hiding?” I asked.

“Maybe she's no longer in the dungeon,” said Rodolfo.

A scream came across the corridor, it was the girl and she was in danger. Without thinking, I started to run. Rodolfo was next to me and that was good because he was the one carrying the white ball on his palm and without it I would be completely in the dark. Soon, we reached a large room with a high ceiling.

There stood the adventurer girl and, as Melon said, she looked to be about ten years old. She wore a peaked hat with an embroidered smile and two big eyes with a black disc in them that moved from side to side with every nod of her head. The brat was kneeling on the ground as she looked for something.

“Oh, gosh! Where are my glasses?” she said, and didn't seem to notice the hideous monster right under her nose, and even though I had studied some monster books to become an adventurer, that one didn't ring a bell.

“Shit... that's not good, Sabela... that monster... I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure it's too strong for us to defeat,” said Rodolfo, who was trembling beside me.

-It seems he's not exactly a goblins’ friend," I said because you could see the mangled corpses of the green monsters all around him, but he was no friend of ours either because there was also a dead bearded man among the goblins, wearing a doctor's coat and a ribbon on his arm with the letters VHX.

Well, I didn't look any more because all my attention was on the new monster, who was a mass of muscle nearly six feet tall, covered in grey fur and with his hands flat on the ground in a position that reminded me of gorillas. He had bloodshot eyes in a constant state of fury with a mouth full of teeth from which dripped constantly drops of drool and continuously emitted a low growl that did not bode well. Everything inside me was screaming at me that this was an enemy I could hardly defeat, that the smartest thing to do was to turn away because I would only win death in that fight, but I couldn't leave the girl there alone to be eaten alive by that monster.

“Hey, you, big guy! Pick on someone your own size!” I said, even though he was about twice my size, but I couldn't think of anything else to say.

The beast looked up from the brat and stared at me with red eyes, flooded with an overflowing fury. I trembled like a flan, as I got closer to the monster, I realised that it was quite a big beast and had a mouth full of very, very sharp teeth. I could see that quite well because in no time it was in front of me and bit my head off, at least that's what I think it happened because the last thing I felt before I died were its teeth round my neck.

896 lives

You have less and less...

“Don't bother me ...” I said annoyed, not that I did it because I liked dying.

The darkness faded and I was back in the dungeon, in the dark space of ashes and silence known as Time Between Seconds. The girl was still on her knees looking for her glasses and Rodolfo was close to me. That unknown monster I saw standing in front of me, ready to take off my head from my neck again.

Being in that place made my stomach turens with sheer nervousness, but I didn't come back to reality because I wanted to see if I could figure out some way to solve the problem easily. I looked at the girl, she was looking for her glasses, and to me that, in the situation we were in, seemed pretty silly.

“If I can find the glasses and I give them to him.... Perhaps we can leave without fighting” I said to myself.

I started to scan them, thinking that it wouldn't matter if I was wasting time, since in the Time Between Seconds it didn't exist. But in a matter of seconds I felt a look on my back and it was obvious that someone was with me. My guts were twisting with fear and I didn't want to turn around to find out who or what it was.

“Time forward!” I said and then shouted at the little brat, “Girl, forget the glasses and run!”

She raised her head and blinked in confusion.

“But I can't run if I can't see!”

I hit my head because I behaved like an idiot, what did the girl's glasses matter? What I had to do was to take her in my arms and run as if there were no tomorrow. But before I did that, I wanted to try one last thing with the monster, so I gathered all my strength and threw the axe at him, hoping maybe to hit him full in the face and maybe even kill him. I hit it with the handle... that is to say, no damage at all.

“Oh, no!" I screamed.

The monster charged in my direction and slashed its claws across my stomach, giving me three fairly deep cuts. The pain I felt made me fall to my knees on the ground and clutch my belly. I looked down to see how bad my wounds were, which I instantly regretted: the only thing holding my guts in were my hands. If it weren't for them, they would be sticking out of my body like sausages hanging from the ceiling of a butcher's shop.

“Oh, please... Kill me,” I begged the monster and he raised his hand ready to melt my head with one blow.

I closed my eyes and waited for death to come so quickly and painlessly, but instead I heard an unpleasant shrill laugh.

“I've found my glasses! Now you'll see how I manage, you stupid monster of the Abyss, so you'll learn not to mess with Melinda, the best wizard in the whole Kingdom!”

I turned my head to see the girl approaching the monster.

“Quick, run away,... it'll kill you...” I said, but I could barely speak.

“Kill me? To me? Don't make me laugh! Fireball!.” shouted the brat, and a huge flame shot out of her hand and surrounded the monster.

He let out a howl of tremendous pain and collapsed to the ground, but to my surprise he did not die there but the burn wounds began to regenerate. At that moment, I realised the true nature of that monster.

“He's a Fallen, he's a Fallen, you've got to break its heart!”

Melinda gave a weary snort.

“As if I don't know what a Fallen is, I've seen them all my life!” she said, and pointed her hand at the monster again. “Fireball!”

Powerful flames erupted from her fingers around the Fallen and, through the melting flesh, an imperfect, red-coloured gem emerged. A smile of satisfaction appeared on the girl's face.

“There it is! Its stupid gem... Goodbye, asshole,” he said, drawing a strange weapon that was like a cross between a revolver and a wand. He aimed at the gem of the heart and fired, a sphere of energy shot out and hit it squarely, breaking it into two pieces. “Ha! I had a bit of a hard time when I lost the glasses, but it turned out all right in the end. Hey, thanks for helping me... but... are you okay...?” she asked, turning pale as she saw the ugly wound on my stomach.

Even though Rodolfo was trying to heal me, I had a feeling that his faith was not enough to save me.

“Let me die, come on,” I said, the truth is that it would be much better to spend a life to stop feeling all the pain that was flooding me at that moment.

“No, you're not going to die, Sabela, we're going to save you!” Rodolfo shouted.

Maybe that could be the best moment to tell him about my ability, but I lost consciousness.