Chapter 52 – Beginning of the Calamity

The meeting of the Heroes of Aristonia did not start well. 

Unexpectedly Grendal the Strong and Magdalena of the Crying Forest did not attend, and there was no news whatsoever from them. 

Queen Serene sat at the head of the table with Sam and the rest and looked glumly as Merlin read out the latest reports coming in. 

The cities of Armistat, Aralantis, Trismera and Novela have been destroyed as well as the nearby villages to those cities. 

"So many lives lost.....How many demons are reported?" Queen Serene asked. 

"For each of those cities, there were more than 20 powerful demons each that practically exterminated everyone that was unable to get away. It was a complete bloodbath" Merlin reported. 

Suddenly, there was movement in the shadows and the being known as the Shadow suddenly emerged and handed a note to Queen Serene. 

She took a look and her whole body shook, dropping the note. 

"What is it?" Merlin said, catching the note before it touched the floor. 

He opened it and his eyes nearly popped out. 

"What is it?" asked Thundar who was growing impatient. 

"Lathadar... is no more!" Merlin said, his eyes not believing what he read. 

"What?" Roland the Paladin stood up as he yelled in shock. The other Heroes sat around the meeting table with similar looks of shock in their faces. 

Lathadar was the neighboring country to Aristonia and it was the very country that Princess Jemima travelled from when she met Sam on the way to Willow. 

It's population and military might was similar to that of Aristonia, and they even had their own legendary warriors. 

"All.... dead?" Thundar asked

"The reports says so. There is but desolate wasteland left at the once beautiful land. Not only that... the demons... there were thousands of them, each one as powerful as an army..." Merlin said as he slumped onto his chair. 

Suddenly, a ball of green light entered the room from the window and the ball burst, creating green smoke. 

The smoke formed into the image of Magdalena who looked like she was running. 

"Heroes of Aristonia, friends... I request help. The Crying Forest is under attack from demons and I am not sure how much longer I can hold them off on my own. I need help. Please hurry.." she said as the green smoke dissipated. 

"Magdalena..." Merlin muttered.

At the same time, Thundar suddenly took out a glowing mirror from his pocket and stood up. 

Ulandir grunted as he held his necklace under his shirt while Balthazar face became even more grim as he removed a crushed stone from his pocket.

"What is it?" Sam asked, looking at the strange occurrence. 

"My Four Element Sect is under attack!" announced Thundar, looking at his small mirror.

"Silverleaf Forest is also under attack" Ulandir announced

"As is my Poison Sect" Balthazar said, looking at his crushed stone.

"Then we should split up and go with you!" Merlin said

"No!" Thundar answered. "This is a coordinated attack. Aristal will be next. You must stand guard. My daughters are here..." he said.

"Samsara, can you help?" Merlin asked. 

Sam nodded and in an instant, several Avengers appeared. He divided them according to their skills, 5 per team, with each led by their demon specialists, namely Phoebe, Alex, Sabrina, Buffy and Faith. 

The first team was led by Samsara which had Phoebe and was accompanied by Annabeth, Selene, Yuriko and Rey and were headed to the Crying Forest with Asteroth. 

The second team headed to the Four Elements Sect with Thundar had Alex, Mindy, Trix, Aeon and Lara

The third team to the Silverleaf Forest with Ulandir had Sabrina, Tauriel, Cameron, Max and Violet 

The fourth team to the Poison Sect with Balthazar had both Buffy and Faith, Hermione, Alice and Natasha

The rest were kept on standby. 

"Is this enough?" Samsara asked.

"Hopefully that's enough. Thank you" Queen Serene said.

"If there is nothing else, lets go" Thundar said impatiently. 

Queen Serene nodded "Please proceed with caution"

They all rushed to the teleportation portals and disappeared into the portals.

--

As the second team which was headed to the Four Elements Sect reappeared on the other side of the portal, they were immediately thrown into battle as the portal exploded behind them. 

Thundar roared in rage as he saw his sect in flames as his sect members fought valiantly against a small army of 30 or so demons. 

Alex, Mindy, Trix, Aeon and Lara immediately sprung into action and started fighting for their lives. 

Alex immediately cast a banishing spell which seemed to be effective against that particular demon. However, the process was slow on her and she could only cast the spell on one demon at a time. 

In the meantime, the others tried to injure the demons, with Mindy, Lara and Aeon using their firearms, but they were not effective. 

Trix directly attacked with her plasma rifle, but although they did hurt the demons, they did not cause nearly enough damage as the demons were extremely tough. 

Thundar himself struggled with a single demon, as he continuously cast lightning at them. Like with Trix, his lightning bolts did hurt the demon, but it only roared in rage and continued attacking. 

Thundar fought desperately as his sect members all perished all around him. 

--

The team to the Silverleaf Forest appeared and Ulandir started running towards the forest which was clearly burning. Tauriel, Cameron, Max and Violet sprinted after him while Sabrina tried her best to follow behind. 

There were dead elves everywhere and around 20 or so huge demons were destroying the trees and the elves, killing indiscriminately. 

Ulandir started firing arrows at the demons and Tauriel joined in with her arrows. Max and Cameron found that fighting hand to hand with the demons was useless and they did not have any weapons capable of harming the demons. Violet similarly found it difficult to harm the demons with her firearms or swords. 

At that moment, Sabrina arrived and cast a banishment spell on a demon. However, like with Alex, she could only banish one demon at a time. 

--

In the Nexus, Buffy, Faith, Hermione, Alice and Natasha suddenly appeared naked. 

Hermione looked around and asked "What happened?"

"We.... I think the portal was destroyed!" Natasha said

"That means... Balthazar is dead?" Hermione asked again. 

"I don't know if he can survive inside the void between portals. All of us must have died instantly" Natasha said. 

--

Samsara appeared in the Crying Forest with Asteroth and his Avengers Phoebe, Annabeth, Selene, Yuriko and Rey.

The forest was quiet, there was no signs of battle at all. 

"Strange!" Phoebe said as they walked together towards a tower in the middle of the forest. 

"That is the witch's abode" Asteroth said as he led the way into the tower. 

Samsara followed with his Avengers and went up the stairs and entered a large room. 

In the room was a large chair and Magdalena sat quietly and looked at them. 

"Magdalena? What is going on here?" Samsara asked. 

Suddenly the large door shut behind them and Samsara and the Avengers became alerted. 

"Can't you guess?" Magdalena smiled. As she did so, several demons walked out from behind a door and lined up behind her. 

"Magdalena... you..."Samsara didn't know what to say. 

"Me? Don't you know your fates are already sealed?" she laughed. 

Suddenly, Samsara felt pain as a black blade emerged from his chest and lifted him up!

Asteroth grinned from behind as he lifted Samsara's body, his arm had transformed into a black blade that had pierced Samsara from the back and exited from his chest. 

Samsara's mouth filled with blood as Astaroth's other arm also turned into a black blade and chopped Samsara's head off.

He threw Samsara's body aside and smiled at Magdalena.

"Well done Asteroth. Too bad you didn't bring more of our... friends. Now kill them all" Magdalena commanded. 

Phoebe, Annabeth, Selene, Yuriko and Rey immediately sprung into action as the demons and Asteroth charged at them. 

As the battle began, nobody noticed as Samsara's body changed back into a naked blue skinned female body