The instant she rose out of her shadow and in to her office, Sadi quickly collapsed to the ground, coughing and wincing from the immense amount of pain surging through her body. It only took a moment before someone rushed in to the room to help her. They called for more help and the two carried Sadi to the infirmary on their shoulders. Sadi’s usually infirmary wasn’t fully stocked or nearly enough for what they needed to do to help her, so they brought her to the full infirmary in the middle of the guild. The doors were locked and no one was let in, but everyone that wasn’t on missions stayed around the infirmary, wishing for their commander to make a speedy recovery.

About three hours after she had arrived at the guild, Sadi was still completely incapacitated, but a scout barged in through the gates, shouting about how the entire Order of Creation was declaring war on the Death Trinity after the stunt that Sadi had pulled. Until now, most of the members of Crook’s End had no idea what had put Sadi in such bad shape, but now they all knew the truth that she had taken out the head of Camp I. Most were impressed and even shocked that she wasn’t dead. Everyone knew that Piron was the strongest of the Order of Creation’s commanders and Sadi had started with him.

Nobody knew how long it would be until the guilds arrived, so preparations were being made by all guilds of the Death Trinity. The other guilds refused to help Crook’s End since they had been the one to paint a target on the back of the entire alliance.

After being unconscious for somewhere close to ten hours, Sadi finally began to stir. Most of her injuries were at least mostly healed up, but she was still in rough shape. Those working in the infirmary informed her of the larger bubbling situation around and she didn’t at all seem phased. Sadi was, in fact, extremely pleased with the stir she’d managed to cause and so, once she was feeling almost fully back to health, she sunk in to a shadow, leaving the guild in the hands of its members.

When she reappeared out of her shadow, she was on the eastern coast, in a massive forest surrounded by mountains. There was a large opening in the trees which emptied out in to two large circular parts of the camp. She made her way in, being only briefly stopped by a barrier which she quickly ripped to shreds. She continued to walk in to camp, eventually drawing the attention of those preparing to attack. They tried to charge towards her, but before they could, waves of fear rippled out from Sadi, coursing through and crippling all of them.

Seeing how easily the rest of their comrades had been taken down, the rest of the fighters backed down. However, one that didn’t was the commander, a tall woman with glowing golden hair. Sadi approached her, an angry look on her face. She conjured her demon armament and rushed forward, pulsing her primal power outwards. However, the commander seemed completely unaffected by it. Sadi then realized that it hadn’t even reached her. A halo of light circled her and repelled the darkness which Sadi was trying to push upon her.

Sadi snarled and slashed forward, but the commander dodged somewhat easily.

“You must be tired after fighting Piron. You should have stayed in bed a little longer,” she said smugly before slashing a glowing golden sword across Sadi’s chest, forming a deep wound.

Falling backwards, she cried out. ‘That hurt… You… bitch!”

The commander went to slash at her again, but this time Sadi caught the blade and snapped it in her claws, smirking as she used her other hand to slash across the commander’s chest, tearing five deep gashes through her body. Sadi released her grip and smile wide as she collapsed to the ground. However, before she could hit the ground, Sadi conjured several spikes from the ground, skewering the commander and suspending her mangled body like a piece of art. Blood dripped down along the shadow spikes, pooling on the ground underneath her.

Sadi snarled at the rest of the fighters in the camp who seemed more adamant on advancing towards her now, but they kept their distance, allowing Sadi time to sink back in to her shadow and reappear in the infirmary once more, collapsing in to bed. The medics quickly got to work, dressing and treating the massive gash in her chest.

Once she was patched up, she went out in the main area of the guild to address her members and ask for their help.

“Members of Crook’s End! I require your help. I am weak now, but… with time, I can ensure we are protected not just now, but for a long time to come. However, to do that, I will need you all to protect me for close to three days. And this will not be a simple task. The Order of Creation will be mounting their assault within the next day and they will be very specifically targeting us here at Crook’s End. However, I know that you are all strong and that, if you truly try, you can protect our guild.”

The guild cheered excitedly, not even taking a moment to question her or voice opposition. They all rushed to the armories and gathered weapons, preparing for the war that Sadi had brought to their doorstep.

Sadi made her way to the direct center of the camp and held her hands out, closing her eyes as a massive seal erupted underneath her. It began to grow until it covered the entire guild. Sadi focused hard and unleashed her primal power, allowing it to flow through her and in to the seal. Underneath her, the ground began to darken, color draining all around them, slowly.

After ten hours, about a sixth of the camp had been covered in Sadi’s increasing shadow. She still needed much more time. Scouting parties were beginning to arrive in the south forest to try and survey the guild, but several of the guild members had come up with the idea to cloak the entire guild in a shroud of darkness, making it so that scouting was next to impossible.

By the middle of the second hay, Sadi was halfway done with conjuring her massive shadow. She was using her essence almost as quickly as it replenished, but that process was very slow. She was getting tired, but she couldn’t waver now. Intelligence had said that the forces of the Order of Creation were already arriving at the outskirts of the guild and they were just about ready to strike. Thankfully, everyone inside of the guild was prepared to protect Sadi at all costs. She had promised them protection and they believed she was correct.

On the dawn of the third day, Sadi was just about ready to collapse, but she pushed through, knowing that in just twenty-four hours, the shadow would be done. However, at the same time, The Order of Creation made their attack on the guild. They rushed through the shroud surrounding the guild and were met with the armies of Crook’s End.

As the day pushed on, the Order got closer to Sadi, pushing further in to enemy territory. At this point, close to a fourth of the guild had been wiped out while the guild had taken out five time that many enemies. Sadi was pushed further and further too. Her control over her essence flow occasionally slipped, burning through her body and leaving a new scar.

However, as twilight came, the shadow was completed. Glowing purple eyes of varying sizes erupted all over it, shifting and moving with the shadow which churned and bubbled before releasing a thunderous screech which could be heard for miles. With the shadow done, Sadi collapsed to the ground and the shadow began to disassemble the entire enemy army, spreading fear and death throughout the battlefield until the only thing the order could do was to retreat.

Over the next few days, approaches were made towards the camp, but the shadow continued to protect the camp. When Sadi finally regained consciousness, she was met with overwhelmingly good news. Not only had her plan to create an immense living shadow fueled by primal essence worked, it had worked so well that the Order of Creation had just sent over a letter of surrender, promising not to make further advances on the Death Trinity, so long as they agreed to not kill anymore commanders.

Sadi was content with the terms. This had been a very effective test run for her power and now she could truly consider herself the strongest apprentice in the world. She sent a reply and a wave of relief seemed to settle on the world.

Sadi was a little saddened by the loss of life on the hands of the Death Trinity. Crook’s End had suffered a loss of around a third of its members. Black Claw had only lost twenty members as the assault on them had been much smaller scale. However, the heaviest loss, was that of Denasti. During the attacks on her guild, she had lost her life and now, the young Elusy would be taking command of the guild for herself.

Sadi sighed as she fell back in to her chair, reading over the damage reports. However, she was too filled with joy at her success to let them get her down. Now, everyone would know the name Sadi Alexandra, The Queen of Shadows.