🕯️ Prelude to Annihilation
The Succession War had already taken two princes, broken the sanity of three others, and now—was about to devour everyone else.
A black mist spread through the lower decks of the Black Whale, its source: a child-shaped thing released by Pariston Hill, the Dreamforged being known only as Spool.
His eyes shimmered with code-like sigils, and wherever he stepped, the walls began to unravel. Not break—unravel, as if they had only ever been imagined into existence and now remembered their nothingness.
Behind him followed an army of twisted dreambeasts—echoes of failed Nen contracts, limbs backwards, eyes stitched shut, whispering rules only the insane could follow.
Pariston clapped politely from above.
"The royal feast begins."
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🍽️ The Throne Room of Camilla
Inside her crimson-lit chamber, Second Princess Camilla waited for her enemies, her cat-like Nen Beast licking its claws. Her power, The Cat's Rebirth, allowed her to auto-resurrect and instantly kill her killer via Nen backlash.
But Kaen didn't walk in with a blade. He walked in with questions.
"You're a necromancer of rules," he said calmly.
"But what happens when your rule dies first?"
Camilla narrowed her eyes.
"Try me."
Kaen activated Preveritas—and instantly heard her mind whisper:
"If he kills me, I win. But if he seals me… I'll be trapped forever."
He smiled.
"Exactly what I wanted to know."
From his Mind Palace, Kaen summoned a forged ability derived from Camilla's own Nen logic:
Judgment Lock – Dream Edition.
Any ability dependent on death must first pass through his Mind Palace, where death is not guaranteed—only rewritten.
He formed a blade of glowing syllables and pierced her heart.
Camilla dropped—her Nen Beast surged.
It tried to trigger resurrection.
But it failed.
Because in the Mind Palace, Kaen had already died once today. And the palace only allows one death per king.
Camilla awoke—not in her throne room, but inside Kaen's palace, imprisoned beneath a sky of dreamlight.
"Welcome to the kingdom you tried to dominate," Kaen whispered.
"Enjoy being its prisoner."
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🕊️ The Vow and the Betrayal
Elsewhere, Kurapika unraveled a terrifying truth.
Working alongside Leorio and Melody, they decoded the inscriptions engraved into the Hunter Badges—which had been pulsing with Nen-corrupted energy ever since Spool's arrival.
"These weren't just trackers," Kurapika said grimly.
"Each badge acts as a proxy contract. We all swore an oath without knowing it."
Melody played a pulse tone. The badges sang back, harmonizing with Spool's static Nen.
Leorio clenched his fists.
"The Association was rigged from the inside. Pariston didn't leave his seat. He became it."
And worse—the contract had an escape clause: Only a Dream King may void it.
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👑 Kaen's Coronation Begins
Back in the Mind Palace, the Thirteenth Throne flared with power. No longer red—it now pulsed with a color that didn't exist in the human spectrum. A tone that couldn't be named, only felt.
Naomi stood beside Kaen, who hovered just inches from the throne.
"If you sit," she warned, "you don't become king of one world. You become the pivot of many. And every dream… has a nightmare."
Kaen looked at her.
"I was never meant to be one man. I was always meant to be… the bridge."
He sat.
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🌌 Spool vs. the King
In the real world, Spool felt the ripples of coronation and screamed—a sound that reversed gravity in nearby rooms and made grown hunters bleed from their ears.
He opened a portal.
And stepped directly into the Mind Palace.
Kaen was waiting, seated on the Thirteenth Throne. His aura was no longer just Nen—it was narrative. Every ability Spool tried to activate instantly became a rule inside Kaen's domain.
Spool: "UNMAKE."
Kaen: "REMEMBER."
The moment Spool tried to erase Kaen, Kaen turned the erasure into memory—absorbing it into a new construct:
Rule No. 0 – The King Cannot Be Forgotten.
Spool was breaking down.
"You're not real," he hissed.
"You're just a dreamer pretending to be a god."
Kaen smiled, stepping forward.
"Then I guess you finally understand what humanity is."
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🧠 Dreamfire Ascends
The battle ended not with a death—but with a choice.
Kaen offered Spool a place: the First Nightmare, locked in the foundation of his palace as a sentinel.
And Spool, shaking, accepted.
Outside, the mist vanished. The dreambeasts collapsed. The princes, one by one, felt their Nen Beasts dissipate… as Kaen's aura replaced theirs.
The throne no longer belonged to one nation.
It now belonged to an idea.
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🔥 Next: Chapter 69 – Dreams of the True King