Curse

The Curse took the form of seven iron rings, which had originally been dull grey but turned completely black during the forging process. Each ring bore tightly coiled silk thread and diamond string around segments but otherwise had no adornments. At the time of their creation, the black rings were not connected to one another, though they were meant to be distributed among Sunny's incarnations.^[2]

After completing it, Sunny summoned the Jade Mantle and fused the first of the black rings into it. The ring was absorbed into the armor, taking its place in the socket at the center of his breastplate, directly above where his heart and Beast Core rested. His incarnations followed the same process, each fusing one of the rings into their armor.^[2]

Forging the Curse was a difficult task, but the greater challenge lay in imagining what the shadowbound Memory needed to become. From the beginning, Sunny knew that it had to be a charm. The [Underworld Armament] enchantment of the Jade Mantle, which enhanced any charm slotted into the soulbound armor, had long remained unused. At the same time, Sunny was determined not to rely too heavily on external power, since his goal was to become a god, and gods were the power rather than wielders of tools. The Curse, therefore, was designed not to grant him new powers but to help him to use his own Aspect more effectively. It was also meant to strengthen his existing versatility while addressing blind spots of his Aspect, such as his lack of an effective tool to deal with large groups of weaker enemies.^[3]

The Curse was distinct from both the Blessing and the Jade Mantle. Each of the seven rings was independently powerful, but their strength grew progressively greater as more rings were combined. The relic reached its ultimate potential when all seven incarnations of Sunny became one, mirroring his own existence. A conditional flaw was deliberately woven into its design: the Curse could only reveal its true power under specific circumstances. This limitation, paradoxically, made the relic more potent than it otherwise could have been, since its peak strength was tied to his unique ability to merge his incarnations.^[2]

When the relic was bound, Sunny gained a new Attribute. The runes identified it simply as Curse, with the description "Damnation!"—a phrase Sunny had written in frustration after failing to come up with something profound. Just like the Blessing, the Curse held seven enchantments. These were [Bound], [Dark Embrace], [Absence of Light], [Mercy of Shadow], [Shadow Flame], [Weakening Curse], and [Chain].^[2]

[Bound] enchantment was the core enchantment of every soulbound or shadowbound Memory, allowing the relic to grow alongside its master. Like the Jade Mantle and the Blessing, the Curse carried this enchantment.^[3]

[Dark Embrace] was the only enchantment that functioned when the Curse was in its passive state. It was a nurturing enchantment that enhanced the power of dark flames of his soul by drawing on his spirit essence. With it, the flames could repair damaged shades and wounded Shadows faster, allowing them to return to battle sooner. The enchantment also granted Sunny the ability to soothe the pain of living beings through touch, as Shadow God is also the god of solace as well as death. To achieve this, he designed a pattern called [Pain Killer] and wove it into the weave of [Dark Embrace]. Creating this part of the enchantment had required great time and effort, more than the primary function itself, because Sunny had someone specific in mind — Nephis, whose torment he hoped to soothe even if she never asked for relief.^[3]

The Curse had two states, a passive one and an active one. Although it could be summoned independently, Sunny had designed it to ideally be used alongside the Jade Mantle, ensuring that it would always be augmented by Underworld Armament. The other five enchantments of the Curse can only be used in its active state.^[3]

[Absence of Light] was an altered version of the enchantment of the charm, [Evening Star]. While the Evening Star empowered its bearer when surrounded by darkness, the [Absence of Light] worked similarly but the condition set for it did not rely on how dark it was around but on how deep the shadows around Sunny. As a result, it granted no power in true darkness but empower him when surrounded by mundane darkness or areas filled with shadows, especially when contrasted with radiant light.^[3]

[Mercy of Shadow] was the key enchantment of the Curse. Its function was straightforward: it enhanced the Death quality of Sunny's will. This effect resembled Serpent's [Slaying Blade] ability, though the mechanism differed. Serpent suppress and partially ignore the Will of powerful beings cut by its blade, while [Mercy of Shadow] enhance Sunny's own will to kill. Together, the two effects created a chilling synergy, making Sunny's Death Will far more tyrannical and turning him into an incarnation of death itself.^[3]

[Shadow Flame] was inspired by Nephis' Soul Flame. Both she and Sunny were similar in that they could augment themselves or their weapons through their Dormant Abilities, but the mechanism of their augmentations differed. Nephis had a single reservoir of flame that could be divided freely in any proportion, while Sunny had seven shadows whose augmentation was fixed and divided between them. [Shadow Flame] allowed him to extend that augmentation outward, empowering not only himself but also his Shadow Legion. While dividing strength among millions would yield little benefit, empowering a few thousand elite shades could shift the balance of battle, especially given the exponential differences between Ranks.^[3]

[Weakening Curse] gave the shadowbound Memory its name. Its function was to reverse the effect of Sunny's Dormant Ability. Instead of using shadows to wrap around himself, his Shadows, his shades, or his Memories to strengthen them, he could use them against his enemies, wrapping the shadows around them to sap their power away.^[3]

The [Weakening Curse] was the inverse of Sunny's Dormant Ability, [Shadow Control], which normally allowed his shadows to augment him, his belongings, or beings within his Domain. While the [Weakening Curse] was active, beings caught in the embrace of his invaluable shadow helpers became progressively weaker. The effect was cumulative—just as Sunny grew stronger when several shadows augmented him, his enemies would lose more strength when multiple shadows wrapped around them.^[4]

Although situational and potentially dangerous—since embracing an enemy was rarely safe—the [Weakening Curse] gained dreadful potential due to two key factors: the augmentation by Underworld Armament, and its synergy with [Shadow Flame] and [Mercy of Shadow].^[4]

[Shadow Flame] allowed Sunny to distribute the effect of his shadows across many targets. In tandem, the [Weakening Curse] could drain strength not from just one foe, but from thousands or even millions. All beings affected by augmentation or weakening were linked to Sunny, allowing him to channel his Death Will into them, further empowered by the [Mercy of Shadow]. The [Underworld Armament] amplified this synergy even further. It empowered all enchantments of the Curse, magnifying both the scale and the potency of what Sunny could achieve.^[4]

With [Shadow Flame], [Mercy of Shadow] and [Weakening Curse] combined powers, Sunny could diminish enemies on a massive scale, his Death Will becoming so enhanced that it could fatally affect lesser-ranked creatures. This synergy gave him a terrifying ability: instead of unleashing explosive destruction, he could simply wish enemies dead, causing their bodies to fall lifeless. The [Weakening Curse], therefore, was a power that compensated for one of the main blind spots of his otherwise versatile Aspect.^[4]

[Chain] was both the ultimate and utility enchantment of the Curse. It transformed the Curse into a compound Attribute, allowing its seven links to enhance one another when combined into a single chain.^[4]

Its passive effect steadily increased the Curse's power as Sunny augmented himself with shadows. Its true activation, however, only occurred when all seven of his incarnations fused into one, binding the seven links together. At that point, the [Chain] produced a resonance between links, making the sum of their power greater than the parts. All enchantments of the Curse received a formidable boost, vastly increasing their potency.^[4]

The [Chain] also had a secondary function: manifestation as a physical binding force. In this state, it embodied permanence and could be used both offensively and defensively. Offensively, it could bind powerful enemies in place. Defensively, it could anchor Sunny himself—pinning his existence to reality. While active, no matter how his body, soul, spirit, or mind was damaged, the [Chain] would restore them to their prior state.^[4]

This anchoring extended to situations like using Shadow Dance, where the risk of losing himself existed. In theory, the [Chain] could tether him back. It also provided Sunny with a way to root himself in existence after all traces of him were erased from reality, compensating for the loss of his attachment to the world by strings of fate and the weak tethers of human connections he had created. To Sunny, the [Chain] became both a safeguard and a symbolic anchor, preventing him from feeling like a fragile mirage easily dispelled.^[4]

• Sunny did not seek to empower himself through dependence on a potent artifact, but rather to use it as a means of better expressing his own power.^[2]