Lily stumbled through the ship's bowels, the crew's hisses echoing behind her. "Gold for blood… blood for gold…" Their voices slithered through cracks in the walls, closer with every step. She ducked into a narrow passage, her shoulder slamming against a warped door marked STORAGE. The latch gave way, and she collapsed inside, barricading the door with a rusted barrel.
The room reeked of mildew and rotting hemp. Moonlight speared through a cracked porthole, illuminating sacks of spoiled grain and coiled rigging that hung like nooses. Lily slumped against the wall, her breath ragged, the ledger clutched to her chest. Nerites' name throbbed in her mind, its syllables etched into her skull by the pact's cursed ink.
A cold draft swept the room. The air thickened, and Élodie materialized before her—a spectral figure flickering like a dying candle. Her form was translucent, edges fraying into mist, her face gaunt and strained.
"Grandma…?" Lily whispered, tears blurring her vision.
Élodie's voice echoed, distant and watery. "Lily. You must listen. It is coming."
"Who? Nerites?"
Élodie nodded. "In 1983, I stole his locket—the captain's locket. Chanted Setiren thrice to weaken him. It gave me just enough time to escape with your father." Her spectral hands trembled. "But the protection… it was never permanent. When I died, the chain broke. Nerites returned."
Lily's throat tightened. "How do we stop him now?"
Élodie drifted closer. "The chant weakens him. Two voices… stronger than one. But to kill him—"
The walls groaned. Black seawater oozed under the door, pooling into tendrils that snaked toward Lily's feet.
"What happens if we kill him?" Lily pressed, scrambling back.
Élodie's form flickered violently. "The one who strikes his heart… drowns with the ship. I never dared try. I only wanted to save James—"
The storage room shuddered. Barnacles erupted from the walls, their shells cracking open to spew brackish slime. Nerites' face pressed through the wood—a shifting mosaic of drowned sailors, their bloated mouths gaping in silent screams. Eels slithered in the hollows of their eyes.
Élodie screamed. "Go! Find your father! Together, you can—"
A tendril of seaweed and bone lashed out, wrapping around her throat. Lily froze, terror clawing up her spine as Nerites dragged Élodie toward the wall.
"Grandma!"
Élodie's fingers brushed Lily's cheek, cold as the deep. "Break the cycle…"
Her form dissolved into saltwater, sucked into Nerites' maw. The entity turned its hollow gaze on Lily, and she fled.
James staggered through flooding corridors, the captain's locket searing his palm. The hook in his grip dripped seawater, its edge dulled by rust and salt. Ghostly crewmen lunged from the shadows, but he swung the hook, scattering them into mist.
In a collapsing gallery, he found a mural: Théodore Marchand kneeling before a shadowy figure, accepting a chest of gold bars. Beneath it, scrawled in blood:
"Only iron forged in dread can pierce the heart."
James gripped the hook tighter. Cursed iron. This is the key.
The locket pulsed—thud, thud, thud—guiding him downward. Toward Lily. Toward the end.
The engine room door loomed before them, rusted and groaning, its surface scarred with claw marks. Lily pressed her back against the cold metal, her breath ragged as James emerged from the shadows, the captain's locket glowing like a drowned star in his hand.
"You're alive," she whispered, relief and dread twisting in her chest.
"Barely." James's face was pale, his clothes soaked through. He held up the hook, its edge crusted with blackened salt. "Théodore said this could pierce his heart. But it's cursed. The striker drowns."
Lily gripped the ledger tighter. "His name is Nerites. If we chant Setiren three times while holding the locket—"
"—it weakens him. I know." James cut her off, his voice hollow. "Élodie told you."
"We do it together," Lily insisted. "Two voices make the chant stronger. Then… we decide who strikes."
James shook his head, seawater dripping from his hair. "There's no 'we.' You're the last heir." He yanked his broken locket from his neck, the snapped chain glinting. "Take this. If I don't make it, bury it with your grandmother. Let her know I tried."
Lily recoiled. "No. You don't get to choose this alone!"
"I broke the chain, Lily!" James's voice cracked. "This is my fault. My debt."
The ship shuddered. Behind them, the crew materialized from puddles of brackish water—sailors with bloated faces and milky eyes, their tattered uniforms dripping.
"Gold for blood…" they chanted, advancing.
James shoved the broken locket into Lily's hand. "Stay behind me."
"Dad—!"
He turned to the door, the captain's locket flaring. "We chant first. Argue later."
Together, they slammed their shoulders into the door. Rust flaked away, revealing the engine room—a cavern of corroded machinery, seawater churning in a vortex at its center. Above it, Nerites loomed.
The entity was a nightmare of the deep: a tower of waterlogged corpses fused with splintered masts and anchors, eels slithering through its ribcage. Its heart pulsed—a black orb veined with bioluminescent algae, suspended in a cage of rusted chains.
"Now!" Lily shouted.
They raised the locket, its light cutting through the gloom.
"Setiren!"
The name echoed, sharp and dissonant. Nerites roared, tendrils of seaweed lashing the air.
"Setiren!"
The crew writhed, their forms dissolving into mist. The heart quivered, algae glowing feverishly.
"Setiren!"
Nerites reared back, howling. The chains around his heart snapped.
James lunged, hook raised. Lily grabbed his arm. "Together!"
He met her gaze, tears mingling with seawater. "For Mom."
She nodded, voice breaking. "For Grandma."
They plunged the hook into the heart.
Light erupted—blinding, annihilating—as the ship screamed around them.