'Something dangerous is being birthed.' The Regression System concluded, glaring at the figures of Compass Carburettor scuttling past it in the form of Mental Energy streams. There were more than a dozen of them now, gradually strengthening themselves by taking advantage of the Systems who had their hands full with facing a raging Immortal.
"R-Regression! Help!" The Invader System shouted as it was pummelled into the ground by a mystical spirit hand, with its retaliation only able to cause minor injuries to Immortal now.
Among the Grade 3 Systems, only Apocalypse was able to seriously wound Immortal. Everyone else were only capable of causing normal wounds while the Grade 2 Systems made mere scratches.
And with Arnark, Slayer, and the Universe Relic wielders breathing down their necks from the back, things were hard for the Systems.
"Shit!" Grunting in response, Regression took the lead once again, kicking Immortal as suddenly, the surrounding space seemed to have crawled to a halt. In that statis of time, Regression regressed a little to the moment right after it had unleashed a kick, clenching its hand into a fist to punch Immortal in the face.
But once again, as time began to flow, it caused the timeline to regress, returning to the moment right after it had thrown out the punch, unleashing a claw strike that shredded Immortal's stomach.
In this manner, Regression continued to regress the timeline and stacked more and more attacks, repeating the same hundred times before it felt strain on its body for regressing the timeline so many times.
It was only regressing the timeline for mere moments. So, that was possible, especially thanks to the Tell-Tale System's efforts, not to mention it was gradually eroding the fate lock on this universe.
In every successive moment for a hundred moments, the Regression System stacked critical hits onto Immortal.
Regression—Hundred Regressed Attacks!
Its power of regression was at a level that was able to influence even Immortal. Though, it was for only a few moments. But, that was enough as in those few moments, hundred attacks slammed into Immortal, shredding his body apart.
"Krrr!" A guttural sound resounded from within Immortal as suddenly, a lotus formed around his body, with the petals wrapping him up to form a cohesive barrier. Regression's attacks slammed into the lotus and shredded past its petals while getting consumed in the process.
Ding!
This was the Systems' signature sound, but this time, it originated from the lotus, unleashing a wave of energy composed of hundreds of flames, with each incorporating an essence of its own. The flames blasted Regression and all the Grade 3 Systems away, also resulting in a couple of Grade 2 Systems getting mortally wounded.
"Huff…puff…haah…phew…" The Regression System gasped in exhaustion, noticing that Immortal too was the same. Both sides had wounded each other severely, causing the battle to pause for a moment.
Grrr!
"Dammit!" Regression groaned in response upon seeing Immortal get up slowly as his wounds healed. His severed body parts reformed as energy continued to brim in his body.
A massive stream of the power of regression converged into Immortal who was beckoning them all while strangely, a tinge of sentience appeared in his eyes. Even though it was a mere tinge, seeing that sent chills down all the Systems, including Regression, 'I need to kill him. But first,'
It observed the massive fate converge into the Realm, rapidly coursing through as it was being consumed. In an instant, Regression made an estimate, 'In ten seconds, whatever Compass Carburettor had planned would be complete.'
"Indeed," Arnark nodded like it naturally made sense, leaving everything else behind as he rushed towards the Realm, "Master! We need to stop whatever Compass is doing inside!"
Slayer dropped his attacks onto the group of Grade 2 Systems he was targeting and rushed at the Realm. In response, the Realm continued to run, evading the attacks as Truck-Kun did his best to remain evasive.
"Gahhh!" Suddenly, the Invader System began to scream in pain as Mental Energy leaked out of it in large torrents.
Suddenly, the figures of Arnark, Slayer, and even Regression that were rushing towards the Realm as the gazes of everyone turned to face the screaming Invader System.
After all, Compass Carburettor was in its body, grinning as his body dissolved, causing the Scroll with the Main Character System fragment to fuse with the Invader System.
In this time, he had already gained some understanding regarding the Invader System, using that knowledge to turn himself into a ticking time bomb, a virus to the System.
His body and even his Dreamland were fully composed of Mental Fragments sources from the Invader System. All the other Mental Fragments that he procured were transmitted to the other Secret Society members during their flamboyant actions just before.
This meant that he currently was entirely composed of Mental Fragments sources from the Invader System, save for the one Main Character System fragment in its Dreamland.
With this, he masked himself to be a part of the Invader System's body, fooling its senses and powers to gradually infiltrate it, just like a virus before revealing the Main Character System fragment to activate the power of the Scrolls he had created.
Invasion!
He transformed himself into a virus that proliferated within the Invader System's body, sparking a mitotic reaction as the virus cells split from one to two, from two to four, etc. Soon reaching a terrifying number.
There was still only one parent cell, but the rest of the cells were affecting the Invader System. After all, to all Systems, the Main Character System fragment was akin to poison, something they never wished to get within them.
They were always careful. Only some Hatchling Systems dared to take risks, since they never had a choice otherwise.
And now, the Main Character System fragment caused a rejection reaction to spark within the Invader System, causing its Core Skill, the billions of Skills it had created and amassed, and its torrential volume of Mental Energy to rush at the fragment in an effort to destroy it.
But the virus spread cunningly, fooling its defensive immune system to weaken the Invader System before soon, the virus cells began to spill out of its body.
Normally, it wouldn't have been this easy. But where were they?
Apocalyptic setting!
Here, viruses breaking rampant and evolving to reduce the ruling race into apocalyptic monsters were the most common. And who was the ruling race here? The Systems that weren't affected by the apocalyptic setting.
By turning their rump card over their heads, Compass Carburettor caused this impossible phenomenon, the first of its kind, a virus that affects Systems.
