I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!-Chapter 186: The Shadow That Lives in His Heart

The creature let out a low, distorted sound before it blew a powerful gust of wind toward them.

Fwoooosh!

A thick cloud of dark smoke burst from its body and rushed straight at them.

"Watch out!" Calen shouted.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. The smoke swallowed them in seconds. Roxanna quickly covered her nose and mouth, coughing as the strange fog wrapped around her.

It had no smell, but something about it felt terribly wrong. The air was icy cold, and every breath felt heavy, as if the smoke was trying to suffocate them.

When the smoke finally started to thin, Roxanna quickly turned to look at her husbands. "Calen! Azul—"

Roxanna widened her eyes, and her voice froze in her throat because the figures standing beside her were gone and had been replaced by two creatures she had never expected.

"Yip...?"

A tiny puppy sat on the ground, blinking up at her with confused golden eyes. Not far from it, something small was flopping helplessly on the floor: a tiny blue betta fish.

"What?" Roxanna stared in disbelief because Calen had turned into a puppy and Azul had become a tiny fish.

The puppy barked weakly. "Yip!"

Meanwhile, the little fish kept flopping on the ground, its small body struggling desperately to breathe outside the water.

Roxanna’s mind went blank. Then she suddenly screamed, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

She knew that her husbands were able to shift into animals, but not ones this small! This was basically the same as them turning into children.

And oh, Azul!

Her little fish could barely breathe on land, and he looked like he might die at any second.

"System! System! I need a fish tank!"

Roxanna didn’t even think twice when she said that, and even if the water tank used up all her SP, she wouldn’t care!

[Purchased: 1x Small Fish Bowl (5,000 SP)]

[Remaining Spirit Points (SP): 134,900]

The moment the small fish bowl appeared in the air, Roxanna quickly caught it.

It was just a simple round bowl, the kind people often place beside their bed, so it was nothing fancy. But it was still much better than letting Azul suffocate on the ground.

"It’s okay, it’s okay, I got you." Roxanna gently cupped Azul with both hands and carefully lifted him from the ground before placing him into the bowl.

The moment the small purple-blue betta fish touched the water, he immediately became calmer.

His tiny fins slowly moved as he swam around inside the bowl, circling again and again as if trying to understand what had just happened.

"I’m sorry," Roxanna said softly, lowering her head. "I know the bowl is too small for you. But if I bring a bigger aquarium, it will be too hard to carry."

Besides, the shadow monster was still nearby!

After releasing the black smoke, the creature had shrunk for a moment. But now its body was slowly growing again, absorbing the dark shadows that crawled through the cracks between the stone walls.

Roxanna didn’t really understand where those dark shadows were coming from, but one thing was clear: she needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Mr. Fenrir! We have to leave!" Roxanna shouted when she saw Mr. Fenrir running toward the shadow monster instead of escaping.

"Woof! Woof!"

Mr. Fenrir kept barking at the monster, then turned to bark at Roxanna.

"What?" she asked in disbelief. "You want me to fight that monster?"

Mr. Fenrir gave a small nod.

"That’s crazy!" Roxanna shouted.

When she looked down, she noticed that the tiny Calen was also trying to run toward the shadow monster. Roxanna quickly grabbed him before he could go any farther and held him in her other arm.

"No! You can’t go there!"

She then looked back at Mr. Fenrir. "And no! Instead of fighting that monster, why don’t we just run away? The sound of the bell is already very close!"

But Mr. Fenrir barked even louder this time, and he even let out a few long howls. His golden eyes seemed to glow as he stared at Roxanna with a serious look.

Then he suddenly let out a deep growl. The fur on his body stood up, making Roxanna feel a little scared.

But a moment later, she remembered something important: Mr. Fenrir was not a vicious dog.

If he was acting like this, there had to be a reason, something must be bothering him.

Roxanna slowly fell silent and stopped moving for a moment. Her pink eyes turned toward the shadow monster as she carefully watched it.

The monster walked very slowly. Every time it took a step, the black smoke around its feet would scatter for a moment before gathering again.

Not only that, Roxanna also noticed something strange about that monster.

Her fox ears perked up as she tried to listen more clearly to the sounds around her because she had her own doubts.

At that moment, she heard the shadow making a strange sound. At first, it sounded like a screech, but after listening for a while, she finally realized that it sounded more like someone crying.

[Why is that monster crying?] Roxanna wondered. [What could possibly make it sad?]

Weren’t the shadow monsters supposed to stop them from escaping this maze?

Beside her, the puppy Calen suddenly barked with his tiny voice, as if he was trying to call the creepy shadow over.

"Calen is special."

Roxanna’s eyes widened when a deep baritone voice suddenly reached her ears.

She knew the voices of her husbands very well, so she was certain the voice didn’t belong to Calen or Azul.

Then... where did it come from?

"He isn’t perfect, and he is not a purebred of the mighty beasts. But even so, his body has always been strong enough to become a vessel for us."

Roxanna quickly turned her head, looking in every direction, but she still couldn’t find where the voice was coming from.

Her fox ears lifted again as she listened carefully to the sounds around her.

Something about this situation didn’t feel right. And the more she listened, the more uneasy she felt.

"Mr. Fenrir...? She called uncertaintly. "Is that you?"

The dog did not open his mouth at all, yet he kept staring at Roxanna.

Even stranger, the voice inside her head sounded somewhat similar to Calen’s voice. Roxanna blinked several times, unsure if she was imagining things.

"You’re not imagining things," the voice said again. "It’s normal for mates to have their souls connected. Because of that, I can speak to you through your mind. But unfortunately, we don’t have much time."

Before Roxanna could even respond to Mr. Fenrir’s words, the dog spoke again through their linked mind.

"This shadow is something Calen has carried with him since he was very young," the voice continued. "It has stayed with him all the way until now."

Roxanna’s heart tightened as she listened to the dog.

"If you don’t remove that shadow right now," Mr. Fenrir said, "then when Calen wakes up... he will lose his mind."

"I... I can’t fight that monster," Roxanna stammered. "I can pick up the weapons, but I–I don’t know how to fight properly with them."

She lowered her eyes and looked at the axe and the spear that were now lying on the ground.

"You don’t need a weapon," Mr. Fenrir said calmly. "The shadow is a symbol of sickness. The reason your blood didn’t work on Calen is because the wound is not on his body, but the wound is inside him."

Mr. Fenrir stepped forward and stood between Roxanna and the shadow monster, which was slowly getting closer.

The sound of the ringing bell and the cries of the shadow monster mixed together, making Roxanna feel a little dizzy.

"So the shadow is his pain," Roxanna said softly. Her eyes moved to the small puppy beside her, then slowly lifted toward the shadow monster. "But why did the monster turn Calen and Azul small, while I didn’t change?"

Mr. Fenrir spoke in her mind. "That’s because, just like me, the shadow monster also recognizes you as Calen’s special person."

Roxanna froze for a moment. Wait a minute... could the shadow monster also be the hidden creature the system mentioned?

Was the reason her side mission had not been completed because Mr. Fenrir was not the only hidden creature inside Calen’s mind?

[Correct, Host.]

[Mr. Fenrir and the shadow monster are one whole. You cannot tame only one of them.]

Roxanna’s eye twitched. [Then why didn’t you tell me from the beginning?] she complained in her mind.

[Because the shadow monster was hiding so perfectly, Host. That is why the system did not recognize it at first.]

Roxanna frowned even more. [If you couldn’t detect it, then you shouldn’t have included it in the mission.]

[It cannot be like that.] The system defended itself.

[The shadow monster is too strongly connected to Calen, so it automatically became connected to your mission as well.]

Roxanna let out a harsh sigh, thinking that talking with the system was useless. Right now, it was better for her to focus on finding a way to heal Calen’s pain.

Her eyes returned to the spear lying on the ground. "Alright then," she said. "If my blood doesn’t work outside, maybe it will work here."