"What happened?"
That was the common phrase at the Council of Gods at that moment.
Suddenly all the images they were seeing cut off, and the disciples appeared beside their masters.
However, not all the disciples returned. Only four of the six groups were back on the Council of Gods.
"That universe has been destroyed. I was forced to take them out and finish the competition early."
Given the circumstances, no one planned to blame Yale for finishing the competition early. However, some had a complaint about a different matter.
"What happened to our disciples, why aren't they back?"
Those were the masters of the disciples who hadn't returned.
"They are dead. I am sorry, but I only managed to put four of them back before the universe was destroyed. You should already praise me for managing to put out four groups completely in different parts of the universe in an instant. I am not omnipotent."
They couldn't argue after hearing the explanation. In that situation, even if Yale had been able to save just the disciples of his group, it would have been understandable, but he saved four. They felt unfair that their disciples weren't chosen to be saved and blamed their bad luck, but it wasn't bad luck.
Yale's priorities were clear, so his group and the two groups of allies were first and after them the group belonging to the moderator of the Council of Gods.
"You can't blame Yale. Of your groups, one had finished the battle, and no one was paying them attention while they recovered, and the other had yet to do something interesting. The other groups were more eye-catching, so it is normal that Yale unconsciously pulled them off first."
Since the disciples of his group were safe and he had secured the second place, the moderator spoke on Yale's behalf.
No one felt that Yale was at fault after Yale's explanation, but after the moderator spoke, they felt that Yale just acted naturally, given the situation.
However, they were all wrong. Yale was perfectly capable of saving the six teams in an instant, but he let the other two die.
It wasn't random. Those two groups and their masters might belong to the Council of Gods, but they were among those who had abused their power enough to create some rebels.
Yale had obtained enough information from the side of the rebels to know that certain members of the Council of Gods had abused their power far more than others, so he decided to let them die instead of saving them.
It wasn't that they were evil or planned to betray the Council of Gods, but although they hadn't broken the rules, their behavior created others who became problematic at the multiverse level.
Moreover, given the losses provoked by the destruction of that universe, a bit of balance was needed on the side of the Council of Gods, so the first choice to discard were those Yale liked the least.
"How did the enemy destroy the universe that easily?"
After a bit of silence, someone asked that question. Although all of them could destroy a universe, doing it so suddenly was a different matter.
"Just before the universe was destroyed, I saw the remnants of a dimensional passageway that had the aura of the Minor Dimensional Divinity. With it, it isn't impossible to destroy the universe from a passageway and have enough time to prepare without being noticed."
Shiba was sure that the same person who fled was the one who destroyed the universe.
"Yale, is what your disciple is saying true?"
The moderator was the one who asked that question to Yale.
"With the Minor Dimensional Divinity, it should be possible, so we must take into account that the rebels have someone with it."
Anything that meant that the opponent was stronger was bad news, and they had seen how powerful the Dimensional Divinity was. At least they comforted themselves by thinking that it was just the Minor Dimensional Divinity.
"Now, the results of the competition are decided, so our group is at the top, right?"
Everyone just nodded at Yale's words. No one had been able to surpass the Time Faction directly or indirectly, so it was better to just obey at that point. Of course, that was as long as Yale didn't ask them to die. No matter how loyal they were to the Council of Gods, their lives were first.
"Alright, start preparing for the war. It will start in a few minutes."
No one understood why Yale was so confident that the war would start so soon, but Yale left the room instantaneously with an unknown destination.
After destroying the universe, Lesta decided that it was already time to start the war, so he opened a way for the rebels to look for Tofesh, so they all invaded the dimension were Tofesh was without difficulties.
"Fools. It is obvious that Yale will annihilate you in an instant if you touch Tofesh. At least their death will be useful."
Devy nodded while hearing Lesta, and both went to prepare for the war. Lesta had already used his incarnation to say that the dimension where Tofesh was had been invaded successfully by the sacrificial pawns.
Yale teleported directly to Tofesh's side. He was there exactly where all the rebels appeared there.
"Sorry, Tofesh. For making you the trigger of the war, but even if I flee with you to somewhere else, it is just a matter of time, so better kill those bastards now."
Although Tofesh and Clair had never been in danger because Yale had been paying attention to them, just the fact of infiltrating to kidnap or kill Tofesh was enough to make Yale sentence all the rebels there to death.
"Die."
It was just one word, and it didn't have any special effects. It was just to make the rebels be shocked before Yale crushed them all with the True Dimensional Divinity.
The rebels never expected that Yale would be waiting for them there. They weren't conscious of the monstrous speed with which Yale could move between universes.
Of course, the higher-ups knew that those attacking Tofesh were mostly doomed. It would be great if they succeeded, but they weren't strong enough to face someone like Yale.
The rebels classified the members of the Council of Gods and their allies to determine their danger level, and Yale was an SSS, the highest.
At the start, they only wanted to give that qualification to Alrein and Kroh, but Lesta insisted to also give it to Yale.
Someone with that danger level mustn't be faced unless it had been planned by the whole group beforehand.
Strictly speaking, the targets of those levels were ones that they didn't consider to be able to kill even if they won the war, so facing them must only be done after being deeply planned and with the objective of restraining them, not beating them. As long as they were unable to interfere with others, even if they were the only survivors, the rebels would have succeeded in destroying the Council of Gods.
They felt that even surviving, those three would need to live full of pain and regrets, so it wasn't better than dying.
However, anyone trying to stop someone with that danger level must be among the strongest of the rebels, so those looking for Tofesh didn't have any chance.
Yale teleported back to the meeting, but he brought Tofesh and Clair together.
Since the war was about to start, it was useless to have them hidden, and he already was in control of the Council of Gods, so no one could order Tofesh to create an army of weapon spirits.
"The rebels tried to kill my friend, so I annihilated them. Targeting my best friend is an obvious declaration of war, and I doubt that they ignore how many of their members I killed. Get ready, I have prepared our battlefield long ago. A normal universe wouldn't endure a battle of this level."
Since the main target was the members of the Council of Gods, they could choose a place to wait, and the rebels would appear.
Of course, the rebels would also target their families, but most of them would just bring their families to the battlefield since they were usually strong enough.
Even for family members in other universes, and universe belonging to members of the Council of Gods, they wouldn't be left unprotected. Everyone had already taken measures to ensure that there is a decent level of security in those places.
The real threat was the main army that they would face. If they all dispersed to protect their universes, they would lose.
For that occasion, Yale had created a universe that was completely devoid of intelligent life. There were stars and planets, but they were created for that war, so even if they were destroyed, it wouldn't matter.
That universe was seven thousand times more resistant than the best universe others could have seen, but it would disappear after just a million years, so it wasn't useful for normal uses since the universe was created to last as long as the creator was alive.
It was easy to enter into that universe once Yale opened it after announcing the start of the war. However, leaving wasn't that easy.
Hidden under the look of an enormous and resistant battlefield was a trap to prevent the others from fleeing to other universes if the things were bad for them.
