The dragon's harem

Chapter 852: Jordan's Gauntlet IV: Divine Power



"You..." Jordan growled with smoke gushing from his mouth, "I'll rip you apart."

Eris flew toward him, her fist burning with plasma. "We're the ones ripping you apart." She conjured a long chain of plasma with a purple sun at the end like the morning star of a flail and started spinning it.

Lightning sparked from her shoulders as she launched the massive purple sun at Jordan, ripping his shoulder apart.

With the bones coming out, he regenerated in an instant and lunged after the purple sun, punching it away. As Eris got pulled by her chain, he took the chance and flew at her with a kick.

Merida jumped between them and blocked him. The moment he tried to attack back, a large demon akin to a mix between a goat and a cow kicked him away.

"Don't use big moves. He'll use them against you." Merida growled as she swung her sword down, sending a wave of spores toward Jordan.

Jordan flew away from the spores; there was no telling what they could do to him so he needed to burn them. He took a deep breath with magic rushing into his body; he then unleashed a blast of fire from his mouth, akin to a dragon's breath.

"Don't let him use magic!" Merida yelled.

"I can't control a demi-god inside this labyrinth;" Merlin called back, "All I can do is buff you."

"That doesn't matter." Betty appeared behind Jordan and grabbed him by the hair, "How fast can you go?" She flashed away with him, dragging him across the ground as fast as possible. When she stopped, his body had disintegrated.

"He's powerful, but we're lucky he doesn't have a fighting portfolio. We would be already dead if he was a god fire, fighting or war, anything like that." Betty glared at Jordan as he regenerated with a smile. "You don't have that many options to attack, do you? You're only worth as much as your divine durability."

"I don't get tired; I don't need food or sleep. My mana and divine magic are near infinite; your defeat is only a matter of time." Jordan growled at her. "You can't defeat me."

Meryem landed beside him, cracking the ground. Without saying a word, she punched his head off and then kicked his body to her children to eat.

"We'll keep killing you over and over until you give up on life." Eris glared at him with glowing red eyes, "Infinite murder." She took a step forward as Jordan regenerated again. "Gods and demi-gods are hard to kill, but I want to try. Can a portfolio of murder, murder a god?" As she took one step forward, her body started steaming with a red mist of blood.

"I see; you're finally starting to understand it." Jordan's body started steaming with a golden mist as his portfolio pulsed with divine magic. "You can't kill me; I've got more faithful believers than you."

Eris stopped walking and closed her eyes. She lifted two fingers, "I've asked some people, and I got an interesting answer." She smiled, "The amount of mana, the number of believers, the type of the portfolio, and even the time and circumstances of activation. They all play a role in determining how much power a god can pull; it's the same for us demi-gods."

"Those don't matter." Jordan smiled, "I've got tens of thousands of believers and faithful, all pray to me, seeking wealth. How many do you have? A couple dozen at best."

Eris started slowly opening her eyes, "Quality also matters, and to be counted as a believer, someone only needs to believe that god is real, and actively pray to them."

Since Eris blocked the shockwave caused by Mira's bomb, a lot of people learned of her existence in the nearby cities and started praying to her, all thanks to the murder paladins as well, the number of her faithful is quickly rising; it'll be years before she amasses enough to rival Jordan.

It was here where they cheated, if the quality of the believers mattered, she should be able to get more power if she managed to convince powerful people to pray to her.

Since Eris herself is a believer of Amaterasu, she falls under the great sun pantheons, which include Amaterasu herself, Evander, the god of rebirth, and the mother earth Jemima. Lydia informed Eris that since Amaterasu kept supplying her with divine magic even after she became a demi-god, that implies that Amaterasu supports her as a part of the pantheon. That means the great sun pantheon now holds four gods, Amaterasu the goddess of the sun, Evander, Jemima, and now the demi-god Eris of murder.

"Do you know what that means?" Eris said with a smile as Lydia landed beside her. "She's a paladin of Amaterasu first, and the pantheon second."

"That means I'm a believer of her as well." Lydia lifted her sword, "The deeper one's faith is, the stronger their god becomes, and thus, the more power he can provide them." Her blade burned with blood and plasma.

"So she's a paladin of murder as well? That falls under the oath of vengeance." Jordan giggled, "So, what would having one gem change? Nothing, she's worth a thousand believers, but that's still nowhere near me. And I doubt you can even provide her with enough power."

1 Humanoid = 1 believer = 1divine point.

Some believers like Lydia are worth more based on how much faith, trust, and belief they hold in their gods. But, the more they are worth, the more divine magic they suck out of their god. She provides 1000 points passively, yet consumes 1000 when she's active.

Right now, Eris has 26 paladins each worth from 3-9 points, and consumes just as much when fighting, which leaves her with around 160DP.

In the nearby cities, she has a total of 1323 people who started to slowly believe in her, each worth one point.

That means Eris has a total of 1483DP, while Jordan is around 67865DP. She can't compete against him even if she had Lydia sitting aside, which would put her around 2483DP.

"Utterly meaningless. How pathetic." He lifted his hand, "You'll die as worthless as the dirt you walk upon."

"I'm not done yet." Eris smiled, "Do you know how much she's worth?" She pointed at

Merida.

"Zero, she doesn't believe in you. I can see that clearly." He giggled.

"Merida!" Eris gasped, "We talked about this. Just one time, we can't win like this; we'll keep fighting until tomorrow without a result."

Merida sighed, "Fine, but just me. The demons are pledged to Kali and they don't want to piss her off." She lifted one hand.

"Wait?" Jordan gasped as Eris's divine magic spiked to 6506DP, Merida was worth a bit over 4000, she's linked to a whole demon lord after all.

"That's a decent jump. But it still doesn't make a difference. What will you do, make them all your temporary believers?" He smiled; he didn't want to keep getting killed over and over, so he was giving them time while thinking of a way to finish this fight quickly. Aella was already tied to Sylph, the elvish goddess; Mira already belonged to the great sun portfolio as it was common in Alina, she's only worth 1 point, Meryem is also worth 1 point, she has no idea about religion even is, Jack provided o points, he lacks any kind of faith even if

he tried.

6508DP

Merlin, Amber, and Betty are a part of the magic pantheon so they can't help. Tempo belonged to an ancient Titan pantheon so he's out as well, which almost left Eris stranded. But she had one last hope, so she asked Merlin to send a message, and she was waiting for a

reply.

^Come on Arad... I know you don't like religions and such, but at least give me a try. You're quite strong and I'm sure you'll be worth a couple of thousands just like Merida; it's rare to have a void dragon after all. ^ Merida was 4000DP so she hopes Arad is worth at least a bit over that, 5000? 8000 maybe? With that much DP, she should be able to damage Jordan enough to

force him to retreat.

"Got it!" Merlin screamed into Eris's head, "He said. {OK}"

Eris immediately lunged at Jordan, swinging her fist. "We can finish this now!"

6508DPè....

Jordan blocked her fist with a passive face, "What's this? It barely changed."

6808DP

Eris growled, ^Damn it.^ She turned around and swung a kick at Jordan as everyone lunged in

to help her. ^I probably asked a bit too much. I doubt Arad understands the...^

7536DP her divine magic started slowly rising, unlike everyone who gave an immediate flat

boost, Arad seemed different.

Eris swung her palm at Jordan and slashed him across the chest, "Guess he had a bit more faith in me. I've over a tenth of your power." She could finally damage his divine core. Jordan smiled and swung his fist down, smacking her away. "Are you stupid? I'm only not killing you since I want to absorb your portfolio; I need some time to adjust." Her being a tenth of his power only meant he was ten times stronger than her.

9562DP

Eris could feel her divine magic surging up again; the amount she was receiving from Arad started increasing rapidly. By the time she jumped back at Jordan with another attack, she was

at 13251DP

Even Jordan started to feel that something was off, why was this Arad granting her so much divine power, and it kept increasing? He can't be a normal person.

Eris kicked Jordan away with a [Divine Smite] Her DP had reached 18652.