On the top floor of the hotel, two intense pressures clashed violently.
It felt as if even the surrounding temperature had suddenly dropped.
"So scary. Is there going to be a rainstorm tonight?"
"The weather report clearly didn't say it would rain tonight."
"Is it thundering upstairs?"
"I feel like there's going to be an earthquake."
The guests below raised their heads toward the roof in panic.
Even some of the hotel staff felt uneasy.
Only the hotel manager and a few others knew roughly what was going on, but the shock in their hearts was no less than anyone else's, because they also did not know how that boss had managed it.
Pressure strong enough to reach this level was already close to magic, wasn't it?
They found themselves understanding this world less and less.
At this moment, in the top-floor suite, Demon King Gold Ship heard the Overlord's earlier statement.
"What a boring joke."
For a moment, Demon King Gold Ship was so angry she laughed. Her eyes looked as if they wanted to stab someone.
"Since you are in such a hurry to seek death, I will satisfy your request!"
She did not know whether the Overlord's earlier words were sincere, or whether she had deliberately said them to provoke her.
But that did not matter. She was Demon King Gold Ship, and she feared no challenge.
She would accept every contest equally, and bestow a fair defeat upon each challenger.
"Good."
The Overlord nodded like an arrogant king, expressing her approval.
Demon King Gold Ship became even angrier at the sight.
You bastard. What are you acting high and mighty in front of this Demon King for?
Everything on you, from top to bottom, belongs to this Demon King!
Without this Demon King's support, you would not even have the qualification to enter official races!
...But all of that was minor.
Because both of them understood.
The Overlord had never cared about race qualifications.
Nor did she care about trophies or honor.
The only reason she had chosen to intrude into races was to become stronger.
The Overlord's objective had never changed. It had always been clear.
Her goal was the summit.
The meaning of survival was to become the strongest.
That was why the Overlord had never felt unease or reverence.
Even if Demon King Gold Ship now threatened to use outside power to blacklist her, she would probably remain indifferent.
Precisely because of that, the Overlord had no weaknesses.
If one insisted on naming a weakness, there was only one.
Defeat.
She lived to win.
If she lost, then this life of hers could be declared over.
But what kind of weakness was that?
After receiving Demon King Gold Ship's answer, the Overlord threw all preparations to her.
She believed Demon King Gold Ship would handle everything.
After all, Demon King Gold Ship was surely even more anxious than she was now, more eager to recover her pride and dignity in a race.
As for the Overlord, things like pride...
Possessing power already meant supreme nobility.
She was in no hurry to prove anything.
And although Demon King Gold Ship felt extremely displeased, she had to admit that, in this matter, she really had been grasped by the throat.
Indeed.
Compared with the Overlord, she was now the one who wanted even more to teach this ignorant little sister a lesson.
But GIII and GII races could not bear the weight of the two of them.
Demon King Gold Ship did think the Overlord was far too arrogant for wanting to challenge her now.
But deep in her heart, Demon King Gold Ship respected racing a great deal, and she absolutely would not allow such a heavyweight race to be held on some small stage.
Therefore, she began using her resources in this world to make arrangements.
Soon, a major piece of news suddenly spread.
[Overlord] might continue to campaign in the remaining major races of the year.
And it was not only [Overlord] who would continue participating. Powerhouses from other worlds would also appear.
Facing the information being released, the racing fans of this world collectively grew impossibly excited.
Although people had quite negative evaluations of Overlord, this dark umamusume, the fans who pursued strength loved her to the point of madness.
More normal fans, however, felt that this umamusume called Overlord was far too extreme and dangerous.
Some with more radical thoughts even believed that an umamusume like Overlord should be banned from racing.
But no matter what the fans thought, the Overlord's next race had already been decided.
At the same time, an otherworldly Gold Ship registered as [Demon King] began appearing.
In just one short month, she entered three consecutive races and won with overwhelming strength.
Her "blocking domain," which truly dominated the entire race, made people's scalps go numb.
In a certain sense, she was a dark umamusume who did not lose to the Overlord at all.
Some timid umamusume were even tormented to the point of tears when racing against her.
"Too much! That's too much! How could she treat my idol like that?!"
"So strong! This is true darkness!"
"A Demon King in name and truth. As expected of an alternate-world counterpart of Gold Ship."
"I know it's over the line, but for some reason, watching it felt amazing."
"The orthodox dark umamusume lineage belongs to our Gold Ship!"
"That posture of whipping her opponents onward and then crushing them head-on at the end is so beautiful!"
"True. I never knew before that Gold Ship was this good-looking."
[Gold Ship]'s expression grew complicated as she read those comments.
She felt the urge to curse.
No, why? Why were all of that girl's evaluations positive?
And what did they mean, they never knew Little Gold Ship was a beauty before?
What kind of nonsense was that? Little Gold Ship had always been stunningly beautiful.
"Whew..."
Calm down, Little Gold Ship.
You should not be affected by such shallow things.
That was not what mattered right now.
[Gold Ship] looked at the race preview information at the end of the report.
October. Autumn Tenno Sho.
A much-anticipated grand race.
But most importantly, the registration information above had already confirmed two runners' registered names.
[Overlord]
[Demon King]
"Looks like those two really are confirmed to face each other."
[Gold Ship]'s expression turned serious.
Honestly, even her radar could not predict how this race would unfold.
The mischievous "herself" from another world was extremely strong.
If she herself was someone who viewed daily life and races as equally important, then that "herself" was someone who regarded racing as incomparably important.
That "herself" had fully developed her talents.
She had even grown to a degree where Gold Ship, her counterpart, could no longer see through her.
"Will you win?"
[Gold Ship] murmured the question in her heart.
She had actually seen the other version of herself lose many times.
But there was one thing she could say with certainty.
"She" had never truly lost.
Even after countless defeats, she could climb back up again and become even stronger.
Someone who broke through her limits again and again, always able to stand at the very front.
That was the other self as [Gold Ship] understood her.
Mischievous, willful, and yet possessing Guts that even her counterpart found embarrassing.
On paper, the difference between Overlord and Demon King Gold Ship's strength was not large.
Even if the Overlord were somewhat stronger on paper, [Gold Ship] still could not calculate an answer.
Because the other her had no limits.
Elsewhere, Tokai Teio's group was also watching this incident.
Although they had already guessed that the Overlord and the Demon King would eventually break apart, they truly had not expected it to happen so quickly.
When Tokai Teio had said those words to Demon King Gold Ship at the time, she had only wanted to remind her to be careful.
She really had not expected Demon King Gold Ship to go back and immediately go to war with the Overlord.
"Demon King-senpai should be confident, right?"
Kitasan Black asked anxiously.
Because she felt that her own position seemed a bit dangerous.
Overlord-senpai looked as if she truly intended to go on a killing spree.
Teio-senpai had already lost.
If Demon King-senpai lost this time too, would Kitasan Black be next?
She was not boasting. She simply knew clearly that her ability was indeed very useful.
If she were Overlord-senpai, she absolutely would not let such a target go.
"..."
Tokai Teio silently shook her head.
Her expression was full of helplessness.
As someone who had always traded barbs with Demon King Gold Ship, she was very certain that girl had absolutely no preparations at all.
But she should have expected this.
How could someone as arrogant as Demon King Gold Ship truly leave herself any backup plan?
As long as the Overlord chose to formally challenge her in a race, Demon King Gold Ship would absolutely not make any prior preparations.
If Demon King Gold Ship were asked to do such a thing, she would probably rather throw the race than accept it.
"I... I want to help too!"
Rice Shower felt that she could no longer keep relying on her older sisters.
She should go face the Overlord herself.
"No."
Tokai Teio calmly stopped Rice Shower's idea.
Although she approved of Rice Shower's resolve, now was not the right time.
"If we interfere in this race, we will only limit the Demon King's performance."
"Teio-senpai is right. Even if we want to help, with Demon King-senpai's personality, she would think we're in the way. If we were in the race, we might distract Demon King-senpai instead."
After Kitasan Black finished speaking, the thought made her look troubled too.
Although none of them were good at cooperation, Demon King-senpai was definitely the least cooperative among them.
McQueen-senpai did not like cooperating either, but at least McQueen-senpai would not interfere with others.
Demon King-senpai was different.
If they entered the race too, Demon King-senpai would definitely attack them as well.
Then forget fighting Overlord-senpai together. They would only reduce the pressure on Overlord-senpai.
"..."
After hearing their explanation, Rice Shower had nothing to say for a moment.
In other words, this time, they truly could only watch.
Tokai Teio said bitterly, "If McQueen were willing to speak, there might be some chance of persuading her, but..."
McQueen had not even come to watch.
That meant she truly was not involving herself in this matter.
"Do your best, Demon King-senpai. You have to win. I don't want to fight a life-and-death duel with Overlord-senpai!"
Kitasan Black clasped her hands in prayer.
Although she had begun to like racing a little now, she absolutely did not mean this kind of dark duel against Overlord-senpai!
...
As time fermented, the events happening here finally caused a sensation in other countries as well.
For a time, all of Japan seemed to become a singularity of the world.
Countless travelers and powerhouses gathered toward this place.
And seeing the race's popularity become so intense, the umamusume who had originally wanted to withdraw when they saw [Overlord]'s name bore tremendous pressure.
When facing a dark umamusume like [Overlord], wanting to avoid such a terrifying enemy was human nature.
But as professional umamusume, retreating before the race had even begun was a serious loss of points. Add to that the fact that this race was so popular...
Time arrived at the day of the race.
Demon King and Overlord met in the participants' tunnel wearing their race outfits.
Both of their gazes were equally cold.
Demon King and Overlord.
From the very beginning, they had been destined never to get along.
The collapse of their cooperative relationship had been inevitable from the start.
Both of them knew this clearly. They had formed that brief partnership despite mutually understanding that they would become opponents in the future.
Demon King Gold Ship had known the Overlord's ambition from the very beginning. The Overlord wanted to become the truly strongest unparalleled king. Precisely because Demon King Gold Ship knew that resolve, this troublemaking Demon King had been willing to provide some practical support to the still-weak Overlord.
Otherwise, if she had simply wanted to research the Overlord's power, Demon King Gold Ship had no need to let her go out and make her own way.
After seeing Tokai Teio's current condition, Demon King Gold Ship had indeed wondered for an instant whether she had gone too far. But in truth, she had never considered personally taking action now to stop the Overlord's growth, because in her view, there was not yet a need.
What Demon King Gold Ship had not expected was that before she made a decision, the person under her protection would overturn that relationship first and bare her fangs at her investor.
Demon King Gold Ship looked into the Overlord's eyes.
Those eyes were filled with confidence.
It was precisely because she had enough confidence that she had made this decision.
Demon King Gold Ship felt anger toward this, but also a degree of recognition.
Anger was only natural.
Even if the outcome had been destined from the beginning, no one could be betrayed without feeling anything, especially someone with Demon King Gold Ship's personality.
As for recognition...
Demon King Gold Ship absolutely did not recognize the Overlord's confidence.
The only thing she recognized was the Overlord's courage.
Because Demon King Gold Ship felt that the Overlord's current confidence had no foundation.
It was a display of ignorance and foolishness.
The Overlord underestimated this Demon King's strength far too much. Precisely because she was ignorant, this rookie believed that, in what came next, she could smoothly defeat this Demon King just as she had defeated Tokai Teio before.
But how could things be that simple?
Demon King Gold Ship did not believe the current Overlord could defeat her.
She wanted her to choose the "graveyard" where she would make her final exit?
Ridiculous.
...
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