After hiding their mule drones in the specially made cache, and making the recon ones fly higher above, they casually walked up to the gate.
"Show your token." The guards at the entrance blocked their way, as usual.
As Evans was taking said token out, Julius protested, like he often did.
"Seriously, man, you've seen us pass through here like ten times already. I know you at least recognize Hugh here, you know it's us !"
"It is standard procedure, we have to check." The guard replied emotionlessly as he received the palm sized coin-like token.
He brought a small vial close to it, and the liquid inside started glowing a pure white colour.
This town, named Toulu, used a paranormal item to check for intruders. The first time Evan's squad came here, they had to go through a battery of tests and questions and pay a fee to get this token. With it, they were honorary residents and could benefit from the city's services.
The wall's shelter was included in those, so they couldn't enter without it.
"Everything is in order, you can pass through."
The guard made a hand signal, and the gate lifted itself from the ground, letting the team enter.
Julius didn't forget to throw a dark look at the uncaring guard as the team walked on the main avenue.
The paved street was immense, at least six meters wide, and led to a magnificent golden church at the top of a hill. All along this road, oil street lamps could be seen close to the medieval style houses. In the center of this street, a small gutter was carrying dirty water to the clear stream outside.
People -humans, as Evans could hardly believe the first time they saw one of those cities- were walking to and fro, sometimes carrying boxes, sometimes the occasional charette, and sometimes simply carrying themselves. The loftiest looking passersby all wore some kind of golden accessory, and even a lot of the more modest citizens had yellow clothing.
Of course, even the ultra-rich of this city could not afford clothing of the same grade as Forchrit's blue and black military uniforms, so the squad stood out quite a bit.
As they walked to the church, people distanced themselves, whispering to their companions about what kind of demonic monstrosity found its way into their home. In their defense, they were not used to seeing humanoid behemoths with steel limbs. Knitt's figure was quite a shock for even the children back home, let alone these primitive men.
The general's head in Hugh's mechanical hand did not help either.
As they got closer to the cathedral, however, the density of civilians got higher and higher, until eventually they had to form a line to cut through the crowd.
Stephan pleaded : "Sargent Evans, this is too much of a hassle every time. With your permission, I could modify one of our mules and make it capable of carrying us over one by one !"
The captain was pushing behind Knitt's synthetic back. "I'm afraid we cannot do that, agent Burt. The church is already wary of us, if we demonstrate the ability to send an air strike, they could refuse to deal with us, lest it make us stronger still."
He turned his head. "And as you might recall, that is precisely our goal."
"Furthermore, it would rob us of precious time and resourses." Jeanne added. "We cannot afford to waste them just for the sake of convenience."
Julius, at the back, laughed. "Ha ! We can't afford it ? On the contrary, I'd say we ought to use our riches a bit more ! Do you know how much emergency materials we carry around ? Because I sure do. And it's nothing a secondary motor would put a dent in."
Leaning to the side to get a view of his captain's surprisingly short stature, he continued: "Of course, the most economic and practical way of doing this is to just send one person to turn in the mission, and let the others go back to the inn and rest. I volunteer Hugh, he doesn't need rest."
The huge man in the front threw Julius a dark look without saying a word.
Stephan corrected : "Hold on, while it's true he can fight for longer and does not get tired physically, he actually does need to rest and even requires more sleep than us ! Plus he has to repair the cuts and small problems by hand, it's pretty time consuming."
Nodding with a grin, Julius agreed. "That's true, he does need more time than us. On the other hand, you're always playing with your machines late at night. It stands to reason you should go, you're right."
Stephan's smile froze instantly. "But- that's not, I didn't, I didn't say that..."
"That's enough." The leader curtly interrupted. "Chance, you know exactly why we all have to be there."
Julius stopped smiling and slightly bowed his head. "Yes, captain Evans."
Eventually, the group reached the end of the sea of heads. A good amount of guards in Toulu uniforms were funneling everyone into an orderly line to the church entrance, where a few simple tables were set.
On them, copious amounts of food layed as priests distributed bread, fruits, rice, and all sorts of different vegetables.
"Hey, you ! I don't care how big you are, go to the back of the line !" A guard shouted in Knitt's direction.
He didn't need to raise his voice to be noticed or heard, so Hugh simply replied : "We are not here for food. We have completed a mission."
The burly guard scoffed. "Then why are you just standing there ? Come, I don't have all day, you know !"
After passing through, Evans's field of view cleared up, and he could finally see the church from up close. No matter how many times he saw it, that cathedral always impressed him.
It was the very highest point of Toulu, and towered above the city like an immense watchtower. Every arch was lined with gold, the multitude of sculptures depicting countless myths and legends were finely painted with vibrant colours, the panes of stained glass were so numerous there were hardly any stone walls, and even though it was bright outside, they were so colourful it was as if the sun was actually right behind them.
Above the highest peak, at the very top of the structure, a massive and intricate golden sun reflected the light of its astral counterpart. Looking at it for too long was somewhat dangerous, but Evans knew this piece was the most detailed and technical part of the entire place.
The whole edifice was almost blinding, and one could look at it for days and still find new details and secrets.
Truly, Evans did not know how such an underdeveloped civilization built this awe inspiring monument.
'Even with all our technology, it would take us at least a month to build this. The problem would be all of the gold, we have actual uses for it, and it would be difficult to amass this much.'
But it would obviously still be possible. There was nothing the great Forchrit couldn't do.
Not enough minerals ? Build a drill then !
Not enough manpower ? Have you heard of robots ?
No enough energy ? That was not even possible in this nation !
Evans looked at his gun. 'Without the twin rocks, energy consumption would be unsolvable.'
Forchrit's capital, Wiss, was built on a mine of twin rocks. This supernatural mineral came in plus and minus, and had the extraordinary property of always maintaining its electrical potential. This was the only reason tech was able to come so far.
With them, Forchrit had infinite energy.
This was also why this expedition was even possible. Otherwise, the demand for energy would be much greater than the maximum output of the far inferior fossil fuels.
Thinking about it, it seemed more and more impressive that a city with limited resources was able to build to this extent.
They did have magical items, but the truly powerful ones were really rare, and were practically all controlled by the church of Helio.
Evans tilted his head slightly in front of the now open enormous gate with a golden sun symbol in the middle.
'Huh. Maybe they did have powerful artefacts, then.'
This was the same church after all.
"Welcome, warriors." The bishop had been notified and came to greet them.
He had white hair and golden eyes, despite only looking to be in his thirties. His white and yellow robes were large enough to hide his body shape completely, they fluttered with every movement. On his face, a warm, gentle smile seemed to accept the world and cherish it, no matter what it found.
He raised his right hand slightly above his head and lowered it in a graceful blessing gesture.
"May the sun shine upon thee."
The squad awkwardly repeated the movement.
Evans took a step forward. "Greetings, bishop Anderson. As you can see, we have fulfilled your assignment."
He looked at the still dripping head that Knitt was holding by the horn.
"Indeed you have.. Come, your reward awaits."
He turned with an unnecessarily majestic movement of his robes, and walked along the leftmost wall.
The inside of the cathedral was somehow just as bright as the outside. There were immense pillars here and there, but it felt extremely open nonetheless. Just under the golden sun emblem at the top, a source of light almost as bright as the actual sun shone, illuminating the walls, stained glass and religious artefacts.
On the benches along the center, many congregants were praying silently.
The bishop, while walking, nonchalantly extended his arm to the side, palm facing up.
Knitt silently gave him the head.
Anderson looked at it with the same warm, gentle smile for a little.
Then he tossed it into a nearby fireplace, and watched it burn.
The blood had long seeped out, only a few drops remained. Therefore, it burned surprisingly well.
The smell, too, was surprising. It washed over the whole church in an instant, disturbing many civilians.
Anderson was still looking at it with the same warm, gentle smile.
"You know, it's strange. Without experiencing it, you wouldn't know..."
He looked straight in the eyes of the captain, without changing his expression even a little.
"Just how easily flesh burns."
The reflection of the fire in his eyes was mesmerising. The pure radiance coming from the sun replica on the roof contrasted wildly with the red light illuminating the dark smoke of the fireplace.
Evans did not lower his gaze, maintaining eye contact without a word.
A few seconds passed, and the bishop finally started walking again after yet another exaggerated turn. The team followed him silently.
The six of them reached a fancy table at the very back. Behind it, a dark-skinned priest was sweeping diligently.
"My brother, will you please fetch me the reward these gentlemen came here to receive ?"
The priest raised his head and quickly evaluated the team before setting the broom against the table.
"Of course, bishop !"
He started lightly jogging towards the entrance.
Evans was used to this barely disguised impoliteness. Ever since they came in this town, this church had been giving them a hard time. Even the insignificant priest just now had a smirk on his face before running off.
This conduct was strange to say the least, but ultimately unimportant. No matter what, this squad was the only force in this town capable of hunting generals like this. The church didn't have a choice but to reward them regardless.
So what if that creepy bishop indirectly threatened them, or if he made them walk for no reason ? At the end of the day, this whole town was too weak to pose a real threat to armored soldiers from Forchrit.
'The only reason we can't outright raid all of it is because becoming an enemy of the church would be too troublesome.'
It was, after all, the organisation with the most influence over the whole forest.
While Evans was busy shrugging off the offense, the priest came back with a heavy looking bag. He gave it to bishop Anderson, without so much as a glance for his guests.
Anderson, in turn, directed his warm, gentle smile at Evans and said calmly : "Warriors, please accept your well earned reward for ridding us of that terrifying monster."
Evans took the bag. His senses and sensors told him the whole thing was there. 20 000 coins, in 100-coin notes.
'With this, we now only need 17 500 more coins to buy that food bag. The last general should do the trick nicely.'
Powerful monsters had a tendency to swarm close to big cities. They rarely went out of their way to attack, but they still hunted all the animals -purely for sport, apparently- and made it difficult to leave the walls. 4 cursed generals around one single city was a pretty bad situation, therefore the bounty on their heads was quite substantial.
A good house in the inside of the walls only cost about 5 000 coins.
And Evan's goal, the bag with infinite food, could only be bought for 80 000, such a useful mystical item was extremely expensive. Currently, the Helio church was in possession of it, and used it to deepen its presence in Toulu by giving food away to the miserly.
Evans gave the bag to Hugh and habitually asked : "We plan on hunting the last general now, please reserve the bounty for us."
The bishop's smile almost grew wider. Almost.
"Actually, good sirs, this mission has already been taken."