Ivara watched Erwin from a corner. "Somewhat boring, but also fascinating?" She thought, "He has been shoveling for how long now?"
Erwin wasn't the first person she watched over.
She believed, though cursed this thought, he wouldn't be last either.
But at the same time she felt he was different.
Erwin wasn't the smartest, fastest, strongest, or even the craziest of those whom she watched.
But he was the first one to dig graves for his enemy.
Not out of malice, but out of respect for their life.
And when Erwin touched the conduit, she could only lament the fate of this man.
"I suspected what the second curse was, but didn't expect it to be the Curse of the Lich. Worst, given to a man who respects life. How cruel."
But then she saw the changes in him; quickly after he touched the conduit, his body started to change subtly.
His skin took a pale, almost bluish tone, his eyes glowing a deep icy color.
"All this death, it's strengthening the curse!"
She tried to wake him, but Erwin was long gone. Trapped in his mind in a nightmare.
"Please win." Ivara clasped her hands, praying silently.
"Siblings dearest, is it your retaliation for my actions?"
Erwin, in a feral state, wandered until he saw a scavenger, a fox-like creature, dare enter the village.
Scrawny, hungry, wounded.
In the cold, the animal took the risk and dived for whatever food it could get to its stomach.
It did its best to stay hidden, but even if the mind forgot, the muscles did not.
Erwin quickly spotted the disturbance.
He moved fast, yet his steps were quiet. Even the path he took to approach was calculated to give the creature as little information as possible.
And once close enough, he lunged like a released arrow, catching the creature from its tail.
The animal struggled, squealed, tried to bite, but to no avail.
The feral monster, who captured it, cared nothing for it, and without wasting time, he bit the neck; teeth pierced the skin, crushed the throat, bones, and spinal cord.
Ivara averted her eyes. It wasn't disgust; she'd lost that feeling long ago.
Trying to rescue people forced into the path of monsters for so long made her numb to such situations.
But the barbarity and helplessness of the situation were something different. She wished she could avoid seeing her failures.
"Still, what else did I have left to sacrifice?" She looked at her hands, nail-less fingers, bloodless veins. Cut ears, empty eye holes, an empty body, devoid of most organs.
"One body part for every try."
She looked at Erwin. The glow in his eyes was brighter, his hair graying in real time.
"Yet, after so many years, I have yet to see the finish line, let alone approach it."
But at that moment, as if her prayers were answered, Erwin stopped.
***
["Please, calm down."]
Erwin tried to form words.
His mind was full.
"Just what happened?"
Flashes from just a moment ago appeared in his head. All that surrealism feeling so real, from the claws of the souls who detest him, to the pungent smell he was so familiar with.
He, unknowingly, touched his throat. No damage, no mark. "But I felt their hands."
At that moment, he felt something wet, and quickly looked at his hands. They were bloodied by the creature he killed.
A critter the size of a weasel, with a body like a fox. Dead, half-eaten.
A taste of raw meat and organs in his mouth, blood freezing on his face.
"Did I do this?" He tried to remember, but nothing came.
["Erwin, please look at me."]
He did, still in shock. This woman, she was anxious. Her cheeks held lines of ice, made of her frozen tears.
"Yes... you. I don't know your name yet, still."
["Ivara, my name is Ivara, try calling me that."]
"Ivara. Name of my mysterious protector. Ivara. I saw you..."
The memories finally arise in his mind. He watched himself act less like a human and more like a feral beast.
In his memories, he wasn't even there, feeling his body or its emotions. It felt more like watching a movie than anything.
But he still felt he had a sliver of control. Just not as easily as before.
Every movement, every word, they had to be forced into action.
He opened his mouth to speak. "Say, Ivara, what is this condition?"
He managed to spew.
["The curse of the Lich."]
Ivara lifted her hands from Erwin's shoulders.
["Oh, Erwin, how sorry I am to say it. The hand they dealt you, it's not a winning hand."]
Ivara didn't want to break his morale, but again, she believed in her words.
She expected Erwin to believe them too.
"And?"
"'And?' That's his answer?" She thought, baffled.
"You might have forgotten it, but I am not native to this place. I am barely keeping myself sane by not questioning anything, and accepting every unnatural occurrence as normal, but there is a limit to my ignorance."
Erwin stood up, stumbling.
"Tell me, Ivara. With details if you can."
Ivara took a deep breath; air moved through her throat to her empty torso.
["Liches are those who defy the rules of nature and force themselves into an undead form through necromancy. They consume the lives of others for strength, and enslave their dead."]
Erwin looked at the dead bodies.
His eyes couldn't see, but he saw something on them. A confirmation of their death, nothing visual, something different yet natural.
"Yet I neither feel strength nor feel like I can awaken the dead. Does it have anything to do with what you did to that blue screen?"
Ivara shook her head. ["With my strength, I can stop only one of them."]
"Would you stop this curse if you knew about it?" Erwin asked, looking at his bloodied hands.
["No… You can resist the curse, stop it from growing, however futile as it may look to outsiders, but their rewards, you cannot."]
Ivara moved closer to Erwin and grabbed his hands.
["You look stable."]
Erwin stopped for a moment.
"Am I?" He asked, but all things considered, he was.
"I think so, but don't bet on it."
Ivara nodded. ["For now, please close your eyes and focus on your hands."]
Both hands grabbed; she pulled them into a clasp, supporting from outside with hers.
Erwin followed orders, closed his eyes, and focused.
But what was he even focusing on? The cold weather, his aching wounds, the bad taste in his mouth.
His eyes saw nothing.
["Be ready, I will work as your conduit."]
With her words, Erwin prepared himself.
A moment later, he began feeling something inside.
Many tingling sensations suddenly appeared all around, inside his body.
From his shoulders to knees, they moved, creating a static inside his body.
But it was nothing like the shaman's crystal; this time, everything was slow, calculated.
And soon enough, a light flickered before him.
Even though his eyes were closed, even though he couldn't see anything, a very faint and weak light appeared where the body of the animal rested.
"Ivara, I see a gray light. It's faint, barely holding."
Erwin waited for an answer, but.
"Shit…!" He opened his eyes. "I am so sorry, I forgot you couldn't talk."
["It's not a problem, but please, return to focusing."]
He did as told, until he could see that faint light even with his eyes open.
"Now, am I ready for answers?"
Ivara nodded as she crouched before the fox-weasel. ["Close your eyes for a moment."]
"Alright." Erwin did as told. When his eyelids closed and the world before him became dark, the light before him became clearer now. Colored gray, shaking before him, almost as if it feared something.
Erwin reopened his eyes. "What was that?" He asked, looking at Ivara.
["That was the life essence of a creature. The one thing almost every creature shares, and one thing you need to avoid the most. Their soul."]