Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 231: Episode 230: A Strange Magic

"Broke?!" Nimue shrieked, swimming circles around Roxy like a distressed guppy. "What broke? Your skin? Are you leaking internal fluids? Is the baby dissolving?!"

"I am not dissolving!" Roxy yelled, as another spasm of cramps hit her. "It means the baby is coming! Now! Like, right now!"

Kaia, who had been ready to fight an assassin, looked completely lost. She scanned the room with her dagger raised, looking for the enemy named "Labor."

"Where is the threat?" Kaia barked. "Is it internal? Do I need to cut it out?"

"No cutting!" Roxy screamed, pointing a trembling finger at the General. "Put the knife away, Kaia! Jesus Christ, put it away!"

"But you are compromised!" Kaia argued, looking at the cloud of fluid dissipating around Roxy’s hips. "Do you need me to call the priestess to see you?!"

"I’m not a submarine!" Roxy roared. "I’m having a baby! Help me to the bed, you useless fish!"

The panic in the room was palpable. These were high-born merfolk. They were born in carefully monitored nurseries.

They didn’t do... this. They didn’t do live, messy, fluid-heavy mammalian births. To them, Roxy was currently exploding in slow motion.

"Caspian," she gasped, the anger momentarily replaced by a spike of fear. "Can someone go ahead and check on him for me??"

"He cannot die!" Nimue wailed, trying to help Roxy but mostly just getting in the way. "But you will be if you keep leaking!"

"Oh my god," Roxy groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. "I am surrounded by idiots. I am going to give birth in a room full of idiots."

Roxy was at this level of rage that she thought she might kill someone among her spams of cramps.

Suddenly, Queen Nerissa swam into the room. She took one look at the chaotic scene, and her face hardened into a mask of absolute command.

"Clear the room," Nerissa ordered. Her voice was low, deadly, and brooked no argument. "Kaia, guard the door. If anyone enters who isn’t a healer, kill them. Nimue, fetch the hot towels from the vents. Go. Now!"

Kaia and Nimue didn’t hesitate. They scrambled to obey, terrified of the Matriarch’s wrath.

Nerissa swam to Roxy. She didn’t look panicked. She looked annoyed.

"You create chaos wherever you go, Daughter," Nerissa muttered. She hooked a strong arm around Roxy’s waist and easily propelled her through the water toward the massive clam bed.

"Caspian," Roxy panted, grabbing Nerissa’s arm. "The guard said... the Leviathan..."

"He lives," Nerissa said curtly, depositing Roxy onto the soft sponges of the bed. "He took a barb to the flank. The Healers are stitching him now. He has lost blood, but he is a King. He will survive."

"Is he coming?" Roxy demanded, her voice rising. "I need him here! He did this to me! He needs to see it!"

"He is coming," Nerissa assured her, though her tone suggested she thought Caspian would be a nuisance. "Now, lie back. Spread your fins."

Roxy lay back, her heart hammering against her ribs. She clenched her teeth, waiting for the first contraction to rip through her.

She felt her stomach tighten. The muscles contracted violently, squeezing down on the child.

Roxy opened her mouth to scream.

"FUCK!" she shouted, anticipating the pain.

...

Nothing happened.

Well, not nothing. She felt the pressure. She felt the massive, undeniable movement of the baby shifting downward. She felt her muscles locking up. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

But there was no pain.

It was like her lower body had been injected with high-grade epidural magic.

A small, discreet blue window appeared in the corner of her vision.

[System Notification: Passive Skill Activated.]

[Skill: "Mother’s Grace" (Reward from Accelerated Gestation).]

[Effect: Pain Nullification. The host’s nervous system has been dampened to prevent shock from high-pressure delivery.]

[You’re welcome.]

Roxy blinked. You’re welcome?

"Did the System just sass me?" she whispered.

"What?" Nerissa snapped, swimming to the foot of the bed. "Who are you talking to?"

"Nothing," Roxy said quickly.

Another contraction hit. The pressure was immense, but it didn’t hurt. It was just... weird. Uncomfortable. Alien.

"ARRRGH!" Roxy screamed anyway.

Partly because the sensation was terrifying, and partly because she felt like she should scream. If she didn’t scream, they might think something was wrong.

"Breathe!" Nerissa commanded. "Do not waste your air on noise!"

"I don’t have mana!" Roxy yelled back, gripping the pearls embedded in the mattress. "I have a baby! And he’s stuck!"

"He is not stuck," Nerissa said calmly. "He is descending. I can sense the crown."

The Matriarch hovered at the foot of the bed. She didn’t look like a midwife. She looked like a witch preparing a ritual.

Her black tentacles were writhing around the base of the bed, anchoring her in place. Her hands—massive, clawed, and terrifying—were raised in the water.

"Is Caspian here yet?" Roxy gasped, looking at the door. "I want to yell at him!"

"He is not here," Nerissa said, not looking up. "Focus."

Nerissa’s eyes began to glow a deep, bioluminescent purple. The water around her hands started to swirl, darkening as if she were ink-dropping into the current.

She began to chant. It wasn’t a soothing lullaby. It was a guttural, grinding sound, like tectonic plates shifting on the ocean floor.

"Oohm... Klah... Verrr..."

Roxy watched, wide-eyed.

"Uh," Roxy said, lifting her head. "Mother? What are you doing?"

Nerissa ignored her. The purple light intensified. It formed distinct, glowing ribbons of energy that spiraled out from Nerissa’s fingers.

The ribbons didn’t stay in the water. They moved toward Roxy.

They slithered between her legs, glowing and pulsing, looking less like medical tools and more like magical tentacles.

"Mother?" Roxy’s voice pitched higher. "Hey! Personal space! What is that magic?"

The purple ribbons touched her skin. They felt cold and tingly. They began to... widen things. Not physically stretching her, but warping the space around the birth canal.

It looked terrifying. It looked like Nerissa was casting a spell to turn Roxy inside out.

"Don’t touch me with the glowy squid magic!" Roxy shouted, trying to scoot back up the bed. "I changed my mind! I’ll keep him in! He can stay there until he’s eighteen!"

"Hold her!" Nerissa barked.

Nimue, who had just returned with the towels, dropped them and grabbed Roxy’s shoulders, pinning her down.

"It is for the best, Roxy!" Nimue cried, looking away squeamishly. "Mother knows the old ways!"

"The old ways look like necromancy!" Roxy yelled.

She looked down between her legs. Nerissa was now fully immersed in the ritual. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, showing only the whites. Her hands were making pulling motions in the water, and the purple energy was throbbing in time with the baby’s heartbeat.

It was the most bizarre, alien, and frankly disturbing thing Roxy had ever seen.

"Oh my god," Roxy whispered, staring at her mother-in-law’s glowing, chanting form. "What the fuck is she doing?"