Curse Power

Biodata

Power Progression

Origin and Acquisition

Cursed Relics originate in the Dream Realm, a chaotic realm shaped by the daydreams and desires of living beings. Curse Power is gained by surviving contact with that realm rather than by merely possessing a relic. 12

To become a Curse Caster, an individual requires at least three Cursed Relics and a Qi-Suppressing Stone. After consuming the stone’s powder and exposing their mind to several evil curses, they briefly connect to the Dream Realm; surviving its mental shock allows them to sense and control Curse Power. 12

A Curse Caster must also pass a Dream Realm trial and fuse their three possessed relics into one in order to truly enter the ranks of Curse Casters. Lineages train descendants to suppress excessive desires before this process, since uncontrolled desires can make the trial lethal. 17 24

Heritage books provide an alternative route to becoming a Curse Caster. They protect the recipient during a comparatively safer and easier trial, and can grant higher initial Curse Power when their prearranged abilities match the recipient’s true desire; however, the recipient loses the freedom to determine their own Natal Relic’s abilities. 164

• Qi-Suppressing Stones — Dream Realm materials usually supplied by powerful Curse Caster Lineages, though they can rarely appear naturally in the real world. They also serve as hard currency among Curse Casters in many sea regions. 12 105
• Mental shock — A principal barrier to awakening Curse Power; failure can cause mental collapse or death during the trial. 12 24
• Dream Realm danger — Entering the realm can accelerate growth, but exposes Curse Casters to hostile casters and unknown fiendish spirits. 19
• Relic balance — Greater Curse Power permits a Caster to accommodate more Cursed Relics, but their curses must restrain one another sufficiently. An excessive and unstable collection of relics can tear its holder apart. 113

Properties

Relationship to Consciousness

Curse Power does not physically reside inside the body. It overlaps with the body through consciousness or the soul, following its owner “like a shadow.” This connection allows a Curse Caster to faintly sense the Dream Realm while remaining in reality. 18

Curse Power has strong disruptive properties within the Dream Realm. Hawkins determines that placing Curse Power inside Asmodeus allows him to move through that realm after leaving Eternal Space. 31

As an extension of consciousness, Curse Power can remain associated with a spiritual body even when a physical body changes, is destroyed, or is replaced. Hawkins’s fusion with innumerable versions of himself greatly expands both his consciousness and Curse Power. 227

Hawkins later speculates that Curse Power is a form of “True Energy” drawn from the Dream Realm and that its extraordinary effects may result from the Dream Realm’s higher-dimensional relationship to reality. This remains unconfirmed. 180

Measurement

Curse Power is measured by the maximum distance it can extend from its user: one meter of reach equals one point. 18

Curseguard

Curse Power automatically protects its owner through Curseguard. It reacts to attacks from any direction and can stop most physical attacks as long as sufficient power is available. 12 20

• Ordinary people without Curse Power ordinarily cannot break Curseguard. 12
• Curseguard is not absolute: Mark is severely injured when a meteor hammer Cursed Relic penetrates his defense. 14
• Curse Casters remain vulnerable to indirect threats such as starvation, suffocation, hypnosis, and disease. 14
• Curse Power can temporarily offset the curse of a Cursed Relic being handled; more dangerous relics exhaust more power. 15
• Curseguard functions by increasing the probability that its owner remains unharmed. Greater expenditure can reduce the probability of injury to zero against attacks within the user’s capacity to withstand. 46 65
• Curse Power can be actively condensed into a localized shield. Hawkins blocks an attack assessed at roughly 1,000 Curse Power by concentrating more than 10,000 points over his chest. 98
• The amount needed for defense depends on the opponent’s physical or situational advantage, not merely on the numerical amount of hostile Curse Power. Hawkins requires nearly 20,000 points to defend against approximately 2,000 points attached to Romeo’s stronger tree trunks. 112
• Curseguard may be passive for a Caster’s true body, but Hawkins must consciously activate it when protecting an avatar body. This activation delay allowed the Extreme Cold Beam to injure him before he could mobilize his reserves. 65
• Specialized anti-Curse Caster techniques can bypass Curse Power defenses. The Spirit-Slaying Knife is specifically capable of severing mental locks and piercing Curseguard. 366

Probability Manipulation

After observing Mark survive combat underground, Hawkins concludes that Curse Power operates by altering probability. It increases the chance of an existing favorable outcome rather than creating an impossible ability. 46

• Curseguard can amplify a low chance of escaping injury into a highly likely outcome. 46
• Curse Power cannot grant traits that a target does not possess; it cannot make someone fly without wings or another means of flight. 46
• It has little direct influence over ordinary real-world matter. 46
• Beyond affecting its owner, it can enhance the effects of Cursed Relics. 46
• At extreme quantities, Curse Power can overcome its normal insensitivity to reality, distort space, and pull Dream Realm phenomena into the real world. 122
• Hawkins uses hundreds of billions of Curse Power to raise an event with an almost-zero chance—communicating with the Dream Realm—into a possible outcome. 227

Positive and Negative Curse Power

Hawkins identifies a possible polarity after encountering George’s altered body. He describes his own Curse Power as positive, while the power inside George behaves as negative energy that consumes or cancels positive power. 41

• Contact with George’s hair consumes approximately ten points of Hawkins’s Curse Power. 41
• Hawkins theorizes that Positive Curse Power raises probability while Negative Curse Power suppresses it. 41 46
• Negative Curse Power appears to explain how George neutralized Mark’s Curseguard and injured him. 41

Manipulation and Shaping

Curse Power can be manipulated far more precisely than simple outward extension or defensive coverage. As Hawkins’s control improves, he learns to shape it into specialized constructs and effects. 195 201 222

• Curse Power membranes — Through Skyfeather Emperor’s bloodline talent, Hawkins can form thin, invisible membranes whose defensive properties resemble spatial barriers. 195
• Hands, threads, winds, and wings — Hawkins can shape Curse Power into hands, threads, gusts, and wings, treating it as an extension of his will. 201 222
• Curse Power barriers and swords — Hawkins can create barriers that obstruct attacks and invisible Curse Power Swords capable of striking opponents at range. 233
• Curse Power Sword limitation — Although its amount can increase, the sword’s defining quality is extreme hardness, which Hawkins cannot presently improve. This prevents it from piercing sufficiently durable targets, such as the giant white snake’s scales. 240

Resonant Fusion and Dream Realm Entry

Curse Casters who possess Curse Spirits can fuse with them through Resonant Fusion, greatly reducing the Curse Power required to enter the Dream Realm. 158 183

• An ordinary Curse Caster generally requires around 10,000 points of their own true Curse Power to enter and leave the Dream Realm freely. Borrowed Curse Power does not count toward this requirement. 183
• Resonant Fusion lowers the entry requirement to approximately one-tenth of the normal amount. 183
• Maintaining Resonant Fusion consumes roughly 0.1 Curse Power per second, while entering or leaving the state costs 10 points per switch. 56
• A Caster may return from the Dream Realm by withdrawing the Curse Power covering their body, allowing the realm to reject them back into reality. 197

Mediums

A Medium is a Cursed Relic that has reached saturation and undergone a qualitative transformation. 176

• A Medium permanently fixes its owner’s maximum Curse Power; their reserve can no longer grow. 176
• In exchange, it grants effectively infinite recovery, allowing expended Curse Power to replenish instantly. 176
• The user’s maximum reserve remains important despite unlimited recovery: a Caster capable of outputting 300,000 points per second still overwhelmingly surpasses one capable of outputting 1,000. 176
• Dream Realm Creatures can use Mediums to remain permanently in the real world without being forced back into the Dream Realm. 176
• It is unknown whether a Medium can continue evolving into a Secret Treasure or higher artifact. 176

Rank Structure

A Natal Relic rises by one grade if its Curse Caster is killed, increasing both its danger and power. This makes Curse Casters wary of one another and incentivizes the killing of rival Casters. 18

Growth and Recovery

Curse Power has three known avenues of growth. 19

• Natural growth — It increases slowly over time without deliberate action. 19
• Dream Realm entry — Consuming Qi-Suppressing Stone powder and entering the Dream Realm accelerates growth, at significant personal risk. 19
• Killing Curse Casters — A dead Caster’s released Curse Power can be absorbed, with those closest to the corpse gaining the most. 19

Hawkins considers killing weaker Curse Casters inefficient because their dispersed power would add little to his existing 330,000 points. 19

Curse Power recovers faster at night, with Hawkins measuring nighttime recovery at roughly 1.5 times the daytime rate. 33

Curse Power Recovery Potions can increase a Caster’s recovery speed by one to three times. Such potions are rare and expensive among ordinary Curse Caster Lineages. 79 105

Hawkins’s Curse Power Bank allows him to deposit surplus Curse Power and withdraw it when required. Contracted members can draw from the bank by spending Exchange Points, while Mani later becomes a major supplier by exchanging her Curse Power for gold coins. 33 136

A Medium represents an alternative endpoint to ordinary growth: it prevents any further increase in total Curse Power while granting instantaneous recovery of the user’s fixed reserve. 176

Known Applications

• Relic appraisal and detection — Hawkins extends Curse Power to scan distant ships, identify the presence of Cursed Relics, and judge their apparent danger. 20
• Curse Spirit activation — Injecting Curse Power into the Eternal Sea Chart manifests its Curse Spirit, which can fight, defend, devour relics, and inspect other relics through its eyes. 19
• Material reshaping — Within Eternal Space, Hawkins uses Curse Power to reconstruct broken porcelain and transform House Town’s decayed buildings into renewed homes. 28
• Resurrection fuel — The Eternal Sea Chart’s Resurrection of the Dead ability consumes vast quantities of Curse Power; Hawkins’s first attempt exhausts all of it before completion. 28
• Spatial functions — Hawkins uses Curse Power to operate the Eternal Sea Chart’s spatial abilities, including opening passages and controlling Eternal Space. 27 49
• Curse Power Bank — Hawkins begins designing a contract-based system to store his surplus Curse Power and eventually allow contracted members to withdraw it through Exchange Points. 33
• Resonant Fusion — Curse Casters with Curse Spirits can combine with them to increase combat potential and lower the Curse Power needed to enter the Dream Realm. 56 183
• Active defense — Curse Power can be condensed into shields or barriers over specific locations to withstand focused attacks. 65 98
• Time manipulation support — Hawkins uses enormous amounts of Curse Power to sustain Time Stop and related accelerated-perception states; his cerebral-overclocking state costs 10,000 Curse Power per perceived second. 169 171
• Reality-scale interference — At sufficiently immense reserves, Curse Power can warp space, communicate with the Dream Realm, and make extraordinarily unlikely events possible. 122 227
• Construct creation — Hawkins forms Curse Power into membranes, hands, threads, winds, wings, barriers, and swords for combat, movement, restraint, and utility. 195 201 222 233
• Curse extraction support — Curse Witches can extract curse power from Cursed Relics and transfer it into other objects, including food, weakening the original relic’s curse while creating a new cursed medium. 105 106

Limitations

• Curse Power does not determine combat strength by itself; Cursed Relics, specialized abilities, and battlefield circumstances can outweigh raw reserves. 22 39
• A large initial reserve makes rank advancement more demanding because the required amount must still be doubled. 18
• Curse Power cannot make a Cursed Relic’s curse disappear completely; it can only weaken or offset it temporarily. 15
• Curse Casters cannot achieve true curse immunity through Curse Power alone. 42
• Major relic abilities can consume all available Curse Power, leaving the user unable to complete an effect. 28
• Curse Power can only increase the probability of outcomes grounded in existing traits or conditions; it cannot create abilities from nothing. 46
• It is normally insensitive to ordinary real-world matter and cannot freely manipulate it without an immense reserve or a suitable external ability. 46 122
• Curseguard cannot guarantee survival when the gap between an attack’s force and the user’s available Curse Power is too large. 98 166
• Borrowed Curse Power does not count as a Caster’s true reserve for entering the Dream Realm. 183
• Resonant Fusion continuously consumes Curse Power and can be exploited by opponents who force the user to sustain it until their reserves are exhausted. 56
• A Cursed Relic’s transformation into a Medium permanently halts further Curse Power growth, even though it grants instant recovery. 176
• Curse Power constructs retain the limitations of their defining properties. Hawkins’s Curse Power Sword cannot improve beyond its existing hardness and therefore cannot pierce all defenses. 240