Death pact

Three examples are seen in the story: pacts made by Red Robe and Silverlake with Panaxeth, and a pact Zach Noveda made with the angels.

The terms of Red Robe's and Silverlake's pacts were apparently similar: they had to breach Panaxeth's prison within a month or die. The contract would expire at the end of the month. They received new bodies by Panaxeth, which were extremely strong and with great regenerative capabilities thanks to Panaxeth's essence (see Shifter). These abilities apparently extended to Red Robe's simulacrums as well.

Silverlake was killed in a fight before she could fulfill the terms of her pact. Red Robe failed and was killed by the pact.

It was definitely revealed in chapter 98 that Zach made a pact with the angels to prevent the release of Panaxeth during the month, while keeping the terms of the pact and the existence of the time loop secret at the end of the month and obeying many other restrictions. It was referred to as a "death pact" by Silverlake only; otherwise it was usually referred to as "contract".

Zach failed to contain the knowledge of time loop's existence, thus violating the contract. However, the contract was truly self-enforcing only with regards to keeping Panaxeth imprisoned;^{[note 1]} Zach would be killed by the enforcement mechanism only if Zach knew or suspected that someone knew about the existence of the time loop, but not if he was unaware of it.

Ultimately, Zorian used an illusion (maintained by him, his simulacrums and many aranea using the telepathic relay network in Cyoria to connect themselves and feed to Zach the views of the city constructed from what the city inhabitants saw and heard, and their minds) to make Zach believe he managed to fulfill the part of the contract regarding time loop knowledge^[1]; the angels stated they're willing to ignore that violation^[2].

The word pact is also used in the title of chapter 18 ("The Pact is Sealed"), but refers to an ordinary agreement, enforceable neither by an automatic device nor by any non-parties such as courts, and in chapter 22 ("Complications") "pacts with various spirits" are mentioned but not elaborated on.