Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 166: The Belly of the Beast

The Abyssal Hunter glided silently through the crushing darkness of the Mariana Trench.

It wasn’t a spaceship. It was a relic—a massive, hollowed-out skull of a Primordial Sea Dragon, reinforced with enchanted black steel and powered by pulsating blue runes.

Inside the bone-cockpit, the mood was tense. Jax was gripping the rune-stone controls so hard his knuckles were white. Luna was stress-eating a bag of dried kelp chips.

"Depth: Ten thousand meters," Cassian announced, watching the mana-gauges (which were floating crystal orbs). "Pressure is critical. If the rune-shielding fails, we will be crushed into the size of a soda can."

"Thank you, Cassian," Primrose said, staring out the enchanted glass eye-socket. "That’s extremely comforting."

Ahead of them, the trench widened into a massive underwater amphitheater. In the center stood a colossal door carved into the bedrock. It was made of white jade and sealed with glowing nine-tailed fox runes.

But someone was already there.

Floating in front of the door, inside a sphere of purple void-shielding, was the Boss.

He looked tiny against the scale of the trench, like a speck of dust. But his presence was heavy. He was sipping a cup of tea (encased in a tiny air bubble) and checking a pocket watch.

"He’s waiting for us," Caspian realized, his hand tightening on his trident.

Suddenly, the Boss’s voice echoed inside their ship, bypassing the comms system entirely via telepathy.

"You are late," the Boss’s voice purred. "Traffic?"

"We had to stop for snacks," Primrose shot back. "And to pick up a bigger gun."

"Cute," the Boss laughed. "But I am afraid the door is stubborn. It refuses to open for anyone but family. So, if you would be so kind as to step outside and unlock it, I will let you live for... oh, three minutes."

"And if we refuse?" Rajah growled.

The Boss sighed. He snapped his fingers.

"Then I feed you to Fluffy." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Release the Kraken

The darkness behind the Boss shifted.

It wasn’t water. It was a tentacle. A tentacle the size of a castle tower.

Two massive yellow eyes opened in the gloom. Then a beak big enough to crush the Abyssal Hunter in one bite.

The Void-Kraken.

It roared, a sound that vibrated through the water and shook the ship’s bones. It was covered in black sludge and glowing purple veins.

"That’s a big squid," Vali whispered, pressing his nose against the glass. "I want to poke it."

"No poking!" Jasper yelled. "That is a Class 5 Leviathan! It eats whales for breakfast!"

"Jax!" Caspian shouted. "Evasive maneuvers!"

The Kraken lashed out. A tentacle slammed toward them.

Jax yanked his hands on the runes. The Abyssal Hunter surged upward, narrowly missing the strike. The displacement of water sent them spinning.

"We can’t fight that thing in the ship!" Rurik yelled. "It’s too big! We need to draw its aggro!"

"Plan B," Lucien said, standing up. His violet eyes glowed in the dim light. "The Warlords distract the beast. Caspian and Primrose make a run for the door."

"Are you crazy?" Primrose asked. "You’ll be fighting a Kraken in the dark!"

"We are Warlords," Rajah grinned, drawing his flaming sword (which burned underwater thanks to his pure mana). "We specialize in crazy."

"Jax," Lucien commanded. "Open the hatch. Drop us on its head."

"You got it," Jax said, sweating. "Deploying the Dads!"

The belly of the dragon-ship opened.

Four figures shot out into the black water, protected by personal mana-bubbles.

Rajah struck first. He slashed his sword, sending a wave of boiling fire-water at the Kraken’s eye. The beast shrieked.

Rurik grabbed a passing tentacle. "Stop hitting yourself!" he roared, channeling lightning through his axe. The electricity traveled up the tentacle, shocking the monster.

Cassian threw a vial of glowing green liquid. It shattered on the Kraken’s beak, releasing a cloud of acidic gas that ate through the Void-armor.

Lucien didn’t attack directly. He vanished into the shadows of the trench, reappearing to sever the tendons of the beast’s smaller tentacles.

The Kraken roared, turning its attention away from the ship and toward the four ants stinging it.

"Go!" Luna shouted from the co-pilot seat. "Now, Prim!"

Caspian grabbed Primrose’s hand. "Hold your breath. I will sustain your air."

They jumped out of the ship’s hatch.

The cold hit Primrose instantly, but the Gills-Potion (which she had downed in the ship) kicked in. Her neck itched as gills formed, and she took a sharp breath of water. It tasted metallic, but breathable.

They swam.

Above them, the battle raged. Flashes of lightning and fire illuminated the dark water. Tentacles thrashed.

"Don’t look up!" Caspian ordered, pulling her through the water with the speed of a torpedo. "Eyes on the door!"

They reached the massive jade gate.

It was silent here. The noise of the battle was muffled by the ancient wards.

Primrose touched the cold stone. She felt a hum. A vibration that matched the beat of her own heart.

"So kind of you to arrive," a voice whispered.

Primrose spun around.

The Boss floated ten feet away. He wasn’t fighting the Warlords. He had let his pet do the work.

"Unlock it," the Boss said, pointing his cane at the door. "Or I boil the water inside your fiancé’s lungs."

Caspian stepped in front of Primrose, raising his trident. "You will not touch her."

"I don’t want to touch her," the Boss sneered. "I just want the Heart. Open the door, Fox, and I might let you keep your little underwater kingdom."

Primrose looked at the door. She looked at the battle above, where Rurik was currently being used as a chew toy by a tentacle.

She had no choice.

"Fine," Primrose said.

She stepped up to the seal. It was a carving of a fox with nine tails.

She raised her hand. She concentrated.

Her Five Tails unfurled in the water.

She placed her palm on the stone fox’s head.

"Ophelia," Primrose whispered. "It’s me. The chaotic one. Please let me in."

The stone fox’s eyes glowed.

Blood Required, a voice echoed in her mind.

Primrose took a sharp piece of coral from the ground. She sliced her palm.

She pressed her bleeding hand against the seal.

The jade door didn’t groan. It didn’t rumble.

It sang.

A pure, high note resonated through the trench. The Void-Kraken screamed in pain at the sound. The Boss flinched, covering his ears.

The massive doors split down the middle and swung open inward.

A blinding white light spilled out, illuminating the entire trench.

"Finally," the Boss hissed, surging forward. "The Heart is mine!"

He flew toward the opening.

"No!" Caspian shouted. He threw his trident.

It struck the Boss’s void-shield, shattering it, but the Boss kept moving. He reached the threshold.

But he couldn’t enter.

A barrier of pure, holy light blocked him. It burned his skin like sunlight on a vampire.

"What?" the Boss shrieked, recoiling. "I have the map! I have the power!"

Only the Blood may enter, the voice echoed. Only the Divine may tread.

Primrose felt a pull. The light grabbed her. It grabbed Caspian, who was holding her hand (and who carried the blood of the Sea Kings).

"Prim!" Caspian yelled.

They were yanked inside.

The jade doors slammed shut behind them with a thunderous BOOM, locking the Boss—and the war—outside.

Primrose and Caspian tumbled onto a floor.

It wasn’t wet. It was dry.

Primrose gasped, coughing up water as her gills receded. She sat up.

They weren’t in a dark tomb. They were in a garden.

A beautiful, impossible garden filled with cherry blossom trees that glowed with starlight. The grass was soft and green. There was a gentle breeze that smelled of vanilla and ozone.

"Where are we?" Caspian whispered, standing up and helping Primrose to her feet. "This... this is a pocket dimension."

In the center of the garden, there was a small island surrounded by a pond.

And on that island, resting on a bed of crystal flowers, was a woman.

She looked exactly like Primrose, but older. Wiser. She had Nine Majestic White Tails fanned out behind her like a blanket. She wore robes of ancient silk that shimmered like the aurora borealis.

She wasn’t a skeleton. She wasn’t a corpse.

She was sleeping.

Hovering above her chest, pulsing with a gentle blue rhythm, was a sphere of pure water mana.

The Heart of the Tide.

Primrose walked across the bridge. Her heart was in her throat.

"Ophelia?" Primrose whispered.

The woman didn’t move. She was in perfect stasis. Preserved by the time-stopping magic of the Heart.

Then, a translucent figure shimmered into existence next to the sleeping body.

It was a projection of Ophelia. She looked sad, tired, but kind.

"If you are seeing this," the projection said, her voice sounding like wind chimes, "then I failed to return."

Primrose stepped closer.

"I stole the Heart to seal the Great Breach," the recording continued. "But the Void infection was too strong. I could not destroy it. I could only... pause it."

The projection pointed to the sleeping body.

Primrose looked closely. Around Ophelia’s chest, underneath the glowing Heart, there was a patch of black, rotting skin. The Breach.

The Void was trying to eat her. But her Nine Tails were glowing, burning the corruption away as fast as it grew. It was an eternal stalemate.

"My Divine Power is the only thing that counters the Void," Ophelia explained. "I am the cork in the bottle. If I die, the Breach opens, and the Void consumes the ocean. If I wake, the concentration will break, and the Void wins."

Caspian stared at the sleeping woman. "She has been fighting for a thousand years. While sleeping."

"But my fire is fading," Ophelia said sadly. "I need a successor. Someone to rekindle the flame."

She looked at Primrose.

"You have Five Tails, little one. That is good. But it is not enough. You need the full spectrum to burn the Void away forever."

Primrose looked at her tails. She was missing four.

"I can’t do it," Primrose whispered. "I’m not a god. I’m just a gamer who likes cooking."

"You are here," Ophelia countered. "And you are standing next to the Source."

She pointed to the Heart of the Tide.

"The Heart is pure Water Essence. If you accept it... if you synchronize with it... you will awaken the Blue Tail."

Suddenly, the garden shook.

BOOM.

The sky of the pocket dimension cracked like glass.

A black cane smashed through the barrier.

"Found a loophole!" the Boss’s voice screeched.

The jade doors blasted open. The Boss hadn’t entered through the door—he had used the Void-Kraken to eat the magical foundation of the tomb from the outside.

Black sludge poured into the garden, killing the grass instantly.

"Stop her!" the Boss commanded.

Shadows surged toward the island.

"Caspian!" Primrose yelled. "Hold him off!"

"I will buy you time!" Caspian roared. He spun his trident, summoning the water from the pond to form a wall against the sludge.

Primrose turned to the sleeping Ophelia.

She didn’t have time to think. She didn’t have time to be scared.

She reached out.

Her hand touched the Heart of the Tide.

COLD.

It felt like diving into the deepest part of the ocean. The power of the entire sea rushed into her veins.

Primrose screamed as blue light erupted from her back.

A new tail began to form.

The Blue Tail.

But the Boss was faster. He lunged past Caspian, his hand reaching for Ophelia’s chest.

"I’ll take that!" the Boss snarled.

Primrose was frozen in the transformation. Caspian was knocked aside. The Boss’s fingers brushed the Heart.

The stalemate was broken.