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Chapter 38 - Chapter 38 — Heavenly Pact

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A heavinly pact is pact formed by sacrificing something to gain something

The foundation split down the middle.

Orbit stood at the fracture line, Gambit humming like a loaded reactor.

Dust spiraled upward — not falling.

Gravity was bending wrong.

"Fifty percent pressure," Orbit said calmly.

Richard wiped blood from his mouth.

Blaze's flames flickered weaker than they should have.

Corpse finally moved.

One step forward.

His eyes weren't calm anymore.

They were calculating.

"Richard. Luna. Siara. Tanya. Zane."

His voice cut clean through the chaos.

"Run."

Zane blinked. "WHAT?"

"You are liabilities under increasing gravitational density," Corpse said evenly. "Evacuate immediately."

Siara hesitated. "We don't leave—"

"You will die if you remain."

That did it.

Richard locked eyes with Corpse for half a second.

A silent understanding passed.

Then Richard grabbed Luna.

"Move."

Tanya pulled Zane up by the collar.

"Confess later. Survive now."

They sprinted toward the collapsing corridor.

Orbit tilted his head slightly.

"Splitting your board."

Ghoul stepped forward.

The air around him shimmered.

"128-frame split."

And then—

He vanished.

Not invisibility.

Speed.

Mach 8.

Orbit swung Gambit instinctively.

The hammer crushed the air—

—but Ghoul wasn't there.

A distortion flickered behind Orbit.

Then another.

Then four more.

Afterimages layered in 128-frame displacement — each one slightly out of phase.

Orbit turned once.

Twice.

Calculating.

"High-speed fragmentation," he murmured.

Ghoul struck.

One clean hit to Orbit's side.

Orbit slid half a step.

The ground dented beneath him.

"Acceptable."

Corpse extended his hand.

The blood from Blaze's earlier injury lifted off the floor.

Then more.

Orbit's earlier micro-cuts.

Fine red threads rose into the air.

They didn't drip.

They hovered.

Corpse's voice lowered.

"Compression."

The blood condensed into razor-thin needles.

Orbit increased gravity instantly.

The needles trembled—

—but didn't fall.

Corpse's eyes sharpened.

"They don't require gravity."

The needles shot forward.

Orbit deflected with Gambit.

The hammer absorbed the kinetic discharge.

Its hum deepened.

"Charging me," Orbit noted.

Blaze stepped forward, breathing hard.

His flames flickered weak and unstable.

Limited.

His combusting chrome energy reserves were nearly dry.

Under this gravity, his output was restricted.

Orbit noticed immediately.

"You're dim."

Blaze smiled faintly.

"Yeah."

He closed his eyes.

Whispers formed around him — not wind.

Energy.

A binding.

Corpse turned sharply.

"…Blaze."

Blaze inhaled once.

"500% output."

The air ignited.

Chrome-orange flames burst outward violently.

But they didn't spread.

They tightened inward.

Dense.

Condensed.

Orbit's eyes sharpened.

"A pact."

Blaze opened his eyes.

They burned brighter than before.

"Half my range," he said calmly. "All my power."

The flames compressed into a close radius around him — no more wide battlefield spread.

But the heat—

The heat spiked exponentially.

Gravity warped around him from pure thermal force.

Orbit's boots sank slightly into the fractured floor.

Now he looked interested.

Blaze stepped forward.

The ground melted under his feet despite Orbit's gravity.

"Let's gamble."

Ghoul reappeared behind Orbit at Mach 8 again—

Simultaneously—

Corpse tightened the blood threads mid-air—

Blaze vanished forward in a concentrated inferno.

Orbit swung Gambit.

The collision detonated.

Flame versus gravity.

Speed versus density.

Blood constructs slicing through compressed air.

The entire broken base vaporized in the shockwave.

Outside, the fleeing group felt the earth shake.

Zane turned back.

"What did he just do?"

Richard didn't slow down.

"He bet everything."

Back inside the collapsing ruin—

Blaze's flames burned hotter than ever.

But only within a tight radius.

Surgical destruction.

Orbit's hammer hummed dangerously near overload.

Ghoul struck again—

128-frame displacement tearing at Orbit's blind spots.

Corpse's blood needles pierced Orbit's armor gaps—

Orbit increased gravity to seventy percent.

The ground beneath all three fighters sank deeper.

Orbit smiled faintly.

"Now this."

He lifted Gambit.

"Is worth two hundred million."

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