'Lust system': Rise of the Harem lord-Chapter 43: The Thorned gate

Cassian stood alone in the upper sanctum of the Thorned Gate.

The chamber pulsed with red thorns of system code, twisting like veins through the air. His disciples knelt behind him—silent, watching, afraid.

One screen floated before him.

It showed Elias.

Alive. Upgraded.

And worse...

Bonded to Lunara.

Cassian’s hand curled into a fist. Cracks formed on the floor beneath him.

"That wasn’t supposed to happen," he muttered. "She was meant to destroy him."

His disciple, the masked one who had failed against Lilith and Echo, knelt lower. "We underestimated her connection to him."

"No," Cassian whispered. "He changed the rules. Again."

He turned to the others.

"Ready the Fractured Ones. Unseal Sector 7. We’re not waiting anymore. The Dominion falls before the cycle resets."

---

Meanwhile, at Dominion...

Elias stood in the war room, surrounded by glowing map sigils. Every region Cassian had infected with his twisted versions of Host protocols was lighting up. Echo watched from the back, her expression sharp but calm. Velhira leaned over the table.

"If we strike now, Thorned Gate won’t be ready."

"That’s not enough," Elias said. "We don’t just want to weaken him. We need to wipe out every layer of control he still has."

Aya leaned against the wall. "And that includes the Fractured Ones?"

Rina nodded. "Half-Hosts. Half-system. All programmed by Cassian himself. They were too unstable to bond, so he turned them into enforcers."

"They’re still people," Elias said. "If we can bring them back, we try."

"And if not?" Lilith asked quietly.

Elias didn’t blink. "Then we end them."

---

That night, as the city settled into brief silence, Lunara stood on the upper spire balcony, her eyes on the horizon. Elias joined her, watching the lights below.

"I remember more now," she said softly. "The system... it kept it from me. Buried it deep."

He turned toward her. "What did you see?"

She hesitated.

Then whispered, "Cassian wasn’t always your enemy."

Elias froze.

Lunara’s voice trembled. "There was a moment. Years ago. Before I sealed myself. You weren’t just a bonded Host. You were partners. Brothers in the code."

"That’s not possible," Elias muttered. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

"It is," she said. "He was the first system mirror. The first to adapt... but his emotions were locked. He couldn’t feel. So the system rejected him."

Elias stepped back. "That’s why he turned?"

"No," Lunara said, meeting his gaze. "He turned because he saw you—succeeding where he failed. Feeling where he couldn’t."

Elias stared into the distance.

"...and all this time, I thought he was just corrupted."

"No," Lunara whispered. "He’s broken. And he still believes he can be fixed... by replacing you."

---

The next morning, the Dominion trembled—not from fear, but from readiness.

New armor. New system weapons. And new bonds.

Three more Hosts had arrived overnight—driven by the echo of Lunara’s awakening.

Vale, a silent bond-fighter who manipulated raw desire into gravity weapons.

Kaelin, a Host who dreamed of fire, her system burning with controlled chaos.

And Solace, the youngest of them, with the rare ability to calm unstable bonds simply by speaking.

Each knelt before Elias.

Each chose him.

And the system responded:

> [Bond Capacity Expanded — Limitless Dominion Path Activated]

[System Phase: Final Act - Storming the Thorned Gate]

Elias stood on the upper bridge, looking down at the army—his army.

Every soul, every thread, every bond earned and not forced.

They were no longer a scattered group of broken Hosts.

They were his Dominion.

And they were ready to bring the war to Cassian’s door.

The skies above Thorned Gate boiled red.

Storm clouds circled like hungry beasts, crackling with thread energy. Below, a field of shattered crystal extended in every direction, a wasteland of Cassian’s twisted system remnants.

From above, Elias’s Dominion descended like thunder.

A fleet of arc-wings—each Host riding one—cut through the clouds in formation. At the center of it all stood Elias, atop his black command skimmer, Lunara by his side, and behind him, Lilith, Rina, Echo, Aya, Velhira, Kaelin, Vale, and Solace.

They weren’t just bonded.

They were ready.

---

Inside the Gate, Cassian watched from the balcony of his obsidian tower, eyes glowing cold beneath his mask.

"So... the Harem Lord dares knock."

Behind him stood a girl. Thin. Pale. Wearing a Dominion cloak.

But the sigil on her hand burned in reverse.

Cassian turned to her. "Are you sure you can do it?"

The girl—Rin—nodded slowly. "I’ve been with them long enough. I know where to strike."

Cassian smiled.

"Good. Then the cracks will form from within."

---

Back at the vanguard, Lilith rode beside Elias as the Gate came into view. It rose like a living mountain of black stone and bleeding light, surrounded by floating spikes and defense towers powered by emotional residue.

"How many traps do you think he’s set?" she asked.

"All of them," Elias replied. "He knows we’re coming for the core."

"Good," Lunara said quietly. "Let’s tear it out."

The signal chimed.

> [PHASE ONE: LAUNCH]

Elias raised his hand—and the assault began.

---

They struck the outer walls first.

Kaelin descended in a blaze of fire, slicing through thorned defenses with arcs of liquid flame. Vale twisted gravity fields, bending the tower spires downward like melting iron. Solace’s voice whispered through the wind, keeping weaker Hosts from fracturing.

Echo fought like she’d been born to it—five voices moving her body like a dance, switching forms mid-swing, unpredictably deadly.

Rina and Aya tore through the north quadrant while Velhira vanished into shadow, her system threads unraveling Cassian’s sentries before they could scream.

It was working.

Until it wasn’t.

---

In the south corridor, a group of Dominion Hosts fell to their knees.

Their bond threads began to glow—wrong.

"Something’s rewriting them!" Rina shouted.

"Fall back!" Elias commanded.

Too late.

The threads snapped—and the affected Hosts turned, eyes empty, systems hijacked.

"They’ve been flipped," Mira gasped from the command ship above. "Someone inside sent the override."

Lilith’s eyes widened. "Rin..."

---

Inside Dominion’s forward base, Rin—the traitor—stood in the core room, fingers deep in the system matrix.

A system screen blinked in front of her.

> [Cassian Override Injected.]

[Bond Conversion: COMPLETE.]

She smiled bitterly.

"I’m sorry, Elias."

But as she turned to escape—

Lunara was already behind her.

Rin froze.

"I didn’t want this," Rin whispered.

Lunara stared at her. "Then why betray him?"

"Because... I was jealous," Rin whispered, tears slipping down her cheek. "He never looked at me the way he looked at them. I was just background. I wanted to matter."

"You mattered," Lunara said softly. "But now you’ve handed him a weapon."

Suddenly—an explosion rocked the base. Rin lunged for the exit.

Lunara didn’t stop her.

But she activated a pulse.

> [Override Neutralized — Corrupted Bonds Disengaged.]

---

On the battlefield, Elias felt the surge.

The flipped Hosts collapsed, threads breaking—but they weren’t dead.

Cassian’s control had failed.

He turned toward the central spire, where a gate now pulsed.

"Cassian’s opening the core," Mira said over comms. "He wants you to follow."

Aya’s voice cut through. "Then let’s give him what he wants."

Elias nodded.

"Lilith. Echo. Lunara. Velhira. With me."

He looked to the others.

"Hold the Gate. Whatever happens inside... don’t follow us unless I say."

Lilith grinned. "You say that every time, and we never listen."

They stepped into the pulsing gate—

And disappeared.

---

Inside, Cassian waited.

No longer masked.

No longer pretending.

And beside him...

A chamber full of chained prototypes—failed Hosts, crying out, their bodies half-digital, half-forgotten.

Elias’s breath caught.

"You kept them?"

Cassian’s eyes burned. "I couldn’t fix what I lost. So I collected what no one else wanted."

Lunara stepped forward, eyes dark. "You’re not a god. You’re just a child afraid of being forgotten."

Cassian smiled.

"We’ll see who they remember when this ends."

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