May 12th, year 2604   

The earth rumbled as the explosions began. They huddled safely underground due to the mass evacuation that took place as soon as war was declared. It terrified the citizens but they all knew that it was inevitable. You see, humans’ population has been growing endlessly and every inch of the Earth is already inhabited. They needed more space, perhaps a new climate would have benefitted them too. The environment has gotten much worse seeing as urbanization took over. Trees often died because the city’s environment didn’t meet their needs. Forests were also extremely rare, only a few left in the world. So scientists from all over the world joined together and with the funding and support of the government, they were able to travel to Mars. They were sure that with few alterations, Mars will be completely habitable in the near future. The scientists had many successful experiments with sending humans there to live, of course with the supervision and aid of the knowledgeable scientists. During one of the tests, they learned that they were not the only ones on Mars, as a demigod appeared. Usually, demigods keep a low profile when humans visit their planets. There were only a few sightings of demigods seen by humans, but they knew the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. Demigods often try to keep out of sight and soon enough the humans will leave with their rock samples and such. They tolerate visits from humans once in a while but after they discovered that the humans were trying to live here, demigods were unable to stay silent any longer. Three demigods were sent over to tell the humans to leave at once. Scared out of their minds, the humans quickly obliged, however after they arrived back home, the government and their commanders had a very different idea. Soon after, both scientists and politicians were sent back to negotiate. They demanded for the entire planet of Mars and of course the demigods did not agree. That was an understatement, in fact, the demigods were absolutely infuriated. Both parties made many threats and the conversation ended with a declaration of war. The humans barely escaped from the wrath of the demigods for they had demonstrated a bit of their black magic. They speeded back to Earth to recount the situation immediately. Soon enough, the preparations were in process. Everyone had a role in militarizing their home planet, the engineers, technicians, programmers all worked together to build an abundance of robots. Their theory was that robots could not be harmed by the demigods’ magic because they were not living beings like humans. Other people contributed by manufacturing weapons and bombs while scientists created launchers to send the robots to the solar system. Humans also worked endlessly to create underground tunnels, deep enough to be safe from the battles. They were evacuated underground; it served as their temporary home because soon after the war started, the cities and countries above were demolished in combat. The humans realized that this war is more serious than they thought, even worse than any of the World Wars in the past. People were working day and night to devise new strategies and tactics that were sure to succeed. However, just when the humans thought they had the upper hand, communication was received from the robot spies; their newest invention. The spies had caught word of demigods worshiping an even more powerful species from a different universe. The demigods had called them “Hell beings” and apparently had help from them. The demigods received diabolical ideas for retaliation such as manipulating the Six Realms of Existence for the purpose of gaining leverage through espionage. This terrified the humans because if the demigods truly had power over the Six Realms of Existence then they could incarnate into the humans’ world and gain knowledge of their war plans before they were even executed. Under those circumstances, the humans desperately tried to seek out Buddha for help, but they had no luck. Accepting the fact that they had to win this war without the help of any other beings other than themselves, they continued in attempting to overwhelm the demigods by their vast number of robots with various purposes and designs. Afterall, the losses on the humans’ side is replaceable because if a robot was destroyed, more can always be built with their advanced technology and manufacturing. However, in contrast, when demigods were killed, the damage is significantly greater since demigods are not as easily replaced unlike robots. Soon, they realized that their hopes may have been too high because just after they launched their newest troops of robots, the demigods released their furious wrath. Their power demolished almost all of the robots that the humans worked tirelessly to create. Not only that, the demigods assaulted Earth as well, wreaking havoc on the entire surface of the world. Even though there were robots defending Earth as well, not all of them could withstand the demigods’ storm of battle. Had the humans not evacuated the Earth so long ago, the human population would have been extinct after the demigods’ brutal attack. The humans held close to their families as the underground shook from the explosions. They were all petrified of the thought of their underground home collapsing, as it was their only safe haven. Scientists frantically searched for connection with their robots to see how severe the situation was, yet the surviving robots were badly damaged. To everyone’s relief, the battle finally subsided. Devastatingly, all their robots were demolished and they would have to start from scratch again. However, the humans had lost hope. This is the moment where they needed help the most. So once more, the humans try to contact Buddha. Everyone gathered together and chanted and begged for help. Not a moment too late, in a warm and radiant golden light, Buddha appeared before them. The humans could not believe their eyes, Buddha was standing right in front of them, as calm and peaceful as ever. The commander was the first to react, they said “Please Buddha, we need help. How can we win this war?”

Buddha gazed serenely at the assembly of people before simply saying “There is no longer any point of fighting. Regardless of who is victorious, by that time both territories will be damaged beyond repair, depleted of resources and virtually inhabitable. The only way to save yourselves and your planet is to cease fighting. That is your only solution.” 

Once again, in a glowing golden gleam, the Buddha departed. The humans just stood there, completely baffled and speechless. After asking for the Buddha’s aid for so long, they were first disappointed by Buddha’s advice. It seemed utterly useless to them and soon they were outraged by the senseless and inane advice they received. This encouraged them even further to rely solely on themselves to defeat the demigods. With the help of the entire human population, they built robots with extremely dangerous explosives at an alarming speed. While the demigods’ strength was weak from the exertion of their last attack on Earth, the humans picked the perfect time to launch an assault with everything they have got. They sent their robots with the explosives and watched from a telescope as the explosives went off. The planets were engulfed in flames as the demigods’ homes burned. In less than a day or two, the humans could confirm that their final attack was successful in killing off all the demigods and essentially winning the war. The humans were elated and they celebrated for weeks in their success. Eventually, they found it safe to finally return above ground to restart their lives. As they stood above ground they saw how their Earth, once beautiful, was now a desolate wasteland. The humans realized how they should have taken the great wise Buddha’s advice and the doom that their ignorance had brought them. On that thought, the dark and heavy polluted air began to suffocate them. One by one, they dropped to the ground.