Rick struggled to move closer to them, trying to gather them and keep them safe in any way he could. However, his arms refused to respond.
He couldn't kick with his legs. He was having a hard time keeping his head above water.
Rick whispered, "No..." through lips that were covered in blood. "This can't be the end...!"
"N... Not like... this... not after all that's... happened."
Cthulhu rose into the air above him, its wound from earlier mostly healed. The Guardian opened its huge wings, and corruption gathered in its many mouths, getting ready for a final attack that would wipe out everything.
Rick could see it coming together. With each passing second, a dark sphere grew in size, drawing all the evil from the ocean into a single point above the Guardian's head.
It wouldn't merely devastate the coastal cities when it was unleashed, but it would obliterate the entire continent, and then a billion lives—gone in an instant.
Rick felt powerless to intervene.
