Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse Book 1) Read online

  Rewind

  Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1

  James T. Callum

  Copyright © 2020 by James T. Callum

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Also by James T. Callum

  Beastborne Chronicles Series

  Beastborne: Mark of the Founder

  Newsletter

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  Introduction

  A legendary time travel adventure to reverse the apocalypse and save humanity.

  When Pyresouls released, it was a brutal new virtual reality game with a twist. Be the first to beat the game and win billions of dollars. But after the Burgon Beast couldn’t be defeated, Pyresouls turned very real and unleashed an apocalypse of undead, monsters and a System of levels and stats onto the world.

  For many years since, Jacob Windsor has fought with sword and shield to survive Post-Collapse Earth where only ancient, Guilt-soaked weaponry can harm the monsters from Pyresouls.

  While defending his bunker with some of the last refugees of humanity, yet another friend loses his life to secure one final hope. An enigmatic artifact capable of sending one person through time.

  In a cruel twist of fate, Jacob becomes humanity’s best chance for survival. He takes the plunge into the past of the terrifying, fractured realm of Pyresouls, where every player is out for blood, and the monsters are more vicious than anything on Post-Collapse Earth.

  Armed with knowledge of game mechanics, secret loot and enemy weaknesses, along with well-honed swordsmanship from years of battle, Jacob has every possible advantage against the competition. But the choices he makes have long-reaching ripple effects on the timeline.

  Can Jacob beat the clock while grinding out Levels and manage to avert the apocalypse, or will his every action darken the timeline even further?

  From the #1 Bestseller author of Beastborne Chronicles comes the first book of a new grimdark litRPG / progression fantasy series. This post-apocalyptic gamelit includes battle, leveling and gear enhancing mechanics inspired by the Dark Souls games.

  Start your time travel dark litRPG adventure today!

  As always, if you find any typos or errors feel free to drop me an email citing what chapter they’re in at: [email protected]. I update the manuscript whenever an error is found, so make sure you allow your reading device to update your ebooks! That way you will always have the best version.

  Dedication

  To all those struggling against insurmountable odds, and never give up, this book is for you.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Epilogue

  Jacob’s Final Stats

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Newsletter

  Beastborne Preview

  Prologue

  Chapter 01

  Chapter 02

  1

  May 7th, 2045 – 10 Years Post-Collapse.

  The air rang with the sound of Jacob’s deflection. He raised his cracked lucidian brass shield just in time to fend off a second blow from the wheezing undead. As he did, he drew his notched and battered sword from its sheath.

  Jacob stepped forward and swept his sword beneath the angle of his raised shield using the Sword Form, Wind Parts the Grass, to strike into his opponent’s gaping ribcage.

  His blade split the bone of the decaying creature and swept clear through its spine, blasting the brittle bone and desiccated flesh into the dry hot wind. Another lost soul took its place, providing only a moment for Jacob to recover his Stamina.

  The [Vacant Human] takes 470 damage from Wind Parts the Grass.

  You consume 20 Stamina.

  You defeat the [Vacant Human].

  Awarded 50 Souls.

  A wisp of white mist lifted from the fallen creature and into Jacob’s chest. A chill spread through his chest and his Souls went up by 50, bringing his total in the bottom right quadrant of his vision to 97,120.

  The number didn’t matter. Without the Pyres, Souls were useless.

  Jacob focused on the upper left quadrant of his vision, taking a step back up the dusty mountain trail as he did. Stamina management was one of the most important aspects of fighting the hellish creatures that all but destroyed the world.

  His green Stamina bar filled slowly as he kept his shield up, but he didn’t dare drop his guard. There were too many. And he had been fighting for too long. With less than a quarter of his Health remaining, he couldn’t afford to take any risks.

  Down below, clad in tattered black robes hemmed in bright blue thread, Caleb held up a hand and called down fire into his palm. Jacob was less than fifty feet from the man but couldn’t get to him through the narrow switchback that descended into the clearing the sorcerer was in.

  Even if he had more Health, taking the fast route down would be suicide. The fall alone would take most of his Health and the undead would be on him before he could recover from the impact.

  Jacob, with only a passing understanding of sorcery, didn’t understand what Caleb was doing. Surrounded by the undead – called Vacant, due to their empty unseeing gaze – he couldn’t see how Caleb would be able to extricate himself.

  But Alec understood.

  “Caleb, no!” Alec cried, his voice raw with emotion. Like Jacob, he was situated up the side of the same sheer cliff face. The narrow stony paths prevented them from getting rushed, forcing the Vacant to come at them single-file. It also prevented them from reaching any allies caught in the clearing below.

  That didn’t stop Alec. He didn’t understand the meaning of the word “can’t.”

  Clad in full medieval plate mail stolen from the Smithsonian well over four years ago, Alec raised his shield and charged down the switchback trail. His heavy greaves crunched the long-dead sere grass beneath his rust-splotched boots.

  It would have been comical, seeing all the Vacant thrown to their deaths, if Jacob didn’t know how close Alec was to joining them among the dead. All it took was one slip, one Vacant that got a lucky strike, and Alec would lose his footing. White wisp
s rose from their broken bodies and entered Alec’s charging form as he built up speed.

  Each of them had once been a brother, sister, mother, father, son, or daughter to somebody. Now they were empty. Vacant. Stripped of all humanity, they were nothing more than vicious beasts.

  Clapping his hands together, Caleb condensed the flame in his hand into three small beads. Jacob’s heart fell at the sight. He may not know much about sorcery but he knew that spell. Sorcerer’s Breath turned their body into one massive explosion of fire.

  In the game of Pyresouls Online, that wasn’t a big deal. It was a final spell that would kill you but also had an equally good chance to kill your opponents. You would simply respawn at the last Pyre you visited.

  But there were no Pyres on Earth. Death was final.

  “Get down!” Jacob cried out.

  Caleb’s dark eyes looked up at him, then drifted to the still-charging form of his brother, Alec. Amid the deepening sadness in the sorcerer’s eyes, he clapped his hands together for one final time, triggering the spell.

  Half a dozen heavily armored men and women in ancient hauberks, chainmail, and plate mail fell to the hard, dead earth just as the wave of white-hot fire flashed across the clearing. Dozens of the Vacant were incinerated in an instant.

  Jacob covered his head with his shield as he hit the rocky trail with a bone-rattling jolt. The wave of intense heat washed over him but he was high enough along the trail that it did little more than make him break out into an uncomfortable sweat.

  He was on his feet in a moment, ready to meet the attack he feared was coming. Instead, he stared at nothing but the half-dozen blazes Caleb had set off down below at the forest’s edge.

  There was nothing left of the man and nothing left of the raiding force of Vacant and other monstrosities.

  They were able to sniff out the last dregs of humanity no matter how far they ran or how deeply they hid in their holes. More monsters would pick up their trail.

  Up in the once-green Appalachian mountains of North Carolina, it had been safe for a while. Then they found them. They always did.

  Caleb was their best sorcerer, and through his sacrifice, dozens of horrendous monsters were defeated. White wisps, Souls, flew in every direction, split evenly among the survivors. But other abominations would find them before long. And when that happened, they would be one man down.

  It was a war of attrition played out again and again in scattered pockets across the dying world. It was one war the human race couldn’t hope to win.

  Miraculously, Alec had thrown himself down at the last moment and managed to avoid the brunt of the sorcerous explosion. His surcoat was turned to ash, bits of the ragged cloth still burning. And his armor was blackened in several spots.

  “Form up, and fall back!” Alec called, rising to his feet. Jacob shook his head at his resiliency. Not for the first time, he wished he was as strong as him. Or that he at least stayed in the game long enough to level up some more.

  Without the Pyres, no matter how many Souls he got, he couldn’t level up on Earth. Still, he couldn’t complain too much. Skills could still be increased and upgraded through extensive use and intensive training.

  Even the weakest of surviving Pyresouls players were better off than those who never played. They were perpetually stuck at Level 0 without any hope of increasing their stats beyond the average human’s.

  Alec crossed the narrow ledge to Jacob’s position, lifting the visor to his helm as he did. His face was tight with barely-held grief. Caleb was his brother and the big man had a habit of putting the fate of the world on his shoulders. Jacob had known him for years now, there was no way Alec wouldn’t blame himself for his brother’s death.

  Jacob lifted the visor on his helm and looked into Alec’s bright blue eyes. He didn’t say anything. They had both seen death often enough to know that no words could suffice. He placed a comforting hand on the bigger man’s pauldrons in a gesture of solidarity.

  Alec nodded to him in thanks, then turned his gaze north and hurried off up the trail, his equipment making its customary racket.

  A couple heavily armored – now blackened – forms didn’t get up. Jacob sighed. They would be down more than just a single man when the monsters returned. He turned to look up at Alec’s back.

  He wasn’t about to ask him to clear the dead.

  Jacob raised a gauntleted hand to the woman in a crimson surcoat and a beak-faced bascinet that was coming up the path. “Kat, you’re with me.”

  She was among the most gifted among them. Despite being stuck at Level 2, she took to the training well and showed great promise. Only her weak stats held her back. Like Jacob, Kat had quit Pyresouls early.

  Many people had underestimated the psychological weight of a Full-Immersion Virtual Reality (FIVR for short) game with no pain dampeners, no memory inhibitors for death, and horrific fiends straight out of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos. Few stayed logged in past their first death.

  While the others followed Alec up the trail to the caves that housed one of the last bastions of humanity, Jacob and Kat picked their way down the smoldering trails to their fallen comrades.

  If they were dead, Jacob needed to be sure they stayed that way. And if they weren’t, they needed to be brought inside.

  Kat lifted her visor, her face was streaked with grime and sweat. Her blue eyes met Jacob’s green. “I’ll get Daniel and Melissa.”

  With a nod, Jacob split off and went to the first lifeless form. Sal never did like being crammed into a suit of armor. Nothing they ever found fit the man’s rotund frame. And yet, when the enemy was at the gate, he was the first one to squeeze into that uncomfortable armor.

  Unlike modern, comfortable fabrics, and flexible nanoweave, the suits of medieval armor they wore were bulky and difficult to move in. But they were the only armaments that offered true protection against the horde of creatures that now dominated the world after the Collapse.

  Without Guilt, a force imbued into equipment by its previous wearers over many long years, even the sturdiest steel plates were little better than tissue paper. Replicas didn’t work, even melting down the ancient metal failed to produced decent armor. It had been one of Jacob and Kim’s first real discoveries.

  Raiding local museums and collectors was the only reason their group - diminished though it was - still survived. Guns were useless. Tactical armor a joke. But dress up like you were going to a jousting match, and you could weather blows that would take down a tank.

  With Sal’s body facedown in the smoldering dirt, Jacob nudged the man with the toe of his metal boot. When he didn’t respond, he rolled him over and crouched at his side. Placing his sword to the side, he drew a thin-bladed dagger from his hip and carefully lifted the man’s visor.

  His stomach churned at the sight of the grouchy, fatherly figure burned to a crisp. With a practiced motion, Jacob tilted back the man’s head and drove the thin tip of the dagger from the man’s chin into his brain.

  The Vacant liked to come back wearing the faces of friends and loved ones. Damaging the brain prevented that from happening. Once they were Vacant, they were much harder to put down.

  It was hard work, emotionally and physically taxing. But it was a necessity after the Collapse changed all the rules.

  After cleaning the dagger, Jacob picked up his sword and waited. A moment later, a glowing fiery sphere of sapphire light drifted off the man’s chest and floated in the air. He reached his hand out and touched it, willing the wisp into himself.

  You gain [Stygian Iron Helm].

  You gain [Stygian Iron Breastplate].

  You gain [Stygian Iron Gauntlets].

  You gain [Stygian Iron Greaves].

  You gain [Ring of Bitter Dreams].

  The words flashed across Jacob’s vision and vanished with a mental confirmation. All of Sal’s effects were contained in that wispy orb of blue fire.

  It was one of the quirks of this new post-apocalyptic reality.

  One o
f the very few benefits of the Collapse was the inventory system that provided everybody with a [Boundless Box] that seemed to hold an impossible number of items without weighing them down.

  Any item you had on you – or within your [Boundless Box] – would be contained in your wisp. Unlike monsters, the wisps of people stayed at the site of their death. Long after a person’s body turned to ash, their wisp would remain in place waiting for somebody to collect it.

  Simply touching a person’s wisp allowed you to gain all of their usable items and in rare cases, it might contain a fragment of the Souls they had collected in life.

  Jacob turned to Caleb, or rather the blackened blasted stone where Caleb had once stood. All that remained of Caleb was a glowing azure wisp that hung in the air above the charred stone.

  Caleb had gone out on some secret mission almost two months ago. They all thought he was dead until the scouts saw him and the horde of Vacant on his heels an hour ago.

  Unsurprisingly, the man had little left. But aside from his equipment, which Jacob collected and would give to Alec, there was another item. One he had never seen before.