⚓ Enter the Edge
The Black Whale had officially crossed into the outer perimeter of the Dark Continent.
Even the sea changed. The water no longer reflected the sky but appeared bottomless and faintly alive, its ripples responding not to wind, but to presence.
"This isn't water," Melody whispered.
"It's aura… suspended in liquid."
Kaen pressed a hand to the ship's railing. The Mind Palace Crown still pulsed above his brow—sometimes faintly humming in harmony with the waves.
Gon squinted toward the horizon.
"There's something… under the ship."
Suddenly, a wave rose—no, not a wave.
A fin.
Towering, miles long. Dark as obsidian and engraved with glowing scars. It sliced across the sea like a blade through silk.
Then came the sound. Not a roar. A chord—as if the ocean itself were singing in pain.
"It's awake," said Kurapika.
"That's the first Beast of Calamity."
"Name?" Kaen asked.
Melody answered:
"We call it… Ishtara. The Beast That Waits."
⸻
🌀 Beast Class: Ishtara
Classification: Unknown
Estimated Aura Mass: 34 Billion Units
Territory: The Beneath-Waves
Ability: Unknown
Notes: Emerges only in response to dream-energy signatures.
The Expedition's top Hunters scrambled to seal decks and prepare evacuation paths. The Hunter Association issued a Level 7 Protocol:
"DO NOT ENGAGE."
"OBSERVE ONLY."
"IF YOU ARE SEEN, YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD."
But Kaen stepped forward.
"It's reacting to my Mind Palace."
"It's here for me."
Kurapika's eyes narrowed.
"Then we stop you from facing it."
But Kaen shook his head.
"No. We don't run. Not from what I carry."
⸻
🧠 Imagination Alone
The ship's engine locked. Ishtara had anchored it by simply breathing near it. No aura surge. No flash of power. Just the gravity of its will.
Kaen stood on the top deck, alone.
The Crown on his head split into six rings, each glowing with one of his copied Nen abilities. He let them fall.
"No borrowed power," he said.
"Only what I can imagine."
The Mind Palace formed around him—translucent, projected into reality.
"Kaen!" Gon shouted from the tower.
"What are you doing?!"
"I'm proving I deserve the throne," Kaen said.
"Not by copying others—by creating something new."
He closed his eyes.
A new weapon began to form in his hands.
⸻
⚔️ Birth of the Blade
A sword unlike any forged before—it shimmered with overlapping concepts:
• Time manipulation
• Weight distortion
• Dream logic
He named it:
"Lucid Fang."
A blade that could cut what hadn't happened yet.
He leapt—straight into the air above the ship—toward the enormous eye of Ishtara surfacing through the sea.
The Beast opened its gaze—an eye like a hurricane, spinning with red rings.
The world blurred.
⸻
🌀 The Dream Zone
Suddenly Kaen wasn't in the sky.
He was falling—through his own memory. Ishtara had pulled him into a dream-space, turning his own thoughts against him.
The field became Whale Island. His old home.
But the air was thick. The birds had no eyes. The sky flickered in reverse.
"This isn't real," he muttered.
"It's not supposed to be."
From behind, a voice—his own voice—mocked him:
"You dream of kingship, but can't even command your past."
He turned.
Standing in front of him was Kaen, age 7. Crying.
Bleeding. Holding the corpse of a fox-bear he'd failed to save.
"You can't rule dreams until you've faced your nightmares."
Kaen gritted his teeth, raised Lucid Fang—and walked forward.
⸻
💥 Real vs. Unreal
Back aboard the Black Whale, the passengers watched in horror as Kaen's body floated midair, unmoving, glowing with inverted Nen. His aura was cracking like glass.
"He's trapped in its dream-space," said Kurapika.
"If he breaks, he won't wake up."
Gon looked down, fists trembling.
"I'm going in."
"You don't have the ability," Melody warned.
"That's a Calamity Beast's realm."
But Gon didn't move. He just stared at Kaen.
And suddenly… Kaen's eyes opened.
They were white-hot. Burning with creation.
"I faced my fear."
"And I crowned it."
He sliced through the dream.
Reality cracked—and Lucid Fang cut the boundary.
The sky howled.
The Beast roared.
And then, with a trembling wave of aura—
It backed down.
The first Beast of Calamity sank back into the depths.
⸻
🌑 Silence Falls
Kaen landed, drenched in sweat but standing tall.
Melody touched his hand.
"You didn't just fight a beast," she whispered.
"You invented something that scared it."
Kurapika nodded, solemn.
"You are no longer just a user of Nen."
"You are now… a forger of it."
⸻
🕸️ Elsewhere: The Succession War Begins
Deep within the Black Whale's VIP decks, the first of the princes—Benjamin, Camilla, Halkenburg—made their opening moves.
The royal war was about to begin.
But a whisper passed between spies, soldiers, and secrets:
"Someone outside the royal line just fought a Calamity Beast."
"He walks the dreams of gods."
"The throne may not be safe… from Kaen."
⸻
👑 Next: Chapter 65 – The First Royal Blood