16

The echo of the voice resonated in the room, leaving behind a trail of strange words: "Dungeon Coins," "Demon Lord," "subterranean domain." For Sebastián, they were empty concepts, without any meaning in his amnesiac mind.

He looked down at the girl he held in his arms. She watched him with her large, dark eyes, a look of quiet curiosity on her childish face. Oblivious to the weight of the voice's words, she seemed more interested in the flashes of the hologram than in the meaning of what she had just heard. Sebastián felt the responsibility to protect her, an instinct that seemed to have survived the void in his memory. She, despite her immense power, of which he had not the slightest idea, seemed so fragile and innocent. She was the Demon Lord, Sebastián remembered, the information resonating in his mind with a strange mix of incredulity and acceptance.

Sebastián sighed, feeling a mixture of sadness and deep confusion. He looked at the girl in his arms. Her paleness and her trembling moved him. What happened to her? he wondered, looking around at the strange traces on the floor. The icy dust, the fragments of metal… everything pointed to a violent scene. The girl seemed completely oblivious to everything, lost in her own world. A protective instinct, pure and simple, arose in Sebastián. I can't leave her here, he thought, with a determination born from the most basic need to protect a vulnerable being. I have to find out what happened, for her. The idea that the voice had called her "Demon Lord" was absurd to him. She was just a girl, and she needed his help.

He looked back at the hologram. Cautiously, he extended a hand and touched the "Monsters" tab. The screen changed, displaying new images and descriptions. Sebastián narrowed his eyes, trying to assimilate the information. This was his new starting point. This was his new purpose. And he would face it, together with the girl, no matter how strange it all was.