Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 365: Episode 363: Saying the Truth [2]

Needing a space entirely isolated from the sleeping children, they escorted their Queen out of the Iron-Wood Manor. They moved through the frost-covered trees until they reached the rushing, icy waters of the stream.

The winter moon hung high and heavy in the sky, casting a pale, silver glow over the massive, smooth boulders lining the riverbank.

Roxy sat heavily atop the largest boulder, pulling her dark fur cloak tightly around her trembling shoulders. The freezing spray of the stream was grounding, a sharp physical reminder that she was still breathing. Surrounding her in a tight, impenetrable semi-circle were the most dangerous warlords on the Beastworld continent. Zarek, Kaelen, Torian, Caspian, and Syris stood in the snow, their respective glowing eyes locked entirely onto her face, waiting for the Matriarch to finally shatter the invisible glass walls of her existence.

Roxy took a long, shuddering breath, her soul bracing for the impact.

"I was not born under these stars," Roxy began, her voice barely louder than the rushing water, but possessing an absolute, uncompromising clarity. "Before I woke up in that forest clearing... before I found Zarek... I lived a completely different life in a world entirely devoid of magic. I was sucked into this world against my will. Dropped into this universe by a force I couldn’t control."

The Alpha Kings knew this one.

"When I arrived," Roxy continued, her fingers twisting nervously into the thick fur of her cloak, "I wasn’t just alone. There was a voice in my head. A glowing blue interface that only I could see. I called it the System. And it... it gave me prompts. Quests."

Roxy swallowed hard, her green eyes dropping to the snow at Zarek’s massive boots. The next words felt like swallowing broken glass, but they had to be spoken.

Her mates furrowed her brows but they still listened.

"It was the System that prompted me to sleep with Zarek," Roxy confessed, her voice cracking in the freezing air. She refused to look up. "It literally ordered me to conceive a child with him to secure my survival. Just like the rest of you. When I followed Kaelen into the North... I didn’t want to go. I was terrified. But the System made me do it to advance my timeline. And Torian... when I first slept with you, I didn’t want to do that either, but I was prompted to do it to bind the Tiger clan."

"So you never had interest in me?"

Zarek’s deep, rumbling voice shattered the quiet. The towering King of the Dragons had stepped forward, his massive frame entirely rigid. The absolute, unadulterated hurt and vulnerability in his golden eyes was devastating. The apex predator, who believed he had won his mate through sheer devotion and primal right, looked as though he had just been physically gutted.

Roxy snapped her head up. She pressed her lips into a tight, thin line.

"Zarek," Roxy stated, her voice slicing through the winter air with absolute, unapologetic candor. "Look at me. Look at my lack of claws, my lack of fangs, my lack of scales."

Zarek blinked, his jaw tight.

"If you were a weak, completely defenseless human," Roxy challenged, leaning forward on the boulder. "A fragile woman who had just suddenly appeared in a brutal, bloodthirsty world filled with towering, lethal predators... would you just willingly submit yourself to a terrifying beast who could snap your spine with two fingers?"

Zarek froze. The sheer, terrifying reality of her initial vulnerability, a fragile human surrounded by towering monsters, violently clicked in his draconic brain. He hadn’t been a romantic savior in those early days; he had been a terrifying, overwhelmingly powerful dragon.

He knew nothing of emotions.

The Dragon Alpha closed his mouth. The hurt in his golden eyes slowly morphed into a profound, heavy understanding. He didn’t say anything more, stepping back to let her speak.

Roxy’s rigid posture softened. She looked at Zarek, and then at Torian, Kaelen, Caspian, and Syris.

"I did what I had to do to survive those first few months," Roxy admitted softly, her voice thick with genuine, overwhelming emotion. "But the System couldn’t program my heart. My feelings... they naturally awakened the more I spent time with you all. The more we fought for our lives, the more we bled together, the more intercourse we shared... my heart genuinely opened up."

She looked directly at Zarek, a soft, incredibly tender smile breaking through the exhaustion on her face. "Especially intensely for you, Zarek. You were the very first beastman I truly opened my heart to. You were my first anchor in this world."

At those words, the massive Dragon King’s broad chest visibly puffed out. A distinct, entirely unashamed surge of absolute Alpha pride radiated from his massive frame, completely erasing his previous insecurities. Torian let out a soft, amused huff at the Dragon’s blatant pride, though the White Tiger’s own blue eyes were shining with profound relief.

"Everything we have built," Roxy continued, sweeping her hand toward the distant, towering silhouette of their home. "The Iron-Wood Manor, the medical supplies, the modern folding tables, the tablets for the children... they were all products of the System and the minor gods who oversee it. I purchased them with points I earned by completing those survival quests."

Syris’s vibrant green eyes narrowed with sharp, calculating intelligence. "So these deities... they have been supplying you. Manipulating the environment to keep you alive and comfortable."

"They were," Roxy corrected, a dark, terrifying shadow falling over her expression. "Until recently. The System Architect... the entity who actually built this twisted game... he grew bored."

Roxy wrapped her arms around her stomach, shivering as the phantom memory of her agonizing labor washed over her.

"That is the reason why, when I was birthing Tyara, it really felt like I was about to die from childbirth," Roxy revealed, her voice dropping into a haunted whisper. "The healing magic of the System was completely ripped away. He was testing me. He was testing us."

Caspian stepped forward, his striking aquatic eyes wide with alarm. "And Fedor’s birth?"

"When I passed out," Roxy said, her breath catching in her throat. "When I gave birth to Little Fedor and I collapsed... my consciousness didn’t just shut down. I was pulled into a purple crystal realm. I met with the System Architect face-to-face."

The Vanguard tensed. Five lethal combat auras instantly, violently flared to life in the freezing night air, melting the snow directly beneath their heavy boots.

"He is not a benevolent creator," Roxy warned, her green eyes blazing with absolute, terrified certainty. "He is a Demon King. His name is Abaddon. And he told me that Ren’s death was fated from day one. He told me that we are all just characters in a book to him, and he initiated a new, impossible quest to completely destroy our family, and..."

Roxy’s words died entirely in her throat.

The freezing, crisp winter wind whipping off the stream suddenly, violently ceased. The rushing sound of the water was completely muted, as if a heavy, invisible dome had just slammed down over the riverbank.

Directly behind Kaelen, in the dark, snow-dusted shadows of the tree line, the air began to violently move.

A thick, suffocating, and incredibly dark red mist began to rapidly gather. It didn’t behave like natural fog; it slithered and coiled with a terrifying, sentient malice, smelling heavily of burning flesh.

Roxy gasped, her eyes blowing wide with sheer, unadulterated terror as she stared at the anomaly.

Everyone turned to face the anomaly. Zarek pulled Roxy behind him to shield her from the incoming predator.

The dark red mist swirled violently, condensing and compressing until a towering, impossibly elegant silhouette emerged from the crimson smoke.

The mist parted.

Standing in the snow, entirely unbothered by the five terrifying, bloodthirsty Alphas ready to rip his throat out, was the Architect.

He wore his opulent, flowing purple robes laced with heavy gold threads. His stark, blinding white hair cascaded perfectly over his shoulders, and his luminous, terrifyingly cold red eyes looked past the wall of muscle directly at Roxy.

Abaddon tilted his head, his flawless, unearthly lips curling back into a slow, eerily perfect smile that completely lacked a single shred of human empathy.

"Don’t tell me you were going to expose our little plan, my Queen?"