The dragon's harem

Chapter 1529: Eris VS Betty II

The more Betty attacked Eris with her lasers and light magic, the hotter her plasma burned. With each passing second, Eris’s power was rising while she played defensively.

Then suddenly, Betty stopped moving and looked at her with a grin. ”You thought I wouldn’t notice? The light coming out of your plasma had shifted.”

Betty’s light faded away as she focused on Eris. She shouldn’t keep heating her up.

So instead of relying on her light speed, she would make herself much, much slower. She pulled a small wand that fit in her hand and waved it around, engulfing her body in a hard barrier. She then stored the wand away and clenched her fists, cracking her knuckles with a grin.

”Time to crack some bones then.”

Betty disappeared from Eris’s vision, but she was much slower this time, slow enough that Eris could notice which direction she went.

Eris lifted her arms and blocked the devastating punch aimed at her face from the side. She then sifted, grabbed Betty by the wrist, and flung her away. But then, Betty’s legs moved and she kicked Eris several times, too fast to see.

As Betty landed away, Eris spat a mouthful of blood and plasma, ”You kick like a horse.”

Betty slapped her butt, ”Those legs can run at the speed of light, what did you think?”

Betty looked at her wrist, just from that short contact, Eris had burned her skin and cut several wounds on her with her claws. ”My barrier seems to be too weak to resist you.”

Eris smiled, ”Sorry, but this will hurt a lot.” She lifted her hand, and then, out of nowhere, a knife burst from Betty’s wrist, made of blood.

Betty crushed and chopped her hand without hesitation.

”What did you do?” She growled, falling to her knees. She had never suffered such a painful injury in the past decade. She was always too fast to harm.

Eris took a step forward, still half disoriented from Betty’s previous kicks. ”It’s far too late.” Her eyes burned red, and Betty screamed, her body getting lifted up.

Betty tried to breathe, but something solid and heavy was lodged in her throat. She grabbed her neck, but couldn’t feel anything there. But she could feel them, countless worms swimming in her blood, squirming and digging on her flesh.

She tried to scream, but all she could do was gag and gasp. She flicked a finger to cast a spell and managed to get it to work. The magic washed over her body to eject any foreign spell or poison that Eris cast on her, only to find that it was her own blood acting against her.

Eris could feel it, Arad’s gaze on them both; he was watching closely, and now, he was getting ready to jump in and stop her. Betty was powerful; the only reason she couldn’t resist Eris’s blood magic was that what Eris used wasn’t just any blood magic; it was her blood magic controlled by murder.

The result of anything murder related is a corpse at the end, and Arad wouldn’t let Betty die. While his wives were fighting, it wasn’t a battle to the death. Everyone knew that, and Eris understood that well. But for some reason, the itch to kill something still burned deep within her heart.

She fully understood it, the will of murder, the portfolio had grown so much stronger inside her, and it was urging her to commit murder and ascend to godhood.

Eris knew that she must resist that urge; the last thing she wanted was to end up killing one of Arad’s wives and turning him against her. Will he be able to move fast enough to save Betty? She didn’t know, and by that time, her murder urge had already taken over her vampire power, and Betty could feel tens of sharp blades forming inside her body.

Betty wasn’t having any fun at all. The pain itself wasn’t a problem, but the disgusting feeling of wormlike beings crawling through her veins was unbearable.

Out of all Arad’s wives, Betty always tried to be the laughing fool, never taking anything seriously to keep the mood light. But behind that facade, she was probably the smartest of them all, surpassing even Merlin simply due to age. She had the light of wisdom illuminate her head; both Arad and his wives were open books to her. Thus, she could see the boiling struggle inside Eris’s body.

Betty smiled, knowing that Eris was struggling to ascend into godhood at that very moment, trying to suppress the will of Murder and keep her sense of self.

”You want to kill me? Very well, go ahead, but I won’t die, because I gotta go fast.” Betty suddenly disappeared, leaving her blood standing in place, taking a humanoid shape. She even forgot her shadow on the ground.

Eris needed someone to unleash her murderous impulses on, that wasn’t Arad. Eris knew that she couldn’t kill Arad, so trying to kill him wasn’t murder; it was just a futile endeavor.

But Betty was different; she could be killed, so she’d help Eris scratch that itch.

Running at the speed of light, Betty’s whole body turned into light, leaving everything that Eris’s murder took control of behind her. The same way she can run through Tiamat’s divine storm unharmed, moving at the speed of light can protect her from the Murder’s influence.

Eris’s Murder portfolio had taken root alongside her vampire side, leaning more on blood control than her plasma. To show the authority of her portfolio on mortals, Eris takes control of their blood to paint an art piece with their torn bodies.

Betty appeared behind Eris, slowed down, and swung a fist, punching her on the back.

”Moving at the speed of light, I become light itself.” She smiled as Eris’s body flew away and rolled on the ground, ”Last I checked, light can’t be murdered, and it doesn’t have blood for you to play around with.”

Eris growled and jumped at Betty with a clenched fist of plasma, and so did Betty, swinging a fist of blinding light back at her.

The moment Betty felt Eris trying to control her blood, she would accelerate to the speed of light, wash that control away by turning into light, then slow down for a physical brawl.

Arad watched the fight, sitting at the edge of his seat. Each clash between his two wives was intense, for more than one reason. He could see Eris’s soul being cleaved in half, straining to keep itself stable. He could also see that Betty wasn’t used to fighting like this; her mana was rapidly draining, and her skin had started burning from the friction of how fast she moved. She is overheating, and she’ll soon fall.

The entire arena burned and boiled from the heat as the two exchanged attacks, ripping and tearing the ground around them. If this fight had happened anywhere else, it would’ve been hailed as a natural disaster that levels mountains to the ground. Denki even compared it with the destruction caused by Arad and Azorn’s clash, albeit Arad understood it was nowhere near that.

But then, out of nowhere, Betty fell, daggers of blood bursting from beneath her skin. She had failed to accelerate to the speed of light to cleanse herself, and Eris’s blood magic took hold.

Betty growled, puking a torrent of blood as she fell to her knees, seeing at least five knives emerging from her chest and stomach.

”Got me... good.” She looked at Eris, seeing a tall woman with glowing red eyes glaring at her. This was bad; that wasn’t Eris, but Murder. Betty had pushed her a bit too much.

Eris was unstable, not because of a mental problem, but because of the clash between the two massive powers surging inside her body. The Murder Portfolio, mixed with her vampiric nature, and the draconic side that took the blessing of Amaterasu and integrated into her plasma.

If the balance between those two swayed, Eris’s behaviour would shift to reflect the dominant side.

Eris approached Betty, slowly and calmly. No one knew if the fight was over or not; only Betty knew that she couldn’t fight any longer. She had no way of resisting Eris’s blood magic without using items or spells that would’ve taken time to prepare beforehand; all of those would be considered cheating in her book.

Eris, on the other hand, glared down at Betty; the world in front of her was already painted red. If she kills her now, she would ascend to godhood.

In the past, Vars who lacked empathy sought to reach godhood by mass murder. Eris, who still held tight to her moral compass, only needed one true kill that went against all of her beliefs, one that she would count as a true, unforgivable murder.

Eris bent down, forced her blood to calm, and started healing Betty, ”I’ll patch you up, just don’t move.”

Betty looked at her with a smile, ”I’m sure you want to kill me, right?”

”I do, is it obvious? But I won’t, no matter how much pressure that portfolio puts on my mind.” Eris then looked at the seats, where Arad was watching.

”Also, say I become a goddess by killing you, then what?”

Betty giggled, ”Arad won’t be that happy, but I think Yog would interfere. She often tries to keep the most important magic researchers alive; Merlin, me, and Dagon are included in her list.”

Eris lifted Betty and jumped all the way to the seats, ”Don’t tempt me, I might just strangle you here.”

Eris had won the fight, but now, she could feel her portfolio burning even hotter. She was on the cusp of apotheosis.