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

absorbed the impacts, though a few chips did get through and drew bright lines of pain across his exposed cheeks.

When Jacob got to his feet, he found the woman huddled in a crouch, hugging her knees and sobbing. He went up to her, offering his hand. “I don’t want anything,” he said honestly.

“I don’t mean it in that cheesy, bullshit way of ‘I’m too good to be corrupted.’ I mean, what I want is from myself. To be a better person than I was. If you want to help me to repay me, I won’t say no. But you’re under no compulsion to do so.”

She took Jacob’s hand and he effortlessly pulled her to her feet. She scrubbed at her hollow, wet cheeks. “You have no idea how good it feels not to be nearly stretched to your limit for weeks on end....”

Jacob motioned toward the exit. “You’re free,” he told her, then he cast a look at her gathering up the loops of chains she would need to carry around. “Somewhat at least.”

Looking at him then at the heavy chains looped in her arms. “You’re just… letting me go?”

“Do you want a written letter? Really, lady, I don’t have time to sit here and convince you. Your life is your own now, do with it as you will.”

She bit her lip, studying him intently.

Jacob gave her one last look and with a shrug left the room, heading back to the storage area with the broken crates. He was halfway up the stairs when he heard the jingle of chains and paused to look back.

The woman stood there, half-naked and staring at him defiantly with those ruby-red eyes that seemed so out of place in her otherwise pale – if dirtied – complexion. “I’m coming with you,” she said with just the tiniest hint of uncertainty.

“Listen, lady, if you don’t have anything to contribute I’m not sure what good it will be to follow along with me,” Jacob said, coming down to the base of the steps to face her. “I’m going to die, a lot. I’m not sure if that’s a normal feat for your people here but-”

“If I can bind my soul to a Cairn, I can return as well,” she said, sticking her chin out at him. “And my name is, Camilla.”

“Not a Pyre?” Jacob asked, taken aback by her interruption.

The look she gave him was incredulous. “No. The souls of my ancestors will catch me before I am taken beyond the veil and return me to the Cairn. But I must first find one.”

Grumbling to himself, Jacob took out the cleric’s set he wore when he first met Camilla. “Here, you need to wear something more than that. You’re one nip-slip from turning this into an NC-18 game.”

Obviously, Camilla didn’t get the joke. She stared at him blankly but accepted the clothes without ceremony. In an eyeblink, they vanished from her hands and appeared on her body.

They hung off her and billowed in the gentle breeze wafting down from the staircase, carrying the carrion stench of Vacant up above. It looked not too dissimilar from trying to dress up a scarecrow. Or a child in their parent’s clothing.

That meant, at least to some degree, she could use the same game systems he could. Because there would be no way she could have put on any clothes with those chains still on her.

He wasn’t about to give her his [Mace], but he thought about giving her the [Bladed Whip]. It seemed to be approaching the end of its usefulness anyway.

But when he offered it to her, she shook her head. “I am a Sorceress. I do not require a weapon. But it seems like you could use a shield. Is it common, where you are from, for knights to be without a shield?”

Jacob shook his head. “My shield was destroyed recently, getting the Minos Horn I used to free you as a matter of fact.”

Camilla nodded, biting her dry and cracked lip. “I know of a supply cache, the weapons are of no use to me but you may prefer them.”

“Where is it?” Jacob asked warily.

Secretly glad to have a potentially powerful ally – though one that would be all but useless without a focus – Jacob couldn’t get the image out of his head of her roasting him alive with gouts of flame when his back was turned.

With a rattle of chains, she motioned to the stonework beneath the stairs leading up onto the bridge. Jacob stepped aside, keeping her in his line of sight at all times.

Dragging her chains with her, Camilla pressed against various blocks in a particular series. After she pressed into the last one, the stones simply vanished.

In their place was a small half-rotted wooden chest with rusted banding. Camilla stepped back to let Jacob inspect the contents. When Jacob didn’t move closer, she retreated all the way to the far corner.

He may have helped her, but he still felt more than a little skittish about leaning down to inspect a chest when she stood behind him with sturdy lengths of chain.

Striding quickly to the chest, Jacob opened it with a loud ominous creek. Inside was a sapphire wisp and as he touched it, two items fell into his [Boundless Box].

You gain [Kite Shield].

You gain [Longsword].

“You’ll need a focus,” he said, turning back to her. He tried to remember back a couple of hours to Brother Aker’s shop. Did he have a focus for sale? The way back was long and winding but it would be clear.

The thought was soon cast aside. Enough time was wasted rescuing Camilla. It may have been a wash after defeating the Minos and not getting lost in the depths of the Steps of Penance but he didn’t think so.

“I have my methods,” she said cryptically. “Lead on, brave knight and I will show you to cast doubt on a Sorceress of Asalin.”

In the back of Jacob’s mind, he felt a little twinge of annoyance. If Camilla