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*Mentions of death, blood, war*

For eons, the yokai looked down on mankind. Hating them for their greed, uncleanliness, and dark hearts. During the time of kings and queens, humans made ridiculous rules that would only benefit the rich and wealthy. The poor are jests and laborers of the land. In the meantime, yokai flourished with a good heart and the love to do good with their powers. 

During the Renaissance, the yokai began to understand mankind more, seeing their newfound love of knowledge, art, and search for understanding and fulfillment as a great stepping stone for the turn of humanity. Many yokai developed respect for humans, however many still felt hatred for the lower-level creatures. In their eyes, even with all the knowledge to understand good from wrong, humans still fall for lust and greed. 

That started the point of turning amongst yokai kind, dividing them into two groups. Sympathizers of humans, and anti-humans. 

Across the world, the sympathizers ventured out of the Hidden City to communicate with humans. Humans were curious enough to find such magical creatures in their midst and welcomed them as travelers, gods, deities, mythical creatures, and aliens. That's why ancient cultures have depictions of creatures like dragons and trolls. From this glorious interaction, was brought forth the gift of mystic energy to only a chosen few humans. Those who vowed to use it for good.

The anti-human yokai choose to sow violence. They abused their powers by influencing the bad humans to cause chaos within their own kind. At first, it started out as lies, then it grew to thievery, then finally, murder. All these led to the devastating events of evil acts in humanity, like wars, and biological warfare. Human experimentation even. Copying their good cousins, these anti-humans also gifted humans mystic energy to be used for evil and the destruction of humankind.

Because of this, more wars emerged between the two kinds of mystic humans. Even with the good yokai pleading with their new allies not to engage, the human on their side decided to fend for their own. The disgusting acts of the evil-influenced humans of the anti-yokai only provoked the good mystic users to engage in bloody warfare. The Great Mystic War.

Some yokai who sympathized with their humans joined the war, while the anti-human yokai left theirs to die alone in the face of battle.

During 10 years of bloodshed, many notable yokai clans stood with their good humans. The most revered of them were the fawn clan, a group of humanoid sheep people, a clan of arachnid-shifting yokai, and the northern-clan yokai. Together with the humans, these great yokai clans sought to help their allies in their war. 

Many saw it as the right decision, helping good people with good deeds. Many saw it as a mistake. 

A mistake it truly was, because it had set in stone the cruelest yokai of all. 

---

Calder Ericson, a respectable yokai who studied ancient mystics and sciences. He was a young man of great renown. His family was well known amongst the folk of the north for having a heart of gold and known for their generous deeds. They were the best healers in the Hidden City, having come from a line of powerful healers and doctors.

Calder is the youngest of his three brothers. Their parents thought them everything they needed to know about healing, and Calder excelled well beyond their expectations. His older brothers were very much fond of him and often praise young Calder. Calder loved his family. He loved them too much that the war changed him to be their own nightmare. There is a reason why the names of other members of the Ericson family remain lost in history. 

Good should never associate with bad, or so Calder Ericson thought.

The Ericson family volunteered to be frontline medics during the Great Mystic War. Mystic humans and other yokai worked under them, helping every injured soul to recover from their injuries. Nights were tireless, sad, and often reeked of death. The evil mystic humans played dirty, using guns, bayonets, poison, and other evil inventions to fight back. 

The death on both sides was heavy. It was not a great time to be any mystic being.

Calder Ericson saw the destruction around him. Lives were lost for nothing. Worse is his family being the center of attention. Many attacks and ambushes were focused on the medical crew. The first to perish in the war was Ericson's mother. She died of yellow fever, contracted from a mystic human ally. 

His father knew anything could happen and told his boys to accept fate. "You're mother will always be the greatest woman in my life. She did not die in vain."

Calder hated the fact but he loved his mother. So he decided to trust his father in his words. The Great Mystic War continued to rage on. It seemed endless like everyone was destined to be stuck in a loop of eternal hell. Until one day, Calder stumbled on a young mystic human, a woman. Calder never knew love. Never knew love until he met her.

He and the young woman hit off as soon as their eyes met. Something about her power, wit, and ability to make Calder's rage, anger, and sadness disappear made him alive. Calder always hugged her after every mission she went on. As a foot soldier, her life was in constant danger. Calder swore to protect her the best he could. One day, after a bloody battle, his young lover came running back into his arms with a face full of blood and tears. "We lost so many, Cal," Calder frowned and kissed her forehead. "I know, dearest. We need to be strong, alright," assuring her, he kissed her passionately. "My dear, I will protect you for the rest of my life."

"I will love you and stand by your side. This war will not part us, my flower."

That night, the two married underneath the stars. Joanna Ericson, now his wife. Calder and Joanna loved each other to death, her love blooming like flowers in spring, while Calder's invoked something dangerous in him.

---

'Calder became distant. Cold and lost. Though I am his wife, meant to trust him, I cannot help but feel worried about him.'

Joanna Ericson watched her husband stare into the night sky. She padded over gently and leaned on him. Calder hummed and closed his eyes, "You shouldn't be in the cold, flower."

"You worry me, husband. Day and night I see you worry. Your brothers and father constantly ask me about you."

Calder's eyes soften and a rare smile played on his lips. He bent down to kiss Joanna, "Tell them not to worry. I am just thinking."

Joanna shook her head, "You think too much," she said in a worried tone. "Come now, flower. You shouldn't think too much about your current condition," the young man smirked as he laid gentle and warm hands on Joanna's swelling belly. 

"Calder, I'm pregnant. Not disabled."

"I know, I know." Calder raised his hands in surrender, but the smile still played on his lips. Joanna watched her lover knell and kiss her swell. "I just want you both to be safe. My family."

---

A week later, while Calder was engrossed in his work, a blood-curdling shout tore through the medical camp. Joanna screamed in fear and pain. Calder screamed for his wife as he ran to the adjacent camp. 

Joanna huddled in a corner, she had been pushed to the floor and was now held as a captive. Calder, his brothers, and his father burst into the camp just in time to see the enemy hold Calder's crying wife by her hair. The enemy's mystic energy focused on the form of a blade.

"Don't move! Hand me the information I seek and I will let this lovely lady go,"

Calder saw nothing but red. Without waiting for his brothers to react Calder launched himself at the spy and for the first time he had his taste of vengeance, and it was good.

That night, sorrow was the only emotion to be felt. Joanna suffered from a miscarriage after being pushed to the floor so violently by the spy. Calder hugged his crying wife to sleep that night, never leaving her side. When Joanna fell asleep, Calder gently removed himself and stalked into the dead of night. He headed for the spy's grave.

Digging the body out, Calder brought the corpse to an empty barn. Calder cleared a table and laid the mangled corpse there. Wordlessly, he took out a scalpel he'd been carrying and began to carve out the corpse. Opening every bloody vein, limb, every tendon. 

He wanted to see what made a mystic human tick. What made the mystic energy in humans last? They weren't born mystic. Just lucky to find themselves with yokai. Emotionless and cold, Calder dissected the corpse, imagining the screams of the spy because he wanted to cut open the man while his heart was still beating as a punishment for making Joanna suffer. Overcome by sudden rage, Calder began to stab the body. The scalpel was plunged into the dead body over and over and over and over. Guts and blood sprayed all over.

Still, he was never satisfied. 

Calder vowed that night to find a proper solution to end the suffering. 

So his experiments began. Calder would stay back at the medical camp, picking out the patient who had the slimmest chance at surviving. A mercy kill, he deemed it. Unknowing his family and wife, Calder would drag the patient to his barn. There he cut them open while they still lived. Studying their biology. His fascination grew. At first, it was just yokai. 

When the next person was claimed by death, his father. Killed by another enemy human, Calder drew the line. Humans did not deserve mystic powers. They are killers. Calder tracked the enemy to its lair and kidnapped the man. The same misfortunate events took place and the human found its death in Calder's cold hands.

A month passed. Joanna heard about the news of the missing patients and the kidnapping of enemy humans. Word spread like wildfire. Joanna also noticed that at that time, Calder became lost in his own world and no longer loved her the way he did.

Calder researched ancient books, trying to find the source of external mystic powers. He found a page about a space stone. A space stone that could give the user the ability to forcefully add and remove mystic energy from any being who was not yokai. 

Calder hunted for the stone at its last recorded location. After months of searching and disappearing from his family, Calder found the stone buried in the most sacred yokai temple. The Crying Titan's head.

Calder studied the stone. Forgetting sleep and eating. Calder became sickly but he was full of knowledge. He found the secret of destroying his enemies. Calder forced himself to learn a specific power that would siphon the mystic energy of all humans. He would use it on everyone, except his wife.

--- 

Calder grew a team of yokai who resented all mystic humans. Though they were smart to not mock Calder's wife. The last person to mock her died my Calder's hands. "Hello?" a yokai called into Joanna's home. 

"Yes, may I help you?"

The yokai shifted on his feet, smiling nervously, "Yes, ma'am. I was looking for your husband. Is he at home?"

"... I haven't seen him in months" Nodding at her reply, the yokai walked away. Joanna watched with dread. 

Why did some random yokai ask her such a question? How daft and insensitive. Joanna filled with curiosity followed the yokai. The yokai opened up a portal and walked in. She followed him in, mystic weapon conjured. As she entered the portal, what met her eyes was hell itself. Strapped to the floors were half-dead yokai and humans. 

"G-get out of here," one whispered urgently. Tears flowed down their face. "He's crazy!"

Before Joanna could ask about anything, she heard a familiar voice. "My Flower..."

Dread seeped into her bones. The distraught lover turned shakily to find her husband, now almost skin and bones, smiling sinisterly. "..Calder," Joanna whispered in fear. She bravely walked up to her husband, hands shakily holding the sides of his face. 

"Calder, my dear, what happened, what did you do?"

Calder cried, "My love, I found a solution." He looked around the room with pride, "I found a way to save us."

Joanna was helpless. The screams and cries of the unfortunate yokai and humans behind told her that Calder was lost. She knew he was. She saw no remorse in his work. "Darling, this is not a solution. Calder, this is not you. You, you don't have to do this," she forced a smile. She kissed him with all her love to get him to come back to her. Calder hummed delighted, "I have to. You will understand. Humans, don't need to have mystic powers. They abuse it."

"Only those who have black hearts. Look at me, dearest. I didn't. Our allies didn't,"

Calder scoffed, "You are innocent in all, my flower. But everyone else must pay. They don't deserve such gifts."

"I found a method to kill them all." Calder brought their joined hands together, kissing the top of Joanna's knuckles, "I will finally be able to keep us safe." Joanna began to weep. Shaking her head in disbelief. Calder's cheery tone dropped, "My love, why do you cry? Please don't cry,"

"I'm sorry. You're going down a path I cannot follow."

Calder's smile faltered. "Joanna...please don't"

She kissed him the last goodbye. "I need to stop this, my love. I'm sorry." 

Joanna was a powerful mystic user. She connected herself to rage and anger and from within her conjured fire. "If you won't stop, I must. Calder, I love you but this is not a solution. Please see that!" She screamed, hoping to get through to him. "Come back to me. After all these months apart I cannot live without you. I can help you find a better solution. One that does not involve this!"

Calder looked around him. He tried to see what his wife saw. "Flower, it looks all good to me,"

Joanna bowed her head and wept. She broke right in front of him. Months have gone and he drowned in sorrow and vengeance. She blamed herself for not reaching out or searching for him. She assumed he was dead or killed. She tried to contact him, and so did his brothers but no one ever found him. 

"Love, I am sorry, but this ends now," with one last look of forgiveness, Joanna let a scream rip from her throat as she let a surge of mystic energy run through her. Fire licked the room, melting shackles and chains. People and yokai ran half dead trying to find a way out and to freedom from the two lovers. 

Calder watched with dead eyes as the fire consumed his work. His newly established goons ran amock trying to catch their captives and secure them. "I love you and I forgive you, Calder." With one last breath, Joanne released the entirety of her power. Calder watched her burn, a lone tear rolling down his cheek. The fire consumed all his work, and research and melted the space stone.

---

The distraught man walked calmly through the dying ambers of his wife. Outside, Calder turned to see a blood moon in the sky. He deemed the night a perfect day to execute his plans. Calder turned to one of his goons, handing them a vial of liquid. "Release this into the fire. The fumes will to their work."

The vial's contents poured into the open flames of his wife. Green smoke spewed from the grey and began to fill the air. First silence, then Calder's ears picked up the faintest of screams. Overlooking the battlefield, Calder watched as both sides of the war broke in panic. Humans began to writhe and die. Suffocating as their faces turned blue. Calder broke into a historical laugh, shrieking with delight. 

He finally did it, he thought. Turning back to watch the ambers of his wife give away, Calder bowed in respect. 

---

Hours went by. Calder walked down the path of his camp. Human bodies littered the ground. Calder stepped over them calmly. He saw three figures running towards him. Horror written on their faces. "Calder?! Is that you?" one of them ran to hug the youngest Ericson. "We were worried sick. Joanna, she cried every night and- are you alright? Where have you been? Are you alright?" 

Calder simply shrugged, "Now I am," he gestured to the dead bodies. "I did it, brothers. I saved us."

"What are you talking about, brother?"

Calder pushed his brother away, "I'm talking about this. I did it. The war is over."

"You-you killed them?"

Calder nodded with glee. 

"Brothers I offer you the highest position in my new empire. Join me and I will make sure nothing happens to any of us."

The oldest Ericson sadly drew out his sword, "Brother, surrender. You committed a massacre. You killed mercilessly. It's not what we do,"

"If you're not with me, you're against me,"

---

Three bodies were dumped onto the halls of the Council of Heads, three mystics beings, unknown as to what species which governed the Hidden City. Calder stood there amongst the dead bodies of his brothers. 

"You ended the war. But to what ends?" the first head spoke.

"You killed without mercy and regret. You killed our allies and kin." the second head accused.

"How do you plead?"

"I plead innocent. I am not guilty. I did what no one had the courage to do. Did you not see that I single-handedly ended the war?" Calder announced with pride.

"Yet you killed your wife,"

Calder stiffened, "You need not remind me. I'd rather forget that unfortunate event. At least she died a warrior's death."

The Council of Heads only remained quiet. "What do you want?" the third head spoke. 

"I want the northern territory. It is my birthright. I have my followers to run it. It shall be mine to govern and watch over. I have full jurisdiction over everything that happens there."

The Council of Heads wordlessly agreed. "Very well. Calder Ericson, you are hereby charged with the duties of a baron."

The first head bestowed upon Calder his title, The Baron of the North.

Calder walked back to his new home. One built-in death and dishonor. Calder visited his wife's grave and a single dying rose on the stone. "I'm sorry, my flower. Rest in Peace."

Calder knew his work was not complete. He had to continue his research on the space rock. He'd wait for a few thousand years until the next one falls. He'd have all the time to perfect his studies and study all the bodies he wanted to. After all, Calder had plans for his future as the new Baron of the North.