["You are already dead."]
This sentence rang in Erwin's head again, and again, and again.
Even when the flames in his eyes burned with passion. Even when he found a spark of hope in his path.
It wasn't the first time he heard it.
The very drill sergeant whom he encountered on the first day of the army shouted at him.
"You are all dead, worms! I will make you accept this and obey the rules, so you may accidentally survive!"
The man's bulging veins and face that turned red from screaming all remained vividly in his memories.
The second time was later in the war, when one of the soldiers under his command finally cracked under the pressure.
"You are already dead… We are already dead… Why are you not getting this?"
That soldier wasn't from his main platoon, a group of drifters who joined them after losing most of their troops in an ambush.
He remembered the young man's cracking voice, his tearful eyes.
And today, he heard the sentence a third time.
But it felt different.
He did actually die this time. The curse, the system, and the new world had become a part of him without his control or consent.
Yet, at the same time, he felt alive. Waking to the morning light, sleeping next to the campfire, eating food he foraged and hunted.
Erwin looked at the door before him.
Two huge pieces of iron, engraved with symbols of warriors, clergy, and wealth.
And behind it, a strong soul, resting.
"I wish I could avoid this fight, but the undead are relentless in their pursuit of me…"
He wanted to curse the designers of his situation.
The masters of this world who put him here.
But he couldn't afford anger now. He needed a clear head for what was to come.
So, Erwin took a deep breath and approached the doors.
["Are you ready?"]
"Not truly."
Erwin put one hand on each door.
"But, there never was a moment I truly felt ready anyway."
["Must be a strange experience. To never feel it."]
"It might be. I am not truly sure, never experienced the other side."
Erwin smirked.
"Paranoia, or whatever you call it, had it with me since childhood."
His mind flashed back to the past.
Always trying to brace himself for the next abuse.
No matter how much he tried to ready himself, they always found a crack.
They always did.
"But, it saved my pelt multiple times as well."
And Erwin slowly pushed the doors. He felt their weight on his back.
Rusted hinges screamed as dust lifted off the ground with the movement of the metals, followed by faint thunks of falling pebbles.
Inside was a round chamber with four pillars, and another door at the end.
But that wasn't his focus.
At the center, a giant creature rested.
"The Crypt Fiend. Calling it just an arachnid is a massive understatement."
It was undoubtedly undead, or at least had an undead in it; Erwin sensed the soul inside.
Alas, no matter if the soul was trapped inside a host of bones stitched together by a gray, fleshy creature, or was the one controlling it, the danger stayed the same.
"Layers and layers of bones stacked on top of each other, formed like armor."
Erwin's eyes locked on the glowing, green substance that bonded all together.
He watched its movement as the monster woke from its sleep.
How the substance and the gray flesh beneath the bone armor moved.
The beast cared nothing for Erwin's observations, lifting its front two legs into the air and exposing its stomach and the giant mouth there, with many teeth circling into a vortex.
When its cry ended, and it once more took a stance with all its legs on the ground, it started to move slowly, circling Erwin at a distance.
The many eyes, unevenly spread across its body, each with a faint red glow, flashed between the spaces in its bones.
"That flesh, should I aim for there?"
He looked at the spear in his hand. He could let the creature charge at him and attack the flesh with the spear.
"But it's not a guarantee. What if it's more enduring than I expect? Like a boar, it might just take the blow and mangle me afterward."
He tried to recall what Ivara told him of the monster, but her knowledge, too, was limited.
"Ivara, should I just leave? It feels like the best logical option."
["I don't know… They will not like it, might try to punish you for it."] Her words crystallized before Erwin.
["But enduring their punishment should be better than risking your soul."]
"I thought the same, but should I really?"
Erwin gritted his teeth.
"I took more than a dozen skeletons my way here, but they are not even a drop in the amount of bodies still resting here."
He still had time to choose.
The Crypt Fiend was waiting. Allowing Erwin to make the first move.
"Damn it." He needed to end the fight. He wasn't sure why, wasn't sure exactly, but something inside him just told him to keep fighting.
Erwin took a step forward.
He held the spear with both hands, mace and sword resting on his hips.
Its tip aimed at the monster.
The Crypt Fiend, as if accepting the challenge, screeched, its voice deafening, sharp.
And before Erwin knew, it lunged forward, lifting dust in its wake. The distance between them was closed at an unexpected pace.
Erwin was quick to react.
As he dashed to the side of the incoming beast, his eyes locked with the monster's.
Dozens of them, all following him.
Surrounding him.
Shivers ran through Erwin, but he held himself.
The Crypt Fiend landed on where Erwin had stood a moment ago, dragging its sharp legs on the ground to come to a stop.
"Perhaps?"
Erwin moved away before the monster could prepare itself for another lunge.
And once there was enough distance between himself and the hideous bone mass, he readied his spear once more.
His eyes locked on the beast, and he waited.
And once again, the Crypt Fiend lunged at Erwin.
Erwin stood still just for one more moment before once again dashing to safety.
The pedipalps with razor-sharp blades inside almost caught his shoulder, barely grazing over the chain armor he had.
But Erwin didn't flinch. He stood still and watched the monster move.
It turned around slowly, clumsily.
"So, that's your weakness."
Erwin opened a bit more distance and baited yet another lunge.
And once the Crypt Fiend landed, he didn't even allow the beast to stop.
"Hm!" He lunged at the beast himself this time, thrusting the spear between the openings of the bone armor.
The sharp tip cut through the slimy eyeball, pushing deeper into the gray flesh.
In a painful cry, the beast shook vigorously, its legs stomping the ground, layers of bone making its armor rattle.
Erwin managed to last for only a moment before being thrown away.
A glowing green liquid flowed from its wound.
It was the same color as the substance it used to tie and control the bones. And whatever it was, it quickly hardened, closing the wound.
"This is not good."
Erwin braced himself as the angered beast turned around to attack.
It extended its front legs, their segments falling off into three large parts, each connected with that green substance.
In fury, the monster flailed them like a mace at Erwin as it closed in.
Using the spear, Erwin blocked the attacks as best he could, doing his best to circle the beast constantly.
Unable to land a strike as well as it hoped, the monster screeched in anger.
The many eyes showing through its cracks glowed brighter than before.
"Fast when lunging, slow when turning."
Erwin glanced at his arms, slightly shaking and tired from absorbing the energy from constant blocks.
"Still, it carries enough momentum that one wrong move will be my end."
He then looked at his spear, and some of the green liquid had stuck to it, hardening around the head.
"Not to mention this sealing thing. I can't simply bleed it to death."
Its eyes were soft, but didn't exactly open a path to the killing blow.
Bone plates were a no-go.
That left only one other weak spot.
"The mouth. Tsch. What would I give to know arachnid anatomy right now, but alas."
The mouth felt like the only proper target. "Seems like coming face to face with that mouth is inevitable after all."