The race was still ongoing.
When some runners saw the gap between Mejiro McQueen and themselves growing larger and larger, they finally could not help changing their approach.
But clearly, with their strength, they had no way to stop Mejiro McQueen's Great Runner style.
A red light flashed in Rigantona's eyes as she looked gravely at the front of the pack.
With her strength, even from the back of the pack, she could lock onto Mejiro McQueen in the lead.
But...
It had no effect.
Mental interference had absolutely no effect at all.
"This is troublesome."
Rigantona realized she had severely underestimated her opponent.
Satono Diamond nearby showed the same expression.
She had just released mental interference as well.
But the result she got was the same as Rigantona's.
The skill could not hit Mejiro McQueen at all.
She had clearly sensed her, and had successfully locked onto her.
Yet after the skill was released, there was no feeling of it landing whatsoever.
"...So this is the strength of the strongest!"
Compared to the [McQueen-senpai] in her memory, this was practically a different person.
"Runner No. 4, Almond Eye, has begun accelerating!"
Because of Twin Turbo's mistake, Almond Eye, who had originally been third, had moved into second.
After seeing Mejiro McQueen nearly open a ten-length gap in less than ten seconds, Almond Eye decisively stopped holding back and used her big move.
The stars in her eyes shone.
Some spectators cried out in surprise.
"The track is glowing!"
Then they received looks from some nearby people that seemed to say, Why are you making such a fuss?
"She's got something."
Kitasan Black realized she had underestimated this unfamiliar umamusume.
This umamusume called Almond Eye truly had considerable strength.
"Then let me follow your slipstream for a bit."
As a Runner, after Kitasan Black was passed in the opening phase by the Leader-style Almond Eye, she did not try to catch up immediately. Instead, she very cleverly switched her running style during the race.
Behind Kitasan Black, Tokai Teio silently followed.
Behind her was King Halo.
In only 100 meters, a clear gap in the runners' strength had already appeared.
Fujimasa March, who had fallen completely behind from the very beginning, performed so poorly that she did not even deserve to be remembered by the spectators.
As for Twin Turbo, though she had started near the front of the pack, she was quickly overtaken.
It was not that Twin Turbo was not trying her best.
It was that the gap between her strength and everyone else's was too large.
The lower limits of the others were enough to compare with her upper limit.
Under these circumstances, the Turbo Sprint had no effect at all.
The intensity of this race was such that even the commentator's speed could not keep up.
Mejiro McQueen saw the track glowing beneath her feet.
She immediately understood that the child behind her had entered ZONE.
"Not bad."
One breath.
White vortices began appearing beside Mejiro McQueen.
Along with the sound of airflow, her speed suddenly began to multiply.
Almond Eye behind her was stunned speechless.
If Mejiro McQueen at the start had been a supercar, then in this instant, Mejiro McQueen had become a jet.
Forget catching up.
She could not even stay in the slipstream.
"So strong!"
Almond Eye looked up at Mejiro McQueen's back as if gazing at a mountain.
The distance was still growing.
But she no longer had any thought of catching up.
Because that was impossible.
And what were the sisters doing now?
They were staring at the Overlord.
Their first point of focus in this race was not Mejiro McQueen.
It was the fully awakened Overlord.
Through observation with [Eye], King Halo saw the series of question marks in the Overlord's stats and thought with anticipation:
"How exciting. Have you already grown to the point where I can no longer detect you? Then let me see it, your so-called ultimate power."
"Heh."
The Overlord sensed everyone's gazes.
She unconsciously revealed a disdainful sneer.
Fear, awe, wariness, desire...
All kinds of ugly emotions.
It was far too laughable.
"If you want to witness it-"
"Then I will let you witness it."
Her foot came down heavily.
A pitch-black aura erupted with it.
A terrifying black hole instantly swept across everything around her.
Its range reached nearly 200 meters.
And within that range, the Overlord held the power of life and death over everyone.
"How is that possible?"
Wasn't this casting range cheating?
Fusion's effect plus this range?
Leaving aside whether the Overlord's Fusion had evolved any new effects, even its original effect was already invincible.
"Wait, isn't McQueen inside that range right now too?!"
Tokai Teio reacted and could not help looking at the figure ahead. Although McQueen had already rushed quite far forward, a careful look showed that she was indeed still inside the Overlord's domain range.
Everyone could not help looking toward Mejiro McQueen.
Would the undefeated myth truly fall here?
"Too fast! Mejiro McQueen has charged through the first section with astonishing momentum, and she has now opened a gap of nearly twenty lengths from second place!"
"This can already be called invincible!"
The commentator shouted excitedly.
"Farewell, Mejiro McQueen!"
The Overlord activated her domain's effect.
And in that moment, Mejiro McQueen also felt the abnormality.
Power was flowing out of her body.
For someone who had completely mastered her own condition, this was very easy to notice. Therefore, almost the instant the Overlord activated it, she immediately responded.
A thick earthen-gold light separated from Mejiro McQueen's body and fell into the black hole released by the Overlord. That quantity of power alone temporarily filled the Overlord's body, preventing her from activating that ultimate domain again for a short time.
Demon King Gold Ship saw that familiar power and suddenly understood.
"That's a secret technique of the gods! I see. Divine power really is on the same scale as the ultimate domain, maybe even above it. So as long as she gives up one divine skill, she can temporarily limit the Overlord's domain? McQueen, did you prepare everything from the very beginning?"
The Overlord frowned.
"Divine power?"
Indeed.
With the scale of that power, it could temporarily limit her own strength.
But the strength of divine power was obvious.
Having obtained that power, even if the effect of her ZONE was temporarily limited, it would only make her stronger. It was a meaningless struggle.
How long could a mere three divine powers last?
Fully awakened Fusion-
[Transcendent Fusion]!
Its release range alone could defeat everything.
The others also realized this.
Some speculated that perhaps the Overlord could not truly obtain divine power.
After all, the Overlord had plundered divine power through Super Fusion, but divine power was essentially immune to interference effects like that. To master divine power, there were generally only two methods: be chosen and blessed by the Three Goddesses, or defeat a holder of divine power.
However, that speculation was soon broken.
Because Super Fusion truly could serve as a third method of mastering divine power.
In other words, the ultimate stage of ZONE and divine power were fundamentally no different.
They were powers of the same scale.
"Tch!"
Demon King Gold Ship watched those two figures and nearly ground her teeth to pieces.
Because she was extremely unwilling.
But she had also recognized the truth.
As she was now, she had no way to enter that battlefield.
King Halo, who had originally been eager to try, also quickly calmed down.
"Looks like it's impossible."
If the Overlord had been unable to truly master divine power, then perhaps King Halo could still have looked forward to the possibility of stealing a move in this race. But since the Overlord could directly plunder divine power, there was absolutely no chance for her to steal a victory.
So she decisively gave up on this race.
Tokai Teio likewise had no solution.
The Overlord's release range...
If it had not been aimed specifically at McQueen, but at them instead, then she really could have crushed them as easily as roadside clutter.
As for Kitasan Black?
She gave up. Loudly.
After all, look.
Whether it was the Overlord, who had reached the ultimate ZONE realm, or McQueen-senpai, who possessed the power of the Three Goddesses, neither was someone she had any hope of defeating right now.
"They have entered the second straight. Mejiro McQueen remains in the lead!"
"But runner Overlord Rice Shower in second is chasing rapidly!"
"Mejiro McQueen currently leads by seventeen lengths!"
"The gap between second and third has already reached twenty lengths!"
"Mejiro McQueen's speed is still increasing!"
"But Overlord Rice Shower is staying in pursuit. From the skill explanation triggered just now, we can understand that runner Overlord Rice Shower seems to possess an extremely terrifying skill. The next time it activates, she might reverse the situation. The two of them are now locked in an intense contest. Who will ultimately claim the laurels of this race? Ah, this development is truly exciting!"
Mejiro McQueen controlled the rhythm of the race.
Feeling the pressure coming from behind her, she experienced for the first time in a long while that pressure of possibly losing. If this were her younger self, perhaps her hair would already be standing on end right now. But why was it? Apart from a slight sense of urgency, all she felt was joy.
"How strange. I have always believed victory to be the only goal of running. Yet the current me can actually feel heartfelt excitement toward running because I have met an opponent I can compete with?"
Mejiro McQueen found it somewhat hard to believe.
This version of her was actually this thrilled.
Through the giant screen, the spectators clearly saw it.
That person-
On Mejiro McQueen's face!
What appeared there now was a wild smile, completely different from her usual cool elegance. It was an unbelievably arrogant and free smile.
That scene captured the hearts of the spectators.
This person-
Was purely enjoying the race.
This race!
It was fun!
"Facing such a terrifying opponent, she can still be certain of her victory and immerse herself in the race. That smile... it is a smile that can only appear when one sees one's own victory!"
Some experienced strong umamusume spoke seriously.
That was perhaps the ultimate realm all umamusume pursued.
And at this moment, Mejiro McQueen had already reached that realm.
She stood in the deepest part of that gate.
At the origin point of ZONE, she looked down upon all umamusume.
The vortices around Mejiro McQueen continued to accumulate.
Then, as though stacked values had finally broken through a certain critical point, the vortices turned into light.
Afterimages began appearing around her body.
And in that instant, the gap between Mejiro McQueen and the runners behind her widened again.
The Overlord behind her no longer looked relaxed.
She calculated the distance remaining in the race.
Her expression became somewhat bad.
"If this continues, she will reach the finish line first!"
Just one divine power restricting her had already allowed Mejiro McQueen to run nearly half the race distance.
If calculated this way, it would be impossible for her to finish plundering all three divine powers and still win this race.
And according to the rules governing divine power, the loser would lose everything after the race ended.
In other words, even if the Overlord temporarily obtained all divine skills through ZONE during the race, once the race ended and Mejiro McQueen won, the rules would make her lose the divine powers.
If that happened, then without a doubt, it would be her complete defeat.
"I cannot accept this!"
For the first time, the Overlord felt agitation.
Because she saw victory moving away from her.
Moving away from her, who had already obtained ultimate power.
"Then-"
The Overlord's aura began to rise.
"I will catch up to you with proper, upright power!"
Physical limiter breakthrough.
Time began to accelerate as well.
"This will reverse it!"
The moment she thought that, the Overlord saw that Mejiro McQueen, who should have slowed or even frozen, had regained color in this [world].
Her speed had not fallen at all. She continued moving forward.
The Overlord's expression twisted in an instant.
"!!!"
She immediately ended the time-acceleration state. Although this meant she would lose a powerful skill for this race, if that skill could not threaten Mejiro McQueen at all, then it was meaningless. It would only create unnecessary consumption for her.
"It's over."
Behind them, King Halo declared the current situation.
After calculating Super Fusion's cooldown time and the remaining distance of the track, she immediately predicted the Overlord's defeat. If the Overlord's super-acceleration had worked against Mejiro McQueen just now, then perhaps there might still have been a chance to reverse the situation. But while she did not know the exact details, Mejiro McQueen had indeed shown that she could ignore the influence of time. In other words, the Overlord had exhausted her options.
Even though the Overlord had plundered all of their abilities, strictly speaking, only one method she currently possessed could truly threaten Mejiro McQueen: Super Fusion.
And judging from the Overlord's performance, even if Super Fusion still had effects beyond plundering, it probably could not help her change the situation now.
Correct.
Super Fusion did indeed have another effect.
It could designate and fuse the skill effects she wanted.
Of course, the effects of skills were, in essence, a form of developing potential.
In other words, it could not create something from nothing.
Even so, this effect was extremely rule-breaking.
At this moment, the Overlord used Super Fusion to continuously fuse the skills she wanted.
For a time, she actually displayed speed and burst surpassing Mejiro McQueen's.
But the second straight had already reached its end.
At this moment, the gap between Mejiro McQueen and the Overlord was twenty lengths.
With less than 1,000 meters remaining, could she really catch up?
Just as the Overlord was trying to convince herself, in the next second, she saw Mejiro McQueen enter the bend, and her speed ceiling rose again.
The extent of that increase was simply abnormal.
Impossible!
Even her own stat ceiling could not rise to that kind of speed.
Why could Mejiro McQueen, whose stats were below hers, do it?
Super Fusion - Plunder!
Red divine power flew out from Mejiro McQueen's body once again.
But the Overlord discovered something.
Losing divine power seemed to have no effect on Mejiro McQueen's running style at all.
"Did she never intend to use the gods' power from the start?"
Impossible!
I should not lose!
The Overlord's aura began surging.
Ultimate power should not be only this much!
"Come out!"
"My power cannot possibly be inferior to hers!"
Divine power?
Then become nourishment for my power!
Shatter.
Sublimate.
The Overlord's power began increasing violently.
"The third bend. Mejiro McQueen is running alone!"
"The final section lies ahead!"
"Will this race be decided like this?"
Just as she was about to step into the final section, the smile on Mejiro McQueen's face suddenly faded.
"You really caught up."
"Though I would like to reward you for your effort..."
"Unfortunately."
"Victory alone is something I will never yield."
Time was up.
Then, at the very end-
Let this be a magnificent curtain call.
ZONE!
In that instant, Mejiro McQueen became the center of the entire field.
As though she were gravity itself, everyone uncontrollably looked toward her.
Was this a domain?
Correct.
This was a domain.
But it was different from every previous one.
This time, no special effects appeared around Mejiro McQueen's body. Even all the special effects from before withdrew into her body in that moment.
On the computer screen in the system space outside, Mejiro McQueen's character suddenly began to display garbled text.
All skills and values began to disappear.
In the end, only stats filled entirely with question marks remained.
And one skill, also entirely made of question marks.
Unlike every skill before it, the iridescent wording of the skill made even the question marks themselves colorful.
"..."
The commentator and spectators were shouting.
The Overlord stared blankly at that scene.
She could not describe what kind of landscape it was.
It seemed to be only the distance of one section of track.
So why...
Why did I feel that it was a sky I could never touch?
Like heaven and earth.
Like the boundary between one world and another.
It was a boundary that could not be crossed by a human body.
Correct.
It was beyond ultimate.
"The divine realm."
...
The race ended.
Afterward, the Overlord discovered that, aside from herself, no one remembered the details of that race.
They only remembered that such a race had happened.
They remembered that the final victor was Mejiro McQueen.
But no one remembered what Mejiro McQueen had displayed at the end-
The sight of a human ascending to a god.
"I am the only one who remembered that scene."
She understood.
It was because she was only half a step away from that realm.
Because she had already reached the limit of [human].
She could be called a [demigod], one close to [god].
That was why she could retain the memory of that instant.
But compared to that, what the Overlord could not understand was:
"Why did you, Mejiro McQueen, disappear at the end?"
...
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