Chapter 4: Six Months Before Doomsday

Raviah woke up gasping for air, her entire body jerking upright as she dragged breath after ragged breath into her lungs. Her heart pounded violently against her ribs, and cold sweat soaked the back of her silk nightclothes.

For several terrifying seconds, she could only stare wildly into the silence. There was no suffocating smoke, no splattered blood, no collapsing concrete, and no shrieking mutated beasts roaring for her flesh.

Raviah slowly lowered her trembling hands, her eyes wide as she looked down at her unblemished body.

Her ribs didn’t ache with every breath. The dark bruises that had covered her arms were gone, leaving behind smooth, unmarred skin. There were no gaping lacerations, no trailing blood, and no crushing agony from the massive concrete slab that had just ended her life.

She touched her temple with frantic fingers, then pressed both palms against her chest, checking her vitals as if expecting the lethal wounds to suddenly manifest. Nothing. She was completely, impossibly unharmed.

Raviah’s frantic breathing gradually steadied as the phantom pain receded. Her sharp gaze swept across the softly lit room, taking in every intimate detail.

The delicate silk curtains fluttered in the soft breeze. Polished mahogany furniture stood neatly arranged, and familiar oil paintings hung above the marble dresser.

Everything was pristine and exactly as she remembered it before the end. This was not the crumbling, blood-soaked hospital fortress. This was her private bedroom in the heart of the city.

Before her mind could fully process the impossibility of the scene, a familiar vibration hummed softly against the nightstand.

Bzzzt.

Her smartphone lit up the dark corner of the room. Raviah snatched the device with shaking fingers, the glowing screen illuminating her pale, disbelieving face.

She stared directly at the digital date. Her pupils contracted in sheer shock.

Six months before doomsday.

"No..." she whispered, her hands shaking so violently the phone nearly slipped from her grasp.

Raviah checked the calendar display again, then frantically unlocked the screen. She refreshed the local news feeds, checked the global time servers, and opened multiple social media applications.

Everything was completely normal. The world was still bustling, blissfully ignorant of the coming horror.

Commuters were complaining about morning traffic, stock markets were trading at record highs, and hospitals were treating ordinary illnesses. There were no emergency broadcasts, no warnings of mutated beasts, and no terrifying reports of awakening Elementals.

Civilization was still vibrantly alive.

Raviah slowly swung her legs over the edge of the mattress and stood up. Her bare feet sank into the plush carpet, cold and solid beneath her weight.

She walked numbly toward the full-length vanity mirror, her eyes locked on her reflection. A younger, healthier version of herself stared back from the glass.

Her hair was lustrous, her complexion clear, and her body entirely uninjured. Her fingers slowly rose to press against the cool glass, tracing the cheek of her reflection.

A horrifying, exhilarating realization settled heavy inside her chest. She had been reborn.

She hadn’t been rescued from the rubble, nor was she trapped in a fever dream. She had truly been sent back in time.

Raviah should have wept with overwhelming relief. Instead, the physician in her immediately took control, her mind instantly shifting into sharp, analytical calculation.

Six months. Approximately one hundred and eighty days.

That was all the time she had before the world turned into a meat grinder. She recalled the tragic timeline with terrifying, crystal-clear accuracy.

First would come the unseasonal weather anomalies and strange animal behaviors. Then the sudden awakening of Elementals, immediately followed by the arrival of mutated beasts and Zergs.

Transportation grids would collapse within forty-eight hours, and global communication networks would go dark shortly after. City after city would fall like dominos under the endless waves of monsters.

And finally, human society would shatter into a lawless wasteland.

Raviah clenched her fists until her nails bit into her palms. In her past life, she had wasted critical weeks foolishly believing that international governments and medical institutes could contain the crisis.

She would not make that fatal mistake again. She would count on no one but herself.

She needed vast stockpiles of food and clean water. She required antibiotics, surgical equipment, defensive weaponry, seeds, and livestock. She needed a heavily fortified, self-sustaining base powered by independent generators.

Everything necessary to survive an apocalyptic era had to be secured.

But before spending a single credit, she needed to confirm the exact anchor date of her return. Raviah raised her phone and pulled up her private digital journal.

Her thumb hovered above the screen as memories flooded her mind. She remembered the exact day, the exact hour, and the exact radio broadcast that had announced the start of humanity’s extinction.

Her gentle expression hardened into sheer, unyielding steel.

"It begins today," she whispered softly to the empty room.

The moment the words left her lips, a strange, electric sensation coursed through her nervous system. Raviah froze, every muscle in her body tensing.

A faint, invisible pressure bloomed somewhere deep within her consciousness.

"What is this...?" she gasped, clutching her head as her surroundings dissolved.

The familiar walls of her bedroom melted away into nothingness. Her physical vision vanished, replaced by an unfamiliar, vast expanse unfolding before her mind’s eye.

Raviah stared in breathless, stunned silence.

An endless plain of barren, dark earth stretched out beneath a quiet, silver sky. Nothing grew upon the dirt, there were no streams of water, no roaming animals, and no green crops.

It was a completely empty, boundless realm of silent earth.

The only structure standing within the vast wasteland was a sturdy, two-story detached house resting right in the center.

Raviah’s lips parted in shock. "What is this place?"

The moment her intention shifted, her consciousness snapped instantly back into her physical body. She blinked, staring at the familiar silk curtains of her bedroom once more.

Raviah stood rooted to the floor, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

An independent dimensional storage space. She had awakened an internal spatial domain.

However, unlike the stocked warehouses she would need to build, this pocket dimension contained no initial supplies. It offered only a vacant house resting on infinite, uncultivated land.

Raviah closed her eyes, focusing her mind to gaze upon the wide, empty earth inside her consciousness once more. A slow, resolute determination ignited deep within her eyes.

It did not matter that the realm was currently empty. She had six full months before doomsday.

She would fill every single inch of that barren soil with crops, medical facilities, water reserves, and defense systems.

Because when the sky fell once more, Raviah Solomon would be ready to rule the new world.