Path To Godhood Begins With Marrying Wife And Gaining SSS Rank Skill - Chapter 497:We Found It

Chapter 497:We Found It

Randall tightened his grip on his weapon as the tremor slowly faded, but the unease in his chest did not disappear. His fingers pressed firmly against the hilt while his eyes remained fixed ahead, scanning the white landscape carefully.

He turned his head and looked at Wales, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“Stay close,” Randall said in a low voice, his tone steady but serious.

Wales nodded quietly, and his usual playful expression was gone. His face looked calm, but his eyes were sharp and focused. The small fur beasts crawling around his shoulders shifted uneasily, their tiny bodies reacting to something they could not understand.

The group began moving forward again, and the deeper they went into Frostvele, the stranger everything became.

At first, it was only the cold biting harder into their skin, but soon the silence itself started to feel wrong.

Then they saw a massive ice wolf standing ahead of them, its body stiff and trembling. Its sharp eyes were wide open, filled with fear that did not belong to a predator.

It did not attack.

Instead, it turned and ran.

Randall stopped for a moment, watching its large figure disappear into the snow with surprising speed.

“…That’s not normal,” he muttered, his brows tightening.

Behind him, one of the Blanks knights adjusted his grip on the spear and spoke carefully.

“Monsters are… retreating?”

Wales stepped forward slowly, his boots crunching lightly against the frost. He crouched near a small beast hiding behind a broken rock. The creature trembled violently, its tiny body trying to shrink into itself.

Wales extended his hand gently.

“Easy…” he whispered, lowering his voice while keeping his movements slow and deliberate so that he would not startle the small creature any further.

The beast hesitated at first, its tiny claws scraping faintly against the icy ground as it shifted uncertainly, yet after a moment it began inching closer while letting out soft chirping sounds that carried a nervous rhythm.

Wales’ eyes softened as he focused on it, and as the invisible link between them formed, his beast taming ability quietly activated.

The sounds around him changed.

They were no longer meaningless noise, because each chirp and scratch began to carry fragments of emotion and intent, and those fragments gathered into something he could understand.

Fear, deep and instinctive.

Heat, suffocating and inescapable.

And something far more overwhelming lurking behind it all.

Wales’ expression shifted subtly as realization settled in, and after a brief silence he spoke in a low voice that carried a quiet tension.

“…They’re not running from us,” he said, while keeping his gaze fixed ahead.

Randall frowned as he stepped closer, his brows knitting together as unease crept into his expression.

“Then what are they running from?” he asked, his tone sharper now.

Wales slowly lifted his head and looked deeper into the endless white expanse before them, and although his face remained calm, there was a faint weight behind his eyes.

“…Something terrifying is residing there,” he replied.

The group fell into silence as those words sank in, and although none of them spoke, they exchanged brief glances that carried both doubt and understanding.

After a moment, Randall gave a short nod, as if making a decision he could not delay.

“We should move,” he said firmly.

They advanced with caution, tightening their formation as they stepped further into the frozen land, and the deeper they went, the more the terrain began to shift in both shape and atmosphere.

Smooth plains gradually gave way to jagged ridges of ice, while deep cracks split across the ground like scars, forcing them to move in narrow lines as cold winds howled through the valleys and cut against their armor.

Along the way, monsters appeared again and again, yet something about them felt… wrong.

A massive frost bear blocked their path at one point, its towering form exhaling thick clouds of mist as its eyes locked onto the group, and nearby, a cluster of ice serpents coiled along a ridge while a winged creature circled above, watching in silence.

But none of them attacked.

They only observed and then they left.

Some turned and fled immediately as if driven by instinct, while others lingered for a brief moment before retreating, and although a few came too close and forced the Blanks knights to respond, those clashes were brief and strangely hollow.

Steel met claws and short bursts of combat echoed through the frozen air, yet the enemies lacked aggression and intent, as if their focus lay elsewhere.

They were not hunting.

They were escaping.

Wales continued to guide the group forward, pausing from time to time as he connected with nearby creatures and gathered scattered fragments of understanding, and with each interaction, a clearer direction formed within his mind.

“This way,” he said again, pointing toward a deep valley that cut into the land ahead.

Randall followed without hesitation, and the others moved with him as they began their descent, which proved both steep and treacherous as frost clung to their armor and the cold grew heavier with each step. Their breath turned thick and visible, and the air itself seemed to press against them as they moved deeper.

But then, something changed.

At first, it was faint, almost unnoticeable, as a subtle warmth brushed against their skin like a distant whisper, yet with each step forward, that warmth grew stronger and more distinct.

The icy wind weakened.

The ground beneath them began to crack.

Thin streams of steam rose from below, curling upward as if the earth itself was breathing.

Randall’s eyes sharpened as he slowed slightly, his attention locking onto the shift around them.

“…Heat?” he muttered.

Wales nodded slowly, his gaze steady.

“Yes,” he answered.

The group instinctively picked up their pace, and as they moved forward, the frost beneath their feet began to melt while the air grew thicker and heavier, and the biting cold that had surrounded them for so long gradually faded into something far more oppressive.

And then..

They reached it.

A massive cavern revealed itself before them, hidden beneath layers of ice and stone, and as they stepped closer, the sight within caused even the most composed among them to pause.

Inside, a vast pool of lava stretched across the ground, glowing with an intense molten light that illuminated the entire cavern, while the air above it warped and distorted from the heat. The walls were blackened and fractured, and rivers of magma flowed through them like burning veins, casting shifting shadows across the space.

Randall stopped at the entrance, his breath catching slightly as he took in the scene before him.

“…What the hell is this place…” he murmured.

Wales did not respond, because his attention had already locked onto something far more important.

At the center of the lava pool, something moved.

A massive figure lay partially submerged within the molten surface, its enormous body barely visible beneath the glowing liquid, while faintly illuminated scales reflected the light in slow pulses. Each breath it took sent ripples across the lava, and those ripples carried a quiet, terrifying rhythm.

The heat.

The pressure.

The sheer presence,..

Everything pointed to a single conclusion.

Randall’s grip tightened around his weapon as tension filled his body, and his voice dropped into a low, controlled tone.

“…A dragon.”

The creature was colossal, far beyond anything they had prepared for, and even in its resting state, it radiated an overwhelming power that caused the air itself to tremble.

Wales swallowed as he stared at it, his voice barely rising above a whisper, yet carrying undeniable certainty.

“…We found it.”