Chapter 167: The Falling Domain (Abandon All Hope Here)
Quanxi had finally disposed of that group of "cannon fodder." In truth, her speed was still extraordinarily fast, taking only about a minute to completely slaughter all the enemies on this side.
Yet the battlefield changes in an instant; even a brief minute could lead to a fatal delay.
Knowing full well that she might have messed things up, Quanxi instructed Pingtsi and the others to hold onto her tightly, then rushed toward the main battlefield—the school—at top speed.
It was precisely because the enemies in this immediate vicinity had already been decimated by her that she dared to travel while carrying Pingtsi and the others in this fashion. Otherwise, if any enemies were to attack her right now, the fiend girls would be placed in considerable danger.
Before long, Quanxi and the fiend girls arrived at the location of the school shelter.
Right at that moment, however, Pingtsi suddenly began to tremble violently, breaking out in cold sweat as her legs grew so weak she was nearly on the verge of collapsing to the ground. She wore an expression of extreme terror, and even her ponytail seemed to take on a look of utter fright.
The Dragon Fiend was in no better shape, clutching tightly to Quanxi's clothes with a look of profound panic as she let out strained noises, "Ah... ah..."
The Cosmos Fiend, Cosmo, even attempted to flee right then and there. Reluctant to let Cosmos leave her side, Quanxi pulled her right back.
As fiends, they were far more sensitive to the presence of devils than ordinary humans or weapon hybrids.
The reason they were terrified to this extent was precisely because they sensed the aura of a Primal Devil!
While the Cosmos Fiend's "Cosmos" sounded deeply prestigious, she was ultimately not a Primal Devil and existed on a completely different tier from the Falling Devil. Consequently, Cosmo's abilities were left with little more than prestige, and her spell-casting startup was so painfully slow that any competent opponent could one-shot her.
"Dragon, Pingtsi, calm down."
Knowing that Pingtsi and the others were acting this way because something exceptionally terrible was bound to happen, Quanxi nevertheless maintained her composure without a trace of panic.
"Qu... Quanxi... we're done for, we're finished... There's, there's an existence far, far more terrifying than the Gun Devil coming..."
Pingtsi wore a look of utter horror, her speech stuttering badly. "Th... That's a Primal Devil that has never experienced death, a 'Transcendental'... If... If it bears hostility toward us, every single one of us is going to die here!"
"Ah... ah... I can't take it anymore, Lord Quanxi, please allow me to commit suicide!"
Pingtsi had already utilized her ability, peering through her ponytail to catch sight of the Falling Devil not far away, thereby perceiving its true identity as the Falling Devil.
Upon seeing the Falling Devil, her emotions completely shattered, preferring suicide over sinking into despair and being brutally tormented to death by the Falling Devil.
Because Pingtsi had no inkling that the Falling Devil was actually summoned by Otonashi Chiya; she only knew that Primal Devils were powerful enough to wipe all of them out in a single instant.
She didn't dare even imagine that the Falling Devil was actually an "ally."
"Idiot! Don't be foolish, I'll protect you."
Quanxi attempted to soothe Pingtsi's crumbling emotional state, having already realized that the bizarre, roughly two-meter-tall woman not far away was deeply abnormal.
"...Ah! It's here... It's coming! The Falling Devil!"
Amidst Pingtsi's frantic, breakdown-induced cries,
"This is the appetizer prepared for you."
The Falling Devil spoke with graceful posture, "La·ne·vonia." (ps: This is Latin, meaning "Abandon All Hope Here")
As the voice faded, the sky suddenly turned pitch black.
Yet everything other than the sky remained completely visible, and apart from the sky darkening, there seemed to be no other abnormalities... roughly speaking.
Before that group of Devil Church members could even register the change in the sky, past sorrows and grief began flooding into their minds—the crushing pressure of work and mortgages before joining the Devil Church, childhood trauma inflicted by parents, or the haunting memory of their parents being slaughtered by devils...
Every single negative experience from their past erupted in that instant, which was precisely one of the Falling Devil's abilities.
Once negative emotions were triggered, the lower their mood sank, the faster their bodies "fell" toward the sky. To be precise, the gravity acting on their bodies had been inverted by the Falling Devil, shifting from a downward pull to an upward one.
The Devil Church members with more depressed moods "fell" at a rapid pace, directly "falling" into a Hell gate that had materialized out of thin air in the sky.
And the diners from Hell awaited on the other side of that gate, waiting for these "ingredients" to deliver themselves right to their doorsteps.
The "dishes" were at the bottom, while the "diners" were at the top.
Serving food upward to "Hell" through the mechanism of "falling" was perhaps the Falling Devil's unique sense of romanticism.
Watching more and more Devil Church members "fall" into the gate of Hell, Otonashi Chiya couldn't help but marvel in his heart that the Falling Devil truly lived up to her name as a Primal Devil.
Much like the "Darkness Domain," this zone could tentatively be called the "Falling Domain"; targets designated by the Falling Devil would all fall under her absolute influence.
Ordinary people, and even seasoned devil hunters, stood utterly powerless against such a situation, let alone the fact that this was merely the Falling Devil's most basic ability—she probably hadn't even unleashed one percent of her full power.
"The appetizer is nearly sufficient; next, I shall present you with the main course, named 'Humans Sunk Deep Within Fear.'"
The Falling Devil's tone remained soft and elegant.
At this moment, Otonashi Chiya stood quietly watching from the sidelines. He had to admit that the Falling Devil was the most elegant and polite devil he had ever encountered, though that by no means implied she wasn't ferocious.
Because quite a few Devil Church members had been thoroughly brainwashed, their past sorrowful experiences failed to generate significant negative emotions, causing their upward "falling" speed to be sluggish or completely unaffected. Even for those affected, if their reflexes were quick enough, they could grab hold of objects on the ground to prevent themselves from "falling."
Yet these were precisely the people the Falling Devil had designated as the "main course" ingredients.
Those who had been instantly swallowed by the Hell diners hadn't experienced overwhelming terror, their minds having been entirely consumed by sorrowful memories instead.
These remaining ones, however, would be slowly plunged deep into the abyss of fear.
With a sudden flash, the Falling Devil moved at a speed invisible to the naked eye, weaving through the still-struggling Devil Church members. Even Otonashi Chiya, equipped with his Sharingan, found it exceedingly difficult to trace her movements clearly.
Yet his eyes could still track the trajectory of her motion—being unable to see clearly did not mean losing sight entirely.
In virtually the span of a single breath, the blade-like wings on the Falling Devil's back cleanly sliced off one hundred ears, one hundred eyeballs, and one hundred noses.
Furthermore, she didn't repeat targets, taking only a single body part from each individual—meaning three hundred Devil Church members had been knifed by her without being fatally wounded.
"The side dishes have been gathered; it is now time to position the 'ingredients.' Please exercise just a bit more patience."
The three hundred side dishes were casually collected by the Falling Devil into a plastic bag from an unknown source.