Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 473: A feud that would end in blood.

At a little distance off Hades and his group operated with a clipboard-level seriousness, handing out trading licenses. Soldiers pitched temporary tents and helped businessmen and women set up. The outside market was now open to nonresident traders.

Word had been spread through flyers and drones about the market in the evening the previous day. The billionaires had added their names to the message, inviting their friends that lived in the other towns to come and trade.

Some had responded to the invitation and Hades recognized them. "Name?" He said to a man that wanted to access the special trading area within the Westbrook wall.

The heavy-set man with long curly blonde hair replied, "You know my name Hades."

Hades answered, "It is procedure Lawrence, state your full name if you want to get a visitor’s pass."

Lawrence scoffed, "Lawrence James Holland the Third."

Hades finally glanced up, "If you do anything fraudulent or as much as walk around suspiciously you will be thrown off our premises never to return." he warned, stamping approved.

Lawrence rushed off to meet with Sheldon and other wealthy people he was familiar with.

Jon was with another group of wealthy nonresident friends that were asking him how he had earned a spot at Fortress four.

"Sheer luck, pal." Jon laughed like he won the lottery.

Drones buzzed in the neighboring towns dropping flyers about the open market and how many days and hours it would operate. A man in King’s bridge town caught one and read out aloud.

"Reliable traders with resources invited," then he tossed it aside because he had no money, "Well, guess that rules me out."

The flyer reached the hands of Emily Stafford, the woman that ruled over Kingsbridge from the ruins of the former Quinn manor. It was the one town in Babel City where eighty percent of the residents were either superhuman or wealthy enough to buy protection.

The twenty percent were mercenaries, servants or experts like doctors, engineers and scholars. They were kept alive because their skills were useful.

It was no accident that the town was modeled this way. Emily wanted it like that and those who tried to challenge her were crushed under the weight of her ability. She was a superhuman whose power was strength over gravity. She could bend weight, crushing enemies from a distance. She could lift structures or crush them with a flick of her hand.

She was an unstoppable force that had carved out Kingsbridge as a private fortress and demanded loyalty from the powerful in exchange for safety just before the winter started. And when she got it, she threw out the useless and kept the useful.

When she received the flyer, called for a meeting with her closest men. Supplies, after all, were something very valuable and some of the things that had been listed were too tempting.

Tempting enough to shake the loyalty of the people she ruled over.

Her closest men included two mercenary captains, three superhumans a physician that always went everywhere with her. And he was not a physician but a superhuman with regeneration abilities, her walking blood and medicine bag.

When they arrived, in a living room that smelled of rust, coffee and charged by her presence, they could tell that something was off.

On the table lay a flyer, one that most of them had already seen.

Emily’s lip curled.

"This flyer had the names of those idiots from the billionaires club," she muttered, voice low and dangerous. "They are well and thriving. They even dare to open a market and invite other wealthy people over."

She knew the members of the billionaire club well. Once, she had been among them--one of the few women from a family with wealth and influence. One of the few that specifically ruled Babel city with those two weapons. But when the family’s fortune collapsed under the weight of crime and scandal, they had kicked her out. None had extended a helping hand.

Others saw the apocalypse as a curse. She saw it as an opportunity. She had clawed her way back to the top with her awakened ability. And now, the same wealthy parasites were inviting her wealthy residents to their market. Dangling promises of trade and gadgets for survival.

"They think they can lure my people" Emily said, scoffing. "They think their wealth alone can rival my ability."

Her physician, Dr. Ramesh, sensed that a fight would be coming and soon. Emily was too arrogant and confident; she would seek revenge on the men she considered enemies. But they could be awakened too and maybe even more powerful than her. If there was a fight and she escaped while wounded, he was the one that would be drained of blood.

He adjusted his spectacles, "The drones are spreading these everywhere, I don’t think they are targeting you specifically Lord Stafford."

One of the mercenary captains, Hanks, spat on the floor, "How is this not targeted? Is there another town in the city with a heavy population of wealthy individuals like ours? A gathering of the wealthy outside of Kingsbridge, outside of Lord Emily’s control---it is grounds for a mutiny. You risk having your authority undermined."

Emily leaned back in her chair, eyes narrowing. Her gravity control ability did not provide foresight. She had been searching high and low for a superhuman with such an ability but so far, there was none. The only one she knew of was Moon Raine, a woman she planned to go and seek out when she had amassed enough strength and power.

Stones around her rose and hovered in the air, going nowhere in particular.

"I know these idiots quite well." Emily said softly. "I know their tricks, their greed, their conniving. They cast me out when my family fell, but I remember every face. Every insult." She especially remembered Sheldon. He had been too quick to dump her like a piece of hot coal back then.

She would always remember the words he said to her. "You deserve someone who can appreciate the simpler joys in life far better than I ever could. Besides, we are on different paths now. My circumstances remain brighter....and yours.... let’s just say they resemble the night without stars and a moon."

He had politely made her aware that they belonged to different worlds. She was poor while he was wealthy. She was meant to date a poor man who was more within her financial reach.

Sheldon went on to rat out her father for tax evasion and money laundering, adding to the list of crimes he was fighting.

Then, he swallowed up the remainder of her family’s assets that others had not looted by acquiring properties cheaply.

Because of him, she was kicked out of her family. Even in prison, her father refused to see her. He died after only one year in prison, taking his own life.

Emily recalled hiding in the shadows at his funeral because she could not face her family.

Sheldon was the vilest of all the billionaires. The first one she could kill when the opportunity availed itself.

"I need eyes and ears on that group." Emily decided. "Send for Joy."

The others gasped.