The Reflecting Zone had quieted.
Birds returned. The air hummed. Trees bent inward, bowing toward the Throne of Thought where Kaen sat—not in arrogance, but in deep focus.
Each court member trained around him.
And above it all floated a new glyph—a three-winged sigil in glowing aura ink that shimmered like starlight.
The Royal Seal of the Mind Palace.
Renzu had designed it.
Luma inscribed it in battle.
Kaen had imagined it first—in a dream that didn't feel like his own.
But beneath the surface of quiet… death stirred.
⸻
⚔️ Incoming: The First Blade of the Zoldyck Blood Moon
He had no name. Only a mark.
A pale youth with no hair, no eyes—only empty sockets glowing with a white mist.
Nen Type: Specialist-Enhancer hybrid.
Codename: "Vesel, the Skinwalker."
His mission: Infiltrate the Mind Palace and assassinate Kaen without being detected.
Vesel didn't need to fight directly.
His Nen ability, "Be Me, Be Killed", allowed him to perfectly mimic the physical and Nen presence of anyone he had seen or touched—even if they were still alive.
He could become anyone.
Even one of the Princes.
⸻
🧠 Meanwhile, Inside the Palace
Kaen had not slept in 27 hours.
Not because of paranoia.
Because he was building.
"The true palace isn't just a domain—it's a system."
He called it: The Fourfold Protocol.
A new mental hierarchy for Palace expansion. Each layer added a new structural integrity to his copied and original Nen abilities:
1. Foundation – Must be fully understood emotionally and mentally
2. Imagination Layer – Must be reshaped with intent unique to Kaen
3. Echo Layer – Reaction to historical data (i.e., prior use of the ability in real battle)
4. Integration – Palace guards and advisors get fragments of the ability under Kaen's command
He wasn't just copying.
He was building a civilization of Nen.
⸻
✨ New Nen Ability Unlocked: Velocity Grasp
From analyzing motion-based Nen styles, including the assassins' glide-step and Luma's predictive dodging, Kaen developed:
"Velocity Grasp – Hikan Doujou"
Allows Kaen to temporarily grab and throw aura as if it were tangible energy, accelerating or decelerating it.
He could toss his own techniques faster, fling an ally's projectile back at double speed, or even redirect incoming Nen attacks mid-air like a magnet repelling force.
Selva watched him practice, wide-eyed.
"You're not fighting anymore," she whispered.
"You're conducting."
⸻
🧨 The Assassination Begins
Tern (or rather, what looked like Tern) entered the inner throne ring.
His aura seemed… off.
Luma noticed it first—his gait was two inches too slow.
Kaen noticed it next—he spoke using a sentence he'd once said during training, but never repeated.
Kaen stood, smiling.
"You've come far, Zoldyck dog."
"'Tern'" smiled back—and exploded into movement, his fingernails turning to bone-blades wrapped in silence-aura.
But Kaen didn't dodge.
He opened his Mind Palace Gate—and invited the assassin inside.
⸻
🧿 Battle Within the Mind Palace
Suddenly, Vesel was in a world of floating halls, liquid memory, and breathing thought.
Walls whispered. Floors rewrote themselves.
Kaen floated across thought-bridges as his past selves, future echoes, and current aura copies circled the invader.
Vesel screamed.
"You… shouldn't be able to trap a mind like this!"
Kaen's voice thundered from all directions:
**"You walked into a palace.
You forgot—
Palaces don't belong to guests.
They belong to KINGS."
And then, Kaen summoned his latest creation:
⸻
👁️🗨️ Mind Palace Avatar: Regulus Imaginarium
A towering, half-transparent being, composed of every Nen technique Kaen had ever copied—each finger a different aura, each eye a memory, each step rewriting the dreamspace around it.
The Avatar roared—
and Vesel was shattered.
Body broken. Soul expelled from the Palace like water rejected by flame.
⸻
💀 Aftermath
Outside, the body of "Tern" twitched… and became an eyeless husk.
The real Tern arrived seconds later, sweat pouring down his brow.
Luma stood beside Kaen.
"You let him in. You risked your mind."
Kaen turned to her, his aura still vibrating with sovereign force.
"No better place to kill a ghost," he said, "than in a palace made of memory."
"And no better way to remind the world—"
He raised a hand.
"I am INVOLATE."
⸻
TO BE CONTINUED in Chapter 31 – War of Wills: Zoldyck vs. Court