Rachel must have taken the specialties that the other heroes possess. The tell-tale sign is that her magic had never been used twice so far. Copy magic revolves around the use of “Spellsteal” that allows the caster to be equipped with magic that the others have.

Normally, the caster needs to have enough talent in a field to use the magic. For the simpler ones, just a secondary affinity might be enough, but most useful spells need a primary affinity.

Rachel, however, had been throwing out primary spells one after another, and now, she is controlling more than a dozen type of magic at once.

Unless she possesses all those primary affinities like Kairos, only those with Spellsteal can do the same.

Not just magic. It was obvious that George was using the Aura of Warrior yet now the Aura of War and before that, they had guessed that Rachel was using the Aura of the Mage to dispel magic – the same Aura that Luo Wen possess.

There is only three Auras that can achieve this.

The first one is the legendary Aura of the Demiurge that Kairos has, theorised to be the source of all Auras. The second type is the Aura of the Chameleon, it only has to come into contact with an Aura once and it can turn into a lesser version of it anytime. The third one is the Aura of the Mimic which can completely become another kind of Aura and even clad it onto another person but only one Aura at a time.

Given that each person may only have a single type of aura, just like having a single personality, either George’s Aura is the Aura of the Demiurge like Kairos, or the Aura of the Chameleon.

That, or he has split personality disorder which grants him dual Auras.

Otherwise, it might be Rachel who has the Aura of the Mimic.

Since Rachel is expected to copy spells, it makes more sense that she is the one with the aura. After all, it is very rare for a person to possess clashing affinities.

In that case, all the more they cannot let these two people escape.

“Why don’t you surrender? We will guarantee your lives,” Kairos bargained.

They waited a moment but there was no response.

Seeing that the two heroes are continuously gathering power, they did not hesitate any longer.

Boink opened the fight charging into George without being stopped by the Aura of War.

While he is able to shrug off the enemy’s powers, the rest are not as lucky.

Kairos and Clef immediately felt a powerful oppression pushed down on them.

Both men had fought on the battlefield before, yet they still felt restrained. It cannot be helped that they have become overly cautious, when the Aura of War is making them feel that impending doom is approaching.

It is as though they had gone back in time to the first time they stepped on the battlefield and seeing thousands charge towards them.

Meanwhile, Lulatia had thrown out a beautiful spell gem at Rachel who is still gathering mana. The spell crystal shattered, becoming a large mana creature. It was gigantic, blue, and looks like a blob, and it greedily sucked in all the mana in the air around Rachel.

The creature is not an actual living organism but merely the manifestation of a spell, ‘Mana Greed’.

This magic does only one thing: it eats up all the available mana in a 5-metre radius, forcing other spells to starve.

Rachel immediately felt her Fusion Fire spell flickering.

The elf gave her a large grin. As the support mage, she is the best person to hold spell crystals – mostly healing crystals to compliment her shields but she also did not lack attacking spells and other kinds.

Of course, Rachel threw the black flames over without hesitation. In response, Lulatia threw the tiny kite shield floating on her palm.

The shield stuck onto the black flames, and quickly duplicated, over and over until it completely covered the enemy’s magic.

Moments later, everyone heard a muffled boom. The shields shattered into pieces as the dark purple fire escaped. The fire ferociously turned into a cloud and swallowed everyone.

The scorching tongues of flames licked up everything in the area.

Lulatia expected this, of course. She used the Mana Greed crystal to weaken the enemy’s black flames and the shields to soften the initial impact.

Not only that, a shimmering barrier shrouded each person on Kairos’ team, but the heat was still great enough to make everyone drenched in sweat.

Bright lights, searing heat, and boisterous roaring of the flame became their everything.

The floor melted and buildings cracked from the flashfire.

Fortunately, the combustion came quickly and dispersed just as fast. When visibility is returned, only five were left… Rachel had fled without George and Relestia had chased after her.

The princess remembered that someone in the team must prevent the enemy from fleeing. Because she had almost spent all her Ki in the series of battles, she refrained from participating much in this fight and had been watching out for runner. The moment Rachel threw the spell, Relestia was on to her like an expert tracker.

No one was worried. She may be running out of energy, but she is still a cultivator.

By now, her team knows the power a ranker holds compared to the warriors of Axis Mundi.

At the very least, Relestia could retreat without problems using the Gentleman’s Steps.

Then, something strange happened.

Kairos approach George taking one small step at a time. The latter put up his hands in a defensive stance but otherwise did not move.

And just like that, Kairos went right up to the boxer and gripped both the enemy’s wrists and subdued him.

The ones left, Lulatia, Clef, and Boink watched with astonishment.

Kairos said with a small smile, “I know of another George. George Kitty. Although is the complete opposite type than you, I think both of you will become good friends.”

And then he headbutted the enemy causing him to faint.

Curiosity was piqued, but Kairos did not intend to explain anything, not until after Relestia returned.

They had to bear with their burning questions, fortunately, Relestia did not let them wait too long. She appeared with Rachel bounded, tied to her back.

She took one look at George and tilted her head as if asking ‘how did that happen?’.

Likewise, Kairos shot her the same look towards Rachel.

The group converged exchanging questions as they walked away. Their destination unknown, but the people of the gnomish city run out of their homes cheering.

This new ally of the people is tremendously powerful. So powerful that if they wanted to conquer the gnomes it is entirely possible, but the princess came to them and risked her neck to formulate a better future they can soon see!

Jumping from rooftops to rooftops, Kairos’ companions are bombarding him with the same question, ‘how did he catch George?’.

When Relestia had heard that Kairos simply walked up to the man and headbutted him into custody, she also couldn’t wait to know how it happened.

Kairos, with a mischievous grin, said, “You guys know that I conjectured George possessing Divination Magic, correct?”

Four heads bobbed up and down rapidly.

“Well, if our guy can foresee the near future, then it made sense how he avoided all our attacks and countered us. From the previous fights, I guessed that he could see around three seconds in the future.”

Everyone sucked in a cold breath or gasped. Three seconds ahead is nothing normally, but in a fight, it means that George is almost untouchable.

“Due to this, it is extremely tough to get him.”

The four nodded again in agreement.

“But what if all the possible futures that George foresee in the next three seconds is death except for one action?”

“Well, of course he will take that one ac… action. Wait, you mean that George could only wait there until you catch him, so he just let you?”

“Uhuh,” Kairos said nonchalantly, “He had to let me, because otherwise I will blow him up the moment he would so much as move a finger.”

Kairos’ Immolation Finger technique is avoidable, but his Immolation Rain technique covers a wide area. Anyone within his targeted zones have no way out but to face the danger headfirst. Of course, this means that Kairos who is also in the area is endangering himself. Moreover, the Immolation Rain technique takes a thousand times more Ki than the Immolation Finger and will completely drain him of energy.

If the target was anyone else, not only Kairos would have a hard time explaining the power of the Immolation Rain, but the enemy will also not be easily convinced that Kairos is willing to use it on himself.

It is only because George could see scenes after scenes of himself being torn apart by the Immolation Rain with no way out that he was captured.

A small cheer couldn’t help but erupt from the group, “Ohhhh. That’s impressive.”

Relestia secretly kicked Kairos, giving him a death-stare with a small, wrinkled nose, warning him not to be so reckless next time.

Kairos laughed silently, scratching his head. She doesn’t have to ask to know that Kairos was in no real danger when he captured George. But to do so means that Kairos was really prepared to die with the enemy.

She gave a small sigh, then it was her turn to answer how she caught Rachel.

The process was much simpler than Kairos’ venture. She remembered Kairos teaching her how important it is to reserve her energy in a fight and figured this enemy had nearly exhausted herself and would be sitting duck once she gloat her to waste more attacks.

With a few feints, Rachel threw out all the offensive spells in her repertoire and easily was bounded by Relestia after.

It sounded easy, but only possible because Relestia’s prowess completely overwhelms her enemy.

Even if the nurse had physical enhancement spells copied from another hero, the sniper Lie Feng, her base statistics are too low.

Girls are built to generally only carry two-thirds as much muscles as a man, and that means there is an intrinsic difference in strength. Rachel is a very average woman in terms of physical power, even if the enhancement spell multiplies it by several times, it is not enough for her to match a cultivator like Relestia. All the princess had to do is to take advantage of her superior footwork.

That is not to say that Rachel is weak. Far from it, she is an exceptional and deadly opponent, only that this time it was a poor matchup for her after she had already used up most of the spells she copied.

With the two in custody, the group quickly arrived at their destination. A beautiful manor, clearly the residence of a high gnome noble.

…..

A heavy, overcast sky, loomed above a grey gloomy castle. Make no mistake, it is a grand building. Taller than anything else the humans had constructed.

Within, a hundred thousand guards patrolled vigilantly.

In the deepest room surrounded by the greatest knights of the realm and all the eight remaining heroes, great men that can decide the fate of millions slammed the table at each other.

“George and Rachel had been captured? Are you blooting sure?”

“Don’t you use that language at me! My men had carried out their orders perfectly, while you! You are the one who made that suggestion and sent them to their deaths!”

“Everyone participated in the vote, is there any point in directing the blame now?”

“Enough!” Blectt Rowan barked, “We are in this together. The enemy took George and Rachel, but so what? Their potentials are already spent, we have eight more heroes to use, throwing two away is nothing.”

What Rowan said is of course a lie. If they can discard heroes easily, they would not have risked so much to capture Kairos and Relestia.

But losing George and Rachel meant nothing to them is true as well.

Rowan sensed a fantastic opportunity to recall Kairos and Relestia when the two headed towards the gnome city. It is likely that out of the twelve summoned heroes, these two are the strongest. Moreover, they will be doing the gnome king a huge favour when they capture the couple.

The soldiers they sent are only good for exhausting the opponents. To capture heroes, they need to use other heroes. However, it is no use to control untrained heroes, so a forbidden spell was casted on George and Rachel, removing their limiters and squeezing out all their powers in exchange for their potential. The two of them are unwilling to help the human kingdoms. Traitors. And traitors do not have any rights.

When he mentioned that the two heroes’ potentials are spent, everyone else nodded in agreement and this issue was over immediately. The Jarls moved their discussion to more urgent matters, how to develop the remaining heroes and use them to start their long-awaited conquest.