An unfamiliar ceiling—yet, somehow, it felt strangely recognizable.
Liberty Island mused on this as she blinked her eyes.
After several attempts at closing and opening them only to find the view unchanged, she finally accepted the reality: she was definitely not in her dorm room.
But if not the dorms, where could she be?
Liberty Island wasn't the type of Uma Musume to break curfew and sneak out for fun at night; she cared far more about the next day's training than the fleeting joy of staying up late.
"Right... training..."
The word acted like a flipped switch, instantly jolting her memory.
Her last coherent thought from the night before was that she had been training.
Her trainer had mentioned wanting to show her what a "true Zone" looked like, specifically pulling her aside for a mock race last night.
As her consciousness fully returned, Liberty Island instinctively began to replay the scene in her mind.
It must have been a moonless night. Only a few stray stars dotted the vast expanse of the sky; without the lights of the training ground, it would have been pitch black.
In such a setting, the most vivid impression should have been the streetlights providing that glow. Yet, in her memory, that incandescent white light was nothing more than a passing flicker.
In the next heartbeat, a blade of gold-and-red light—radiating a pressure like an Asura descending to earth—slashed through the darkness with a soul-piercing sharpness, severing the light in two!
That terrifying flash didn't lose an ounce of momentum after cutting through her memory.
Instead, it grew even more formidable, threatening to tear through the past and strike the present Liberty Island with its horizontal sweep!
She reflexively turned her head to dodge, but the crimson edge seemed to have locked onto her. No matter how she twisted or turned, she couldn't escape that overwhelming, predatory gleam.
"I'm finished!"
Resigned to the fact that she couldn't dodge, Liberty Island pulled her head under the covers and squeezed her eyes shut.
But just as she expected to be cut down, a voice suddenly drifted from the side of the bed, instantly shattering the terrifying illusion of the blade.
"You're awake? How's your body feeling? Any discomfort?"
Liberty Island didn't respond immediately.
She stayed huddled under the blankets, silently counting the seconds. Only when she was absolutely certain the flash of light had vanished did she cautiously poke her head out.
The moment she looked at the person sitting by the bed, Liberty Island understood why a mere few words had been enough to dispel that blade.
It was because she was the one who wielded that sharpness in the first place.
Seeing Liberty Island staring blankly without saying a word, Dream Weaver tilted her head in confusion.
Had she pushed too hard yesterday?
Had Liberty Island actually been traumatized into a daze by her "strike"?
Just as Dream Weaver's anxiety began to spike, Liberty Island finally opened her mouth.
"Teacher... what did you say your Zone was called again?"
Seeing that she could speak coherently, Dream Weaver breathed a sigh of relief. She gave the girl a playful, slightly exasperated tap on the head before answering.
"I call it the Divine Blade. I told you right before I made my move yesterday, didn't I?"
Liberty Island rubbed the spot on her forehead where Dream Weaver had tapped her, muttering to herself in a bit of a trance.
"Divine Blade... Divine Blade. So that is the strike that once brought down a god?"
Rarely seeing her student in such a state, Dream Weaver found it a bit comical.
"Don't say things like that while rubbing your forehead. You make it sound like I actually chased you down with a real sword."
"Well, not quite..."
"Being chased by an actual sword probably wouldn't be that terrifying."
Thinking back to that final strike from the night before, Liberty Island couldn't help but break into a cold sweat. She doubted she would ever have a more frightening experience in her entire life.
"So that is your secret to being undefeated... a true Zone... Divine Blade."
"Will I be able to possess a Zone like that one day?"
Despite the lingering chills, a profound sense of longing welled up in her heart. Before last night, she had always thought the so-called "Zone" wasn't that big of a deal.
But that flash of light, which had practically cleaved the night sky in two, had shown her the true upper limits of that state.
The mere thought that she might wield such power in the future made her blood boil with excitement.
With a Zone like that, she'd have the absolute confidence to win—even if her opponent was Equinox!
"Teacher! When can I have a Zone like yours?!"
Looking at the inexplicably fired-up Liberty Island, Dream Weaver thought to herself that it would likely be a long road.
She still remembered when she first awakened her Zone; its effect was merely putting pressure on opponents and accelerating their stamina depletion.
Now, simply "unsheathing" the Divine Blade was enough to make many Uma Musume's legs turn to jelly.
The gap between then and now went without saying, but Dream Weaver remained encouraging.
"There will be opportunities in the future."
Then, she subtly shifted the topic.
"By the way, did you manage to successfully awaken your Zone last night?"
From Dream Weaver's perspective, she had simply unleashed Divine Blade and Liberty Island had gone down on the grass with a thud. It was a performance so lackluster it hardly looked like an awakening.
However, the girl had already nearly exhausted her stamina beforehand, and there was a literal chasm between a first-time awakening and the intensity of Divine Blade.
It wasn't impossible that she had been knocked unconscious by the shock at the exact moment she tapped into it.
At the question, Liberty Island knit her brows and clutched her chest.
"That final moment last night was the closest I've ever been. I could feel it; I was truly just one step away."
"I can still feel that strange sensation in my heart now, but it feels like the progress bar has slipped back a few notches. Instead of being 'just a step away,' it's more like I'm 'getting close.'"
Dream Weaver nodded. Liberty Island was likely at a stage similar to when she herself had acquired the "Tokyo Swift" skill—the conditions for awakening were met, and the foundation was there, but it was still just a prototype. She lacked the specific spark to trigger it.
For Dream Weaver, that spark had been a reminder from T.M. Opera O, a month of soul-searching training before the Satsuki Sho, and an obsession with victory.
For Liberty Island, the spark was blindingly obvious.
Even if her progress stalled exactly where it was now, Dream Weaver had no doubt that Liberty Island would awaken her Zone the instant she faced off against Equinox in a real race.
But she didn't plan on telling her that. Instead, she patted the girl's shoulder.
"That's already massive progress. We'll just have to do a few more mock races to help you find that feeling again."
Rather than giving away the ending, Dream Weaver wanted Liberty Island to keep that drive to find the sensation herself.
That way, when she finally did awaken it, she might explode with even greater power due to her familiarity with the threshold.
Liberty Island had been beaming during the first half of the praise, but upon hearing the second half, she swallowed hard.
Wait, for real? We have to do those mock races multiple times? Against the Divine Blade? Me?!
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.