"This?"
Hearing Symboli Rudolf's words, Kuroha thought back for a moment, then cautiously extended his index finger.
Buzz.
A tiny, brilliant point of seven-colored light instantly gathered at his fingertip.
"?"
The girl looked confused.
Seeing that Symboli Rudolf appeared completely unable to see the light in front of her, Kuroha could not help but chuckle softly.
Then he slowly moved his finger toward the girl's fair forehead.
At first, Symboli Rudolf froze for a moment, as if she had not expected him to be this direct.
But when she saw his finger reaching toward her, she did not dodge. Instead, her body gave an honest response and leaned forward slightly, meeting him halfway.
Tap.
His fingertip lightly touched her smooth forehead.
That dazzling cluster of light instantly slipped into the girl's body without a sound and vanished without a trace.
A few seconds later.
Symboli Rudolf straightened back up in her seat.
She tilted her head back slightly and closed her eyes, as if carefully feeling some marvelous change surging within her body.
A moment later, she suddenly opened her eyes and slowly raised one hand, her gaze turning serious.
Then she clenched her fist.
Boom!
An invisible yet terrifying aura spread from her slender body like a dragon awakening.
Then the phenomenon began.
First came a few crimson ghostly streaks, cutting sharp trails of light from the corners of her eyes.
Next, countless runes and talismans appeared in midair.
They expanded from small to large.
In the span of a blink, blazing flames erupted skyward, until the entire student council office was dyed into a crimson sea.
At the center of that inferno stood Symboli Rudolf, completely wrapped in the aura of her Domain.
She looked like a sovereign ruling over all beneath heaven.
"Haa..."
But very soon, as Symboli Rudolf slowly exhaled a clouded breath, the splendor around her dispersed.
Those terrifying and gorgeous flames retreated and vanished like a receding tide.
Everything in the office returned to normal. Not even a single sheet of paper had been scorched, as though that shocking scene had never happened at all.
"So this is your Domain, Luna?"
Kuroha was currently holding a faint, not-yet-fully-dispersed seed of flame in his right hand, studying it with interest.
"It's pretty similar to Inari's and Teio's Domains. They're all flames."
"It's just that Inari's Domain has a fox in it, Teio's has a phoenix, and yours is pure flame."
Symboli Rudolf did not answer at once. Instead, she rose to her feet and started moving her body from top to bottom.
Only after confirming that she had truly returned to her peak condition again did she reply, "There is not actually that much difference."
"A Domain is, in essence, a complete transcendence of one's physical limits."
"As for those supernatural-looking images, they are simply manifestations of the inner mental landscape unique to each Uma Musume."
"That makes sense."
Kuroha nodded, leaning back against the sofa as he asked with a smile, "So, how does it feel? Returning to your peak?"
"..."
Symboli Rudolf paused slightly. She closed her eyes again and quietly savored the lingering aftereffect within her body before slowly sitting back down and looking at Kuroha with burning intensity.
"Can this state be maintained indefinitely? As long as you stay by my side?"
"No."
At that, Kuroha shook his head and raised one finger, wagging it lightly.
"For an Uma Musume, a boost of this intensity can only be used for three days at most."
Hearing that limitation, the girl lowered her eyes. A trace of dimness flashed across her expression, subtle enough to be almost invisible.
"But..."
Kuroha changed tone and chuckled softly. "The promise I made you before only counts as barely passing in terms of quality."
"Once this round of effects completely ends, if you still want to keep using it, I can give you about one full hour of complete reinforcement afterward."
"...I see."
Symboli Rudolf was briefly startled, then smiled in relief and elegantly drew herself back into a composed posture.
"Too little?" Kuroha asked softly.
"About what I expected."
She shook her head, then turned serious.
"If a power like this, one that breaks reason itself, could be used without limit, then Central... no, even the whole world would descend into chaos."
In a world ruled by Uma Musume,
a power that could make them permanently remain at their peak was fundamentally a mistaken existence.
At that, she paused, set down her teacup, and her gaze sharpened once more.
"All right. The reminiscing and the demonstration are over. So now you can say it, can't you? You came all this way to find me today. What exactly do you want me to do?"
Now that her curiosity had been satisfied, Symboli Rudolf cleanly steered the conversation back to the main issue.
Kuroha did not bother with pleasantries and directly revealed the purpose of his visit.
"Luna, you know what Demonic Talent is, right?"
"Demonic Talent?"
Symboli Rudolf tilted her head slightly, seeming a little surprised that Kuroha had suddenly brought up the term.
The next second, her eyes glowed red once again.
But this time, the red light was completely different from the ordinary flame-like glow she had displayed when using her Domain.
This glow was full of strangeness and depth, even carrying a sense of oppressive unease.
Kuroha remained seated where he was, not moving at all, simply watching as the red light spread toward him almost like a tangible substance.
In the end, it completely enveloped him.
In that instant,
a violent mental shock slammed into his mind, and all sorts of negative emotions surged up like a breached flood.
Restlessness. Inferiority. Depression.
All kinds of irrational, extreme emotions of despair raged wildly through his heart, as though they meant to crush a person's will completely.
Just as Kuroha was carefully savoring that sense of discomfort, the red glow surrounding him suddenly flashed.
The pressure on his emotions instantly reversed.
The overwhelming inferiority from before turned in the blink of an eye into overwhelming inflation.
Arrogance. Conceit. Self-obsession.
Soon, a pride akin to "Above heaven and earth, I alone am supreme" flooded his senses.
More extreme emotions, only this time the complete opposite of the previous wave.
Then the red light flashed a second time.
This time, aside from the oppressive weight pressing down on his mind,
Kuroha clearly felt that the bizarre red light was materially stripping strength from his body.
The loss of speed. The draining of stamina. The sluggish dulling of explosive force.
Every aspect of his physical ability was being forcibly weakened under that invisible red glow.
Then, as if deciding the demonstration had gone far enough, Symboli Rudolf blinked slightly.
The strange red light wildly spilling from the depths of her pupils slowly withdrew and vanished in an instant.
"That is more or less it. That is what you call Demonic Talent."
The girl spread her hands, her tone calm.
"I see."
Kuroha rubbed his chin.
"That really is an interesting power. No wonder Inari almost got genuinely pissed off back then."
Then he looked at Symboli Rudolf, and his expression turned extremely strange.
As the strongest Uma Musume in Central during that era,
Symboli Rudolf could already crush every other runner through sheer speed and stamina alone.
And yet, on top of that heaven-given physical talent,
she also possessed a Demonic Talent this absurd.
A complete package of mental interference and physical debilitation.
It was hard to imagine how disgusted the Central runners of that era must have felt when facing her on the track.
Their will to keep running probably shattered on the spot.
No wonder Ace from Twilight City had only managed to beat her that one time.
Looking at the race conditions from back then, Ace had probably relied on an all-out front-running strategy and desperately sprinted beyond the effective range of Rudolf's Demonic Talent.
That really must have been rough...
"Mm."
Symboli Rudolf shifted awkwardly under Kuroha's strange gaze.
Then she crossed her arms over her chest and asked irritably, "Why are you looking at me like that? Weren't you the one who wanted to see how Demonic Talent works?"
"That's all I understand about it. If you're not satisfied, there's nothing else I can do."
"No, this is more than satisfactory."
Kuroha drew back his wandering thoughts and nodded.
Then he pondered for a moment, already having made up his mind.
He stood decisively and grabbed Symboli Rudolf by her slender wrist.
"All right. Come with me to the academy's public training grounds. There's something I need done, and for this, I need you to handle it personally."
With that, Kuroha pulled the girl toward the office door without giving her any chance to object.
"Huh? What is it? Wait... I never said I was going!"
The Emperor, caught off guard as she was yanked to her feet, looked completely baffled.
She opened her mouth, instinctively wanting to ask for an explanation.
But when her gaze drifted downward and landed on the hand tightly wrapped around her wrist, the refusal at the tip of her tongue suddenly stalled for no clear reason.
Her pale violet eyes flickered slightly, as though some thought had crossed her mind.
In the end, she did not struggle free.
Instead, she simply let Kuroha lead her out toward the training grounds.
(End of Chapter)
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