Author's Note:
Hi all. I'm back with a new story.
This chapter just gives you a general backdrop of the story. The actual story begins from the next chapter onward.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha.
There was a time when darkness once covered the earth as the battle for supremacy between demons and humans waged on for years on end. It was a very dangerous time to be alive for any living being. Every day was a gamble for survival and there was no guarantee that you would live to see another sunrise. Nature turned on itself, the skies always a dull red color or bleak gray. There was no color and the people learned to be wary of the bright flowers that adorned the wasteland luring hapless victims to death by poison. Despair and death hung heavy on everyone's shoulders.
Then came the rising of a powerful priestess, called Midoriko. She rallied all the humans and demons alike who wished for peace and to end the terrible war. She was a force to be reckoned with and she earned the respect of all who followed her. The demons also feared her since she could purify their very essence with her spiritual powers. But she was nothing if not a strategist. She allied herself with the powerful Inu taiyoukai clans and with the help of a band of brave humans formed the Resistance and led the campaign to end the power struggle between the King of the south, Onigumo and the Demons of the east.
Midoriko's campaign lasted a long 5 years before her husband managed to trap King Onigumo in a burning chamber thereby killing him. But by this time, the demons had joined forces with Onigumo's army against a common foe. In the last legendary and terrible battle Midoriko single handedly took on six powerful demons, the leaders of the east. For seven days and seven nights she fought them while her people held back the army of the enemy. She managed to purify three of the demons, but the three remaining were deadly opponents and she was tiring. Midoriko knew that if she failed, the world would fall into a darkness from which there would be no rising. In a final effort, she concentrated all her spiritual powers and forced the essence of the three remaining demons into a small round crystal jewel that she always wore around her neck. This did not kill the demons, but they were all bound inside the jewel. To completely seal them so that the jewel may never be shattered she bound the jewel with her own soul.
And so it was that Midoriko sacrificed her very soul so that the world would be rid of much evil. People learned in the lore of such magic came to the conclusion that the soul of Midoriko waged a never ending battle with the souls of the three demons, with neither side winning or losing. The jewel came to be called as the Jewel of Four Souls and the energy pulsing through it made it a very powerful and coveted item. It was entrusted into the care of the descendants of Midoriko who became its keepers.
It took another year for the enemy to be completely dispersed or destroyed. The Resistance under the leadership of Midoriko's son established the first peaceful kingdom that welcomed all the victims of the war and all those who wished to live in peace. But a watch was always kept on the borders of the kingdom, on the lookout for anything that might threaten the hard won peace. The Twelve Nymphs of Ephalia helped the humans and demons to establish a peaceful and powerful capital in the north of the kingdom. The Nymphs were magical creatures appearing in the form of females, with their life source bound to a lake around which the capital city was built. No one knew about their origins, but they were peace loving folk. Some legends say that Midoriko herself was descended from these Nymphs. Others say that she was one of the Twelve. But whatever may be the truth, the Nymphs helped to protect and strengthen the borders of the kingdom with the Jewel of the Four Souls.
500 years have passed since these events took place. Many of the details of the battle and the truths about Midoriko and her final battle have become obscured in myths and legends. The far reaches of the world named this kingdom The Crystal Kingdom in honor of the Jewel of the Four Souls that safe guarded its territories. The Jewel itself was in the keeping of the ruling monarch descended from Midoriko's son, its location unknown to anyone else.