"To think it took us decades to travel to the closest universe" Tasha was tired, really tired "can we rest a little bit when we get inside?" She asked with a hopeful voice.
Yunan just smiled at her, measuring travel time by the decades was the same as measuring time by the seconds for mortals, however, it wasn't as consuming.
"Sure, let's take a few days of sunshine when we get inside, now get into Dreamscape, we are breaking in!". Producing the realm he brought with him along, made a small portal for them to walk inside and set the realm on a collision course. Dreamscape would be their gate into this foreign universe.
Taking Dreamscape on this journey was due to the uniqueness of the dream realm, it was not a true divine realm, as it couldn't house the souls of the believers, Yunan had recently discovered that when they were in the prison planet.
Dreamscape only housed the dreams, nightmares or not, everything born in a dream was housed inside of it, this unique property made the decision for Yunan, to put it simply, Dreamscape would work the same anywhere in the void, as long as dreams existed, it would too.
Dreamscape is neutral, as long as sentient beings existed, they would dream, it was a matter related to the existence of a soul, if Yunan was asked about it, he would say that dreams are the unintended consequence of making the soul capable of emotion.
Being neutral, No universe with dream energy will reject the intrusion of the Dreamscape, naturally, it would also be able to immediately start absorbing those dream energies, making Dreamscape the best way to infiltrate any universe.
Tasha was not aware of the above, to her, and many more gods who have cultivated in Dreamscape, the monsters and beings inside it were the manifestation of the believers. Only Yunan knew that all those that believed in him and worshipped him were all sent to the river Styx upon death, their faith and life long experiences becoming food for his Effort divinity.
Thus, with the help of Dreamscape, they found themselves inside the foreign universe.
It looked the same as their own, stars and galaxies, planets both dead and life-bearing, time fluid and Fate's tendrils almost touching everything, this was a mature universe, it was on route to the nearest culling event.
This was apparent to Yunan the moment the Fate of this universe made contact with him, it seemed to sense the fragment of Fate in his sea of consciousness, it tried to embrace it but Yunan did not allow that to happen, this bit of Fate was his own, something that can be called a manifestation of himself, he only allowed the two fates to be acquainted.
Still, that was enough to rouse the creator and the major gods of this universe. They thought that the culling was already starting, they gathered their armies and arms as they tried to locate the foreigners.
Unfortunately for those gods, they were unable to do so, Yunan and Tasha were inside Dreamscape, something that was basically undetectable, all dream energy was the same, any god who could differentiate between the dream energies of different universes was qualified to be called a Primordial.
Since Dreamscape could connect them with the energies of the universe, both Yunan and Tasha had no need to leave, they chose to sit still and try to connect with this universe, at least they would not face rejection from the universe itself when they started working in earnest.
Within one year. Yunan had already established himself as the god of efforts and dreams, using the power of Dreamscape to spread his glory, as well as the all-consuming nature of Effort, to make the faith and other energies of this universe part of him.
Tasha also established herself, thanks to the link she had with effort, she was able to integrate with the new universe and be recognised as part of it, and then spread her religion through Dreamscape as well, the mistress of the night is what she called herself, as long as it was something that would be kept secret, it was part of her domain.
The two new gods were not very overt. One related himself to the ambitious and hard-working, the other related herself with secrets and hidden things, both domains were easily misinterpreted and no one even expected to be conquered from the inside.
The culling was a violent event, gods died like they were common mortals, bloodshed and forceful acquisition of resources was the theme, and Fate was the final resource. If a universe's Fate was taken, there was no longer need to struggle.
Yunan did the opposite, he wanted to gently take over the rivers of Fate and merge the conquered universes with his home, the amalgamation of two universes might not be as strong as both combined, but it would certainly be better than just one.
Yunan also chose this way to increase the number of efforts he could consume with his Effort divinity, it needed so much food to grow, something Yunan was not willing to let go of, all efforts in his original universe were immediately used to empower him.
He preferred the little accumulation through time, he preferred to have a near-permanent source of income for eternity than to have a one time boost.
Three years later, Tasha had gleaned enough secrets to allow Yunan a smooth take over.
"Boss, I found the location of the creator of this universe, he hid very well, are you sure this is the way to go? I could bring him here and it would be much safer." Tasha stooped low to look at the cross-legged Yunan. She continued to talk as if he was not listening to her.
"Boss, why are you so relaxed like this all the time, it makes me really nervous when you just sit there, seriously, you are too relaxed, we are heading to the private realm of a creator, as outsiders, that is the worst move to make, period."
Yunan just searched through her face before shrugging and standing up, pulling her straight too, by the shoulders, he then touched her cheek tenderly "relax, you must learn that being in a relaxed state is the best possible thing you can do, the more relaxed you are, the easier it will be for you to face trouble."
He waved his hand and a few bottles of lava wine popped out of nowhere "this anxious behaviour of yours is why you and your fellows got mired, we are bringing gifts, great promises and salvation, why would I have to feel anxious about facing trouble".