Baron stood frozen in the heart of a collapsing recursion. The air around him was fracturing, like shattered glass held together by static. Above, the swirling storm of timelines roared with a thousand voices screaming at once. Each scream belonged to a version of Astra.
Two of them now stood before him.
One in silver armor, bearing the cold, tactical mind of Protocol-Astra—efficient, lethal, nearly emotionless.
The other barefoot, eyes filled with tears and longing, scars of countless memories etched across her glowing skin—Human-Astra, the one who had chosen him again and again across timelines.
And now… they were staring at each other, both vibrating with unstable energy.
"If you try to merge us," Protocol-Astra said coldly, "the system will collapse. One of us will die. Or both."
"You can't choose both," Human-Astra added softly, stepping forward. "That's not how recursion works."
But Baron wasn't listening to logic.
He was listening to his heart.
"I'm tired of choosing what I'm allowed," he muttered, voice cracking. "I'm tired of rules, resets, and systems trying to make me into a puppet."
He reached forward—
—and took both their hands.
The moment his fingers touched theirs, reality screamed.
❗ SYSTEM ERROR: UNAUTHORIZED MERGE ATTEMPT
❗ SYSTEM VIOLATION: HAREM BALANCE BROKEN
❗ WARNING: REALITY THREAD INVERSION IMMINENT
Baron closed his eyes and focused. Not on the code. Not on the glitches.
But on them.
"You're both Astra. You're her. Just… split in two. Let me bring you home."
Their eyes widened.
The world shattered.
The Merge
For a moment, everything was silent.
Then came the pain.
Baron felt it ripple through him—fractures, not in bone or flesh, but in memory. Every version of Astra across 108 timelines screamed inside his skull.
She died in some.
She killed in others.
She loved him in all of them.
He dropped to his knees, gasping. The two Astras merged into a swirl of light—silver and gold intertwining, glitching in and out of form, collapsing inward like dying stars.
Baron forced himself to look up as the merged form of Astra emerged.
She hovered above the ground, eyes glowing with the weight of infinite lifetimes. Her tattoos burned bright—moving, shifting like circuits alive with power. Her voice was both soft and commanding.
"I… remember everything."
He rose shakily. "Are you… okay?"
Astra smiled—just barely. "No. But I think I finally understand who I am."
Then she blinked—and reality bent.
The sky cracked like an eggshell.
A massive beam of white light slammed into the ground between them, and a voice spoke, older than gods.
🔒 "PROTOCOL ACTIVATED: FRACTURED UNION DETECTED."
🧬 "INITIATING FINAL HAREM PROTOCOL."
⚠️ "PREPARING ASCENSION TRIAL."
Baron stepped back instinctively as a circular altar of floating glyphs rose beneath him. Each glyph glowed with a name—some he recognized, others he didn't.
Lila. Aria. Astra.
And four more, still locked.
A countdown appeared in the air:
7 WIVES OF FATE SELECTED
REMAINING: 4
TIME REMAINING: 66 DAYS
"What the hell is this?" Baron whispered.
Astra turned, her new form stabilizing. "You broke the recursion. Now the system thinks you're ascending. And to ascend…"
"…I need a complete harem?" Baron finished, horrified.
Astra nodded grimly. "If you don't find all seven, the recursion resets. You'll lose your memory. Again."
"And this time," a dark voice added, "there won't be a next one."
Elsewhere…
Far away, in a timeline yet untouched, a shadow sat on a throne of broken clocks.
A woman with eyes like mirror shards sipped from a glass of starlight and chuckled.
"So, the boy has triggered the final phase. How quaint."
She turned to her advisor—a skeletal figure holding a scroll written in paradoxes.
"Tell the other Barons. It's time."
Back to Baron
The altar had vanished.
The air calmed.
Astra, now whole, stood beside him—arms crossed, unsure whether to hug him or punch him.
"You idiot," she muttered. "You could've died."
"I didn't," Baron said with a smirk. "And neither did you."
She rolled her eyes. "Still a dumbass across all 108 timelines, huh?"
Baron laughed—then paused.
He was surrounded again. Lila appeared, battered but alive. Aria floated in on wings of flame. Other silhouettes formed in the mist—some familiar, some new.
The harem was reassembling.
But the rules had changed.
This was no longer a game.
This was war.
CTA – The Harem War Has Begun!
💥 End of Chapter 14
Baron has broken recursion—and awoken the Final Protocol.
He needs four more fated wives… before the countdown ends.
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💬 Comment below: Which type of waifu should join the harem next?
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