The cosmos trembled.
Stars flickered like broken chips on a gambling table, and the air smelled faintly of ozone, burnt logic, and adrenaline.
The Divine Auditors descended in perfect formation — emotionless beings of glass and algorithm, wings of code slicing through probability itself. Their voices spoke in cold unison:
"Error Detected: Wildcard Entity — Unbound Emotional Link. Commence Universal Correction."
Rex grinned up at them. "Universal correction, huh? Sounds like a fancy way of saying 'you're losing control.'"
Lia hovered beside him, her form glowing brighter now — a symphony of white and crimson threads. "Focus, Rex. If our link destabilizes mid-battle, the House will fold us both into statistical dust."
He winked. "So don't let me die, partner."
Her expression softened. "I'll try not to."
[Dual Fate Link Active]
Synchronization: 83%
Skill Unlocked: Shared Instinct – Perfect Parry (Passive)
Effect: When one defends, the other perceives all outcomes within one probability second.
The first Auditor lunged — its arm transforming into a scythe of data. Rex dodged before it moved, guided by Lia's foresight. He rolled under the strike, grabbed a roulette chip from thin air, and flicked it upward.
The chip exploded into a burst of golden flame, shattering the creature's upper body into fragments of shattered logic.
"Lucky shot," Lia teased.
"Calculated chaos," Rex corrected, twirling another chip.
But the others moved faster now, adjusting, adapting.
One Auditor split into six, another rewound time for half a second — enough to counter their rhythm.
Lia gasped. "They're rewriting probability! They're stealing our tempo!"
Rex laughed — not in fear, but in thrill. "Then let's improvise."
He reached out his hand — and without hesitation, Lia took it.
[Wildcard Fusion Technique: All-In Gamble]
Fate Points Burned: 1,000 per heartbeat.
Effect: Combine probability and emotion. Outcome unknown.
The universe blurred.
Every particle around them became a spinning card, every sound a rolling dice. Lia's light wrapped around him, fusing logic and impulse, code and emotion.
Their movements became impossible to predict — because they weren't following logic anymore.
Rex feinted left, Lia moved right — and somehow, both were correct.
He leaped through broken starlight, she weaved probability threads around him — each thread snapping, redirecting, amplifying.
Together, they danced through destruction.
From his perch above, The Dealer watched in amused awe.
"Oh, my beautiful disasters. They're improvising with the laws of reality. I should be furious… but this is magnificent."
He shuffled his deck lazily, each card showing infinite outcomes.
"The odds say they should've died five minutes ago."
A smirk.
"But odds, it seems, are overrated."
One final Auditor remained.
Larger than the rest — its face cracked with rage, its voice booming like static thunder.
"Unacceptable. Emotion is contamination. Chaos is corruption."
Rex cracked his knuckles. "Yeah, and corruption's my specialty."
He looked at Lia. "Ready?"
She nodded, eyes blazing. "Let's gamble."
They launched forward — not two fighters, but one pulse of synchronized defiance.
Lia shaped the light into a spiral, Rex bent it into chance. Together they flipped a final golden coin, embedding their power into it.
The coin fell between them — spinning infinitely.
"Call it," she whispered.
"Heads — we live."
"Tails?"
He smirked. "We rewrite the rules."
The coin landed.
Both sides glowed.
The explosion was silent — a ripple of gold and scarlet spreading across the void, devouring the Auditor's logic in pure emotion.
When the light faded, only Rex and Lia stood — panting, hands still locked together, the cosmos trembling around them.
[Battle Complete]
Recognition Points Earned: +30
Dual Fate Link: 97% Synchronization Achieved
New Title Unlocked: "The House's Heartbreaker"
Rex collapsed backward onto floating cards, breathing hard. "Well… that was educational."
Lia landed beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. "You nearly killed us. Twice."
He chuckled. "Twice? That's improvement."
She rolled her eyes — but her smile was soft. "You're impossible, Rex."
He turned his head slightly toward her. "Yeah. But you like impossible things."
The glow in her cheeks confirmed it.
Above them, The Dealer's cards fluttered like applause.
"Bravo, my little gamblers. You've turned chaos into choreography."
He leaned forward, grin widening.
"But remember — every dance has a price."
And as the House repaired itself around them, Rex felt it — a cold weight deep in his chest.
Something in their link pulsed irregularly.
Something the Dealer wasn't telling him.
But for now — he ignored it.
Because for the first time in forever, chaos had never felt this alive.