Inside the main hall of R'lyeh, the undersea city deep beneath the ocean.
Morty was still growing, and he was already shorter than his sister. His grandpa was even taller than she was.
But Grandpa wasn't the one making him feel short right now.
It was all the freaks and monsters gathered in the hall.
From giant octopuses to the Great Toads, then giant bats, and even creatures cobbled together from all sorts of animals.
Not one of them looked alike, and the shortest stood dozens of meters tall. There were so many that Morty could've opened a zoo of eldritch monsters and charged admission.
As one of the Great Old Ones, Cthulhu had invited plenty of his buddies from the same faction to discuss a problem.
Namely, how to sever the connection between himself and the child in Cthylla's belly...
Morty didn't think they had much chance of succeeding.
After all, the one who'd pulled this off was Rick from this world.
As for him, he'd already learned from the Rick beside him what it meant to be unbeatable.
So these monsters were doomed to waste their time.
Rick felt the same way. This bunch had gathered together for no reason but to waste time.
After the journey down to the ocean floor,
he'd finally had enough of being bored out of his mind.
"Morty, I know this is your adventure, but how about we do something big?"
Grandpa's suggestions for doing "something big" usually involved all kinds of light pollution and toxic fumes from burning chemicals.
But Morty was tempted.
He felt like he was wasting time too!
Rather than sit here and watch these eldritch monsters, who usually did nothing but sleep or declare, "The moment I awaken, the world will tremble," rack their brains over an impossible task,
he might as well take the initiative.
Making the first move was better than crouching in the grass and waiting for the snake to show itself.
Besides, he wasn't acting on impulse.
The whole situation was clear now.
Cthulhu Grandpa, with his grand scheme, was trying to use Cthylla's pregnancy to bring an utterly disgusting monster into the world.
At the same time, he'd used a soul chain to bind all the Great Old Ones to the same cart.
And given Grandpa's attitude,
even if every eldritch monster on the battlefield died, as long as they could deal with the child in Cthylla's belly, it would all be worth it!
"So what do we do?"
Morty had followed Grandpa to a corner of the main hall. He rubbed his hands together excitedly, looking forward to watching Grandpa slaughter his way through the place.
But then Grandpa pulled the same trick as before.
He nearly made Morty spit blood in frustration.
"This is your adventure. Shouldn't you use your own brain?"
"When I take you on an adventure, do I make you whip up a pair of suction shoes on the spot, or face a hundred thousand Groot-like Aliens alone?"
"Unless I offer to help, if you ask me for help again, our adventure deal is off!"
Morty: "Fuck! You old bastard!"
After cursing him out, Morty reined in his anger and fell into deep thought.
When he came out of it,
he raised the Book of Eibon in his right hand.
The reason this spellbook counted as one of the artifacts in the Cthulhu World was, of course, that it was filled with incantations and prayers.
On top of that, the book itself was made from extremely unusual materials.
Otherwise, in the Cthulhu World, with its history stretching back billions of years—and even in the modern era, where stories happened most often—it couldn't possibly have survived intact for so long.
So...
Take a picture with his phone.
Then set it on fire!
Grandpa seemed a little embarrassed when he saw his silly grandson planning to burn the book and provoke AI Cthulhu Rick, who might be lurking in the shadows and watching everything.
"Morty, you..."
Before he could finish, the entire undersea city suddenly shuddered!
A muffled rumble rolled through the hall, as if some ancient creature buried beneath the earth were trying to end its long slumber.
The Great Old Ones, who'd been locked in heated discussion, fell silent at once. Their oddly shaped eyes turned toward the hall's entrance.
But soon, as if they'd sensed something, they all turned their attention to Morty.
Morty was hiding behind a stone pillar in the main hall. The seawater behind him seemed to freeze in place.
His heart tightened. With a stiff neck, he turned around.
The Great Old Ones wore expressions of "kind" concern. They left it to Cthulhu to say what they wanted to say, and pushed him forward. He did his best to speak calmly. "Morty, in our world, certain objects and individuals can become connected."
"Burning that book won't hurt us."
"But we've gathered here, and the energy released when the book burns could completely destroy this city."
"So..."
Cthulhu's explanation made Morty's doubts grow.
He wasn't sure when he'd first started to suspect something.
But Grandpa's suggestion just now, combined with Cthulhu's explanation, had made him seriously question this adventure!
Because it was just too weird!
Everyone knew Grandpa didn't care about anything. He'd only started caring about a few things later on.
But right now, Grandpa didn't care about anything at all!
So why had his attitude changed so drastically?
Cthulhu's behavior was even stranger.
He was the very image of eldritch horror, yet he had none of that aloof, imposing air. Whenever Morty asked a question, he patiently and carefully answered it.
He was practically an NPC!
And then there was the time Morty's intelligence had dropped by 70% because of the Mega Fruit.
For three days, Morty had said Cthulhu's name hundreds of times, yet the guy who'd crossed into another universe to try to kill him and Grandpa hadn't shown up.
This has to be a setup...
Now thoroughly convinced he'd been led into a trap, Morty eyed the eldritch monsters in front of him suspiciously.
These Great Old Ones had all gone quiet while he was silent. Not one of them even made a move?
When his sister talked to him, if he took too long to answer, she'd yell at him.
Were the Cthulhu crowd always this patient?
Morty glanced at Grandpa again.
He stood with his arms folded. He hadn't had a drink in at least half an hour, and he looked unusually alert.
Morty asked in a hollow voice, "Grandpa, be honest. This whole adventure was a setup from the start, wasn't it?"
"Otherwise, how do you explain Cthulhu's family of four crossing universes to find us, but not being able to find our house?"
"Or how I did one little favor for an AI Cthulhu Rick in that cabin, and he gave me two artifacts?"
"And whenever I need you to help me with something small, you immediately announce that this is my adventure and I have to fend for myself."
"But whenever things hit a dead end, you push the whole thing forward again."
"So you planned this whole thing from the start, didn't you?"
As Morty slowly laid out his argument, the expression on Grandpa's eternally stern face gradually turned to surprise.
"No wonder you're Jerry's son!"
"You little rascal!"
"I've always thought you were really smart!"
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