Demon invasion.

Are these heroes from some mod? It looks like cheating, especially with Markel. I've been playing this mission for 5 months now, and my army is steadily growing. I've even managed to get the Tears of Ashtar. But I can't even get to the dragons guarding the Ring of Speed. The enemies attack in an organized manner, one after another, almost every week. Astrid is defeated without much trouble, but the demons are killed by the titans because of the initiative artifacts. The Orc is a bit more difficult, but I can fight him normally in his castle. The Elf is very weak; he came once and now runs around with a weak army and doesn't attack. Occasionally, the weak Mive comes, and she's defeated with a trade of a couple of dozen demons. Axel has visited twice, and he was difficult to fight. In short, I don't know what to do yet. I tried to make a raid, easily captured the blue castles, but then Duncan appeared, and there's no chance against him without high-level Dark creatures, which, in theory, are only in the library under heavy guard. To get to them, I need to break through the Mentor, to get the Light with Storm Wind, but I don't know how to break through him without heavy losses. Or, there's an option to simply accumulate a very large army to be enough for Duncan, constantly repelling attacks, but as I understand it, the enemies get stronger each time, and sooner or later, the losses will exceed the gains. In general, I need to think