Qinghai Lake, the largest lake in China, is
one of the most secure locations the SCP Foundation has ever taken control of. All available military assets have been gathered
at the site, including three of the most elite Mobile Task Force units with experimental
weaponry. SCP-4290 must not be allowed to open, and
the site has been surrounded by nuclear mines and targeted with the Dagaz-Break Orbital
Strike System. The perimeter cannot be breached, even if
it means the complete annihilation of the entire area. This is considered to be an acceptable loss
for the Foundation, since the destruction that would be caused by taking such an extreme
measure is far from the worst-case scenario when it comes to SCP-4290. That’s because the entity contained within
SCP-4290’s site has the potential to create a true end-of-the-world scenario. The Foundation, of course, is no stranger
to such situations, and even has a set of designations for the various types of apocalypses
like CK-Class restructuring scenarios and ZK-Class “End of Reality” scenarios. And since dealing with the end of the world
is nothing new for the Foundation, certain precautions have been taken at the 4290 site. If containment measures fail, selected Foundation
personnel and civilians will be taken into nearby emergency shelters that will hopefully
survive the chaos that would occur following a breach. And the Foundation assumed that there was
a good chance this plan would have to be used at some point, since at the time these precautions
were put in place, it was impossible to know the chance of successful long-term containment. But just what is the entity that is held within
the site of SCP-4290 that is capable of causing so much death and destruction on a major scale? They call it simply… “The Child”. No one has ever seen the child. No one knows what this entity is. That’s because even setting aside all the
Foundation security, the site itself is still deeply protected, literally. Over a hundred feet below the surface of Qinghai
lake, a stunning collection of relics can be found. The site is thaumaturgically sealed with eight
massive metal totems made of Beryllium and Bronze, that resemble armored warriors. The statues are inscribed with runes and arranged
in a pattern designed to banish the entity kept there and keep the seal on its prison
closed. Archaeological evidence indicates that the
site has been there for a very long time, and it is still active, with the center of
the site periodically emitting bursts of red light. But lately, the bursts have suddenly started
getting brighter. You may be wondering how we know so much about
SCP-4290, and that it’s a site designed to keep something sealed if it’s been deep
in a lake, quietly doing its job? The SCP Foundation has access to unusual sources,
including SCP-1726, and it’s from there that we learned the little we know about SCP-429. SCP-1726 is a library in China that appears
to only be one floor from the outside, but on the inside covers over fourteen square
kilometers in area. It’s full of a seemingly limitless amount
of texts, many of which describe ancient and lost civilizations, along with some clues
as to what led to the fall of these cultures. One text revealed the presence of a terrible
and apparently unstoppable enemy. It was called the Child - but it was anything
but innocent. When these texts were translated, what Foundation
researchers discovered terrified them. They described the emergence of a beast with
ten terrible mouths and twenty arms stretched wide. It was attacked by an army of warriors, but
they were quickly overwhelmed by what was described as “torrents of darkness” and
“Dead geometries”. They were killed, brutally, and the child
used its skeletal fingers to unleash a torrent of flame. Every soul in the vicinity was consumed, wax
rained from the sky, and the Child devoured everything around it for ten days - as the
whole world trembled. But then something sealed the Child away in
its prison which is now covered by the waters of Qinghai Lake. Soon ominous signs began to appear that the
Child would awaken again though. One day, televisions in the nearby area all
suddenly stopped playing their regular programming and began to show images of SCP-4290, with
a mysterious voice coming on over the images saying “Repair the Child’s Locks”. This became more and more frequent, and the
tone of the voice became more worried, eventually saying “There is little time left”. Further investigations of the location revealed
the location of the mysterious mechanism that kept the chamber sealed, which was designated
as SCP-4290-LOCK. But how do you repair a device that is eons
old? And should you even be fixing it when the
one telling you to do it is a mysterious, disembodied voice that only appears on pirated
television broadcasts? The Foundation scrambled to find any information
they could, and they were able to find clues about the history of SCP-4290 referenced in
other texts. Lost civilizations like the Xia Dynasty, the
Erikeshans, and the ancient Ortothans had apparently strengthened the seals during their
own reigns, but the most significant findings indicated a connection to one of the most
terrifying entities the SCP Foundation had ever contained - and one of the most unpredictable. The Daevite Empire. This mysterious, warlike civilization has
only been known through one source - SCP-140, a single hardcopy book titled “A Chronicle
of the Daevas”. This is a strange, anomalous book that is
written in blood and is able to add more pages spontaneously to itself whenever it comes
in contact with any fluid that can be used for writing, but seems to especially prefer
human blood. It recounts the history of this civilization
and their many brutal conquests. While there was no proof of the Daevas before
this book was found, evidence paralleling the events written in the book is now being
found in archaeological digs. More dangerously, as more pages appear in
the book, the events of the Daeva empire are moving closer to the present day - with them
currently appearing in the book as having existed until 270 CE. The Daevas were a bloodthirsty, brutal race
of warriors, but there was one thing even that apparently even they were afraid of… The Child. The Daevas had performed the last successful
ritual of sacrifice needed to strengthen the lock not long before their currently described
destruction, and the book contained enough detail to recreate the ritual. But SCP researchers would find that performing
it would not be for the faint of heart. The ritual required three human cadavers,
not a problem for an organization that’s normal day to day operation results in the
loss of multiple lives, and the live heart of an angel. The description of the ritual said that the
materials would be presented, new runes should be carved into the totems, the items would
then vanish when the ritual was completed, and the lock would somehow be renewed by this. It wasn’t much to go on, but time was running
out. The Foundation’s Department of Occult Containment
quickly sprang into action, assembling the materials and placing them in the correct
formation. While it was not safe to descend that deep
underwater to perform the ritual manually, technology could fill the role. A fleet of remotely operated submersibles
equipped with carving material would perform the ritual without any human hands needed. The submersibles descended down into the deep,
darkness of the lake and began the ritual, but midway through, disaster struck. One of the red bursts occurred midway through
the ritual, causing radiation damage to the vehicles. Runes that had been carved in the past were
also damaged, and the ritual was interrupted. While it seemed like it might have been enough
to activate the site, it wasn’t perfect, and when the ritual was complete one of the
three cadavers and half of the angel heart were still present at the site. Had it been enough to satisfy the ritual and
re-seal the lock? There was nothing to do but wait and see. They wouldn’t have to wait long for their
answer, as the mysterious voice once again took over the televisions in the area. This time, its message was less friendly - “The
sacrifice did not reach the ten maws. Brace”. The Child, apparently, was not satisfied and
the lock was not sealed. Everyone feared it was too late to prevent
what was coming, and panic was starting to spread among the ranks. One day, several personnel stationed at the
Qinghai Lake site broke protocol and fled. None of them were ever found but one fugitive
staff member, an Agent Zenovia Marinos, left behind a note though. It read: “Do we think we can actually stop this? No civilization before us wanted to fight
the Child. None of them… The sacrifices won't work anymore — it refuses
to consume them. They aren't enough to satiate it. Once that seal breaks we'll have a world of
molten darkness and the Child will be all that's left, eating. Drinking… You're fools for staying.” Agent Marinos was apparently so scared, that
she had fled through a portal to an extradimensional space in order to escape. There would be no point in trying to track
her even if she was still alive. But in our own dimension, time was running
out. Foundation seismologists were brought to the
site and stationed outside, and began monitoring the high-energy pulses coming from behind
the lock. The energy was reportedly strong enough to
alter dimensions, and the pulsing red light now covered the entire sealing site, growing
stronger and stronger as the totems started degrading at an alarming rate. The Foundation stood on guard for whatever
was about to emerge - but no one knew if they had any chance against whatever it was. On August 18th, the totems fully disintegrated. Some of the Foundation’s best military forces
gathered on the shores of the lake and waited. Ten minutes later, something massive emerged
phased out of the lock and onto the seabed. And didn’t move. The assembled Foundation forces were confused,
and continued to observe the creature and after no activity was seen after three hours,
the authorization was given for submersibles and a small exploratory team to proceed down
to the sea bed for an up-close investigation. There, down on the floor of the lake, was
the Child. It was as terrifying as described, with countless
mouths and arms, and huge in size, over 40 meters long. The signs of previous rituals were everywhere,
with angel hearts and human corpses littered around - some in the creature’s mouth. But none of them had been eaten. The ritual had apparently been performed many
times, but to no actual purpose. The massive being was scanned many times,
but no signs of psychic energy, radiation, or other life signs were detected. The Child was dead. And it had apparently been so for a very,
very long time. Once the area had been cleared, teams were
brought in to investigate the body in person and perform an autopsy on-site. No explanation of what exactly this creature
had been or what its origins were has ever been discovered, but they did get answers
for when it died. The time of death was roughly nine thousand
years ago, not long after its initial sealing. The cause of death was discovered too. The Child, the destroyer of worlds and scourge
of countless civilizations, had died from malnutrition. Whatever this thing had been, it had been
sealed away and had died from hunger not long after. One civilization after another had continued
to perform the rituals to keep it sealed, never aware that it was no longer a threat. With this new discovery, SCP-4290 was reclassified
as Neutralized, but The Child taught us all a valuable lesson about being prepared for
potential world ending scenarios, and the Foundation continues to stand on alert for
any more entities from the distant past that may pose a threat today. Because who knows what else is sealed away
at the bottom of a lake, abandoned mine, or in the ocean’s deepest trenches. There might just be another existential threat
to humanity that’s just waiting for its chance to emerge, and help us all if it remembered
to pack a lunch. For more on strange rituals, go watch SCP-2317
The Devourer of Worlds and SCP-1337 - The Hitchhiker.
