Chapter 170: Are You Lecturing Me?
At this very moment.
A large deployment of police officers and devil hunters had already surrounded the shopping mall from the outside, evacuating ordinary citizens from the main streets.
They had no idea that Otonashi Chiya was inside the mall; they simply responded immediately after receiving multiple emergency calls from the public.
As soon as Otonashi Chiya stepped out through the mall's main entrance, he spotted a barrage of police and devil hunters training their sights directly on his direction, all locked in a tense, defensive posture ready to strike at a moment's notice.
"Don't do anything rash, leave this to me to handle."
Otonashi Chiya instantly instructed the Falling Devil beside him.
"Understood. Then I shall finish preparing the main course for the diner first."
With a casual flick of the Falling Devil's thoughts, a gate to Hell abruptly manifested beside her.
She then tossed the "condiments" from her plastic bag right through it.
Meanwhile, deep within Hell.
A devil roughly the size of a tall multi-story building stood there, bearing a rather abstract morphology that made it difficult to discern its exact classification with the naked eye, though a physique of that scale clearly meant it was far from weak.
A napkin was even tied neatly around its neck—an elegant, ritualistic requirement demanded by the Falling Devil.
As a diner of Hell, it was forced to adhere strictly to the Falling Devil's rules; otherwise, it would face nothing short of execution.
Directly in front of this devil sat an enormous platter piled high with the very Devil Church members who had just plummeted into Hell.
They were thoroughly paralyzed by terror at the sight of the terrifying, gargantuan devil looming over them, some even wetting themselves in absolute panic.
Naturally, they wanted to flee, but the gravity acting on their bodies had already been altered by the Falling Devil, leaving them entirely unable to run.
In particular, those trapped near the bottom of the platter were nearly crushed into meat patties by the weight of the people piled on top of them.
"Lord Devil! Lord Devil, please spare us! We are your loyal slaves!"
"Don't kill us! We still have utility, we can help Lord Devil conquer the human world!"
They could do little more than cry out, frantically begging the so-called devil lord for mercy.
Yet the devil serving as the Hell diner ignored them entirely, continuing to finish off the leftover appetizers from earlier.
Watching helplessly as their companions were devoured one by one by the monster, the survivors felt no lingering traces of sympathy or grief—only a profound, consuming despair and dread.
Aside from those the Falling Devil had designated as appetizers, the Hell diner hadn't dared to touch the main course "ingredients" on the platter until now, because that too was part of the Falling Devil's strict rules: no one was permitted to start on the main course until its preparation was officially complete.
Right at that moment, the "condiments" and "side dishes" tossed into Hell by the Falling Devil descended neatly onto the platter.
The "side dishes" composed of one hundred eyeballs, one hundred noses, and one hundred ears, alongside the "condiments" consisting of ten apples, ten dragon fruits, and ten portions of leafy greens.
This extravagant "feast," unappreciable by any ordinary human standards, was finally complete.
"Pardon the wait. Please enjoy your meal."
As the Falling Devil's words trailed off, the gate to Hell snapped shut.
The Devil Church members stranded on the platter possessed zero opportunity to escape Hell. Even those attempting to tap into their devil powers found them completely inaccessible, as the devils they had contracted with were paralyzed with terror by the Falling Devil's overwhelming pressure, refusing to manifest.
Even if the Devil Church members only borrowed a fraction of a devil's power, a Primal Devil could easily reach across the contract linking that power to crush the human-bound devil to death from afar.
Not every devil possessed the audacity to challenge the Darkness Devil head-on like the Stone Devil did in the original story.
All they could do now was lie upon the platter and slowly await their inevitable demise.
...
The surrounding police officers and devil hunters stared dumbfoundedly at the gate of Hell, having never witnessed such a phenomenon before; an ominous, foreboding aura bled relentlessly from the other side of that gateway!
"No, thank you, that won't be necessary."
Otonashi Chiya spoke indifferently, withdrawing his gaze without actually letting the Falling Devil turn these people into dessert.
Seeing this, the Falling Devil beside him bowed slightly and replied with graceful compliance: "As you wish."
The moment her voice fell, the gate of Hell hanging high in mid-air, radiating an endlessly ominous aura, vanished soundlessly, and the overwhelmingly oppressive terror in the surrounding atmosphere dissipated along with it.
Only then did the tightly stretched air around them finally begin to flow again.
The police officers and devil hunters who had intended to wrap things up and leave were all frozen in place, not daring to let out a single loud breath. Many of them had their backs already soaked in cold sweat, their legs growing weak as they looked at Otonashi Chiya with a mix of awe and terror.
Especially the young policewoman who had just been so righteous in her speech; at this moment, her face was as pale as paper, her lips trembling slightly as she took several steps back just to barely steady herself.
It was only now that she truly understood what kind of terrifying authority and power this seemingly youthful boy actually possessed. That was no "contracted devil"—that was a terrifying entity capable of stripping away even the mere thought of resistance in an instant. The only reason the other party could stand here safe and sound, and even make that horrific monster obey her every word, entirely depended on this boy's mood and restraint.
"Did you see clearly?"
Otonashi Chiya didn't bother looking at the shell-shocked policewoman again, throwing out that cold remark before turning around to leave.
The Falling Devil carried the plastic bag filled with "condiments," following quietly behind him like a meticulously polite attendant.
Under countless gazes filled with awe, dread, and shock, the two of them walked one after the other, gradually vanishing into the end of the street.