“Tsathoggua, the so-called Great Toad God!
I’m not one of your followers, and I have no intention of ever worshipping you!
So save your bullshit.
It won’t work on me!”
“But right now, the Cthulhu Dimension is facing an unprecedented crisis!”
“I need your power to find Cthulhu-Rick and help your world survive this disaster!”
Morty stood on the rocky shore, holding the Book of Eibon in both hands.
He delivered the incantation casually, without a trace of religious fervor.
As Rick listened to Morty use the Book of Eibon’s incantation to “borrow power” from the big shot behind it, he silently looked up at the sky with an expression that said he had no idea who this moron was.
Cthulhu, the leader of a major faction and the official face of the Cthulhu Mythos, had submerged his entire body in the ocean.
Only his three pairs of eye stalks remained, hovering about a meter beneath the surface.
Morty’s bullshit alone would have been enough for Cthulhu, as a fellow Great Old One, to erase him on behalf of his good buddy.
But the situation was complicated.
The Deep Ones and the Star-Spawn of Cthulhu he had dispatched had already left R’lyeh and spread out in every direction to search for Cthulhu-Rick.
So as for that incantation, which was not only lacking in reverence but practically insulting…
I, Old Cthulhu, didn’t hear a damn thing!
The seawater blocks sound way too well!
Got a problem with that?
Then come take a dip in the ocean yourself, you giant freshwater toad!
Morty repeated the incantation several times.
At last, he managed to summon the giant toad.
Tsathoggua, the Toad God.
The gods of the Cthulhu Dimension were not exactly on-call delivery guys who appeared whenever someone summoned them.
Still, Morty’s distinctive, or rather openly provocative, incantation and the energy carried in his voice had caught the attention of this “Sleeper.”
Especially since Old Cthulhu’s entire family was lurking beneath the water right beside him…
That made the message pretty damn clear.
You people need me for something big!
So he came.
A gigantic creature bearing the features of both a bat and a toad materialized out of thin air before Morty.
The sight of that enormous, bloated toad body made Morty think that although Cthulhu also loved sleeping, at least the guy had slept his way into a body packed with muscle.
Now look at this loser.
He had slept his way into nothing but fat!
Apparently, sleeping at the bottom of the ocean really did help a Sleeper stay in shape.
All that pressure beneath the surface must have done wonders for the body.
That was Old Cthulhu for you!
Being the glorious face of the Cthulhu Dimension was a heavy responsibility.
He had an image to maintain, after all.
Cthulhu: “…”
The Great Toad: “…”
Rick: “…”
The Great Toad had arrived before them through some kind of portal.
He looked incredibly sluggish, like the exact opposite of a lively young man.
In a slow, reserved voice, he asked, “Human who can resist the Voice of Madness, why have you summoned me?”
“This world is about to be destroyed.”
The Great Toad: “…”
Asshole!
I just got here!
Don’t scare me like that!
Don’t think you can intimidate me by opening with a couple of dramatic lines!
When is this world not on the verge of destruction?
The Great Toad’s eyes suddenly widened.
When Morty realized they could grow to twice their normal size, he sighed in disappointment.
Those beady little eyes had almost made him crack a joke about needing a magnifying glass.
Without wasting any more time, Morty told the Great Toad the entire story about the child in Cthylla’s womb.
After hearing it, the Great Toad scratched his head.
This whole mess was beyond ridiculous.
Your daughter got knocked up by some old bastard.
Once the child in her womb is born, it will possess at least the same combat power as the Supreme God Azathoth.
Then it will be used to control countless universes?
Was this shit really that brutal?
The Great Old Ones had already been beaten into the ground by the Elder Gods.
Now they had to face another monster on Azathoth’s level?
How the hell were they supposed to fight that?
Screw it!
I’m done!
I choose to give up!
“So what I need to know is this.
What exactly did Cthulhu-Rick use your book to do?”
The Great Toad turned his gaze toward the book in Morty’s hands.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he said, “This book…
I’ve heard of it.
The author kept claiming it had something to do with me, but take an actual look at the spells inside.
It’s nothing more than a collection of incantations.
You can summon just about anyone with it.
Whether they answer is up to them.”
Cthulhu’s expression immediately darkened.
Noticing that the universe’s officially designated spokesperson was getting annoyed, the Great Toad hurriedly explained that the white-haired old man had, in fact, summoned him before.
The old man’s evil aura had left a deep impression on him.
The problem was that the guy was a little unhinged.
The moment they met, he insisted on discussing that ridiculous Theory of the Four Elements.
“The Theory of the Four Elements?
The thing that nearly ruined the Cthulhu Dimension’s entire mystique?”
From the Cthulhu Mythos, Morty had learned that the whole Four Elements concept had apparently been something a later writer insisted on adding.
Even that person eventually thought it felt out of place and abandoned the idea.
Morty had never expected Rick from this world to waste time researching it.
“So, can you find him?”
“Yes!
I planted a mark on him.
I don’t know whether he noticed it, though.
He struck me as very intelligent.”
“Then try connecting to it.”
With a thought, a faint, invisible current of energy flowed out of the Great Toad’s body and went straight into Cthylla’s stomach…
The instant it happened, the Great Toad’s face turned deathly pale.
Even his dark skin could not hide it.
Why…
Why did my mark lead directly into Cthylla’s stomach?
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that little bastard was responsible!
Sensing what had frightened the Great Toad, Cthulhu released his own energy as well.
He soon discovered that he, too, shared some kind of psychic connection with Cthylla’s womb.
After examining it more closely, they realized that the mark was not a mark at all.
It was a soul chain!
“I’m going to kill that piece of shit!”
Cthulhu and the Great Toad immediately flew into a rage.
Most monsters in the Cthulhu Dimension had no fixed form.
They only adopted relatively stable appearances when they needed to communicate with certain creatures, or when they wanted their minions to build statues of them.
In that sense, they were essentially beings composed of spirit.
The existence of a soul chain therefore revealed an extremely serious problem.
Their souls had already been bound to the child in Cthylla’s womb.
The one behind all of this was naturally Cthulhu-Rick.
By collecting all kinds of magical tomes, incantations, and prayers, he had bound the souls of one deity after another to the child.
With things set up this way, who could possibly harm it?
Wouldn’t killing the child mean killing every last one of them?