Well, shit…
While Rick and Cthulhu continued discussing the details off to one side, Morty crouched beside the wooden cabin and stared speechlessly at the gray sky, looking completely lost.
It was now confirmed that Rick had gone to see Cthylla.
It was also confirmed that Cthulhu Rick had gone to see Cthylla.
That made the entire sequence of events seem pretty clear.
Last time Morty and Rick came to the Cthulhu Dimension to slice off some Cthulhu squid strips and grill them, Rick had disappeared for a while.
He had actually gone after Cthylla.
After Rick left, this world’s Cthulhu Rick approached Cthylla while disguised as a normal Rick and took a second turn.
As a result, Cthylla had dragged the entire Cthulhu Dimension down from the lofty realm of the Unnameable into a story about an enraged father chasing a deadbeat across universes.
And now Rick refused to let that stand.
Someone had used the name of The Rickest Rick to pull some sneaky underhanded bullshit?
Rick had screwed his way across countless universes, but he had always openly admitted to everything he had done.
This had to be dealt with.
Even if Azathoth woke up, Old Rick would blast that bastard apart, then help his bro Cthulhu claim the number one spot on the Cthulhu Power Rankings!
“I never said that!
Quit making shit up!” Cthulhu protested.
“My loyalty to the Supreme God Azathoth is absolute!
Heaven and earth are my witnesses!”
Morty said, “…”
Their conversation had somehow gone from finding Cthulhu Rick to helping a guy Rick had just met kill his boss and become the top dog in the universe.
Morty couldn’t take it anymore.
Every extra second they spent in the Cthulhu Dimension made the situation more dangerous.
Couldn’t they just find Cthulhu Rick as fast as possible, figure out what the hell was going on, then decide whether to kill him or let him live?
Why did Rick have to drag Cthulhu into all this?
Just listen to the shit he was saying.
Cthulhu kept insisting he didn’t want any part of it, but the giant wings on his back were flapping like crazy with excitement.
At this rate, the ever-loyal Cthulhu might take Rick straight to Azathoth in the next second.
But Rick was clearly having too much fun talking.
Morty decided to search the cabin again.
If he remembered correctly, nearly every Rick in every universe liked building a secret base beneath the garage.
Earlier, Morty had been worried that Cthulhu Rick might suddenly jump him, so he hadn’t searched the area carefully.
Now that Rick was right outside the cabin, it should be safe to take a look underground.
Morty returned to the cabin and headed toward the garage.
He pulled a small metal cylinder from his pocket and pressed its button, causing a red laser blade to extend from the tip.
Rick had built the little Star Wars knockoff out of boredom.
It had mysteriously disappeared two months ago because Morty had secretly taken it.
Morty had stashed plenty of Rick’s little inventions under his bed and buried several more in the backyard.
He poked one of the flesh cocoons with the lightsaber.
After confirming that the lifeless object no longer had much defensive strength, Morty followed his memory and cleared a path to the underground base’s entrance.
He didn’t bother with anything elaborate.
The moment he found the right section of wooden floor, he drove the lightsaber straight through it.
Black mist erupted from below.
Protected by the defense system Rick had personally built for him, Morty didn’t panic.
He calmly took a step back.
The black mist slowly took shape before his eyes.
Eventually, it formed a Cthulhu Rick.
This Cthulhu version of Rick differed from the normal Rick in only two ways.
He had octopus tentacles covering his face and a pair of hairless wings on his back.
He was clearly the magical equivalent of AI Rick.
The moment he appeared and saw a Morty without facial tentacles, he froze for several seconds.
After thinking it over, he asked, “Morty from another world, have you come here because you crave power?”
The line sounded strangely familiar.
Morty answered without thinking.
“And what will it cost me, Gul…
Ahem.
Rick?”
This world had no World of Warcraft, so AI Cthulhu Rick naturally missed the Gul’dan reference.
Instead, he got straight to the point.
“If you crave power, I will grant you power.”
“But you must release me and give me a physical body!”
Morty fell silent for a second, then readily agreed.
No problem.
And if he was lying, then may a Morty drop dead.
“In that case, I will show you the power this world’s Rick sealed beneath the ground!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the wooden floorboards in front of Morty silently shifted aside.
A wooden staircase leading underground appeared.
It was pitch-black down there.
If Morty fell, he could forget about ever climbing back out.
Suspecting a trap, Morty said, “Uh, could you light the place up?”
“Don’t you have night vision?” AI Cthulhu Rick asked.
“If I had night vision, why the hell would I ask you for a light?”
“Fine.”
AI Cthulhu Rick produced an oil lamp from nowhere and lit it.
A song lyric suddenly flashed through Morty’s mind.
[The ape lights the lamp…
illuminating my home…]
With the oil lamp burning, Morty stood at the entrance to the underground base and caught a glimpse of Cthulhu Rick’s collection.
It was both thrilling and terrifying.
Once he decided there probably wasn’t any immediate danger below, Morty descended the stairs.
Weapon after weapon, tool after tool, along with all kinds of potions and specimens, appeared before him.
Nearly everything followed the same twisted fantasy Cthulhu aesthetic.
Morty was immediately disappointed.
“Don’t you have anything that doesn’t look horrifying?”
“Look at that sword.
If I pulled that thing out while trying to save somebody, the dying victim would probably grab the killer’s gun and shoot me instead!”
“And don’t you people have guns?
Forget the bows and crossbows for a second.
They’ve got strings made out of flesh that could trigger trypophobia just by looking at them.
Unless those things can fire magic arrows, what the hell would I even do with them?”
After Morty spent several minutes trashing everything in sight, AI Cthulhu Rick finally lost his temper.
You entitled little shit!
He hadn’t even introduced any of these items yet, and Morty was already picking them apart, acting like some rich kid visiting a miserable backwater.
Fine.
Morty thought this stuff was beneath him?
Then AI Cthulhu Rick would bring out the good shit.
He swept his right hand through the air, and the stone wall beside him began shifting under the control of some unseen energy.
The section covered in grotesque weapons slowly rotated.
Then a long sword blazing with golden light appeared before Morty.
“The Godslayer Sword!
What do you think?
Badass enough for you?”
“If you stab that giant octopus outside with this sword, it is one hundred percent guaranteed to die!”