||

|<+5 MAG>|

|<+2 VIT>|

Slowly opening her eyes, Lucy let out a pained groan.

"What happened?"

Her chest felt heavy and her head was pounding. She didn't even know where she was at this very moment.

It took her 10 whole minutes to get up. From there she quickly realized she was in a rather large and peculiarly decorated room. She only moved here a few days ago so it wasn't that bad yet but lining the walls and her shelves were countless figures of different Magical Sentinels. Most of which being of Deus ex Machina. Checking her phone, it was around 3 a.m., the perfect time to summon demons or whatever witches tend to do.

Scrolling through her phone to clear up all her notifications, she heard her door close.

"Ah, you're awake. You passed out from exhaustion." Nell said, jumping onto the bed next to Lucy.

"Exhaustion? That should be nearly impossible. Mana would reinvigorate my stamina if it ever ran out. And how did you open my door?"

"Watching someone nearly die to protect you, Nearly dying twice yourself, Transforming into a Sentinel for the first time, AND going to your first day of school. On top of this System. Forget your stamina, Lucille you're exhausted mentally. Who knows how far past your limit you were."

||

It seems the system agreed with Nell's sentiment.

When putting it into words, Lucy could only nod even if she didn't really buy it. Being mentally exhausted to the point of passing out? It's not something that has ever happened before and she had to deal with Diana's antics of summoning higher-dimensional beings before.

"What about you? Why are you fine?" Lucy glared.

Nell looked rather distant with this question.

"I've... Been living alongside Sora for over 70 years. When you spend so much time with that girl you learn to hide things really well."

"Oh... I'm so sorry for asking."

Nell shook her head. It wasn't a big deal. They had both steeled themselves for the worst a long time ago and, for the time being at least, the worst was avoided. For a Sentinel as active as the Gaia, 70 years is a very long life. The fact that the remnants of her team still exist is a miracle in itself.

"Eh?! 70 years?! Didn't the Sentinels only appear 9 years ago?"

Lucy shot out of her bed in surprise. Magical Sentinels not aging was something that they claimed a lot and it made sense. Magic extended your lifespan by a lot so for a group that naturally has a metric ton of it innately, it made sense to have absurdly long lifespans.

That being said, they only appeared 9 years ago.

"In the public eye, yes. I'm unsure when other Agents came into this world but for us Operators, it was about 133 years ago."

This was... It wasn't unbelievable. This world had many unexplainable things. Hell, the Church and Witches have hidden their powers for as long as humans existed. What was hard to believe is that, prior to 9 years ago, Lucy's family didn't have a single record of Magical Sentinels.

As the Matriarch's daughter, she has read nearly every single book related to magic in their archives. There are witches in her ancestry who were nearly omniscient. For sentinels to be around for so long and still avoid detection was crazy.

"It's fine, isn't it? You're a sentinel now. Operator Gaia's successor at that. You'll learn of our history eventually."

Nell was correct. Lucy wasn't sure when but if she really looked into it, the past would surely reveal itself in time.

That aside. Being called Operator Gaia's successor. It was Bittersweet, having someone put all their faith into you felt amazing but it was an equally daunting task to live up to that faith though.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Ah... It seems the past day has made me tense. I should get ready."

"Hmm? Ready for what?"

Without saying anything else, Lucy ran into the bathroom for about 15 minutes.

Nell didn't manage to hear any doors closing, or even Lucy's footsteps. If she wasn't watching Lucy run, the only indicator she would have had was the sound of the shower starting to run water.

"She can evade even my Senses? Sora... Just what kind of monster did you entrust your legacy to?" Nell questioned to herself.

After she got out of the shower, Lucy appeared back in front of Nell with new clothing. Her hair wasn't even fully dry yet but she wore a cropped Cami Top, and a pair of track shorts, both black in color with white outlines.

Only now did Nellphyis get a good look at Lucy. You could shred cheese on her abdomen.

'Her muscles are so defined. Isn't she just a 14-year-old girl? What the hell did she put herself through to achieve this?' Nell questioned to herself.

"Ah~~ It's been a while since I've had a shower." She said with a satisfied stretch.

Witches normally just used a talisman or some other mystical tool to clean themselves, do their laundry, and other such mundane things but taking a nice hot shower really helped clear her mind.

Over the past nearly 24 hours now, she wasn't herself. From early morning, the situation has been tense because she was running from Utopia and even after that, so much has been on her mind.

Honestly, she was full of energy now. The excitement of her becoming a magical sentinel finally set in. She felt like she was on top of the world.

"Ready to go out, obviously? Physical fitness helps with mana circulation. At first, I started in hopes of gaining enough Mana to use my Chronomancy but now it's just habit." Lucy explained, answering the question Nell asked before she left abruptly.

"I see. Does the change in your eyes also have to do with Mana Circulation? They seem... Brighter? More sparkly. Also, what do you mean go out? It's so dark you wouldn't even be able to see!"

Lucy shrugged.

"This is my natural eye color? The eyes of a Witch naturally glow a little and it's even more noticeable when we cast magic so I wear contacts normally. And of course, it's dark. Witches have a form of dark vision innately. It's much easier to get away with using magic at this time."

"You even have Night Vision? What do witches not have?"

"The love of the lord above..."

"Mhm..."

That saying didn't really work for Lucy because she's the descendant of a minor deity but those are details that didn’t need to be addressed.

Without saying anymore, Nell hopped onto Lucy's shoulder.

"You're coming with?"

"You might get kidnapped if I don't!"

This made Lucy chuckle. If someone from the Mundane world tried to touch her they'd have every bone in their bodies broken several times over. If it wasn't for her being against killing to a fault, their fate would be even worse.

"Let's go then."

Leaving her house, Lucy had a hair tie fall out of her sleeve and into her hand, tying her hair into a ponytail.

Stretching briefly, Lucy and Nell by proxy began their run.

"Ah, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What's up?"

"In your opinion, who's the strongest Magical Girl?"

"Strongest Sentinel, you mean?"

"Yeah, whatever. Like, 80% of us are female."

Nell let out a sigh because of Lucy’s use of incorrect terms.

"The strongest, huh? It's hard to say. If we're talking about pure destructive power and fighting prowess it'd most likely be the Russian Sentinel, Lunacy of the Ragnarok."

"Lunacy? Ah! That's the name Deus Ex Machina mentioned!"

Lucy’s exclamation caused Nell to furrow her brows.

"Ex Machina? Do you know the God of Machines?"

Lucy shook her head. Meeting someone once was very different from knowing them after all.

"9 Years ago, during the Great Sentinel Festival. While the Grand Witch was fighting the massive invader, two priests used the chance to try and kill me. Deus Ex Machina managed to save me and supposedly helped the Grand Witch take down the Invader. She's the reason I look up to Magical Girls so much."

After saying that, the two both grew silent for a few seconds.

"Sorry. It's not an interesting story."

"No, no! You're fine. I can't believe such a young girl had to go through that terrible situ... You felt that right?"

Cutting herself off, Nell was alerted to them being forced into a Shadow World.

"Eh?"

Lucy didn't feel any change. She wasn't paying attention to the flow of Mana in the air because it gave her a massive headache but even after focusing her senses, she couldn't tell much difference.

If she had to say 1 thing she did notice, it was that the Mana felt angry. It felt slightly hotter like the particles of mana were moving around faster and faster. It was extremely subtle but definitely there.

SCREECH!!!

"AAAAAAAAAH NO! HELP!"

Lucy did notice that though.

"I assume that's my queue."