"Okay," Olivia said, making a face at the disgusting mess in front of her, "I'm no longer having fun."

"Hoo," agreed Hoolio, perched on her shoulder and looking similarly disgusted.

"Y'know," Dinah said from where she crouched over the body of a young slade, up to her elbows in its guts, "if this were the old west, it'd be expected of the womenfolk to be able to gut and clean all kinds of critters like this. Pigs, cows, chickens… Buffalo an' deer too, if you was born into an Indian tribe."

"'Native Americans'," Olivia corrected automatically. "You're not supposed to call them Indians anymore."

Dinah looked up from her gutting and gave Olivia what her gramma would have called 'an old fashioned look'.

"Really," her friend asked, arching an eyebrow. "Did you really just 'actually' me? 'Cause if you want, I could go on for a couple hours how it ain't that cut and dried, and how 'Indian' is still okay with a lot of folk, while others prefer to be called by their tribe's name, and still others really do prefer Native American or even American Indian, or–"

"Okay!" Olivia held up her hands in capitulation, "I give! I bow to your superior knowledge of… What, possible racial slurs against indigenous peoples of the Americas?" She sighed and winced as she slid the edge of her knife under the rock-hard scales of the dead creature in front of her, feeling it slice through flesh and muscle as she prised the scale up. "My original point stands, however. This is disgusting."

"Yep," Dinah said cheerfully, which drew a deep bass laugh from the other member of their little butchering party. Pennat the fairy man was assisting them in breaking down the corpses. And he was already two full bodies ahead of them.

Well, ahead of Dinah. He was like, four ahead of Olivia. Because this was, as had been previously stated, gross as heck.

Olivia popped another scale off and added to the grisly pile she was making and took a moment to consider the little bubblegum-armoured man. He hadn't said much, when Clennais had come clean about what had happened to Tori's tribe all those years ago. He'd just sort of stood there, hands behind his back in a decidedly martial stance, staring off into the middle distance as his chief calmly explained to Mom and Dad why they'd decided to get all genocidey on Tori's people.

And now here he was, sitting with them and breaking down corpses while the rest of his tribe had retreated to their campsite a little ways further into the clearing.

"Is this experience really so novel to you, lady Olivia? Does your world not require you to hunt for sustenance?"

"Nope," Olivia grunted, popping another scale off and suppressing her gag reflex in the same motion. "Up until a couple weeks ago, we bought all our food pre-butchered and wrapped up in nice neat little packages in big buildings called Supermarkets, where you could buy just about anything you could ever want."

"Truly?" The fairy used his little stone knife to shuck an entire slade like it was an ear of corn. A dozen harder than steel scales splattered to the ground beside him into a pile that was increasing in size. "Anything at all?"

"Well, maybe not guns or cars I guess–"

"Says the gal who ain't never been east of Las Vegas," Dinah said with a snort. "Y'all need to see a Kentucky Walmart. It'd blow your mind."

Pennat went motionless for a moment. "The weapons you and yours used against the young slades? The smokethrowers? You could purchase those? In a story?"

"Not everywhere," Dinah said. "But enough places that it weren't hard to get one if you wanted it."

"And… Anyone could purchase them?"

"There were a few hurdles, and some states–uh, sorta like different countries all tied up inside one bigger country, some of them was harder to get guns in than others. But it wasn't hard, usually. Just took a minute."

Pennat let out a low whistle. "It is no wonder that you are such accomplished warriors. If those kinds of weapons are available for anyone on your world…"

Olivia barked out a laugh. "You kidding? A couple months ago I barely knew how to hold a gun. No, most of the people on our world are just like the people here. Weapons… guns, like those, they're mostly used for… For sport. Or for self-defense–Although I guess that's really more just like deterrence than actual defense. Nothing says "you don't want to be in my house anymore" like hearing a shotgun cocking from the next room, y'know? But no, the, uh, warriors of our world use, uh, bigger weapons."

"Like what Lady Alejandra uses, you mean?" Pennat asked, turning to fully face Olivia. The little guy's angular face was a moue of interest.

"What, Mom's rifle?" Olivia shrugged, then made a face as she shoved the now-dismantled corpse away from her onto the pile of similarly picked-over slades. "I mean, yeah, soldiers use those. But they also use tanks, fighter jets, bombers… Uh…" she paused, trying to figure out how best to describe them to the fairy. "Think like, giant carriages built out of steel that run on their own power, and can move faster than the fastest horse, and shoot explosive blasts that can hit something like two miles away. Or flying machines that can drop enough explosives to cover this entire island in flames after just one drop. Stuff like that."

The fairy had stopped moving and was now staring at her. Dinah picked up the narrative, describing with a fair amount of relish the different war machines that Earth folk used in their wars.

"Oh, and the nukes," Dinah started to crow, when Olivia leaned over and put a restraining hand on her friend's shoulder.

"That's probably enough for now," she murmured, nodding at Pennat. The little man looked like he'd just been clubbed over the head with a baseball bat.

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"Your warriors… They truly wield such devastating weapons?" He shook his head without blinking, clearly picturing the carnage in his mind's eye. "And the tools of the common man, your guns and pistols… They are merely tools, and yet they surpass every weapon we possess, save perhaps some of the more heavily enchanted ones. No wonder you are so formidable. Why, with such weapons at hand, wars must be a thing of the past on your world!"

"Yeah, that's where there's the hitch," Dinah deadpanned.

Pennat turned a couple shades paler. "You mean your warriors actually use such weapons? The threat of them does not suffice?"

"Not when everyone's got 'em," Olivia sighed, watching Hoolio hop over to the corpse pile and nibble out a choice giblet for himself. "There was a pretty big war happening on the other side of the world when we left. It didn't affect us much, but… I saw some of the pictures. Burning tanks, miles of blasted terrain, cities blown to bits by bombs and missiles… Couple hundred thousand people dead on both sides, I think."

They worked in silence for a bit as the fairy digested what he'd been told. Then the little man let out a deep sigh and shook his head.

"Our worlds are not as dissimilar as I had thought," he said quietly. "Your weapons of war sound terrifying… But the histories tell us of similar wars that occur every time a Sojourner appears. Vast armies gather, powerful Arts and devastating Skills are unleashed… And the bodycount rises."

"How often did Sojourners come here, anyways?" Olivia asked after a couple more seconds of silence, desperate for a topic change. "I know that that Caesar creep was the last one, but was it like one a year? Or like, one every twenty years?'

"The histories are unclear on that point, sadly," Pennat said, flitting over to the next slade body. Lord, they were going to have a buttload of scales. "Partly because so much was lost in the cataclysm, the breaking of the System and Caesar's Wroth. Partly because… Well, from what I have gathered, the survivors of a Sojourner appearance are typically too busy with repairing the damage done to keep careful histories or timekeeping. But if I had to guess, perhaps one every thirty to fifty years or so."

"And they always start on this island?" Dinah asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, heavens no. No, Sojourners, from what I have been able to tell from the histories, could appear nearly anywhere in the world. This island has only played host to Sojourners… Three times? That I know of, anyways. With… What was the phrase you used? 'That creep Caesar' being the last."

Olivia paused in the act of prying up another scale and looked at Pennat. "Wait. if only three came from the island, how do you know about the others? Shouldn't they have been off on the other side of the world doing stuff?"

Pennat blinked several times, not looking away from her. "My lady Olivia… When Sojourners arrive on Seroco, when they raise their banners… The world responds. Did your Tutorial Tribe not make that clear to you?"

Both girls looked at each other, eyes widening, then looked back to the suddenly grim fairy.

"Wait," Dinah held up a hand. "Are you tellin' us that the entire world goes to war when Sojourners show up?"

"I… I was not alive when the last Sojourner appeared," Pennat said carefully, looking back and forth between them in confusion. "But I have studied the histories, and yes, that does seem to be the way it occurs. The Starlight Tribe has records of joining the banner of at least three other Sojourners besides Caesar."

The girls shared a look again, this one of dawning horror.

An entire world brought into war, every thirty to fifty years. A factoid from Mrs. Minniver's 6th Grade History class popped into Olivia's head. In World War I, there had been almost ten million soldiers killed when the fighting was over. In World War II, that number had been multiplied by like six. It had been the deadliest conflict in history. And Humanity had apparently learned its lesson, because they hadn't done it again.

And Seroco went through that every fifty years.

"What the hell?" Olivia burst out, causing Hoolio to startle and both Dinah and Pennat to blink in surprise.

"My lady?" Pennat asked.

"Who set up this system? Every fifty years, a new world war? Millions of people marching to their deaths just because some yahoo with a flag says 'join me and let's conquer the world'?" Olivia growled and balled her hands into fists. This must be what Isabel felt like all the time. "That's… That's insane!"

"I… it is the way it has always been?" Pennat said, backing up away from Olivia slowly.

"Bull," Olivia spat, glaring around at the world in general. "Random chance doesn't work like that. And besides, it's codified. It was the first thing Toraline said to us, nearly. 'Unite the world under a single flag'. Someone, somewhere in the deep dark past, set up this bloodsport arena for some reason, and it's been sending millions of thinking people to their deaths for whatever the heck reason that might have been."

And she had wanted to do it, too. Raise the flag, be an Isekai protagonist, take over the world and rule from on high as… As… As what? Queen? Empress? Like it was some kind of video game where you got to put your name onto a scoreboard afterwards?

Thirty to fifty years…

"Pennat, we never were able to mail it down exactly… do you know when the last Sojourner appeared?"

"Almost four hundred years ago. Caesar… well, Caesar and the two who opposed him were the last. But," the little man sighed and made a sweeping gesture, taking in the clearing, the humans, and the corpses of the monsters all in one broad motion. "Here you are. Sojourners once more walk the land, the island is waking up, the System is growing… it would seem that the days of history upon us once again."

Thirty to fifty years.

The present slipped away from Olivia as her thoughts zipper ahead to the future. In thirty years she would be over 40 years old. Mom and Dad would be in their 70s. And if they survived the island and all it's threats, and built a home here, and thrived, then in 30 years world war would come for them, best case scenario.

Worst case scenario? Mom and Dad would be dead when the war came for Olivia and for her children.

In her mind's eye she saw Billy aflame. She heard the screams of the dying, saw the blood flowing, saw the smoke blot out the sky. She saw their little island home overrun.

And an enemy's flag flying high over the debris.

Olivia didn't realize she had stood up until she was already there and Hoolio was hooting in surprise at the suddenness of her movement.

"Liv?" Dinah asked, and there was concern in her friend's voice and the look she gave her. "You okay?"

Flames and flags.

"No," Olivia said shortly. "I need to talk to my parents. Right now."

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