1192. Well, well, look who won the resurrection match
Murphy used Hades's divine descent, a power he'd been prepared to call upon from the very beginning.
In theory, the effects of divine descent varied greatly depending on the believer using it. It worked best for the chosen of the gods, allowing them to temporarily break through their limits in the material world and become demigods in all but name. Ordinary believers, on the other hand, couldn't receive a god's full blessing.
In other words, the strength gained through divine descent depended entirely on how favored the user was by their god.
But Murphy and Hades were in a different situation.
Murphy wasn't a follower of the Underworld Worm. He was Hades's "superior." What's more, Hades owed his ascension to godhood to Murphy's help along the way. The honest, grateful Underworld Worm had no qualms about returning the favor. So when Murphy asked for power, it unhesitatingly went all in.
With a reckless generosity that showed no concern for wasted power, it poured all its divine might into Murphy.
The Underworld Worm proved to be quite the powerhouse. After Murphy finished his long, improvised, and suitably flashy transformation speech, the divine power coursing through him sent all his attributes soaring to 65+. He felt so full of power that he was sure he could kill that slippery snake with one punch.
And this time, it wasn't just a figure of speech.
Hades's divine descent had done more than simply boost Murphy's base attributes. The Underworld Worm had generously opened up its entire portfolio of death-related divine powers to the Lord of the Underworld.
The string of ridiculous boosts—Divinity: Instant Death, Divinity: Rule Damage, Divinity: Causality, and so on—had Murphy feeling a little rattled.
This felt like more than "divine descent." Hades