As the race hit the mouth of the final turn, the End Closer group—calm until now—was instantly torn apart by a single violent force!
"Elmaamul's moving! Elmaamul's moving!!"
The commentator's voice detonated. Even through the speakers, the shock was unmistakable.
"So fast—too fast! No one can stop her!"
"The Eclipse Stakes queen is accelerating like mad! She's swallowed several runners in the middle pack in an instant, and now she's closing on the lead group with the momentum of a crushing avalanche!!"
On the track—
The chestnut-haired girl looked like a feral beast finally ripped free of its shackles.
Boom-boom-boom—
Even on a course that was pure mud, every step she took still hit with a brutal, thunderous weight.
And as she stormed forward—
Vmmm—
A deep, ink-black shimmer began to circulate from the depths of her pupils, flowing around her body.
It spilled out like overflowing ink, winding around her like black ribbons.
Miraculous power erupted inside her, raising her speed—slowly, steadily, irresistibly.
…
Up in the stands—
"That's…"
Seeing the shocking shift from the rear, Super Creek frowned, a grave weight settling over her usually gentle face.
"Domain…" she murmured, her hands tightening unconsciously on her knees.
She believed in Oguri Cap's potential—but even so.
If the one running up front right now were Obey Your Master, or Inari One…
then no matter how intensely that girl called Elmaamul pushed her Domain, Super Creek wouldn't be worried in the slightest.
After being absolutely mauled by them more than once, she trusted those girls' finishing power from the bottom of her heart.
But now, the one being pressured was Oguri Cap.
In Super Creek's eyes, Oguri Cap was brilliant, yes—but her raw strength hadn't been all that far beyond Super Creek's.
Even after joining Chasing Light and taking Kuroha's training… it had only been a little over three months, tops.
Can Oguri really hold her off…?
But then Super Creek's eyes shifted. She looked to Kuroha beside her, and her voice dropped—soft, steady.
"…It'll be fine."
"Because Oguri's a Chasing Light horse girl now, too."
Kuroha only gave the demon-king-like figure rampaging from behind a brief, indifferent glance.
His eyes slid right past her, focusing instead on Oguri Cap.
Once the final phase began, the outcome was already clear in Kuroha's sight. Right now, he only had one thought.
"Festive Miracle…"
"This miracle, born from the shattered reconstruction of Domain — Grey Monster… show me."
"Show me how strong you are."
…
Down on the track, the lead group—
The biting chill at their backs crept closer and closer.
"Hahahaha! So you came, huh?!"
Sixton whipped her head around and saw the black figure rocketing toward them.
Faced with pressure that would make an ordinary horse girl freeze, Great Britain's steel chariot didn't flinch—she threw her head back and laughed, thrilled.
"Good! Good!"
"Elmaamul—I knew I wasn't wrong about you!"
"That's it! Come on!"
"Let's kill each other out here!!"
Boom!
Stung by the pursuit behind her, Sixton's fighting spirit erupted into something ferocious—
and it made Tremont, still clinging to the lead, want to scream.
A track like a swamp ahead.
A tank breathing down her neck behind.
And farther back, a lunatic charging with a knife in her teeth.
"What the hell is wrong with you people…?!" Tremont gritted out, lungs burning like fire.
Her muscles twisted under her skin, her face contorted with strain.
"No matter what…"
"Don't think you can pass me that easily!!"
She wrung the last scraps of strength from her body, trying to defend a lead that was already on the verge of collapse.
And yet—
In a place no one was paying attention to.
In the shadow cast by the lead group—
An ash-gray horse girl ran lightly, keeping perfect rhythm with the field.
"Hah…"
She breathed in a steady cadence.
And as if something were peeling away from the void itself, another gray current quietly seeped into her body.
With that flow merging into her, a long-accumulated, long-silent terror—
began to take shape.
Only Candiglen, half a body ahead, saw it clearly.
With a miserable face, she barely held herself together and muttered in her heart, These cocky idiots are all going to go down together…
…
The lead group was about to step out of the final turn.
Boom—!!
Behind them, black streaklight erupted like a storm.
Elmaamul stood at the center of that black tempest, surging with unmatched dominance. In only a few seconds, she blew past multiple runners behind.
Under the sheer might of Domain, the opponents still struggling in the mud looked almost motionless in her crimson vision.
Too slow.
They were all too slow!
Cutting through rain and mist at lightning speed, Elmaamul's gaze pierced forward.
"I see you…"
At the instant the pack was about to exit the final turn and enter the straight, she finally caught sight of the back she'd been hunting—the Far Eastern horse girl Chasing Light had marked as the greatest threat.
Oguri Cap was still running at an ordinary cruising speed.
"That's it?" Elmaamul's smile turned wild, ferocious. "Then I'll—end it right now!!"
All the terrifying leg power she'd stored up—waiting in the rear, suppressing herself for more than half the race—exploded without a shred of restraint, slamming down toward Oguri Cap like a falling blade!
"Hahaha! Come on!!"
Up ahead, sensing that battle intent rushing closer, Sixton didn't fear it—she got even more excited, veins bulging in her thighs.
Boom—!
The steel chariot poured everything into her legs. Each stomp hit like a god's hammer, pulverizing mud into spray.
She was ready—fully ready—to face Elmaamul head-on and decide it with a final kick on the homestretch!
Then—
At the very brink of impact, at the knife-edge moment when the black storm was about to devour everything—
Tap…
A single, light sound.
Like a pure-white snowflake drifting down onto a still pond, sending ripples across the surface.
?!
!!
Whether it was Elmaamul—Domain flaring, red light in her eyes—
or Sixton up ahead, face twisted with battle—
both of their pupils snapped tight, both of their bodies locking for the barest instant.
They'd thought the pressure climbing without end was coming from each other.
But now, an inexplicable fear rose in their chests.
…
"Hah…"
Ahead of them, the ash-gray girl—ignored until now—drew a gray streak of light into her body.
Then a cold, pale breath slowly spilled from the corner of her lips, hanging in the freezing air without dispersing.
"Haa…"
Oguri Cap's heart hammered violently, blood roaring through her veins like a flooding river.
A power—pure, massive, absolute—burst through her limbs and bones all at once.
Festive Miracle!!
VMMM—!!!
A sudden mutation.
In Elmaamul's stunned gaze, that dark-green heavy turf ahead—
flared into a dazzling, pure-white brilliance.
It was a road.
A radiant snow-white road, woven from countless points of light, extending forward from beneath the ash-gray girl's feet.
It ignored the mud.
Ignored the resistance.
Pointing straight—straight toward the one and only finish line.
"What… is that?!" Elmaamul's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
As a top-class runner with Domain, she understood better than anyone—
This wasn't Domain. Not even close.
Boom—!!!
Before she could make sense of it, a footfall exploded like thunder up ahead.
That gray-white figure dropped sharply forward, falling into an absurdly aggressive, extreme forward-lean posture.
Whoosh!
In a single instant—Candiglen, who'd been running third, didn't even have time to realize what had happened—
a white gale tore past her.
And the figure vanished from her vision.
The next moment, Oguri Cap was already alongside Sixton.
"You—"
Sixton blanked for a split second at the small figure that suddenly appeared level with her.
Then her face flushed red, veins bulging on her forehead.
"Don't you dare!!"
As she hit the straight, the steel chariot finally began to unleash her power.
Terrifying brute force translated into extreme speed—so extreme that even the heavy turf couldn't stop her from advancing.
But Oguri Cap only turned her head calmly.
Gentle white lightning rose in her eyes.
Her steps shifted—
Wind exploded around her!
In Sixton's horrified stare, that seemingly slender girl began to creep forward—inch by inch, unstoppable—past Sixton's shoulder.
"You—!!!"
Sixton couldn't believe it.
The backwater horse girl she hadn't even considered before the race was now a lethal threat—right here, right now.
Her expression twisted, feral.
Her legs drove into the ground with such force it looked like she might tear up the turf itself.
"Stop! Stop right now!!"
The wind screamed past her ears. The rail in her vision ripped backward.
Two figures became two blurred streaks of light, splitting the final straight down the middle.
And at the same time—
Tremont, the pacesetter who'd suffered for the entire race up front—
was as fragile as paper before the finishing kicks of these monsters.
"No…!"
She couldn't even manage a real response. All she could do was watch, unwilling and furious, as the two brutal figures swept past and erased her completely.
The lead—changed hands.
"Incredible—this is unbelievable!!"
Half a beat of silence—and then the commentator's voice cracked with excitement.
"The final straight! A shocking reversal!!"
"Elmaamul has closed in! Sixton has begun her drive!"
"But Oguri Cap from the Far East has exploded too!"
"She's terrifying—what control! She's going toe-to-toe with Sixton, neither giving an inch!"
"So who takes it?! Who wins in the end?!"
"Is it the genius?! The war chariot?! Or the monster that's finally awakened?!"
"OOOOOOOOOO—!!"
In that instant, tens of thousands in the stands lost their minds, a heat-wave of roaring cheers swallowing the sky over Leopardstown.
They were witnessing the birth of a miracle.
A Far Eastern horse girl no one believed in before the race—so overlooked she'd only been ninth in popularity—
now became a dark horse that tore the night apart, shaking off multiple international G1-caliber runners.
And she was fighting in the final phase, head-on, against Europe's most celebrated elites.
This kind of unexpected script—
was the truest proof of adventure.
How could anyone not be thrilled?
How could anyone not have their blood set on fire?!
…
Final straight. Last 400 meters.
Boom—!
Footfalls slammed like they could shatter the earth. Oguri Cap didn't even look at Sixton beside her.
The pure-white lightning that had been locked deep in her pupils finally released completely.
The power of Domain's first step—True-Self Mode—was no longer restrained.
Dreamlike radiance streaked from the corners of her eyes.
And in an instant, she surpassed the opponent at her side.
On that snow-white road of light, Oguri Cap's back pulled farther and farther away.
"Wha—"
Sixton's eyes went wide as she watched the gray-white figure that had been beside her—
begin to shake her off.
Those legs she'd always been proud of hammered the ground like mad, but no matter how she squeezed every last drop of power from her body, that back only widened the gap with merciless ease.
Half a length… one length… two lengths…
That helplessness felt like trying to catch wind with bare hands.
And then—
VMMM—!!
A suffocating black storm, carrying a freezing chill, surged up behind her!
"Sixton. Move."
A voice like ice cut through.
Elmaamul, wrapped in black Domain light, had gone cold to the bone.
The lightning in her crimson eyes burned even brighter than before—like she was burning her life itself as fuel.
"Bastard!!" Sixton roared.
Getting passed by that Far Eastern monster was one thing.
But now this brat from behind wanted to step on her head, too?!
She couldn't accept that.
She would never accept it.
"If you've got the guts—then come take it!!" Sixton snarled, refusing to yield.
Boom! Boom!
Her footwork thundered across the turf.
The two speedsters refused to give ground, shoulder to shoulder in the mud—foreheads nearly smashing, bodies grinding as they fought for the same line.
And yet—
Sixton realized with a jolt that Elmaamul's eyes weren't on her at all.
Even as they battled, Elmaamul's stare was locked forward—
locked onto the lone gray-white figure ahead, already three lengths clear.
"Why…"
"Why won't you use Domain?!"
Elmaamul's mind screamed. Are you looking down on me? Are you looking down on me?!
From her grandma's mouth, she'd heard it long ago—Oguri Cap had Domain.
So from the very start of this race, she'd been on guard, waiting for Oguri Cap to unleash that power.
But—
"Why won't you use it?!"
"Do you really think… I'm not worthy of being your opponent?!"
Elmaamul bit her lip so hard it nearly bled.
But then, seeing the hulking brute beside her—face equally twisted, still charging for the finish—
Elmaamul's mind cleared for a heartbeat.
Even without Domain, she could nearly make up the difference through sheer physicality.
And the ash-gray horse girl who could defeat Sixton head-on without using Domain…
was only going to be more terrifying.
"I…"
For a single instant, the light in Elmaamul's eyes dimmed.
Then—immediately—a fiercer brilliance ignited again.
She was Elmaamul.
She was the Eclipse Stakes queen.
She could lose—
but she would never bow her head.
The black Domain light completely raged out of control. Little by little, her body edged past Sixton.
But that was all.
Because ahead—
that gray-white figure was already untouchable.
At the finish line—
On a muddy, rain-soaked course, three streaks of speed dragged blurred afterimages, leaving every other runner behind.
"They hit the line—!!"
The commentator's hoarse scream declared the battle's end.
"A crushing win—four lengths!"
"On this G1 stage packed with Europe's greatest!"
"The winner of the Irish Champion Stakes is—"
"The ash-gray monster from the Far East—Oguri Cap!!"
(End of Chapter)
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