Tucked in a burrow, head resting on a soft pillow. Next to him, the staff of the first guardian, the Chief-Shaman Tun Red-Eye.
He won. It was mostly through luck, but victory was his.
Yet, Erwin couldn't stop thinking.
Even when the giant bird stopped its rampage and left the town.
Even when his survival was all but guaranteed.
So, what was the reason?
An unease.
Memories from the past, ever calling.
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 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 did tear down some sections of the wall, leaving it fuelless.
"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.
Even most of the goblins, though they tried to escape when the second bird landed, weren't fast enough, caught, and slain by the monster.
Their corpses 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 collaterals on the way. But this."
He sighed.
With nothing else to do, he approached the destroyed hut where he got the hoe.
"A shovel, a shovel." He mumbled as he grabbed chunks of frozen, broken mud bricks and showed to the side, till 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, barely breathing, was on the floor.
He 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.
"That potion."
Erwin crouched next to the shaman. He could hear the creature struggle and make noises as he 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."
And thrusted it down, cleaving through the goblin's skull and brain to the cerebellum.
The noises decreased, and the shaman stopped twitching.
Erwin put the shaman's head together, closed his mouth and eyes, then put him in a rest 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, thrust it to 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 state of the dirt made him no help, but in the end, he still managed to achieve a somewhat flat, closed 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, but he felt no tiredness. After the fourth grave, all the work became none.
Like a machine, he only did.
[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 cautions 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.
"They are not here." He mumbled.
And stopped.
For a second, 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 as he threw the staff away.
His eyes widened, and his face paled in moments.
He looked at the weapon with dread in his eyes.
"What did you make 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 head.
"I carried their caskets." He fell to his knees. "I know… I saw them. I was there to witness their last breath."
The pale woman looked at the sky. [All of you really are cruel, cruel beyond words, dear siblings]
She then turned to Erwin.
She approached him once more, hugging him from behind, trying to give some comfort.
She looked at Erwin's hands. They were already healing.
She then took a look at the unburied bodies.
Looking no more damaged than usual to the ordinary eye.
But she saw something different, the subtle movements, the rejection of the Earth.
The souls are forcefully taken away and used as fuel.
[The one True Lich King has reborn]