The Book of Eros and The Curse of the Gifted [COMPLETE]

Only those who believe in the supernatural will ever have encounters with it. Nonbelievers will continue their days as usual, while those who look for it will peer into unexplainable mysteries.

The Curse of the Gifted is one such thing.

In the year 1917, an accident in an allied ship around the pacific islands resulted in its entire crew being lost to the sea. Yet a small group of 15 survivors, men and women from different countries, made it to an uninhabited island in what is now known to be Japanese territory.

They were stranded, tired, hungry and . They survived for three days before finding shelter in the only building in the entire island: a shrine to a deity called Ragaraja at the top of a mountain that sat in the middle of the landmass. One of the survivors, a Japanese soldier, found an old book inside the shrine, its pages crusty from the general humidity and heat of the island’s climate.

The book told of an ancient ritual to Ragaraja which would grant its participants gifts to transcend humanity’s limits. It consisted of an offering of raw sexual energy to the god in the very place they were in, the highest place in the island, as close to heaven as they could be.

And when people are at their weakest, they start to believe. Days passed. Then weeks. No signs of a rescue and no way to call for help. Desperation started creeping into their hearts and minds. Even if they couldn’t intellectually accept outrageous ideas such as supernatural gifts from heaven, the combination of anguish and a desire to defy fate led them to wish that those fairy tales were true.

On the 18 of July, 1917, seven men and eight women performed the ritual to Ragaraja, driven by a need for hope. It was a perverted, debaucherous, and wild ritual, done with everyone’s full consent.

Their bodies meshed in an orgy in the middle of the night, the cold wind blowing on top of the mountain, though the heat of their bodies and of the large bonfire kept them warm. People screamed and moaned in ecstasy, offering their lust to the god above.

The ritual proved true.

Each of these 15 people was granted an incredible power. Each of them had become Gifted in a certain area or skill. One gained perfect memory; another gained great insight; another gained the strength to lift boulders; and another had gained boundless stamina and endurance. They were ecstatic. The revelation that the supernatural was real, along with their newfound powers, gave them not only hope of survival, but the possibility of a future brighter than they could’ve ever hoped for.

But only a day after gaining these powers did they realize the cost.

They had completely lost the ability to feel sexual pleasure. They tried several times, yet none of them felt anything but the burning, agonizing desire for release. Women could barely get wet and men could not get hard. Masturbation was the closest they could come to feeling anything, but it was always more of an echo, a memory of what the pleasure used to feel like, and left them craving for even more.

Some of them argued that they should find a way to go back to their original selves, while others tried to convince them it was a worthy trade. It was a difficult discussion. None of them denied the powers they’d been given, yet they also felt like an important part of them had been taken.

The group of 15 people reached a compromise. They would use their Gifts to understand the supernatural. They would study the occult. They would find out if going back was even possible.

They became the Tensai Clan, and funded Okurimono Village in the newly named Noroi Island.

The curse did not entirely prevent them from trying to reproduce, thankfully, and although difficult and even painful, men could still produce a minimal amount of semen to get women pregnant, and women could still accept men inside them, though with great difficulties. And as years passed, they realized both the Gifts and The Curse were hereditary.

Every generation, less and less members of the clan managed to produce an heir. They realized that, if that kept up, the clan would disappear along with the Gifts. The second generation clan members were the most united in the objective of finding a cure, and made the greatest discoveries in the field of the occult. They laid all the groundwork so that a single woman from the third generation could finish the magical item that could fulfill that purpose in her old age.

The woman finished the creation of the Book of Eros, a magical item that could use sexual energy to fuel powerful, self-enhancing spells. If a member of the clan used it, they’d be able to recover the sense of sexual pleasure, enhance it through magic, and even remove the curse.

Now all the woman needed was to find someone trustworthy to give ownership of the book to.

Author's note: Another character driven story from me. Expect things to take their time building up, a bit of supernatural aid, and a vanilla-flavored harem as the goal. And since it's a harem, expect themes of women learning to and wanting to share their boyfriend. You've been warned.

WARNING: About the characters page. Characters from a video game franchise used as models. If that bothers you for whatever reason, stay away from it.