The Goddess Cup Final was underway.
Godolphin Barb led the second-place runner by quite a distance. This blue goddess, dressed in loose sportswear and appearing soft and delicate on the outside, now displayed an incomparably astonishing speed. Alone at the front, she charged at the head of the racing pack. The ocean-like radiance around her grew stronger and stronger as she released one skill after another.
"Hah!"
Although Demon King Gold Ship pursued with all her strength, after seeing Godolphin Barb's burst speed, she knew there was no chance of catching this goddess in the early phase. The opponent could stack skill effects with no burden at all and even ignore interference from mental skills. She was practically a monster.
Those skills were being released one after another as if there were no consumption at all. The blue goddess's ever-increasing speed made people panic just by looking at it. Even Demon King Gold Ship was seeing an opponent like this for the first time. Godolphin Barb's early-phase explosive power was truly terrifying.
For an ordinary umamusume, when releasing multiple skills, forget maintaining the skill states; her body would first be injured by that power. Even an umamusume at Demon King Gold Ship's level could only release several skills within a certain period of time.
But Godolphin Barb, this goddess, no longer had such restrictions after activating her divine skill. As long as her stamina could pay the skill costs, she could activate skills without limit. This power was simply cheatingly strong.
The sea's divine skill.
Perhaps at first glance, one would feel that the early-phase resistance and the speed ceiling increase based on the number of skills were the powerful parts of this skill.
But in truth, those two abilities were merely icing on the cake. The strongest part of this divine skill was that terrifying restriction-removal effect. It was powerful in a completely different dimension from ordinary skills and domains.
Added to that, the mechanism priority of divine skills surpassed all skills and domains. Demon King Gold Ship felt that naming the Three Goddesses' divine skills the Three Phantom Gods had been simply too fitting.
Because this thing felt invincibly strong.
It was simply superior.
"Wonderful!"
Demon King Gold Ship was extremely excited.
She had not been frightened.
Instead, she felt this power was too beautiful.
When she thought of the scene after she obtained a divine skill, she grew so excited that her entire mind and body trembled. She was different from these three AI. Such powerful abilities were utterly wasted on these three AI, even if these three AI were personalities made from records of the Three Goddesses.
Such powerful power should be possessed by a powerhouse like her.
The commentator AI shouted.
"The current leader is Godolphin Barb. What calm lead-running! The race has only just begun, yet she is already nearly four lengths ahead of second place. Is this the strength of a goddess? Can the world's king, the strongest Demon King in history, truly defeat such a powerful goddess? The race has entered its climax from the very beginning!"
"As expected of Godolphin."
The other two goddesses could only watch helplessly as Godolphin Barb escaped. She was clearly running with Leader style, yet that starting speed was even more terrifying than Great Runner.
What was even more absurd was that Godolphin Barb's current consumption was far lower than that of a Great Runner. It was even lower than the consumption of most Runners. She was using Leader-level consumption to produce this heaven-defying early-phase burst.
Because she was AI, Godolphin Barb's number of skills was limited. Added to that, she had no domain technique. Otherwise, forget Demon King Gold Ship; even White McQueen would have no chance of victory.
From this alone, one could glimpse the strength of the Three Goddesses. One had to know that the strength of these three AI probably did not even reach ten percent of the true Three Goddesses.
Otherwise, why would King Halo's side be so cautious? It was because King Halo had seen that the strength of the Three Goddesses was simply not something they could currently oppose.
It was also because Demon King Gold Ship's experiment had proven that the Three Goddesses were willing to bestow divine skills on them. Otherwise, King Halo would absolutely have waited for Demon King Gold Ship to continue scouting the road ahead.
As for why Demon King Gold Ship was not afraid?
It could only be said that Demon King Gold Ship's personality made her fearless.
Looking at Godolphin Barb running farther and farther away, Demon King Gold Ship felt somewhat unhappy. This reminded her of very unpleasant memories.
She had lost to McQueen like this many times. Not only could her activated skills fail to restrict McQueen, they would instead become McQueen's assistance. Now the blue goddess's divine skill was rather similar to that time.
Because of the effects of Demon King's Aura (Flash) plus Demon King (ZONE), everyone on the field except herself and Godolphin Barb, including the other two goddesses and the other runners, was suffering a rather terrifying influence. Their mood states had been forcibly controlled into absolute bad condition, and the aura's effect had therefore risen to its maximum. Everyone's stat panels had been forcibly reduced by more than two hundred points.
It was only because ordinary AI had no self. Otherwise, the effect of this combination skill would be even more terrifying. It would deal an incomparably frightening blow to the runners' minds. But even as AI, with their stats weakened, their current performance showed damaged speed and failed skill activations.
By the end of the straight in the first rhythm section, the runners in the race had already formed a severe gap. In less than 400 meters, Godolphin Barb had already opened a gap of several dozen meters from second place.
Although Demon King Gold Ship's help was part of this, along with the fact that the other goddesses had not yet exerted force, Godolphin Barb's early-phase burst was still far too strong.
But once one thought of the divine skill's effect, it was normal. In that rhythm section just now, Godolphin Barb had released no fewer than ten skills. If this situation were spoken aloud, no umamusume would believe it. After all, for an ordinary umamusume, they might not even use one skill across an entire race.
Even Demon King Gold Ship hesitated for a moment over whether she should terminate the interference effects. After all, right now, she had practically become Godolphin Barb's support. Seeing the blue goddess run out a ten-length lead in such a short distance made her somewhat panicked.
"Damn it. How could I feel fear?!"
Demon King Gold Ship suppressed her instinctive fright.
She knew very clearly that the Three Goddesses' skill panels contained fewer than twenty skills in total, and more than half of those skills were basic white-level skills. That burst just now should already have nearly consumed Godolphin Barb's skills. Meanwhile, the number of skills Demon King Gold Ship had mastered was several times theirs.
Hmph.
Good thing the great me prepared fully in advance.
She had now mastered a series of brand-new interference skills.
After all, this was different from facing McQueen. The Three Goddesses' resistance to interference skills was not that invincible. And because they were AI, only the effects of their divine skills were especially cheating. Therefore, Demon King Gold Ship's method was to use interference skills to control the Three Goddesses to death.
The race reached the halfway point of the second rhythm section. The early phase had ended, and Godolphin Barb's divine skill lost its resistance effect. However, the sea-like fluctuating aura around her did not decline. Instead, it grew even stronger along with the stacked skills.
But...
"Your turn is over!"
The light in the Demon King's eyes grew even brighter. That terrifying aura even surpassed the Three Goddesses. Her fighting spirit was rising.
One red ripple after another was released.
The air itself shook. The sky of the entire virtual world was dyed red by the Demon King's mental power. Interference skills were released as if they cost nothing.
Compared with the burden of speed-type yellow skills, continuous interference skills did indeed burden the mind and will. But for Demon King Gold Ship, who had experienced Shared Training several times, her mental strength was terrifyingly powerful. This amount of consumption had no effect at all.
"Ngh."
Godolphin Barb's speed began to drop.
Her expression, originally very relaxed, suddenly became covered in sweat. It could be seen that Demon King Gold Ship's interference skills were indeed strong.
"It's my turn!"
The stacking of Tides plus Aura raised her normal strength to its complete state. Speed and stamina consumption were both pulled to the maximum. The strength of these two ZONE prerequisite abilities was determined by the strength of body and mind.
There was no doubt that the Demon King's mental strength was exceptional. Even compared with McQueen, she would not be much worse.
Powerful footsteps rang beside everyone's ears. Flames ignited on Demon King Gold Ship's body, and the cape behind her burned fiercely in the air.
That intense aura moved even the Three Goddesses. Although they had long known Demon King Gold Ship's strength was great, watching a race from a third-person perspective as Trainers and now personally entering the field to race with her felt completely different.
Moreover, strictly speaking, they were not true goddesses. They were more like avatars. In essence, they were still AI personalities and were very different from the true bodies of the Three Goddesses.
Very quickly, Demon King Gold Ship caught up to Darley Arabian.
"The Demon King has begun exerting force. As expected of the strongest Demon King. Even goddesses cannot stop her rampage!"
The commentator AI shouted excitedly.
There was no confrontation. Demon King Gold Ship easily surpassed Darley Arabian and Byerley Turk. However, the instant she completed the overtake, Demon King Gold Ship's powerful intuition sensed a dangerous omen.
Her burden at this moment was actually not small.
It was already too late to react.
And even if she reacted, she might not have a way.
Because that was a divine skill.
"Bad children need education."
Darley Arabian's body suddenly erupted with an intense aura. It was the radiance of the sun. In the next moment, terrifying gravity bound Demon King Gold Ship's soul. For an instant, even Demon King Gold Ship was stunned.
Wait, what the hell?
You Three Goddesses really have no shame, do you?
Three of you teaming up to deal with one junior?
Sun Power (Unknown Rank): All skills released next will gain the effects of doubled consumption, doubled effect, invincibility piercing, guaranteed hit, and more. Note: Skills enhanced by this state belong to divine power and cannot be immunized against. Only skills of the same rank can oppose them.
One terrifying hit after another struck Demon King Gold Ship. Even a numerical monster as powerful as Demon King Gold Ship felt somewhat unable to breathe at this moment.
Doubled-effect interference skills were truly too terrifying. Not to mention, they also had guaranteed hit. If skill consumption were not still present, the red goddess alone could eliminate every runner.
Demon King Gold Ship's eyes burned hot.
This was divine power.
Whether it was Godolphin Barb's divine-power skill or Darley Arabian's divine-power skill, both were this powerful. Moreover, the mechanism of divine-power skills had higher priority than ZONE. In other words, Darley Arabian's divine-power skill could be used against McQueen.
Thinking of this, Demon King Gold Ship's eyes practically reddened.
Demon King Gold Ship had originally been about to catch up to Godolphin Barb. But because of Darley Arabian's interference, the gap between her and the blue goddess widened again. Most of her interference skill effects had already vanished, and Godolphin Barb used recovery skills to pull her condition back, about to once again begin that burst mode from before.
"Damn it!"
Just as Demon King Gold Ship wanted to risk everything, the dangerous gaze behind her suddenly changed targets and let her go.
"?"
Darley Arabian's interference skills suddenly turned toward Godolphin Barb.
Looking at the blue goddess who was once again controlled, Demon King Gold Ship's ferocious expression suddenly eased. Although she did not know why the Three Goddesses, who had originally been working together, had internal strife, the current situation benefited her.
Seeing Darley Arabian catch up, Demon King Gold Ship's eyes flickered, and she did not choose to make a move at this time.
It was not that she had completely run out of methods.
Indeed, she had no interference skills left to use.
But in truth, she had not yet used her burst methods, nor had she activated the other effects of her domain. And just now, she actually could have sealed Darley Arabian's panel, interrupting the red goddess's interference skill. It was only that she had not expected the other party to suddenly change targets. Instead, Demon King Gold Ship no longer needed to seal her.
Demon King (ZONE) Final Effect: When chasing an opponent, there is a certain probability of sealing the opponent's ability. When overtaking an opponent, it can seal the opponent's ability with one hundred percent certainty.
And very coincidentally, because the Three Goddesses' AI had never seen the full abilities of Demon King Gold Ship's domain, when Demon King Gold Ship caught up to them, they did not choose to activate their own responses. They were overtaken by Demon King Gold Ship while her ZONE was active.
In other words, under these circumstances, these two goddesses had already entered a state where they could be killed by Demon King Gold Ship at any time.
This was the advantage of information.
Demon King Gold Ship knew all the Three Goddesses' information.
But the Three Goddesses did not know her information.
In this race, the only one Demon King Gold Ship was wary of was Godolphin Barb. But it was only wariness.
The fear that had arisen in Demon King Gold Ship before was not actually because of Godolphin Barb, but PTSD beaten into her by White McQueen. She had already lost count of how many times she had lost to McQueen. At first, she had deliberately recorded the number, but later, after discovering that no matter what she did, she could not win, she stopped counting.
And Godolphin Barb's performance was too much like McQueen's.
It caused Demon King Gold Ship's body to instinctively produce a stress reaction.
But that was all.
Demon King Gold Ship looked at Darley Arabian's back, the corners of her mouth rising uncontrollably into a sinister smile.
"Hehehehehe!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"I've won!"
This race was already hers.
Even if Demon King Gold Ship was not an intelligence-type umamusume like King Halo, at this moment, she had calculated her own winning rate.
It was one thousand percent.
...
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