Chapter 1: Before the End
The year is 2635. Humanity stands at the edge of extinction.
For over a century, Earth has been under relentless assault by supernatural beings—creatures of unimaginable power that emerged from rifts between dimensions. These beings did not come with a warning. They simply appeared one day, tearing open the fabric of reality itself. No one knows why these rifts appeared, nor what triggered them—only that they brought devastation on a scale humanity could never have prepared for. Cities crumbled. Governments fell. The skies burned with unnatural storms. Hope, like the world, began to fade into the darkness.
The first rift opened in 2492. At first, humanity believed it could resist. But as the years passed and the rifts grew, the creatures became more numerous, more powerful. They were not just beasts of flesh and blood but entities of incomprehensible might, and each one seemed to bring with it a new kind of terror. In 2517, the Great Wars broke out. Nations, once unified, clashed not just with the invaders, but with each other—blaming and fearing one another. The chaos was relentless. Cities were laid to waste. The once-proud human race was reduced to warring factions, each struggling to hold on to whatever small piece of civilization was left.
By 2540, exposure to the creatures began to alter some humans. The mutation was gradual but undeniable. Strange powers began to manifest—telekinesis, enhanced senses, even reality-bending abilities. These individuals, dubbed "Transcendents," were humanity's last hope and its greatest threat. Some sought to protect, while others, driven mad by the changes, turned on their own kind. Humanity was left in a fragile balance, torn between those who sought to defend what was left and those who would exploit their newfound power.
But it wasn't enough.
By 2590, civilization as it was known had collapsed. The world fractured into scattered strongholds—fortified cities clinging to survival, each more isolated than the last. Outside these walls, the land was wild, abandoned to the creatures that roamed freely. Nature itself seemed to have turned against humanity. Famine, disease, and constant attacks from the creatures left little room for hope.
And then, in 2613, a miracle: the formation of a Central Global Government. The remaining world leaders, long divided and fractured, realized that unity was the only way forward. They came together, establishing a central governing body in the hopes of bringing humanity back from the brink. With it came the last desperate plan: Project Chronos—a temporal experiment designed to send someone back in time, far enough to change everything before it could begin.
Deep beneath the earth, hidden from the eyes of the enemy, the Nexus Core Facility was built. It was humanity's final refuge, its last hope. Inside the facility, scientists worked tirelessly to perfect the machine that would allow them to manipulate time itself. But the pressure was immense. The task ahead seemed impossible. There was no guarantee it would work. Time travel—at least, in the way they envisioned it—had never been attempted before, and failure meant extinction.
Alexia, 22 years old, stands at the heart of the machine. She was not meant to be here. She was just a soldier, a security detail sent to guard the facility. She had trained for war, for survival. But none of her training had prepared her for what was about to happen. She had no idea that she was standing on the precipice of the final gamble for the survival of her species.
The countdown begins. The alarms blare. The engineers and scientists shout orders, their voices lost in the chaos of flashing lights and warning sirens. Alexia feels the tension in the air, the weight of the moment pressing on her chest. Her heart races, the adrenaline flowing through her veins, but her mind remains strangely calm. She had faced death countless times in battle, but this—this was different.
The machine hums, its gears spinning, its massive metal arms slowly coming together. She closes her eyes, trying to steady herself, to clear her mind. But then, something goes wrong. A fault in the system. An overload of energy.
A surge rips through the chamber. The machine trembles violently. Alexia's body is slammed against the steel walls as the entire room shudders.
The world goes white.
When Alexia opens her eyes, the air is still. The facility is intact—no flames, no wreckage. She stumbles forward, disoriented, her heart pounding. She looks around, but something feels… wrong. The calm before the storm is unsettling. The familiar hum of machinery is absent, replaced by a strange silence that presses against her ears.
A flicker of light catches her attention. A monitor on the wall flashes to life, its screen displaying a date: August 26, 2491.
She blinks, the date burning itself into her mind. She stumbles back, her breath catching in her throat. It can't be. It shouldn't be. She's supposed to be in the year 2635—the year humanity was all but lost. But this… this is before it all began. A single day before the world changed forever.
Alexia's mind races as the gravity of her situation hits her. The creatures, the wars, the collapse of civilization—they haven't happened yet. She knows what is coming, but no one else does. And now, with the weight of this knowledge on her shoulders, she is forced to confront an impossible choice.
She is the only one who knows what's coming. The only one who can stop it.
But can she?