The air shimmered like stretched glass.
The tunnel behind them sealed shut with a thunderclap, and the only way left… was forward.
A gate loomed ahead—massive, carved in the shape of a whale spiraling into the stars. It pulsed like a heart, and with each throb, Kaen's own heartbeat quickened.
"This is it," he whispered.
"The Final Floor."
Kurapika glanced at the name etched above the gate:
"Abyss Cetus – Devourer of Imagination."
Killua's fingers twitched.
"Even Hisoka turned back from this floor."
"If this thing eats imagination… it's gonna love you, Kaen."
Kaen smirked.
"Then let's give it indigestion."
⸻
Entering the Beast's Realm
The gate dissolved.
The team stepped into a sky.
Not a room.
A sky—a floating plane of stars and shattered concepts, where thoughts floated like jellyfish and gravity pulled sideways.
They stood on a swirling platform of idea-thread.
Then the air roared.
A shadow eclipsed the horizon.
And the stars…
blinked out.
One by one.
Until only a pair of massive, glowing eyes remained.
Then a voice.
Low. Distant. Planet-sized.
"Another one… dares to dream."
"Another mind… to chew on."
A leviathan emerged from the void—whale-shaped, but wrong.
It had antlers of broken theories.
Its mouth was a spiral of tongues, each speaking a Nen law.
And its body was patched with abilities too volatile to survive.
• Zetsu that reversed pain into birth.
• En that collapsed time inside it.
• Emission techniques designed by maniacs who vanished without names.
"I am Abyss Cetus," it bellowed.
**"I was made by your kind's fear. By the powers you refused."
"Feed me your imagination, child of the Palace."
"Or be forgotten."
⸻
The Battle Begins – Mind Palace vs Abyss Cetus
Kaen's arms flared with blue circuits.
His Mind Palace snapped wide open, expanding above him like a galaxy—
But the Cetus swallowed the outer wall instantly.
"He's EATING your constructs!" Kurapika shouted.
"He's not fighting you—he's consuming your creativity!"
Kaen closed his eyes.
Then took a deep breath.
"Good."
"Then I'll give him something he can't digest."
⸻
Mind Palace Construct: Infinite Library of Incomplete Ideas
Kaen summoned a storm of half-built techniques:
• Abilities he never finished.
• Sketches of powers inspired by others but never tested.
• Concepts too unstable, too emotional.
He flooded the beast with them.
The Abyss Cetus opened its maw and sucked them all in.
And then—choked.
The whale shuddered. Twisted. Screamed.
"YOU… YOU DREAM IN UNSTABLE CHAOS!"
Kaen smiled darkly.
"I dream like a human."
"Messy. Incomplete. But real."
He lifted both hands.
"Now let's see how you like THIS—"
⸻
Kaen's New Technique: Thought Collapse – Recursive Spiral
Using the feedback of the beast's consumption, Kaen loops a paradox:
"Every time you consume one of my ideas…"
"…you accidentally feed me an understanding of one of yours."
The whale convulsed.
Kaen's Mind Palace glowed brighter than ever before—unlocking forgotten mechanics from the whale's body:
• A teleportation blink that carries everything except emotions
• A time-dilation skin that feeds on nearby fear
• A soundwave emitter that plays memories to distract attackers
Kaen integrated them all.
The Mind Palace grew teeth.
The whale lunged.
Kaen countered.
The two clashed in a cosmic ballet of creativity—
Imagination vs Instinct.
Architecture vs Appetite.
Until finally—
Kaen sank a spear of dreamlight into the beast's brain.
Right through a neuron that still whispered a Hunter's name.
"Rest," Kaen whispered.
"You were just a child of fear. Not the end."
The whale stopped thrashing.
Its eyes dimmed.
And it began to dissolve—
Not into dust.
But into words.
Thousands of them.
The scripts of every discarded Nen theory ever imagined.
They spiraled into Kaen's chest—into the Loom of the Crafter.
And the Palace pulsed.
⸻
Unlocked: Forbidden Archive of Human Potential
Kaen can now reconstruct abilities based on subconscious desires, fears, and regrets of other Nen users. It's a rare psychic skill called:
"Dreamweaver's Resurgence."
And Kaen is now its only living user.
⸻
The Final Floor Opens
As the beast vanishes, a path unfurls ahead:
A stairway that leads upward, into light.
The sky reforms.
And in the distance—
The sound of applause.
Real, human, thousands.
Killua blinked.
"Is that… the top of the Labyrinth?"
Kurapika smiled.
"No. It's the beginning."
Kaen turned to face them.
And with a wild grin—
"Then let's rewrite the Hunter World."
⸻
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 26 – Festival of Hunters: Return of the Mind-Born Hero