Moment of Clarity

[viking42.livejournal.com]

Of course he'd read about Haunted Nests that supposedly could open a path to the Underworld...but he never imagined he'd see one himself, like this...what was it Dr Stevenson called it? An Avernian Gate?
Sentient houses were not among the oddest things he'd heard, but here they were, in front of an entirely new realm to explore. Would be foolish to go in unprepared, though, so while the others dealt with the mortal woman, he stepped through the gate...and felt his Beast recoil in terror, afraid of something. It hid in the dark corners of his mind, and the sensation was disquieting.
While most people would be happy to be free of their Beast, over the decades it had become a fixture of him, deep down it was part of him, and combined with his deeper understanding of the Coil of the Beast and his changed blood, it came as an even bigger surprise.

That was not going to stop him, though. There was time to investigate that later. Right now, in front of him, down the hallway, was a ghost held in place by Dr Stevenson's command. The question was, would the powers of the blood work on a ghost while in the Underworld?

Exerting his will, Gregory tried to employ the power commonly known as "Revelation", and commanded the ghost to tell him everything it could about the Underworld. Feeling his mind pitted versus that of the ghost, it relented, and words started to pour out of its mouth, of how it was to live down there, the Domains and laws, the Seven on the spires who took people walking too close to the river, about the rivers themselves, even one supposedly entirely made of blood...an infinite supply of blood, if only you could find the place...

Other people walked in and out of the Underworld, listened in or just felt the effects it had on their Beasts, similarly quelled into submission.
Meanwhile, the ghost continued to talk, and spill more of what it knew, how they got out, what their goals were, until Gregory was distracted by fellow Dragons, discussing the gate, when it might close and what would be further in.
Reassured that it would not close for another few days, they decided there was time to explore the first few caves, and while the ghost had disappeared, that was of no concern.
Heading round the bend, a large cavern, quite possibly the resting place of a vampire, was open in front of them, and beyond, six cavern entrances, one with a rope hanging down from it.

Transforming into a bat and flying across, Gregory thought about his recent changes to the blood, and tried to invoke the new powers of that change to trigger the Beast to frenzy, enabling him to ride the wave.

The Beast, still too scared to react, was not roused. Something else happened, though...his perspective changed, through the tunnel in front of him, then veering straight down off the cliff, down past other rivers, other places, faster and faster, until he could see an ocean, as large as the eye could see, clear at the top, darker further down...and a gigantic shape, a leviathan under the surface. This is what the Beast - all the Beasts of every Kindred stepping foot in this place - was afraid of.

Suddenly, Gregory knew what Transcendence meant. It was perfectly clear to him what the ultimate predator would be...a creature like the Leviathan, able to quell even the Beast as you approached. Its presence was so large it permeated the Underworld. Imagine if it was loose in the real world - that would be his goal. This thing needed to be studied, experiments needed to be performed on this specimen of such sublime terror. One day, he would find his way down there, and observe the entity in person. One day, he would become that entity...