'Lust system': Rise of the Harem lord-Chapter 58

The tower had stopped shaking.

But no one was calm.

Even after the Architect had vanished, her echo still lingered — a silence that hummed deep beneath the floors, as though the tower itself was holding its breath.

Elias sat quietly on the edge of the central platform, staring up at the pulsating core above them. The system interface was still active, but something was different now. Deeper. Warmer.

Null stood beside him, fingers brushing the edge of her coat. Her expression, usually reserved and cold, held a softness that hadn’t been there before.

> [Elysium Core: Fully Integrated]

Emotional Resonance Initiated...

6/6 Threads Connected

Processing Compatibility...

Suddenly, his chest tightened—not from pain, but from a wave of emotion that wasn’t his.

He looked to the side—and met Aya’s eyes.

She was standing near the door, arms crossed, her gaze guarded... but her heart wide open. He could feel it. Her worry. Her hope. Her fear that he’d been forced to sacrifice someone.

Then—Lilith laughed softly from behind him. That familiar, wicked tone, tinged with relief.

"You really pulled a stunt, Lord Lust," she said, walking up behind him and tapping his head. "But next time? Try not to almost break the world."

He chuckled, but the laughter faded as Mira entered.

"There’s more," she said without delay.

They turned.

"What do you mean?" Elias asked.

Mira approached the main console and projected a holographic image — lines of corrupted code flickering in spirals. At the center was a name.

Unit-13: Purity Protocol

Velhira’s brows furrowed. "Didn’t we just overwrite the old protocol?"

"This one wasn’t part of Nexis," Mira said grimly. "This is older. Buried. Hidden so deep that even Null never noticed it."

Null’s lips parted in confusion. "I... didn’t know."

Mira nodded. "It wasn’t watching the system from within."

She pointed to a sharp symbol that pulsed faintly.

> SIGNAL ORIGIN: EXTERNAL

SOURCE: FACTION UNKNOWN

DESIGNATION: ORDER OF THE CLEAN CODE

---

Moments Later – War Room

The team gathered, the projection now showing more detail — fragments of intercepted data packets and repeating phrases.

> "Love is the anomaly."

"Stability must be restored."

"Unit-13 authorized for reentry."

"The Sovereign is to be reset."

Aya slammed her hand on the table. "Let them come. We just stood against the system’s creator. We’ll deal with these fanatics too."

But Mira didn’t look reassured. "They’re not part of the system. They’re watchers — from the outside. Protocols written to police rogue Lust Lords."

Elias frowned. "Meaning me."

Mira hesitated. "Yes. And they’re likely more powerful than anything we’ve faced so far."

A chill passed through the room.

Serai spoke softly, "So they’ll come to erase all this? Everything we’ve built?"

Null stepped forward.

"No," she said. "They’ll come for me first."

---

That Night – Tower Garden

Elias found himself sitting with Serai beneath the shimmering tree she once planted — the one that bloomed after her Trial of Calm. Its leaves swayed gently under the stars.

"You okay?" she asked, watching him from the corner of her eye.

He exhaled. "I don’t think I’ve ever been okay, Serai. I’ve just... kept moving."

She nodded. "Sometimes moving forward is the only way to survive."

"But is it enough now?" he asked. "With this new core... these deeper bonds... am I even strong enough to protect them?"

Serai leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You don’t have to carry us," she whispered. "We’re not threads anymore, Elias. We’re people. And we chose to stay."

He looked at her—then toward the tower windows, where Null, Lilith, Velhira, Mira, and Aya each stood on different floors, watching. Waiting.

He could feel them.

> [Elysium Sync Level: 43%]

Emotional Stability: Adaptive

Warning: External Interference Imminent

---

Elsewhere – Unknown Location

A sterile chamber.

White walls.

Silent rows of figures in silver robes stood beneath a floating cube — a data core pulsing with threads of pure blue.

A voice echoed.

"Lust Sovereign confirmed. Elysium Core active."

A woman stepped forward. Eyes like ice. Robes like glass.

"Begin deployment of Unit-13."

---

Back in the Tower – System Interface Room

Null’s eyes shot open.

Her body trembled.

She turned to Elias as he entered the room.

"They’re coming," she whispered.

He already knew.

The core pulsed.

The system trembled.

And Elias, standing tall at the heart of his tower, finally understood:

This wasn’t about pleasure.

It wasn’t about power.

It was about what they built together.

A family.

A force.

A rebellion made of hearts once broken.

Now bound by something no system could calculate.

Love.

The wind shifted.

Not the wind outside the tower—but within it.

A cold, sterile breeze passed through the halls like a warning whispered by the void itself.

And then, the alert came.

> [Alert: Dimensional Thread Breach Detected]

Location: Tower Gate – Outer Core

Designation: UNIT-13 – Authorized Enforcer of Clean Code

Inside the Heart Chamber, Elias stood in front of the Elysium Core, breath held tight in his lungs.

"They’re here," Mira’s voice rang through the comms. "It’s already inside."

"Just one?" Elias asked.

Mira replied after a pause. "That’s all it needs."

---

Tower Entry – Outer Core

Unit-13 did not arrive with noise.

No explosions.

No light.

Only the sound of soft steps—bare feet touching the polished obsidian floor.

It was human. Entirely human.

A woman—no older than twenty. Hair white as snow. Eyes like still water. Clothed in a sleeveless robe so fine it looked like it was woven from starlight.

She was neither beautiful nor frightening.

She was... clean.

Perfect.

Untouched by emotion.

The girls stood in silence at the entrance—Aya with her blade, Mira with her pulse rifle, Lilith twirling a dagger behind her back, Serai glowing faintly with power, and Velhira tightening her gloves.

Unit-13 stopped a few feet from them.

She tilted her head, regarding each of them.

Then she spoke—not aloud, but directly into their minds.

> "You are the anomaly. Your connection to the Lust Sovereign is unauthorized. Protocol demands recalibration."

Aya stepped forward. "He’s not just our Sovereign."

"He’s our choice," Mira added.

Lilith smirked. "And no sterile puppet’s gonna rewrite that."

But Unit-13 didn’t react.

She simply raised one hand.

> [Initiating Sequence: Thread Reversal]

Objective: Disband Emotional Links

Method: Individual Regression Trials

Before any of them could speak, Aya vanished.

So did Mira.

Then Lilith.

Serai.

Velhira.

One by one—pulled into isolated memory loops constructed from their deepest emotional weaknesses.

---

Aya’s Regression Trial

She stood on a battlefield, clutching her sword.

Her master lay at her feet—bleeding, dying.

Around her, the screams of her fallen sect members echoed.

She tried to move.

But her legs were heavy. Like she was dragging the weight of her guilt through mud.

"You failed us," her master whispered.

Aya clutched her blade harder.

"No," she said. "Not this time."

The illusion intensified.

But this time—she remembered Elias’s hand on her shoulder, back in the tower. The way he never told her to forget her past—but to rise with it.

And she lifted her blade.

The trial shattered.

---

Mira’s Regression Trial

She was in her lab.

Alone.

All her test subjects had failed. The system rejected her modifications.

She sat on the floor—surrounded by failed simulations.

"You only pretended to care," her own voice said from a mirror. "You only used them for data."

"I did once," Mira whispered.

But she looked up.

"And I hated who I became."

The memory of Elias reading her old research logs, trying to understand—not judge—surfaced in her mind.

"I changed because I was seen."

She stood.

The room broke apart like glass.

---

Lilith’s Regression Trial

A cage.

Chains.

Her old captors watching her from behind the bars.

"You were born to serve," one sneered.

Lilith smiled sadly.

"I almost believed that."

And then—she pictured Elias, standing shirtless in front of her after she’d tried to seduce him without sincerity... and he simply hugged her.

Tight.

Real.

"No one ever hugged the monster," she whispered.

The cage melted away.

---

Serai’s Regression Trial

She was in a cottage by a lake.

Alone.

The wind howled. No one knocked. No one came.

This was her fear.

Being forgotten.

"I gave everything... and they left," she said.

But in that silence, she heard a heartbeat.

Not her own.

She turned.

And there was Elias, sleeping peacefully beside her under the stars. Dreaming with her, not against her.

She closed her eyes and smiled.

And the lake vanished.

---

Velhira’s Regression Trial

She was a child again.

Thrown into a pit to fight.

Bleeding.

Alone.

"You only exist because of your rage," the voice of her captor hissed.

But she remembered Elias—bandaging her bruised knuckles after she’d gone too far in training.

"You’re not rage," he’d said. "You’re survival."

She punched through the illusion.

---

Heart Chamber – Elias

He paced.

He couldn’t help them.

The system had sealed each trial.

Even Null was silent.

Until—her scream shattered the air.

Elias turned.

Null fell to her knees, clutching her head.

"No—No—Get out—!!"

Her data threads shimmered violently, pulling away from her like strands of soul being ripped.

Elias ran to her, grabbed her shoulders.

"What’s happening?!"

She looked up, eyes wide.

"She found me. Unit-13—she’s not just trying to erase me—she’s absorbing me."

And then—

She vanished.

No light. No scream.

Just—gone.

---

System Alert

> WARNING: NULL HEART THREAD DELETED

Status: UNKNOWN

Trace Signature Absorbed by Unit-13

ELYSIUM CORE: COMPROMISED

EMOTIONAL THREADS: AT RISK

Elias froze.

The rage. The grief.

And then—

Resolve.

He stepped back to the console.

His hand hovered above the core.

And he whispered:

"No more running. I’m going after her."