Arthur nodded in agreent.
"The visions show more than just power. They show who he was. Why he made the choices he did."
Father's story. His real story, not the fragnts mother could bear to tell.
Jasmine looked at Arthur one more ti, uncertainty flickering in her eyes.
"Can he be with ? As I watch it?"
The rcury guardian's form shifted, considering.
"He has witnessed the inheritance before. If he wishes to see it again…"
The being's voice carried approval.
"No problem."
Arthur stepped closer, his presence steadying her racing heart.
"Are you ready?"
Jasmine gripped the legendary staff tighter. The inheritance chamber humd around them, runes beginning to glow brighter as magic stirred to life.
Ready to see father's story. Ready to understand his choices.
"Ready."
But as the walls began to shift and change, preparing to show her visions of a past she'd only glimpsed in fragnts, one question burned in her mind.
What truth about her father's fate would she discover? And would it change everything she thought she knew about his death?
The chamber filled with light, light beginning to bend as the inheritance prepared to reveal its deepest secrets.
Father… I'm finally coming ho.
…
Arthur watched Jasmine's face transform through a kaleidoscope of emotions over the past ten minutes.
Joy when she witnessed her father's childhood triumphs. Pride as she saw him dominate the Academy rankings. Fury when the betrayal began to unfold. And finally, heartbreak as the visions cut off just before the truth she'd spent her life seeking.
The guardian had shown her everything Arthur had experienced—Regulus's humble beginnings in that small house, his secret training sessions in their small courtyard, his teoric rise through the Academy's ranks.
All the way to that final, incomplete scene where enemies closed in from all sides.
She's been holding her breath for the last five minutes.
The rcury being materialised closer to them, its liquid form rippling with anticipation.
"This is where your companion stopped last ti," the guardian announced, looking at Jasmine. "However, there was one final scene that neither of us witnessed. The master sealed it—only his true heir could unlock what ca next."
Arthur's eyes narrowed.
One more scene. The missing piece.
That explained the abrupt ending he'd experienced. Regulus had hidden the most crucial part of his story, ensuring that only when he had an heir would the world learn the complete truth.
"The identity of his betrayer," Arthur murmured, understanding flooding through him.
The guardian confird. "Among other revelations."
Jasmine trembled beside him, overwheld by decades of suppressed grief.
Her hands shook as they gripped the legendary staff, knuckles white with tension.
She's breaking.
"Are you ready?" the rcury guardian asked gently, waiting for her emotional storm to settle.
Arthur moved without thinking, his spatial aura wrapping around them both like a protective cocoon. He settled beside her on the floor, close enough that their shoulders touched.
"Hey," he whispered, his voice softer than morning rain.
"Look at ."
Jasmine turned, her eyes swimming with unshed tears and raw vulnerability. Although she had slaughtered demons and monsters alike, she was still her dad's small girl, and watching everything made her break from the inside.
Arthur reached up, his fingers gentle as they traced the path of a tear down her cheek.
"You don't have to carry this alone anymore," he said quietly.
"Whatever we see in there, whatever truth your father left behind...you're not that scared little girl hiding in the shadows anymore. You are strong Jasmine, you have the power now, and once you inherit your dad's powers, you would be kicking their butt soon."
She needs to know she's not powerless this ti.
His other hand found hers, fingers intertwining slowly. His hands felt like an anchor to her, reminding her that soone chose to stay beside her in the darkness.
"Your father was brave enough to face his enemies alone," Arthur continued, his thumb tracing soothing circles across her knuckles.
"But his daughter doesn't have to be."
Jasmine's breath hitched, the simple promise undoing sothing tight in her chest.
When was the last ti soone just... held space for to feel?
"We'll watch together," Arthur said firmly. "And whatever cos next—whatever path you choose—I'll be right here."
The certainty in his voice made her believe it. Made her believe that maybe, finally, she wasn't facing the world's cruelty alone.
Jasmine leaned into his warmth, drawing strength from his unwavering presence.
"Okay," she whispered.
"I'm ready."
The guardians nodded with approval.
"Then let us witness what my master, the Archmage Regulus, had protected from the world."
The chamber began to change around them once again.
The walls dissolved like watercolours in rain, reforming into the familiar battlefield Arthur had witnessed before. The sa demon general.
The sa desperate chaos. The sa mont frozen in ti.
But now the scene continued.
The frozen tableau suddenly animated—not completely, but like a painting where only one subject could move. Regulus's head turned, his eyes widening as he registered the newcor erging from the dinsional tear.
The battle preparation, the demon general, and the first princess beating against the barrier—all were montarily forgotten as Regulus stared at the blurred figure.
Regulus's lips moved, and this ti the words carried clearly across the battlefield.
"It's... you..."
The figure's face remained obscured by a mask and a hood, but sohow Regulus could still discern their identity. His expression shifted from shock to confusion, then to sothing approaching horror.
"Nikolas... how are you here?"
Regulus's gaze darted between the figure before him and the man with dark hair and void-black eyes fighting desperately outside the barrier—the sa loyal friend who'd stood beside him since their Academy days.
Two of them?
"Why are there two of you?"
Regulus's voice carried across the magical do, confusion bleeding into his tone. "And why are you wearing a mask?"
The masked figure remained silent, but sothing in his posture made Regulus step back.
Sothing's wrong.
Despite the concealnt that Nikolas was trying, Regulus knew his best friend's aura. It was not sothing that could be hidden from him.
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