Chapter 213: Sea Circle Calendar 1470!
War broke out.
After a brief period of rest and recovery, in the fourth year after the Battle of Acropolis Port—Sea Circle Calendar 1469—the World Government officially issued a Declaration of War.
In an instant, Marines from the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line began to assemble.
With the Calm Belt and the Red Line as natural barriers, the World Government had no fear that Silas would turn around and strike the Four Seas. Besides, if you attack a member nation, what does that have to do with the World Government?
The Marines had always been the World Government's private army.
They might spend the member nations' money, but when it mattered, the Marines always took orders from the World Government.
The total number of Marine soldiers worldwide was nearly five million.
Bear in mind, even by normal standards, anyone who could become a Marine counted as elite, and these were all full-time soldiers. Consider a member nation with a population of ten million that maintains a six-hundred-thousand-strong standing army. Of those, not all are full-time soldiers; many are militia.
The gap between militia and professional soldiers hardly needs explanation.
But in the pirate world, what counts as elite among ordinary people did not even register as cannon fodder in the New World, where monsters roamed.
So even though Marine numbers were large, the troops called to the front totaled only one-fifth of that force.
The lowest deployed rank was Petty Officer.
Above Petty Officer were Chief Petty Officer and Master Chief Petty Officer, then Warrant Officer. Above that were the commissioned officers: Ensign, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, Commodore, Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral, Admiral, and at the top, the Fleet Admiral, who commanded the entire organization. Commodore sat between Rear Admiral and Captain.
In a war like this, a Petty Officer who could command several sailors in peacetime was still the bottom tier of cannon fodder.
One million Marine soldiers translated into thousands of Marine warships, an armada so vast it nearly blanketed the far end of the first half of the Grand Line.
Just conscription took half a year, but with the bubble lifts, these Marines did not need to enter the Grand Line through Reverse Mountain like pirates did.
They could sail through the safe seas of the Four Seas straight to the Red Line, then pass over the Calm Belt via the World Government's bubble lifts, arriving at the far end of the first half of the Grand Line, at Marineford.
The current Fleet Admiral, Ortega, had a splitting headache.
"I really want to resign!"
Lazy by nature, from the day he took the Fleet Admiral's seat, Ortega prayed war would not break out too soon. He planned to toss the mantle to Kong in a few years and retire in comfort.
And it had only been a few years.
Ortega had not expected the World Government to suddenly launch a war specifically against the White Wolf Pirates, and not a probing war, but a full-scale mobilization across the entire world.
One million Marines was only the beginning.
The World Government even began drawing soldiers from the member nations. In Ortega's eyes, that one million was more like a corps of overseers.
Since it was a total war, there was no chance the World Government would be the only one to contribute.
Member nations had to contribute too.
Compared to the White Wolf Alliance, the World Government's greatest advantage was manpower, enough to grind down the entire White Wolf Alliance.
With absolute numerical superiority, they could fight on multiple fronts and wear down the White Wolf Pirates by sheer volume.
Their plan was simple.
No matter how strong White King Silas was, he was still only one person.
As long as they fought on multiple fronts and opened many lines at once, they could use numbers to crush every nation that had joined the White Wolf Pirates.
Unless the moment war started, the White Wolf Pirates forced a decisive battle.
But that outcome also pleased the World Government.
If they destroyed the nations in the White Wolf Alliance, they would still worry that the White Wolf Pirates themselves remained unscathed and would scatter across the world, retaliating on every front.
In a direct showdown, even if Silas escaped, the other White Wolf Pirates might not. Leaving only White Wolf Silas would still be a headache, but it would not threaten the World Government's rule.
Yes.
The World Government had made up its mind.
Before, they hesitated, worried that if Silas escaped, the losses to the World Government would be too great, and they had no answer to Silas going all out.
But after the battle on Oss Island, watching the new White Wolf Pirates grow before their eyes, the World Government finally realized they could not stall any longer.
Whether at Rocks or under Newgate, figures like this surfaced only once in half a century; now they were appearing together.
And worse, Silas had gathered them to his side.
Even so, calling up member nation armies was not as easy as the Government had imagined. Silas publicly declared that this was a grudge between the White Wolf Pirates and the World Government, and no member nation needed to get involved.
Any nation joining the war would be considered an enemy by the White Wolf Pirates.
A threat.
Unambiguous and absolute.
If this were any ordinary pirate crew, to threaten member nations after a World Government crusade order would be a laughing matter for those nations' elites.
But this was White King Silas's threat.
In the ten years since his return, he had never once been forced to eat crow by the World Government, and each time he foiled their plans.
To the point that the world was split in two.
Many member nations still believed in the World Government. After all, the regime had stood for 800 years and would not be easily toppled.
But could they completely kill Silas? That was another question.
The World Government had thick arms and legs; Silas might not stand a chance.
But what were those small limbs of the member nations to the White Wolf Pirates?
What if Silas remembered their names?
Silas alone probably did not need half a day to erase a country.
So after Silas's hardline message, many member nations immediately caved. Facing the Government's draft order, they began to stall.
Either their shipyards had been bombed by pirates and every ship was aground so soldiers could not embark, or the king had suddenly fallen grievously ill, and the princes started a civil war for the throne.
Two neighboring countries even broke into war.
Do not ask why.
If you did, you would hear: old grudges, provocations, and patience exhausted.
In short, no troops would be sent.
How many lives did they have to join a world-level war?
Round and round it went.
The World Government discovered to its fury that after six months of global mustering, in the end, only one million Marine elites arrived on site, plus a handful of slower-to-hear, stubborn, or fiercely loyal member nations.
They scraped together what they could.
In the end, including the Marines, the total troop strength barely topped one and a half million.
They could hand over money.
But troops were never going to be sent.
Against the White Wolf Pirates and their many allied nations, this force still had an advantage, but it was no longer a decisive one.
After all, the White Wolf Alliance nations were mostly fighting on home turf.
With a little training.
It was practically a nation-in-arms.
In the New World, where only the hardiest survived, with decent food and drink and some drilling, even locals would not lose to Marine elites.
In this world.
Kings and nobles truly were born different.
You could train your whole life and still not match bloodline talent.
Unless you happened to be a rare mutation.
At the start of the Sea Circle Calendar 1469, the World Government issued its crusade order against Silas. After an entire year, by 1470, they barely mustered less than two million troops.
The World Government wanted Silas to strike first.
But Silas, who already intended to stall for time, would never bite.
That year, Charlotte Linlin turned sixteen.
"Another war?"
Her features had turned heroic, her presence more radiant; the tall girl whispered to be a future Pirate Empress, puffed out her cheeks.
"A bunch of bad people."
Unlike Rocks and Newgate, who had made their names at sea, Linlin had possessed Admiral-class strength for two years already, but she had no interest in leaving home.
What was the fun of sailing alone?
Her greatest dream was to throw a party at home every day with everyone.
Second was to eat every delicacy in the world.
Two years ago, that dream changed.
Once, she only wanted to eat; now she wanted to make every delicacy in the world herself.
After all, eating alone was nothing like a happy feast with everyone.
Silas's years of guidance finally took hold. Linlin, growing up, could now fully control her ravenous cravings.
It could be said that among Silas's crew, Linlin might be the strongest right now.
Not just strong.
But full of potential.
Even if Linlin already neared her peak on her original trajectory, maybe even matching it, her potential still had not been fully released.
Because she was only sixteen.
And when Linlin got serious now, if she poured Armament Haki fully into defense, even Silas would have a headache.
Linlin had always had one weakness.
Her innate defense could shrug off nearly every strike, but that did not make it invincible.
Two years ago, even an Admiral-level fighter using standard Haki could wear themselves out and accomplish nothing against her.
But that applied only to ordinary Haki.
Once you used Armament Haki's internal destruction, Linlin's defense was no longer invincible, because compared to her exterior, her internal defense lagged behind.
So Silas taught her his technique for hardening the body with Haki, a technique only those with immense life force could use.
Although Linlin could not elevate her entire physique like Silas, she could still raise her defense by one more level, with far fewer side effects.
With that technique active, Linlin could even brawl up close with Silas for a day and night without falling behind.
This should not be surprising.
Silas excelled at life force. One-on-one, his stamina let him outlast anyone at his level.
By comparison, his offense was not overwhelming enough to crush peers outright.
Moreover, this was sparring. Silas was not going all out.
Even so, Linlin's growth shocked everyone.
Silas's strength was common knowledge.
If Linlin could already fight him to a standstill, did that not mean a fully grown Linlin might even surpass him?
At the thought, Ripley and the other women circled Linlin, teasing her that if Silas bullied them in the future, Linlin should help them get justice.
Linlin agreed without hesitation.
So by day, Ripley and the others made Silas lose face in front of Linlin. By night, Silas took it back from them.
Of course, it was only a joke.
Aside from the occasional fun, even Stussy and Amatsuki Toki had begun training, like students cramming before exams.
War was coming.
They did not expect to help Silas, but they certainly did not want to drag him down in the process.
Time was on Silas's side.
The longer this dragged on, the better for him.
The World Government's greatest misstep was overestimating its influence among member nations, wasting a full year after issuing the declaration of war.
Even so, they had no better option.
Without troop support from member nations, if they fought the White Wolf Alliance without numerical superiority, Silas would never accept a decisive battle.
Whether the traitor nations were destroyed did not matter to the World Government.
What mattered was destroying the White Wolf Pirates.
They understood that only the White Wolf Pirates gave Silas the confidence to rule the New World and stand against them.
Only if Silas met them in a decisive battle did they have a chance to destroy the White Wolf Pirates in one stroke.
The arrow was on the string and had to be loosed.
Even without enough troops, facing the pressure from the White Wolf Pirates, the World Government chose war.
Silas could wait. They could not.
Intelligence said that the giants of Elbaf and a new samurai order from Wano had set out grandly for the New World's front.
Also marching were fifty thousand Sphinx Guards under the White Wolf banner, one hundred thousand elite troops from Fish-Man Island, two hundred thousand pirates from the New World, who had gathered and reorganized over the years, and a full five hundred thousand troops from various nations.
Finally, the one hundred thousand-strong New Marines formed under Rona joined the war.
Five years earlier, they had not taken part in the Battle of Acropolis Port between the White Wolf Pirates and the Marines.
This time, they had to make a choice.
The World Government wanted a decisive battle with the White Wolf Pirates; the White Wolf Pirates wanted one just as much.
One battle to decide the world was better than letting the Government's army ravage every home soil.
Even a victorious campaign would leave the world in ruins.
One million versus two million.
In the Sea Circle Calendar 1470, the largest naval war in 800 years of pirate history erupted.