Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

he saw instead, stole his breath and nearly made him drop the sword in his hand.

A Pyre.

There was a Pyre in the middle of the industrial room they once used for storage. Crates and shelves lined the far walls, but the majority of the room was given to the Pyre.

Shakily, Jacob approached and knelt at the Pyre. He reached one hand into the beautiful, warm flickering flames.

Your respawn location has been set to Mount Phoenix (Central).

The Fire Oppa stokes the embers of your conviction.

Health, Stamina, Ampoules, and Spell Gems restored.

“Fenris?” Jacob dared to ask.

The ash shifted, and out came the Fire Oppa, his ferret-like face lit up with excitement when he saw him. “I have been waiting for you,” he said.

“What happened?” Jacob asked, looking about.

“Too much,” the Fire Oppa said sadly.

“No, I mean with the Burgon Beast and the…” Jacob rolled his wrist, trying to sort out his spinning thoughts. “That thing that came out of it.”

“Ah, you mean the Incomplete Vessel. Yes, that was quite a long time ago. What did you want to know?”

“I thought you couldn’t help me?” Jacob did his best to keep the accusation from his tone, but from the way the Fire Oppa winced and looked down, the fiery fur cooling to glowing embers, he knew he failed.

“The rules that held me… loosened as each Pyre was destroyed,” Fenris explained, sitting down on the bed of ashes at the base of the Pyre. “When I fully separated from the last Pyre, I was able to join with you because you were part of my Covenant. A piece of my Flame is now a part of your soul and vice versa.

“When the last Pyre was snuffed out….” Fenris shivered, shaking his whole body for a moment as the memory came back to him in full. Jacob couldn’t imagine how terrible it must feel to have his Pyres extinguished.

He could still remember the pained whimpering, and just the memory of that sound tore at his heart.

Lowering his arms and setting his sword aside, Jacob offered the Fire Oppa a place in his hands. An offer the fiery little creature eagerly took as he scrambled into the palms of Jacob’s gauntlets.

Not content to stay there, Fenris scampered up his arm and rested at his shoulder. A pleasant campfire scent of a crackling fire and toasted marshmallows came from the Fire Oppa.

It reminded Jacob of summer camping trips.

“After that Pyre was extinguished,” Fenris continued, “I severed myself from the Pyres and my cycle of rebirth.”

“You said if I died, that you would die,” Jacob said. “For good. Why would you risk that?”

Fenris laid his warm fiery head against Jacob’s neck. Even through his suit of armor, he could feel the life-giving warmth of the Fire Oppa’s flame. “Because I believed in you. And I knew without my help you would be hard-pressed to succeed. Maybe you could have done it without me, but I could not sit idly by and watch you suffer.

“Not after you repeatedly tried to defend my Pyre from the Burgon Beast. Not after you willingly threw yourself at that tortured beast, again and again, each time dying a horribly gruesome death.

“I have watched countless peoples suffer. I have seen millions of humans suffer and succumb to the ills of Lormar. But never have I seen a human so willingly put themselves in harm’s way, to suffer again and again for the sake of others. You are a good man, Jacob.”

“Thanks,” Jacob said sheepishly. He was never very good at taking compliments.

As he tried to come to grips with the reality around him, he thought back to the last memories of Lormare. He remembered being trapped in his own mind. The horrible intrusion of the Incomplete Vessel turning his own thoughts against him.

A shiver of revulsion passed through him. “I don’t think I could have made it without your help,” he said to the Fire Oppa. “Is that why you were able to destroy the Incomplete Vessel, because you could leap from me to the shield you created?”

“Indeed, though you hardly needed my help at that point. The thing was on its last legs. But I didn’t want to take any chances, and if I’m being honest with you… I wanted some payback too. For myself. For the people it has killed and those it would kill if released. For the Burgon Beast and its continued enslavement and suffering.”

“The sword I got in Journey’s End certainly didn’t make it seem like the beast’s former owner was worth saving,” Jacob said.

“Houndmaster Vyrthis was a horrible creature, of which you will soon discover. But you did well in freeing the Burgon Beast. It was in great pain and not in control of its own actions, as you might have guessed.”

Jacob nodded. “That thing was like a parasite, it must have given the Burgon Beast its shadow flames and other horrible attacks.”

“Oh no,” Fenris said, “The Burgon Beast is - was - a rare variation of the Shadow Wolves that were commonly raised as faithful hounds of Lormar’s elite knights. Those fires were its own making, though it was forced to use them against its will.”

A glance at his inventory told Jacob the Burgon Beast’s Soul was still there. He wondered what he could do with it, if anything. It didn’t seem right to turn it into a weapon… that’s what its previous owner did to it.

Could he set it free?

Standing with his thoughts swirling, Jacob petted the Fire Oppa and left the room still deep in thought. He paused after crossing the threshold only to realize that the Fire Oppa was still on his shoulder.

“What?” the Fire Oppa asked him, tilting his head to the side.

“You’re still on my shoulder.”

“Would you like me to get down?” the confused Fire Oppa asked.

“Don’t you need to stay with the Pyre?”

“Not as long as I’m near you.”

Jacob felt a warm glow in his chest, answering the Fire Oppa’s. What connection he had felt before after joining the Phoenix Covenant