Now that she had turned nineteen, Sadi had a strange new amount of perspective to her life. She figured that, likely it was really just all of the things that she had been doing in the last year, but every time she thought about it, all she could hear was her mother’s words echoing through her head about how, once a young girl turned nineteen and became a young woman, they would have their eyes opened to the great wide world around them. Sadi had been privy to the world around her for longer than many adults she knew, but that didn’t change the fact that, with the completion of her new kill order system, she felt like she had truly become the young woman her mother always told her she’d become.

Sadi grit her teeth as she clawed at the sandbag in front of her, turning it to ash, much to her pleasure. She was sweating like crazy, but she didn’t let that or the burning sensation in every fiber of her muscles bother her. She just had to keep pushing through. She could feel herself on the verge of the breakthrough that she had been working towards for the past five years.

The kill order system had been completed five months ago and the operations of the Death Trinity were all going well. Her side project that she had started work on with the collection of soul fragments had even been going rather well. So, she had decided that, with all that free time she now had, she would put every bit of her energy in to mastering primal essence and the primal power that it brought along with it.

At first, when she’d felt the power granted to her by primal essence, she was skeptical of what it even was, but after her visit to Ser and to her father, she had come to the conclusion that the power now dwelling inside of her was exactly the same as that of the Masters. They seemed to possess a more powerful form of essence than even what occurred natural. A truly raw and primal form of essence that could only be possessed by them. But now, Sadi possessed that same power and she was so close to mastering it as well.

All over her body and around her hands, sparking flames surged with primal power. Sadi could now effortlessly call on the power without even needing to use her cursed eye. However, there was one more problem with primal power that she needed to overcome. Whenever she drew on primal power, it would create the strange sparking flames which would burn her body. At first, she thought the burns were only external, but it quickly became clear to her that, while active, her aura was being degraded by the primal power. After she relinquished it, the burns would stop growing and, with time, they would eventually heal back up completely, but that still meant that the limiter on her usage of primal power was not her own supply of essence, but how much she could take before passing out.

Even with all of her training, the burns still occurred and, while they were no longer as big or deep as they once were, there were now truly permanent scars on her aura where the burns had injured her body in a much worse way than it had anywhere else.

The sun was almost setting and Sadi had been in the gym for thirty-two hours now. Sadi hadn’t eaten since she’d started the previous day, nor had she deactivated her primal power since the start of this session. She would usually just keep going until she collapsed which usually occurred around this mark of time, but even through her deeply impaired vision, Sadi refused to quit. It was all she could to keep herself standing. She was desperate to master this power and even if she didn’t entirely know how, she would do everything in her power too. Even if she burned through her entire supply of essence and her body was reduced to glowing dust, she would do it.

That thought caused Sadi’s eyes to widen and then, as though a switch had been flicked, the sparking flames around her body began to blaze brighter, hotter, and more fiercely. Sadi gave a faint smile as the power almost immediately subsided and faded as soon as it had come. There were still slight burns on her body, but they quickly healed up, even faster than they would have before, but not with the power that Sadi now had control over. Before she could congratulate herself, she collapsed to the ground and passed out.

When she jolted up, Sadi found herself in the personal infirmary suite that she had in the central building of the guild. It had been built for the express purpose of taking care of the young woman whenever she passed out doing something stupid and reckless with her primal essence. Thus far, she had been hospitalized somewhere close to a hundred and sixty times in the last five months.

Usually, she would take less than an hour after waking up before she returned to the gym and got right back on it. For the last five months, she only slept when she collapsed from essence-overuse exhaustion, but this time, she just sat in bed. She took a moment to regain herself before snapping her fingers, primal flames sparking just around her hand, blazing just as brightly and fiercely as they had before she’d passed out. Sadi closed her hand and then inspected it before smiling. There were no burns or marks of any kind on her hand from the primal essence. Sadi had finally mastered primal essence. With that realization dawning, she quickly collapsed again, falling in to a four-day long sleep.

When she finally awoke from her deep slumber, the entire guild was alight with joy. The guild had continued to run smoothly without Sadi, by design. Sadi had ensured that the guild could be self-sufficient for months without her presence, but with her power and authority, she had the respect of her entire guild and so having her around at the guild, even if she was ignoring everyone and spending every waking hour in the gym training, people were happy.

However, Sadi wouldn’t be staying around for long. As soon as she was fully rested and back to full strength, Sadi was in her office, planning for her next big endeavor. She already knew that none of the people that dwelled within her guild would be able to handle the full force of her primal power, so she needed to find someone who could. The only people who could handle it would be the Masters or a direct descendant. Her mind immediately went to Killian and Denasti, but then she remembered the agreement that they had made. However, that same agreement gave her a brilliant idea.

Extremely excited by the prospects of what she was about to do, Sadi rushed to her room and tore through her closet. Sadi had never been the most feminine woman and many were quick to point that out, seemingly as a bad or confusing thing, but it was simply the way she was. People questioned her presentation as a woman more than her sexuality, which deeply confused her. Even still, for what she was about to do, Sadi wanted to look her absolute best.

Sadi quickly tossed her current clothes aside, leaving her nude in front of a mirror. She had never understood why people found her attractive, but in this moment, she could feel a bit of pride in her body. People always seemed to focus on her large breasts which they said were “unbefitting of someone so skinny,” something which she couldn’t argue with, but saw no issue with. Even still, she didn’t really have any feelings towards them. What she loved most about her body in this moment were the dozens of dark scars that dotted her pale skin. She traced her fingers over them, admiring each one and recalling how she got them in fondness.

Once she had finished reminiscing, her attention returned to her closet. For once, she wanted to go with fashion over function for her wardrobe choice. She pulled out the most supportive bra and least obtrusive underwear she could find in her closet. She then threw on a very nice pair of formal black jeans. She then put on a matching black collared shirt and a dark purple vest. She topped it off with a purple bow tie and a pair of suspenders which she allowed to hang down around her legs. To finish off her outfit, she locked two black metal bands around her upper arms and tossed on a tall black top hat. Standing in front of the mirror, Sadi smiled wide before sinking down in to a shadow underneath her.

When she emerged, she was standing a few miles away from what was called Camp I. Sadi had always thought that these six “official” guilds had the most boring naming schemes, but at present, she wasn’t looking to confront them on their guild’s terrible name. Instead, she focused in on the actual buildings that made up the guild. In the center, there was a large red tent with several sections. She could feel immense power radiating from it, but it was too immense, so she focused on the other buildings, specifically a large, fortified building just south of the tent. She could feel another immense power radiating from it, but this one was much more tame than the one in the tent.

Sadi smiled and sank down in to a shadow, emerging in the entrance hall of the fortified structure. Standing before a set of heavy wooden doors were two guards. Before they could say anything, Sadi rushed forward and slashed a glowing purple knife across their throats. She had brought it in the event she needed to fight anyone before her main target. Stepping forward, Sadi pressed both hands to the door and pushed hard, slamming them open.

On the other side of the doors, there was a massive staircase leading down. Sadi smiled wide as she began to descend the stairs, scraping her knife against the wall beside her. Soon, she reached a large area full of corridors. In front of each one of the corridors, there were guards.

Thanks to the purple sparks coming off of Sadi’s knife and the sound it made, the guards quickly turned their attention to the intruder. They didn’t have time to react as for just a brief moment, Sadi unleashed her primal power, shattering the lights in the room, leaving them all in darkness, save for the light of Sadi’s knife and the glow from a large set of doors at the opposite side of the room. All that could be made out as she walked towards the large doors was the sound of clattering armor as the overwhelmed guards collapsed to the ground one by one from the influence of Sadi’s primal power.

Still brimming with confidence, Sadi thrust open the massive set of doors, accompanied by a bit of magic. Inside, she was met with a rather gaudy display in the form of a massive staircase leading up to a throne with columns of flowing lava on each side. Sitting atop the throne was a man dressed in rather regal attire. His hair was bright red with yellow tips. The moment Sadi entered he stood up and frowned.

“Who are you?” he called across the room.

Sadi stayed silent, not granting him the pleasure of an answer. That only seemed to infuriate him.

“Make yourself know, you who dares enter my throne room in such a manner! I am Piron Extalate of Camp I, Son of Exfernerous, Strongest Apprentice! Back down now or your life is forfeit!”

Sadi smirked at his announcements, but continued to stay silent, continuing towards his throne. Piron met her silence by casting aside the less functional robe he was wearing, leaving him in attire only designed for combat.

As Sadi stepped through the center of the room, she was illuminated by the lava pillars causing Piron to gasp and smirk. “Oh, I see! It is the pitiful child who dared question our entire guild system by creating one only for murder! You disgust me! I remember your name now, Sadi…”

Before he could get out another word, Sadi leapt across the room, her arms now clad in her claws. She slashed at Piron, but he brandished his armored shoulder and blocked her attack before rushing forward and slamming her down the stairs. He didn’t let up and ran towards her falling form. He thrust his fist forward, but Sadi used her claws to block his attack, sending her flying back and in to the ground, causing a small crater to form from her impact. She quickly made her way back to her feet where Piron was already rushing towards her once more, screaming in rage as he once again went to throw a devastating punch. This time, Sadi managed to dodge, but then Piron swept her legs, knocking her off balance. With the opportunity made, Piron slammed his fist in to Sadi’s stomach, thrusting her back in to the ground once more.

Instead of trying to get back up, Sadi simply sank in to her shadow and reappeared across the room where she tried to regain her composure. She repaired her cracked demon armament claws and rushed forwards, going on the offensive and meeting Piron’s fist with her claws, catching it in her hand. Even though she caught his fist though, the palm of her armament had been cracked and Piron still seemed to be pushing, trying his best to shatter it.

Sadi tried to swipe at him with her other claw, but he caught it and tossed her across the room in to the wall, creating another impact crater. Sadi winced, coughing up a bit of blood as she watched Piron coming towards her.

“Come on, child! I’m sure that you can do better than that!” Piron shouted as he unleashed a wave of flames at the panting darkness apprentice.

Without even thinking, Sadi allowed her primal power to unleash, a wave of pressure rippling outwards, silencing Piron’s flames. Before he could try again, Sadi was suddenly in front of him, but he was unable to see her face. He tried to punch her, but then she looked up and it became clear she only had one large glowing purple eye on her face. Piron backed up before swallowing and standing his ground, trying again to punch Sadi, but it was in vain. She disappeared in to a pool of shadows and then, suddenly, there were massive glowing eyes all over the walls and ground, the room having been consumed by darkness.

Prion tried to back away, but his legs were shaking and he couldn’t move an inch, no matter how hard he was trying. He collapsed to the ground, his breathing becoming ragged as he looked around. The darkness around him began to close in until it was only a few inches around him. The walls were still covered in eyes and then there was nothing.

Sadi swiped her clawed hand upwards, tearing through Piron’s body and closing her hand around his head as it was removed from his body. The illusion that had consumed him shattered and his world went dark. Sadi cauterized the head with a bit of essence so that it could stay around for a bit longer than the body which had faded and left nothing but a soul fragment behind. Sadi took both and made her way out of the fortress, stepping out in to the camp where she placed the head on a spike and set the soul fragment just above it. She took a piece of wood and scratched the words “Thanks for the test run” in to it before fading in to a shadow, cackling happily.