The cameras panned slowly through the abyss.
There it was—an entire city carved into the trench, hidden beneath kilometers of black water.
What the live feed revealed defied reason. Rows of massive pavilions stretched into the distance, their pillars eroded by time yet standing tall against the ocean's crushing weight. Streets wound like rivers of stone between towering spires, and statues of long-forgotten deities loomed in silence. Some had faces eroded beyond recognition, others still bore cruel smiles or stern glares, watching the intruders trespass upon their domain.
Time had pressed itself into every crack, every arch, every collapsed bridge. The place was ancient—older than any civilization humanity could name.
And yet, impossibly, it was alive with eerie bioluminescence. Coral and fungi pulsed with pale fire, lighting the city with an unholy glow. It looked less like a ruin and more like a cathedral… a kingdom in the abyss.
The Marvel world watching the broadcast fell into stunned silence.
> "What the hell—this is a city?!"
"No way… a civilization at the bottom of the sea?"
"It's like Atlantis, but darker… older… wrong."
Even hardened S.H.I.E.L.D. agents gaped at the sight.
Natasha Romanoff whispered, "Mermaids… they really had their own civilization?"
Nick Fury narrowed his eye. "Or maybe this isn't a civilization. Maybe it's a prison."
---
Should They Explore?
The MTF captain's voice broke the silence.
"Command, awaiting orders. Do we explore the city?"
His words sent tension rippling through both the command room and the livestream chat.
But before anyone could respond, the captured mermaid screeched through the intercom, its voice distorted yet dripping with rage:
"You will never be allowed to act rashly! This city is forbidden!"
The command ignored it. The minister's eyes gleamed with greed. "Record everything. This is SCP-CN-492-DAY: evidence that these anomalies can build civilizations."
He tapped furiously at his console, cross-referencing files. "Yes… here it is. Abnormal Society Archive No. 87—Mermaids. We've known of them for centuries."
James frowned, but before he could speak, the mermaid shrieked again.
"We are the guards of the Abyss! You intruded, you dragged me here—release me and leave at once!"
Her voice was raw with fury, but no one in the command room cared. To the researchers, she was just another SCP. Another specimen.
"Request denied," the minister snapped. "Bring it back to Site storage."
Suddenly, his signal light blinked red. The feed glitched.
"What—signal cut?!" he barked.
The command center fell into uneasy silence. James narrowed his eyes, an instinct gnawing at him.
Something wasn't right.
---
The Voice
The comms crackled alive again.
"…No need. We've reviewed the files on No. 87. Focus on the humanoid entity instead."
Everyone froze.
Because the voice that spoke… was the minister's.
The real minister turned pale. "That… wasn't me."
A chill swept through the room. If it wasn't him—then who?
James' expression hardened. "The mermaid. She's mimicking your voice."
Rage replaced fear. The minister slammed the console. "Damn it! She's manipulating the comms. Abyss Gazers, listen to me—the last voice wasn't ours! Continue exploration!"
But inside the submarine, the team only heard the false command.
"…Understood. Releasing the entity now."
The crew dragged the mermaid to the hatch. One of them hesitated. "Are we sure? This thing nearly crushed the hull…"
"Orders are orders," another muttered.
With that, they opened the chamber. The mermaid swam free.
She turned back, her face twisted in an eerie smile.
"Thank your command for my freedom. May your eternity in the Abyss be endless pain."
Then she was gone.
The submarine crew went silent. One whispered hoarsely, "…we were tricked."
---
Systems Failing
"Return to surface," the captain ordered grimly.
But panic struck moments later.
"Ascension system's destroyed!"
"What?!"
"I'll try to repair it, but—it looks deliberate. Like something clawed through the gears."
The crew muttered in panic. "We're trapped."
In the command room, the minister looked ill. "At least they're alive… let them stabilize and regroup."
But then came another voice from the sub.
"Reality anchor reading—Hume index 29!"
The command center erupted.
"Twenty-nine?!"
James clenched his fists. They weren't in the trench anymore. They were somewhere else—slipping further into Yaldabaoth's dominion.
And worst of all—the submarine vanished from radar entirely.
---
The False Squid
Inside the sub, the Abyss Gazers caught sight of a shape glowing faintly in the dark.
"There—giant squid, maybe twenty or thirty meters."
"Should we capture it?"
"Go ahead. It's small compared to the others we've seen."
The minister allowed himself a fragile smile. "Perhaps they've returned to safer waters. Twenty meters is manageable."
But James wasn't convinced. He pointed sharply at the radar. "Zoom in on Camera Seven. Playback, seventeen seconds."
The operator obeyed nervously, sweat dripping as he compiled feeds from twelve lenses. Piece by piece, the images stitched together.
At first all they saw was the glowing squid drifting in the current. Harmless. Ordinary.
But James' voice cut cold. "Shrink. Sharpen. Again."
The operator zoomed. Again. And again. Until the squid became no more than a glowing speck in the center of the frame.
And then—everyone in the command room gasped.
---
The Colossal Shadow
Behind the tiny squid hung something vast. A shadow stretching across the abyss like a mountain uncoiled.
No—bigger than a mountain. It was a continent of flesh.
The squid wasn't prey. It wasn't even a creature.
It was bait.
Compared to the shadow, the glowing cephalopod was a firefly before a sun. Its body length—twenty meters—was nothing. Insignificant.
So how large was the thing hiding behind it?
The minister staggered backward, his face ashen. Words failed him. The researchers gripped their chairs, their knuckles white. Some of the younger ones broke into sobs.
The livestream chat went insane:
> "That's not a creature, that's a god!"
"It's bigger than the mermaid city!"
"The ocean isn't an ocean anymore—it's a cage for this thing!"
"If that's real… then SCP-3000, the 'giant eel,' is a minnow compared to this!"
The Marvel world was silent. Even Stark, who always had a quip, sat frozen, whispering, "That… that's not a living thing. That's a nightmare."
At Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One trembled. "The scale… even Yaldabaoth's concept… even the Crimson King—none shook me like this."
And in his cosmic sanctum, Uatu the Watcher muttered, almost reverent:
"This… is supreme divinity. And no mortal mind should gaze upon it."
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