🌌 The Dreamwalker Princess
Fugetsu stood with quiet determination before the Throne of Requiem.
Her aura, though gentle, pulsed with depth—like a heartbeat just below the ocean's surface.
"My door leads only to places that exist in longing," she said softly.
"And your palace is built entirely from need."
Kaen studied her.
She was no predator. Not like Pariston. Not like the princes.
But she held power—the kind that could open wounds just as easily as doors.
He nodded.
"Then open it. But know this… inside my palace, even your thoughts will echo."
Fugetsu raised her hand. A Nen key formed from a stream of light curling from her fingers.
She turned it in mid-air—click.
A door appeared.
Old. Iron-bound. Breathing.
"This door didn't exist until you imagined it," she whispered.
"Which means it's yours. But you didn't create it."
Kaen's blood ran cold.
⸻
🌀 The Chamber Without Name
Beyond the door was silence.
A silence that weighed on the body. On the soul.
The room was spherical—walls of obsidian glass, and floating in the center…
a throne upside-down.
Chains wrapped it like a cocoon.
A single candle floated above it, but its flame burned downward.
"This doesn't feel like a memory," Kaen muttered.
"It feels like… a prophecy."
Fugetsu touched the glass wall.
Her pupils dilated.
"This room is alive."
Kaen stepped closer.
Suddenly—
the chains twitched.
⸻
🕯️ The Sleeper
A voice echoed from the throne.
Ragged.
Inhuman.
"So this is the child with the palace of thrones…"
"Did you think your mind was untouched? Did you think dreams came without debt?"
The chains burst outward.
A creature crawled forth—shaped like a man, but built of shadow-words and fractured symbols.
Its mouth was stitched shut with thread made of regret.
Fugetsu screamed.
Kaen's aura flared—
"You're not from here!"
"What are you?!"
"I am the throne you sealed away the day you were born."
⸻
🧬 Ancestral Nen
The creature surged at Kaen.
Not with fists, but with ancestral Nen—power embedded in bloodlines, passed down like curses.
It struck with a technique Kaen had never seen before:
Dream Reversal – Throne of Prebirth
—A Nen art that forced Kaen to relive moments from before he had Nen.
Suddenly he was 8.
Crying on the edge of Whale Island.
His hands couldn't form Ten.
He couldn't remember his training.
The world blurred.
Fugetsu knelt beside him.
"Kaen. Remember… your first door."
His eyes snapped open.
Whale Island. Mito. The cliffs.
He had imagined a palace back then, too—when he was powerless. That was the first dream.
Kaen screamed—his aura detonating in a storm of golden stormlight and burning script.
"I have NO prebirth. I was always dreaming!"
He raised his hand.
"Palace Override: Founding Throne of Desire!"
The Mind Palace realigned.
The black room cracked apart.
The chained creature howled—
And was consumed by Kaen's first true throne, shaped from the boy who had nothing but hope.
⸻
🪶 Melody's Lullaby
Elsewhere, deep in the underbelly of the Black Whale, Melody sat in a meditation circle.
Notes hovered around her like stars.
"I've never heard a Nen melody like this," she whispered.
"It's not just power. It's… will. Longing. Conflict. Love. All at once."
Kurapika stood behind her, eyes hollow.
"Can you reach him?"
She played a single chord.
And within Kaen's Mind Palace—
a soft breeze rolled through the war-scars.
Kaen paused.
For the first time in days…
his heart calmed.
"Someone's… singing for me?"
⸻
🧠 Aftershock
Fugetsu stood beside Kaen, trembling.
"That… was inside you?"
Kaen turned toward the fractured black chamber, now sealed shut behind a dream-lock.
"No," he said.
"That thing was older than me."
She nodded.
"Then who gave birth to it?"
Kaen's gaze darkened.
"I think we're standing inside the answer."
⸻
🧬 Final Scene – The Dream Killer Awakens
In a private room aboard the Black Whale, Pariston stood beside a glass tank.
Inside it floated a child—featureless, eyes closed, aura steady.
Doctor Sido stood beside him, sweating.
"You said you wanted a counter to Kaen's palace…"
"But this… this isn't human."
Pariston smiled.
"We don't need humans anymore."
"We need dream eaters."
And the child's eyes opened—
burning red with hunger.
⸻
🏰 Coming Next: Chapter 57 – Whispers in the Crown