A month passed with Yunan trying to acclimate himself to the new reality, he wished so much to return to the naive boy in love with a goddess and having the time of his life, fighting, loving, and having fun at all times, sure he was facing death with every step, but he never thought he would actually die, now, that possibility was frighteningly close and realistic.
Death was very efficient, he found someone a bit weaker than Tasha, he had always fancied himself better than Tasha and chose to replace her to prove it. Tasha returned to the safety of the floating table and hunkered down, she knew the danger Yunan posed better than anyone, she was injured, even if she did not shield herself, a red flag in and of itself. There were two points she didn't miss, the speed of execution and the power of it. Tasha took two things for granted with Yunan, he was stronger than what he let her see, and the control he had over the dream divinity was much more than he pretended to show.
She even realized that although Yunan was weaker than her, he came there to challenge her knowing he could escape without much danger, that in itself made her replay the 4 day fight she witnessed, in her mind again and again, but all she could come up with was that he hid his strength deeply, none of the gods that surrounded him could retaliate, yet they somehow were able to last for so long, even when being reinforced, they lost over 500 gods just to inflict some wounds and not even deplete his energy reserves. Tasha was brilliant enough to know something was wrong, she would not be tasked to gather intelligence if her hubris won over her rational and power of observation, unfortunately, she was deemed to be trying hard to find an excuse for her injuries, a futile attempt at restoring her pride.
When her replacement took over the forces around the chaos, he did not even hide his attempts to contact all kinds of gods, the good, the bad and the ugly, all were his targets to be recruited or be sent fleeing to another corner of the universe. This one was much more vulnerable to his self-esteem and delusions of grandeur, fortunately, he was helping out Yunan and friends to recruit the ones who only wanted peace, thanks to him flushing out all the gods hiding here and there in the chaos, many gods of many planets were startled and forced to flee once more. After each campaign, Apophis went ahead and recruited with impunity, even going as far as to poach from those who were forcefully recruited.
This member of the council was chosen as the sacrificial lamb, the council chose him to quickly replenish the troops, unfortunate for them, the poaching of Apophis and the attention of Yunan were exactly what they feared most, losing their already flimsy foundation, which would lead to so many complications when it was time to feed on fate. Yunan, on the other hand, chose this one for one reason, making the feud with the council seem even more personal, both he and the council chose the outrageously pompous member for the same reason, to deliver a message.
Yunan snuck to the chaos, he weaved between the defences and even disabled one or two traps he came across, it was an infiltration mission, fighting a horde of gods again would waste his precious time in the soon to be unleashed prison planet, and there was no need to be in a rush, most of these gods are going to be his pray sooner than they may even believe.
It did not take long to find Ferdinand. [that is the only name that sounded right in my brain for 6 hours while typing this chapter] The man was by no means trying to hide and was basically broadcasting his location at all times, this man was a humanoid, a mix of fur, bone protrusions and an upright standing figure, he looked like a furry creature that had its bones snapped and squeezed out, he gave off the feeling of noble birth as well as a brutal personality, and from afar, he looked like something from an old wives' tale.
Since Ferdinand was so lax about security, Yunan decided to just show up and walk like he owned the place, sure enough, no one even gave him a second look, mostly because the godly aura he was emitting was that of a greater god, most thought he was just a new guy coming to swear allegiance, even Ferdinand thought so as well, he greeted the newcomer warmly from atop his throne "welcome, our next addition, a great being with decent power, welcome, what is it that you wish to gain as remuneration for serving the over-gods?"
Ferdinand leaned forward, not even bothering to act suspicious, but what answered him was a blade inserting itself between his eyebrows, through his brain, then smashing through his sea of consciousness, a soul bound blade made solely to deal with gods invaded his mind and he lost the ability for coherent thought.
Yunan used phase shift to move his blade, an action that was easier to hide and faster to perform, then, as soon as he felt the blade strike the consciousness he too phased to grab the hilt, to the audience, they only saw as the blade materialized between the eyebrows of the tyrant, then, the blade wielder showed himself as well, grabbing the pommel of the sword in an extremely familiar way, as if the blade was an extension of his existence.
Once Ferdinand was immobilized, Yunan used the power of dreams and put Ferdinand in a dreaming state, and took his time rummaging through memories and syphoning effort and divine power. Even the divinities were commandeered away, unable to even struggle under the pressure of the sun that is the effort divinity. By the time Ferdinand returned to his senses forcibly three seconds later, he was a mortal, his divinities stolen, his power consumed and the blade between his eyebrows still there, but this time, it was looming over his soul, if he was killed now, he would never be reborn again.
"Send a message to the council, if you want to have a chance at reincarnation, tell them, trying to kill me was part of the course, but trying to kill me and take my family as collateral makes this feud personal, tell them that I still have the imprint of fate from back then, tell them, that I will kill all of them, slowly, just like this, with a weapon made to kill all that is divine".
Surprisingly Ferdinand did as he was told, unfortunately, even if he followed the strong, he did forget something, once the soul-bound blade left his body, he would lose Yunan's support, he would be a mortal in the heart of the chaos, not to mention those that he had wronged before, he should have asked for death instead of being allowed to live.