“Men of Everlast, Forward March! The Revival of the Great Republic of Everlast is at hand!” roared the voice of Everlast’s Ruler, the superhuman known as Neo-Everlast. Aka Lemuel Vance, the Supreme Leader, and Dictator of Everlast.

At his command, the great army of Everlast began to move. Fleets of flying superhumans flew in formation. Beneath them, the earthbound superhumans and more mundane soldiers rode in carriages pulled by armored-beasts, and hovering, cybernetic, armored personnel carriers created by the Republic’s super-geniuses.

Despite being more than a century old, Lemuel stood at 6’5 with the robust, solidly-built, body of a lifelong warrior. He carried an authoritative air after decades of being a ruler and conqueror. He had a lean, handsome yet severe, face. A face with a sharp nose, and middling lips. His light green eyes were heavy-lidded and shadowed by thick eyebrows. His black hair was cut short and kept neat. Instead of wearing the sharp black military uniform he normally wore, he wore his hero-costume, a simple black and gray, spandex and bullet-resistant padding, jumpsuit with the symbol of the kingdom emblazoned on its chest. The hammer, crown, and thunderbolt of Everlast were cast in a shining white and gold.

A hero to some. A villain to many. The Supreme Leader of Everlast now hovered above his legion, his arms crossed. It had been a rough couple of years for the Supreme Leader. If he didn’t know better, one might have been tempted to think that Everlast was cursed. It wasn’t that magic wasn’t a thing. On the contrary, there were many magic-based supers in Rinnegata-Nome-Arma. It was just that Lemuel knew that it took a great deal of power to curse an entire nation to any real effect, and he’d been careful to either avoid hostilities with such sorcerers, and when forced to engage magical foes, he’d taken a strict recruit, or kill, approach to avoid hidden danger.

Yet, there was no denying that there had been “something” about the last few years. Something had made things far more difficult and unstable than they should have been. Somehow it felt like the very foundations of the Republic had been shaken somehow. As a result, Everlast’s expansion throughout the continent had all but fallen to a stand-still, they’d even lost some ground due to their enemies choosing this moment of weakness to attack, and some of their less than loyal vassal-states choosing to revolt.

In Lemuel’s mind, everything started with Wildheart. He didn’t quite know exactly what the connection between his current woes and the little city-state was, but he was certain that there “was” a connection. Wildheart was originally just a small, insignificant, little settlement. Barely more than a city-state in name. They’d ostensibly been under Everlast’s control, despite still foolishly, and stubbornly, claiming independence. It should have been easy to get them to bend their knees.

Lemuel’s ministers just used an old move from the Republic’s playbook. Letting wolves and bears scare the disobedient horses and cattle back into the fenced pasture. Whether they intended to do so, or not, it was a move that they used often. The Wolf Continent was far from safe, or stable. There were monsters, and monstrous men, everywhere. Despite the republic’s brutal reputation, there were a great many settlements and cities that opened their gates wide-open for the Republic’s forces when Everlast marched on the borders. Willing to give up their independence if it meant finally being free from the continuous threat of extinction.

Lemuel had seen no reason to believe Wildheart would be any different. The city was small, and only had a few powerful supers defending it. It had little by way of natural resources, and was constantly being besieged by mutated-beasts. In all honesty, if it weren’t for Wildhearts location, and its value as a key staging area for their conquest of the rest of the continent, the Republic would have never even paid them any mind.

He’d thought of it often, but the moment started going wrong, came shortly after his attempt to knock Wildheart to its knees. Those fools in the Vault-Volt-Vox Patriots had been worthless as either a persistent threat, or a triggering catalyst. The fight between them and the Republic’s men was meant to scare Wildheart into giving in, but the result was the little city becoming even harder to swallow up. Lemuel now regretted waiting so long to crush the troublesome group of bandits. The group of bigoted vandals high on dreams of their old world prominence had just about run out of value to the Republic anyway, and had long become an eyesore and threat to the public.

If he had to do it all over again, Lemuel wasn’t entirely sure what his approach to taking Wildheart would have been, but he knew that the criminals calling themselves the Vault-Volt-Vox Patriots, would have long been reduced to fertilizer. After the botched attempt to take Wildheart, the little city-state not only recovered from the temporary loss as a designated settlement under Rinnegata-Nome’s system, it grew stronger. Gaining fortifications and resources that were strong enough and abundant enough to give some of the republic’s less-loyal vassals ideas.

From then Wildheart went from being an after-thought, an easily acquirable key-trinket, on the way of the Republic’s rise to prominence, to being a threat. Wildheart’s presence became the bane of the Republic’s existence, causing all sorts of troublesome ripples in the region. The Republic’s enemies quickly learned that supporting Wildheart was a great way to frustrate Everlast’s attempts to gain dominance. The Republic’s disloyal vassals, and would-be conquests, sheltered themselves under Wildheart’s protection.

Wildheart quickly became a priority target for Lemuel, and Everlast’s, myriad generals and ministers. The once little City-State had grown too large in profile, and now needed to either be brought to heel, or eliminated. Naturally, that meant investigating the city to find the cause for its changes, and any exploitable weaknesses. Their investigations bore fruit, and Everlast’s spies were able to discover that there been a certain small group, a certain so-called “store”, that saved Wildheart during its time of need, and had been quietly supporting them ever since.

Further investigations found little to no ties between the store and Everlast’s peers within the Wolf Continent, yet all the same, since it seemed that they were the cause for Wildhearts tough demeanor Everlast moved to eliminate the group. This proved to be a dire mistake. Not only did the squads sent for the task get wiped out, Wildheart’s leadership went from being a passive threat to being active opposition. Moreover, the Republic would come to suffer a number of critical losses, resulting in the total destruction of a number of its military bases and key research facilities.

There was no indication of who was responsible. Nor were any of the republic’s enemies crowing about the victories. Yet, Lemuel would bet his last remaining teste that the perpetrators had ties to that store. The destruction of those bases and facilities was so clean it could only have come from a group, or individual with powers far beyond the standard, and the store’s people were the only group within the region whose standard Everlast couldn’t be sure of. This lack of understanding regarding the strength of their foe would form the basis yet more regret on Lemuel’s part. Hindsight being 20/20, they shouldn’t have engaged the mysterious store until they had some understanding of what they were capable of. Or rather, based on what they were able to guess, and what the store had provided Wildheart, it was altogether too hasty for them to attack as they had.

Now, Lemuel believed he’d learned his lessons. After putting out the fires that the store, and the republic’s other enemies, had started, Lemuel and his people had taken the time to reassess the situation. They’d studied their foes properly, and gathered enough strength to have a relative amount of certainty about their chances of success. Now the great army of Everlast was moving again.

The army marched through its conquered territories with fanfare, picking up more soldiers and resources as they went. They smashed past the borders set up by their weaker enemies. Pridefully daring the fools who’d been agitating them to try and speak up. Taking what they needed from the settlements and cities they’d passed by. Eventually, they reached their target and prepared to crush Wildheart. Rolling over the city-state like a tsunami. Lemuel and his generals were bringing the Republic’s full might to bear. Leaving nothing to chance.

Wildheart came into view.

“Destroy them!” ordered the Supreme Leader.

The soldiers of Everlast flew and ran forward as a unified force. Surging forwards with their powers rising to a crescendo. Lemuel, himself, used his singularity blasts to create two massive black-holes that tore apart the haughty city’s fortified walls and stopped its turrets from firing on the Republic’s men. Lemuel smiled. Feeling his spirits rise. Feeling his blood surge. How long had it been since he’d lead a campaign like this?

Suddenly that feeling of elation fell flat. Once the republic’s army got past the walls of the city, they found that what they were facing was entirely different.

“Ahh…”

“....Ah…”

A large chunk of the charging army had quite literally fallen. A fair number of men cried out. Falling to their deaths before the republic’s fliers could save them. The sights and sounds of a city waiting to be attacked, were now suddenly absent. Lemuel ground his teeth as he realized that he, and the Republic had been made fools of, yet again. Past those massive walls, there was nothing. Where there had once been a city and adjoining territory, there was nothing. All that remained was a two to three-mile-deep pit. A massive gulf that might eventually become a lake, or sea, after many seasons of rain.

“Argh!... Wildheart!” the entire region shook with the mighty superhuman’s rage. He looked around for something to take his anger out on, but found that there was nothing he could do. His enemies had not only fled, but they’d also taken their homes, and the soil and stone beneath those homes, with them. Leaving behind an immense gulf that the republic’s best terrakinetics and earth mages would be all but helpless to fill. Leaving a permanent barrier between Everlast and the rest of the continent.

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“Hm...So, it seems the plan is going well, Madame President,” said Shirley Phillips, Vice-Director, and former Deputy-Mayor of the Collective that was once known as the city of Wildheart.

“Oi! Girl, I will fight you! You keep that to yourself...Say it enough those crazies out there might actually take it seriously,” whispered Director Antonio “Tony” Hunter. The former Mayor of Wildheart, and the head of the haphazardly brought together Wildheart Union.

Tony turned a nervous eye towards the staff and officers who were operating and monitoring the Union’s systems. It was only after seeing that there was no response from them, that Tony was able to loose a breath of relief.

Vice-Director Shirley, and Tony’s Assistant and Secretary Deacon Fisher, snickered at their boss’s discomfort. Deacon and Shirley shared a conspiratorial look that left Tony feeling ill at ease. Tony glowered.

“Weren’t you aiming for my job before...What’s the big deal?” whispered Tony.

“Well, what can I say...running this circus looked more fun when it wasn’t so damn big, now this city...collective...union...whatever can’t survive without you...or shopkeeper friends of yours...but it's mostly you…” said Shirley. Shrugging.

“Yeah, boss...Your powers are literally what’s keeping this city going,” said Deacon. Taking a sip of the coffee that had been sitting on the table in front of him.

“Tch….” Tony clucked her tongue.

This was all her pal’s Ellis and Jo’s fault. With their help, Tony was able to not only greatly increase her powers, and the powers of Wildheart’s people, when it came time for things between them and the Republic and Tony started getting cold feet about exposing her people to that much danger they gave her a way out, that was so audacious and delicious that even the most hard-nosed person would find it hard to call it a retreat. Unfortunately, doing things on that scale meant that the reliance of the city, and its allies on Tony and her people, only grew. Pushing Tony’s dreams of retirement further away.

Now Tony found herself at the head of millions of people that had agreed to leave behind this troublesome part of the continent and follow her to somewhere more peaceful. Tony used her metal manipulation to control a group of massive turtle-shaped golems that the Holst’s sold her. The turtles were golem-arcologies. Mobile, fortified-habitats that were currently carrying Wildheart and its allies to a suitable area far away from Everlast and their power-mad peers, while allowing the people to enjoy all the comfort and safety of home.

On the one hand, becoming one of the most powerful superhumans on the continent left Tony with all sorts of mixed feelings. On the other hand, the mental image of how blue-balled those tools at Everlast would feel when they saw what they’d done, almost made being trapped as the founder of what was clearly about to become a whole new nation, totally worth it.