The breach did not come with ceremony.
It came with a shriek of tortured iron, a thunderclap that dwarfed all before it, and then the sound of stone collapsing inward upon itself like a dying beast folding its limbs.
The Theodosian Walls—those ancient symbols of invincibility—failed not because they were weak, but because they had been built for a different age.
Using a breeching technique from the modern age, explosives were placed on the gate itself, a primitive method of a shaped charge, and certainly not one that could direct the blast only in one direction but for the gates designed to only prevent the passage of humans, not withstand the might of TNT.
Even with diminished results it mattered not, the blast came and with it a whole was blown through the gates, opening a portal into the city.
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Not really the tens of guns still sounded off in the distance but for those near the gatehouse the silence from the nearby blastwave was enough to cause their ears to ring with nothing at all, their hearing temporarily taken from them.
Then the Montenegrin horns sounded.
Not a triumphant cry, but a short, clipped signal—advance.
Infantry surged forward in disciplined ranks, boots crunching over rubble still warm from impact.
Riflemen moved in squads beginning to fan out into the city, exploring the streets and setting up checkpoints.
Behind them pushcart wagons were brought in bearing machine guns prepared to move down the local militia and resistance that tried to prevent their entrance deeper into the city.
There was indeed resistance, however it was nothing more than a handful of those who took up tools and abandoned guns to rush the invading forces lines in vain.
Any shots fired towards the RA soldier missed widely.
Only useful as a deterent should they have been a less trained force and easily scared.
Unfortunately for the Ottomans this was not the case, and a crisp volley of rifle fire was sent in return.
Their bodies being shredded by multiple bullets, and a corpse in the street being all that was left by the time they fully hit the ground.
The city was open.
And the First Army flowed in like water finding a crack in stone.
But seeing their city breech was the final straw, the citizens who were once proud of their empire were now disheartened and neighborhood after neighborhood began to surrender.
Citizens willingly leaving their homes and raising their hands in a sign of surrender.
Prepared to be used in whatever way the victors required, even if it only meant keeping their lives in the process.
The invading forces grouped those who surrendered together and with a single squad accompanying them began an evacuation bringing those citizens out of the active battlefield and instead stationed them in the plains outside the city, along the walls.
Each neighborhood that surrendered was saved from the incoming shells allowing the guns to instead focus on other areas of the city.
However just because surrender came did not mean the neighborhoods were left along.
Each home was entered by a pair of Riflemen.
Their goal was not to loot, or pillage for that matter.
Instead their goal was to root out the resistance that otherwise could emerge once they and their brothers had passed through this area being attacked from behind.
Hundreds of homes were entered.
Some whose doors were locked were broken into.
All rooms were checked, rugs flipped up, and walls investigated they of course were looking for hidden rooms, and hiding places.
Of course there was always the chance they would miss something but, better to be safe than sorry.
That was practically Elias's mantra afterall.
That was the reason why Immortal as he was, he had never set foot upon a single battlefield, remaining as the guiding hand to the force his system allowed him to unleash.
As the hours passed, more and more of the western city continued to surrender.
Each time a new block fell the strain the remaining blocks felt intensified.
More of the first army would direct their attentions to unsearched or unsurrendered blocks.
Meanwhile the naval ships and artillery pieces outside the city, trained their guns on what remained, at least until the spies, and soldiers within reported an all clear, determining that all military targets had well and truly been silenced.
Allowing for the first time in days, allowing the guns on the firing line to fall silent.
Bringing with it an uneasy quiet.
Many who still resisted began to wonder if the entire city had already surrendered to the invaders.
Which even further shattered their morale.
Which resulted in an avalanche style collapse of what remained of the city.
until all except for the Sultans palace itself had surrendered and the First army had secured the entire city for Montengrin.
Outside the city, hundreds of thousands of citizens who had survived the bombardments sat upon the plain.
Some staring at the great theodosian walls wondering how their great walls had been breeched by the enemy, while others stared warily into the distance at the line of Montenegrin Artillery pieces, wondering if they would sound off now that the cities people were all gathered together turning the ground into a killing field where the ottoman people could be wiped out fully.
Except their worries never came to pass.
When the day finally reach a point of coming to a close they were informed by the soliders guarding them, that they were free to return to the city, and that they would be informed in a few days time as to any changes to the laws of this land.
Those words alone.
Spoken in their own language was enough to finally crush what little hope remained in their hearts.
They had lost.
The city was taken.
They had become citizens of another Empire, Kingdom, nation... all while not even knowing just who it was who'd managed to conquer their centuries old empire.
Meanwhile for Elias, this was a resounding victory.
His first army had finished the conquest they had set out on.
And in this victory they had also managed to capture the Ottoman sultan within his palace.
This would allow for a much swifter end to the war between their peoples.
With Peter I being the one to officially take responsibility and sign the peace treaty agreement with the Sultan.
Where the European lands would formally be ceded to the Montenegrin Kingdom, with the others becoming Bulgaria, Romanian and Russian.
While the Ottoman empire itself would retreat with its territories in the Middle-East, and Africa for the time being intact.