Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 269: Episode 267: We meet again.

The twilight zone of the ocean quickly gave way to the absolute, suffocating blackness of the midnight abyss.

Roxy propelled herself downward, her powerful tail cutting through the freezing water providing the only source of light in a world entirely devoid of the sun.

Without Syris’s steady, cold-blooded presence beside her, the sheer, crushing isolation of the deep sea pressed in on her from all sides.

This was never in her plan.

It was terrifying. The ocean was not a silent place; it was filled with the low, vibrating groans of shifting plates, the distant, haunting clicks of unseen predators, and the heavy, rushing rush of deep-water currents.

Every shadow looked like a monster. Every shift in the water pressure made her heart leap into her throat.

To keep the creeping, paralyzing panic at bay, Roxy started to hum.

It was a soft, vibrating melody. The sound resonated in her chest, filling her ears and drowning out the terrifying groans of the deep.

Just keep swimming, Roxy told herself fiercely, her violet eyes fixed on the black void below. Don’t look left. Don’t look right. Just go down. Get to the Spires. Find Nerissa. Get the cure. Save Zarek. Save Ren.

She pumped her flukes harder, forcing herself to swim faster. The water rushed past her face, cold and heavy. She ignored the primal, human instinct screaming at her that she was plunging into an endless grave. She was the Queen of the Deep. She had survived this before. She could do it again.

But as she descended past a massive, jutting subterranean cliff face, the open water suddenly vanished.

Roxy backpedaled, her hands flying up to shield her face as she plunged headfirst into a towering wall of vegetation.

It was a colossal forest of deep-sea kelp and seaweed. The stalks were as thick as ancient tree trunks, stretching hundreds of feet up from the unseen ocean floor.

Their massive, slimy leaves overlapped perfectly, creating a dense, suffocating canopy that completely blocked her path. The vegetation was a sickly, bioluminescent yellow-green, casting an eerie, jaundiced glow through the water.

Roxy frowned, hovering at the edge. This forest hadn’t been here when Caspian had taken her to the Surface. The deep-sea currents must have shifted, dragging the massive kelp beds across the trench.

Taking a deep breath, Roxy pushed her way into the thicket.

The moment she crossed the threshold, the temperature dropped another ten degrees. The kelp was incredibly dense, the slimy ribbons brushing against her arms and face like cold, grasping fingers. She tried to swim in a straight line, but the massive stalks forced her to weave left, then right, then double back entirely.

Within minutes, Roxy realized with a sinking spike of dread that she was completely turned around.

It was a maze. Every direction looked exactly the same. The water in the forest was stagnant and thick, lacking the clear, guiding currents of the open ocean.

"Come on," Roxy muttered aloud, a string of silver bubbles escaping her lips. "Think. The thermal vents are down. Just follow the heat."

She closed her eyes, trying to sense the subtle shifts in water temperature. But as she hovered there in the eerie, yellow-green light, the water around her suddenly displaced.

It wasn’t a current. It was a massive, violent shove of water pressure that nearly knocked her backwards.

Roxy’s eyes snapped open. The lullaby died in her throat.

The thick curtain of seaweed in front of her parted. A massive, scarred snout, covered in thick, barnacle-encrusted scales, pushed through the vegetation. Two milky-white, dead-looking eyes, each the size of a carriage, rolled in their sockets to lock directly onto her.

Roxy’s blood ran cold. She slowly turned her head, looking over her shoulder.

Another snout emerged from the kelp behind her. Then another to her left. And another above her.

She hadn’t just gotten lost in a maze. She had been herded.

She was completely surrounded by deep-sea leviathans.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Roxy cursed, her voice trembling as she stared down at them.

She didn’t wait to see if they were friendly. Roxy whipped her powerful mermaid tail, launching herself straight upward in a desperate bid to escape the canopy of the kelp forest.

But the leviathans were impossibly fast in their own domain.

The creature above her lunged. It didn’t open its jaws to bite her; instead, it swung its massive, armored snout like a battering ram.

The impact struck Roxy square in the ribs.

The air was violently knocked from her lungs. Roxy tumbled backward through the water, spinning wildly out of control. Before she could right herself, a second leviathan surged forward from the kelp, catching her with the broad side of its tail and swatting her across the clearing like a discarded toy.

She crashed through a thick stalk of seaweed, crying out in pain as the abrasive, barnacle-covered hide of the monster scraped violently against her arm, slicing through her tough leathers and drawing a ribbon of bright red blood that instantly plumed in the water.

They weren’t hunting her for food. They were playing with her. To these ancient monsters, the glowing, struggling mermaid was nothing more than an entertaining ball of light to bat around the dark.

"Stop!" Roxy screamed, fighting the dizzying spin.

A third leviathan charged, its massive mouth closed, intending to headbutt her into the ocean floor.

Roxy’s fear instantly transmuted into blinding, Queen-of-the-Deep rage. She was not going to die as a plaything in a kelp forest while her mates were waiting for a cure on the Surface.

As the leviathan closed in, Roxy didn’t try to dodge. She twisted her body, channeling every ounce of her strength into her lower half. She swung her iridescent tail with devastating, whip-like force, bringing her heavy, bone-crushing flukes directly across the monster’s sensitive snout.

The sound vibrated heavily through the dense water. The leviathan recoiled, thrashing its massive head in surprise.

Roxy didn’t stop. As the next one swooped in to bump her, she extended her hands. The System-upgraded, razor-sharp claws grabbed onto the thick, leathery hide of the beast passing her, her nails digging deeply into the flesh between its scales. She tore downward, ripping a long gash along its flank.

The leviathan let out a low, vibrating bellow that shook the seaweed, twisting violently to shake her off.

Roxy was thrown free, tumbling head over tail. She righted herself, panting heavily, her green eyes burning with defiance, her claws bared, and her tail coiled like a spring.

"Come on!" Roxy cursed into the dark, her voice echoing with abyssal magic. "Is that all you’ve got, you overgrown guppies?!"

She fought like a demon. She dodged, slashed, and whipped her tail, utilizing her smaller size and agility to evade their crushing jaws. But the sheer disparity in mass was impossible to overcome. For every strike she landed, the leviathans countered with a casual, devastating swat that sent her spiraling.

Her lungs ached. Her arm was bleeding sluggishly, the scent of her blood making the monsters increasingly agitated. Her muscles burned with lactic acid, the crushing pressure of the deep slowly draining her stamina. She slashed at a passing fin, only to be struck from behind by a massive, sweeping tail.

The blow caught her squarely between the shoulder blades.

Roxy’s vision flashed white. Her body went entirely limp, the agonizing pain completely messed with her nervous system. She tumbled helplessly downward, sinking toward the tangled, slimy roots of the kelp forest, too exhausted and battered to lift her arms. The leviathans circled above her, the water churning violently as they prepared to dive and finish their cruel game.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the massive jaws to snap shut around her.

But the bite never came.

Suddenly, the low, rumbling bellows of the leviathans abruptly cut off, replaced by the frantic, terrified thrashing of massive bodies retreating into the dark.

Before Roxy could hit the ocean floor, a pair of incredibly strong, distinctly humanoid arms wrapped securely around her waist.

The touch was freezing, radiating an aura of dark, suffocating power that made the leviathans flee in absolute terror. Roxy was pulled flush against a hard, heavily muscled chest covered in smooth, dark scales.

She forced her heavy eyelids open, her vision swimming in the yellow-green light of the kelp.

Looking down at her was a face that was devastatingly handsome, framed by long, flowing dark hair. The sharp jawline, the arrogant curve of the lips, and the mesmerizing, predatory eyes were hauntingly familiar. It was a face that looked incredibly like Caspian’s, but twisted by a dark, cruel malice that her husband had never possessed.

The Merman Prince smiled, his sharp fangs glinting in the dark water. His grip on her waist tightened possessively.

"We meet again, beautiful."