The orb of scarlet flame descended like a comet as it rocketed towards the ground. It's impact zone was right in front of the newest King. Said King didn't even look worried as his lips moved in a chant. That Erica Could feel in her bones even from the two hundred meter distance she had managed to gain.
"Oh Serpent dwelling in fire, I call your blood, I call your bones, I call your life, For I Am your slayer!"
Eric Knew exactly what the Orb in the sky was, nearly every mage in the world knew what it was. It was Voban's third most infamous Authority.
[Red Punishment], the Authority Marquis Voban had used to light London aflame nearly two centuries before hand in an event that had been termed the second great fire of london.
Thousands had been burned to a crisp, leaving nought even ashes behind and they had been the lucky ones. The only reason the entirety of London hadn't been wiped off the map was, incidentally, the Devil King The Marquis had been fighting.
Even then it had appeared the cities survival hadn't been a goal so much a happy coincidence as they used a water authority of some kind to weaken the fires. Even still, it was one of the occurrences in history that had been used as a warning against meddling with the Devil Kings.
It was the reason Erica had stopped running away.
No matter how fast she was she would never manage to leave the authorities range before it incinerated her. Even the Dragon Shrine nearly a mile away at this point, would still be reduced to ash.
Instead she had resolved herself to observing this catastrophe, engraving it all into her memory all the while she prepared a spell. One that would send her last memories to the Copper Black Cross's headquarter upon her death.
It was probably Morbid that she had been taught such a spell at her age, but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. She couldn't bring herself to care about much at all really, At the very Least her death would have some meaning.
Even watching the few short instances of this fight she'd seen, was causing a headache to form in her skull, as the Campione tore reality apart at the seams. The forces of Luck and Causality being ripped apart and sewn together with such frequency any normal mage would have long had an aneurysm.
Erica kept watching, regardless of the red comet hurtling towards the ground, well prepared to die the instant it touched the ground.
Except the Newest Campione apparently wasn't going to let that happen.
Mere instances before the fireball would have hit the ground, a circle of flame blazed into existence. A towering pillar of flame taller than a three story building, so bright it out shined the red light of [Red Punishment], and forced Erica to close her eyes.
When she forced her now watery eyes open, spot dancing across her vision she had to stop herself from blinking in astonishment. For a moment she was sure the spell she was using to increase her visual acuity had been cast wrong.
However as the vision persisted, she was forced to accept what she was seeing as real. A sobbing gasp broke out of her lips as she found herself slumping against the scratchy trunk of a tree.
She wasn't going to die!
She wasn't going to die, because a three story tall dragon made of flickering flame had stopped Voban's most destructive authority.
By Catching it in it's jaws, like it was a large red dog toy it's owner had thrown to play fetch.
Something that shouldn't have been possible, seeing as the Orb of flame was, at the very least, the size of a small village. However the dragon had managed it somehow, and in fact wasn't the orb in its mouth shrinking?
Erica forced her sobs to a halt, dried her eyes regardless of how much they stung, and forced herself to her feet.
Then she started to run.
It had only been second since his summoned dragon had stopped the ball of fire, and yet Naruto could already feel the strain.
Whatever Authority Voban had used to summon this ball of crackling scarlet fire, was strong, incredibly so based on just how hard his own authority was complaining about holding it at bay.
Naruto could only be thankful that the serpents' control of fire, apparently outranked a fire and forget nature of Voban's authority.
The old Wolf's face on the other hand, made it all worth it. Even if it took all of his own control in order to keep a relaxed air about himself, concealing just how much difficulty he was having reining in the elderly man's ravenous fire.
The King of the Balkan's face was forced in an odd rictus of both excitement, confusion, and not anger, but maybe annoyance? It was quite comical to watch, so much so that both Kings remained in near total silence as they stared at each other.
It was only when Naruto felt something slot into place that the silence was broken, as the Dragon of fire swallowed the Orb whole. The Marquis's control of the flames, no matter how tenuous, had been broken.
Only momentarily, but it was enough as the Dragon shifted no longer a blazing white, instead it was tinged scarlet. At a mere thought the Dragon began to shrink until it was no bigger than a small lizard, and wrapped itself around the tip of the spear.
Shasha Dejansthal Voban, was rendered mute, baffled entirely, completely and utterly unable to process what he was seeing, what he was feeling.
Not only had the newest Brat King, all but rendered one his most destructive authorities invalid, but he could feel as if it was wrestled from his control. Only Momentarily yes, but still to even think a campione only a day old would be able to fight evenly with him?
He hadn't felt this baffled since he was a mere soldier himself.
He could still barely believe it even as he watched the Divine beast catch the flame of his [Red Punishment]. The Divine beast was quite the site itself made entirely of fire; he imagined it would be quite intimidating to the average mortal.
Particularly the two large horn that juted out of it's head, looking vaguely like that of the devil as they curved forward like a pair of spears, only highlighting it's cinderous eyes made out of nothing but fire.
His frozen state only broke when the dragon swallowed, and glowed with scarlet flame. His Flame, rage burned inside him along with an excitement he had longed for. This fight was actually turning into a challenge!
Voban snapped out of his growing Bloodlust, when his opponent spoke.
"I suggest you survive this Old Man, anything else would be disappointing." While he was lost in his mind, his opponent had seemingly compressed his Divine Beast, to a minuscule size and wrapped it around his spear.
If it wasn't made of fire he might have mistaken it for a decoration, however the ball of scarlet fire it was holding in it's mouth made it's providence obvious. He could feel the heat coming off of it and several trees had already ignited into a blaze due to sheer proximity.
Then the Younger Campione swung his spear, in a swiping motion. Voban didn't bother thinking, as was the nature of a devil king, he just moved.
The Dragon Shrine was in Chaos.
Alexandria was doing her best to keep everything calm, however even she had started to panic once the orb of scarlet flame manifested in the sky.
She had resigned herself to death as the orb streaked through the sky like a falling star, only it had never come, the titanic ball of fire having stopped for some reason before it could make contact with the ground.
They couldn't see much of what was going on in the valley where the kings clashed, only the occasional plume of snow at most. Otherwise it was just too far away to see, and they didn't
have anyone who could use any remote viewing techniques.
But everyone could see as the hovering ball of doom, began to shrink, before disappearing altogether. Bringing what must have been a divine beast into view. An incredibly large dragon was near impossible to not see for a bare moment.
Then it disappeared as well.
There was a small sigh of relief, as everyone realized they weren't going to die just yet.
Alexandria knew better than to relax, and she was proven right when just as the silence began to settle in, a wide sweeping beam of fire reduced the north end of the mountain into an ashen wasteland. Everything present swiftly being burnt to cinders, in a cone originating from one spot.
She had a feeling she knew exactly was at fault for this new headache. But she had a job to do, regardless if it meant cleaning up after a tweenage Campione.
"What do you think you're doing!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, the entire temple going quiet in response. "You know what you should be doing, evacuation should have been done by now, get to it!"
"Huh" Naruto said, staring at the absolute destruction he had just wrought. "That was a lot stronger than I thought it would be." Maybe concentrating Voba's authority into a beam wasn't such a good Idea?
There was a triangular section of the valley and the mountain beyond it, that had been rendered all but bare of anything but ash and cinder. The trees just at the edge of the blast had been all but incinerated and a good portion had ignited near instantly.
Naruto had essentially created a giant hell-scape surrounded by burning trees in the shape of a V.
He examined his work for a moment longer, before he sighed in resignation. "I'm going to have to help clean this up, aren't I?" Before he paused, wasn't he a king? Couldn't he just ignore it or say no?
He thought about it before he shook his head, Gramps had raised him right. He might just be able to leave his messes at someone else's feet, but if he was going to be a king he was going to do it the right way.
Or at least what he perceived as the right way at least. He doubted Voban cared very much, if at all, for the trouble he caused.
He was already thinking internally about how he leveraged his authorities to repair the valley when he remembered he wasn't exactly alone. Glancing at the spot the Marquis had been standing, he looked for any sign of the wolfish old man.
"Hey, you still alive out there old man?"
For a few seconds he didn't receive and answer only to hear the ground shift a couple of fee in front of him. Only to raise an eyebrow as the First King clawed his way out from the ground in his absolutely huge wolf form.
The wolf's poisonous eyes glared at him with enough bloodlust to give anyone else a heart attack, and for a stretch of time that could have only been a couple of seconds, but seemed like hours they judged each other.
Naruto was about to ready himself to continue the fight, when the wolf rippled and contorted in ways that most would have considered unnatural as it reverted to the form of an old man.
The Marquis didn't look to have suffered any true damage. The two cuts Naruto had inflicted on the older kings forehead had healed long ago, and otherwise the elder appeared completely untouched.
No wait, the Long coat Marquis had favored was minorly burnt, with a small corner visibly singed.
The Older man let out a sigh, sounding almost forlorn as he examined the small bit of damage. The two kings were almost completely silent as the man pulled at the fabric seemingly trying to see if it was salvageable.
Naruto wasn't sure why he said it, but to be honest he wasn't even sure how he'd managed to be a campione in the first place. Then again weren't campione supposed to be inherently unpredictable? Weren't they supposed to follow their own whims above even the laws of the very universe?
So he asked.
"You want me to fix it for you?"