Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 292: Episode 290: A Bad Dream

"Don’t fucking dare!"

The words tore from Nerissa’s throat with a violent force that physically shattered the delicate, bioluminescent anemones clinging to the throne room walls.

It has been a long time the ancient, composed matriarch of the Deep Spires had ever cursed since she had told Roxy who she originally was.

Nerissa was a creature of absolute, terrifying poise. She only ever broke that poise when an anger so deep, so profound, and so historically agonizing was struck directly at its core.

Now, she was completely unraveled, diverting the entirety of her rage toward the massive Merman King hovering before her.

Caspian didn’t flinch. He didn’t swim backward, and he didn’t lower his gaze.

He stood his ground, his broad, muscular chest absorbing the crushing wave of his mother’s fury. His silver tail, thick and powerful, held him perfectly anchored in the churning water.

He faced her not as a reprimanded son, but as a true, immovable King who had already weighed the cost of his sins and made his absolute choice.

"I will say it again, Mother," Caspian stated, his voice dropping into a dark, resolute octave that vibrated through the black coral pillars. "Keenan. We bring him back. We place the crown on his head, and I surrender my absolute claim to the Spires."

"Stop it!" Nimue screamed, completely horrified.

The younger princess had immediately backpedaled, her blue tail whipping frantically to put as much distance between herself and the explosive argument as possible.

She clutched Zale tightly to her chest, curling her body around the infant to shield him from the suffocating, hostility flooding the throne room. Zale let out a frightened, watery whimper, burying his little face into Nimue’s shoulder.

"Have you lost whatever fragmented sliver of your mind you had left?!" Nerissa roared, gliding forward until she was mere inches from Caspian’s face. She pointed a trembling, clawed finger directly at his chest. "You dare speak his name in this hall? Need I angrily remind you of the blood on his hands, Caspian?! Need I remind you of your father?!"

Caspian’s jaw locked. A muscle feathered violently in his cheek, but he did not look away.

"Keenan slaughtered him!" Nerissa’s voice cracked, the ancient grief bleeding heavily into her rage. "He murdered your father in cold blood to usurp a throne that was never meant to be his! He fractured the Spires! He destroyed the eastern coral wards, and he nearly brought the wrath of the entire trench down upon our bloodline! And you want to hand him the very crown he killed for?!"

The history of the Abyssal Royal Family was written in blood and betrayal, and Keenan—the disgraced, exiled older brother—was the darkest stain on their lineage.

"He paid for his treason," Caspian countered, his voice a steady, pragmatic anchor against her emotional storm. He didn’t get pushed back by her fury. He met it head-on. "He was stripped of his royal titles. He was beaten, chained, and banished to the freezing, dead trenches of the Outer Wastes. He has spent a century in absolute isolation, suffering the punishment I personally handed down to him."

"Then let him rot there!" Nerissa hissed venomously.

"No," Caspian argued, the silver-blue glow of his eyes flashing with desperate, calculated logic. "Because despite his treason, despite the blood on his hands, you and I both know the absolute truth, Mother. You are the only one who knows how incredibly capable Keenan is in ruling. He has the raw power, the political ruthlessness, and the abyssal authority to command the leviathans. He was bred to be a King."

"He is a murderer!"

"And what am I?!" Caspian bellowed back, his own self-loathing finally erupting to the surface. He gestured wildly around the grand throne room, his voice echoing violently. "I am no better than him because we took this bloodthirst from our father, Mother! I am a hypocrite who let his obsession rot his judgment! If the Spires can survive under my rule, they will thrive under his!"

Nerissa was quick to anger, and Caspian’s brutal, unapologetic mirror of his own sins pushed her entirely over the edge.

"Guards!" Nerissa shrieked, her voice echoing out of the throne room and ringing down the spiraling coral corridors. "Abyssal Guards, to me!"

Within seconds, the heavy, dark water at the entrance of the chamber churned. A dozen elite Merman guards swam rapidly into the room. They were massive, battle-hardened warriors clad in armor, wielding heavy tridents forged from deep-sea volcanic rock.

"Restrain the King!" Nerissa commanded, her chest heaving as she pointed a shaking finger at Caspian. "Lock him in the royal vaults! Do not let him leave this castle!"

The guards immediately leveled their tridents, their powerful tails propelling them forward to execute the matriarch’s order.

But as they closed the final ten yards, Caspian simply turned his head.

He didn’t raise a weapon. He didn’t even shift his posture.

The elite warriors completely froze.

Their momentum died instantly. Several of the guards dropped their heavy tridents, their hands flying to their throats as they gasped for oxygen through the sudden, suffocating density of the water.

Their eyes bulged in sheer, instinctual terror. They were the finest warriors in the ocean, but facing the raw, unleashed power of Caspian’s royal core was entirely impossible. They were too scared to even near him, let alone restrain him.

Caspian looked at the paralyzed guards, then slowly turned his silver-blue eyes back to his mother.

The fight had drained out of him, leaving only a hollow, devastating certainty. He had made his choice. No ancient law, no royal duty, and no maternal command was going to keep him in the dark.

"You can lock the doors, Mother," Caspian stated quietly, his voice carrying a dark, chilling finality that made the hairs on the back of Nimue’s neck stand up. "You can summon the entire army of the trench to block my path."

He looked past Nerissa, his eyes locking onto the tiny, frightened face of his son tucked safely in his sister’s arms.

"But even if you stop me now," Caspian vowed, the promise vibrating with an ancient, unbreakable magic, "I will find a way for me and my son to get to my mate!"

With a powerful, blinding sweep of his silver tail, Caspian launched himself upward.

He shot toward the vaulted ceiling of the throne room, disappearing into the dark, spiraling currents of the upper castle before Nerissa or the paralyzed guards could even twitch.

Gasp!

Outside the sea, within the Iron-Wood Manor, Roxy jolted violently awake.

Her eyes snapped open, wide and unseeing in the dim light of the living room. Her heart was hammering against her ribs, beating so hard it felt like it was trying to crack her sternum.

A cold sweat coated her skin, making the delicate silk of her gown cling uncomfortably to her chest.

She was wrapped securely in the arms of her beloved and that brought relief coursing through her bones.

Torian was holding her securely on the large living room sofa. The moment her body seized, the White Tiger Alpha was instantly alert.

The rumbling, comforting purr in his broad chest cut off sharply, replaced by a sudden, protective tension.

"Roxy?" Torian rumbled, his deep voice thick with immediate concern.

His large, heavily calloused hands moved gently over her arms, rubbing up and down to generate friction and ground her back to reality.

He pulled her flush against his burning heat, pressing a firm, reassuring kiss to the top of her tangled dark curls.

Roxy let out a ragged, shuddering breath. Her lungs greedily pulled in the dry, pine-scented air of the Manor, desperately trying to flush the sensation of fear in her system.

Her hand drifted up to her chest, right over her heart. She had felt his agonizing roar.

Her mean Caspian...

She swallowed hard, her throat painfully dry. She leaned her head back against Torian’s solid collarbone, her green eyes still wide and deeply unsettled.

"I think," Roxy whispered, her voice trembling slightly in the quiet room, "I had a bad dream."