Seeing their spell beingpletely blocked, the group of mages immediately turned and fled in the opposite direction.


    "Thank you so much! How can we call you?" Evelyn asked.


    As the twins stared in disbelief at the figure before them, Alex recognized the person immediately, even from behind.


    "Hi there," the figure said warmly before turning around, revealing a woman with a smile.


    "I''m Alex''s mom... You are Evelyn and Luna, right?"


    Both girls quickly nodded as they remembered seeing Katherine one time when visiting Sophia''s home.


    "Mom, have you found Sophia and Mary yet?" Alex urgently asked, looking extremely worried for the other two.


    "You''re the only one missing... You two want to go with us?" Katherine asked, looking back at the two girls.


    "Sure!"


    The two quickly epted Katherine''s offer, and she cast a flight spell, lifting them into the air.


    All three of the kids got scared for a second before calming back down as they leaned into the sky next to Katherine.


    "Is this what flying feels like?" Luna nervously murmured as they began moving in a direction.


    They could all see the building right beneath them, with lower-level mages fighting each other with various spells.


    After flying for a bit, the four of them finally descended back down to the ground.


    "Alex! Evelyn! Luna!"


    Sophia and Mary both excitedly ran over to the three of them before hugging them.


    "How did you guys join thispetition?" Mary curiously asked as they finally separated.


    "You forgot our hometown is at Regina?" Evelyn reminded.


    "Oh, right. How could I forget about that——"


    "Ahem, who are these two kids?"


    Fredrick interrupted, asking as he and Ava both walked over to Katherine, with Amelia and Luqing following right behind.


    "They are Sophia''s ssmates."


    "I see... Well, nice to meet you. I''m Alex''s grandpa——"


    "Y-You''re the Duke!"


    Evelyn nervously pointed her finger at Fredrick before quickly moving her finger back down as both girls were in shock.


    "Yes, I''m the Duke. Are you two from Regina?" Fredrick asked, his usual serious face seemingly having disappeared.


    Both of them nodded, which made Fredrick a little happy for some reason.


    "That''s good... Be a good friend to Sophia. You won''t regret it."


    As Fredrick turned his attention back to Katherine, his face was back to being serious.


    "Katherine, have you found anywhere safe to hide in the city?"


    "No... I couldn''t find somewhere that could hide us from the emperor''s archmage scan."


    "Shit... Luqing, can you bring the five kids somewhere else?"


    "Yes, my lord——"


    As soon as they finished talking, a group of mages suddenly appeared out of nowhere.


    "Fredrick! How long have we not seen each other?"


    A man, seemingly in his early thirties with his small mustache and beard, asked as he descended along with his other mages.


    Alex could immediately feel all of them were way beyond his mage level, with the kids standing behind seemingly to be the only low ones.


    "We had just seen each other a few weeks ago, my emperor," Fredrick said as he bowed down in respect.


    "I''m talking about thispetition."


    "Then it has been four years."


    "Four years? It only felt like a year ago."


    As the emperor stepped up, several mages stepped up as well before being signaled to step back.


    "I can take care of him myself... You all go do something else."


    "My emperor, I''m afraid you haven''t learned your lesson fromst time——"


    "You haven''t seen how much I have improved!"


    As a blinding light and piercing darkness began spreading from the left and right of the emperor''s body, everyone couldn''t move.


    "Very well! Then let me see if you have really learned anything from that old guy!"


    Both of them suddenly disappeared, allowing everyone to move again as Katherine and Amelia immediately raised the barrier.


    "Run!"


    The five kids immediately bolted out of there, following Luqing''s footsteps as the other sidesunched hundreds of spells.


    Fortunately, the archmage on the emperor''s side, seemingly uninterested, stood in ce as they watched from the sky.


    Seeing that the five kids had run far enough, the barrier was dropped, leaving only a trail of dark smoke as Katherine and Amelia vanished.


    Several of the mages immediately started chasing the trail, but when few of the kids wanted to join, they ran straight into a barrier.


    "Let us join them!" One of the kids wearing a golden robe demanded.


    The archmage doesn''t say anything, leaving them unsatisfied as they are now stuck in ce.


    ---


    Right below the white clouds in the sky, two ck clouds were constantly leap-frogging to the roofs of different buildings.


    Five mages were in close pursuit, flying and throwing different spells at them.


    "Amelia, do you have something to deal with them?"


    "Do I look like I''m hiding some sort of ace?"


    As the ck cloud flew to the roof of the next building, it was visibly starting to slow down.


    "You better, or else we''re dead here!"


    Jumping to thest tall building, they were now forced to run on the ground as the smoke dissipated.


    "You hold one! I''m going to cast a teleportation spell!"


    The ground began to glow around the two of them as Katherine began to chant something.


    Amelia quickly stood her ground as she cast a ck barrier above them, preventing the outside from being able to see them.


    Within seconds, the barrier started to have holes all over it as it struggled to keep up with the various spells outside.


    "How long do you need!" Amelia urgently questioned as she started pouring all her mana into the barrier.


    "Just give me a second. This stupidpetition keeps reinforcing the dimension barriers."


    After a few more seconds, a sudden glowing light appeared before them, sucking them in as the ck barrier disappeared.


    "Shit! They got away?" One of the mages said.


    "That''s impossible. You can''t cast teleportation magic in thispetition." Another mage argued as they flew down to where the two stood earlier.


    "Then you tell me where they went?"


    As the five of them stared at the cracked floor where all their spell hadnded, they all turned to each other for a second.


    "They are probably just eliminated, right?" The senior-looking mage suggested.


    "Yeah. Mission aplished."


    ---


    Meanwhile, the five kids were still running away with Luqing, going as fast as they could.


    Just as they stopped to catch a short break, a light suddenly appeared out of nowhere.


    "Please do not run away. It makes it difficult for me to fulfill the emperor''s task."


    To all five kid''s surprise, they were somehow back to where they were standing earlier.


    Within seconds, Luqing immediately raised her sword, standing before all of them despite having no chance of winning.


    "Mr.Archmage, you wouldn''t go so low as to beat a bunch of kids, right?" Luqing questioned.


    "Of course not. But the emperor''s son wants a battle... How about just have one of you step up?"


    Suddenly, Luqing was forcefully moved aside before being put into a chair, leaving the five kids standing together.


    "Which one of you volunteer to fight?"


    One of the boys standing near the archmage stepped up, throwing his robe aside.


    Without any hesitation, Evelyn stepped forward before they could discuss.


    "I''ll fight him."


    "Very well. I''ll prepare the arena——"


    With a snap of the finger, the fabric of reality seemed to be breaking as a ck hole appeared.


    But it was quickly shut down before it could bring anything out, leading to nothing happening.


    "Shit... Ahem, well, you two just fight here instead."


    This time, an invisible barrier appeared, blocking anyone from entering inside besides Evelyn and the boy.


    "What''s your name?" The boy questioned.


    "My name is Evelyn. Can I ask what your name is, my Highness?"


    Evelyn respectfully bowed down a little before getting back up, her face showing zero fear as she prepared to fight the boy.


    "My name is Azir... Please make sure you give it your all——"


    As the boy finished talking, he immediately cast a fireball right towards Evelyn''s face.


    But she was already prepared, casting a rock barrier of her own that blocked the explosionpletely.


    With the first wave of attack finished, Azir didn''t seem to be in a hurry to attack again.


    Still, Evelyn wasn''t going to lower her barrier as she seemed to be casting a spell of her own underneath it.


    The moment the rock barrier dropped, Evelyn immediatelyunched her spell right at Azir.


    But to her surprise, he dodged the wind de easily despite the fact that it was almost invisible to the naked eye.


    "How?" Luna asked in shock, as the wind de was so fast she couldn''t even catch it with her eyes.


    "That was a pretty nicebo. But not fast enough."


    Azirplimented, seemingly very rxed, as Evelyn started to look a little nervous.


    "Take this then!"


    This time, hundreds of small projectiles appeared at the same time, all beingunched right at Azir.


    Alex could immediately tell it was some sort of wind de, but it was much smaller than normal.