As the army of Ganondorf closed in to secure Castle Town, within the Castle itself a grim but necessary task was being carried out. A squad of Stalfos had been smuggled into the castle days prior, hidden in plain sight within the lower dungeons; Few traveled down to those levels to begin with, but those few who did never once stopped to question why Royal Executioner Grindan had allowed bones to linger in the cells instead of claiming them and smashing them to powder like he did with all his victims. 

The invasion of the town had resulted in many solders of the crown either being sent in to try and stem the tide or moving to fortify the defenses of Hyrule Castle itself to better defend and attempt to repel the invaders once they started to push towards the castle itself. As such, what few solders and staff that were in the castle proper didn't really look all that closely as Grindan strode through the halls, armored for battle and armed with a heavy looking battle axe and a sword while leading what appeared to be a squad of fully armored lesser knights. The stiffness of their movements was easy to attribute to their bodies being fully encased in metal and besides, they were under attack! There were more important things to be focusing on at the moment. 

As was to be expected, the King was not in his throne room. Instead he had moved himself to the war room instead in order take advantage of the maps and advice of some of his remaining senior military advisers in how best to organize themselves to deal with the coming enemy and the siege that would almost certainly follow if Ganondorf's forces failed to breach the castle. There were guards of course because this was clearly a time of war and leaving the King undefended would have been stupid but since the enemy was quite clearly outside of the castle walls and time and manpower was limited, the guard detail had been limited to the bare minimum skeleton crew. 

The arrival of a band of seven armed and armored men caused the King and his advisors to look up from their discussion, a small wave of confusion appearing on the royal's face as he recognized the leader of the small band and started "[color=aba000]Grindan? What are you-[/color]"

"[color=f7976a]I heard we were under attack my liege, so I rallied what men I could and prepared for battle. What's the situation and how can we serve?[/color]" was the response that escaped from under Grindan's helm. While normally interrupting the King while he was speaking would have easily been a social taboo and the minor look of annoyance that appeared on the face of Duke Rivers had nothing to do with the man's distaste for the Executioner normally, it was a testament to the dire nature of the situation that the King himself didn't seem to mind. The expression on his face was that of a man who had just received a puff of fresh air after wading through knee deep dung all day and was fully expecting it to get deeper before it starts to get better.

Gesturing to permit the executioner to come closer to get a better view of the battle map, Grindan went to stand by the King's side as the troops he had brought with him started to fan out around the room. "[color=aba000]Ganondorf has betrayed us. He has rallied an army and even now is assaulting the Castle Town. Worse, the Goron and Zora have recently undergone hardships that we are starting to suspect Ganondorf engineered himself that have resulted in them being ill prepared to come to our aid. For the time being, we're on our own.[/color]" 

A gloomy air filled the war room for a moment, before Grindan broke the silence as he asked "[color=f7976a]The Queen and Princess are safe? They weren't in the town when the invasion started?[/color]"

A rare breath of relief escaped the King as he nodded. "[color=aba000]My wife was planning to take Zelda into town this afternoon but... small miracles, news of the attack came before they left. They're currently safe in their quarters for the time being. But onto business.[/color]" The steel of a battle hardened King returned as he leaned forward to point out a position along one of the Castle's outer walls. "[color=aba000]Grindan, I need you to take your men and shore up the defenses he-[/color]"

The blow of the heavy axe to the King's back silenced him as the impact knocked the air out of his lungs, replacing his words with the shattering of bones, the wooden thud of the impact against the solid oaken table and his attempts to breath with a ruptured lung that was quickly leaking what little air remained and filling with blood. The stunned silence of the betrayal proved fatal to many of the King's defenders as they suddenly found themselves under attack from the sides and behind, wounds that were either outright fatal or were grave enough that any attempt to defend themselves from the follow up attacks were suddenly doomed to fail. 

Leaving his axe buried in the King's back, Grindan instead pulled out his sword and lunged at the Duke, impaling the man's chest while his free hand grabbed his sword arm to prevent him from drawing his own weapon... and giving the executioner enough leverage to lift him off his feet, twist his blade to the side and pull the man one direction while he pushed his blade in the other, causing it to leave his side in a spray of blood and gore before he was tossed to the ground an armored boot met the back of his skull with a sickening crack that left him dead or dying in a pool of his own blood. 

As his Stalfos followers started to clean up the only solder to have avoided the opening assault via the use of numbers, Grindan turned his attention back to his former King as the man laid on the table, breathlessly whimpering in pain as he was clearly trying to move but his body, like Ganondorf and Grindan before it, had also betrayed him. The Royal Executioner didn't say a word as he grasped the hilt of his sword with both hands and lifted it up in the air to give his downward strike as much power as possible. 

Removing a head with a single strike was difficult, even for someone as well practiced and strong and Grindan was. The blow managed to break through the spine and continued to cleave through flesh, muscle and fat, but after getting about two thirds of the way through the momentum was spent. Releasing his left hand from the hilt, he instead grasped the tip of his blade and used his weight to push down and finish the task, removing the head completely. Leaving the head on top of a blood soaked map for collection later and allowing the headless body to slide onto the floor, the executioner turned to his solders and barked orders as he pointed them out. 

"[color=f7976a]You two, stand guard outside of the door. If a messenger or someone of rank shows up, one of you escort them inside and kill them. You, come with me. You three, head for the Princess' quarters. If you can capture her alive do so, but if you can't kill her. Ignore anyone who doesn't actively try and stop you.[/color]" As the undead solders moved to carry out their orders, Grindan sheathed his sword and pulled the axe out of the corpse before he walked towards the door with his support in tow. 

The royal family needed to die and he intended to oversee the Queen's death personally. Sending troops to go after the Princess without his presence was a gamble, but every minute that passed risked her defenders figuring out that there were enemies within the Castle actively hunting her and any royal that escaped would be a problem down the line. Still, offering the former King's head to his friend would make for a lovely coronation gift... but it would be better to offer the complete set. 

Still, he couldn't help but chuckle under his horned helm as he remembered the old saying: The King is Dead. Long live the King!