“Elia’s Quest” – “The Showdown” [Campaign 3, Mission 5]

How should you proceed at the very beginning of the mission? When you only have Elia and Isabel? I don't know where to go. If I go to the town that needs to be captured within a week, a powerful demon appears and kills me quickly. If I go to conquer castles, this demon also appears...

It all depends on your progress in the previous missions. Personally, I managed to capture all the underground demon cities and reach Horncrest, but this was helped by logistics with "Path of War" (in version 3.1). In versions 1.0, 1.4-1.6, I only managed to capture one city, but that was enough, as the other two are not built and can be dealt with later (after lifting the siege of Horncrest). A more detailed walkthrough can be found here: http://heroes.ag.ru/heroes5/campaigns/a1/c3/m5/