by ContractorZero
Max Jaeger has ten hours before the hospital switches off his daughter's life support. His wife April is dead. Liz has been in a coma for seven months. Medicine is finished with her. Max isn't. April's journal holds one last option: summon a demon and sign a Contract. The demon offers exactly what Max needs. The price is his soul. Max refuses to pay. He steals the fire instead. Fire that heals. Fire that kills demons. Fire that grows with every fight and wakes power in everyone it touches. The Grimm Institute wants him contained. The Demon Lords want him claimed. Max would trade all of it for one thing. Liz still hasn't opened her eyes. He stole fire from Hell to bring his daughter back. Something had already found her. What to ExpectGrimdark modern-day fantasy that starts as a father's last option and widens into a creeping apocalypse. Gritty, character-driven action. Demon contracts treated as binding law. A lore-driven power system with no stats and no menus. No harem, no academy arcs, no day-one overpowered protagonist. Found family that does not fix anyone. Progression that costs the body. Consequence that does not reset. For readers who want the mythic horror of Berserk, the moral rot of Abercrombie's First Law, the dark progression of Shadow Slave, and the slow apocalypse of The Last of Us. 6 volumes written. 12 planned. Content warning: Violence, psychological abuse, torture, gore.
