ɴᴀʀᴜᴛᴏ ʙᴀᴇʟ:- ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛʀᴏɴɢᴇꜱᴛ ᴅᴇᴠɪʟ!

Chapter 28

Abyssus Crucible

The Battlefield

Naruto lifted a single finger toward Sirzechs and his peerage.

The air twisted. Something invisible pressed down heavy, wrong, like the sky itself had grown teeth.

Then it hit them.

Okita stumbled first. Her knees buckled before she caught herself, one hand slapping against the cracked floor. Beside her, Souji grunted through clenched teeth, the tendons in his neck straining as he fought to stay upright.

"Channel your magic! Counter it!" Sirzechs' voice cut through, rougher than usual. His peerage obeyed magic flaring, muscles shaking, breath coming in short, painful bursts.

Inch by inch, they pushed back.

Naruto's expression didn't change. His finger lowered by the smallest fraction.

The weight doubled.

Someone's knee cracked against stone. Gasps tore from throats. MacGregor's barrier flickered, nearly collapsing before he forced more power into it, sweat dripping from his chin.

And then

It stopped.

Not because they'd won. Because Naruto had decided they'd learned enough.

His finger rose. The pressure lifted.

The Abyssus Crucible went silent. Thousands of spectators stared, processing what they'd just witnessed. No clash of swords. No explosion of power. Just one man, one finger, and an entire peerage brought to their knees.

Gremory Family's Box

Zeoticus Gremory forgot himself for a moment.

His jaw went slack. His fingers, usually so still, gripped the armrest of his chair hard enough to whiten his knuckles. "That much," he breathed, "from one man?"

Venelana's fan had stopped moving. She didn't seem to notice. Her eyes tracked Naruto's every micro-movement like she was watching a predator circle wounded prey. "That's not power," she said quietly. "That's... something else entirely."

Rias couldn't speak.

She'd felt Naruto's strength before that unsettling pressure when he'd looked at her, the way the air changed when he entered a room. But this? Watching her brother's peerage warriors, she'd admired her entire life, struggle like insects under glass?

Her hands shook. She pressed them flat against her thighs to hide them.

He could have killed them, she realised. The thought made her stomach turn. He could have killed all of them, and they wouldn't have been able to stop him.

Beside her, Millicas had gone very still. His usual fidgeting had ceased. His young face held an expression too serious for his age, the look of a child suddenly understanding that monsters were real, and sometimes they wore human faces.

"Mother," he whispered, tugging at Selene's sleeve. "Is Dad going to be okay?"

Selene didn't answer immediately. Her composure, always so perfect, so practised, had cracked just slightly. A furrow between her brows. A tightness around her mouth.

"Your dad is strong," she finally said. But even she heard how hollow the words sounded.

The Battlefield

In the blink of an eye, Naruto stood directly before Sirzechs.

No warning. No blur of movement. Just here. Close enough that Sirzechs could see the flecks of darker blue in his eyes.