The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Evil and good will always exist. A farm hand will never be a hero. Some things never change.
The man slowly opened his eyes, raised his arms to stretch, and let out a loud yawn. He sat up in his bed and looked around the room, it was just as he had left it.
「I wonder how long I was out. Probably only a few weeks this time.」
It wasn’t that he needed to sleep, at least not in the way that mortals do. He was a god, and the deities of this world could go without sleep for years. However, in order to appear with a physical form of his own effort, it took a tremendous amount of energy. This energy was most quickly restored by sleeping. However, while the physical body was resting the deities could easily move their consciousness into the dreams of mortals.
Once out of bed, he stretched his back and arms again. Standing tall, he was an extremely muscular man. With dark red hair the color of blood and piercing red eyes. Exactly what one would imagine when they thought of the God of War, Ark. He took a moment to walk along the walls and look over the various weapons hung on the walls of his room, occasionally tracing over their shapes with his fingers. Each of them had been forged and presented as a tribute at some point. There had been countless others, but he had only kept what he deemed to be the very best quality.
After dressing, Ark moved over to a common room. He shared living quarters with the two other deities of the world. They each had their own wing, but they shared a few common areas. It wasn’t often during the year that they were all awake at the same time, however the annual Spring Festival was approaching. Every so often they would wake up in order to receive their tributes, but this year was special.
Once every hundred years the people of this world would summon a hero from another world. The individual summoned may have been normal in their world, but upon being summoned they would be granted the blessings of the gods. The blessings granted to the hero depended entirely on the whims of the of the deities, but were limited to the realm of their respective power.
For the previous four summons the world had been at peace, so there was not much that Ark had been involved with.
「It had been a dull 400 years.」
Seated in front of a mirror was the Goddess of Love, Kei. She was brushing her hair, and hadn’t noticed Ark come in to the room.
“Y’know, no matter how much you brush, no one’s going to notice.”
Kei, still looking into the mirror changed her gaze towards Ark. Having finally noticed that she was no longer alone, she went back to watching herself brush her hair.
Kei: “If I didn’t pay at least this much attention to my hair, I wouldn’t be able to call myself a woman. You wouldn’t understand, you’ve got muscle for brains. Besides, that’s not true. You noticed.”
Ark ignored her response and walked over to a window. Their living quarters were in the heavens above the world, between the land and the stars. If they were human, it wouldn’t have been possible to live in that space.
Ark: “It’s almost time for the summoning, right? We’re awake, but where’s Razia?”
「It’s so hard to keep track of time, I don’t know how Razia does it so regularly.」
Ark turned around to look back at Kei, watching her brush her hair. She was moving the brush slowly through her pink hair, which came down to the middle of her back.
Kei: “Hmm, I don’t know. She’s a good little goddess. Always following the rules. I’m sure she’ll show up when it’s time.”
Kei set down her brush and stretched her arms above her head.
Kei: “I’m a little bored of the blessings we’ve been giving. I think I’m going to have some fun with mine to spice things up. What about you, Ark? Going with that boring strength again? You haven’t been much use to the hero the last few times.”
Kei was right, the world had been experiencing the longest period of peace since its creation. The inhabitants of the world had long since come to a peaceful resolution between the different races. The humans, demons, animal races, and elves had all put war behind them. The centennial hero summoning had long lost its original meaning, but the inhabitants had maintained it out of a sense of tradition.
Ark: “We’ll see, there’s not much else that I can do. The world has become so peaceful it’s disgusting.”
「I haven’t had a chance to really have some fun in such a long time. Of course, as a god I don’t have to worry about running out of time, but it gets a little boring without anything to do.」
What the people of this world didn’t remember, was that the gods’ power grows in relation to the world’s desire for war, peace, or love. It has always been this way to maintain a balance between the three. In times of war, peace is desired above all else. During times of peace, malcontent and dissatisfaction grow as society stagnates. Between them both, love prospered; sometimes causing war, sometimes ending it.
Ark turned around and started to walk back to his room. Kei watched his back for a few moments before turning back to her mirror, picking her brush back up.
If Kei had been seen the look on Ark’s face, she would have seen a wicked smile.
People always forget that strength wins battles, but tactics and preparation win wars: and Ark was the God of War.
「This power I feel is stronger than it’s been in a long time.」
