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

More than anything he wanted the comfort of Lormar again. Even without the Pyre nearby, Lormar had a warmth to it.

Granted, it was like the warmth of a recently dead thing that was fast cooling. But it was better than the stone-cold corpse of Earth.

“Yeah, about that, dude.” Alec came over to the side of the pod. “Pulling you out every hour is placing a lot of strain on your body. We’re going to lengthen the amount of time you’re inside, for your safety.”

Jacob started. “What do you mean, placing a strain on me? What happened this time?”

“There is a disconnect,” Alice said, trying to downplay the severity. “We do not know what is the cause but whenever we recall you… there is a momentary pause when we… lose you.”

“As in, I die?”

“No, we lose you.”

Jacob turned to Alec, hoping for some actual answers. His friend offered a shrug. “It’s just as Alice said. You’re lost. She can’t find where you go or how long you’re gone for relative to your sense of time. You just… disappear.

“You should go straight back to your body but without a connection to your past, and with you no longer inhabiting your current body you kind of…die. Like, braindead. Your heart stops working, you seize up. It’s terrifying.”

“We are working on it,” Alice said, placing a gentle hand on his arm. “By extending the time you are inside Pyresouls, we will limit the stress of pulling you out. However, that means you will be without our aid for longer. So ask what you will and we will gather the information for you now.”

“And hey,” Alec said, playfully slapping Jacob’s shin. “With any luck you’ll only need one more trip back here before you clobber the Burgon Beast! Man, I won’t have any idea how much of a screw up I was, would I?” He chuckled. “Oh right, before I forget, there’s this sword you might want to be on the lookout for. It’ll be down a small cul-de-sac in Hollow Dreams….”

It was another hour of discussing his path forward and trying to find anything that might be used to help him along his way before Jacob went back in. Alec had been stronger than him, but not by much.

And the sooner he could release the Burgon Beast the better. There were ripple effects from his actions. Already several reports in the archives spoke of the Steps of Penance being utterly ruined.

Paths that people had taken were changed and each interaction Jacob had in Lormar changed more. His romp in the Crossing deep in the Desecrated Catacombs was a horror story that became more insane and terrifying with each retelling.

Each day closer to the Collapse meant another chance for somebody to get there before him. And that, he could not allow.

The fewer times he was recalled to the present the safer it would be. Though, they confessed they didn’t understand the underlying mechanisms that caused the problem.

Physically, he was healthy until the recall procedure pulled him back. Then all bets were off.

It made sense why he was able to see Kimberly again. For just a moment, they were both dead and whatever veil that separated the two was briefly lifted.

Despite the danger to himself, he liked seeing her. He missed her. And he hoped he would get the chance to see her past self at least once more.

With memories of Kim and the violent retribution he would visit upon the Vile Covenant once he was back in the Drowned Halls, they sent him back.

September 4th, 2035 – 9 days remain before the Collapse.

Jacob woke up tasting blood and brine.

Opening his eyes, he could see he was unmoved from the hallway he was last in. It was later than he thought. Inside Pyresouls it was harder than usual to gauge time.

Without the need to eat, or drink, and sleeping was only needed when reinforcing a parameter, it was remarkably easy to while away the hours while thinking only a few minutes passed. Lormar demanded so much attention, for your own safety most of all, that the time just slipped away.

But this was more than usual.

Getting to his feet, he wiped away the blood where he split his lip on the hard brine-soaked stones of the floor. His first piece of business was to revisit the Pyre for a quick top-off before going out to seek the Vile Covenant.

Fully healed from the Pyre, and with a fond farewell to the Fire Oppa, Jacob took off deeper into the Drowned Halls. Being a Covenant faction within Pyresouls Online, he doubted there was much lasting damage he could do.

At the least, he could vent his frustrations on whatever poor fool they had recruiting.

He found his quarry a few hours later in a round waterlogged chamber. Tentacle iconography filled the room in various states of wear. Upon a dais at the back of the room, in front of a blood-stained altar was a strange-looking man in dark green-and-gold robes.

The colors of the Vile Kingdom.

As much as Jacob wanted to rush through the room of knee-high water, sword raised in a promise of death, he sublimated his rage and calmly walked forward.

Wading through the water seemed to awaken the priest at the altar who looked up, his face hidden in the dark of the cowl. Jacob knew that the man would be “modified.” A pleasant way of saying he had tentacles, perhaps mouths growing in weird places, fins, gills, or some other such watery adaptation.

It was unsurprising then, as Jacob slogged through the water, when the man lowered his hood and had a too-wide fish-like face. He pushed the briny water out of his way with every forceful step while being careful to avoid the darker sections of the water where he couldn’t see the floor.

Now the brine made sense. It was one of the many oddities that presaged the Vile Kingdom’s arrival. Freshwater turned brackish and briny. The horrendous creatures of the Vile