Chapter 459: Episode 457: Something is happening.

The heavy steel chains bit mercilessly into Roxy’s wrists and ankles, locking her flush against the cold metal of the chair.

The hidden laboratory beneath the antique bookstore was completely devoid of natural light. The only illumination came from the harsh, flickering green glow of the massive server monitors and a single, swinging bulb hanging directly over her head. The air was thick and suffocating, reeking heavily of ozone, damp earth, and copper.

Elias moved around her with terrifying, clinical precision. He did not speak. The eccentric, polite professor who had offered her an umbrella in the freezing rain was entirely gone, replaced by a cold, obsessed fanatic.

He stepped close to the chair, holding a tangle of thick black wires ending in flat, circular copper electrodes.

Roxy thrashed against the restraints, her breathing coming in rapid, panicked gasps. "Elias, please. Please let me go. I don’t have what you want."

He ignored her completely. Elias pressed a cold copper disc firmly against her right temple, securing it with a thick medical adhesive. He applied another to her left temple, and then methodically strapped heavy conductive bands around both of her wrists, right over the steel chains.

"The dimensional friction has to leave a residue," Elias muttered to himself, adjusting his wire connections. "A biological footprint. If I can agitate the cellular structure, the dormant frequency will reveal itself on the spectrum."

He walked over to the massive, humming console. He placed his hand on a heavy black dial.

"Elias, no!" Roxy screamed, her voice cracking.

He turned the dial.

The machine violently roared to life. A deep, mechanical whine echoed through the basement, instantly followed by a blinding, agonizing surge of electrical current shooting directly through the copper electrodes.

The shock hit Roxy’s brain like a physical sledgehammer. Her back arched violently off the chair, the heavy steel chains groaning in protest as her muscles seized with terrifying force. It wasn’t a steady hum; it was a rhythmic, pulsing, tearing agony that ripped through her nervous system.

Her jaw locked tight, a muffled scream trapped in her throat.

The physical toll of the current was catastrophic. Her body was already entirely wrecked from giving birth mere days ago. The violent muscle spasms tore through her healing abdomen, ripping open the delicate tissue. A warm, terrifying rush of fresh blood soaked immediately into the ruined emerald silk of her nightgown.

Elias stood in front of the green monitors, his gray eyes narrowed in deep concentration. He completely ignored her agonizing convulsions, watching the jagged lines of data spike and fall on the screens.

When the first cycle ended, the machine powered down with a heavy clunk. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Roxy slumped forward against the waist restraint, her chest heaving as she gasped for air. Tears streamed down her pale, sweat-drenched face. Her entire body trembled uncontrollably, her lower half burning with a fresh, raw agony.

"It is too weak," Elias growled, entirely frustrated. He tapped the glass of the monitor. "The reading is entirely muddled. The terrestrial biology is fighting the residual energy."

He walked back over to her, looking down at her bleeding, broken form with absolute, detached disappointment.

"You are too heavy with human sustenance," Elias concluded coldly. "The terrestrial nutrients in your bloodstream are acting as a dampener. We need to starve the human cells so the dimensional energy can surface. I will cease your rations entirely. Your purity will help the conduction."

Roxy couldn’t even form the words to beg. Her vision blurred, the harsh light above her fracturing into a thousand bright shards. The pain in her abdomen, the shocking trauma to her nervous system, and the sheer, suffocating terror of her captivity finally pulled her under.

Her head lolled to the side, and she fainted into the dark.

***

The Iron-Wood Manor was drowning in a silence far more terrifying than any storm.

The bustling, chaotic energy of the Beastworld empire had completely died. The grand halls, usually filled with the loud, feral laughter of the Vanguard children and the heavy, protective combat auras of the Alpha Kings, were entirely still.

Drax stood at the top of the grand staircase, his dark green eyes scanning the empty foyer. The young King of the East wore his Crown, but the iron felt completely meaningless.

He walked slowly down the steps, his boots making no sound.

The children had noticed the shift days ago. It wasn’t just the absence of their mother that was tearing the family apart; it was the chilling, unnatural behavior of their fathers.

The Warlords had completely stopped mourning. There was no more roaring, no more destruction of forests.

But they had also stopped eating. They had stopped sleeping.

For the past week, Drax had not seen Zarek, Kaelen, Torian, Syris, or Caspian take a single bite of food or rest their eyes. They moved through the Manor like silent, lethal ghosts. They did not speak to the elite guards. They barely spoke to the children. They simply gathered their most dangerous, ancient artifacts and descended into the deepest, most heavily fortified level of the estate.

They spent every single hour inside the underground Vanguard vault.

Drax reached the basement level. The air down here was thick and suffocating, vibrating with an immense, volatile pressure that made his draconic instincts scream in warning. It felt like standing on the edge of a massive, unstable volcano right before it erupted.

He approached the massive, solid iron doors of the vault. The heavy deadbolts were thrown shut from the inside, but the gap beneath the door glowed with a sickening, unnatural crimson light. The smell of burning blood, ozone, and ancient, forbidden magic leaked out into the corridor.

They were doing something catastrophic.

Drax raised his fist and pounded heavily against the iron.

"Father!" Drax called out, his deep voice carrying the authority of a sovereign ruler. "You need to come out! You have not rested in days. The borders need attention. The children are terrified. Open the door!"

The chanting and the heavy, buzzing sound of the volatile magic inside abruptly stopped.

A heavy silence stretched for a long, agonizing moment.

Then, the massive iron deadbolts slowly slid back with a loud, grinding screech. The heavy door pulled open just a few inches.

Zarek stood in the narrow gap.

Drax’s breath caught in his throat. His father looked entirely unrecognizable. The Dragon King’s skin was ashen and heavily covered in sweat and dried blood. His dark hair was matted, and his chest heaved with exhaustion.

But it was his eyes that truly terrified Drax.

Zarek’s golden eyes possessed absolutely zero warmth. There was no fatherly pride, no arrogant Warlord amusement, and no grief. They were completely, utterly hollow, radiating a cold, dead, and entirely lethal singularity. It was a look of absolute, terrifying detachment.

"Go back upstairs, Drax," Zarek ordered. His voice was a raspy, jagged whisper that did not sound human.

"What are you doing down here?" Drax demanded, trying to push past his fear. "What is that magic? You are draining yourselves! If you die—"

"I said, go back upstairs," Zarek repeated. He did not raise his voice. He simply stared at his son with a look so cold, so entirely devoid of anything resembling the man who had raised him, that Drax physically stepped back.

It was the look of a monster who had already accepted his own death.

Before Drax could say another word, Zarek quietly shut the door directly in his face. The deadbolts slammed back into place, and the terrible, unnatural chanting resumed.

***

The freezing dampness of the basement crept into Roxy’s bones, slowly dragging her back to consciousness.

She did not know how much time had passed. Hours. Days. The windowless room completely erased the concept of time. Her stomach cramped with a violent, agonizing hunger that made her entirely nauseous. Her lips were cracked and bleeding from severe dehydration, and her throat felt like it was filled with broken glass.

She opened her eyes, her head slumped against her chest.

Across the room, Elias was pacing furiously back and forth in front of his monitors. He was gripping a handful of his gray hair, muttering frantically to himself.

"Nothing," Elias hissed, kicking the leg of his desk. "Absolutely nothing. The frequency isn’t holding. The cellular structure is too dense."

He spun around, glaring at Roxy with a look of pure, unadulterated hatred.

"You are a dud," Elias snarled, spitting the words at her. "A complete dud specimen. You have the radiation, but your body refuses to act as a conduit. You are useless."

Roxy didn’t even have the strength to lift her head. She just let the tears fall, too weak to sob. She was going to die in this chair. She was going to bleed out and starve in a dark basement, completely forgotten by the universe.

"Perhaps the baseline is too low," Elias muttered, his eyes darting back to the machine. He walked quickly to the console, his hand hovering over the heavy black dial. "We need to break the baseline."

Roxy’s eyes widened slightly in terror as she saw his hand grip the dial.

"No," Roxy croaked, the word barely audible.

Elias didn’t just turn it. He violently cranked the dial all the way to the right.

The machine shrieked.

The voltage that tore through the copper electrodes this time was absolutely apocalyptic. It felt like liquid fire being poured directly into her veins. Roxy’s spine snapped completely rigid against the chair, her head throwing violently back as every single muscle in her body locked in absolute, blinding agony.

"Zarek!" Roxy screamed, her vocal cords tearing as she unleashed a raw, desperate, blood-curdling cry into the dark. "Torian! Please! Kaelen! Syris! Caspian!"

She screamed for her mates until the edges of her vision completely blacked out, begging for the heavy, protective combat auras that had always kept her safe. She begged for the monsters who loved her.

But the door did not break down. The basement remained completely sealed.

Only the loud, mechanical whirring of Elias’s machine answered her.

Was there no longer hope for her life?