'Lust system': Rise of the Harem lord-Chapter 45: Bonding with Chaos

The Herald Arrives

The stars over Dominion cracked.

It started with silence—so deep, even the wind forgot how to move.

Then came the sound.

Not thunder.

Not wind.

A heartbeat. freeweɓnøvel~com

One pulse. Then another.

Boom. Boom.

Elias looked up from the balcony. Mira was already sprinting across the control bridge, screens blinking red.

"Something’s entering our plane," she shouted.

Aya appeared beside her. "Another system?"

"No. Worse."

Above them, the air shattered—literally split apart like breaking glass—and from that wound in reality, a Herald descended.

It wasn’t a man.

Or a monster.

It was both.

Towering, wrapped in cracked armor, its head a burning orb of threads spinning like planets. Six arms. No face. And where it stepped, the ground turned black and wept code.

> [WARNING: UNKNOWN ENTITY HAS ENTERED THE SYSTEM BOUNDARY]

[IDENTIFIED: HERALD OF THE THRONES]

[NAME: MAL-ETH — THE FIRST SILENCER]

[OBJECTIVE: ERASE THE SYSTEM REBEL – ELIAS]

---

Inside the med-wing, Serai shot upright, eyes wide, threads blazing from her skin.

"He’s here," she whispered. "They’ve sent Mal-Eth."

Elias turned toward her. "You know it?"

Serai stood, golden veins glowing like lightning across her arms.

"I ran from him. Once."

"And now?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"I won’t run again."

---

The Dominion’s defense towers lit up—but they were useless.

Every attack that struck Mal-Eth was swallowed into his system core like it never existed. Rina and Echo launched a first wave strike—but he barely flinched.

Velhira stepped forward from the shadows and lashed out with her dark net—only for it to disintegrate on contact.

"This thing’s not real," she spat. "It’s not bound by our logic."

Elias stepped onto the central ring of the platform.

And the system responded.

> [Trial Instanced: BATTLE OF ASCENSION – HERALD STAGE]

[Participants: Elias & Serai]

Serai floated down beside him, her robe now alive with constellations. She glanced at him.

"If we sync, I can channel the Veil’s core—but your body won’t hold long."

"I’ve survived worse," he said.

"Not this."

He took her hand anyway.

> [Bond Activated: INTERDIMENSIONAL SYNC]

[New Skill Unlocked: STARBREAKER FORM]

Elias’s system ignited.

His coat split into glowing red-white plates. His arms shimmered with stellar tattoos. His eyes turned obsidian with silver rings.

He stepped forward.

Mal-Eth raised a hand.

And everything collapsed.

---

The battlefield folded.

One moment, Elias stood in Dominion.

The next—

He was nowhere.

A floating plane of broken ruins and suspended stars, filled with shifting gravitational pulls. System laws bent around them like paper. Mal-Eth charged, his limbs blurring faster than thought.

Elias met the attack—barely.

They clashed mid-air, systems shrieking. Serai floated behind him, hurling star-veins of power into Mal-Eth’s form, trying to destabilize him.

But he adapted.

Mal-Eth’s head flared—tendrils of reality shredding toward Elias.

One wrapped around his leg—sliced through.

He cried out—blood splattering across nothing.

"Elias!" Serai called.

> [WARNING: SYSTEM LIMIT APPROACHED]

Still, Elias grinned.

"You’re just like Cassian. All code. No soul."

And then he tore the star-thread from his own chest—and stabbed it into Mal-Eth’s core.

Mal-Eth froze.

Screamed.

Then—

Exploded.

---

The plane shattered.

Elias dropped onto the Dominion platform, gasping, leg bleeding, eyes dim.

Serai landed beside him, kneeling.

"You idiot," she breathed. "That almost killed you."

He looked at her.

"Almost."

The system flared once more.

> [Herald Eliminated: 1 of 7]

[Warning: Next Herald Will Not Fight Alone.]

Echo and Lilith ran to him, helping him stand. Aya wiped blood from her jaw.

"That was one?"

"Just one," Serai said. "They’re testing you now. Next time..."

Velhira looked up.

"...next time they’ll try to end you."

---

Far beyond reality, the Thrones stirred again.

And deep in the void, a second Herald opened its six eyes.

The Bond He Shouldn’t Make

Elias woke up in the med-core chamber, his vision blurry, pain dull but constant.

Mira stood at his side, arms crossed. "You’re lucky your heart didn’t collapse."

"It tried," he muttered, voice dry. "I told it no."

Aya leaned against the doorway, eyebrows raised. "That fight nearly broke Dominion’s defenses. You planning to die stylishly or just dramatically?"

"Both," Elias groaned, then tried to sit up.

> [SYSTEM NOTICE: Trial Status — RECOVERY STAGE 3%]

[Bond Capacity Stable... But One Slot Remains EMPTY.]

[WARNING: System Instability Detected]

[Solution: Bind to Source of Chaos to Stabilize Evolution Path.]

Mira’s eyes widened as she read the screen.

"Wait. It’s requesting... a chaotic source?"

The system flared again.

> [New Bond Required — Target: Unpredictable. Unstable. Previously flagged as DANGEROUS.]

> [Candidate Selected: XARA.]

The room went silent.

Lilith, who had just stepped in, froze.

"Xara?" she said slowly. "As in the Red Thorn? The girl locked beneath Sector Zero?"

Elias exhaled, running a hand through his hair. "The one we sealed because she nearly ripped three Hosts apart in a single night."

Aya clicked her tongue. "She’s insane. Completely unbondable. Her Lust Thread tried to consume her own system."

Mira read the final system line aloud:

> [ERROR THREAD HOST DETECTED — Correction Path Required.]

[Begin Emotional Calibration via Forced Linkage.]

Elias muttered under his breath, "...we’re really doing this, aren’t we?"

Lilith folded her arms. "There’s a reason she’s in containment. She’s not a Herald—but she’s close."

Serai appeared behind them, arms crossed over her glowing robe. "If she’s truly chaotic enough to stabilize your evolving system, then you must bond with her. Or everything will collapse."

Velhira smirked from the shadows. "You’ve bonded with dangerous women before, Elias. What’s one more nightmare?"

---

An hour later, they stood before Sector Zero.

The air was heavier here. The doors thrummed with dark system energy, guarded by layers of sealed threads and an AI override field.

Inside, she waited.

Xara.

Once a Dominion recruit.

Now a myth. A cautionary tale.

Elias stepped through the gate. Alone.

The containment field fizzled as he entered—reacting to his presence like it remembered him.

The room was empty, save for the girl sitting cross-legged at the center. Barefoot. Crimson hair spilling over her shoulders. Eyes glowing the color of raw, burning lust.

She looked up.

Smiled slowly.

"...you finally came to break the rules, didn’t you?"

Elias stopped a few feet from her, cautious.

"The system chose you."

She tilted her head. "Is that what we’re calling it now? The system choosing? Because I remember you rejecting me."

"You weren’t stable."

"I still aren’t," she said, grinning wide. "So why risk it?"

Elias didn’t blink. "Because if I don’t bond with you, I lose everything."

Xara stood, bare feet padding silently across the floor until she was chest to chest with him.

"So... you need me. How ironic."

He held out his hand.

"No tricks. No mind games. Just bond with me."

She reached forward, brushing her fingers across his.

> [Bond Initiating: CHAOS THREAD MERGE]

[WARNING: INCOMPATIBLE CORE DETECTED... Forcing Calibration...]

Xara shivered, eyes widening.

The air shook.

The floor cracked.

Their threads collided—

And screamed.

Elias fell to one knee.

Xara clutched her head, laughing and crying at once.

"I feel everything! Your pain... her death... their love. It’s beautiful. It’s... disgusting."

> [CALIBRATION COMPLETE]

[Bond Established: CHAOS HOST – XARA]

[New Skill Unlocked: SYSTEM DISRUPTION PULSE]

Elias gasped as his system stabilized—just barely.

The interface blinked once more.

> [Balance Restored.]

[Next Herald en route: Arrival in 72 hours.]

Xara leaned down beside him.

Whispered into his ear.

"...we’re going to have so much fun, my Lord."

Chaos Among Us

The moment Elias and Xara stepped out of Sector Zero, Dominion shifted.

Every system pulse across the tower felt off. Not wrong—just unpredictable. Threads twitched in the air. Security fields flickered. AI guides rebooted for no reason.

Chaos had entered the network.

Lilith met them first.

Her eyes locked on Xara—and narrowed. "So it’s true."

Xara smiled sweetly. "You still wear that pretty scowl, Lilith. I missed it."

"I didn’t miss you," Lilith shot back, placing herself between Xara and the rest of the tower. "You’re unstable. You nearly killed one of our Hosts the last time you bonded."

"And yet, here I am," Xara said, stretching. "Recruited by the great Elias, the man who loves to tame the untamable."

Rina and Aya stood behind Lilith, arms crossed. Echo hovered off to the side, watching Xara like she was a puzzle with teeth.

Velhira, however, just chuckled. "I like her already."

Elias raised a hand.

"Enough. The system chose her. We don’t have a choice."

Lilith stepped forward, close. "There’s always a choice, Elias. You didn’t have to bring her."

Elias’s eyes flashed.

"I brought her to save this place. Same reason I brought all of you."

Silence stretched.

Then Serai appeared beside him, calm and steady.

"She’s not lying about the chaos. I can feel it. She’s woven from entropy itself. That bond stabilized your system more than any of us could."

Aya sighed. "Then let’s hope it was worth it."

---

Later that night, Dominion felt like a place between breaths.

The tower lights were dimmed. The air was still.

And Xara... wandered.

She walked barefoot through the upper halls, humming to herself. System threads curled around her like ribbons, warping as she passed.

In the training chamber, she found Echo, alone, sparring with herself—five voices moving in silent rhythm.

"You’re the Echo," Xara said, leaning against the wall.

Echo didn’t look at her. "You shouldn’t be out of quarantine."

"Neither should you," Xara smirked. "You’re fractured."

Echo froze mid-strike.

"...says the girl who once tried to rewrite her own core."

"I didn’t try," Xara said softly. "I did."

Their eyes met.

And for a moment—just a flicker—they both smiled.

---

Meanwhile, Elias stood on the upper balcony with Serai.

"The system’s quiet," he said. "Too quiet."

She nodded. "That means it’s watching."

"Watching what?"

She looked up at the stars.

"The next move."

As if on cue, the sky trembled.

Stars blinked out—one by one.

> [SYSTEM ALERT: MULTIPLE SIGNALS APPROACHING]

[INCOMING HERALDS: 2 of 7]

[HOSTILITY LEVEL: CRITICAL]

[Arrival Time: 24 HOURS]

Mira’s voice crackled over the comm.

"Elias... these aren’t just Heralds. One of them is... changing the code around itself. It’s rewriting our reality."

Elias turned, eyes cold.

"Wake everyone. Full deployment. Dominion goes on lockdown."

---

Down in the tower’s deepest chamber, something stirred.

A mirror shard left behind by Mal-Eth began to vibrate.

From it, a whisper bled out.

> "He’s bonding with chaos..."

"...then we shall answer with Order."

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