Crendell looks at the battle plan, and then looks around him. People are laying down a railway track behind him, while in front of him the various members of the military arms of Malencia prepare a patrol. A large wooden locomotive arrives at the end of the tracks, and from one of the metal flatcars Sofia drives off, having completed her own mission at a different stop. The plan proposed... demanded by Esstrey was a demand for speed. They needed to conquer Faerune faster than The Grand Army could, A difficult feat to accomplish considering Malencia isn''t seen as a friendly force by the rest of Faerune. Esstrey found human manpower in Mercer''s domain, the last bit that could be easily acquired. For the rest, Crendell would be forced to rely on the [Mazurian Plague] for most of his manpower, and the Mazurians are unsettling to him. Somehow, the Mazurians are a lot like their former selves, but their ability to deny being those former selves is impressive. Their loyalty is appreciated, but it''s squarely aimed at their ''royals''. Unlike human royals, Mazurian royalty has a much greater focus on personal strength.


    At the front lines, Dimitri climbs up one of the siege ladders. They would have had more siege equipment if they had more time, but much like the assault on Malencia command is pressed for time. It matters little that all he can use to scale the walls is a measly ladder with no cover from attackers, as he has confidence in his allies. A man with an axe is at the other end of the ladder, and he raises the axe to destroy what little siege equipment Malencia brought to the field. The man in question is interrupted as surveillance gets to him, and soon enough the only noise he makes is the noise of a particularly large animal eating an entire can of sardines. Once he''s on the wall, he takes out his gun to start firing, leaving the rest of the wall to be covered by the surveillance teams. More and more of his men make it to the top, and their priority targets are anyone capable of defending against devastators, with a secondary priority for clearing out AA positions. He doesn''t know the whole plan, but he doesn''t need to as his targets are explanation enough for what the plan is.


    Sure enough, the gate breaks down, and two pit-fiends escorting a landstrider emerge from the other side. The city of Bordenvale barely had an answer to the devastators, especially now that there is more than one landstrider. The breach proves to be too much for the undersupplied defenders, and they attempt to retreat. Their retreat is slowed as demons descend from above, focusing on taking as many alive as possible. Mazurians rush through the breach behind the devastators, and in the panic find more new comrades to add to the Malencian auxiliaries. The plague spreads quickly, and a lamia royal leads the offensive.


    Crendell looks from a distant hill in mild disgust at the display. It''s common for armies to sack cities, and an army of monsters is sure to have their own take on sacking, a combined army of man monster and demon is only certain to turn a sack into a raze as not a single thing not bolted down will be left behind. If they had more time, then perhaps they could have properly taken the city. It wouldn''t even be sacked as his own men are the most disciplined force in existence right now, a result of working together so closely with beings who desperately lack it, but he couldn''t even be given time to train the troops he got from Mercer to full strength. When Crendell brought up his complaints to Esstrey, rather than outright dismissing him or telling him why it''s needed, she simply gave him writing supplies and his own postal service. They both already know it''s needed, and the only way this fate can be avoided is if a city surrenders, something rather hard to accomplish when being a known demon-collaborator.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Nonetheless, Crendell does his best to plead the case of Malencia for the nobles, the case of his own humanity with the people, and the case of his usefulness with his allies. More than one city surrendered without a fight, with the occasional noble even accepting them with open arms. More than a few cases of starvation and rampaging beasts destroying their land, while the king''s response was to ask for more troops to unify the land. The cities that got visited earlier by The Grand Army felt left behind as the army moved on from them, while the later cities felt betrayed as they weren''t deemed important enough to save quickly. For many, the war with Malencia was the straw that broke the camel''s back, could they really start a war with their fellow man during such a difficult time? The most heretical of rumors going around were of course that Malencia didn''t need Faerune to survive or even thrive, and that it had found a lord more worthy of serving than the king. It didn''t escape Crendell''s notice that the stronger the presence of religion was in a city, the lower the chance of surrender, and the higher amount of dead would be found in areas where they never fought.


    Naturally, there were little ''miracles'' here and there. Mainly ones pertaining to Republicanism, stemming from Rila. Apparently Rila itself had been digging into heretical magic, as they had somehow acquired detailed knowledge of The Beyond and The Infernal Host. Their newspapers also cropped up more commonly in cities, something that happened in great amounts after the merge. None of that was very strange to Crendell, he already thought that Esstrey wasn''t the type to put all her eggs in one basket. What did surprise him were two things, the Rilan government got a much better grasp on statesmanship, ideological concepts, and tactics around the same time, along with Malencia and Rila seemingly being allied without any official communiqué between the two. As if helping each other was a natural conclusion. He read some of those newspapers, and they treated Malencia as a fellow Republican struggle against their monarch, and the use of heretical magic as a technology forbidden by the old order.


    Crendell looks at the burning city of Bordenvale, it used to be a major rival of Malencia, being one of the big cities closest to the capital, but today it would be a stepping stone and launching point. The prime position to attack their final goal.


    Whoever that might be.