"Now, let's begin! Who can tell me what a curse is?" Nox asked the two people present.
"…?"
'It's a-!'
*Bonk*
'AAAAAAHHH!'
Interrupting Aiko's grandfather's words came a black rod with a pair of glasses taped onto it, sending waves of unimaginable pain into the spectral elder's soul upon impact.
"No breaking the rules, dead man! If you want to say something, you need to rase your hand and wait for permission first! Yes, Wimp?" Nox said, gesturing for the girl with her hand in the air to speak.
"What is it that lets the pain stick make physical contact with ghosts, and can it be implemented into a golem?"
"Hm? Well, I guess it's relevant! You've heard a summarized explanation about soul fragments from Crybaby, right? The Pain Stick is made from something called Hell Frost, a dense cluster of soul fragments compressed into a physical form! It's a bit like a pencil in the sense that it rubs off onto souls similar to how graphite does on paper! Yes?"
"So, is it like aura?"
"No, not exactly!" Professor Nox replied.
She then began drawing generic ghosts on the whiteboard. One of the ghosts seemed to be shooting fire, while another had a question mark over its head while looking at a piece of its body it had pulled off.
"In general, aura is the result of the willpower produced from the synergy of the fragments that make up your soul! If all aura users had to rip off chunks of their soul every time they got into a fight, then amnesia would become a worldwide sensation in no time! I won't get too into the process of making Hell Frost since it's a bit too advanced for you right now! Anyways, let's get back to my original question! What is a curse, or maybe I should call it a blessing? Yes, slimer" Nox said, gesturing for Aiko's grandfather to speak.
'Don't call me that. Anyways, curses are a mysterious harmful effect that can be placed upon a person or object through a black magic ritual! The specifics can vary greatly from curse to curse, so much so that, as opposed to having one main school of magic, the entire craft has been split across multiple schools, such as Voodoo, Blood magic, and Demonic magic just to say a few!'
"Grandpa?" Aiko asked.
'I did some research on curse magic in the later years of my life!' her grandfather replied.
*Bonk*
"AAAAHHH!"
'HEY!' The angry ghost shouted at Nox.
"She spoke out of turn! Anyways, your explanation is a bit off and shows how lacking you are in the basics!" Nox said to the angry ghost after bonking Aiko over the head.
'Well, it is not as if it was my specialty.' The ghost said.
She then cleared the whiteboard before writing down a number of ominous symbols.
"First of all, saying there is no main school of curse magic is incorrect, as one does actually exist, though its not widely known on account of it being pioneered by demons alongside soulmancy! The various schools of magic you mentioned earlier are either sub-branches like voodoo, or entirely different schools all together that's been lumped together due to some common misconceptions by those who don't understand it, like with blood magic! Yes, Wimp?"
"What are those?" Aiko asked, pointing at the symbols on the whiteboard.
As she was reminded of the letters she had written down a few moments ago, Nox brought out some glowing red straws as she said.
"Ah yes! Let me introduce you to the basics of Curse magic, also known as 'Helioglyphs'! Remember how I compared the pain stick to a pencil? Well, if you draw these symbols utilizing the correct type of soul fragments, placing them in the correct order, if done correctly, it will create an artificial 3rd stage aura effect, also known as a curse, or a blessing depending on the effect! You can basically think of them as soul-based enchantments! Yes, Wimp?"
"What do you mean by blessing?"
"Well, curses are effects designed to do harm, you know like inducing a heart attack, imitating an illness, influencing your subconscious to make you more likely to stub your toe. You know, stuff like that. However, a blessing is a curse designed to have a beneficial effect, like giving you superpowers, or the ability to turn muffins into cupcakes!"
"That's just frosting!" Aiko said.
*Bonk*
"AAAAAAHH!"
"Yeah, well, I'm sure there is a blessing capable of transmuting frosting out there somewhere! Anyways, a lot of people make the mistake of believing curses and blessings to have the same relationship as the divine and the demonic just because gods are famously known to grant blessings using divine energy, while curses are often associated with demons and black magic. However, the truth is, blessings and curses are two sides of the same coin! Yes, slimer!"
'Seriously! Stop calling me that!'
"Nope!"
'*Sigh* Anyways! About the Helioglyphs! I have seen plenty of curses before, but I do not recognize any of these symbols?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, uh, I guess I should start by saying these aren't all the Helioglyphs! The ones I wrote down on the whiteboard are just the ones needed for the Chucky soul-brain! The full alphabet has letters numbering in the millions, some of which do different things depending on the type of soul fragments you use when writing them! Another thing is that most people can't really see these symbols, it's part of why the main school of curses isn't widely known! Yes Wimp?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, let me answer your question with a question! Look at my balls and tell me what you see!" Nox said, as she held out two red spheres.
In Nox's left hand was the Crimson Heart Ultimate Collection of Knowledge model: Y, covered with the same symbols written on the whiteboard, and in her right hand was another red grass ball she had just assembled, only this one was missing the glowing symbols.
"I see Chucky, and I guess that's Chucky without the curse enchantments!"
"How about you take another look using your third eye?" Nox suggested.
Doing as her master said, Aiko closed her eyes as she started perceiving the soul fragments in her surroundings. However, the moment she did she was nearly overwhelmed by the sudden change in scenery. Last time she used her 6th sense, the world seemed a bit hollow, only showing her some glowing dust and the souls of people standing within a dark void. However, within this gothic wonderland that was her surroundings, she saw a multitude of colors. Withered trees suddenly became lush with emerald leaves, dead flowers were brimming with life, the black water pond turned a clear blue.
*Snap**Snap*
"Hey! Focus!" Nox said, snapping her fingers to get Aiko's attention.
"Huh? What? Boss?" Aiko said confusedly, as despite standing right in front of her, she could not see Nox's soul.
"Look at my balls and tell me what you see?"
Looking in front of her, she saw the two crimson balls floating in the air. However, unlike before, now both the grass orbs had the same symbols drawn onto them, with the only noticeable difference between the two being that the symbols on one were glowing much brighter than the other.
"They have the same writing on them!" Aiko said, as she opened her eyes again.
"Yup! You see, unlike demons who are practically all born with their third eye open, most people in this plane of reality can't see Helioglyphs unless you really lay it on thick while writing them down! So, every now and then, you see someone who managed to find a way to indirectly draw these symbols through some kind of ritual, often utilizing the properties of certain materials with some kind of effect on the soul and/or through the use of divine energy! If I had to guess, that's probably how Voodoo magic came to be! Yes Wimp?"
"How come I couldn't see your soul?"
"Hm? Oh, that! Don't worry about it! Anyways, now that Helioglyphs have been explained! Let's move on to the actual cursing! Now, when drawing a curse, there are a number of things you need to consider, like which soul fragment type you use, and-! Yes Wimp?"
"What are the different types of soul fragments?"
"Huh? Wait, Crybaby hasn't explained that?"
In response to Nox's question, Aiko just shook her head.
"Uh! Well, this lesson is dragging on, so let's just kick this can down the line to save time! Anyways, another thing to consider is the material you draw it onto!" Nox said as she pushed her whiteboard back into spatial storage.
She then led Aiko past some bushes while continuing to speak.
"You see, a curse can be drawn on pretty much anything, but things with soul related properties work best! Like a soul, a body capable of containing a soul, or pretty much anything inside this section of my garden! However, if we are making Chuckys then there is no better material than 'Lunar Blood Grass'! However, the problem is, Lunar Blood Grass requires a soul rich environment to thrive, which sad to say, means they can only really take root inside the demon realm where the concentration of soul fragments is always at an all-time high!" Nox said.
"Really? Then what about this place? It's full of soul fragments!" Aiko asked.
"Even inside this soul-based chaos plane greenhouse I made, though they'd be able to last a while, they would eventually die out over time! However, that is not the case for its closely related cousin here, also known as the good old 'Lunar Grass' exported from the demon realm to ours 3000 years ago!" Nox said as she held out a whitish blue grass straw.
"So are we using that as a substitute!"
"No! If you used Lunar Grass, you'd need to change up the Helioglyphs slightly and in the end, you would only get the inferior Chuckx, which is the worst kind of good cuz it's not even great! However, what's special about this blue sucker is that if you plant some in a soul rich environment under a blood moon, when the wall between the dimensions separating us from the demon world is at its weakest, large waves of soul fragments will come gushing into our world, mutating this little guy into a functional variant of 'Lunar Blood Grass'." Nox said, as she stopped in front of a field of bloodred grass.
"Now, I want you to pick every single blade of grass by the end of today, and when your done, I want you to start making Chuckys following this manual and using these crayons which I'll place over by that work bench over there! Make sure to read the how-to chapter on harvesting Lunar Blood Grass! Have fun!" Nox said as she slowly faded into empty air.
"Hey, wait-!"
'She's gone!'
"Hmph! Do you think I could make a golem to harvest the grass for me?" Aiko asked her grandpa, while trying to think of what she could make using the ominous-looking foliage in her surroundings.
'Based on her words, the harvesting method might be a problem! Also, I do not trust the way that bush is looking at us, so maybe touching any of the haunted forestry isn't a good idea for now!'
"Aw! I don't wanna do this!"
'Well, sometimes you need to do the things you don't want to in order to get the things you want later, and you do wish to learn how to make a *Sigh* Chucky! No, I still don't like that name.'
"Better than the alternative!"
'Anyways, I think an exercise in resource gathering would do you some good! I think I heard the others mentioning something about you struggling with this while I was working on my new body! Something about mooching off your master!'
"They made me do a bunch of math that didn't make sense!" Aiko pouted.
'*Chuckle*'