Standing atop the sea, the towering blood crocodile raised its head toward the dark, gloomy sky and let out a thunderous roar.
Rainwater slammed down along its iron-hard skin, splashing icy droplets everywhere.
At the same time, the armor-like plating on its body began to peel away.
It turned into iron fragments filling the sky, dancing wildly in the storm like crazed dark clouds.
The blood-colored shards whipping through the air rubbed at high speed, seemingly tearing the raindrops into hundreds of narrow crescent shapes.
The Sea Folk trembled as they tilted their heads back, staring at the red crocodile giant, their bodies leaning backward.
The surrounding storm of iron fragments filled them with extreme fear, a powerful sense of danger shooting from their spines straight into their nerves.
At this moment, just by looking up, they could see it clearly.
The massive school of fish was held in Leighton's hand, like a small fish bound tight.
Compared to the enormous crocodile, they looked utterly fragile.
In Leighton's palm, the fish struggled constantly, trying to break free.
But their strength, compared to Leighton's, was far too insignificant.
The crocodile straightened up from a half-crouch, standing tall and imposing. One hand tightly gripped the "head" of the fish school, then smashed it viciously toward the seabed.
Pa!
When the fish struck the sea surface, a crisp sound rang out.
The moment they hit the water, the school scattered like startled birds, turning into tiny points of light that drilled down toward the depths.
Only a single small fish remained clenched in Leighton's palm, struggling nonstop like a dizzy little shrimp, blowing tiny bubbles from its mouth.
The crocodile's slender fingertips pinched its tail, dangling it in midair.
The little fish twisted its body helplessly, looking exactly like a loach doing sit-ups in the air.
"I… I… please, don't eat me!" the little fish trembled in terror.
The crocodile stared at the wriggling fish with crimson eyes and snorted coldly.
"Eat you? What are you supposed to be?"
"A talking fish, I wouldn't dare eat that."
With that, Leighton held the little fish suspended in midair.
Standing behind Henny, it slowly bent down.
The hand holding the little fish hovered in front of Henny.
The dangling fish revealed its fear in panic, hugging itself tightly with its remaining two fins and begging Henny, "Councilor, we won't do it again, we really won't."
It panicked, lying flat on the crocodile's palm.
At first, it thought that since this was Sea City, it could at least spar a bit with a councilor from the Mage Council.
Who would have thought this councilor wouldn't play fair at all and would summon a monster of this level.
How could a tiny fish like it compare to a crocodile?
Now the little fish was truly dumbfounded. It finally realized just how big the gap was between Sea City and the Mage Council.
At this moment, Henny sighed, the traces of grievance still lingering in the corners of her eyes, and said, "I am not a councilor."
"What?"
'You're not a councilor?'
The little fish looked at Henny, suddenly at a loss.
'If you're not a councilor, how can you carry such a monster around with you?'
'Then who exactly are you?'
The little fish lifted its head and stared wide-eyed at the ferocious crocodile.
Just its upper body alone was already level with tall buildings, and it was still bent over.
If it stood upright, it would probably be larger than half a district.
No wonder even the City of Mages couldn't afford to raise something like this.
At this moment, Henny blinked and asked the little fish, "You said you won't dare anymore. What do you mean by that?"
"Uh…"
The little fish clearly looked troubled, as if it had been left speechless by the question.
At first, it thought someone from the council had come knocking, which was why it showed obvious panic.
But now, it knew the other party's background.
Since she wasn't from the council, what was there to panic about?
No, wait. If she wasn't a councilor, how was that councilor badge supposed to be explained?
Thinking of this, it shouted toward a nearby guard whose face was pale and body tense from fear, "Bring that badge over from earlier."
The guard stumbled and dove into the sea, disappearing.
Soon, ripples spread across the surface again, and the guard leapt out from the depths, coming before the little fish.
In his hand was a badge marked with three broken human heads.
The little fish kept stretching out its inch-long fin, but no matter what, it couldn't reach the badge.
It got angry.
"Are you stupid? Look at me, can I take it?"
It was being pinched by the crocodile and couldn't move at all.
Only then did the guard seem to realize, hurriedly handing the badge to Henny.
Henny took it. She was naturally very familiar with this badge.
It was the symbol of the professor's councilor identity.
The little fish looked at Henny, who remained calm and showed no surprise at all, and blinked.
'Damn, so they know each other.'
The guard hadn't clearly told it how many people had come, after all, it thought only one councilor had arrived.
Besides, it hadn't learned the councilor's gender from the guard either.
Once, a councilor from the Mage Council had traveled through different seas under various identities, inspecting them.
And Sea City's actions, strictly speaking, were something that this self-proclaimed righteous organization could not accept.
As the city lord here, the little fish had always done its best to stay on guard.
So after seeing Henny take over the entire Upper City, it assumed she was that councilor.
After all, subduing the entire Upper City of Sea City in a single night.
Other than a councilor, the little fish couldn't think of anyone with that kind of power.
But this also raised another doubt in the little fish's mind.
If the girl in front of it was not a councilor.
Then where was the real councilor?
However, no one answered its doubts. Henny's questions came one after another.
"You are the city lord here, right?"
The little fish nodded repeatedly, not daring to show the slightest delay.
Henny felt a bit confused.
"The residents here are almost all human."
"Why is it that only you, the city lord, are…"
'In the shape of a fish?'
The little fish was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Because I was originally a fish."
From the day it was born, it lived with its kind in the vast, boundless ocean, freely swimming about.
At first, the little fish could not speak and had no extra thoughts.
Only the instinct to survive.
Eating seaweed in the ocean, hiding from other predators.
Because they were the weakest race in the sea, a single one on its own would only become food for others.
So as a group, they had to band together.
"Do you know? It was humans who gave me thoughts and power, turning me into what I am now."
The little fish swayed its fins as it spoke.
"But I hate humans."
Humans used magic recklessly, relied on magic, yet showed no respect for nature at all.
For the sake of their comfortable lives, they dumped massive amounts of industrial waste into the vast ocean.
This waste gradually polluted the once clear and blue sea, with choking smells and burning sensations spreading with the currents.
Compared to natural predators, this was an even more unbearable threat to ocean creatures like them.
The ocean was tainted, their home destroyed.
Many of the little fish's companions were not spared, dying one after another in despair.
Only it survived alone.
Surviving stubbornly in the polluted environment caused the little fish to mutate.
It even learned to speak, developed thoughts, and became stronger.
Those companions that died from pollution could not even decompose.
It cried out to the ocean, asking the ocean for help.
It wanted to live.
It wanted those humans to pay the price.
And so, the ocean responded to it.
It was granted the power of the "group."
As long as it wished, it could summon the corpses of its dead companions.
Because their bodies could not decompose, they became its helpers.
This was why the little fish could survive safely in this sea and step by step become the city lord of Sea City.
Henny simply watched the little fish silently, then spoke, "I want to see your companions again."
"Mr. Crocodile, put it down first."
"Uh, okay."
Leighton scratched his head and casually tossed the little fish into the sea, like throwing a stone.
The little fish did not leave. Instead, it summoned the fish school to regroup.
Countless silver-white fish like itself gathered together and attached themselves to its body.
Then, in an instant, it transformed into a massive, ferocious fish monster.
The outer fish were like scales, flashing cold silver light.
But they were lifeless, steeped in death.
Henny quietly watched its transformation.
At first, she thought the little fish was some kind of monster.
But monsters had never been like this, possessing intelligence and even able to communicate normally with humans.
The little fish's voice sounded again, "Do you see it? The miserable state of my dead companions."
"That is why I hate humans."
It paused for a moment, then continued, "Do you know how these Sea Folk came to appear in this Sea City?"
As it spoke, it looked around at the Sea Folk nearby, who were gripped by extreme fear due to Leighton's presence.
"They were humans who lived on certain islands, lost in the ocean, forced to enter Sea City and become 'Sea Folk.'"
"They cared about nothing, fished for fun, and kept polluting the ocean."
"So I want them to taste what it feels like to be bound by the sea."
In this Sea City, they could feel emotions, but they were like numb puppets.
Aside from having feelings, they could not take any action.
"Do you know why they seek offerings?"
Henny shook her head in confusion, while the little fish laughed freely.
"Because they want to die. They are begging for death!"
Under the interference of the Ocean Pact, these Upper City Sea Folk could neither live nor die as they wished.
Once merged into the ocean, they could only act according to the controller's orders.
Their actions were controlled, their life and death without choice.
So they could only place their hopes in offerings, hoping to become offerings themselves.
"They even hope to become food for the ocean!"
At this point, the little fish's voice grew more and more agitated, its whole body trembling slightly.
Deep inside, there was a faint urge to vent. Saying all of this made it feel extremely satisfied.
As if all of humanity's crimes had been repaid by it, one by one.
Yes, everything it did was an outlet for its anger toward humans.
The little fish gradually calmed down, gently swinging the huge tail formed from countless corpses of its kind, swimming slowly around Henny.
It knew very well that these matters were all secrets of Sea City.
Yet it still told everything to this unfamiliar human woman.
Not because it feared the massive crocodile.
Once it entered the ocean, it had nothing to fear.
Even if it couldn't win, it could run. The vast sea always had a place for it.
But for some reason, it felt a strange sense of goodwill toward this human girl.
It was an emotion it could not control.
"Mm… you are the only human I don't dislike, so there are some things I'll only say to you."
Henny froze slightly as the little fish's voice rang by her ear.