The Earth After Rebirth

"Dammit Hubris. Why evolve if your body can't hack it?"

The purple flames ran chaotic in his eyes. They had replaced them completely. He looked more like an undead hound now as the flames danced in his eye sockets, he groaned in pain.

Ding!

[The flames are burning his life force fast. He is estimated to completely go berserk in 2 minutes and die in 5.]

"I thought hellhounds are supposed to be immortal?"

[...]

Kiro scrumbled for the interface, and quickly called Hiro. He was the only person he knew that could brew potions, maybe there was a potion for this too.

'Come on, come on, pick up.' The call hadn't rang all that long, it was a mere second but it felt like a kind of eternity to Kiro.

"Miss me already?" Hiro answered and teased.

"How many restorative potions do you have?" Kiro had no time to banter with him.

Hiro sensed the urgency in his voice, so he stopped fooling around, "Let me see, oh I have one."

"Send it quick, and make more, how long does it take to work anyway, hey don't just stand there send it." He was saying everything at once which made Hiro the more confused.

"What—"

"Hubris is dying, hurry!"

He immediately got the notification that the potion was sent. He grabbed the potion without hanging up, he ran to Hubris. Hiro was also scrumbling on the other side for herbs, trying to make more.

Luckily, since he asked Felix to mine for him, he had more herbs in abundance so he wasn't running low on that. He quickly conjured his flames and tried to keep focused.

Kiro reached Hubris in a few strides, he didn't care if the flames hurt him. He just didn't want to lose anything else at the moment. He couldn't take it if he did, even if that thing was just a coded mount that only existed in this virtual space. He had to save him.

Upon reaching Hubris, he forcibly opened his maw and made him drink the potion. Nothing happened. He wasn't sure if it would work either but he had to try something. At the very last second.

Ding!

[The potion has slowed his death by a huge amount. It's fighting to restore him, but the flames are quite stubborn. You need more of them to balance it out so he can continue his metamorphosis.]

Hiro was already brewing. He heard the message somehow the system was able to broadcast that to both of them. But he couldn't lose his concentration. While he had perfected this recipe, mistakes happened. And one mistake spelled another thing his friend would lose.

"Hubris, you damn fool. Why do you have to be so stubborn all the time? Remember the time at the cave, you refused to submit to me, until the very end.

"I had to use fear to make you submit, twice. That's something I'm not exactly proud of. I don't like reigning like that. I just want us to be comrades who fight side by side. Be stubborn one last time, please don't die."

Hubris was clearly in pain. He'd groan and moan once in a while. Upon hearing Kiro's words, he whimpered.

Hiro sent 5 restorative potions and was immediately starting a new pot. He had no idea how much was needed but he liked nothing more than feeling useful to Kiro.

This was the guy who took him in, in a way. He couldn't imagine how his academy life would be like, if Kiro weren't his friend, his best friend.

Kiro fed Hubris the potions in a span of 10 minutes. He had originally wanted to pour all of them at once, the system and Hiro advised against it. So he had to do it one potion at a time.

The fire he had made because he wanted to train, had long been nothing but charcoal, as nobody was there to feed and tend to it. As they were still on a mountain, that made the area colder, but Kiro didn't even notice. That's how worried he was for Hubris.

The 5 potions seemed to dim, but just a little, the flames in his eyes. The restorative potion seemed to be helping him with his evolution, albeit slow. The purple flames were as stubborn as Hubris was.

Kiro continued to pat him. He didn't want him to feel alone, lest he was really going to die.

He was visibly shocked that, something that didn't even really exist would make him so sad. He reminded himself that, Hubris was special. While he could get another white tiger, he doubted he could get another Hubris.

He was also taking large amounts of damage from the purple flames. About 100 HP per 5 seconds. And because his Health was so high, he didn't notice at first. He noticed because the flames were eating the flesh from his hands.

His hands had become boney, now they both resembled the undead. He looked at them with fascination.

"Maybe we will burn until we're both the undead, buddy." He attempted to joke.

As much as he was being hurt, he refused to leave Hubris, he felt like if he left him, he'd die. It was the second time he felt like this about him, only this time, he cared more about this stubborn pup.

"We'll be alright, just focus on your evolution. Uncle Hiro here will make you better." He downed a health potion as his HP ran dangerously low. It was restored in the blink of an eye.

They worked for days without rest, trying to cure Hubris. It was working, but slow. Hiro had brewed around 100 potions already, he looked like a mad scientist. His hair was usually tame and straight, but now it was wild and frizzled.

His skin had black soot all over it, as someone who had been brewing for days without rest it was understandable.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you've succeeded in balancing his violent flames. His metamorphosis is at 99%]

Both boys fell where they stood. They may be avatar's but they did feel fatigue, depending on how high the stamina was.

Kiro slept for 2 days straight. When he came to, he was lying on something fluffy and warm despite the fact that he fell on the mountain floor when he passed out.

"Welcome back master."

Kiro wanted to scream but he couldn't find his voice. Hubris looked large and intimidating, he looked like a ferocious dragon but at the same time, he was still a hound. His fur were just purple flames, but this time they weren't hurting him.

"You can talk?"