The old man's voice fell into silence.
Nick Fury froze. His one good eye narrowed, the words he had just heard echoing in his mind.
He wanted to snap back immediately—
What a ridiculous statement. The monster known as Taotie was the direct descendant of the Supreme God Yaldabaoth, one of the most dangerous entities in the multiverse. How could anyone call it the "untalented son of the Jinyun clan," a figure of myth known more for corruption than divinity?
But then Fury's rational mind caught up. He remembered the chains that bound Taotie, chains older than the Foundation itself. They weren't ordinary shackles. If the being who wrote those words also forged those restraints, then perhaps… perhaps history wasn't as straightforward as he thought.
"Could it be that… it actually became this way later?" Natasha Romanoff asked softly. Her eyes narrowed, suspicion gleaming in them.
Fury started to argue, but the longer he thought, the less certain he became. His gaze flicked back to the final line of the file on the glowing monitor.
And then it hit him.
The Foundation hadn't bound Taotie simply to imprison it. They had made it eat something.
Fury's face darkened. The idea was grotesque. To feed something so dangerous—to threaten it into consuming the unthinkable—was madness.
"Damn it…" he muttered. "That's insanity."
After a tense pause, he sighed. "Keep reading."
The archive concluded.
---
On the transport plane, James closed the file. A crewman approached and said respectfully, "Dr. James, we've arrived."
The aircraft descended, skimming over frozen peaks, before touching down in a desolate snowfield. The cold slammed into James as he stepped off the ramp. Before him stretched an endless landscape of white, with jagged mountains in the distance. At the foot of one such mountain sat Site-CN-51, a fortress-like research station that seemed half-carved into stone, half-swallowed by ice.
It radiated secrecy and power.
A tall man bundled in a heavy coat approached with a booming laugh. "Welcome, Dr. James! I'm Victor Hale, site director of Area-51. On behalf of the Foundation, I welcome you."
James shook his hand. Hale's grip was strong, almost too enthusiastic.
"I never expected to host one of the main site's rising researchers," Hale continued warmly. "Fifteen years ago, maybe we'd have been family."
James gave a polite nod but wasted no time. "Director Hale, let's get to it. I need everything you know about SCP-500—Taotie."
Hale's smile faded into something more serious. He straightened. "Very well. Taotie was first discovered by our branch several years ago. When we located it, it was already sealed inside an abnormal spatial anomaly."
James raised an eyebrow. "A cave-like distortion? Most karst systems exist in the southwest."
Hale gave a bitter laugh. "That's exactly the problem. Either the space itself shifted here, or this land belonged to the southwest thousands of years ago. No one can say."
James changed tack. "Tell me about the Jinyun clan."
Hale's face darkened, but he nodded. "Ancient texts describe the Jinyun clan. They had a son—lazy, greedy, corrupt. He devoured food and riches, took bribes, and plundered the people. The commoners compared him to the three great evils and called him 'Taotie,' the glutton."
James frowned. "So you're saying Taotie began as a man? A corrupt noble, twisted into legend?"
Hale shook his head. "There's no way to confirm. Legends mix truth with deception. The Abnormality Society—precursor to the Foundation—deliberately spread myths to hide reality." He paused, then glanced at James. "But Headquarters now believes Taotie is truly the offspring of Yaldabaoth."
James' expression didn't change, but Hale noticed the flicker in his eyes.
"After all," Hale said grimly, "Yaldabaoth has many faces. Creator, Destroyer… Dragon Mother, Flesh God. Even in Daxia, she was worshipped under dozens of names."
As Hale spoke, the jeep rumbled to a stop. A reinforced door loomed ahead, carved into the mountain.
"Your request to interview SCP-500 has been approved," Hale said. "Follow me."
---
The livestream audience watching through the Foundation's controlled broadcast gasped in awe.
"No wonder O5-10 said the Abnormality Society was the first warriors to walk out of the cave. They've been fighting things like this for thousands of years!" one viewer wrote.
Natasha felt a chill. "Generations of humans have stood against gods and monsters. No wonder the Foundation is so uncompromising."
Fury's jaw tightened. "Greed. That's the key. If Taotie is tied to the Jinyun clan's corruption… then maybe it isn't just a beast. It's greed incarnate."
---
James entered the containment sector. Unlike most facilities, this site was built almost entirely around one chamber: the abnormal space where Taotie slept. Hale offered him the option of donning a specialized exo-mech—designed with reality anchors, thaumaturgical shielding, and Hume detectors—but James declined.
"Taotie has never harmed anyone directly," he said calmly.
Finally, they reached the cave entrance, shrouded by a faint, glowing membrane.
James stepped through.
Light flared, then dimmed.
And the audience saw it.
A cavernous expanse stretched out endlessly, filled with towering stone pillars, jagged stalactites, and an oppressive atmosphere.
At the very center lay the monster itself.
Taotie.
The behemoth was as the files described: two to three stories tall, nearly two kilometers long. Its eyeless head bore two arched horns, while its body was covered in pale, bristling hair like woven nylon. It looked like a patchwork of creatures, its form an insult to natural order.
Even bound, it radiated terror.
Chains the size of buildings stretched from every direction, embedding deep into its flesh. The links pulsed faintly, like living muscle.
The livestream exploded with panic.
"What the hell IS that thing?!"
"No wonder they call it a Keter-level beast. That's no animal. That's a god's nightmare."
Kamar-Taj.
Watching through mystic scrying, the Ancient One pressed her temple. She recognized the aura instantly.
The bloodline of Yaldabaoth.
She whispered, "So it truly is her descendant…"
---
James approached. Taotie's horned head shifted. Beneath its arms, hidden eyes opened.
James felt a crushing weight press against his mind, but he remained composed.
"SCP-500," James said evenly. "I hope I'm not disturbing you. I'm here to speak."
The beast's reply rumbled like a tiger's roar, yet twisted into the shrill wail of a newborn.
"I don't know your voice. You're not the iron puppet that visits. You're new."
The unnatural cadence made even hardened Foundation staff shiver. Viewers online admitted the sound alone gave them nightmares.
But Taotie's words surprised them.
It wasn't furious. It wasn't violent. Its tone was almost… conversational.
Romanoff raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this thing a little too polite?"
"Don't be fooled," Fury snapped. "Look at the chains. It's only calm because it knows we can hurt it."
Back in the cavern, James ignored the discomfort in his mind and asked, "Who bound you here?"
Taotie chuckled, the sound reverberating like drums. "You can guess. I cannot speak it."
James narrowed his eyes. "Then why are you imprisoned?"
The answer chilled everyone watching.
"Because I ate a man's six sons. When I was young, I devoured everything. I had no limits. That was my crime."
The chat exploded. Six sons? Whose sons? Could they have been Yaldabaoth's children?
James caught on a phrase. "'Anything,' you said?"
The beast's maw curled. "As long as I desire, I can eat anything. Don't you know that?"
James tested it. He held up the cap of his pen. "This. Could you consume even this?"
The cavern seemed to tremble.
Taotie shifted, massive body creaking against the living chains.
And with that subtle, terrifying movement—the embodiment of greed itself stirred.
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