Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 382: Frozen Heat

The subterranean chamber opened before them like a silent abyss—and each of the four needed a few seconds to comprehend what they were truly seeing.

It was ice.

But not the ordinary ice of the lake, nor the pure blue sheen that covered the surface of the kingdom.

It was red ice.

A deep red, almost crimson, that pulsed with internal reflections as if light were seeping through its veins. It formed walls, columns, and grates that resembled the structure of a great dungeon… only entirely sculpted from this impossible material. The bars of the cells were long, melted stalactites, reconfigured as if the ice had been molded from extreme heat—a heat that shouldn't exist there.

Kael took a few steps forward, his eyes wide open.

"This… doesn't make sense."

The heat in the environment was intense, but it didn't come from the air. It came from the ice itself, which radiated heat without melting, as if it were a prison for something much hotter than them. Sylphie walked a little ahead, hesitant. She reached her hand towards one of the red ice walls… hesitated… and touched it.

In the same instant, she recoiled with a short cry.

"Ah!"

Kael ran to her. "Sylphie!"

She waved her hand in the air, blowing on her fingertips.

"It's alright, it's just… hot. VERY hot."

Kael frowned.

"But it's ice."

"This isn't ordinary ice!" Sylphie retorted. She reached her hand again, without touching it. The air trembled around the surface, like waves of heat escaping from heated metal. "The heat is trapped INSIDE the ice… and trying to get out. That's why it's this color."

Amelia, already further behind, narrowed her eyes and touched her staff to the wall, but without direct contact with her skin.

"It's… like a thermal seal," she murmured. "Something that traps energy… and prevents it from escaping. I've never seen it applied to ice."

Irelia looked around, clearly uneasy. "Why would anyone seal heat inside ice?"

Kael didn't answer immediately.

He reached out, without touching, just feeling the heat radiate. It was almost suffocating. This wasn't just red ice. It was trapped heat. Compressed mana. Energy entangled in frozen matter.

"For what…?" he repeated, more to himself than to the others. "What's the purpose of this?"

The three exchanged glances.

None knew the answer.

Sylphie took a deep breath.

"I've never seen anything like this. Not in books, not in studies. This isn't normal elemental magic. It's not fire. It's not ice. It's not fusion. It's nothing familiar."

Amelia swallowed hard.

"If this is trapping heat… and by the looks of it, A LOT of heat… then whatever's been sealed in here—"

"—maybe it's too dangerous to be released," Irelia finished.

The silence that followed was heavy.

Kael stepped back a few paces, observing the corridor of cells that stretched beyond the reach of the eye. Each cell was empty, but marked by long fissures that ran through the red ice like scars. Some doors were open, others closed, but all emanated that suffocating heat.

"This isn't what we expected to find," he said, his voice low.

Sylphie frowned. "This isn't an ordinary dungeon."

"No," Kael agreed. "This is a prison."

Amelia shrugged uneasily. "But a prison for what? For whom? There are no bodies. There's nothing inside."

A soft rumble echoed in the distance, like something stirring within the walls.

Irelia gripped her sword hilt. "I think there are still living things here."

Sylphie approached Kael, instinctively seeking to stay close to him. "I don't like this place. I feel… something."

"Something what?" he asked, seriously.

She hesitated.

"Something that isn't… dead."

And then, in the distance, at the end of the corridor, a faint light shone from behind the last cell. Red. Like ice—but pulsing.

Kael felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Let's see."

None of them protested, but no one seemed happy with the idea.

They advanced down the narrow corridor. The heat intensified with each step, making the air ripple as if they were entering the heart of a volcano. The red ice glowed more intensely as they approached the end, the walls vibrating with an almost organic pulse. Amelia wiped the sweat from her brow. "If it keeps getting this hot… we're going to faint."

Sylphie coughed. "No… it's just… suffocating."

Kael glanced over his shoulder.

"Stay close to me."

Irelia laughed, tense. "Because you have a black flame that absorbs heat?"

Kael blinked.

"No. Because if something opens that last cell, I'll need you close by so I don't die."

"Great… wonderful." Irelia snorted. "I love our optimism."

They reached the end of the corridor.

And they saw.

The last cell wasn't empty.

Inside, the red ice wasn't static. It swirled. It spiraled. As if it were covering… something.

Something that breathed.

Something large.

Something sealed in layers of hot ice and crimson crystal, as if the prison were constantly reinforcing its own seal to prevent that being from escaping.

"My God…" Sylphie murmured.

The thing in the center of the cell moved slightly—a slow, heavy movement, like that of a sleeping organism.

Kael approached the crimson ice grate.

The heat hit his face like a wave.

"Sylphie," he said without taking his eyes off the cell. "Can you feel it?"

She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. The mana in that place was unstable, too hot, almost suffocating. But there was… something else. Something behind that heat.

When she opened her eyes, her expression was pale.

"Kael…"

"I know," he said. "I felt it too." Amelia swallowed hard. "Did you feel what…?"

Irelia approached slowly. "Speak quickly."

Sylphie took a step back.

"That thing in there… it's not a monster. Not completely."

Kael placed his hand on the ice, feeling the almost burning heat.

"It's living magic."

The three women's breath caught in their throats.

Amelia took a step back. "Living magic? What do you mean? Magic doesn't have a body."

Kael clenched his jaw.

"This one does."

Red veins pulsed.

The shape within the ice stirred.

And for the first time, a single sliver of red light shot across the surface of the ice, as if an eye were opening on the other side.

"It's waking up," Irelia whispered.

Kael took a step back, pulling Sylphie away from the grate.

"Whatever it is… we can't set it free." Sylphie gripped his hand.

"The King… is beyond this?" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Probably…" Kael murmured. "And honestly… I don't know if this is a seal to protect the King—or to keep us from reaching him."

The thing inside the ice breathed again.

Stronger.

Hotter.

As if it could smell them.

"Okay," Amelia said, almost panicking. "So what's the plan?"

Kael took a deep breath.

And the black flame glowed in his hand.

"Plan? Simple."

He looked at the three of them.

"WE DON'T OPEN THIS CELL."

Sylphie exhaled in relief—but the thing in the ice didn't stop pulsing.

Something was waking up.

Something the heat could no longer contain.

And they needed to get through there.

Before the seal broke on its own. The corridor opened onto a natural stone platform—and beyond it stretched something so impossible that neither of them spoke for several seconds.

The subterranean chamber was colossal. A wide, deep abyss illuminated by a vibrant, pulsating reddish light. It wasn't fire, it wasn't embers, and it certainly wasn't magma. It was… ice.

Red ice.

Crystalline, translucent, and vibrant, filling the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor in certain places. It looked like frozen blood, but with an inner glow reminiscent of embers from a divine forge. The color spread through enormous veins, which snaked like arteries around the entire chamber.

And in the center—suspended by natural columns that seemed half-attached to the ceiling—was a dungeon. A structure made entirely of that same reddish ice. Like an inverted castle, a transparent fortress imprisoned in warm light, breathing slowly.

Kael took two steps forward.

He stopped.

And he inhaled, confused.

"…is this ice?"

Sylphie stepped forward and touched one of the nearest walls. In the same instant, she pulled her hand away with a start.

"Ouch!"

Kael turned quickly. "Sylphie!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" She shook her hand several times, blowing on her fingers. "It didn't burn… but almost."

Amelia ran to her. "Almost burned? But it's ICE!"

"I know!" Sylphie looked at the red crystal, her eyes wide with disbelief. "It's cold to the touch… but warm inside. It's like… like the heat is trapped. Sealed inside."

Irelia brought her sword closer, testing the surface with the tip of the blade. As soon as it touched the red ice, a muffled crack echoed—a dry snap that made the entire blade vibrate.

She stepped back, steady.

"This is definitely not ordinary ice."

Kael continued to stare at the structure in the center of the abyss—the suspended dungeon.

The red ice seemed alive.

As if it pulsed.

He narrowed his eyes.

"…so the heat is trapped inside it," he repeated slowly. "But… why?"

The girls exchanged glances.

Neither knew.

Sylphie took a deep breath. "I've never seen anything like this. Not in ancient treatises, not in texts on elemental magic."

Amelia shook her head. "Ice shouldn't… hold heat. This doesn't make sense."

Irelia crossed her arms. "It could be some kind of binding magic. Something to contain… I don't know, a creature? An energy? A spell?"

Kael looked at her.

"Or the King."

A heavy silence fell.

Amelia swallowed hard. "You think… he's in there?"

Kael didn't answer immediately.

He observed the enormous red structure more closely now. Not only did the dungeon seem made of ice: there were entire chains—thick, carved like spirals—holding up pillars and inner doors. Everything glowed in shades ranging from scarlet to deep crimson, as if there were latent fire in its veins.

The light pulsed.

Like a heart.

Sylphie approached and stood beside him.

"Kael… I don't sense any human presence." She closed her eyes, extending her green mana like subtle threads in the air around her. "Not here. Not exactly. But…"

"But?" he insisted. "There's something." She opened her eyes slowly, her expression serious. "Something very ancient. Very powerful. And trapped."

"Trapped by ice?" Irelia scoffed, though her voice was more tense than ironic.

"Trapped by magic," Amelia corrected. "If this ice is truly sealing internal heat, then it must be a double seal. One that contains energy and prevents it from escaping… completely."

Kael took a deep breath, without taking his eyes off the red dungeon.

"So someone trapped this here."

"Yes." Sylphie agreed. "And that 'someone' knew exactly what they were doing."

Irelia continued observing the abyss around her. "And if the King is in there, it's not an ordinary seal. It's a prison seal. Perhaps to protect him. Or to prevent him from… well… doing something."

Amelia bit her lower lip. "But still, why use ice? And why hot? Red ice, trapped heat… that's absurd."

Sylphie reached for the crystal again, but didn't touch it. She felt the vibration in the air.

"…I don't think it's exactly ice."

"What do you mean?" Kael asked.

"It's solidified magic." She took a deep breath. "It's frozen mana. Not water ice. Arcane ice."

Kael looked at the crystal again.

"Solidified mana."

"Yes." She seemed almost frightened by the idea. "That only happens when a spell is so powerful that it overrides matter itself. It stops the natural flow of mana, it paralyzes the thermal flow. That's why the heat is trapped inside. It's not physical heat. It's energy."

Kael touched the hilt of his sword, thoughtfully.

"So this was made to hold… what?"

Amelia opened her arms, annoyed.

"If we knew, we'd already be running or attacking or fleeing or… something!"

Irelia took a deep breath. "We have to go down to the dungeon."

Sylphie gave her a surprised look. "Go down?! Have you gone mad? This whole place looks like it could explode or melt or freeze or all at once!"

"We're here for a reason." Irelia pointed to the suspended red structure. "And whatever they did to the King… I doubt it's anywhere else."

Kael nodded.

"Exactly. We need to get there."

Sylphie held Kael's arm for a moment. "But carefully. This ice… this thing… reacts to mana. You saw what happened when you lit the black flame."

Kael took a deep breath.

"So I'll keep it under control."