Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 169: Episode : Sacrifices must be made.

"We have to find her, and I mean fast." Torian was the first to start.

They sat around in the living room, brooding, their hearts aching, and they didn’t want to imagine what Roxy must be going through, 7 miles underwater.

How did she get saved?

What happened to her?

She was the only one who could properly explain why there was another of her kind claiming to be hers.

Everything was so confusing to them, but they didn’t let their emotions lead them to world destruction, because Roxy loved the beastworld. If she came back, how would she rest?

So they started thinking. Then they moved into action.

For three days, the sound of sawing Iron-Wood echoed through the valley like the screams of dying trees.

In the central courtyard, which had been converted into a shipyard, Syris crouched over a drawing he had etched into the dirt with a claw.

He wasn’t a scientist from Earth. He didn’t know physics equations or how to calculate buoyancy with math. But he was a Basilisk, a creature of poisons, traps, and cold, hard logic.

He understood cause and effect. And he knew the ocean was a very big boat waiting to step on them.

"It will crush us," Syris muttered, staring at his drawing of a square box.

"Then do not build a box," a voice rasped behind him.

Ren walked into the courtyard. He looked exhausted, his usually pristine robes stained with ink and sweat. He was holding a ragged, ancient scroll, something he had pulled from the deepest archives of his inventory, a relic of the human that was in his tribe.

"Look at this," Ren said, unrolling the parchment. "The Turtle of the Eastern Sea."

That was the name they gave it, since it looked like a giant turtle.

Syris looked. It was a drawing of a giant sea turtle, but upon closer inspection, it wasn’t an animal. It was a shell, a hollowed-out, reinforced shell used by the fox tribe to harvest pearls from the shallows.

They hadn’t quite used it before, because they thought the silk and gold the human introduced them to was enough.

They were already dying, so why kill themselves to get pearls?

"A sphere," Syris realized, his neon eyes narrowing. "An egg. The pressure is distributed evenly over a curve. No corners to catch the weight."

"An Iron-Egg," Ren nodded. "But wood is not enough. Even Iron-Wood. At the depth the tether indicates... the wood will turn to splinters."

Syris stood up, pacing. His inventive mind was whirring. If he had never looked down upon in the snake tribe, he would never have had such a mind.

"We need something to protect us from the outside," Syris hissed. "Something harder than rock. Something that does not break."

"Use me."

The deep, rumbling voice came from the balcony above.

Zarek leaped down, landing heavily in the dirt. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. His chest was heaving, his golden eyes burning with a maddening purpose.

He was running out of time and patience.

"My scales," Zarek stated. "In my true form. They are the hardest substance in this world. They withstand fire, ice, and the bite of other dragons."

Syris looked at the Dragon King. "Zarek... to coat a vessel large enough for three males... we would need hundreds. To rip them off..."

"Take them," Zarek ordered, turning his back to them. He shifted his skin partially, patches of black, diamond-hard scales rippling across his shoulders and back. "Do not use tools. Use your venom, Snake. Loosen them. Then pull."

Ren looked away, sickened by the thought of the pain. "Zarek, that is self-mutilation. You will be weakened."

"Pain is irrelevant," Zarek growled. "She is in the dark. I will strip my flesh to the bone if it brings light to her prison. Start pulling."

*** 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The construction took another two days of sleepless labor.

They built the frame from the core of an ancient Iron-Wood tree, carving it into a perfect, hollow sphere. It was ugly, bulbous, and heavy, looking less like a boat and more like a giant, angry nut.

Zarek sat stoically on a stump in his dragon form while Syris worked, his hands stained with dragon blood. One by one, the massive black scales were layered over the wood, fused with a resin Syris had concocted from tree sap and basilisk venom.

Ren worked on the inside.

He sat in the cramped, dark interior, carving glowing runes into the wood with a chisel. He didn’t know "science," but he knew wind magic. He inscribed arrays that would trap air, cycle it, and keep the pressure from popping their ears.

"It is done," Syris announced on the morning of the fifth day.

The vessel sat in the courtyard. It was a black, scaled monstrosity about eight feet wide. It had no windows, glass would break. Instead, Syris had installed a system of mirrors and periscopes made of polished crystal to see outside.

They called it the Iron-Whale.

"Now," Zarek said, wrapping bandages around his bleeding torso. "We decide who goes and who stays."

The five males looked at each other. They all wanted to go. But they knew someone had to stay.

"I am going," Zarek stated instantly. "If we encounter beasts, I fight. I can heat the sphere if the water is freezing."

"Agreed," Syris nodded. "I must go. I built it. I understand the leverage systems and the ballast weights. If it breaks, only I can fix it."

"And I," Ren stepped forward, clutching his chest where the invisible tether hummed. "I am the director. Without me, you are just blindly sinking in the dark. I can feel her heartbeat, and I will take you to her."

Zarek growled at the fox. Ever since Roxy disappeared, he never liked the fox.

Torian stepped forward. The Tiger King looked haggard. He hadn’t slept; he had spent the days patrolling the riverbank, roaring at the water, hoping to scare the ocean into giving her back.

As a matter of fact, none of the males had slept.

How could they? When they were anxious, sad, distraught, and blank.

"I am the strongest swimmer," Torian argued, his voice cracking. "Tigers love water. I should go. I can hold my breath longer than the Fox."

"This is not swimming, Torian," Syris said gently. "We are sinking, and the sphere is small. It fits three comfortably. Four is a risk to how much air we can breathe."

"So I stay?" Torian snarled, kicking the dirt. "I sit here and wait? While you three go to save our mate?"

"Someone must guard the cubs," Zarek said, looking Torian in the eye.

Torian froze.

"If we die down there," Zarek continued, his voice devoid of fear, only stating facts. "If the ocean crushes us... the cubs will be orphans. They will have no one."

He placed a heavy hand on Torian’s shoulder.

"I trust you, Torian. You are the wall that stands between our children and the world. If we do not return... You are the King of the Iron-Wood. You raise them. You make them strong."

Kaelen, who had been silent, stepped up beside Torian. The Wolf King nodded.

"I will stay with him," Kaelen said quietly. "The pack needs an Alpha on the ground. We will guard the manor."

Torian trembled. He wanted to go. Every instinct screamed at him to chase his mate. But he looked toward the nursery window. He thought of Iris, of the triplets, of Tanith.

"Fine," Torian choked out. "I will stay. I will guard the den."

He grabbed Zarek’s arm, his claws digging in.

"But if you come back without her," Torian threatened, tears leaking from his eyes, "do not come back at all."

"I would rather die than return without her," Zarek spat out.

They moved the Iron-Whale to the cliff using a system of rollers and brute strength.

The sun was setting, painting the sky in blood-red hues. The river, the same river that had taken Roxy, rushed by with a mocking gurgle.

The children were there.

They knew something was wrong. Children always know. They saw the strange black egg. They saw the grim faces of their fathers. They sensed the absence of their mother like a missing limb.

"Papa?" Axel whimpered, clinging to Kaelen’s leg. "Where you go?"

"Going to find Mama," Kaelen whispered, crouching down to hug his sons. "Papa Zarek, Papa Syris, and Ren... they are going deep. You stay with me andTorian..."

Tanith was in Torian’s arms, sensing the distress and letting out soft, high-pitched cries.

But it was Iris, with her violet eyes wide and terrified, who broke away from the group and ran to Zarek.

She slammed into the Dragon King’s legs, wrapping her small arms around his knee.

"Papa!" she cried, burying her face in his trousers. "No go! Mama gone! You go too?"

Zarek looked down.

He was not her biological father. He was a Dragon, a creature that usually ate wolves. But at that moment, he saw Roxy’s daughter. He knelt down in the mud. Reached out and placed his large, warm hand on Iris’s head, ruffling her ears gently.

"I have to go, Little One," Zarek rumbled softly. "The dark took your Mama. And I am the only one scary enough to take her back."

Iris sniffled, looking up at him with wet eyes. "You bring her back? Promise?"

"I will tear the world apart until I find her," Zarek promised, wiping a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "Don’t worry. I am going to bring your mother back."