Fire was everywhere. Men, women, and children were running in terror while a large group of brightly colored superheroines fell to the ground, losing a battle against a giant Kaiju-like monster. This battle left only 1 woman who looked... Oddly normal compared to the rest. While the others seemed to be cosplaying the entire Crayola crayon selection, she was wearing a casual dress while even more casually calling down lightning on the giant being.

Meanwhile, another much smaller group of these magicians was helping with the evacuation. Despite the chaos, everything was going well for the most. The monster was being suppressed and nobody else was getting hurt... Aside from one girl.

One girl, ever so tiny. Her short legs couldn't run anymore with visible bruising and damage yet she continued to run anyways. This wasn't caused by her running and falling a couple of times. These injuries were very clearly made artificially.

A knife came flying at her from behind which she seemed to easily avoid as the left side of her bangs turned from a nice light brown to a discolored silver along with silver lines appearing all over her body as if they were visual manifestations of veins.

In fact, rather than just avoiding the knife, she grabbed it out of the air and tossed it at one of her pursuers, nearly lopping his head clean off.

Unfortunately, she missed it. And missing in this situation was nothing less than a death sentence.

Finally, after being chased for well over an hour, this small girl was backed into a corner with no escape leaving her with only one option.

She cried out.

"Mommy!"

Tears fell from her crystal blue eyes which were full of terror that surpassed anyone who was running away from that giant monster.

No, that monster was of no consequence to her. Her mother was fighting it so it was as good as dead. What she was running from was something arguably much worse.

The Religious...

She could see their shadows approaching her before they even turned the final corner.

"N-no! Stay away! Mommy help me!" She continued to cry.

What else could she do? This girl, no matter how good or acute her senses were and how good her knife-throwing skills were, she was just a 5-year-old girl. A 5-year-old girl who happened to be the daughter of the strongest Witch in the world.

Moments later, two people in priest robes appeared before the girl. Neither looked particularly happy about what they were doing.

"Girl. As the descendant of the legendary witch Circe, you must be put down. We do not enjoy what we do but it is God's will."

"N-no! Leave me alone!"

The girl tried to back up further but she was stopped as her back hit the wall of the alley she found herself in.

These bad men. These men of God. Instead of helping evacuate or fighting the giant monster who could very well kill everyone in the city, they were using this chance to kill a little girl. The moment her mother left to protect everyone they struck... As if they were specifically waiting for that exact moment.

What did that matter though? What mattered was how unfair this was to the little girl. Yes, she was the descendant of someone recorded as a divine being and yes she did have the qualities to be classified as a witch but her natural mana pool was far too low to cast spells of the affinity she was born with. Even if she wanted to be an evil witch in the future, she literally couldn't.

Those Silver Veins as well... Even using them for 2 seconds completely drained her mana pool.

Witches, with a few exceptions, were those who gained magic through contracts with Archdemons or other denizens of hell.

They were but one of the different factions who learned how to obtain supernatural powers in their own way. Just like the priests who tried to kill this little girl.

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That's off-topic though, right now the little girl who was about to become an edgy isekai protagonist with a hate boner for Sky Daddy was more important.

She needed to find a way out... But how? While she was certainly quite intelligent for her age, that wasn't saying much as she was no older than 5.

"Stop this nonsense, Darrick. We need to deal with her before the Grand Witch returns. If she comes back we're doomed."

This man, Darrick looked conflicted. He genuinely didn't wanna do this. Alas, God's will needed to be carried out.

Pulling out a ritualistic dagger that had a faint radiant glow around its blade with one hand and holding his cross in the other.

Walking towards the girl he prayed through her screams. He grew closer and closer by the second until he slashed.

Closing her eyes in fear, she realized that the strike that would have killed her never came.

At first, she thought it was her magic activating. How would that be the case when her tank was empty? She didn't know but she also didn't have the liberty of questioning something like that. She heard that magic can grow significantly stronger in the face of certain death so perhaps that was the cause.

Opening her eyes, she quickly realized that her guess couldn't be further from the truth as a translucent blue forcefield of sorts protected her.

""What?!"" Both priests exclaimed.

They were about to prepare for battle but didn't have time to react as something shot through the wall of the alley and sent them flying several meters away.

"A Priest of both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faith working together to maim a little girl? I've seen many things in my long life and yet this is still somehow a first. Not to mention on the day of the Festival."

Sitting atop a building, she turned around to face the little girl, this young woman... Rather than a woman it was a girl who was probably in middle or high school. Regardless, she looked at the younger girl, clad in white and blue, like an angel amidst this chaos.

"Can you tell me your name, Little Gray?"

Through her tears, she was unsure why this older girl called her little gray, not realizing at the time it was because of her singular piece of silver hair but she answered nonetheless.

"Lu-u-Lucy... Lucy Lotus Elliott."

"Elliott?"

The girl pondered that name before glancing at the woman fighting the massive monster.

"Aha. So that's it."

"You! Who are you!"

And it seems the priests have finally regained their wits from her little sneak attack.

Clicking her tongue, she gained a smile and looked directly at Lucy.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Stay here and you'll be safe until your mom returns, okay?"

The smile made her look even more like an angel. The spitting image of righteousness. Ironic considering who her opponents were no doubt.

Lucy nodded, her eyes lighting up in awe and admiration as her savior turned around.

The moment said savior turned around her smile faded and turned into a face of complete disappointment.

"Didn't those big wigs at Ragnarok threaten to nuke your entire religious branches if you teamed up to hunt witches unprovoked? It seems I'll need to talk to Lunacy-chan about covering this little incident up. Although it probably won't be hard because of the Shadow Child but I digress."

"Unprovoked? You must be delusional."

She could only shrug as the man didn't even try to defend himself or give a valid reason as to how exactly this little girl could have possibly provoked two grown men to kill her.

"Takes one to know one I guess, considering you're still trying to hurt this girl in my presence and all. I am Deus Ex Machina. You're lucky. If not a need to help the Grand witch deal with that Invader, neither of you would have a slow death."

This was enough to get the attention of the priests. That was a name they knew, even if only vaguely. A woman who was known worldwide in the supernatural community as the greatest inventor and someone even the Pope dared not provoke.

The strongest of those multicolored heroines.

Magical Sentinel Dues Ex Machina, the God of machines.

A being that is speculated to rival even the Pope in power. This was, without anyone knowing the full extent of her machinery.

If it meant anything, she was an entity that the Pope was fully aware of and allowed to keep the title of God without any interference.

In simpler terms, she was the strongest Magic Sentinel.

At this moment both priests knew they had no chance of winning. This girl was at the top of the list of people not to mess with.

If there was any silver lining though, at least Darrick could die knowing he didn't have to kill an innocent little girl.

"Honestly. You just had to do this on the day of the Magical Sentinels' Debut, huh? Your crimes just continue to add up."

To call this day a festival was very interesting. Peculiar, yes certainly but by no means wrong. Although once again, it's quite ironic that Priests are dying on such a day.

The publicization of a new world power. The day that the supernatural and mundane worlds collide for the first time. The secret war that had lasted for generations between those with supernatural powers. All of it could very well be laid bare. Was this not the perfect example of a festival?

May 6th, 2017. The Great Sentinel Festival. The day the world became aware. And more importantly for you. The day Magical Sentinels or Magical Girls as they're more commonly called, revealed themselves to the world.

Without saying another word, two miniature stealth bombers came to Machina's side and the battle began...

Despite the brimstone around her, Lucy could only think of one thing as her still tear-filled eyes sparkled.

'Just like her! I wanna be just like her!'