Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 164: Episode : My Baby needs me!

Roxy woke up with a gasp.

She expected to feel the jagged rocks of the riverbed. She expected the crushing weight of the water in her lungs. She expected the agonizing burn of drowning.

Instead, she felt... soft.

Her fingers curled, gripping fabric that felt like silk, cool and impossibly smooth.

Roxy opened her eyes.

Above her, there was no sky. There was no grey cloud cover of the Iron-Wood, nor the wooden beams of her Master Suite. There was only rock, dark, jagged stone that glittered with veins of bioluminescent blue moss.

She blinked, trying to clear the blur from her vision. The light was dim, ethereal, and aquamarine, casting rippling shadows across the walls.

She tried to sit up.

"Gah!"

A sharp pain radiated from her ribcage, stealing her breath. She gasped, clutching her side. The movement told her two things: she was alive, and she was definitely broken.

"Easy," she whispered to herself, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the quiet space.

She pushed herself up slowly, ignoring the protest of her battered body. She looked around. She wasn’t on the ground. She was lying in a bed, but it was a shell.

A massive, giant clam shell, easily the size of a king-sized mattress, lined with layers of sponge-like moss and covered in the silken fabric she was clutching. It was beautiful, alien, and terrifying.

Roxy scrambled out of the shell, her bare feet hitting a smooth, sandy floor.

"Where...?"

She spun around. The room was a cave, carved from a rock. Glowing crystals pulsated in the corners, providing the blue light. There was furniture, tables made of coral, chairs shaped like seahorses, and shelves stacked with strange, sealed jars.

But there were no doors.

There was only a massive, circular opening on the far wall.

Roxy stumbled toward it. Her heart hammered against her bruised ribs. She reached the threshold and stopped dead.

There was no hallway. There was no forest.

There was the ocean.

Or perhaps the deepest part of the river. It was a wall of water, suspended vertically as if held back by an invisible sheet of glass. Beyond the barrier, she could see the dark, murky depths. Schools of fish darted by. Massive stalks of kelp swayed in a current that would have snapped her neck.

She was underwater. deep underwater.

Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in her chest.

Roxy slapped her hands over her mouth. She touched her neck frantically, searching for the rough texture of gills. Nothing. Just smooth skin.

She thought she had turned into a mermaid or something.

She touched her nose. She inhaled. The air was cool, damp, and smelled of salt and ozone, but it was air.

A bubble, Roxy realized, pressing her hand against the opening. Her palm met resistance, a rubbery, magical tension that kept the millions of tons of water pressure out. I’m in an air pocket.

She stared out into the abyss. A large, shadow-like creature glided past in the distance, its size rivaling Zarek’s dragon form.

The reality of her situation crashed down on her.

She wasn’t just lost. She was buried deep under water!

"System!" Roxy cried out, clutching her head. "System, map! Where am I? How deep are we?"

Silence.

No blue screen. No sassy retort. No map overlay.

[System Status: Offline.]

[Reason: Signal Interference. Depth Exceeds Range. Rebooting...]

The text flickered weakly in her vision, grey and glitching, before vanishing.

"No," Roxy whispered, backing away from the water wall. "No, no, no."

The memories hit her then. Not the fall, but what came before. Alice. The cliff. The push.

"How about you die for me?"

Rage flared, hot and violent, but it was instantly drowned out by a far more primal fear.

"Tanith," Roxy choked out.

Her hand flew to her breast. It felt heavy, painful. She was lactating. Her body knew it was time to feed her daughter.

"My baby," Roxy whimpered, looking around the stone prison. "She needs me. She won’t take a bottle from anyone else. She’ll starve."

Her body was protesting from all her movement, but she couldn’t concentrate.

The thought of her fragile, basilisk daughter crying for her, hungry and confused, tore Roxy apart. And the boys. The triplets. They would be terrified.

And Ren.

Ren.

She had just healed him. If she was down here... what happened to the bond? Did he feel her die? Did the tether snap? Was he rotting again?

"I have to go," Roxy said, her voice rising to a frantic pitch. "I have to get back."

She ran back to the water wall. She pounded her fists against the magical barrier.

"Let me out!" she screamed at the ocean. "Hey! Is anyone there! Let me out!"

The barrier rippled like gelatin, absorbing her blows, but it didn’t break.

"Please!" she sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "My babies! They need me!"

Movement caught her eye.

To the left of the opening, the water swirled.

A figure emerged from the darkness.

It glided toward the opening with a grace that made the swimming fish look clumsy. It was humanoid, but distinctly not human.

He floated on the other side of the barrier, looking in at her.

Roxy froze, her fist raised mid-strike.

He was... breathtaking.

His skin was the color of moonlight on water, pale, with a subtle iridescent sheen. His hair was long, floating around him like kelp. His eyes were large, dark, and rimmed with gold, with pupils that were neither round nor slit.

But it was the lower half that stole the breath from her lungs.

Where legs should have been, a long, powerful tail undulated in the water. The scales shimmered with colors Roxy didn’t have names for: pearl, teal, amethyst, and deep indigo. The fins were translucent and delicate-looking, yet they propelled him with effortless power.

A Merman.

He hovered there for a second, observing her with an expression of intense curiosity. Then, he reached out.

His webbed hand pressed against the barrier from the outside.

The magic field shimmered. He pushed through.

It wasn’t like walking through a door; it was like stepping through a membrane. The water sluiced off his skin instantly as he entered the air pocket.

He didn’t flop on the ground. His tail, strong and muscular, supported him, allowing him to slither forward, keeping his upper body upright. He towered over her—easily seven feet long from head to tail-tip.

"You are awake," he said.

His voice was strange. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once, a hum that vibrated in her chest. It was melodic, deep, and sounded like a whale song translated into speech.

Roxy scrambled back, tripping over her own feet and landing hard on the sand. She groaned from pain, but immediately stayed alert when she saw him move.

"Stay back!" she shrieked, scrambling backward until her back hit the stone wall. "Don’t touch me!"

The Merman stopped. He tilted his head, his silver hair settling over his shoulders like a cloak. He held a tray carved from shell in his hands, laden with strange, glowing fruits and raw fish.

"Do not fear," he said gently, placing the tray on a coral table. "I am Caspian. I brought you sustenance. You have been asleep for two tides."

"Two tides?" Roxy gasped. "Two days? No... no, no!"

She tried to stand up, but her ribs screamed in protest. She ignored it. The adrenaline of a mother separated from her young was a potent drug.

"I need to leave," Roxy panted, pointing a shaking finger at the water wall. "Take me to the surface. Now."

Caspian looked at her with those golden-rimmed eyes. His expression was pitying.

"You cannot go to the surface," he explained calmly, slithering a little closer. "The pressure change would kill you instantly. You are in the Deep Trench. It takes weeks to acclimatize for ascent."

"Weeks?" Roxy laughed hysterically. "I don’t have weeks! I have a baby! I have a nursing infant!"

She lunged for the opening. She didn’t have a plan. She just knew she had to get out.

"Stop!" Caspian commanded.

He moved with terrifying speed. His tail lashed out, blocking her path. He grabbed her arms with hands that were cold and strong as iron.

"Let me go!" Roxy screamed, thrashing in his grip.

She kicked him. She clawed at his chest, her nails raking against his pearlescent scales.

"You don’t understand!" she sobbed, her composure shattering completely. "She’s hungry! She’s crying for me! My mates will go berserk! Let me go!"

"You are hurt!" Caspian insisted, holding her firm as she struggled. "Your bones are cracked! Your lungs are weak! If you step out there, the ocean will crush you into dust!"

"I don’t care!" Roxy shrieked, her eyes wild. "I have to try! Let me go!"

She twisted violently, a sickening crack sounding from her side as she aggravated her fractured rib.

She cried out in pain, her face going white, but she kept fighting. She bit his arm. She was feral.

Caspian watched her. He saw the agony in her face. He saw the blood soaking through her tunic where her struggle had reopened a wound. He saw that she would literally kill herself trying to swim to a surface she couldn’t reach.

Logic could not reach her. Words were useless against this kind of instinct.

"I am sorry," Caspian whispered.

He shifted his grip, one arm pinning her arms to her sides. With his other hand, he reached up.

Roxy saw his hand coming. "No! Don’t—"

Caspian’s webbed hand struck the precise nerve point at the base of her neck.

It wasn’t a brutal hit, but it was precise.

Roxy’s vision went white, then black. Her scream cut off in her throat. Her body went limp instantly, collapsing against the Merman’s cold, wet chest.

"I am sorry," He whispered against her wet hair.