He appeared in a hall so impossibly vast and ornate, it made the previous ones look like cheap lobby decor. Gold-veined stone stretched out beneath his feet, carved with impossible detail. Celestial patterns spun slowly across the vaulted ceiling above—stars that didn’t match any night sky he knew. Floating sconces lined the walls, their flames burning upside down in blues and silvers. The air itself felt heavy with history.

  Jahluyina stood ahead, facing him with that same unreadable expression.

  He stared back, confused. “Did I… do something wrong?”

  She smirked slightly. “No.”

  Then she turned, walking toward a towering set of doors at the far end of the hall—each at least fifty feet tall and embossed with a massive mural. He couldn’t tell if it was painted or moving on its own, but the imagery was clear: a warning, a story of power and judgment. War. Thrones. Death.

  Jonathan’s heart started hammering.

  Well, he thought. If I wanted to run, I should’ve done it when I had X with me. But hey, too late now.

  Every instinct told him this woman wasn’t just powerful. She was something else. A force. A weapon sculpted into flesh. Was she mad he was here? No… no, that didn’t track. He didn’t choose to wake up in this world. But still, her presence felt like a blade always half-drawn.

  Then the doors began to open.

  A pressure rolled out—something ancient, immense. It didn’t just weigh on him—it wrapped around his spirit, pushing into every corner of his being. His knees nearly buckled. Whatever was behind that door… it dwarfed even Jahluyina.

  He swallowed hard.

  Okay… maybe if I just walk away now—

  “Thy Majesty awaits you,” Jahluyina said, voice calm, hand raised in a gesture toward the opening gateway.

  The doors were wreathed in a strange, slow-moving fog. It drifted out like mist from some eternal chasm. Dark, quiet, waiting. The kind of fog you’d see before a Dark Souls boss battle.

  That didn’t exactly make him feel better.

  Neither did Jahluyina’s expression—deadpan, with just the faintest edge of morbid amusement.

  Jonathan ran a hand through his hair, muttering to himself, “I’m not gonna die once I walk through there, right?”

  She said nothing.

  “…Cheery.”

  He gave a half-hearted salute. “Well. It was nice seeing you, J.”

  Her red eyes widened a fraction—not in anger. Something else. Surprise?

  But before he could dwell on it, he stepped forward and crossed the threshold.

  The fog swallowed him whole.

  It wasn’t just mist—it was like stepping between realities, his senses bending, sounds warping, light fading and reshaping. He couldn’t feel his body for a moment. Couldn’t hear his own breath. Just the feeling of being watched by something far, far bigger than him.

  This… was the throne room.

  Jonathan stumbled a step as the fog dissolved behind him. The air here felt different—thicker, charged, like every molecule around him was humming with restrained force. The throne room stretched on like a cathedral carved from shadow and volcanic glass, framed by red smoke and jagged chains that hung like the skeletal remains of forgotten titans. The architecture made no logical sense—part brutal fortress, part divine sanctum.

  And there, at the center of it all, seated atop a throne of carved obsidian and curling demonic metal—

  Was him.

  He didn’t need to ask. Didn’t need an introduction.

  That was Jafar.

  The man—or god—lounged on the throne like he owned reality. One leg crossed over the other, bare-chested beneath robes of deep crimson and black. Gold chains coiled around his arms like captive serpents, and lightning flickered lazily in his fingers as if reality were something he absentmindedly rewrote when bored. His skin was etched with ancient crimson markings, veins of power glowing just beneath the surface, and a sigil crowned his forehead like a permanent brand of authority.

  And his eyes—those sharp, knowing eyes—burned with something beyond human comprehension. Amusement, calculation… memory?

  Jonathan looked up, and in that moment, he felt insignificant.

  Not because he was afraid—though fear certainly clawed at him—but because standing before Jafar was like standing before the sum of every myth, every war, every whispered legend. The kind of presence that entire empires were born and buried beneath.

  And yet—somehow—he felt familiar.

  That chilled him more than anything.

  Jafar’s cold smile tugged at the edge of his lips, like he’d already read every thought in Jonathan’s mind and was simply waiting for the punchline.

  Neither of them spoke.

  The silence stretched as Jonathan stood there, breathing in a throne room that looked more like a god’s final battlefield than a place of rule. Pillars cracked with power. Symbols written in light and shadow circled slowly above the throne. Dragons—literal dragons—coiled along the floor in slumbering silence, as if to say: Don’t speak unless spoken to.

  Jonathan swallowed.

  Yup, he thought. Definitely Jafar.

  Jonathan cleared his throat, eyes flicking down to the sleeping dragons coiled near the base of the throne. Massive. Majestic. Terrifying.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “The dragons won’t eat me… right?” he asked.

  Stupid, he instantly thought. Way to open with a bad joke, moron.

  But also—he was genuinely curious.

  For a long, lingering moment, Jafar said nothing. His gaze remained locked on Jonathan, unreadable and still. Then—

  “No,” he finally replied, voice smooth as molten gold, low and layered with something ancient. “They are the children of my lover. They watch this room for me.”

  Jonathan nodded slowly, processing.

  “…Right. That tracks.”

  He wasn’t sure if that was comforting or somehow more terrifying. Dragons. Lovers. Children. Throne rooms. The casual myth of it all. What was he even supposed to say to that?

  Jafar smirked, clearly enjoying the tension.

  “So…” Jonathan began again, voice a little higher than he meant it to be, “uh—”

  That was all he managed before Jafar laughed.

  It wasn’t a full roar of amusement—more a deep, amused rumble. Like thunder from a storm that didn’t need to prove itself. The kind of laugh that said I’ve lived through eras of kings and you just entertained me for five seconds.

  “I expected fear,” Jafar said, leaning forward just slightly, fingers sparking with golden energy. “What I got was a man in slippers asking if my dragons eat houseguests.”

  Jonathan looked down. Yup. Still the weird teleport-sandals. Definitely not his best look.

  Jafar’s gaze sharpened. “You stand in my presence—barely awakened, barely shaped—and yet you breathe without begging. That alone is… interesting.”

  Jonathan gave a tight smile. “Thanks. I think.”

  Jafar’s eyes narrowed slightly, the smirk still etched on his face. “You still haven’t figured it out yet?”

  Jonathan opened his mouth, then closed it.

  “It’s amazing,” Jafar continued, voice dipped in amusement and disbelief, “that you became anything at all.”

  Jonathan flinched slightly. He’d heard that before.

  Jahluyina.

  The weird sketchbook room. The portal. The power. All of it.

  Then, like the final piece clicked into place in the dumbest possible way, he clapped his hands together.

  “Oh,” he said, with exaggerated realization. “I see what this is. I’m the main character.”

  That earned a full laugh from Jafar—low, rich, and thunderous. It echoed off the throne room’s impossible walls like it belonged to the very bones of the palace.

  Jonathan winced. “Uh. Sorry—hope that didn’t wake your dragon kids.”

  Jafar chuckled again, quieter this time. “You’re not wrong,” he said, standing slowly, “but you’re also incorrect.”

  Jonathan blinked. “So… I’m Schr?dinger’s protagonist?”

  But Jafar didn’t answer—not directly. He simply stepped forward.

  And in the next moment, they weren’t in the throne room anymore.

  They were outside.

  Jonathan’s breath hitched. His feet landed softly on polished stone, and the air was fresh and weightless—but there had been no transition. No sound. No sensation.

  He had felt nothing.

  The castle was nowhere in sight. They were in one of its inner courtyards—though that word did it no justice. This place was less a garden and more a pocket of cosmic serenity. Trees with glowing leaves swayed in silence. Floating petals drifted through the air like stars given form. And ahead…

  Ahead was a tree.

  No—The Tree.

  It stretched into the sky like it was trying to pierce reality itself. Its roots were braided into the marble below them, massive enough to tunnel cities beneath. Its trunk was thick with ancient carvings that shimmered when viewed out of the corner of his eye. And its crown—

  Its crown disappeared into the void above.

  He thought it was space. But maybe it was just that the sky in Requiem was so deep, so impossibly high, that the heavens looked like stars.

  Jafar now stood beside him, robes trailing in the wind that hadn’t been there a second ago. He motioned for Jonathan to walk.

  Jonathan didn’t dare disobey.

  They strolled in silence for a moment, past crystalline lilies and creatures of light grazing beneath the Tree’s shadow. Jonathan’s eyes scanned the landscape, trying to find a word for it all.

  “Beautiful,” he muttered, then grimaced. “God, I’m tired of saying that word.”

  Jafar let out a breath of amusement. “Then find better ones. You’ll need them.”

  Jonathan looked up at him. “For what?”

  Jafar didn’t stop walking. “For the truth.”

  They walked in silence beneath the Tree, its vast shadow stretching across the courtyard like the memory of a god’s embrace. Jonathan glanced to the side and froze.

  There, down a sunken riven—an ancient crack in the marble landscape wide as a canyon—was a planet.

  Not a model. Not a projection.

  A real planet. Suspended like a jewel, glowing with soft blues and radiant light, rotating slowly in the crevice below. He didn’t know how it fit, or why it didn’t fall, or whether “gravity” even meant anything here.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but Jafar had already begun.

  “It took them seventy years,” the god-king said, voice low and distant like he was reciting scripture from memory. “The Everest Corp. Four Kings. Original Family Heads. The Narloic Founder. It took them seventy years to complete the secret world quest left behind by the Vantis.”

  Jonathan blinked. “Everest Corp? Sounds like a tech startup.”

  Jafar smirked faintly but didn’t stop. “When they succeeded, they ascended. Became Divine Beings—capable of shaping matter, rewriting fate. The first true gods of this age. And once they understood what they were… they made a request.”

  Jonathan stayed quiet this time.

  “They asked the Vantis to send them back. Eight hundred sixty thousand years into the past. They wanted to build something—establish something. A controlled future, using everything they had learned.”

  “Let me guess,” Jonathan muttered. “The Vantis agreed.”

  “He did,” Jafar said. “He enjoys entertainment.”

  That didn’t sit right with Jonathan, but he let him continue.

  “They returned with armies. Technology. Power. But only what would not contradict the flow of the existing past. No paradoxes. No overwrites.”

  Jonathan rubbed the back of his neck. “Wait, how does that even work?”

  Jafar simply continued, like the laws of causality were casual footnotes.

  “When the moment came for their younger selves to arrive in Requiem, most absorbed them. Took in their memories, their potential, their innocence. One by one, the Kings and Family Heads became singular, perfected entities—men who had lived twice, with both foresight and history behind every decision.”

  Jonathan frowned. “So they… killed their younger selves?”

  “They became them,” Jafar corrected. “But not all chose that path. A few allowed their past selves to live. They named them Jujisn—unenlightened versions. Shadows of what they once were. Some kept them close. Some used them as tools. Some… forgot them.”

  Jonathan watched the floating planet spin slowly in the riven beneath their feet. “And you…?”

  Jafar looked down at him with that same cool gaze.

  “I let mine live.”

  Jonathan tilted his head. “So you’re one of the Kings.”

  “I am.”

  Jonathan raised an eyebrow.

  Jafar didn’t respond.

  Instead, he looked back toward the tree, its great trunk swirling with divine language and the faint cries of old stars.

  They walked a little further, the weight of history thick between them, when Jonathan’s mind finally began to click through the story.

  The Everest Corp.

  Four Kings.

  Divine Ascension.

  Traveling into the past.

  Absorbing their younger selves.

  Except one.

  Jonathan’s steps slowed.

  “…Wait.”

  He looked up at the towering god beside him.

  “You said you let yours live.”

  Jafar gave him a sideways glance, saying nothing.

  “You said most of them absorbed their younger selves. That some kept them around as… what was the word?”

  “Jujisn,” Jafar said, the word curling off his tongue like it had weight.

  Jonathan nodded slowly. “Right. The unenlightened version.”

  He rubbed his temples, eyes darting back to the planet in the rift, the Tree, the dragons, the palace…

  All this.

  And then it hit him—not like thunder, but like recognition.

  “…Wait a second.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “Jafar… that name.”

  Something stirred deep in his memory. A dusty corner of his teenage years.

  “A game,” he muttered. “An old conquest game I used to play. I always used that name—‘Jafar.’ It sounded cool. Mysterious. Regal.”

  He turned, slowly, now really looking at him. Taking in the eyes. The structure. The quiet mannerisms. The smirk that felt familiar, like looking in a mirror warped by time, power, and victory.

  “…Wait a minute,” Jonathan whispered.

  He pointed.

  Then dropped his hand.

  “Are you—?”

  He stepped back.

  “Are you me!?”

  That’s when Jafar laughed.

  It was rich, layered, deep. Not mocking—but immensely entertained. The laugh of someone who had waited so long for that exact moment.

  “My Jujisn,” Jafar said finally, his voice like thunder wrapped in silk. “You catch on slower than I did. But eventually… yes. You understand.”

  Jonathan staggered back a step. “No. No way. That’s—no. You can’t be—”

  “I am,” Jafar said, calm and unshakable. “And you are.”