Tucked in a burrow, head resting on a soft pillow. Next to him was the staff of the first guardian he defeated, the Chief-Shaman Tun Red-Eye.
"I won..." Erwin mumbled. "I am alive, somewhat safe."
Yet Erwin couldn't stop thinking of the shaman's final moments, of the destruction he caused.
Erwin got up, pushed open the burrow's door, and exited.
"I need a breather." He mumbled as he walked outside, leaving the staff at the shaman's hut.
Outside, he scrambled through his pockets for a cigarette. "I am sure I took three with me."
"This has to do." He put the broken cigarette in his mouth and approached the burned segment of the wall, still hot.
Goblins failed to extinguish the fire, but they did tear down some sections of the wall, leaving it starved.
"These still have some embers left." He crouched next to the wood. Carefully, he lit the cigarette.
After taking a puff, he turned around.
Nothing was left of the town.
Only rubble.
Most of the goblins, though they tried to escape, became meals for the enraged bird.
Their remnants were scattered across the town, painting the snow red and brown.
"I did it again."
Erwin threw the cigarette away and stomped on it.
"Should have been an easy job, maybe two or three collateral casualties on the way. But this."
He sighed.
With nothing else to do, he approached the destroyed hut where he had found the hoe.
"A shovel, a shovel." He mumbled as he grabbed chunks of frozen, broken mud bricks and tossed them aside until he found what he was looking for.
"Bad handle, bent head, barely held together by a sinew rope and a wooden pin. But still sharp, and looks somewhat new." Erwin grabbed the shovel. "Should do the job regardless."
With that, he approached the goblin shaman first.
Only to be surprised.
The goblin shaman twitched, struggling to breathe.
Tears in his eyes froze into an ice trail down his cheeks.
Parts of the shaman's brain were scattered onto the ground, but the hole Erwin opened with the hoe was closed.
"Don't tell me, that potion."
Erwin crouched next to the shaman. He heard the creature struggle and make noises as it begged for mercy.
"I am sorry for keeping you alive." Erwin lifted the shovel, aimed the tip at the shaman's forehead.
"Right between eyebrows, make it as quick as possible." He whispered.
And thrusted it down, cleaving through the goblin's skull and brain to the cerebellum.
The same instant, the shaman's cries came to a stop, finally out of his misery.
Erwin put the shaman's head together, closed his mouth and eyes, then put him in a resting position after placing a piece of cloth over his face.
"The least I can do now is to give you a grave."
And as he stood straight, a blue light flashed before his eyes.
"What was that-"
["The reward screen that I just blocked."]
The pale woman appeared once more.
Staying silent for a couple of days now, she had decided to show herself once more.
Erwin recalled their first talk. She indeed talked about the reward system.
"Well, I am not feeling any less shitty. Kudos to you then."
He grabbed the shovel once more and struck the dirt a couple of steps next to the shaman.
The head pierced through the thin layer of snow, slowed at the layer of ice, and hit the frozen dirt.
But he did not give up; he thrust it into the earth once more.
Ground clanked with thrusts.
It was hard; dirt was coming out in frozen chunks, but he still managed to dig.
Once in a while, he glanced around, but all stayed the same.
The pale woman silently watched him work from the same corner, and wall pieces in embers crackled the same.
"Today's going to be a silent day."
He mumbled as he turned back to what he was doing.
Digging a grave.
Once enough of an opening was made, he carefully pulled the shaman's body in.
Then he dropped the dirt back into the grave and gently patted on top to make it even.
The frozen dirt didn't help, yet he still managed to make a somewhat acceptable grave.
He took a moment to breathe before turning around and moving towards the deceased body of another goblin.
["Are you going to bury them all?"]
"That's the plan." Erwin struck the ground once more, repeating the process.
["It will be a toll on your body. Why did you not leave with their shaman?"]
"My body, for the weather and its conditions, feels surprisingly lively and warm." Erwin lifted another chunk of dirt.
Once placed on the ground, he hit it with the shovel's flat side to break it.
"And to answer your second question with mine. What makes these goblins any less deserving of a grave?"
No answer came.
Erwin looked for none as well.
So, he dug, and dug, and dug.
He prepared a burial hole for each goblin he found. He closed their eyes and put their body in a resting position.
Marked their graves with whatever he found.
His hands numbed long ago, and he felt no tiredness. Like a machine, he only dug graves and buried bodies.
["Have you not become tired?"]
The woman asked.
Erwin stopped.
"I am tired." He lifted the shovel once again.
["No."] The woman appeared right before him, stopping the shovel. ["You are not really tired! Look!"] She forcefully opened his hands.
They were bleeding from work. The cold and rough surface of the shovel handle had grated his skin away, but he hadn't noticed.
"But, it…" Erwin looked at his hands. He felt no warmth. No pain. "What is happening?"
["The second curse."]
She disappeared, reappearing next to the staff used by the goblin shaman.
["Please come here."]
Erwin inspected his hands once more. "No sign of necrosis, no sign of frostbite. Ugh." He shook his head and followed the woman's order.
"What comes now?"
["I have some assumptions, but I am unsure of the true nature of your curse. We will test it to take proper precautions in the future."]
Erwin crouched and grabbed the staff. It was cold, made from a better wood than his shovel's handle, but that was it.
"I… I feel nothing. No changes."
["The crystal, please touch that."]
"Alright." Erwin did as told.
Only a moment later, his eyes widened as he dropped the crystal.
"They cannot be here." He mumbled.
He didn't move, didn't even breathe. In his ears, familiar voices echoed.
Before his eyes, familiar faces appeared. "They are dead!" He shouted, his face paled.
He looked at the weapon with dread in his eyes.
"What did you make me do?" He turned to the pale woman. "What was that? Why were they here?"
["Erwin, I don't know who…"]
"I know they are dead!" Erwin screamed, his hands clawing his scalp.
He lifted his head to watch the motionless specters of the dead soldiers he knew. Their faces were young, naive, innocent, as they were the day they were assigned to his platoon.
"I carried their caskets." He fell to his knees. "I know… I saw them. I was there to witness their last breath. I was there to honor them."
Erwin curled into a ball before Ivara. Not moving, not talking.
The pale woman looked at the sky. ["All of you really are cruel, cruel beyond words, dear siblings."]
She approached Erwin, hugging him from behind and trying to offer comfort, her hands once more covered in that same warmth. ["I am sorry."]
She looked at the unburied bodies.
For what they had gone through, the physical damage on them was to be expected.
But Ivara saw something different, a problem not on the physical plane, a problem in the very soul of the bodies before them.
She turned to Erwin, her face pitying. ["Regardless of your wishes, regardless of your kindness, the one True Lich King has reborn."]