Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 380: Bigger than I expected

The surface of the ice vibrated like the taut skin of a giant drum. The hand beneath her pressed slowly, as if testing its resistance, as if feeling the heat of Kael's flame and instinctively responding to the stimulus.

Sylphie raised both hands, green mana radiating with urgency.

"Wait… don't let it break yet. If it breaks wrong, the guardian might emerge from the wrong side and—"

CRACK.

A deep crack formed beneath their feet, racing like lightning under the dark ice. Irelia tugged at Kael by the collar, dragging him two steps back.

"Kael, this is the moment when any sensible person retreats a little!"

"I'm not sensible."

"Clearly!"

Amelia raised her staff, tracing swift runes in the air. Each symbol she drew sank into the ice in the form of bluish light, reinforcing the edges of the fissures.

"I'm trying to keep this steady, but this thing is pushing like it wants to be born!"

Sylphie bit her lower lip, assessing the situation quickly.

"Kael, keep the heat, but don't break the ice completely yet."

Kael lifted the flame, now more concentrated and dense, as if it were a boiling core in the palm of his hand.

"It's up to you! Should we release it or not?!"

Irelia replied without hesitation:

"It depends. Can it swim?"

Sylphie closed her eyes for a few seconds, feeling the vibration of the mana trapped beneath the ice.

"…it doesn't swim. It crawls. And the smell I smell is…" She slowly opened her eyes. "…ancient. Very ancient."

Another thud from below shook the surface.

THOOM.

The shadow grew.

Fingers spread, scratching the ice from within, leaving deep marks that spread like sharp claws. Amelia swallowed hard.

"This is bigger than it looked."

Irelia stepped forward, sword at the ready.

"If it breaks, it cuts your hand. If it pulls anything else up, it cuts that too."

"Sounds like a great plan," Kael muttered sarcastically. "Just don't let it pull you back down."

The cracks gathered in the center of the area Kael had melted.

The black flame reacted, growing taller, like a feline arching its back at the sight of prey.

"It's ready," Kael said, his tone serious. "Whatever it is, it's about to come out."

Sylphie opened her hands.

Green mana vines enveloped the area around her, solidifying the ice into a firm ring to prevent total collapse.

"This will direct it upwards. But I can only hold this reinforcement for a few seconds!"

"Seconds are all we need," Irelia said.

Amelia murmured a final spell, and a violet glow surrounded the area. "Ready. If he gets out… he'll get out through the center."

Kael took a deep breath, stepped forward, and raised the flame as a final blow.

"Then let's unleash the damn thing once and for all."

And he lowered his hand.

The flame touched the frozen surface with a muffled roar, causing the ice to crack like melting butter under a hot blade.

The guardian reacted immediately.

THOOOOOM.

The giant hand pushed with full force.

The ice finally shattered into shards.

The explosion of dark vapor and frozen fragments rose like a column.

And something emerged.

At first, only the hand: long, skeletal, formed of living ice that shifted texture, as if breathing. Then, the forearm, an irregular block that seemed composed of several layers of ice forcibly piled up.

Irelia leaped back, perfect posture.

Kael stepped forward.

"Well… you're not one of the small ones."

The creature partially rose—its torso still trapped in the ice, but its upper part now free. The face emerged last: a smooth mask, without eyes, without a mouth, only fissures that moved subtly, like cracks trying to reorganize themselves into expressions.

Sylphie shuddered.

"This isn't natural… it's not a spirit, nor an elemental. It's… a construct."

Amelia finished with horror:

"A cursed ice construct. Created. Not born."

The guardian finally let out a sound—not a roar, but the scraping of thousands of ice blades shattering simultaneously.

SKRRRRRHHH.

Kael gritted his teeth.

"I hate when they don't have mouths and still make noise."

The creature lunged forward with its hand outstretched, trying to crush him.

Kael raised the black flame and deflected, the energy ricocheting off the living ice and leaving a mark of deep heat that opened a fissure.

"Hit it! It feels it!" Sylphie screamed.

Irelia was already running along the side, cutting the creature's tendon—or what appeared to be a tendon. Her sword slid across the ice, but not without difficulty.

"He's as hard as stone!"

Amelia unleashed a burst of violet energy, targeting one of the arm joints.

The creature reacted, turning toward her.

Kael ran, leaped over a crack, and struck with flame gleaming like a blade.

The creature recoiled, its arm trembling, fissures spreading across its surface.

But when it fell to its knees…

…the ice beneath it trembled again.

Sylphie paled.

"There's more."

"MORE?!" Amelia cried.

"No… not another guardian. Something calling him. Pulling him back!"

Kael plunged the flame into the creature's back, which let out an agonizing crack.

"He's not trying to kill us," Irelia realized. "He's trying to get back down!"

Kael pushed the flame further. "Well, it won't!"

The creature slammed its arm on the ground, opening a crater.

And the ice shattered around it, forming a vortex.

Sylphie stretched her mana to try and stabilize it, but the hole grew larger.

"Kael! We need to get out!"

"If I take away the flame, he'll come back!"

"And if you stay there, YOU'LL go with him!" Irelia shouted.

The ice shattered completely.

A deep, narrow black hole sucked the creature back into the depths of the frozen tunnel.

Kael grabbed the guardian's arm to try and pull—but the downward force was monstrous.

Sylphie stepped forward and grabbed his arm.

Irelia grabbed Sylphie.

Amelia planted her staff in the ground and held her shield.

They were all connected.

The ground trembled.

The hole roared.

The creature sank.

And Kael screamed through clenched teeth.

"I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!"

The black flame exploded from his hand, opening a final crack in the guardian's chest.

The creature collapsed, crumbling into fragments that were immediately swallowed by the vortex.

The hole sucked in the rest.

And closed.

All at once.

Silence returned.

Sylphie fell to her knees.

Amelia was panting.

Irelia slowly sheathed her sword.

Kael stood still for a few seconds, staring at the newly formed ice.

Sylphie was the first to speak.

"…this… shouldn't… be here."

Kael took a deep breath, his hand still trembling from the force he had exerted.

"If they put a guardian like that at the entrance…"

Irelia finished:

"…then the king isn't the only one trapped down there."

Amelia whispered, a sudden awareness dawning on her face:

"They knew we were coming."

Kael finally looked at the three of them, his face as serious as a blade.

"Then let's go down… before they put another one to wait for us."

And he raised the flame again.

Ready to clear the way.

The ice trembled again—this time more violently, as if something down there had finally realized there was an escape route. Cracks opened in jagged lines, advancing like veins beneath the surface.

Irelia adjusted her stance, sword in hand.

"It's coming."

Amelia raised her staff, forming a circle of runes that swirled in the air like small, glistening shards.

"This isn't normal. Nothing that lives under the ice should wake up so quickly…"

Sylphie narrowed her eyes, placing her hands on the cracked ice and sending mana through the fissures.

"It's not waking up. It's reacting to you, Kael."

He didn't take his eyes off the shadow moving below.

"Then fine. Saves me time."

The black flame rippled above his palm, distorting the air. The light it emitted didn't illuminate—it darkened, as if pulling all the light towards itself.

A final crack cut the ice with an echoing CRACK—and the hand emerged.

The frozen surface bulged upward and exploded in a jet of shards, launching pieces of sharp ice in all directions. Irelia raised her sword to block; Amelia raised a barrier; Sylphie pulled Kael back by his cloak.

But Kael didn't back down. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

He advanced.

A gigantic arm, made entirely of living ice, rose from the ground—fingers as long as spears, each pulsing with a dark blue light that seemed to breathe.

Sylphie's eyes widened.

"That's… a Gélion!"

Irelia frowned. "A what?"

"An ice golem. They don't exist anymore, or at least, they shouldn't."

Amelia struck her staff on the ground, activating three protective runes.

"Great! And someone decided to use one as a guard dog!"

The rest of the body emerged: enormous, twisted, made of layers of compressed ice and ancient runes that glowed within the fissures of its chest. It had no face—just a smooth mask with a vertical hole in the center, like a single dead eye.

Kael took another step forward.

The black flame roared, answering the threat. "Kael!" Sylphie pulled at her cloak again. "This is no ordinary enemy! The flame won't—"

"It will."

He raised his hand—and the flame lengthened, transforming into a curved blade of black fire that cut through the air with a hollow sound.

The Gélion rose fully, reaching almost three meters in height.

It let out a deep sound—not a roar, not a voice, but the deep crack of shifting ice plates.

And it attacked.

The enormous arm descended like a hammer.

Kael moved quickly, dodging sideways, the impact of the blow sending snow and ice flying upwards in a wave that sent Amelia three steps back. Irelia leaped onto a broken block, advancing with her sword.

"I'll distract him!"

"No!" Sylphie cried. "The normal blade won't—"

Too late.

Irelia's sword struck the Gélion's arm—and ricocheted, sending sparks flying. The warrior leaped back before the icy arm crushed her on the return.

"Damn! It's too hard!"

"It's ice compressed by ancient magic!" Amelia shouted, activating another protective rune to block it for a second. "The only thing that can break this is—"

Kael rushed past the three, his black blade carving a smoking trail across the frozen ground.

"Me."

The Gélion turned toward him. Its single vertical "eye" lit up with bluish light.

Kael grinned—a short, almost defiant smile.

The guardian moved surprisingly quickly for something so massive, launching a horizontal attack that swept across the ground like a falling log. Kael leaped, rolled in the air, and landed on the creature's arm, gliding across the ice as if it were a smooth surface.

"Kael!" Sylphie screamed.

But it was too late to stop him.

He lunged at the guardian's arm—and struck.

The black flame blade cut deep, opening a massive fissure in the icy arm. The Gélion let out another cracking sound, this time sharper, like ice breaking under extreme pressure.

Kael fell to the ground at the end of the blow and rolled to cushion the impact. The creature recoiled, its arm now visibly cracked and pulsing with blue light.

"That works!" Amelia exclaimed, relieved.

"It works," Irelia agreed, "but he works too."

The guardian raised both arms—and slammed them into the ground.

Sylphie's eyes widened.

"Kael, GET OUT OF THERE!"

Too late.

Waves of ice spread across the ground like stalactite serpents, surging toward Kael with brutal speed.

He tried to leap—but the ground beneath his feet froze so quickly that it pinned him in place for a critical second.

It was enough for the attack to reach him.

"Sylphie!" Irelia cried.

The elf was already in motion—gliding forward, green mana dancing around her arms. She raised a natural barrier that sprouted from the ground like crystallized roots.

The ice attack collided with the barrier—cracking it completely, but the time it gained was enough.

Kael freed his foot, staggering backward.

Sylphie rushed to him.

"Are you alright?"

Kael smiled, still panting.

"I'm fine. He's just… bigger than I expected."

"What do we do?" Irelia asked, dodging yet another attack. Amelia unleashed a burst of runes that slowed Gélion's advance for a few seconds.

"Kael, if you're planning on doing something stupid... do it now!"