Risen Star suddenly realized that Xingyun Liuge had not come after her at all.
Instead, she had gone to run shoulder to shoulder with Winning Colors.
That left her distinctly unhappy.
To be fair, Xingyun Liuge's decision was extremely favorable to her.
That thing that resembled a miniature domain continuously sapped the stamina of every horse girl caught within it, and seemed to feed that stolen energy back into Xingyun Liuge herself. Under such a cycle of one side weakening while the other grew stronger, there was simply no way any horse girl could defeat Xingyun Liuge in a one-on-one duel.
Xingyun Liuge could have relied on that power to pin down the strongest horse girl in the field and fight her alone. If she had done that, then basically no one would have been able to shake her grip on victory.
So when Xingyun Liuge chose Winning Colors, Risen Star should have been happy. It meant she could push forward boldly and meet Xingyun Liuge later in the best possible condition for a straight fight.
That was the beautiful theory, anyway.
But if Xingyun Liuge had chosen Winning Colors, didn't that mean she valued Winning Colors more than her?
Risen Star was ten parts, no, nine parts dissatisfied, because she truly believed she was stronger than Winning Colors.
Still, she knew that this was not something decided by words. It had to be settled by results and by performance on the track.
So she took a deep breath, forced her emotions flat—
and immediately threw out a gate skill.
Since Xingyun Liuge thought so highly of Winning Colors, then she would help Winning Colors out a little, so the two of them could stay locked together for longer.
The cross-shaped starlight in the sky flared with a dangerous crimson glow.
Winning Colors, for her part, no longer cared about notions like sportsmanship. She erupted at the same time as Risen Star.
In an instant, fire exploded outward.
When Winning Colors slammed her foot into the ground, scorching blue flames burst forth like a volcanic eruption, expanding violently in a ring around her.
If that black mist had possessed a physical body, it surely would have screamed the moment it collided with the fire, perhaps with a shriek as ghastly as fingernails scraping across glass.
And yet, no matter how hot the fire burned, no matter how fierce the gale it produced, the black mist only advanced. It did not retreat a single step. It was like an endless tide, one that existed specifically to suppress those flames, each wave higher than the last.
No matter how violently the fire erupted, it could not slow the mist in the slightest.
Cold sweat slid slowly down the side of the girl's forehead. She had thought she could contend with Xingyun Liuge using this power. Yet not only was it failing—this was effectively her and Risen Star fighting together, and even then they could not check Xingyun Liuge's assault.
So this was the terror of the world's only wielder of multiple domains.
"Even so!" A note of grim resolve flashed through Winning Colors' eyes. "I still… want to win!"
She was gasping violently now. The stamina she had only just recovered was nearly spent again, but not a shred of surrender existed in her heart. She still wanted to fight Xingyun Liuge to the finish.
Risen Star deeply approved of Winning Colors' hunger for victory, and pushed harder as well.
With a sharp sweep of her arm, dozens of red-gold spheres of light formed almost instantly in the void above them. Trailing long golden tails, they came crashing down toward Xingyun Liuge.
The track trembled. The air screamed. Some horse girls even thought they heard a savage laugh.
Watching a confrontation that had long since gone beyond the level of an ordinary race, Rudolf Symboli began sweating bullets.
What was this supposed to be?
Was this still a footrace? Had she—or had the girls on the track—somehow wandered into the wrong genre entirely?
Where had this kind of absurd spectacle even come from?
Risen Star's meteor shower was mighty indeed, but it still did nothing to Xingyun Liuge. Within that impossibly cramped space, she weaved and twisted like a fearless petrel darting through a storm.
The announcer had no idea how deadly the scene on the track truly was. He only shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Just as expected of the Kentucky Derby winner! Xingyun Liuge has overtaken Winning Colors and is going straight for Risen Star! But Winning Colors is showing astonishing tenacity—she refuses to yield and is charging after them with everything she has! Can she recreate the ferocious pursuit she unleashed in the Kentucky Derby?"
The gigantic bird wheeling overhead let out a piercing cry. The flames burned even hotter now—but Winning Colors' stamina did not recover any further. She had thrown every last ounce of strength into the next strike.
She knew that, under Xingyun Liuge's "special attention," she had effectively already lost any realistic chance at the title. The only thing she could do now was go all out and search for whatever faint possibility remained of defeating Xingyun Liuge.
The blue-haired girl muttered under her breath, "This girl… is just ridiculous…"
No wonder the Triple Crown winners were so eager to recruit her. This power was so overwhelming it bordered on tyranny. What great house or academy would not covet a horse girl like this? Any of them would gladly pay a king's ransom to win her over.
Sweat nearly blinded Winning Colors, but she still chose to sprint. Xingyun Liuge was right there in front of her—how could she possibly stop now?
The blue flames around her shifted toward a red-gold brilliance. Again and again they erupted from her body, piling over one another, spinning at impossible speed, intertwining until they formed a magnificent and ancient totem.
Winning Colors spread her arms wide, as if she wanted to embrace Xingyun Liuge from behind—or perhaps embrace the whole world.
She poured every last scrap of stamina and spirit into that force, igniting and compressing it with a method even she herself did not understand.
No longer a scattered eruption of fire, it collapsed inward toward one ultimate form.
The golden radiance intensified until it became a blazing white that no one could look at directly. The air fled from her in panic, screaming with a shrillness that seemed ready to tear the sky apart.
At some point, the flames burning around Winning Colors went out.
And yet they still remained.
They had merely withdrawn all outward signs of themselves, becoming a rim of incandescent white around her body, waiting for the moment they would shake heaven and earth.
Time and space seemed to freeze, then shatter.
And then that streak of blazing white erupted, sudden and silent.
What burst forth was not fire, nor light—
but a cry.
A cry ancient beyond measure, and sharp enough to rend the very cosmos.
With that piercing call, the giant bird circling above plunged downward and fused with Winning Colors, condensing at last into a colossal divine bird made entirely of white-hot liquid flame. It spread its wings and took flight over the racecourse.
A shrill cry rang out.
Its form was majestic, almost sacred. Every feather was forged of fiercely burning flame, and along their edges danced platinum-white tongues of fire that looked capable of reducing all things to ash.
Its long tail plumes streamed behind it, scattering golden-red sparks bright as stars, leaving a blazing trail across the air like a river of constellations.
It spread its wings—
and unleashed a fiery tempest that promised to burn away all illusion and purify everything beneath the heavens.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 147)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter185)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter215)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 185
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/1
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 206
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 190
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/23
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 106
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 125
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 90
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 80
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 86
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 65
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 59
Checking In in Demon Slayer 59
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 73
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 45
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 36
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 40
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 60
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 43
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 30
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 31
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