"Well, being an Aggressor and all is cool, but…" Zaira blew into her nails, as if she was cleaning them, exhibiting the extent of crap she gave towards his declaration, "Nothing changes, Hazen."
"You wasted your growing time. There's nothing you could do even if you change your inherent nature now."
"You're right, there's nothing I can do against you." Hazen calmed down as he sighed, nodding slowly, "But, that is only against you. I can now do something that my past self would never even entertain the thought of."
"Is that so…" Zaira was just about to attack when her lips curled up. She patted the Regression System and vanished, "Take care of things here."
"I need to claim the bigger prey that fell into the trap."
At her words, all the Systems broke into a smile and bode her farewell in excitement.
'What was that about?' Hazen felt an alarming sense of crisis as he flew towards the world in this universe and dropped a crimson seed into it.
Immediately in response, the timeline paused as the Regression System rewinded the timeline. But Hazen didn't relent and kept up with the attack. As he didn't attack them, he wasn't caught in a compromising situation when the timeline was regressed.
Instead, he only lost his advantage. So, without missing a beat, he targeted the native world with the crimson seed, biding his time.
A few hours passed in such a fashion before suddenly, something sprouted from the Regression System, shocking it, "When did you plant this?"
"During the first attack." Hazen sighed in relief now that his ability finally took root, "It was only my high-profile second attack that you negated."
The Regression System instinctively planned to regress the timeline, stopping after a moment when it realised the trap that Hazen had sprung.
To regress the timeline back to the point where Hazen launched that attack at its mind, it would have to regress to a point in time before Zaira's departure.
Meaning, it would have to expend a voluminous amount of Mental Energy to bring back an entity on the level of Zaira through regression. Moreover, that would imply an interruption to the task she set out to accomplish, causing her to fail.
It couldn't afford that and hence, the Regression System could no longer regress to that point.
The sprout began to grow bigger in its mind, stealing part of its power. The Regression System focused its power on the sprout, causing it to regress slowly until the moment when it had yet to begin affecting it.
But by this time, Hazen shot the crimson seed into the native world. He was beaten up black and blue by the Grade 3 Systems, but they failed to stop his attack once he used the Origin Art of Gloss Over.
Mind Attribute Origin Art—Blood-Vitality Grass!
A crimson strand of grass bloomed in the native world, sucking up the blood, flesh, and vitality of the natives to bloom into a massive tree bigger than the biggest mountain. It was visible from space, treating the world as a pot as it continued to grow in size.
It bore fruit, one that ripened as Hazen jumped into it, harnessing its power to unleash a strong attack. Transparent streams connected him to the minds of the seven Systems as Hazen grunted with all his might, causing the fruit to wither instantly.
Origin Art—Mind Transfer!
The chaotic stream of maddened minds that the blood vitality grass had collected from the native world and refined was transferred into the minds of the seven Systems, causing them to shriek in madness.
That native world crumbled into powder as Hazen reclaimed the Blood-Vitality Grass and whistled, "Bro!"
Honk!
A truck braked to a halt right before his face as a smelly truck driver honked from the driver's seat. "Dude, you look like shit."
"Sorry to call you like this." Hazen apologised as he boarded the truck. The one he called forth was Truck-Kun, his only source of escape from this situation.
Truck-Kun stared at the seven Systems that were screeching in madness, "What happened to them?"
"I induced madness in them." Hazen stated in a hurry, "We need to leave. They won't be affected for long."
"Where do you wish to go?" Truck-Kun asked.
"Where else?" Hazen sighed, "To the sole relative I have left."
"Let's return to the 24 Rings."
"Wear the seat belts," Saying so, Truck-Kun moved the gear and cranked up the accelerator, vanishing from that universe.
Right after they vanished, a painful scream resounded throughout the universe, causing the condition of the seven Systems to worsen immediately, for it was Mystique's screech.
"Dammit, he escaped in the end." The Primordial Cultivator System groaned in anger as it began to dump the maddened minds into a poor Cultivator that it Hosted just for this occasion.
That cultivator became mad and exploded as a result, but it didn't matter, as there were plenty more where they came from. In an hour, the Primordial Cultivator System was fully rid of the effects of the maddened minds, expressing its frustration for falling prey to Hazen's scheme.
"It doesn't matter." The Regression System cordoned off the infected portion of its mind, keeping its timeline regressing to a point before it became a threat. It then took care of the maddened minds and spoke calmly, "There's only one place that Hazen could retreat towards."
"Unfortunately for him, that's a dead end."
The Regression System stared at the six Grade 3 Systems, "Tell me once you have recovered. We'll pursue Hazen. He won't be having a safe trip anyway."
"Yeah," The Primordial Cultivator System nodded in response, "Relying on Truck-Kun isn't the brightest plan to escape. After all, he's affiliated with a certain someone."
…
Honk!
The truck came to a screeching halt as it arrived within a vast room of white, one that stretched endlessly.
"Where are we?" Hazen stared at Truck-Kun in shock, "Shouldn't we be heading toward the Serpent Universe?"
"I'm…sorry, Hazen." Truck-Kun trembled in anger as he grunted in regret, "At the last moment, my instincts took the better of me."
"Your instincts…?" Hazen's eyes widened as he looked around in response, flinching in fright upon staring at a woman garbed in revealing white clothes that resembled a shawl staring at him from close up, her face plastered on the windows of the truck.
She drooled while staring at the figure of Hazen and commented chirpily, "You outdid yourself this time, Truck-Kun. You brought Hazen to my doorstep."
