“C-commander! We just got word on the escapee! Yesterday afternoon, she got into a confrontation with 3 Sentinels. As far as we can tell, everyone but 1 person vanished without a trace!” A familiar gurgling sound came from a two-headed humanoid.

“Only 1 survived?” This commander inferred.

“That is the official statement, sir, but if I may add my own opinion… I highly doubt that any of those individuals lost their lives. We have no information on any of the 3 sentinels that appeared. It’s very possible one of them had ways of blocking our scouts.”

The shadowy commander looked idly at his papers as the words “3 Sentinels” Echoed throughout his office over and over again.

“No matter how I look at it, it’s impossible for Sentinels to move that fast unless they knew those who governed that area were going to be defeated. Did they know of our plans? Or was it a coincidence? Listen, don’t send anyone above the Knight rank for the time being, and have all soldiers attack in the World of Shadows. Make sure they drag at least a couple of civilians into the shadow world as well We need information about our opponent before I or any other Commanders go. Even if it’s just their personality or habits related to saving their own people.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

With his subordinate running off in a frenzy, the shadowy commander furrowed his brows in thought. It was clear he was taking this situation more seriously than he was last time with his petty squabbles amongst other Commanders.

“3 unknown Sentinels appear right as the Operators die out… Her Majesty’s daughter manages to escape there… Both into such an important city. All this is far too much to be simply coincidences, but from what side are the strings being pulled?”

…

“Keravnós,” Chronos shouted, her signature lightning strike flying toward another lesser suit man along with his partner, this time a panther-like beast that had the ability to double the damage Chronos took from all of its hits.

||

Lowering down to the ground with a little girl in her hands, the moment Chronos landed, she gave the girl to her mother before running over to the untransformed Suitman.

“T-thank you! W-who are you?”

Loading the man onto her broom, Chronos looked back and answered.

“Me? I’m Operator Chronos.” Before flying off like a jet.

Pulling her phone out of her inventory, she let out a depressed sigh as the clock ticked down.

8:23

Faster than any car, Chronos shot through the skies to the closest hospital before effectively throwing the man at the staff with nothing more than a “Have fun with him!” before flying off.

“Chronos, why are you in such a hurry? Is being late that bad?” Nell asked curiously.

Chronos’ face looked bleak at the thought of Nell’s question.

“Look. There is a ninety-eight point ninety-seven percent chance that Diana already knows I became a Magical Girl. She has eyes all over the city, so it’s nearly impossible that she doesn’t, but on the slim slim SLIM chance that she doesn’t, I’d like to keep it that way at least until I get Lily-rose to her. If she doesn’t know by that point, I can leverage it and force her to assist Lily-rose. If I’m late, I’m going to have to come up with an excuse, and if I tell her I was with my boyfriend again, then she’ll ask to meet him, and who the hell am I gonna show her, UTOPIA?!”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Chronos nearly vomited while in the air at the implications of that. Not even bothering to consider if he’d even be willing to play along, she might just kill herself on the spot if such a thing came to pass.

Nell could only grow more and more curious about Diana’s abilities. Although she had met the woman once, she didn’t give off the feeling of someone very powerful or particularly weak. She felt like a very average person to Nell but considering that Lucy has only praised her abilities, it made her wonder.

Much like her Sentinel partner, Nell can see the flow of mana with her eyes but when she looked at Diana from inside the Sentinel Base, the flow of her mana was identical to that of a normal person.

‘Just how powerful does she have to be to evade my eyes?’

Within the next minute with Chronos flying far faster than whatever speed limits the city had, had reached the school.

Quickly lowering to the ground and untransformed, she began sprinting toward the school as the gate began to close.

“No, no, no, no, no, no!” She shouted, grabbing the attention of the teacher watching the gate.

Oddly enough, she wasn’t the only one sprinting toward the gate at this time.

From another angle, a girl she recognized running toward the gate much slower than herself and very clearly out of breath.

“Silica? Don’t help her, Lucy. There’s no reason to help her, Lucy… You’ll be late, Lucy… But you’ll have a great alibi if you fail…”

Reinforcing her legs with mana, her pace sped up by double as she darted toward her newly acquired friend, easily catching up to her.

“You won’t make it at this rate, need a hand?” Lucy asked.

Silica’s head shot to the side, looking at Lucy and jumping in terror as the tall girl somehow managed to sneak up on her.

Grabbing her phone from her bag, she quickly typed.

Lucy! Where did you come from? You need to hurry, or you’ll be late!

“And so will you. The difference is that I can continue running, and you can’t, so I ask again, need a hand?” Lucy chuckled.

Silica nodded hesitantly, unsure of how Lucy could possibly help her make it in time. Even if Lucy were to give her a shoulder to lean on, there was no way she could run all the way and even if she could do that, there’s no way she had the athletic capabilities to manage.

Getting the go-ahead, Lucy’s smile grew as she picked Silica up effortlessly, placing her into a princess carry.

“Hold on, princess!” She shouted playfully, preparing to run once again.

As she took the first step, prior to Silica even really figuring out what was going on, she heard the sound of cement crack underneath them before screaming because of the sudden burst in speed.

Counting the seconds in her head as she grew closer, Lucy clicked her tongue before allocating a bit more mana to her legs. She tried to push it further but quickly realized that wasn’t possible while untransformed because of her injury.

‘Still! This is enough!’

The teacher watched in shock as Lucy’s speed seemed only to increase, even after picking up another girl. Even if it was a tiny girl like Silica, she had to weigh at least 48 kilos.

Normally he would have stopped the gate from closing to let the students in. He wasn’t a freak who would laugh as students got marked as absent right in front of him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He was just so… Fascinated by how skilled of a runner Lucy was.

Back to Lucy, she narrowed her eyes as the crack in the door quickly became too small for her to fit through with Silica in tow.

‘If I can’t run through, I’ll simply hop it!’

Placing all her weight onto one leg, she launched herself into the air. For the two people present aside from her and Nell, who was watching from the Sentinel Base, time seemed to slow down as she flew in the air for what felt like an entire minute.

Landing the jump flawlessly right as the heavy metal gate shut, Lucy shot her body back up from the ground.

“Come on! We need to hurry to class!” She cheered, assisting Silica along.

She knew the moment she picked Silica up, her legs would go weak. She already knew how meek of a girl Silica was and even the more bold of ladies probably wouldn’t be able to properly respond to a sudden princess carry, even at the speed Lucy casually ran at, much less her speed after mana reinforcement.

Unfortunately, as cheery as Lucy was being, she noticed something quite grim while running with Silica in her hands. She could only hope her thoughts on the matter were wrong.

All this while the teacher stood still while staring into the void contemplating what he just saw. Only 6 words could be processed in his mind as he grew a passionate smile.

‘I need her on my team!’