Lilly hesitated a few seconds as she tried to find the right words:
"Iain. Don't you think David loved his wife very much?"
Although Iain might be a bit slow sometimes, he wasn't really stupid. He also noticed something off about the grave by now.
"You are right. David would surely take great care of Rosi's grave."
From behind the pair of siblings a few villagers slowly appeared.
Solemnly observing the grave, the blond woman, who first opened the backdoor, also gave her opinion:
"The flowers are all over the place and there's earth strewn around. David would've never allowed this grave to look like this."
Lilly slowly nodded her head, a frown appearing on her petite lips, as she spoke in a resigned voice:
"Maria is right. This probably doesn't bode well. I think… we have to dig up the grave."
A quiet murmur ran through the gathered villagers. Naturally they weren't fond of the idea of digging up graves. Especially since one of the men gathered here would probably have to do it.
No one wanted to be haunted by Rosi's ghost.
Therefore, everyone showed some surprise when a supportive voice suddenly rang out:
"Then we shouldn't hesitate. We must find out what happened to David. We at least owe him that much. I'm sure Rosi wouldn't hold it against us."
Recognizing Georg's familiar voice, Lilly shortly turned her head, throwing the old man who had just arrived a thankful smile.
While Georg kept a grave expression on his face, Sophia's eyes next to him signaled Lilly a 'we got your back'.
Encouraged by her second families' support, Lilly elbowed her brother:
"Iain. Can you… search for David please?"
The young smith didn't hesitate for long after hearing his sister's request. Once again, he showed the reliable character Lilly appreciated so much.
When difficulties arose, it was always Iain who remained steady and strong. He would shelter his sister like a strong roof keeping out the pouring rain.
Looking around, the young man easily spotted a shovel carelessly leaning against David's house. Not deterred by the villager's mixed feelings, he grabbed it in his big hands and simply began digging where one would expect David's head.
With Iain's strength and endurance, it didn't take long for his shovel to hit some resistance. Whatever appeared here certainly wasn't burrowed very deep.
Lilly held her breath as she watched her brother gently removing the earth around the dug-up spot.
A few seconds later sobbing could already be heard from Georg. Other villagers let out surprised shouts. Maria had to give her everything not to throw up right then and there, while a woman behind here directly dropped unconscious.
The young Rottals strangely didn't feel too grossed out when Daivd's head appeared. Lilly even had the clarity to analyze the corpse before her.
Although Iain had only dug out David's head and throat, this was sufficient for the intelligent healer to guess the old smiths cause of death.
This wasn't a particular difficult feat anyways, as even Iain noticed the strange form of David's neck.
"Obvious choke marks and a deformed throat. He hasn't been strangled to death, but had his neck snapped in an instant.
It would have taken no small amount of force to achieve this.
I am not sure if a human could do so. Normally I would say he fell from some height, but his head seems uninjured.
This is kind of strange.
I need to see more to come to a certain conclusion."
The still standing villagers felt somewhat weirded out as the listened to Lilly calmly analyzing a corpse. They could only attribute it to the poor young healer having seen too many dead bodies during the plague.
As the few people in this backyard were investigating David's death, Lilly and Iain suddenly felt a strange force engulfing the whole village.
Iain promptly frowned as he looked at his sister.
Both siblings suddenly felt a huge threat looming over them. Their bodies tensed. Lilly instinctively felt the little surrounding mana, noticing a strange stagnation.
Coming to a decision in a split second, Lilly immediately roared:
"Run! Everyone!"
As the surrounding villagers were caught in confusion by Lilly's strange behavior, a terrifying scream rang in their ears out of nowhere.
Loud rumbling followed, accompanied by a suffocating cloud of dust and dirt.
With an inconspicuous thump something landed before the villagers' feet.
Everyone subconsciously looked at the thing which just broke through the wooden wall as it flew towards them.
Shortly after the dust settled, terrified screams ran through the backyard.
There on the floor everyone now recognized the mangled remains of a human body.
Maria instantly passed out as soon as she noticed the halt-torn face in front of her. It turned out to be her husband's.
Lilly breathed in sharply as she took a step away from the body which had only one arm left. Instead of giving in to her fright she quickly took out a small satchel for cutting herbs.
Her white knuckles protruded as she clung to the tool which might help in saving her life from whatever was coming.
Loud sounds of steps sounded through the old inn. Iain's eyes let out a chilling light while the broad smith positioned himself like a shield before the villagers.
Although he never learned magic from their mother, the surrounding mana began to slowly dance around him.
Iain's body heated up slightly as he instinctively absorbed mana into his body. He didn't realize this, but he his body and mind immediately entered a combat state as he felt a great threat approaching.
Slowly, teasingly two figures neared the hole in the smithy's wall.
A loud crunching sound and eerie laughter could be heard before a seemingly green armored arm stroke the wall again.
Another deafening rumbling sounded as a part of the dilapidated smithy suddenly came crushing down.
A strange silence reigned while the villagers stared with bated breath at the next dusk cloud obscuring their vision.
"What a shitty place. Those houses here can't even take one punch."
Iain's pupils dilated as he watched in horror when two green armored claws left the dusk cloud's cover.
What appeared before everyone was beyond their imagination.
Two green monsters with multiple arms, clawed feet and murderous looking eyes came to a stop opposite the villagers.
The uneducated countryfolk couldn't even process the sight before them.
Their terror seemed to be maxed out as they watched the left monster happily gnawing on a human arm.
Only Iain and Lilly somehow managed to stand their ground.
The young man took a small step to the left, trying to better hide Sophia behind his body. Despite the terror on her face, the gentle woman still managed to catch her father as he passed out.
"What are you? What do you want?", asked Lilly as she fished for information. Maybe they would find a way out if they knew what they were dealing with.
Tekark was satisfied with the progress of their mission so far. He and Riark embarked from their base of operations and arrived on Earth in a few hours.
Afterwards they easily localized their target.
With the equipment Tekark received, nobody noticed when they isolated the small village Eldrak just left the day before.
Nothing unsuspected happened.
Tekark already considered their mission to be accomplished.
Despite their smooth progress, the two Zrathras warriors still proceeded according to protocol. Easily camouflaging themselves in front of these weak humans, they directly approached their objective.
A small mishap had occurred when they found someone blocking the last door they had to pass through.
However, at this point they were already certain to have localized their target. It turned out Iain had already been marked after Eldrak's test.
Knowing that there was no chance of their target escaping from this close proximity, Tekark and Riark broke their stealth as they made short work of the human in their way.
Riark even had the leisure to take a small snack, earning her Tekark's slight displeasure. The older Zrathras could only let her be though, as he also knew this was simply a result of Riark's genes.
Since every Malohcras inherited slightly different genes from their gene pool, this sometimes led to drastically different personalities.
Focusing back on his mission, Tekark swept away the wall before them. He felt disdain as the shabby house collapsed on top of them.
Stepping out of the dusk cloud however quickly lifted Tekark's mood. He enjoyed seeing the terrified expression those ants before them portrayed.
His mere presence already spread panic among those weak beings.
While Tekark and Riark savored the looks those gathered villagers gave them, they easily noticed the two humans standing out like a sore thumb.
One even tried to buy time. How pathetic.
Listening to Lilly's question, Tekark let out a hoarse laughter.
"Whom are you trying to fool, refugee. You know why we are here."
Most humans couldn't read a Malohcras's mood from their face, but Riark could clearly tell that her mentor was surprised. It was only natural, since their intel only told them about one refugee while they clearly encountered two.
Luckily their clan had long learned from experience. That's why their protocol demanded to send two warriors even for such an easy mission.
Now those refugees shouldn't even think about fleeing!