Alain led the princess and her escort, twelve brave men of the royal guard, his best men, through secret tunnels down into the slums of the city. There was not much talking among the group as the princess was still in shock and the men knew what was to do without speaking. Each covered his angle as soon as they emerged out of a hidden exit into the slums and saw their first sign of the devastation the attack was wreaking on the capital. Corpses lay in the mud, pierced by many arrows; houses were burning, people running around in panic and in futile attempts to put out the fires. Obviously though the fiercest of the attack had turned away from this part of the town and so the royal guard with their princess stepped onto the roads and quickly made their way through the slums until they came across a group of town guard soldiers arguing among each other. Their officer had obviously died from an arrow and they were holding a prisoner and weren’t sure what exactly to do and so they hid underneath the canopy of a house. “What is going on here?” Alain inquired and one of the men turned towards him, his eyes widening when he recognized the captain of the royal guard. “Err, we… we have this prisoner but we are not sure where to take him.” Shaking his head Alain replied: “Are you guys crazy? Whatever he’s done, it can be sorted out later.” He looked at the young guy. “Can you handle yourself in a fight or at least not get in our way?” The boy nodded. “Alright”, addressing the group of eight soldiers, “I need you all to come with me, we have a job to do and cowering here is not part of it.” The soldiers nodded, some with reluctance but finally they all, including Drax, followed the captain back to the princess. The town guard knew well enough not to ask questions when they recognized Amalia and so the group quickly made its way towards a secret exit out of the capital.

Illian, the commander of the royal guard left in the throne room organized the defense as well as he could and obviously their trick worked. The attacker seemed to buy the ruse that the princess was still there but that also meant that the attack on the palace was the fiercest. Illian ordered some soldiers to barricade the main gate but then suddenly the gate just flew open or rather it burst into pieces, sending men flying through the hall as a huge creature made its way into the throne room. The creature stood at a height of about twelve feet and its mere presence made the defenders move away, towards the throne area where the royal guard was circled around the two consuls, a few nobles and their entourage standing off to the side. The Strangely there was almost no sound anymore. The petty demons had stopped attacking the palace and the creature was looking over the defenders, most of them already wounded, only few left standing by now. Suddenly it bent its hind legs as if preparing to jump right at the consuls and the royal guard when a deep, commanding voice was heard. “Livius! It’s enough.” The creature growled but then relaxed its stance and suddenly it began to shrink and deform, slowly turning into a man with white hair in a strange, black robe. All that separated him from a normal man was his strangely pale skin and the long nails on the hand that held on to a small, shiny object. “Alright,” he spoke calmly as three other figures entered the throne room. Two of them were other men, one of them clad in strange, red armor, wearing a matching mask and a deep red cloak over his shoulders. He carried two swords and was obviously the one who had kept the one named Livius from killing everyone in the room. The other was even stranger. He never bent his stature, keeping his posture completely strange all the time he followed right behind the red guy. He carried one sword in his hand, still sheathed but he looked ready to use it if necessary. The third was a woman, completely covered in a long, black cloak, only her pale blue face and matching hair visible as she let her gaze stride over the room. In her hand she held a scythe with a strangely shimmering blade that looked as if it was sucking in all the light around it, while they all now approached the room creating a darkness that was more than the mere absence of light around its bearer.
About twenty feet from the throne they all stopped and the red guy spoke again, addressing one of the consuls. “You… you are the one, you carry the sword.” At this all eyes were suddenly fixed on Consul Boreale, the consul of magic. A broad smile appeared on the consul’s lips and he nodded calmly, drawing from underneath his garment a long black sword that was shimmering in a way that was strangely alike to the woman’s scythe. “Well yes, I am” he replied and slowly made his way towards the four figures, no one stopping him until he stood next to the red guy. “I called you as with your help I will seize this country as my own. You will do as I please because I carry the sword of your Master, therefore I am your Master, right?” The red figure just nodded and so Boreale waited for a moment while no one seemed to find the strength to do anything but stand and watch. All the while the black cloaked guy was whispering words into the shiny object in his right hand which could now be identified as a small watch. “Alright,” Boreale continued “I will count that as a ‘yes’. What have you brought me… Lord Vayne?” It took a moment before Vayne answered: “I have brought the thirteen, all of them, myself and my twelve lords. I have brought Shamma, my stronghold and all our combined hosts. It shall suffice.” Boreale nodded and finally said: “It shall, yes… So, let us begin to take this land, some will have to die for it though…” and with that he gave a wave at the remains of the defenders and his colleague, the consul of law, who was still holding on to the crown that he held in his hand to crown princess Amalia. Boreale didn’t wait for his order to be followed as he just continued towards the exit of the throne room and Vayne commanded: “Livius, Shay’na, take care of them”, before he followed the consul, the strange guy with the sword following on his heels. “Right,” Livius smiled and extended his hand towards the remaining consul who suddenly let go of the crown and grasped his own chest, sweat pouring from his brow as his hair seemed to turn white and wrinkles appeared in his face. Consul Vaan seemed to age right before their eyes and none of them stayed to watch his dried out skeleton hit the floor and crash to dust as suddenly the blue skinned girl spoke a few words and four green skinned creatures appeared around her, immediately leaping at the defenders, literally ripping them apart while Shay'na herself pointed her scythe at the royal guard and their commander who suddenly all fell dead without an explanation, never to rise again.
Thomas was grabbed by Gilford who quickly dragged him towards one of the windows where they hurled themselves out, followed by two of their knights. After they fell for about ten feet they hit the grass on Lassara’s holy hill and rolled downhill, which was not very comfortable but might have actually saved their lives. Finally, at the bottom of the hill they took a moment to gather themselves. One of the knights had not survived the fall and the other had a wound right across his forearm. It seemed that one of the green skinned beasts had left a mark with its claws and the wound was letting of a foul smell. The knight was screaming in pain as his body was shaking in spasms for about another minute before he died of the venom.