The capital of Faerune is in ruins, and the enemy has yet to reach its heart. Monsters, horrors, demons, undead, and revolutionaries. All of them storm the streets, attacking the defenders as they pass. They don''t seem too concerned with destroying the enemies in front of them, they all have their orders, as their entire movement is like a conductor''s song. That conductor would be Crendell, he made plenty of attack plans, and the only things he has more of than attack plans is targets and resources. Such a situation made the man initially creative, now it makes him experienced. The wide variety of troops gives him options, and the simplistic military hierarchy and division designed by Esstrey makes plenty of those options feasible. Initial attacks are made by the air force, multiple Zveno''s circle the city, feeding an unrelenting supply of demons high off lifeforce into the fight. Devastators backed by liquidators charge into the fire and flames left behind, determined to destroy their thrown off enemies. Surveillance covers their more visible allies, determined to drag out anyone hiding for the auxiliaries to finish off.


    Faerune won''t go down without a fight, adventurers seeking glory, foreign volunteers seeking to halt the nightmare, mercenaries bought with the deep pockets of the king, and anyone under the king''s banner left standing. The churches lost their power with the defeat of The Grand Army, but among the foreign volunteers is an entire division worth of paladins from The Order of Melthazar. All these powers are confident in their strength against two [Mythic] threats, one a mindless infection that births armies, another a singular entity capable of leading worlds to ruin with one''s worst fears. The Hero, Asahi is missing in all this, he was last spotted fleeing to the gate, the source of power for the king, and the ultimate goal of Malencia in all this.


    A squad of liquidators is the first to breach the palace. Usually a group from surveillance would be the first in any situation, but Faerune has been fighting Malencia long enough to be familliar with their surveillance units. Expecting this result, Malencia had assigned more units from the various military arms to infiltration, and a group of ''lucky'' liquidators is first through. They snuck in through an unguarded hidden escape tunnel, and their entry within the palace is met with little opposition, as most of the soldiers are defending the palace outside. Stealthily evading patrols, they manage to get higher up in the palace, closer to the throne room.


    "Commander Zulie, I know that we are doing well right now, but we can''t enter the throne room. Without backup, we will just be slaughtered by the royal guard." One of the soldiers points out to their current command, who dismisses it entirely.


    "We don''t need to go after the king ourselves, just sabotage as much of the defenses from here as possible, open reinforced windows, distract guards. If we do it right, this place will be flooding with enough allies to storm the throne room." A sound enough plan, and one expected from one of the commanders with a higher tolerance rating for the various allies of Malencia.


    The plan would have gone smoothly as well, if they weren''t talking as loud as they were. One of the patrols noticed them, and is surprised to find them. He shouts in alarm, and a shot is fired by one of the liquidators, the odd noise of magical gunfire is far louder and distinct than the shout of alarm could be even with the battle outside. Zulie curses, and leads her troops deeper into the palace, away from security stationed at the entrance. Running through a hallway with palace guards hot on their tail, Zulie''s comrades occasionally fire a shot into the pursuers. Few of the shots have effect, but they do slow down the pursuers long enough for Zulie to begin opening windows like a madwoman. Another group of guards cut them off, surrounding Zulie''s squad on both sides. A nearby door leads to a balcony, which gives Zulie an idea. She opens the door, and storms unto the balcony with her squad, putting themselves in the worst defensive position imaginable.


    "HEY! HELP! HELP MEEE!" A cry for help, one filled with as much despair as Zulie can muster, her squad momentarily looks behind them as they see their commander shout like a madwoman. Unbeknownst to the palace guard, someone does respond to the cry for help.


    A swarm of demons, attracted by the delicious call for help and despair. They are only momentarily surprised that the caller and the people they are allowed to attack are different, usually no one dares play the damsel in distress around demons. The surprise doesn''t last as long for the demons as it does for the palace guard, their formation scatters as multiple flying demons of lower rank crash into them, and the squad of liquidators rush through the gap made to run deeper into the palace. The palace guard is dealing with the lesser demons quickly, but more stream through the windows Zulie opened earlier, slowing them down further. As for the squad of liquidators, they are currently following the shine of a peculiar rock Zulie was given for this mission. It begins to brighten as they pass a room, and within they can hear chanting. Zulie gives a signal, and they quickly stack up on the door.


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    "?...?...?... MARK!" The door crashes open as a liquidator kicks it down, another throws a canister inside, while Zulie and the one with free hands cover and close the door afterward. Holding the door open for a few seconds, they wait for the inhabitants to realize they are dealing with poison gas. The moment the noise of spell casting inside is heard, they open the broken door again, and fire a volley through the smoke. Any mage that is keeping the gas away from them gets shot, and the ones that wanted to focus on the liquidators aren''t able to cast spells as they fall to the ground coughing. Regardless, it''s a group of four non-mages against about a dozen mages, and a spike of ice floors one of the liquidators, disrupting their formation. Zulie throws a grenade between the mages, and retreats with her fallen comrade out of the room. More guards approach from the hallway, having heard the commotion, but before they can make it in melee range of the liquidators...


    Shadows erupt from the walls, what Zulie and her squad had interrupted was the spatial protection that kept surveillance at bay. Now the unleashed being from The Beyond drag the guards into dark corners for lunch, and the shadows themselves begin to morph out of the walls and take shape. Multiple mid-ranking Beyond beings, they pass by Zulie''s group and head into the room with the gassed mages. They were still recovering from Zulie''s rapid assault, and the creatures are instinctively good at dealing with mages. Zulie herself doesn''t even look to confirm that the mages are dead.


    "Shit... they got me good." One of her men, Jacob, lies bleeding on the floor. One of the men has already administered first-aid, and while it doesn''t look great for him, she has seen worse being brought back from the hospital...she has been worse being brought back.


    "Mark, you''re with me, Vincent you stay with Jacob to make sure he lives." The squad splits up, normally leaving a wounded man within the palace is suicide, but Zulie has the feeling that it would be more suicidal to on the opposing force. Together with Mark she makes it to another balcony, and looks to the skies for more demons, but not such luck. Mark points to the ground, and they see a group of liquidators made it to this side of the palace, but are bogged down by the labyrinthian design of the courtyard. She gives a quick wave, and they throw a rope to her. Tying it to the balcony, the liquidators climb from the courtyard directly into one of the higher floors of the courtyard.


    A quick handshake between officers at the top, and together they make their way to the throne room. Slowly the palace becomes more chaotic, as it seems the lesser demons really enjoyed Zulie''s display that they started screeching loudly while opening windows, and the disgruntled surveillance teams are annoyed that someone else did their job better than them, so they now leave mutilated corpses behind more often rather than eating them whole. Zulie''s team of liquidators doesn''t go unnoticed by enemies or allies, while making their way through the palace they encounter a group of Mazurians as well, most likely one originating from the local guard considering the Mazurians are wearing Faerune uniforms. It doesn''t take long for them to find the throne room, as it''s the only area actively avoided by all Malencians.


    The large door was already open, ready to invite them all in. On the throne is an imposing man looking down on their group with mild disgust, but the royal guard isn''t moving to intercept yet. Something is making them nervous.


    "Well if it isn''t the first visitors of the day, to what do I owe the displ-"


    *BLIING*


    A shot resounds through the throne room, the one with a smoking barrel is none other than Mark. Zulie wants to reprimand him, as its common practice for the throne to be protected by a mighty barrier, but refrains from doing so as she sees Johannes Richter XXII having gone completely silent, and clasping his heart. It seems that at some point his defenses were disabled, and he falls off the stairs leading to his throne without much fanfare.


    "Nice shot Mark." Zulie''s commanding voice interrupts the silence, and every Malencian except the liquidators jump at the confused royal guard. She would have to give him a commendation for defeating an entire room of royal guards with a single shot.