Chapter 124: The Fall of a Demon Overlord

Qroshu#368742KS.

The instant that incomprehensible string of characters left Nolan’s mouth, the entire mental world froze.

Qroshu’s handsome face, twisted by fury, became rigid. The four pairs of wings slowly beating behind his back stopped completely.

Not metaphorically.

Literally.

A shocked person might pause for a moment, but Qroshu truly could not move. A tremor born from the deepest part of his soul locked every part of his body in place, leaving him unable to so much as twitch a finger.

What… had he just heard?

This insignificant human, this insect and toy in his eyes, had spoken the one thing Qroshu had never revealed to anyone. Even after enduring ten thousand years of torture, even when his consciousness had nearly collapsed into oblivion, he had never once spoken his Soul Imprint Sequence aloud.

“Burdened by expectations? Bound by morality? Your rhetoric is painfully cliché,” Nolan said flatly, sounding genuinely unimpressed. “Maybe you can see fragments of my memories, but you don’t understand me at all, Qroshu. I want to save Elfin simply because I want to. There’s no grand philosophy behind it, no moral obligation. Just a stubborn refusal to accept regret and loss, that’s all.”

Qroshu barely heard him. His mind had already descended into complete chaos as terror, rage, and confusion fought violently for control of his thoughts.

The most important question now was simple: how? Other than the Chaos Will itself, the source of all demonic existence, how could any second being possibly know this secret?

Unless…

The Chaos Will itself has betrayed me?

“You damned human! That’s impossible! How could you possibly know—?!”

Qroshu could no longer maintain even the pretense of elegance. His features twisted violently as he roared.

From beginning to end, this human’s existence had been wrapped in incomprehensible absurdity. Everything about him carried a confidence and superiority Qroshu could neither understand nor accept.

And now, this human held complete control over him.

Who the hell is the demon here?!

Nolan ignored the hysterical outburst entirely. Looking at the utterly broken Demon Overlord before him, he felt as though he were watching a gambler stripped of every hidden card, utterly defeated beyond recovery.

“Qroshu,” he said calmly, “I command you to forcibly remove the Chaos Brand of the Sulfur Abyss and immediately transfer—”

“No! Wait! You can’t—!”

The instant Qroshu realized what Nolan intended to do, the horror on his face surpassed even his rage.

He struggled frantically, trying to reclaim control over his body, but the Soul Imprint Sequence had already become invisible chains pinning his will firmly in place.

All he could do was watch.

Watch as Nolan calmly delivered the sentence that would determine his fate.

“Transfer the Soul Imprint to Nolan#0226.”

The moment the words fell—

Qroshu jerked violently upward, as if an invisible hand had seized him by the throat and lifted him into the air. Then, on his bare chest where nothing had existed before, an intricate black symbol slowly appeared. It was a grotesque emblem composed of overlapping images of a ram’s skull, a human skull, and a serpent’s head, surrounded by a ring of thorn-like demonic patterns.

The Chaos Brand.

Nolan recognized it instantly.

Every demon possessed one. In the mortal world, cults such as the Underworld Mechanism or Abyss Seekers worshipped crude imitations of this exact symbol.

But compared to the authentic version burned into Qroshu’s chest, those imitations looked like children’s doodles.

Sizzle.

The black Chaos Brand suddenly glowed red-hot.

And not mildly.

The flesh surrounding the mark rapidly blistered and charred beneath the unimaginable heat. White smoke carrying the stench of burnt meat rose into the air as skin split and blackened.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHH—!”

Qroshu finally screamed.

The sound no longer resembled a human voice at all. It was sharp, distorted, utterly inhuman from the sheer extremity of pain.

This was not physical agony. 

To demons, bodily suffering could even become a form of pleasure.

This pain originated from consciousness itself. It was the agony of being forcibly severed from the Chaos source upon which his very existence depended.

And the Chaos Will had never been a merciful master.

Betrayal of this kind could only invite the cruelest punishment imaginable.

Even Nolan had never witnessed anything like this before. He instinctively stepped backward and covered his nose.

The smell of burning flesh was overwhelming.

From within the spreading white smoke came Qroshu’s twisted voice, now carrying desperate pleading.

“Stop it! Make it stop! I’m willing! I’ll swear loyalty to you! My power, my knowledge, everything can belong to you if only you—”

“Loyalty?” Nolan cut him off with a cold laugh. “You? The Demon Overlord who governs the concept of betrayal among the Seven Serpent Thrones? You think you’re qualified to talk about loyalty?”

He stepped forward and spat on the ground.

“You were once the War Holy Spirit of Mother Goddess Sethis. A lesser god who abandoned everything you were, embraced chaos, and betrayed the very goddess who created you. And now a traitor like you dares speak to me about loyalty?”

Having his desperate plea rejected so mercilessly, and his past exposed on top of it, finally drove Qroshu completely mad.

“You filthy lesser creature! Do you think this is over?!” His voice thundered through the collapsing world alongside crashing echoes of lightning. “Even if my consciousness is destroyed, I’ll use the last of my origin to curse you forever! I’ll imprison you here with me so we can rot together in this cursed place for eternity!”

Rumble!

The thick smoke exploded outward as Qroshu’s screams and curses sent the entire mental world into violent collapse.

Beyond the ruined cathedral, Nolan watched the edge of the world begin to crumble away into an endless black abyss.

The sky no longer contained clouds or lightning. Instead, it transformed into countless twisted human faces, all silently screaming in agony and madness.

Perhaps they were the victims Qroshu had once corrupted, consumed, and transformed.

The entire space shook violently. Nolan had to brace himself against a broken pillar just to remain standing.

Then suddenly—

Everything stopped.

Qroshu’s screams. The sky’s distortion. The destruction of the world itself. All sound and motion ceased in a single instant.

The abrupt transition from utter chaos to absolute stillness hit Nolan like a physical blow, leaving him dizzy and nauseous.

Shaking his head, he looked forward.

Qroshu was no longer suspended in the air. Now he knelt on the ground a short distance away, head lowered, motionless.

The Chaos Brand that had once covered his chest was gone.

In fact, there was nothing there anymore. Literally nothing.

A massive hole had been torn straight through his torso, so large Nolan could see all four pairs of wings behind him through the cavity. The flesh around the edges looked burned and blackened, curled inward like charred paper.

Perhaps this was the price of forcibly tearing away the Chaos Brand.

***

Meanwhile, in the real world—

Beside the altar and the bottomless pit, Vivi, Little Donnie, Renee, and Romina anxiously surrounded Nolan’s motionless body.

“It’s been almost five minutes…” Vivi crossed her arms tightly while pacing back and forth, her fluffy tail lashing irritably behind her.

“Lord Nolan should be okay… right? Why hasn’t he come back yet?” Renee bit her lip. This was already the fourth time she had asked the exact same question.

And then—

“ROOOOAAARRR—!!!”

A howl erupted from deep within the pit below them.

It was not the cry of any intelligent being. It sounded like the shriek of a beast driven utterly insane by chaos and madness.

Qroshu.

The imprisoned Demon Overlord.

The eighty-eight Chains of Sin Binding all ignited with crimson light at once. The holy relic Immovable Bulwark and the Fountain of Potential blazed with golden radiance, while even Ailindel’s soul energy began boiling uncontrollably.

Startled, everyone rushed to the edge and looked down.

Qroshu, the Demon Overlord who had endured ten thousand years of torture and always regenerated afterward, now had a massive hole in his chest as endless black shadows poured screaming from within.

“Nolan!” Vivi cried out in shock and delight. “He won… didn’t he?!”

***

Inside the mental world, everything around Nolan was slowly disintegrating into glowing particles that drifted away like dust in the wind.

The world created by Qroshu’s consciousness was dying.

The mental realm remained one of existence’s greatest mysteries, but the scene before him suggested only one possibility.

During the forced removal of the Chaos Brand, Qroshu’s consciousness itself had likely been completely annihilated.

Ten thousand years of torture had failed to break the Demon Overlord’s sanity, yet severing his connection to Chaos had shattered his will entirely.

For the first time, Nolan truly understood the terrifying nature of the Chaos Source.

The kneeling Qroshu also began dissolving into dust. First his magnificent wings crumbled away, then his right arm, the destruction slowly spreading across the rest of his body.

At that moment, a gemstone emerged from his lowered head. It was layered in four distinct colors: red, white, black, and gold.

Before Nolan could react, the jewel suddenly shot toward him as a streak of light.

Its target—

His heart.

And then, after a long silence, the system notification finally appeared.

【Obtained “Qroshu” Soul Imprint. “Gap of Ages” completed!】

【Completion Rating: S+!】

【Rare Legendary Class License detected: Demon Tamer.】

【Remaining Class Slots: 2. Accept?】