Again, I was in that dark place and, above my head, a message appeared.

898 lives

HAVE YOU REALLY DIED THREE TIMES ALREADY?

“Hey... it's not like I'm dying because I want to...”

The darkness melted away and I was in the kitchen again, in the Time Between Seconds. It was really hard to get used to that place, it made me feel like I had snakes inside my belly.

I was kneeled in front of the monstrous Mr. Oink, whose head was split in two in the shape of a beastly mouth and whose arm turned into the blade of a sword with which he cut off my arm. When I looked to my right I saw that there was only a clean cut stump, for the skill had returned me shortly before my death. The bad thing is that in those seconds I no longer had an arm. I was afraid because I thought I would be without it forever and ever.

That was quite unfair because I didn't think I was capable of becoming an adventurer with just one arm. I felt a rush of bad feelings in my belly: bitterness, sadness and anger. But before I had time to sadden and piss me off even more, white threads emerged from the stump, wrapped around the arm, and lifted it off the ground to bring it up to me and stick it in its usual place.

I opened and closed my right hand: it worked as usual and only a white mark remained marking the place where Mr. Oink had cut my arm. I sighed in relief, my career as an adventurer wasn't over yet, although it wouldn't last long either: a few more days and then everything would be over.

I had my axe in my hand again, but I didn't know how to fight this monster because there were many levels of difference between the hobgoblin the goblin and him. I thought for a while about what to do and finally decided that the best thing to do was to leave the kitchen at full speed.

“Time...pass! Work well now!”

The monster swung his arm-sword at me again, but this time I was able to dodge it easily and the tip of the sword stuck into the floor so powerfully that it broke the tile.

I grabbed Lucia and put her over my right shoulder, I ran as if I had hobgoblins biting my heels, I ran all the length of the restaurant and went outside which it was cloudy, but I didn't stop until I reached the fountain of the heroine Xoana and there I left Lucia, who was still very faint, poor thing.

I stared at Oink's restaurant, axe in hand. Slow seconds passed but nothing happened and I noticed the sweat sliding down my forehead. Nothing, just the decayed tranquillity of that town, that was almost a ghost.

The façade of the restaurant was blown off by the sheer brute force of the monstrous Mr. Oink and, in the dust, I could see a gigantic shadow that did not match the monster in the kitchen. Somehow, he had grown in size.

A inhuman roar flooded the town, containing so much force that I felt as if I had a ton of wood on my back. I tried to resist with all my big body strength, but soon my knees kissed the ground.

A terrible feeling came over me, as if multiple tentacles were slipping through cracks in my brain. Suddenly, a terrible image flooded my mind with such intensity that I almost believed it to be real: I was standing on a sea of darkness stretching under a red sky. It was not a sea of water, but of people who looked like shadows and raised their arms pleadingly towards me. I bit hard my hand, in the area between my thumb and index finger, so hard that I even drew blood. But at least it was enough to push the vision out of my mind.

A head emerged from the dust, it was Mr. Oink, but little or nothing remained of him. Only his mouth, frozen in a gesture of terror, while the top of his head opened into four slabs of flesh, like petals of the most macabre flower in the world, all loaded with sharp teeth, and from the middle protruded his brain now turned into a tongue and wagging back and forth like a whip.

My stomach whirled quite a bit, but luckily I managed to keep my lunch inside. I raised the axe in the direction of the monster and felt quite ridiculous because it seemed impossible that I could defeat such a monster. I plunged a hand into my hair. That always helped me to calm down.

Out of the dust came a mighty leg that was no longer human at all: it was that of a beast ending in a foot with large sharp nails. When it hit the ground, the world shook.

As it moved forward, its torso also emerged from the smoke, and from it now protruded six tentacles with sharp blades that moved incessantly. On the left side of its head, it had a large eye: there was nothing human in it, only darkness and emptiness. It walked a few more steps and stood still, with that imbecilic eye fixed on me. Now the only thing that moved was his six long arm-swords.

A pigeon flew in front of the monster and that was a fatal mistake: the arm-swords tore the bird apart in half a second. I thought maybe it was attacking anything that moved and as I was as still as a statue it left me alone. I moved my left arm a little and one of the monster's tentacles landed on the railing of the fountain and broke it like hot butter.

A crystalline laugh sounded behind me, I turned my head slightly and saw a man standing on the statue of Xoana. It seemed a bit disrespectful, but I didn't say anything because it wasn't the time to worry about that sort of things.

He was in his early twenties and I guess you could say he was handsome. He had slicked-back hair, a pale, long face, with a mouth that curved into a smile. Although it wasn’t the best of the times...

He was wearing silver armour with a rose carved on his chest and from that I knew he was a Knight of the Belle Rose, an order of chivalry that was in direct service to the princess. So that was good news because he was probably strong and could kill the monster in no time.

“Looks like you're in trouble, pretty lady” the guy said.

“Well, I am a bit” I whispered because I didn't want to attract the monster's attention.

Looking at the monster, the knight's mouth curved in disgust.

“By the princess... That monster is a real ugliness! What will you give me if I defeat it?”

“Don't talk so loud... it has ears...” I muttered, but he didn't listen to me at all.

“Oh, please, don't you know who you are talking to? I am Armando Diaz de Leon of the Sun City, knight of the Belle Rose, disciple of the distinguished Rodrigo of Trapisonda and ....!”

He didn't finish the sentence because one of the arms-sword went towards his head and I could already see him decapitated, but he drew his sword at full speed and with a clean thrust cut it down.

“Wow...” I whispered, rather impressed.

“You see? There is no need to worry... Those fallen look terrible, but they are nothing more than stupid monsters, beautiful lady,” said Armando, standing quite close to me and smelling of a very pleasant floral perfume.

“Then why don't you kill him now?” I asked him, it seemed a bit stupid to talk first and kill it later instead of killing it first and talking later.

“My fair lady. If I succeed in overthrowing the beast, will you give me a kiss?” he asked, with that mocking smile on his face.

“No,” I replied, “one does not sell one's lips so easily.”

He burst out laughing and that surprised me, I thought he would be pissed off.

“I didn't really expect that! But it's all right, fair lady. I will defeat it without expecting any reward. Anyway, it would be unthinkable for a Knight of the Belle Rose to leave a girl in the clutches of a monster.”

Armando walked forward and his sword danced fiercely blocking all the attacks the monster made with its arms-sword. In less than a minute, all six of the monster's arms were lying on the ground.

“You're a really ugly creature and my dear Rodrigo doesn't want anything ugly in the kingdom. So you'll have to die,” said Armando and the monster replied with such a bestial roar that I had to use all my strength not to fall down.

But Armando was not affected by that, he gave a mocking laugh and made a tremendous bunny jump and appeared in front of the monster's head and with a movement as quick as lightning he cut it off with a slash.

When his feet hit the ground, the monster had no head, but I noticed that his body was still standing. Armando turned his back on Mr. Oink and offered me a triumphant smile.

“My beautiful lady, you may have told me you wouldn't give me a kiss, but don't you think my feat deserves it? If it wasn't for me, you would be dead... Don't you think it's a small price to pay?” Armando said to me.

“Well, yeah... thanks for killing it and all that, but I still say no,” I replied.

“Don't you think you're being a bit hard with me? I put my life on the line to save you... and I'm not asking for that much,” Armando told me and I didn't know if that could be considered insulting.

Suddenly a mouth appeared in the monster's stomach and devoured the Knight of the Beau Rose in one bite. As fast as I can tell: Mr. Oink's belly drew a line from his navel to his chest and opened up to reveal a vertical maw with a large number of teeth. So that's it: he ate Armando and, unlike me, he wouldn't come back.

At least the sacrifice of the Knight of the Beau Rose was enough to remove the monster's arms and make it just a headless torso with a huge mouth on its belly. It was still too dangerous for me, though, because I didn't think I could do much damage with my axe.

“What's... going on here?”

I heard a sleepy voice. It was Lucia with a hand on her forehead where she had a nasty cut that stained her pale face with blood.

“Mr. Oink is a monster; he killed a pigeon and also to one Armando!” I shouted, trying to summarise the maximum information in as few words as possible.

“Oh... Helios... blessed...” Lucia got pale and fainted.

“But why do you get up if you're leaving in no time?” I asked her, feeling quite bad.

I thought about waking her up by force, but I wasn't sure I would succeed so I put her in the fountain so that the monster wouldn't see her and as there was little water it was quite difficult for her to drown.

The monster's mouth was full open and a rather large tongue was falling out of it. I moved to the right and left, but this time the monster did not attack me, perhaps because he no longer had any eye.

At that moment, he only had a big mouth and two legs. I decided to try something risky, but maybe it could work, and even if I failed and died, I could always resurrect. But in the event that I succeeded, I had the impression that I would look pretty good. I aimed the axe at the bug, gathered all my strength and threw it at it. Instead of hitting it with the edge, I hit it with the handle.

It served for the monster to start running towards me, but I managed to avoid a crushing death by throwing myself to one side. Mr. Monstrous Oink had no brakes and kept running until he slammed into the Children of the Sun Barracks and bye-bye building: it collapsed as if it were made of cardboard. The monster was still standing, as if nothing had happened. He took a few steps backwards and shook his body to get rid of the debris.

I seized the moment to grab my axe and before I could realise it I had the beast lunging towards me. I was so shocked that I froze in place and couldn't take my eyes off the monster.

“Ouch...”

Before he hit me, a magical shield appeared between me and him: a golden and transparent layer that managed to stop most of the damage, but not all of it, and that made me fly away. The shield was one of the magic things that Lucia could create thanks to her Faith and it not only served to block damage, but also to return it to the enemy.

I was quite bruised, but I had to keep fighting if I didn't want to end up in the monster's stomach. I put the axe on the ground and, using it as a stick, I stood up. With difficulty, to be honest, because my legs were shaking as if they were made of jelly.

The monster got the worst: it had only one leg because the other one flew off. It was surprising that it was still alive because its body was just a piece of flesh with one leg and a mouth that groaned in pain.

Lucia managed to cast a magic shield, but it helped no more because she fainted again. Her head was resting on the railing of the fountain and one arm hanging. Well, that meant I was the one who had to do the job and kill the monster. So I started to get closer, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be because after three steps I fell again.

From the ground I could see how the monster was trying to get up, but it was difficult because it had only one leg. But soon that would be different. Another leg was growing up from the wound. At that moment it was like a baby's. I stood up and took a few steps towards the beast. It was difficult because I walked as if I were drunk.

I managed to get in front of him and he tried to move away, but his newborn leg did not grow enough to allow him to walk. I hit him with all my might, but I only gave him a light wound, the second one was worst. Instead of hitting him it hit the ground. Fortunately, the third attack hit the bull’s eye and the blade sank deep into the flesh.

It was quite satisfying, but the feeling didn't last long, because when I wanted to hit him again I missed, even though he only had one good leg, he used it to get away from me and besides –something to bear in mind-, after all the blows I had to endure, I was a bit dizzy.

“Will you stand still?!” I shouted at him.

I hit him again in the same wound and the blade plunged down until it hit something hard. There was the sound of glass shattering, and that looked a little bit strange. I didn't think it was possible to have glass inside a monster. In the wound I saw something shiny: buried in the monster's flesh was a kind of red jewel broken by the blow of the axe.

“But what's that doing in there?” I wondered.

“You did it well,” said a sober voice.

Someone was coming towards me: it was the man with the spider scar on his face and the black armour, with a hideous skull right on his chest with his mouth open. The same man who came into the barracks just when Lucia wanted to pull down my trousers to look at my butt.

“Hey! Who are you?” I asked confused.

“Me...? Abdon...” he said and then I remembered: he was the guy who had to see if I was worthy or not to become an adventurer.

“Were you watching the fight, without taking part or something like that?” -I asked him and noticed that he had a golden sun on his chest.

Abdon looked at me for a few seconds that I felt a bit endless. To tell you the truth, that man had one of those faces that would get burned into your brain. It wasn't just the scar in the shape of a spider, but the whole thing, with that vulture nose, undertaker's eyes and that kind of mouth that look like they're used to eat lemons as others eat sunflower’s seeds.

“Yes, I was” he answered.

I stood waiting for him to say something more. But he said nothing.

“Ok, that’s fine” I said for not being silent.

Abdon tossed something into my hands, well that was his intention but the thing hit me on the breast and fell down to the ground. When I crouch down to pick it up I saw that it was a Children of the Sun wooden plate.

“It’s a wooden one... that means I am not a true adventurer, still.”

I mean, the wooden plate is a provisional one for the applicants. You can only consider that you are inside is when you are given a bronze one.

“Wait here just a moment” Abdón said and he went to the monster’s corpse. It seems somewhat odd to me that he introduced his hand in the wound, but then I realised he did it to get the red coloured gem from inside.

“What do you want that thing for?” I asked

“Well, I’d waste a lot of time explaining, so I won’t do it. Let’s see your father... Godofredo.... I must talk with him”

“With dad?”

It seemed strange to me that he wanted to talk to him. Dad had left the Children of the Sun a lot of years ago.

“Yes”

“Sure... Then shall we go to my father’s house” I asked and Abdon nodded.