We decided to split up and search the village for any indication of what might have happened here. It was strange. You come to expect feelings of unease or malevolence in places of tragedy, but I felt nothing at all. I could see corpses around the village but I might as well have been looking at a pile of laundry for all the spooky-creepy vibes I might have gotten. There was nothing bad, but also nothing good. Just nothing, like an emotional void. Was this a product of being an Automata? Did I no longer get heebie-jeebies?

I approached a house to find that the door had been smashed in, something heavy or strong had broken this door right off its hinges. I had to hop out of Cyclone as he was too large to fit inside the house so I left him to keep watch from outside and be ready if I needed him. Inside was an open living area with a kitchen and dining table. A middle aged human male was laying face down on the table, it looked like he had been in the middle of eating and was caught by surprise. He had a hole punched through his chest, the size of a golf ball with a smaller impact right above it. He didn’t even have time to get up from the table. A bit further into the room I could see the body of a human female laying face down. I guess she had gotten up to run but didn’t get very far. Like the male, she too had a hole punched through her back. I rolled her over a bit and could see that whatever had punched through her, penetrated into the ground too. I had the thermal spectrum to my vision turned on but it didn’t offer much new information. Nothing was generating any heat here at all.

In a back room I found a wardrobe with a hole punched into the side. Carefully, I opened the door and found the body of a teenage girl slumped inside. Whatever killed these humans, hit them hard and fast, and didn’t need to see the girl in the wardrobe to know she was there. I left the house and continued searching but saw the same scene in each of the houses I checked. Something caught these people by surprise and took them out quickly. All of them had the same holes punched through their chests with the same impact above the hole. A single attacker couldn’t have killed this many people by surprise, and so violently, which meant there had to be lots of somethings raiding this village. In each of the houses, though, nothing of value was taken. Family treasures, food, supplies, all untouched. Whatever came through here, did so expressly to kill all of these people.

Near the edge of the village I could see a faint heat source. It was barely above the ambient temperature but I might as well check it out. What I found was the kiln of the local smithy, it must have been cooling all this time. As I got closer I could see a heat source inside of it but it wasn’t much. The door had been blocked by some debris but it was easy enough to move with Cyclone’s strength, once I climbed back inside. I cleared away the blockage and got the door open to reveal a human boy of around seven or eight years old. The child was barely alive but that was something, he must have been trapped in that kiln for days. Other people that were hiding were killed in their hiding places, so why wasn’t this kid?

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I pulled the kid free and met back up with Elita and Carnivac. They had seen the same things I had, though Elita had also found the remains of an Automata in the house of the village chief. Automata are quite sturdy and would survive dismemberment or being ripped in half, but this one had its core punched through just like the humans, and also without any other signs of trauma. So whatever killed all these people, also knew how to take out an Automata quickly and efficiently.

We had searched through the night but we found more questions than answers. I tried to get the boy to drink or eat something from Shea’s supplies but he was still unresponsive. Hopefully, Shea would be able to help the child when she got up. I tried to wake her up, but she was sleeping like a corpse. A noisy, snoring corpse. If I had to, I might be able to put the child in my place inside Cyclone and race them back to a nearby town, but when I’m not inside a shell their abilities are nearly halved so he’d only be about as fast as a horse. It would be morning soon so I got out of Cyclone and kept an eye on the boy while the others continued searching the village for anything else. I wasn’t too worried about whatever it was that had done this coming back to a dead village days later, but it didn’t hurt to be on guard.

I had dragged the body of the dead Automata that we’d found back to the camp via Carnivac and was tinkering with it while I waited. It wasn't a warrior class like Elita or a servant class like Shiro. This one looked to be halfway between the two. I guessed a “Body Guard” class? I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been successful in protecting its master or not. It didn’t have any extra armor and was wearing clothes like Shiro, but rather than a butler’s uniform, this one was dressed like a knight squire or a guardsman.

The core was completely destroyed on this guy, I wouldn’t be able to repair it and would have to completely build a new one before I could get the body working again. I sighed, as much as a robot without lungs can sigh, and tossed the body into my [Inventory]. I was about to check on the boy again when something jumped out at Carnivac from the trees. He was on the far side of the village but I had Cyclone transform and rush over to provide backup.

Carnivac rolled out of the way and came up with his blades ready. He couldn’t use his magic without having me inside but he still had his speed and was naturally as dark as a shadow in the night. The thing that had jumped out was also hard to see in the darkness but the thermal overlay gave away its position easily. It was a large bird of some kind, like an Emu or an Ostrich crossed with Vulture and a Raven. Like an evil Chocobo. It was hard to see any details in the gloom, but they would be easy enough to make on a dead one in the daylight. Carnivac lashed out with his swords but the thing seemed to vanish and reappear several meters away. Cyclone was close by and tried to sneak up on the bird only to have it vanish again.

The bird let out a loud squawk and more heat signatures started showing up in the woods, where had they all come from? They weren’t there a moment ago. Carnivac and Cyclone cautiously backed away as a dozen or so of the birds came out of the woods, slowly stalking towards them.