Beneath the starry sky, dim tides churned along the edge of the island. Amid the sound of crashing waves, a gigantic shadow emerged from the water.
Judging by its rough outline, it resembled an enormous black crocodile. Yet its head had no features, only a savage gaping maw that split all the way to its neck. Its tail had bizarrely divided into two, like a pair of tentacles swaying through the air. At the end of each tentacle grew a dark green eye, emitting a faint green glow in the darkness.
Its body was comparable in size to a medium-sized cruise ship, yet it was incredibly fast. After crawling out of the waves, its body slipped into the ground like a shadow, leaving only the two tentacle-eyes on the surface, like submarine periscopes protruding from the sea as they swiftly swam across the ground.
Judging by the aura emanating from them, they were all divine-beast level.
Under the dim starlight, three Black Crocodiles came ashore from three different directions and vanished from the beach in an instant.
One of the Black Crocodiles sped through the dark forest. Since its true body had transformed into a shadow and slipped into the earth, the tangled terrain posed no obstacle to its massive form. Excitement surfaced in the pair of dark green eyes floating above the ground.
Decades ago, their race had infiltrated Great Xia under that lord's orders. Relying on their exceptional talent for concealment, they had lurked at the Bottom of the Deep Sea within Great Xia for many years. Great Xia's borders were now sealed off by the Great Xia Gods and the War Pass, but those like them, who had long been hidden in the deep sea, had gone undiscovered.
After decades of lurking, their race had finally received