The guest commentator shouted in excitement as the crowd frantically waved their banners and cheering goods, roaring support for the two horse girls.
Some of the girls watching wore thrilled smiles. In their eyes, Kahyasi, the runner burdened with everyone's hopes, would surely answer those expectations, battle Xingyun Liuge to the bitter end, and then win!
It might have sounded overconfident, but they quickly found a way to justify that belief.
Xingyun Liuge had started accelerating on the uphill, then held that high cruising speed all the way through. Now the gap between the two girls was shrinking rapidly, yet Xingyun Liuge still had not shown any sign of a second burst of acceleration. That could only mean one thing: she was running out of stamina.
The fact that she had managed to pull so far clear of the field before the race had even reached the middle stages was already absurd enough. If all that happened now was that she misjudged her stamina distribution and lost the ability to accelerate again in the stretch, that was still monstrous. If it had been any ordinary horse girl, she would have hit the wall long ago.
Almost all the British and Irish horse girls came to the same conclusion: Xingyun Liuge had already shown just how terrifyingly strong she was in this Derby. Even if she finished second, it would still be a glorious defeat. After all, she would not merely be losing to Kahyasi. She would be losing, more than anything, to Britain's turf.
It was all because she had not had enough time to train on it. If Xingyun Liuge had been given more time to adapt to the Epsom grass, the result might have been completely different. She might really have recreated another Belmont-level massacre.
But others looked grim.
Why still no domain?
What exactly was she waiting for?
Some were so tense that sweat soaked straight through their racing outfits, the fabric clinging to their skin in sticky discomfort.
Kahyasi gritted her teeth, ignoring the rust-taste rising into her mouth, and forced herself onward. She wanted to hold on to this final push and wipe out the remaining gap in one stroke.
Only ten lengths remained.
If she could erase those last ten lengths, then the two of them would step together onto the final stage and challenge the dreadful nightmare that devoured every horse girl's stamina in the closing stretch: the Epsom Derby's final uphill.
Whoever crested that slope first would win the Derby.
And yet, at that very moment, Kahyasi felt her body growing heavier by the second. But she was in the middle of a fully deployed domain—this ought to have been the very peak of her condition in this Derby.
Salty sweat spilled from her hairline and slid across her brow, making her instinctively blink her left eye.
Then a gust of wind came in from the side.
Her skirt, already fluttering wildly, suddenly snapped the other way, whipped flat by the airflow, the cloth cracking sharply like a battle flag straining in a gale.
The sound continued for a moment after the gust had passed and the skirt had returned to normal, and that made no sense at all.
Normally, she would have ignored something that trivial. In a race, all that mattered was victory. But now every single thing Xingyun Liuge did felt strange, and Kahyasi was desperate to seize on any suspicious detail, to deduce what she was planning next.
It was a paranoid way of thinking.
And it was exactly what let her grasp Xingyun Liuge's tail.
Because she saw dark specks circling in the sky.
No. Not specks.
A flock of ravens.
A vast flock, too many to count, wheeling over Epsom Racecourse.
At times they dispersed, like fragments of shredded black cloud. At times they gathered into a gigantic rotating vortex. Every bird held exactly the right distance from the next, and the rhythm of their wings was nearly identical, as though invisible threads were guiding them all.
Kahyasi understood at once.
What she had heard had not been the wind snapping her skirt.
It had been the synchronized beating of those ravens' wings.
They were not flying especially high, either. She could clearly see their feathers—black as forged steel, gleaming with a metallic sheen. A wild raven might have beautiful plumage, yes. But an entire flock like this? Impossible. Someone had to have raised them.
Even stranger was their cry.
It was not noisy, nor harsh.
It was like a hoarse, low chorus.
Their calls overlapped and answered one another, carrying an ancient, primitive mystery that made one think of old prophecies and forgotten legends.
Kahyasi suddenly remembered the ranch back home. At dusk, when the birds flew back to the woods, they would circle over the trees, painting a magnificent natural scene of motion and stillness in perfect balance.
This looked exactly the same.
And as soon as that thought arose, cold sweat drenched her whole body.
A terrible realization struck her.
When had these birds appeared?
Why had she not noticed them at all?
Had she simply been too focused on the race?
No. Absolutely not.
The flock was far too large. It could never have gathered in only a minute or two. By all rights, they should have noticed it before the race had even begun.
And if a flock like this had really appeared above the course, the commentators would have made a feast of it. They would have used it to build atmosphere, to weave whatever story they pleased. There was no chance they would ignore it completely.
So then what was it that the commentators could not see, but the horse girls could?
There was only one answer.
A domain.
A domain!
Everyone had assumed Xingyun Liuge had not used hers yet.
But the truth was the exact opposite.
She had already deployed it long ago.
They simply had not noticed.
Kahyasi murmured to herself, "So that means… she's been using her domain to maintain her speed this whole time? To stop herself from slowing down?"
One phrase surfaced in her mind:
The end of a spent crossbow.
If that guess was right, then this was the best chance she would ever get to shatter Xingyun Liuge's undefeated legend.
She had to seize it.
Driven by that thought, she closed the gap again, surging into within ten lengths of Xingyun Liuge.
And at that instant, heaven and earth changed.
The bright sky dimmed into a murky gloom.
The last traces of daylight fell across the ground in mottled patches.
Ancient trees rose on all sides, their tangled branches cutting the sky into jagged fragments. The air turned damp and cold, carrying the scent of wet soil and rotting leaves. Somewhere in the distance, an unknown bird cried, only for the sound to vanish into the wind along with the wind's own low moan.
The woods were unnaturally quiet.
Kahyasi felt every hair on her body stand on end.
She was instantly ill at ease.
"What… what is this?"
They were in the middle of a race, weren't they?
So where was this?
Had Xingyun Liuge's domain actually transformed the entire racecourse?
Kahyasi very nearly blurted out, What kind of domain is this? Is it even legal? The entire environment had changed. Was she particularly fond of Halloween aesthetics or something?
In truth, it was a perfectly proper domain. The giant ancient trees stood along both sides of the course, and even the enormous roots breaking through the surface did not interfere with any horse girl's running line.
If Xingyun Liuge had wanted, all she had to do was raise the turf by a few centimeters and she could send some poor horse girl straight into another world.
Xingyun Liuge's ears twitched.
A black crescent arc, shot through with the cries of ravens, flashed out. Sharp as a blade, swift as a storm, it slashed straight into Kahyasi.
It came too quickly. Kahyasi did not even have time to react. All she felt was a violent ringing in her ears, as though she had been stuffed into a bronze bell and someone had struck it from outside. Her whole body went numb and wrong. It felt like her hearing had been severed, yet not entirely—just enough remained to be maddening.
The sudden blow inevitably slowed her down.
In an instant, the distance between them widened back to twelve lengths. The commentator let out a plain, audible sigh. Much of the crowd's cheering faltered. Some were still shouting, but plenty had already begun to droop in defeat. In their eyes, Kahyasi's last gamble had just ended. There was no way she could catch Xingyun Liuge now.
Kahyasi herself was swallowed by fear and confusion. She panted violently, swallowed hard, and muttered, "What just happened?"
An unnatural flush spread across her face. Sweat the size of beans rolled down her forehead in sheets.
She looked up.
The sky was blue.
The grass was still green.
Even the wind rushing toward her was bright and lively.
It was nothing like the world she had just seen.
That had definitely been Xingyun Liuge's domain, not some theatrical trick. So why was everything normal again? Had the domain ended already? But that could not be right. The ravens were still circling in the sky.
The abrupt change in scenery had caught her completely off guard. She had not even noticed how much her speed had fallen. She had forgotten to accelerate again.
But even if she had remembered, it would not have mattered. Her condition no longer allowed it, and the little stamina she had left certainly did not either.
That was not the real problem, though.
The real problem was what had happened to her domain.
A crescent-shaped wound now scarred the main tower of the grand white-chalk castle. Black mist leaked steadily from the gash, and the whole structure looked ready to collapse.
If that castle fell, her domain would fall with it. She would lose both her interference on the other girls and her own speed boost.
Night Harvest: Xingyun Liuge unleashes a crescent slash, reducing the target's speed by 30% and inflicting Silence for two seconds.
Fear (Passive): Whenever Xingyun Liuge affects an opponent, she inflicts Fear and causes minor stamina loss. If the opponent is already suffering from a status ailment or stamina drain, an additional moderate stamina loss is triggered.
Silence: Seals skills and domains until the effect ends.
Fear: Seals finishing kicks, skills, and domains while causing minor stamina loss. If the target has already activated a skill or deployed a domain, control of it can be seized.
Then, with something like a heavy internal collapse, the White Chalk City transformed completely.
Now it looked as though it had been built from dark gray-black stone, a Gothic fortress whose spires stabbed into an ever-dimming sky.
No—the sky itself was not darkening.
It was the ravens, blotting out the sunlight as they spread overhead in vast black swarms, leaving only broken scraps of light across the earth.
In that dimness, the castle became something sinister. Towers rose at uneven heights, the tallest one half-collapsed into a jagged ruin. Dark vines crawled over the walls like great snakes biding their time in the dark, tongues flickering, waiting to strike.
Every window had shattered. The empty black apertures looked like eye sockets gouged clean of their eyes, and the whistling wind through the broken frames produced a thin creaking that only made the whole thing more eerie.
Perhaps some shard of glass had caught the light, or perhaps some lamp inside had somehow escaped the wind, but here and there, a faint glow flickered in the windows.
Blink, and the glow would appear somewhere else.
Blink again, and it would be back where it started.
It gave the impression not that your eyes were playing tricks on you, but that something inside the dark was moving—and had retreated to its original place only because it realized it had been seen.
It was enough to make anyone's skin crawl, as though something dangerous were watching from the dark.
It was the sort of image that belonged in a ghost story.
The horse girls began shouting, "Kahyasi!"
Enough! Put it away already! How had she managed to turn Epsom into something this cursed?
But Kahyasi did not realize what had become of her own domain. She thought the cries belonged to her allies and to the other girls who had thrown in with them, cheering her on as the "last hope of the whole village," urging her to catch Xingyun Liuge so that, even if she lost, she could at least lose with dignity.
Xingyun Liuge's ears twitched again, and she sighed lightly.
"Sometimes," she said, "if you don't make an effort, you never learn what despair really means."
Still, Kahyasi's stamina had nearly fallen into the danger zone, so Xingyun Liuge refrained from throwing her scarecrow passive at her. If Fear triggered again, that girl would probably collapse on the spot.
She drew in a breath and tapped the ground once more with her left foot.
The air compressed to the edge of explosion.
Boom!
A chunk of turf was blasted high into the air, caught by the violent wind and torn to pieces before it could fall, roots and all.
Under the bright sky, Xingyun Liuge galloped farther and farther ahead, alone.
"A second acceleration?" the guest commentator cried, stunned. He had assumed Xingyun Liuge's stamina should already have been nearly spent. "At the final uphill, Xingyun Liuge has accelerated again! Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable! Is her stamina inexhaustible? Against a horse girl like her, who can stand in her way? Who can stand in her way?!"
"The gap between Xingyun Liuge and Kahyasi widens instantly to fifteen lengths! And it's still growing! My God—she has murdered this race with the coldest, most merciless posture imaginable!"
Whether he was forcing it for effect or truly overcome, the commentator's voice even cracked with sobs by the end, tears streaming down the commentary box.
Watching Xingyun Liuge's figure shrink ever farther ahead, Kahyasi's pupils pinched down to needles.
She had never imagined that Xingyun Liuge would still have so much left in reserve.
It felt as though the girl, without ever looking back, was saying to her:
Come all at once if you like. You are still no match for me.
As the cry of "Across the line!" rang out, tears blurred Kahyasi's vision.
They had designed an entire strategy to surround and contain Xingyun Liuge.
And that plan had been crushed underfoot in the opening stages.
What followed had felt like watching a group of young girls be toyed with by a monstrously powerful older horse girl. They had not the slightest chance of resistance. Even clinging to her shadow had become a fantasy.
Why did a horse girl this strong even exist?
Kahyasi could not help thinking that even against the Triple Crown champions in their primes, Xingyun Liuge would not have been inferior in the slightest.
The final results came out.
Xingyun Liuge had finished twenty-five lengths ahead of Kahyasi.
Saintly Bride followed one length behind Kahyasi, and Iron King half a length behind Saintly Bride.
But by then nobody cared about second place, or third, or anyone after them.
Every eye was fixed on Xingyun Liuge as she stood bathed in cheers, her arms raised high.
On her left hand she held up two fingers.
On her right, three—just as she had after the Belmont Stakes.
A brazen, unstoppable declaration of what she had achieved in scarcely two months.
To be precise:
From early May to mid-June—
less than fifty days,
five G1 victories.
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 165)
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 (Chapter220)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter125)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter250)
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 220
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 185
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/20
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 248
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 230
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/40
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 125
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 145
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 115
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 110
My Harem Is Indescribable 100
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 105
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 80
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 85
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 78
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 80
Checking In in Demon Slayer 85
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 100
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 85
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 80
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 90
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 75
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 80
Why did they assign me to Uma 75
MYGO Beauties 70
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 70
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 80
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 80
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 57
The Uma Musume Who Became 55
I'm Definitely Not the King of 60
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
Naruto: I'm Konoha's Local Men 35
Honkai: World Modulation Mode 34
I, the Elden Sword Saint 27
Dio Brando Is Challenging FGO 24
No One Knows Pokémon Better 18
I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 20
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