The remaining Agents of Morose chased after Iris as she ascended the main mast towards the crow's nest. Her robes were soaked through and her skin was chilled by the rain, her hair had come completely loose from its bun and now fluttered erratically in the wind, and water poured down her face and sputtered around her mouth with each heavy, gasping breath. It felt as much like swimming as it did climbing, her muscles ached and her mana was running low, but if she paused for even a moment the agents would surround her.

She did her best to always keep enough mana in reserve for at least one desperate blip and otherwise relied on leaping and climbing to traverse as much as possible. Some quick thought was given to the idea of using her broom-staff, but she worried about getting picked out of the air by the flying monsters.

The stormed disappeared on the port-side as if snatched away by the will of a god. One half of the ship still punched through wind and rain, while the other basked in sunlight shining down an enormous column of open air ringed by the ferocious storm. The ship tilted in response, turning almost horizontal to ride the wall of the storm's eye like waves of an ocean.

Crew were thrown overboard and cannons were flung through their ports. Iris hung from the almost-horizontal mast, suspended by tentacles reaching out from her palm to wrap around a flailing rope. The agents pursuing her had a harder time adjusting, some falling away from the mast before blipping back towards it. She glanced towards the crow's nest, where she spotted Glimmer swooping below it to catch a leaping Eli on her back.

Beyond the crow's nest, in the center of the storm's eye, was a monumental pillar of water suspended in a stable state as if taking that shape was its natural inclination. Inside the pillar was a giant -- not a stone giant from Gellorn, but what appeared to a scaly mermaid several times larger than the Gaping Maw. Her hair floated calmly around her head, while her piercing gaze stared down at the ship like a hawk eying its prey.

The agents of morose gathered on the horizontal mast above Iris. The rope she was hanging from was attached to one of the beams that now pointed almost straight downwards, quite some distance from the mast upon which they stood. If their goal was to sever the rope and send her falling, that would be a trivial task. However, if their goal was capture her -- as she suspected -- that would pose a much more complex problem. She chose to continue hanging there for now, making the most of the opportunity to let her mana recharge while she thought of a plan.

A serene voice sang from every direction, "Captain Clement, I genuinely hoped you wouldn't make it this far."

The captain now balanced on the posts of the railing behind the helm as if standing on a ladder, still clutching a chain in one hand to balance the wings of the ship that now dipped in and out of the storm almost like oars dipping in and out of water.

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"Petresca!" he roared across the gap between his ship and the goddess, "you selfish bitch!"

An amused and shocked scoff escaped the goddess's mouth, "you call me selfish? While you seek to deprive me of my greatest disciple? Well, one of my greatest--"

"I seek to stand beside you!" he interrupted, "it's you who wants to stop me!"

The pillar of water lurched hundreds of feet forward in a second to bring the goddess close. Her shadow spread across the ship as she loomed over it like a person crouching over a bug, "you seek only my throne, fueled by insolent and ungrateful ambition!"

"You should be eager to see me ascend!" the Shark Titan called out, "we could stand together in the coming war, I could place the crown of gods upon your head!"

Petresca laughed, "empty promises from a would-be usurper!"

"It doesn't have to be like this!" the captain was almost pleading, "you don't have to do this!"

"There will be no god of the Shining Blue but me. If your words are earnest, then abandon your quest and slay the hydra."

The Shark Titan's chest heaved with every breath. The chain wrapped around his arm bit into his scales. He glanced across the deck, where Meredith stood on the base of a mast and firmly shook her head before glancing downwards. He followed her gaze to the expanse of churning of waters at the bottom of the eye. They hadn't reached the sea, not truly, but in her arrogance Petresca had brought the sea to them.

He cackled a genuine, earnest laugh that boomed like thunder. It carried on and on, and a frown crossed Petresca's face.

"What is this?" she asked, "have you gone mad in your final hours?"

"You're too late," the captain called out, "you've delivered me godhood on a platter!"

The pillar of water moved away as Petresca withdrew back to the center of the eye with a confident expression, briefly glancing ahead of the ship, "we shall see."

A massive blade of wind carved a trench through the eyewall as it raced towards the Gaping Maw, impacting it at the bow just off-center and slicing effortlessly through its hull. It carved deep into the ship, passing through it at an angle before erupting from the starboard side and severing the ship in two.

The mast from which Iris hung splintered into pieces, the Agents of Morose blipping away as she fell away from the ship. She blipped onto a chunk of passing debris, kicking off before blipping again and conjuring her broom-staff to carry her upwards through the remains of the ship that fell all around her. She looked for the stern, where the galley -- and hopefully her friends -- would be, but it had already been swallowed by the storm.

The front of the ship tumbled away from the eyewall towards the center of the storm. The hydra emerged from the gaping hole and lashed out to devour any living thing it could reach as more heads rapidly grew from its body.

Iris frantically searched for any sign of any of her friends -- but she saw only wreckage and rain. A glint of gold caught her eye, and an instant later the tailfin of a huge golden fish slammed into her chest and knocked her off the broom-staff.

Though she plummeted through the air, the debris falling with her gave the impression that she was suspended in place. There was still no glimpse of her friends, not even Eli or Glimmer, and the Gaping Maw was no more.

There was no option left -- she reached up to her neck and clutched the locket her mother had given her.