Chapter 33

Carl and his group are pulled from the necropolis into the deep ocean aboard the Akula submarine, where they discover six dead changeling principals including Henrik. As they attempt to escape, a massive sharktopus boss named Lusca appears and swallows the submarine, triggering a special event boss battle that is being live-commentated by game show hosts. The group has ten minutes before Lusca's babies finish eating and the creature digests them.

Carl leads Tran and Vadim through the Akula's bridge while intense boss music plays. He realizes Henrik and five other changeling principals died here, and the mysterious watch is on Henrik's body. Katia messages that she's trapped in the submarine and must flee toward them; Carl instructs her to enter through an airlock. The submarine is pulled down to 1,500 meters depth. When Carl loots Henrik's corpse, the world freezes twice as system messages about a Syndicate court case regarding Gate of the Feral Gods pieces flash by before being automatically dismissed. Carl finds a torn book page on Henrik describing Wailing Shriekers—non-corporeal ghosts formed from grieving widows, defeated by exorcism or electricity. He deduces Henrik's team came to give the ghost Quetzalcoatlus physical form, likely using Wynne, but failed and were killed. Katia, Tran, and Vadim arrive in the bridge. As they prepare to reach the escape hatch, a massive glowing sharktopus approaches the window. The world freezes and a boss battle begins, officially announced as Lusca, an Octo-Shark Brood Mother Queen Level 82 City Boss. Two game show hosts—Kevin and an orc named Magnificent Troy—appear to live-commentate the battle. The sharktopus swallows the submarine whole, breaking it in half and trapping the group in its mouth for ten minutes while its babies feed.