I Hate Systems

"I'm sorry," Hazen stared at an old woman beside him, sighing in apology, "I wasn't good enough."

"No, that's not true." The old woman shook her head gently and touched his cheek lovingly, "Thanks to you, I had a wonderful life. You gave up everything else just to spend time with me. Honestly, I always knew I held you back."

"After all, with your innate powers, there was nothing you couldn't do. But you never exercised your full potential and remained behind with me, living a simple life in this island village." The old woman said as blood leaked out of her mouth, trailing over her wrinkly skin, "I'm content."

"Alika! Don't be reckless!" Hazen glared at the old woman as he unleashed a healing ability, "I'll find a way for everyone to survive! I have the capability…"

"No, you don't." Alika, the old woman sighed helplessly as she stared at the sky above the Gaider Realm, watching it begin to crack in response, "Our world isn't even able to bear the presence of these individuals. So, nothing we throw at them would even manage to scratch them. In such a situation, we're only deadweight that would hold you back."

"Do you think I care about that?" Hazen gritted his teeth, tearing up as he shouted, "If we have to die, we'll die, together. I won't live without you or everyone."

"Grandpa…" The middle-aged man from before cupped his fists, "Please, don't be stubborn. We were all meant to die in the first place. If not for you, our world would have been destroyed many times already."

"And now, it's our time to repay the favour."

"Dumbass, this isn't the time for…" Hazen choked in pain, unable to bear seeing the distraught expressions on his family members, one resolved to die.

"I'll always live in your memory." Alika laughed as she hugged Hazen, "If you want, you can summon a younger version of myself. As long as you survive, we can rebuild this world and return to our childhood where we played by the mangrove."

"The fragment of the Main Character, Hazen, surrender!" Zaira's voice boomed throughout the Cultivation World, her sheer presence causing the land to crack as earthquakes became frequent. Millions of lives were lost every second as the ambient energy levels of the world took a dip.

Upon seeing the state of their world, the four Divine Martial Spirits hurriedly appeared next to Hazen, "Can…we do something about this? It there…hope for survival?"

The Fire Dragon, the Heaven Divine Martial Spirit stared at Hazen in despair, "I managed to recreate the other Divine Martial Spirits, but our situation hasn't changed."

"Is this the end, Hazen?"

"I'm afraid it is so," Hazen sighed, "The enemy is beyond what I can handle."

"Then, let us all become a part of your memory." The Fire Dragon stated resolutely, "With your power, as long as you survive, even if we're just ghosts of the past, we'll be able to make a return."

With its words, all four Divine Martial Spirits bowed as they transformed into a ray of light and seeped into Hazen.

Keuk!

Hazen teared up, seeing his home getting torn apart by the Systems as he had one last look at the faces of his kids, his grandchildren, and the rest of his family.

"Don't be sad." Alika wiped his tears, "I lived for more than a century. Until now, I've never been sad, not one moment. And now, I only want you to survive. Survive and live well."

"I'm proud of you, Hazen." Her figure dissipated into fragments of thought that swerved into Hazen's mind, taking up residence there. She was dead, her entire being now just a fragment of his memory.

"Raghhhhh!" Hazen roared in pain, clenching his chest that hurt, "All I ever desired was peace. Is that too much to ask?"

Alika was his childhood love and his wife, one whom he spent his life with, which was why his only desire was to protect the Cultivation World.

Hazen stared in despair as all his family members and villagers that he shared a bond with voluntarily committed suicide as their memories flowed into him. Their thoughts, emotions, will, and memories, all resounded with startling clarity in his mind, causing him to go mad.

The figures of everyone that died in the Cultivation World broke into fragments of thought and flowed into Hazen. Soon, every single lifeform followed the same.

As the four Divine Martial Spirits formed the core of the Cultivation World's laws, once they fused into Hazen, all the foundation contained in the Cultivation World became one with him.

Now bereft of the laws, the barren land cracked and collapsed, merging into the void as dust, disintegrating completely.

The hundreds of Realms that formed the Cultivation World were no more, only dust. And standing in the centre was a lone figure, one maddened from loss, grieving the dead, and longing for a life that he would never get again.

Harbinger of Serenity—Hazen!

"He swallowed the foundation of the entire universe?" Zaira looked around in surprise, watching the universe collapse after all its foundational laws had been absorbed by Hazen. Upon its collapse, the bordering universes rapidly expanded to fill in the void.

Zaira stared as the boundary of a nearby universe slam into her as a hole was torn apart from the impact, making her enter that universe.

The hole rapidly healed in a matter of seconds as now everyone was within a new universe's void, one that seemed pretty stable. Upon observing her surroundings, Zaira frowned, "There was one of Mystique's worlds here?"

"That explains its stability." She scouted around with her senses and commented, "It's a Technocraft's world where the swarm won the intergalactic war and turned mad after devouring each other rapidly due to a lack of opposing forces."

"This was a world we abandoned after using the Restriction Order to kill a Main Character in the past." The Primordial Cultivator System gave its opinion, "With that Main Character's death, humanity lost to the swarm and eventually, all sentient races in this universe followed suit. So technically, it's our actions that pushed this universe into the domain of madness."

"Well, it doesn't matter." Zaira commented, "Mystique is still engaged with Reincarnation and Transmigration. So, we needn't fear his retaliation for the time being."

She pointed her hand at the bawling figure of Hazen hidden amidst the swirling dust of his home world, "Let's kill him and call it a day."