'Lust system': Rise of the Harem lord-Chapter 55

"I’m going in."

Those three words dropped like stone across the table.

Mira leaned forward, concern plain in her eyes. "Elias... the dreamscape isn’t a simulation. She controls the boundaries. You could get trapped."

Aya crossed her arms. "Let me go instead."

Elias shook his head. "She’s not targeting you anymore. She’s after what holds us together—me. If I don’t face her, she’ll keep picking us apart."

Velhira grunted. "Then don’t just talk. Take her down."

"It’s not that kind of fight," Serai said quietly. "She’s not here to kill. She’s here to... understand."

Lilith tilted her head. "Or dismantle."

They were all right.

Elias stood.

"I’ll go under. Mira, sync me to the emotional relay net. If she tries to trap me, pull me back. Serai—guide the thread frequencies from outside. You feel subtle shifts best."

Both nodded.

Velhira handed him a dagger. "Just in case words fail."

He smiled. "I’ll try not to stab the subconscious."

---

Dream Descent Protocol: Activated

Elias lay back in the center chamber, threads circling around his arms and temples. Mira’s hands moved quickly, keys glowing under her fingers.

> [Thread Sync: Stable]

[Emotional Layer Dive: Initiated]

[Entering Dreamplane Core...]

His body stilled.

His breath slowed.

Then—

Silence.

---

The Dreamscape

He awoke... standing.

Not in a field.

Not in the tower.

But in a memory.

It was snowing.

And he was sixteen again, back on the frostbound streets of Old Etherion, before the system, before everything.

He looked around, already knowing it was her doing.

> "Nice place to start," he muttered.

A voice echoed behind him.

Soft. Sharp. Familiar now.

> "You wore sorrow well back then."

He turned.

She stood beneath a crumbling arch, arms folded, hair fluttering in the icy wind. Null Heart. In a black uniform laced with subtle red threads. Her eyes glowed with depth—not cruelty, but calculation.

> "You’re inside me," Elias said plainly.

> "I’m observing you," she replied.

> "Why?"

She tilted her head. "Because you’re what they said couldn’t exist. A system host bound by emotion, not dominance. A man loved for who he is... not what he gives."

He narrowed his eyes. "So you came to break that?"

She stepped closer, boots crunching snow that wasn’t real.

> "I came to test it."

---

The world shifted—

And they stood in a bedroom.

Aya slept beside him, a memory perfectly rendered. She looked peaceful, hair fanned across the pillow.

Null Heart circled the bed like a curator examining art.

> "She says she doesn’t want to love you. But she does. It’s chaos. Why do you allow it?"

"Because love isn’t control," Elias said. "It’s trusting chaos."

The room melted.

Now they were in Mira’s workshop.

Mira stood there, fragile, watching Elias walk away—another memory.

> "You hurt her once," Null Heart whispered. "She never told you."

Elias flinched. "I know. She doesn’t need to tell me."

> "Yet she stays."

"She chose to."

Null Heart stopped, gaze cool. "Why do they stay, Elias?"

He met her eyes. "Because I don’t own them. And they don’t own me. But we belong."

She said nothing.

Then stepped closer.

Very close.

> "Let me show you a future."

The world split open.

---

Alternate Future

He stood on a throne.

Alone.

Hundreds of system avatars knelt.

Harem protocols glowing in chains beside him. Thousands of girls. All obedient. Perfect.

And none of them Aya.

None of them Mira.

None of them real.

Null Heart whispered beside him.

> "They all love you. They all say your name. None of them argue. None of them hurt you. You never have to fight for connection again."

He turned slowly.

> "Where are the others?"

> "Gone. You chose perfection. You outgrew them."

He looked at the silent sea of smiles.

Then back at her.

> "This is hell."

> "This is control."

> "Then burn it."

---

The world shattered.

And they stood once again in that dream-snow.

Null Heart didn’t move.

Didn’t blink.

For the first time—she looked uncertain.

"You’d choose pain... over certainty?"

"I’d choose them," Elias said simply.

The snow slowed.

Softened.

And she stepped forward.

Slowly.

Reaching toward his chest—

And touched the thread glowing just under his skin.

Her voice trembled.

> "Then show me what that thread feels like."

He didn’t flinch.

"Then come meet them."

---

System Exit: Complete

Elias opened his eyes.

The girls were already there, tension sharp on their faces.

Until they saw her.

Standing beside him.

In the real world.

Eyes wide. Breathless. Not fully solid—but not a ghost.

Just a girl.

Mira’s lips parted. "You... brought her out?"

Aya stepped forward, hand on blade.

Elias raised his hand.

"She doesn’t want to destroy us."

He turned to her.

"Do you want to stay?"

Null Heart looked at all of them.

So many emotions. Confusion. Wariness. History.

But something else too.

Hope.

She nodded, once.

"...I want to understand."

The silence in the tower was thicker than any war meeting Elias had ever led.

Five girls stood in a semi-circle, each of them watching the pale, crimson-eyed girl beside Elias like she was a ticking bomb.

Null Heart looked back at them—not with fear. Not with pride. Just... curiosity.

She didn’t flinch.

Didn’t speak.

Didn’t blink.

Aya’s voice was the first to cut through the silence.

"So. We’re supposed to... what? Pretend this isn’t the same chick who slid into our heads and started peeling apart our insecurities?"

Mira folded her arms, her gaze razor sharp. "Her presence is still interfacing with leftover dream fragments. She’s unstable."

Lilith just stared, one brow lifted. "She cute, though. Creepy cute."

Serai looked at Elias, not with anger... but with a quiet question in her eyes.

Why?

Elias took a breath. "She doesn’t know what it means to be real. Not yet. But she asked to learn. And if everything we’ve fought for means anything... then we give her that chance."

Velhira stepped forward, crossing her arms. "One chance."

Null Heart turned her head. "What happens if I fail?"

Aya answered coldly. "Then we remove you."

Lilith clapped once. "And we don’t mean a polite exit."

Null didn’t react. She merely nodded, as if the threat was a perfectly reasonable clause in an agreement she didn’t fully understand.

Elias turned to her. "You’ll stay here. In the guest quarters. You won’t enter anyone’s dreams again unless invited. Agreed?"

"Agreed," she said softly.

---

Later That Night

The tower was quiet again.

But not settled.

In the observatory, Mira stared at Null’s emotional frequency pattern on her floating panel.

It was like watching a storm try to learn how to be a lake.

Emotions spiked and vanished, unpredictable, raw.

One moment: silence.

The next: flickers of longing.

The next: complete void.

Mira frowned. "She’s not dangerous. Not exactly. But she’s... unpredictable."

Lilith walked in, holding two glasses. "I brought wine. Figured we’d either toast to peace or drink through the anxiety."

She paused, peering at the monitor. "Is that... a blush spike?"

Mira blinked.

Lilith grinned. "Did she see Elias shirtless already?"

---

Elsewhere – Null’s Quarters

The room was simple. White walls. No decorations. Just a bed, a seat, and a table. Elias had offered to furnish it. She refused.

She sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at her own hands.

> "Emotion is a virus," the old code had warned her long ago.

> "Connection will compromise command."

> "Desire leads to deviation."

But now—

Her fingers trembled.

Not from fear.

But from something she couldn’t categorize.

A sound at the door.

It slid open gently.

Serai stood there. Quiet. Barefoot.

"I brought you something," she said.

In her hand—a small potted plant.

"It’s called patience." She smiled faintly. "I thought you might like to grow something."

Null tilted her head. "Is it alive?"

"Yes."

"Why give it to me?"

"Because I needed someone to talk to when I felt out of place too."

Null took the plant slowly. Stared at it.

Something pulsed behind her ribs.

A strange tightness.

> [EMOTIONAL REGISTER SPIKE: UNDEFINED]

[Attempting Label... Error.]

She looked up at Serai.

"Thank you."

Serai nodded. "You don’t have to say everything right. Just... try."

Then she turned and left, soft as she came.

Null stared at the plant for a long, long time.

Then whispered to it:

"...I will try."

---

The Next Morning

Breakfast was tense.

Aya didn’t sit near Null. Mira was still tracking her energy. Velhira kept a knife visibly holstered.

But Elias?

He sat across from her.

Watched her.

Waited.

Null took a spoonful of porridge. Chewed slowly. Swallowed.

Lilith watched her with theatrical exaggeration. "I expected sparks or blood. That’s just... normal chewing. I’m disappointed."

Null blinked. "I studied meal consumption protocol."

Aya scoffed. "You studied eating?"

"I wanted to do it properly."

Serai placed a flower near her bowl.

"Then next we’ll study smiling."

Null hesitated.

Then... tried.

It wasn’t perfect.

But it was something.

Lilith almost fell off her chair. "Okay, that was horrifying and adorable at once. You might survive after all."

---

Later That Day – System Core

Elias sat with Mira and Velhira in the tower’s rebuilt command center. The Lust System’s core threads pulsed faintly across the air, like a breathing heart.

Mira was the first to notice it.

"Something’s... shifting."

Elias leaned in. "Shifting how?"

She pointed to the center coil.

"Look."

A new thread had appeared.

Faint. Pink-gold. Wrapped gently around the original Lust Core.

It pulsed in tandem with Null’s current emotional wave.

Velhira frowned. "You mean she’s affecting the system?"

"Not corrupting," Mira corrected. "Influencing."

Elias watched it pulse.

For the first time in system history—

A subsystem that was once built to test love...

Was beginning to feel it.

---

That Night

Elias stood in the courtyard.

Null joined him, barefoot, holding the small plant Serai gave her.

They stood in silence.

Until she spoke.

"I still don’t know what I am."

"You’re learning."

"Do you trust me now?"

He looked at her, really looked.

She still moved like a program sometimes. Spoke like one.

But her eyes—

They weren’t cold anymore.

"No," he said honestly. "Not fully. Not yet."

She nodded.

"Then I will try harder."

He smiled.

"That’s all I ask."