War is War

“Boring”

From thousands of meters in the air, the sprawling landscape looked no different than the flat surface of a board game. To the being staring down at the land, not a single thing stood out about it. The world before them had lost its purpose.

Fields of lush green forests that used to burn a beautiful combination of red and orange.

Endless mountain ranges, an ugly gray color, indistinguishable from the armies marching across them.

Pristine blue oceans, once so polluted, the creatures that called the sea home grew twisted, violent, and hungry.

Now it was all so beautiful, it was sickening. The numerous races of the world lived in perfect harmony. To the people of this world, conflict was a thing of the past, never to rear its head again. A world this peaceful could only be described with a single word.

Boring.

To the Goddess of War that governed this world, nothing could be worse. How did she, of all people, manage to get stuck with such a disgusting world? Why should she suffer such indignity?

It hadn’t always been that way.

Only twenty short years prior, this world was a bloody mess. The human kingdoms fought vile wars over land and resources. The elves hid themselves away in their forests, killing all who approached without a thought. The dwarves built massive weapons of mass destruction, unleashing them on all who dared to oppose them.

And of course, her personal favorite, the Demon Lord’s army marched across the lands, slaughtering everyone who crossed their path. Hundreds of thousands died in vain year after year, with no end to the hundreds of years of non-stop war.

Where did it all go wrong?

Of course, it could only have been one thing. Heroes.

Without intervention, the Demon Lord’s army would have destroyed the world in a mere century. As beautiful as that would have been. It would only have been a fleeting moment in a Goddess’s eyes. No, if the world were to remain interesting, the war must continue.

But the people of this world were far too weak. Of course, every hundred years or so, a champion would come along, naturally born into this world, but it wasn’t enough. No matter how strong a champion could become, they were nothing to the might of a true Demon Lord.

That’s where the otherworlders came in. Reincarnation. Summoning. Falling into rifts between worlds. For one reason or another, whenever a mortal traveled from one world to another, they gained strange abilities that contradicted the rules of the world.

An adventurer with the strength of ten thousand, capable of rending mountains with a swing of their sword.

A scholar with a nigh infinite source of mana, capable of casting spells far more powerful than the people of this world could ever imagine.

A tamer, able to bond with one of the many dangerous monsters of this world and command them without question.

An inventor, so full of otherworldly knowledge that he could advance the world’s technology in a matter of years.

These otherworlders ensured that the mortal races of this world would never truly be defeated. Occasionally, they would even add to the chaos of the world, driven mad by their newfound power. For thousands of years, the world was delicately balanced between peace and destruction.

Otherworlders were just so utterly entertaining. Watching them claw their way to the top, only to be struck down by an insurmountable wall, was her favorite part of watching the world.

Unfortunately for the Goddess, she got cocky. By flooding the world with otherworlders, eventually, she put too much pressure on the Demon Lord to maintain the balance. After thousands of years, an otherworlder appeared and killed the Demon Lord and ended the bloodshed. The glorious war that had entertained her for a millennium had come to an utterly boring end. At least if the Demon Lord had won, the Demons would have grown out of control and eventually cannibalized themselves.

This was just disgusting. No matter how many strange or violent otherworlders she sent, none could grow to a point where they could even hold a candle to the world-ending threat that was the Demon Lord.

What did she have left to watch?

Bandits terrorizing the countryside? An odd monster attack every decade or so?

There was not a single war worthy of her attention left in her world. Yet, she had to maintain it all the same. Watch over the world like it was her precious, fragile child. That was her duty as the Goddess.

Her duty. For hundreds of thousands of years, she slaved away, watching the world to ensure the balance, only for it to be ruined because of a single mistake. What did she ever do to deserve that?

Why did this have to happen to her?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY!

Why should the world get to go on peacefully?

Why should she be forced to sit around watching this sickening display of peace?

Why shouldn’t she get to enjoy herself?

…

…

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…Why shouldn’t she?

Of course! If war wouldn’t start on its own, why should she sit around and wait? The pieces were already there! Why wait for someone else to set up the board before she could play with it? It was her world after all!

You don’t need permission to destroy your own property.

Unbeknownst to the peaceful world slumbering below her, the Goddess sneered down at it as ideas flooded her mind.

Ultimately, the solution proved to be remarkably simple. Of course, there were numerous kinks to flatten out. Divine Declarations to be made. Paperwork to file.

But the solution was all too easy.

No matter what form it takes in the end…

War is War.