In a week, it will be the official university's semester break. So, the university dorm had fewer people than usual. Some departments gave early semester breaks for their students.
After a day of rest, Thalira had recovered. She was currently lounging on the balcony, dozing off. The original body owner had already had a semester break since a week ago, but she didn't return home.
For her, it was the best decision because she wouldn't know how to act in front of Thalira's biological parents and siblings. Even though she possessed her memories, ultimately, she wasn't her. She wasn't sure whether they would notice or not.
The apocalypse would be a tremendous change for the world and a test for humans' hearts. If she came back during that time, they might understand their daughter's sudden change more and wouldn't be so suspicious. Thus, she decided to remain in the university dormitory for semester break.
In a mortal body, her senses weren't as good as before, but she found it was gradually improving. She was already better than ordinary humans. This made her able to hear the conversations from a few balconies away a bit more clearly.
"Do you know Sera has fallen sick? A lot of people got sick lately." A female voice had a worried tone.
"The weather these days is so unpredictable. How come people have become so fragile? Because of the rain, someone in my class got hospitalized for a week and is in a comatose state!" The voice that responded had a slight tremble.
"Some elderly passed away recently. There are more deaths because of some kind of infectious disease."
Thalira got up from her chair and headed inside. It seemed there were already some changes, like an initial screening, before the actual storm began. People with weaker immunity had either got sick or passed away.
But Tenebris, the planet they lived on, had a massive population. Spanning over around 1,5 millions of kilometers wide, there were more than 50 billion humans on the planet. Even if some people passed away, the population remained huge.
It was a massive number for Thalira, because the divine beast race had a low fertility rate. It took her mother more than two thousand years before she got pregnant again with her.
"Thalira, I want to go out. Do you want to eat something? I will buy it for you when I come back." Scarlett looked at the thin girl.
Thalira lowered her eyes. She had tasted some food in this human realm that Scarlett had brought yesterday. They were incredibly delicious.
"I will eat whatever you buy me. Please pick something for me." Thalira tried to make her voice sound as neutral as possible. The real Thalira wasn't exactly a cheerful girl, but she was polite.
Evelyn had gone out earlier and there were only the two of them in the room. Not long after, it was only Thalira again. She made sure that Evelyn and Scarlett wouldn't return so soon before she tried her experiment. Because of Thalira's regression before she tragically died in her sleep, she suspected she had awakened the body's ability ahead of everyone else.
Thalira had a fire ability during the apocalypse. Since last night, she had been feeling quite hot and uncomfortable, like her entire body was burning. It made her stay longer in the bathroom this morning. She took a piece of paper, willing it to burn.
"Burn!" She commanded.
Nothing happened.
The paper still stayed clean and white. She was quite a stubborn person, so she didn't give up. After more than ten tries, she finally frowned. In her seventh attempt, she was so excited when she felt a hot sensation in her fingertips. But the result was only small black dots at the place her fingers had touched.
Just as she thought that should try it again tomorrow, a fire enveloped the entire paper, bathing it in fiery red. Thalira was scared; her eyes widened in shock.
A tingling sensation followed. She glanced at the ashes of the burnt paper on the floor and checked her fingers. There were faint burnt marks on her palm, signalling that she didn't have a good control of her fire ability yet. However, the result still made her pretty satisfied.
Haste makes waste; she had to be patient and not rush. Or else, the result would be the opposite.
"What about my inner world?" Thalira asked, none in particular.
Her eyes lit up. Each divine beast was a powerful creature. They were born with an inner world embedded in their soul, where they store things.
It was one of the most magical aspects of her race. Having an inner world was akin to having a world of their own. They could even store living beings and plant things there.
With excitement, she instantly thought of her inner world, going there just by thinking about it. Because she was so used to having such an inner world, subconsciously she took it for granted. Only now that she wished the space would follow her here.
She gazed around at the familiar environment, feeling immensely grateful. She was originally scared that without her divine beast core, she wouldn't be able to go in there. Jumping around excitedly, she ran toward the place where she had planted her fruit trees.
However, she slammed into something.
"Huh?" She looked around in confusion. When she tried for the second time, her excitement was doused. She dazedly thought; her inner world had an invisible wall!
Was it because she was not powerful enough? She frowned, remembering that with each upgrade of power, the inner world also got upgraded. Currently, she was merely a weak mortal girl. Most likely, that was the reason that the space she could explore was limited.
She gazed at the paradise-like places around her and quickly tried to go to other places. The result was disappointing, but she quickly adjusted her mentality, telling herself it was still better than nothing. When she upgraded her power in the future, she wouldn't need to worry about starving once she could access her fruit trees and some livestocks.
She calculated the current area she could use. Fortunately, it was still quite big and one of her tree houses was still accessible. With a single thought, she appeared inside.
The tree that supported it was said to have relation to the world tree. It was the biggest thing in her inner space, taking up a massive space. The main trunk was unfortunately inaccessible.
Inside her spacious tree house, she found several of her silk clothes, snacks, weapons, and other things. There weren't any useful things here…
Thalira stumbled upon something. She hissed as she picked up the thing and was about to throw it away when she froze. Wait, it was a ring. More specifically, a space ring where time inside was stagnant.
She rummaged around the places and found some more things like bags and a few rings that have space inside. The first ring had the biggest space so far, as big as her university, that had a million students in it.
The discovery made her very excited. Unexpectedly, the things she used to throw away and ignore now came in handy.
She exited the inner space with a single thought, laying down on her bed. The ring was empty, but she could slowly fill it in later. Before she could slowly unlock more space in her inner world, supplies were the most important thing right now to prepare for the apocalypse.
Her thoughts abruptly stopped when she thought about her inner world. If her inner world was there, what about her majestic white tiger divine beast form?
Her breath hitched, and she hurriedly put down the ring on the bed and got off. She instantly thought about her divine beast's form, trying to revert to that appearance.
However, when she opened her eyes again, she was in shock. The small mirror had coincidentally faced her, which revealed her current appearance. Instead of that majestic figure, she currently had the appearance of a snowy white, fluffy, and small cat?!
How could that be?
Countless thoughts occupied her mind. At the same time, suddenly the door opened.